1st setup, looking for suggestions or improvements

I've been reading on these forums for months now and I feel its time to start my own operation. First off, Ill let you know that I have 5 feminised cheese seeds, and 1 arjans strawberry haze. I already bought a Hydrofarm 250 watt hps (http://www.hydroasis.com/hy/productdetail.aspx?id=35&product=hydrofarm-sunburst-250-watt-hps-horizontal-system).

Now for the questions:
- Should I buy one of those cheap cabinets at Wal-mart and make a grow box? is it worth the hassle? or should I just get a $150 4x4x7 tent or something similar to that?
- In this space/amount of light, is 4 plants too many?
- Is it worth getting a 250 watt conversion MH bulb? Should I just veg with HPS? Should I veg with a couple 42w cfls?
- Do I have to transplant my plants from solo cups to larger ones? or can I just put them in a 5 gallon bucket from home depot? (they are orange, should i paint them black so no light penetrates?)
- I already bought fox farm ocean forest soil, should i buy some light warrior or happy frog and mix it?
- Should I just use fox farm trio nutes? or should I use Super Plant Tonic (organic made, sold on ebay), Canna Nutes (dutch company), or Earth Juice? I have heard good things about all of them. I am trying to go all organic for the grow, but I would rather have quality than organic-ness if there are better alternatives.
- Size of fan - how big is neccesary for a 250 watt hps? I hear that my light gets hotter than a remote ballast (obviously) but will I need to make up for that with a much larger fan? Are the first two viable for such a small room? Or do I need something like the third link?
http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=46434
http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=46447
http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=52557


Any help is greatly appreciated

Howdy,

Could you let us know what size area you have available to you? If you are talking about a 4x4 area.. you are limited a bit to the height/bush of the plants.. but not that much.. you will still work it out.

From personal experience, I would do the following -- as a first timer I would try to germinate in rapid rooters or the soil you are going to use.. stay away from transplanting if you can. You would be better off just starting everything off in the container that they are going to be grown and then flowered in.

If you were shooting for like.. a setup in a 5 gallon bucket with soil and unlimited space I would give each plant 3ft by 3 foot..

If it is a built in ballast i would use a 265CFM fan with a fresh air intake feeding it, and then a ~150cfm fan exhausting the air out of the area. HTG Supply has everything you need for what you are trying to do.

I would use the trio of fox farm nutes -- they work well for first timers and i still use them. The only thing I use ontop of them is Bud Blood by advanced nutrients.

I would go with a MH Light for vegging and a HPS for flowering. If you can afford the extra cost of the bulb. If you cannot you can use the HPS for the whole deal.

Where are you at right now? Have you germinated? Are you at seedling stage? What do you have going.. where are you at?

For a 250.. I would stick with 4 plants... remember to use reflective material....foylon or mylar are great... a 250 watt light will illuminate a 3x3 -- this is keeping the bulb 16-20 inches above the plants.. 400 watt will do 4x4 very well 600 will do 5x5 or a wee bit more.. SWIM's 1000 covers his 8x8 with no issues.. some people say a 1000 should stop at 6x6 coverage.. but SWIM is getting a great outcome with a 1000 HPS in the middle of two 400 metal halides covering the full grow. 16 plants.

Anywho.. good luck.. let us know where you are at!

I bought a few CFLs from the store today with a 10.5 inch reflector clamp. I got 2 27 watt daylight cfls that gives out about 1400 lumens. I also bought 1 CFL that said it was "full spectrum" at about 1500 lumens. I have 1 arjans strawberry that sprouted and the cheese are on the way. I also bought one of the Black and Decker blowers from wal-mart for $45. There was a thread on here about how to mod them for an exhaust fan. I also just ordered the BMO organic fertilizer deal that comes with super plant tonic.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Organic-Fertilizer-Deal-by-BMO-Super-Plant-Tonic-plus_W0QQitemZ250442537565QQcategoryZ20540QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3907.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D14%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D54

Today I ordered some Super Plant Tonic, Flower power, and the third nutrient from BMO. My space is hopefully gonna be a 3x3 or 4x4 tent. I just bought a Stanley blower for exhaust. The arjans strawberry has been sprouted for 5 days now. I bought a light clamp at home depot with a 29 watt daylite and 2 additional daylite cfls. I am waiting on cheese seeds to arrive.

If you only have a 4x4 tent why dont you do a bunch of smaller plants. I started six plants in an area that size and had to cut down to two because of size. I let them veg two long for my room size. Next time I am going to do six smaller ones and start them at different times.

Is a 250 watt hps enough to handle 6 plants? I would probably keep them small, flower early. Should I veg for 1 month? I was also thinking of LSTing a few of them. I like the idea, but I don't want the plants to take up a lot in terms of width. Maybe I should top them and lollipop them? Also has anyone had experience using BMO products? They make the organic Super Plant Tonic. I hope that made sense, I'm blasted

hay luda go with the smaller plants with that 4-4 space, 250 hps and some help from cfl side lighting u could maybe do 15-20 max plants in that space. i know you have five fem seeds so grow all of then of course and take cutting from two u like the most. put the cuttings under some lighting not to intense and get them rooted. when there rooted transplant them in to there pots and put them into flower. this will give u a great sog harvest. and u can go perpetual with a smaller space to house atleast one mother plant. take extra cuttings for new moms and ones u will lose along the way of learning. and me i dont fill up the pots all the way at first because when they get tall u can cut away the bottom third and fill in dirt and again when needed. hope this will help just an idea.

Best way to root cuttings (as said above): Take cutting so that there are leaves up top and leaves below on the cutting's "stem" then slice the leaves below off and cut the bottom of the stem at a 45 degree angle.. dip/swirl cutting bottom up to and including the area where you cut off the lower leaves.. then stick the cutting into a rapid rooter plug. Put it into a humidity tent/terrarium. Mist twice daily. Try to put a heating pad underneath the cutting's box so that it warms up the rapid rooter plugs. Root cuttings under fluorescent tubes.. hydrofarm 4' dual tube setup works great .. swim usually does 32 clones at once.

Wait until the plant(s) are at least 8 weeks old (2 months) before taking cuttings. Try to take cutting from lower branches as the rooting hormones are more concentrated at lower branches.

REgards,
G