First time serious grower needs a little advice...

Long time lurker, first time poster.

My wife and I just completed our first grow with some bagseed and it came out better than expected (about 11 oz. dry weight and it smells and smokes very nice) but we lacked true knowledge and didn't use proper ventilation and had odor problems throughout the whole grow. After doing a bunch of research on this fine forum, we decided to get a bit more serious about it and invested about $1000 in equipment for our next go at it.

We have purchased the following items:

1 77" x 77" x 77" grow tent:

High Tech Garden Supply

It is basically 36 square feet.

2 400 Watt HPS lights with reflectors and remote ballasts

2 400 Watt MH lights with reflectors and remote ballasts

2 6" inline fans (424 cfm) - one for intake and one for exhaust

1 carbon filter compatible with the inline fans

Ducting to the intake fan and clamps to seal it off

2 dual outlet digital timers

Also, we have purchased Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil and Fox Farm nutrients (Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom) and plan to grow in 2 gallon square pots.

Now, what I want to know is this. Are 4 400 watt lights enough watts and/or lumens to cover the 36 square foot grow space? We plan to use the 2 MH and 2 HPS for vegging and then buying 2 more HPS and swapping them out for the MH so we have 4 HPS for flowering. Is that good enough?

My wife and I are heavy smokers and would only like to grow once per year. Do you think we will yield enough to last us that long?

We ordered seeds from Attitude (based on the recommendations of the fine people here) and got a 10 pack of White Widow seeds from Greenhouse (feminized) and one of the color coded packs as well for a total of 20 seeds. Do we have enough space to grow them all?

Sorry for my ignorance, this is my first time attempting something so serious. Any advice and suggestions would be most appreciated. Thank you!

From what i understand yield is determined by genetics, enviromental conditions, and total size of plant (i.e. length of grow). You should be fine though if all come to fruitation and you dont go nuts smoking. Why not clone and reduce total growing time and reduce size of operation to keep a constant fresh supply? Is that not applicable?

jtotheitothedblmwhy said:

Why not clone and reduce total growing time and reduce size of operation to keep a constant fresh supply? Is that not applicable?

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We thought about this a little bit, but we know nothing about cloning. Perhaps we could do that on the next go around I suppose. In any event, it is a good suggestion and at least something to consider for the future. However, we would only like to do this once a year though if at all possible.

I think your fine for equipment, I wouldn't even bother going all HPS for flowering but it would give you a slightly better yield.
The best you can hope for is one gram of weed per watt of light, but that's if your an expert grower with no problems anywhere along the way half that would be more realistic though. So 600 grams to last you a year ? You'd know if that's enough for the both of you.
Many people have had problems with the grow tents gasing of glue fumes and harming their grows, I hope your not one of them.

first off cloning is very simple u take the cut usually from the bottom of the plant better hormones keep them in a glass of water to avoid air embolis get some B,cuzz rooting gel or an other preferred place into presoaked peat pellets I usually mix a little foxfarms bi bloom in with the peat pellet water.....and as far as htg tents I have 1 I use now and havent had the toxic issue plan to purchase another one soon but all and all perpetual harvest imo is the best way to have dank year round

frmrboi said:

The best you can hope for is one gram of weed per watt of light, but that's if your an expert grower with no problems anywhere along the way half that would be more realistic though.

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We have 4 400 watt lights (total of 1600 watts) so we should expect around 800 grams you think? If my math is correct, that is slightly below two pounds and would definitely last us the whole year. I'd say we probably smoke around two ounces per month so that is good news!

nameless1 said:

as far as htg tents I have 1 I use now and havent had the toxic issue plan to purchase another one soon

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Thank you so much for your input! What size grow tent do you have and how much lighting do you use in it? Also, how are your yields? Sorry for so many questions, I am just trying to get a good idea of what to expect.

Very nice investment! I am not a serious grower..but gaining experience everyday..I look froward to watch this grow...are you going to start posting pics or do a separate grow log?..I just recieved some seeds not too long ago myself from Attitude..included in them was the Assorted Fem Color Coded Pack H..the Cheese, White Rhino, Greatwhite Shark, Trainwreck, and Lemon Skunk...which ones did you get?

nice i got a tent from htg its 48x48x78.5 i also got the 600w mh/hps digital ballast and easycool6 hood and the carbon filter fan combo 424cfm. its doin the job so far had it up and running now for a month my temp stay between 73-82 deppend on how hot the room its in gets.i am also useing fox farm ocean forrest i did 3 cups of light warrior to one cup of ocean forrest for the first 2 weeks in gallon square pots,then i transplated them to 3 gallon square pots (htg has them) i do 3 cups of ocean forrest to one cup of light warrior but tomorrow i am going to do a mix of ocean forrest and perlite.i use the fox farm 3 pak make sure u only use 1/4 strength grow big at about 3-4 weeks if u starting seeds they wont need anything till 3-4 weeks. why did you go with 400's? i read that 400 not really enough and 1000 is overkill. u might look into 3 gallon square pots and they also got 5 gallons too.i use superthrive first 3-4 weeks but not during flowering,i also use hydroguard,sensizyme,roots,cal-mag (if needed) and i use the other 3 pak fox farm has open sesame,beastie bloom and cha ching it gets them pretty frosty.i got 7 white widow going now

Im a noob myself in the process of my first successful grow. If u want a good idea on a cloning solution https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/103903-best-diy-ez-walmart-dwc.html. I plan on making one myself as soon as i get the funds. Hope this helps!!

DillWeed said:

We have 4 400 watt lights (total of 1600 watts) so we should expect around 800 grams you think? If my math is correct, that is slightly below two pounds and would definitely last us the whole year. I'd say we probably smoke around two ounces per month so that is good news!

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Heheh, my bad yes 800 grams, but only the Ganja Gods know what you'll end up with. Good luck !

Personally, when I used to use 400watt lights, I used each one to light a 2'x2' area, so only 4sq ft. I would say about 3'x2' max for the 400watt lights. I would go with like 4 600watt lights in that space. As long as you can keep it cool.

You can grow about 1 plant per sq ft, so if you have 36sq ft, you should be able to sprout all those seeds and grow them. You will probably not like the way some grow and pull them, plus you most likely won't have a 100% germ/sprout rate, so even with 30 seeds, you will only have like 20-25 flower depending on how picky you are.

I would use both of your fans for exhaust, and just use passive intakes. The more exhaust you can have the better.

superman27nc said:

I just recieved some seeds not too long ago myself from Attitude..included in them was the Assorted Fem Color Coded Pack H..the Cheese, White Rhino, Greatwhite Shark, Trainwreck, and Lemon Skunk...which ones did you get?

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We got the exact same pack with 10 seeds (2 of each) along with our 10 pack of feminized White Widow seeds, also by Greenhouse. They threw in some free seeds as well, a five pack of G-13 Labs Power Skunk, 1 Durban Poison seed, 1 Northern Lights seed and 1 additional White Widow seed.

shortybighead said:

why did you go with 400's? i read that 400 not really enough and 1000 is overkill.

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We got a deal on the 400 watt lights which is what we used on our first grow in the closet. I figured why not use them if we still have them, right? A single 400 may not be enough, of course, but shouldn't four of them be more than sufficient?

TreesOfLife said:

Im a noob myself in the process of my first successful grow. If u want a good idea on a cloning solution https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/103903-best-diy-ez-walmart-dwc.html. I plan on making one myself as soon as i get the funds. Hope this helps!!

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Wow! This was a really great link. Thank you so much for posting!

frmrboi said:

Heheh, my bad yes 800 grams, but only the Ganja Gods know what you'll end up with. Good luck !

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Thank you for the support! Like I said before, the first time we grew we used 800 watts and yielded around 325 grams or so but that was with no ventilation and shitty genetics (bag seed) and now we have remedied both of those situations so who knows? I would be more than happy with half a gram per watt.

bongrippinbob said:

I would use both of your fans for exhaust, and just use passive intakes. The more exhaust you can have the better.

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Really? That would require another carbon filter though and why exactly would a passive intake be the better route? I am not doubting you one bit, I just don't fully understand the concept is all.

Lets say you have 2 500cfm fans, one for intake and one for exhaust. You are exhausting and intaking 500cfm. Now if you used both for exhaust and had passive intakes, you now are exhausting with 1000cfm and will keep you grow room much cooler.

You could just have the fans sucking through the carbon filter, attach the flange on the filter to a "Y" adapter, and use both fans to exhaust. This way you only have to have the one carbon filter. But if you bought a filter that matches your fan, it may be too many cfm for the filter to handle.

Your 4 400watt lights are good to cover about 4'x6' MAX. I would say closer to a 4x4 area to get the best coverage. You would have the best coverage in your cab with 4 600watt lights. Usually people use a 1000watt light for 4'x4' area. 2 1000watt lights would be ok in there, but your best bet is the 4 600watt lights.

bongrippinbob said:

Your 4 400watt lights are good to cover about 4'x6' MAX. I would say closer to a 4x4 area to get the best coverage.

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So, what if we didn't use a foot on each side and went 5X5 for 25 square feet? Would that be that much better?

Can anyone shed some light on the subject? Preferably some HID light!