New grower. Looking to for tips

Beginner
#1

Hey,
So I just bought the follow item but was looking for some advice.

4v4 Gorilla tent
Scorpion Diablo
Cloud line Fan 1x
2 ea oscillating fans from ACinfinity
69 Controller
3 gallon cloth pots
Promix HPCC
Nutrients: Uber Nutrients
Fish Shit
PH Meter
PPM Meter
PH UP and Down
Seeds: Strawberry Cough, Dosi dos, GSC all Fems.

I live in the northeast and will be setting up in my basement. Waiting for it to warm up a bit before I begin. Basement temp is like 50 degrees… Unheated.

So, my questions are:
Do I need to buy another cloud line fan to pull out the stale air from my tent or does that not really matter with my small grow? What’s VPD?
What sensors do you recommend going with the controller?
What should I add if anything to my promix?

What else do I need?

#2

Hi. Welcome to the forum and good luck.
You want your cloud line fan extracting air from your tent. The top. There is a porthole at the top. Then air will be sucked in passively. You want negative pressure and this way will create that.

Vpd is vapour pressure deficit. Basically it’s to do with the temp and humidity. Google vpd chart.
Hope this helps

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#3

Welcome to the forum: your off to a great start with Nice equipment: set up your tent as @Damo1107 describes for neg air pressure: once set up run your system to see what your temps and humidity are at with lights on and off over a 24hr period: this should give you a base line: a small heater could help keep temp up with lights out: also set up exhaust fan to come on at a set temp that way your not exhausting the heat constantly. :yin_yang: Nice selection of seeds too good luck: i never ran photo fem in a smaller pot than 5gal final home.

#4

Hi and welcome! Love the light, love the strains! If smell is a worry, a carbon filter for the cloud line will help (it will still smell) if noise is a problem a duct fan silencer (never used one myself)…other than that watch your watering habits and less poking and prodding on the girls is alway best (pruning, transplanting, etc) It was hard for me not to check them constantly on my first few, haha! Have fun and I hope you enjoy your grow!
P.S. If a cold floor is problematic you can always try a heat mat.

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#5

Lights will keep the tent plenty warm….hang ‘em a little high and turn it up and that should get you in the 80s easy in a 4x4 with that light.

ProMix is essentially a blank media. You can start feeding after about week 2. You will need to feed a bit more regular in a 3gal pot as they mature. Ideally, I would recommend scrapping the small pots and using a minimum 10gal Earthbox and build the soil with some basic organic ammendments or buy a pre ammendmended soil.

The reason… stability and ease of watering. In a big organic pot you create stability and nothing is easier for a beginner to water with than an earthbox. You could easily do 2 earthboxes and 4 autos or 2 Photos in a 4x4 and the quality of your grow and experience will be much greater.

From there you could pull the root ball and reammend your boxes after the grow and keep using your soil basically forever.

Also, I would definitely recommend starting with quality auto genetics and saving the fems. Get a couple 75 day seed to harvests under your belt and some meds in the jar. Nothing is more depressing than spending 5 months on photos that herme. A good quality auto is MUCH easier to grow than a photo IMO

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#6

I agree with all said with the exception of the photo fem! They do take longer but only the first grow! As you will be able to pull clones from her a week or so before flip: now those clones can be 2 months behind the original plant: you can do this a couple of times getting multiple clones from the Single seed: can create a tent full of clones for a no cost for seed run! :100: i mean if you going to grow fem you may as well get into cloning: :yin_yang::sunny::palm_tree:

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#7

awesome. So I shouldnt really “need” a fan to exhaust the tent? obviously Ive already spent alot of money would like to save a little too. lol. Also will just the one fan cause my tent to get sucked in?

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#8

I grew one round last year in super soil outdoors and your right. the autos were much harder and the fems more forgiving.; Im also having a baby in the fall so I need a more automated setup and a more forgiving plant if I go for days without checking.; That being said do you all thing the promix is a poor choice?

#9

I forgot to list a carbon filter. I have one. How loud is the cloudline fan? baby on the way, last thing I want is to wake them when fans kick on lol…

#10

hmm. Maybe I’ll transplant into 5 gal buckets then. the 3 gals were cheap anyways. I can save them for autos.

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#11

Do you all recommend any thing to mix into the promix?

#12

A box fan on high is louder than the 4” infinity in-line I will run, IMO. Clean duct and filter if it becomes high pitched or “whines”. Congrats on the kiddo! Best wishes.

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#13

What size fan do you have? I run a 6", it’s near silent on low speeds but makes a bit of noise at max. The Cloudline is your inline exhaust . . . it should remove air from the top of the tent and pull fresh air in through the lower vents. You don’t have to run it hard enough to suck the tent sides in unless you’re seeing heat issues.

You may need to run a heater in a cool basement . . . unless the Scorpion Diablo puts off more heat than my Scorp Rspec it won’t do much as a heater . . . the driver doesn’t get hot, just warm to the touch.

Also, in a cool basement it will help to insulate your pots from the floor . . . I set mine on an old pallet. I had ambient temps of 80°F with a root zone around 65-70°F . . . need the warm air to circulate under pots to keep cold concrete from cooling your pots.

#14

I have the s6. 6". But wont I have light leaks at lights off with the vents open? I bought these to help with draining and keep the plants off the cold floor.
15.5" Ez- Pz Runoff (Drain) Tray | The Bucket Company

#15

Yeah I hear you @Chasworks . Clones are a great way to go with fems if you have the patience to deal with them.

I’m just more of a seed to harvest guy. I feel I can just pop new seeds and be further ahead.

And the bottom line is… Auto genetics are so good now, the fem market is declining quickly for home grows. I see a future for Fems but it is mostly commercial other than breeding for autos.

If you can grow top shelf high thc meds in 75 days from seed, I just don’t see much point in growing fems unless im just dying to grow a specific strain.

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#16

If your looking for easy, yes, ProMix is a poor choice. Go pre-amended with Ocean Forrest, BAS 3.0 or BAS lite.

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#17

Well :yin_yang: i see your point but i don’t agree with you on the future of fem seeds! At 10.00 a pop there are many reasons to be able to clone: for one here in the year around heat and humidity clones can be Veg outdoors! Brought in to Flower under more controlled conditions: Running your lights on a steady 12-13 hr a day: not 18! Cost wise Fem will never be obsolete or pushed aside by auto’s. My humble opinion: retiree you don’t have to clone continuously just a full tent run of free quality plants is worth it for me maybe twice a year! Leaves more money for earth boxes and organic amendments. :yin_yang::100::dart:

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#18

Of course… We will always grow photos on occasion… But, the fact is most home growers, especially beginners already converted to autos.

Even hard-core photo only people like me are only growing autos now

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#19

For a connoisseur… The amount of flavors auto flowers offers you in a single cycle is hard to pass up. At the end of the day it’s all about the herbs in the jar.

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#20

Well unfortunately I have 40 fem seed from a bogo lol. So once I work through those I can try autos

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