first time..no second..might as well be first time grow.

Hello community, i am new...clearly. A little bit of background for my growing experience. Ok to start, i have none. I bought a 400 watt hps light and was cheap enough to not buy much else. So i attempted at growing, they all germinated and sprouted nicely. Out of 12 six made it to...week 3. They were still as big as they were in week 2 so it didn't matter, only one of them looked a bit bushy and promising. I used ph sticks bought at a pet store (not to be trusted) and took the ph which swung widely according the ph sticks...yea ok. So my ph was all out of wack, so i nuted my plants up, i of course not really knowing how strong my nutes were or what i was doing put about half the recommended dose and watered them like 5 times a day. I'm sure i burned them with what LITTLE nutes they could absorb. They got infested with 4 different kinds of bugs and little mushrooms which were tempting to pick sitting at the bottom of the soil. I have now moved to hydroponics, everything is here and will be set up soon. Wish me luck in my new adventure and i will be sure to post back with my idiocies.

ps. i have learned putting cash down at the start is a good idea.

Have you tried pottery...?

J/K... you clearly watered too much and left most up to chance. Read up... And welcome.

oh i know, i was trying to be as cheap as possible, which just backfired, i spent like 200 bucks in useless crap. I do however have a 400 watt hps from my previous grow, this guy is goin in the tent !

Don't water so much. On my flowering plants, they usually get watered (once) every other day. My veg right now water almost daily (once) but it's really dry here. 20% humidity.

Make sure you vent that tent!

well i just switched to hydroponics so hopefully it can take a bit of my compulsive watering away. I am confident i can do this grow, i mean my last grow was so bad (all my fault, i had the knowledge really, but did not shell out the cash or care enough for the dirt medium), however i experienced all sorts of nutrient deficiencies and burns, lights too close, bugs, all of it. Now what i didn't mention is, i cleared my plants of all the problems except for the ph. I even kept em alive with foliar feeding lol, but they were so far gone come week 4 i dumped em in the back yard. Mistakes we make are only to teach us things right, maybe ive learned enough for an amateur grow!

oh yea, a quick question about that. I figured out a cheap solution for odor, my only problem left is, im out of money, i got everything except venting lol. I know i could punch holes in the top, or just use the free flow venting and with fans probably control the heat since my 400 watt really didn't give off much except around the ballast. But then during flower, when i have to cover the holes the heat might come on. I am also terrible with do it urself things, and i know venting is for a fact. I used to be in heating and air conditioning, HVAC, which is funny that i can't even run a duct, its been a long time tho. I'm just going to experiment with it before i place the plants in there. Leave it on for a few hours closed with some fans running and see what the temps are. Its very fustrating when you can't get ALL the pieces for the puzzle. Unless of course you happen to know of way not exceeding 100 bucks. My light has one of those rectangular hoods, supposed to be really good. Its from htg and my last grow did not have a tent lol, or anything really, however the light hanging in the middle of the room didn't seem all that hot, even the "hot ballast" wasn't all that hot, pray to the gods it runs cool.

also i was forced into a 5x3 tent because my hydro kit has some weird footprint. It says the system is 4x2, but the footprint is 59x21x79 (mainly sure of the first number, the rest are approximate). So i am hoping this will accommodate all of the plants. I guess if need be, second harvest i can get a bigger tent. I figured if a 5x5 is recommended for 600 watts and a 5x3 for two 250's and a 4x4 for a 400 watt. That a 5x3 should be able to comfortable accommodate the amount of plants i want to grow with my 400. 2 250 watts should be able to hold around 12 plants, so i hear.

I'm new to this too for the most part. I've done house plants for a long time so this is fun because it's a little different.

i wrote that first response during my wake and bake. Odiously during the flowering period there would not be any light thus eliminating that heat issue lol. Well for me i am praying for it to come out good, i USE ALOT ( i think, bout 1 o a week), probably more then i can produce:/, and its the only thing that's kept me sane threw anhedonia all these years, anhedonia is a TERRIBLE state to live in, it was caused by a doctor who when i was young got me hooked on medication so terrible, it depleted my endorphins and ive now suffered for a few years trying to return to normal.Imagine wanting to do something out of terrible boredom but not enjoying whatever you do. After i get back from Kung Fu everyday i pace around my room for most of the day till i go to bed. So wish me luck and i wish you the same.

i live in a state of panic and distress, for now. The pills make you wanna stop fighting, the "vegetables" make you want to fight till you die. As i am sure we all know, i am talking about tomatos, i bought a 400 watt for tomatos and i eat crazy amounts of tomato's some have said i had a problem, i do not agree....sometimes i use bamboo's for my tomato's. PS. i have not tried it yet but let me know if u need a cheap solution to odor controll, i think it was posted on rollitup, but i found this site through googling it, and its great by design. http://www.growkind.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26646 im combing 1 or 2 of those with 2 cheap ionizers. I cannot take credit for that link tho, so whoever posted it on rollitup, thank u.