Before I Start a 600watt grow

as you guys know there are a lot of components and aspects to growing indoors, this will eventually turn in to a journal, for now it will be a list of things i will need.
feel free to comment if you think i missed something or you know of a better way to do something.

i do have some experience with growing, i did a 100watt led 2 room 4x4x4 about a year and a half ago, using ebb for the flowering and top feed for veg, i got about 3/4oz out of 3 plants (about what i was looking for), this time im looking for more like 1/2lb from 4-9 plants and i will probably keep this one going so i can experiment with soilless, organic and dwc.



General Equipment;
last grow i used distilled water (a lot of it) and a wet ph tester (test tube with color changing liquid), this time i got myself a reverse osmosis system not the best but should do nicely, i also ordered a Electronic PH Tester, TDS PPM Tester and Soil PH, Moisture, Light and Fertility Meter, i also still have a lot of other stuff left over im sure i will get around to using, like rooting hormone.



for Veg;
tents for cloning are quite expensive so im planing on building this one myself,
i was originaly looking at this metal pipe for the structure but as i browsed my local home improvement shops i found these bamboo stakes are almost as strong as the metal, quite cheaper and can be strongly tied together to make a nice frame, i still haven't decided but will probably go with the bamboo.

the veg/cloning room will be 2' deep 4' wide and tall. (im thinking this will be enough for 1 mother and 12 clones)

This panda film looks adequate for the walls, with some Velcro pieces for the door (maybe make that out of bamboo to reinforce it)

for the lights i was originally thinking i wanted a 4 foot 4 bulb like this, but got to thinking im not always going to have clones in the room and a lot of that light would be wasted, so i will probably go with 2 of theses 105watt daylight cfl's with these fixtures.

For Ventilation i was thinking a 4" Duct Fan with a curved duct that would exhaust in to the flowering room, i will have to build a bamboo frame for it and probably use rubber to absorb the vibration, it could cause problems with humility in the flowering room tho so i might find a few pc blower fans (probably 70mm), looking for around 80cfm so i can clear all the air in less then a minute.



For Flowering:
I found a good looking 4'x4'x6.5' for just under $100 that i think will fit nicely in the space i have available.

I really want one of these 400watt hps with ventilated hood (sucks i just noticed the price went up $20), but i was thinking for the money why not go with a non ventilated 600 watt or do away with the cloning section and go with a 1000 watt switchable HPS/MH...im pretty sure i will stick with the 400 because it appears to be higher quality, has a dimmer switch (so less stressful on the plants when they first go under it...?) and ventilated hood, not to mention would be cheaper on electricity and produce less heat.

i was thinking a 6" 160cfm duct fan for ventilation, sucking air thru a homemade carbon filter (i will come up with something) and a fan speed controller to make sure the plants dont blow away and the noise dosent keep me awake (i will be sleeping in the next room).




For the Plants:

Im having a hard time finding plain black plastic pots, ive looked at almost every major plant/soil/nut store i can think of locally and they either have none at all, only big heavy porcelain or very small ones, there is one small "specialty" shop i haven't checked, if they dont have any i guess i will have to find them online.

for the soil im planing on starting with mixing my own using
2 parts organic potting soil
1 part Perlite
1 part Vermiculite
1 part Worm Castings
and a sprinkle of dolomite lime.
ive heard this combo makes magic happen so i want to try it out.

if that dosent work good or as well as i think it will then i will probably move to soilless so i can exhaust the rest of the humboldt nutrients from my last grow and try cutting edge nuds on a dwc.





ok here is the thing and please excuse my ignorance; when i did the 100watt led grow (if i remember correctly, this was awhile ago and i dident keep a journal (i totally will this time) it was 8 weeks veg (before they almost filled the room) and 6 weeks flowering when they started to turn hermaphroditus (no seeds tho), im basing this on my previous post and pictures ranging from 6/20 (1, 2, 3) to 8/7/2010 and the 1080p video on 6/11/2010...so anyways what im getting at is how long is usual/average for veg and flowering?, im sure this would be longer for sativa (i really only have interest in indica with maybe a mild (less then %40) sativa mix), dose longer veg mean longer flowering and vice versa?


i hope this post has been informational for sum, altho im sure its run of the mill for most and i look forward to gaining some insight on my op from you guys (and im sure girls too) in this great community.

thanks for reading.

led's and t5's for veg and at least a 600 hps for flowering. I use a 600 watt hps magnetic ballast but I use a dual arc bulb by Agromax

thanks for the heads on the dual arc, i havent see those before and they look quite interesting.

what space dose the 600 cover?


I did some calculating on the florescent lighting.

1.75ft | CFL | 105w | 7000 (Lumens) x2 $91 (7000x2/91=) 153.84 (105x2/1000x18x30=) 113.4 @ $0.08/kwh $9.07/30days
2ft | T12 | 40w | 3200 ___________x2 $39 _____________164.10 ____________________43.2 _____________$3.45
4ft | T5 | 54w | 5000 ____________x4 $98 _____________204.08 ___________________116.64 _____________$9.33

so thanks for the heads up on the cfl's, i will go with the 4ft 4 bulb T5.


i ordered the panda film, the corner joints for the room and a 4" duct fan, probably gonna place an order for the pots and a few other things (heating mat, humility dome, fan controller, etc.) on monday (after checking that local shop), i decided to go with the metal over bamboo (i just think it will be more sturdy with the 4ft 4 bulb t5's and i wont have to worry about getting it perfectly straight) so i will pick that, the soil and amendments up when im out and about on monday....so the total cost of the room i wanted to build was $77, i just happened across the same size room for $80, wish i would have looked for that sooner.

i thought about the hps and did some searching, found this one for only about $20 more, but those dual arc bulb are damn expensive, i will probably eventually switch to one of those but for now i think im going to go with this one.

use the 600 watt in no bigger space than 3x3 in my opinion. some people will use it in a 4x4.....which you can but if you do LST the plants or top them for max yield.

im planing to do lst on the mother (so i can get a lot of clones w/o a lot of vertical space) but had decided to use most of the vertical space in the 4x4x6.5 flowering room, but after seeing this with its maximum efficacy i think i will do something like that in veg with the clones and try to get them about 2 1/2ft before flowering so hopefully i can harvest 8+ 3ft buds per plant.


I did some shopping, got pots and a mister, still need a heat mat for the clones.
potting soil, perlite, vermiculite and dolomite lime are out in the shed...i was thinking depending on the ph i might want some sulfur.
i also got the tent and 4ft 4 bulb t5's ordered.


i mixed and did some testing on the soil, i used 3 parts potting soil, 1 part peat moss, 2 1/2 parts perilite and 2 1/2 parts vermiculite (im gonna sparingly add worm castings later cuz this is going to be for cuttings/seedlings), the water i used was 36ppm 6.5ph water, use a coffee filter and got about 3oz of runoff from about an ounce of soil and it tested 173ppm @ 4.7ph so i will have to add some lime and get that up to around 5.7-6, ppm is about where i want it, it could be a bit lower but i will see how it dose first.

i got the first tent, got power wired and fans in (still waiting on duct and i should probably pick up a wall mount for the inline).

the bucket is gonna be my dwc bucket, i have everything but 3 net pots and a air stone.

i also got the full strength soil mixed, runoff is about 800ppm and 5.6ph (i will probably add a bit more lime to get it up to 5.8 ).

lights get here on Tuesday.

And then there was Light.



Im having a problem with heat build up, i left the lights and fans on for about an hour and the temp got up to 84, it raised the temp in my room from 71 to 78 as well.

in the winter that wouldn't be much of a problem but for right now im not sure how to get the temp down, maybe a bowl of ice or wet cloth?

A bowl of ice to munch on & a wet towel to wipe your forehead will cool you off pretty well. Not sure how it would do on the plants.

RawBudzski said:

A bowl of ice to munch on & a wet towel to wipe your forehead will cool you off pretty well. Not sure how it would do on the plants.

Click to expand...

well i know most would suggest more air moment right?

seeing as i have a fan that refreshes all the air in the room 2x a minute (40 cubic feet, 80cfm) i would prefer not to add any more exhaust fans.

i searched and dident find much beyond fans and water vaporizer.
how do you usually cool your room?


Edit: i got the 4" duct and thats got the temp down to 82 ish with the air coming in @ 71, that will probably do, but if i have problems with it when i get the flowering room i might pick up something like this.