My first Indoor Grow, all Help Appreciated

Ok, so tomorrow Im going to start my first indoor grow in my garage, I'm going to do 8 plants on one 1000w HPS setup or more if I can but Ive been told 8 is good for one 1000w, so far I have

1000w HPS Basic Setup (Hood, Bulb, Ballast)
8 5Gal Buckets, with holes drilled in the bottom
5 Big bags of FoxFarm soil
I have a variety of nutrients:
FoxFarm Big Bloom, Bat Guano, XNutrients Line Up (Micro, Bloom, Grow)

I should be getting clones tomorrow, I need some help in deciding what to grow, or what would be best to grow for my setup and all, I want some good stuff and high yielder but doesnt really matter too much just whatevers good for indoor grow, heres the list of clones that I can get tomorrow and maybe you guys can help me decide on which ones i should get, I will also be taking pictures throughout this journal from clone to finished bud

One buddy has these clones available
Green Crack
Candy Purple

One buddy has these available
NYC Diesel
Purple Romulan

One buddy has these available
Cherry Pie
Master Kush
Lemon OG Kush
ChemDawg4
Bubba Kush

So i got a few buddies that have these strains available, I would prefer to goto one buddy and get all 8 of my clones... so heres kinda what i need help with.

1. What buddy should I get my clones from and which clones?
2. Can a 1000w HPS do 8 plants comfortably?
3. I got 5 gal buckets, is this too big or can I get away with using these?
4. How much electricity (or about how much) will this run up every month?
5. Do I need an AC unit? Im growing in my garage, I live in northern cali, nights get cold as 40 and days are usually under 70 and it stays pretty cold in my garage
6. When I get my clones tomorrow I am going to transplant them into the buckets and then under the light they go, What is my lighting schedule suppose to be? 18 on 6 off? or 12 and 12? Im not sure

Sorry for all the newbie questions but I just wanna make damn sure I do this right the first time (or at least try! haha) and what a better place then rollitup? Thanks Guys!

Hey Fatty420 , u've got ur hands full with that one. Any of those choices are good ones u wont go wrong with any of them. Yes u can do 8 comfy , the 5 gal buckets wont be to big they'll be perfect. Not sure on exactly how much but u can expect somewhere form 50-100 extra. You might need an a c as those 1000w produce a lot of heat , maybe not. Try running the light on for bout 1-2 hours exactly how u would do it minus the plants and check the temps under the light where the plant would be. For unrooted clones 24h rooted u can do 24 , 18 , 16 depends on how fast and how big u want them to be before u flower. Hope this helps , Good Lluck..

Happy Growing!

Ok thanks alot, that really helps, Ok so one the lighting schedule, the clones are fully rooted already and ready to go into soil today, so do i do 18hours of light and 6 hours of darkness?

Heres what clones I will be going with: Super Grape Ape, White Widow, Purple Diesel, and maybe Sour Diesel also

Here is a picture of the clones my buddy has available, do these look okay?

Well i got my setup finished today, I got the 1000w Sun Systems Harvest Pro ballast and hood, i got 8 clones, I went with 4 White Widows, 2 Super Grape Ape's, 1 Blueberry Kush, 1 Vanilla Kush, I got the plants in fresh Happy Frog soil, on a 18-6 Lighting schedule, i watered a little bit but not much they came out of rockwool cubes stacked 3 high with roots coming out the bottom of the third cube, now, do I need to hit them with any nutrients in about a week or so? or sooner?

I believe the soil has enough food for the plants for around 2 weeks, but I use FF ocean forest and using any nutes before it eats up the soil food might burn the plants. Haven't had much experience with happy frog, but I assume it's the same concept.

imjonny said:

I believe the soil has enough food for the plants for around 2 weeks, but I use FF ocean forest and using any nutes before it eats up the soil food might burn the plants. Haven't had much experience with happy frog, but I assume it's the same concept.

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Happy Frog does have some nutes, but light, the guy at the grow shop said ocean forest had more nutes then happy frog, so I guess I should be alright, should I have the fan pointed at the light? or at the plants? my buddy told me just have the fan in the room not pointed at the plants just kinda by them so they get a little breeze

Looks good , yeah u can do 18/6. Remember the clones are as mature as the mothers they were taken from , u can start them off with maybe 3 -400 ppm. Depending on how hot the temp is above the plants but u may want to blow it towards them to stimulate stronger stem devolopment. Try to have them dancing.

Happy Growing!

cocakola said:

u can start them off with maybe 3 -400 ppm

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ppm? whats that? Ya im a newbie, the guy I got the clones off was talkin about ppm and ph and some other stuff, the clones he gave me he mentioned they were better then the average clone, super clone or something he said, he had them all dated too, one said 11-5, one said 11-3, I guess thats when he cloned em? their born on date or something, the clones are tall though, 7-12 inches but the Super Grape Apes look the best, I can tell that one is gonna be good already, but anyways, do I need to pick up a ph tester? or any other tools that would be helpful in this grow?

Lol its ok you wont be a newb for long , ppm is parts per million. You use a tds meter to gage ppm it measures the concentration levels in the water(Like when u add nutes it'll tell u if too much or not enough). I know all this sounds like gibberish but in no time you'll have it down packed. Ph is Potential Hydrogen , 7.0 is neutral ph anything above is alkaline anything below is acidic. You will need both of these a tds/ec meter and ph tester. Yea its the born on date(funny). You will also need ph up and down , something to measure the nutes u add(measuring cups), good water. What nutes will u be using?

Happy Growing!

Looking good bro. Sub'd up! Wanna see what kind of damage you do with that 1000w!!

Heres my nutes I have right now pictured below, so if the clones are already a month old, should I be seeing buds in a month or 2? and those clones were PACKED with roots, and i transplanted them with the rockwool cubes into the soil, this is okay right? because takin the rockwool cubes off would mess with the roots right? thanks alot guys, and how much are the ph testers and tds/ec testers usually run ? thanks!

Fatty420 said:

Heres my nutes I have right now pictured below, so if the clones are already a month old, should I be seeing buds in a month or 2? and those clones were PACKED with roots, and i transplanted them with the rockwool cubes into the soil, this is okay right? because takin the rockwool cubes off would mess with the roots right? thanks alot guys, and how much are the ph testers and tds/ec testers usually run ? thanks!
View attachment 1921092

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They won't bud until you put them into flowering under 12/12 lighting! Your right about.the.rockwool, leave it be.

Ok, so How long do I keep them on a 18-6 lighting schedule? The light turns on at 6pm and goes off at 12 noon the next day, I did it this way on purpose as Im not using an ac unit, and nights get really cold in my garage, so the plants should stay cool with the light and the fan I have blowing in the background, Nights around here get low as 30, usually around 40 though, and days run about 50-60, So far so good it seems like, and Ill wait about a week and a 1/2 and then ill hit em with some nutes, my nutes are pictured 2 posts above this one, which one should I hit em with?

As long as u want but it just depends on how tall , full and how much bud u want. The longer u veg for the more mature the plant and more bud. Just depends on the space u have( and u have a lot) and how long u are willing to wait. Before u switch ur lights to 12/12 make sure u wont have no issuses like light leaks or too cold weather. I cant tell u exactly how much to hit them with , but in veg they need a higher ratio of n then p-k , but need them and micro nute as well. I know they do not need the Big Bloom right now , but an ex wud be 3 micro 1 grow and .5 bloom per gal. Hope i helped just my opinion.

Happy Growing!

That sounds good to me!, And yes, I have a whole garage to use, so having extra space is NOT an issue whatsoever, I want big full dense buds, I wanna take these plants to their full potential (or as much as i can)I'll wait a week or so and then ill hit em with the Xnutrients lineup, 3 micro 1 grow .5 bloom, ill try an pick up a ph tester today, so when I pick up the ph tester, do I test the nutrient solution I mix up with the gallon of water? or do i use a different tester for that?

Oh yeah, as the plants grow, Im guessing I will need to higher the light right? I got the light 2 feet from the top of the plants right now, I got the light on a chain link system, so i can higher or lower the light as high or as low as I want

and then after the first dose of nutes, how many days do I wait before I hit em with nutes again? and I was wondering about the fan blowing at night, it gets very cold at night (Low 30's) I have the light runnin all night with a fan blowing in the background (not blowing on the plants but just blowing to keep air circulating) Should I turn this fan off during the nighttime? or will the 1000w light burn the plants without air circulating around them?

Yes you test the nutrient solution in the gal jugg , and add ph up or down to bring it to the ph you want. But u will also want to know the ppm of that sloution , You test that with a tds meter(like $10 on ebay). Yes you want the light as close as possible without burning the plants so they do not stretch you want close internodes. And you may also want a light breeze on the plants so they develop a thick stem to support your plant. Most feed nutes every other feeding , nutes , plain ph'd water , nutes etc.. Im not sure bout the fan at night , turn the fan off then check the temps under the light and see how hot it gets that should give you a good idea if you can or not.. Moniter your plants and learn what deficiencies to look out for your plants will tell you if they need more or lees of something.. Good Luck.


Happy Growing!

Thanks alot, ill try to pick up the meters today if I get a chance, all i know is at nighttime in the garage it is so COLD, feels like a damn ice cube unless i stand by the light