New grow setup

[jspence135]

Hello everyone, glad to have joined the community, and I hope to learn lots while I’m here. With that being said I’ll jump right into it.

Three/four months ago I decided to try my hand at growing in a tiny 2x2 tent in my apartment bedroom closer running a mars ts600. It went about as good as I thought it would but good enough I’m smoking some of my crop now while typing this. Fast forward to last week and I just settled on my new house! Now I have decided to upgrade everything now that I have a full basement to play with.

as of now I ordered a 5x5 tent with 4 sf2000s. I have some ffof which I always thought was good but the more I read I hear people complaining about it being hot for seedlings. I also have 5 cubic feet of buildasoil 3.0 and also for my nutes this time I decided to try to go dry amendments with earth dust. My question is, will this living soil match up with my dry nutes so all I have to do is water and not mix up liquid nutes ( first grow that was a nightmare and caused a lot of my problems imo). Also how many autos could I get in there comfortably with 5 gallon pots ? I would like to run 10 but I’m afraid it will be far to tight and I’m better off with 5-6.

thanks in advance

[YYCannabis]

Hi, jspence135 Welcome to GWE.

I found 4 autos in a 4x4 was stuffed and wished i had a few more inches of space. If i was to do that again, i would use a 5x5 instead. Each plant will need close to a 2x2 piece of real estate. The extra bit of space will allow room for fans or other equipment and help prevent mildew from being a problem. The plant in my pic is an auto that is 29” tall and 26” wide and natural growth pattern.

As for your question about dirt...I’ll leave that to the dirt growers to answer. 😁

Cheers
YYC

[dilvish]

FFO is good soil. I have used it in my last 3 grows with no problems. If it is fresh then you needn't worry about adding nutrients for the first 3-4 weeks as the soil has enough for the plants. After that IMHO liquid nutrients tend to be better because they absorb better.

As far as number of fabric pots, don't go too overboard as space can run out really quickly. it's harder to manage bigger grows unless you have a lot of time and patience. Fortunately for us here in Canada it's not an issue because we can only legally grow 4 at a time!!

[gbauto]

Fortunately for us here in Canada it's not an issue because we can only legally grow 4 at a time!!

That's why I'd be growing in 100-gal pots...

[Puglover1]

LOL! I have a 5 plant limit here. And two bedrooms that are not needed. You're giving me ideas.

[YYCannabis]

For some strange reason, the Canadian gov also put a height limit of 1 meter on plants. I’m guessing the people who made the rules never looked into how plants grow or can be trained.

[dilvish]

I wasn't aware of any height restriction in Canada. It must be a specific province that has that restriction as the general rule of thumb is just 4 plants at a time.

[Puglover1]

Welcome. If growing was legal for me 5 years ago I'd have had someone help me put up 2 walls & a door in my basement and built a 12x20 room in one of the corners. The stairs would be too much for me now. Go big and good luck!

[MeEasy]

Hi jspence135 welcome to the neighborhood, I use earth dust and you need to mix base in your soil and give it a week to cook before you start. What I do is start my soil and drop my seeds on the same day use a solo cup and by the time you put them in their forever home the soil is alive and ready for plants. The key with living soil is to never allow it to dry, so forget anything anyone has told you about watering if you use the traditional pickup your pot to determine when to water your soil will die and stop feeding your plants. Just remember moist not swamp , water smaller amounts and never to runoff and you'll be happy with living soil.
I'm the type to cram as many plants into my space that I can and stay on top of training and keep fans on 24 hrs per day. I'm growing 9 5 gallon plants in a 4x4 with 2 sf2000 and plants are growing and happy. I'm not an auto guy but my understanding is that they grow great in 3 gallon pots, and I have a friend growing 8 3 gallon autos in a 2x4 tent and it's nowhere near as full as my tent.

Edit = I lied lol I found a male a couple days ago so I'm down to 8 5 gallon plants in my 4x4

[Rwise]

I have 1 plant that takes up the whole 4x4 footprint of the lights, it is photo, me myself and I would only put 4 auto plants in that area, and some autos get to big for that. Himalaya Blue Diesel is one, it gets 48" runs 130+ days.

[MeEasy]

Here's a pic of my buddies 2x4 I'm all for big plants and if someone like Rwise just did I don't know which autos would get big most stay pretty small. Breeders have become like led light salesman and you can't believe half of what they say 🤔 thanks for the big auto info I will write it down

[jspence135]

Hi jspence135 welcome to the neighborhood, I use earth dust and you need to mix base in your soil and give it a week to cook before you start. What I do is start my soil and drop my seeds on the same day use a solo cup and by the time you put them in their forever home the soil is alive and ready for plants. The key with living soil is to never allow it to dry, so forget anything anyone has told you about watering if you use the traditional pickup your pot to determine when to water your soil will die and stop feeding your plants. Just remember moist not swamp , water smaller amounts and never to runoff and you'll be happy with living soil.
I'm the type to cram as many plants into my space that I can and stay on top of training and keep fans on 24 hrs per day. I'm growing 9 5 gallon plants in a 4x4 with 2 sf2000 and plants are growing and happy. I'm not an auto guy but my understanding is that they grow great in 3 gallon pots, and I have a friend growing 8 3 gallon autos in a 2x4 tent and it's nowhere near as full as my tent.

Edit = I lied lol I found a male a couple days ago so I'm down to 8 5 gallon plants in my 4x4

ok cool, thanks alot! ill keep this in mind and when everything is all setup and i have some questions ill make sure to get back to you

[MeEasy]

Just @ me like this jspence135 to make sure I get the notification and if I can help I will

[Anansi]

I grow 5 plants at a time in a 5X5 using 5 gal fabric pots. This leaves some room for me to get in there with them, which makes watering, etc. much more convenient.