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Hello everyone!

I just ordered a pack of aurora indica seeds and plan on setting up the grow area in my closet.

I will be purchasing a 400-600w HPS , and keeping a fan on for ventillation purposes.

I only plan on growing tops 3 females, but will this 400-600w HPS be enough supply until I know which ones are female?

Also, how can you tell early on which ones are male and which ones are female so that I can separate them asap.

Im on a low budget, any and all advice is welcome and appreciated!

P.S. the light cycle is 18on/6off for veg, 12/12 for flower is that right?

You are gonna be dealing with lots of heat unless you have some kind of intake/outtake of air, this means you will need some holes cut into the walls of the closet, a fan in the room isnt gonna cut it with a 400w let alone a 600. Buying a digital ballast would help with heat but you said you are on a small budget.

Can you leave the door open when the lights are on?

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Skee Ball champ!

yea i can most definitely leave the closet doors open to dissipate heat. It is a bathroom closet so that would be no problem.

So should i go with 400 or 600, keep in mind I'll most likely be using this lighting from germination to flowering, starting out with 10 seeds then whichever germinate, and then separating down to a maximum of 3 plants that I want to end up with.

Also, how long are most growing cycles like how long does the germination cycle last, the vegging stage, and the flowering stage. And what light cycles should I be using for each.

As far as fertilizers I was planning on just going to my local store to buy some, any particular ferts that are recommended, that I can get at a store?

thanks all

run what you can handle, the 600 will produce better results, but require a little more ventilation and it will be a little more expensive.

*most* strains take about 8 weeks to flower. that is my target time for all strains that i have not grown before.

as for the light cycles, when you are germing/vegging the plants, you can not have too much light, it can be on 24 hours for all the plants care. when they hit the flowering room it is ABSOLUTELY important that they get a FULL 12 hours of pure darkness. more than 12 hours of dark is perfectly acceptable, but less is not.
how long you let them veg is completely up to you. some people prefer a lot of small plants, others only grow one and train/bend it around so that it has a bunch of branches before flowering it.

i cant really suggest a fert, the only ones i have used have been dedicated ferts. if youre looking for something to grow weed with, i would say to look around online for the best deal on some advanced nutrients or general hydroponics brand ferts. they are the top two names in the business

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sounds good, thanks for the tips!

I changed my plan for what I will be growing and I have decided to go with PPP strain, im just going to get feminized seeds and grow 2 of the plants with a 400 watt HPS setup and proper venting.

I am going to try and keep my ferts as simple as possible and use greenpassions recipe.

thank you again for all your help and I will most definitely be taking pictures of my results.

ps - still seeking any and all advice at this point =D

Sounds like your doing your research. Good luck with the grow. Hit us up in chat anytime with questions!

Peace

HS

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I'm also growing in a cupboard about 2 by 1 by 1. I'm growing four misty plants and they have been going for nearly two months. This is my first time growing so i wasn't on a big budget but i did my research and with a computer fan mounted to the back of the cupboard, a 250W MH industrial lamp (£40 from ebay) and a bottle of hesi supervit i seem to have landed myself with four tall strong plants that are going to be tasty as fock.

However seeing as i've never done this i have no idea how this kind of setup will affect the flowering stage of the plants which i've just induced. Does anyone know if a lamp of this type and (relatively) low power will be ok for the flowering?

Thanks

Misty

They will definitely flower under that light. It is not the ideal scenerio, but will work. Experienced growers use MH for veg stage, then switch to HPS for flowering. HPS has more red spectrum and MH more blue.

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Any idea if i can just switch to a hps bulb in the same lamp?

Thanks

Misty

You'll only be able to swap the lamp out if the ballast is rated for metal halide as well as high pressure sodium. If it's a MH only ballast, the HPS lamps will not work. Is the ballast a digital? You should be able to google the model number and find out.

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I only have a metal halide lamp, will the buds still turn out ok?