Advice on my first indoor setup

Ok, I'm going to grow 10 autoflowers in 2 gallon buckets under a 600HPS bulb. I am going to place a 5 gallon bucket in the grow room and make apple wine to produce CO2 for the little babies to breath. I'm going to make a homemade tent out of panda tarp covering the walls. I'm planning on using MG, and I don't want to hear too much hate about it. I live in a very rural area where quality soil is hard to come buy and my funds are too limited to drive 3 hours to pick up several 20 dollar bags of soil.

I might change the buckets to 5 gallon grow bags, but I'm not sure if the auto's will get big enough to warrant that much root space. What do you guys think?

Oh, and I'm going to use ONA outside the grow room to cover the flowering smell. It's going to be in my basement and I'll just place it 10-5 feet from the grow room.

Sounds good. Why don't you use perlite/vermiculite and make Hemoy buckets and x2 your yield. You would only need an easy fert like OC+ which is available at Lowes etc. Stay with the 2 gallons no reason to go to 5 gallon with auto I don't think

Two gallons are big enough for autos. Nothing wrong with MG soil just make sure it's the potting soil not the organic or moister control soil. I was surprise to see pro-mix at home depot. The big orange bail. Go with pro-mix if your home depot carrys it. Good luck with your grow!!

cassinfo said:

I was surprise to see pro-mix at home depot.

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Don't be surprised if it disappears. Lowes in my area sold Pro-Mix HP bales. One day I noticed they were marked as "$15 Clearance." The Lowes guy said the Pro-Mix distributor got in trouble for selling it to Lowes. Local hydro shops complained to Pro-Mix and got it stopped. Apparently specialty shops are supposed to have an exclusive. Lowes is now selling a blue/white bag of peat moss made by the same company as Pro-Mix. No myco and it's very powdery, like the stuff they sweep off the floor after making Pro-Mix.

Anyway, watch for the same outcome in your area. I picked up 6-7 bales at $15.

az2000 said:

Don't be surprised if it disappears. Lowes in my area sold Pro-Mix HP bales. One day I noticed they were marked as "$15 Clearance." The Lowes guy said the Pro-Mix distributor got in trouble for selling it to Lowes. Local hydro shops complained to Pro-Mix and got it stopped. Apparently specialty shops are supposed to have an exclusive. Lowes is now selling a blue/white bag of peat moss made by the same company as Pro-Mix. No myco and it's very powdery, like the stuff they sweep off the floor after making Pro-Mix.

Anyway, watch for the same outcome in your area. I picked up 6-7 bales at $15.

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Good looking out. I'm gonna go grab a few more while they last.

I have seen multiple Home Depots carry the ProMix Orange bag 2.2cu. I think its the same mix as the HP without whatever fungus is added or deleted from or to the HP. These are generally $14 a bag. I actually have been waiting for my local HD to put the 20 odd bales they have had sitting out front all summer, with no takers, on sale.

DreamEater said:

in 2 gallon buckets ... I might change the buckets to 5 gallon.

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I grow in #3 containers (round, black plastic, Pennington brand, found them at Lowes). I always called them 3-gal, but when I do the math they come out closer to 2.3 gal (at the line where the top of soil would be). I prefer the taller square containers (which are closer to 3 gal) but I grow in a 4' tall tent and the shorter round containers give me 3-4".

If you don't have experience transplanting, you should plant directly in the container you'll flower in. The fixed lifespan doesn't accommodate transplant shock.

bravedave said:

I have seen multiple Home Depots carry the ProMix Orange bag 2.2cu. I think its the same mix as the HP without the Fungicide or whatever cide thats added to the HP. These are generally $14 a bag.

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Oh, that might be similar to the blue bag Lowes (in my area) is selling now. The low-end mass-market stuff. Maybe PremierTech makes these specially for Lowes (blue) and HD (orange)?

When I run out of the real HP I plan to try the mass-market stuff. I think it just needs myco and dolomite. I don't know if the powdery consistency makes much difference.

az2000 said:

Oh, that might be similar to the blue bag Lowes (in my area) is selling now. The low-end mass-market stuff. Maybe PremierTech makes these specially for Lowes (blue) and HD (orange)?

When I run out of the real HP I plan to try the mass-market stuff. I think it just needs myco and dolomite. I don't know if the powdery consistency makes much difference.

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Probably...Yeah just checked my bag and yeah none of the Dolomitic PH adjuster(still has the limestone) and none of the "Mycorrhizae - endomycorrhizal fungi (Glomus intraradices)".

I used it with some basic 20/20/20 Fert. and RO water and am having a decent grow. Saw the HP at a local hydro store for $52 for the 3.8cf. So that being half again as big as the orange bag I get for $14 that is still $52 vs $21. I would think one could buy a fair amount of dolomite or the myco for the $31 difference...or what am I missing.

bravedave said:

Saw the HP at a local hydro store for $52 for the 3.8cf. So that being half again as big as the orange bag I get for $14 that is still $52 vs $21. I would think one could buy a fair amount of dolomite or the myco for the $31 difference...or what am I missing.

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My thoughts too. Local hydro store has some inexpensive myco in a little cellophane bag, size of a bag of peanuts. Store guy said it's equivalent to what's in Pro-Mix. I can buy a bag and give you more details. It's only $2-$3. PM me if you want that info. (Also, you want as finely powdered dolomite lime as you can get. I've used Fertilome Hi-Yield Agricultural Limestone. And Spartan Speedi-Grow Ag. Limestone which has calcitic limestime and is higher in calcium. The former is more like beach sand with powder. The latter is like baking flour. I've experimented with different rates of dolomite, up to 8tbsp/gal. It doesn't affect the ph much after 2tbsp/gal. It's not like a precise thing. I add dolomite to my Pro-Mix HP which already has some. So, I imagine I'd do 2-3Tbsp/gal for that mass-market stuff that probably contains none.).

You should scrabble up a couple dollars and buy yourself a metal halide not hps.

playermic said:

You should scrabble up a couple dollars and buy yourself a metal halide not hps.

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For example, at 250 watts, mean lumen output per watt over the useful life of the lamp is 58 for
MH vs. 87 for HPS; in other words, HPS produces 50% more mean lumens per watt. Even at 70
watts, mean lumen output is 45 for MH and 64 for HPS; in other words, HPS produces 42%
more mean lumens per watt. 274% higher long term operating costs of MH as opposed to HPS
not only because of lumen depreciation requiring more watts, but also because lamp replacement
frequency is nearly twice as high.
http://www.darkskysociety.org/handouts/white_paper--mh_vs_hps.pdf

vitamin_green_inc said:

Sounds good. Why don't you use perlite/vermiculite and make Hemoy buckets and x2 your yield. You would only need an easy fert like OC+ which is available at Lowes etc. Stay with the 2 gallons no reason to go to 5 gallon with auto I don't think

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I'll do some research on hempy buckets, never heard of it. I'll check out local ferts but I don't have high hopes... The closest hardware store is a half hour drive and it's a mom pop shop. We have some local nurseries but I've asked them about soil/ferts before and they seemed entirely bewildered as to how to sell them and their selection was extremely limited. They just make baby tomato plants to sell yanno.

When I checked the hardware stores soil selection they pretty much only had MG potting mix 6 month nutrient. I completely forgot to check to see if they had ferts i was so bummed out when I saw that's the only soil they had i turned around and walked out. I doubt they sell some thing like perlite too, I might scoop up some gravel some where to put in the base of my buckets to improve drainage.

I'll report back after checking out the local fertilizer situation better. There's a flower shop further south of me that might have some thing but I don't know exactly what to grab. I know the NPK ratio that's needed but that's about all...

DreamEater said:

Ok, I'm going to grow 10 autoflowers in 2 gallon buckets under a 600HPS bulb. I am going to place a 5 gallon bucket in the grow room and make apple wine to produce CO2 for the little babies to breath. I'm going to make a homemade tent out of panda tarp covering the walls. I'm planning on using MG, and I don't want to hear too much hate about it. I live in a very rural area where quality soil is hard to come buy and my funds are too limited to drive 3 hours to pick up several 20 dollar bags of soil.

I might change the buckets to 5 gallon grow bags, but I'm not sure if the auto's will get big enough to warrant that much root space. What do you guys think?

Oh, and I'm going to use ONA outside the grow room to cover the flowering smell. It's going to be in my basement and I'll just place it 10-5 feet from the grow room.

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it seem's you have everything under control , but why autos if you go for indoor ?
and also like vitamin said 5 gallon pots is too much for autos probably.

Lysergicpt said:

it seem's you have everything under control , but why autos if you go for indoor ?
and also like vitamin said 5 gallon pots is too much for autos probably.

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There was a big sale on attitude seeds recently. I bought 5 auto amnesia, got 5 free fruit auto, and 5 femmed seeds of various strains for free. So I only spent like... 30 USD on seeds and got 10 for free. I think it was a decent trade off. I plan on growing a mother with the autos in a five gallon bucket and SOGing after harvest the autos.


After I get a harvest from the SOG grow i'll probably grow a little poppy field with a new mother. I don't have space to make a mother room or cloning area so.

oh ok , in that case like i said it seems you have everything under control

DreamEater said:

For example, at 250 watts, mean lumen output per watt over the useful life of the lamp is 58 for
MH vs. 87 for HPS; in other words, HPS produces 50% more mean lumens per watt. Even at 70
watts, mean lumen output is 45 for MH and 64 for HPS; in other words, HPS produces 42%
more mean lumens per watt. 274% higher long term operating costs of MH as opposed to HPS
not only because of lumen depreciation requiring more watts, but also because lamp replacement
frequency is nearly twice as high.
http://www.darkskysociety.org/handouts/white_paper--mh_vs_hps.pdf
I'll do some research on hempy buckets, never heard of it. I'll check out local ferts but I don't have high hopes... The closest hardware store is a half hour drive and it's a mom pop shop. We have some local nurseries but I've asked them about soil/ferts before and they seemed entirely bewildered as to how to sell them and their selection was extremely limited. They just make baby tomato plants to sell yanno.

When I checked the hardware stores soil selection they pretty much only had MG potting mix 6 month nutrient. I completely forgot to check to see if they had ferts i was so bummed out when I saw that's the only soil they had i turned around and walked out. I doubt they sell some thing like perlite too, I might scoop up some gravel some where to put in the base of my buckets to improve drainage.

I'll report back after checking out the local fertilizer situation better. There's a flower shop further south of me that might have some thing but I don't know exactly what to grab. I know the NPK ratio that's needed but that's about all...

Click to expand...

True hps puts more lumens per watt. But if your plants are in the vegetative stage the metal halide delivers a more effective spectrum than hps.

playermic said:

True hps puts more lumens per watt. But if your plants are in the vegetative stage the metal halide delivers a more effective spectrum than hps.

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I can't afford two lights and since my main crop will be SOG having being able to effectively flower with the light is more important to me.

I went to the hardware chain that's in my region all they had was MG potting soil too. Sad. The only ferts they had was MG as well. They had seedling mix though, I was thinking of making a little hole and putting the seedling mix in the bucket with the seed. I hear MG can burn young plants easily so this may be a good idea?

Even tho u

DreamEater said:

I can't afford two lights and since my main crop will be SOG having being able to effectively flower with the light is more important to me.

I went to the hardware chain that's in my region all they had was MG potting soil too. Sad. The only ferts they had was MG as well. They had seedling mix though, I was thinking of making a little hole and putting the seedling mix in the bucket with the seed. I hear MG can burn young plants easily so this may be a good idea?

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Even tho u shouldn't transplant auto start with the seeding mix and buy some Fox Farm Ocean Forrest or Roots Organic online and then trans plant. Thats what I did. Seems like its working just fine.

I should note I put mine in peat containers

Cfls bro. Easy to use for first grow. And cheap I got this for $15 at home depot. And its 4200 lumens. 68 watts. (So fucking bright)