Starting a SOG...need advice from experience

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Lesso

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So here is the set up....
4x4 flood and drain to veg out a few moms under 1k lighting. Potential moms are hso purple train wreck, hso amherst sour diesel, rare dankness leroy...all supposedly sativa dominant strains.

4x4x7 grow tent using a 3x3 flood and drain for flowering rooted clones. 1k hps with a cool tube, 8 inch inline fan with charcoal cannister filter pulling out 900 cfm. I have a blower fan for incoming cool air if needed. The test run showed 80 degrees in the tent with 60% rh. I would like those figures to be 75 degrees and 50% rh. I may add co2 as well.

I will be using ro water as my last few grows used tap water which has 300ppm and a ph of 8. Terrible i know, the ph is a nightmare to keep down to 5.8.

For cloning im thinking of getting a turboklone 96 or just using jiffy plugs and humidity domes. Im not sold on the cloning machines as i see a lot of conflicting testimony about them.

This is my first attempt at sog and flood and drain. My goal is to find a strain that works well and keep mama going so im thinking lucas formula since its a multi strain grow.

Im looking for any advice in general but specifically nutes and medium. Thanks.
 
PJ ( P Jammers) is doing a small SOG ebb and flow grow right now. It is a test grow with an (unavailable as yet) LED light, but think other than that, the grows are similar. You might want to check it out. Trimming for LED grows and HPS grows can be different, but as far as nutes and medium, shouldn't be much difference with the different lighting.
 
Will do... thanks
 
Thanks. Checked it out. Maybe im looking for a little more in depth info.
 
A little confusing.

PJ's setup is:
360w LED, 1.3Mx1Mx2M, 27 Cubic Feet, 900CFM Fan

Your setup:
1000w HPS, 1.3Mx1.3Mx2M, 36 Cubic Feet, 190CFM Fan

So, you have 2-3x as much light and 4-5 times as much air ciruclation.

I'm running 1000w in a 1.6Mx1.1M, which is roughly the same.

But the 900CFM fan.. that's going to kill your plants.

1.3x1.3x2 (x20) = 67M3/h or 40CFM.

Your fan is 23x to powerful :)
 
The fan is capable of 900 cfm but it draws out through ducting, a charcoal filter and the light. Im not sure that having the air exchanged out of the room more frequently is bad for plants. In fact it seems logical that the air should exchange more often.
 
Like what?

I was having a hard time deciding what substrate to use...went with pearlite and lavarock.
I was wondering about nutes but i decided that since it was a multi strain grow to just use the lucas formula and gh nutes. I will add a bloom boost in flower.
 
A little confusing.

PJ's setup is:
360w LED, 1.3Mx1Mx2M, 27 Cubic Feet, 900CFM Fan

Your setup:
1000w HPS, 1.3Mx1.3Mx2M, 36 Cubic Feet, 190CFM Fan

So, you have 2-3x as much light and 4-5 times as much air ciruclation.

I'm running 1000w in a 1.6Mx1.1M, which is roughly the same.

But the 900CFM fan.. that's going to kill your plants.

1.3x1.3x2 (x20) = 67M3/h or 40CFM.

Your fan is 23x to powerful :)

Not sure how you decided that the 900cfm fan was 23x too powerful, but it isn't--it is probably about twice as powerful as it needs to be. That can be controlled with a fan speed controller. I personally like to exchange the air in my space 2-3 times a minute.

PJ is also not using the entire space that he has. I wasn't suggesting that these grows were the same, just that PJ is also doing a smaller sog.

Lesso--I prefer expanded clay for this type of grow. Is the perlite of sufficient size so that it is not going to clog up the drain? Speaking for myself, I have not had great luck using the Lucas Formula during veg. It seems like my plants always would run out of N about 1/2 way through flowering. I think it is important for vegging plants to get enough N. I also find that I need to use Cal-Mag with the GH Flora series nutes, regardless of whether I am running Lucas or all 3 parts. I have never found a bloom enhancer that I thought was worth the money....
 
Not sure how you decided that the 900cfm fan was 23x too powerful, but it isn't--it is probably about twice as powerful as it needs to be. That can be controlled with a fan speed controller. I personally like to exchange the air in my space 2-3 times a minute.

PJ is also not using the entire space that he has. I wasn't suggesting that these grows were the same, just that PJ is also doing a smaller sog.

Lesso--I prefer expanded clay for this type of grow. Is the perlite of sufficient size so that it is not going to clog up the drain? Speaking for myself, I have not had great luck using the Lucas Formula during veg. It seems like my plants always would run out of N about 1/2 way through flowering. I think it is important for vegging plants to get enough N. I also find that I need to use Cal-Mag with the GH Flora series nutes, regardless of whether I am running Lucas or all 3 parts. I have never found a bloom enhancer that I thought was worth the money....
I got a little worried when i flooded the table with hydroton in my pots, a lot of the hydroton floated up a few inches and i thought that it would not be stable enough. Yes i have the largest pearlite i could find...and the lava rocks around the drain and in the bottom of the pots act like a strainer...very little of it ends up in the table and so far none in the res. When you say you run out of nitrogen in flower....is it possible to add a little n to the nutes at say week 4? I ran three part and have needed a low dose of magnesium added to the nutes in the past. I am on a limestone aquifer and i need no calcium added at all. I have not really tried any bloom enhancers...just see a lot of grows that do and seem to do well...but i know that it isnt necessarily due to the bloom nutes.
I have not had any issue with the gh flora 3 part so far...my last grow went well except for a big ph issue in week 4 of flower.
 
I have not had any issues with the GH 3 part series....just when I try to drop the grow nutrient when they are growing. I have taken to using Flora NOVA Grow--a 1 part nutrient that GH puts out during veg and then use the Lucas formula for flowering.

I really wasn't saying that bloom enhancers were optional, I was saying that I have never seen any difference in yield or potency when I used them, so think of them as a waste of time, effort, and money. However, you may have different results. I do have a package of Kool Bloom that I use during later flowering if I remember. So, I end up using it on some plants and not on others and it hasn't made any difference that I could see.
 
I have not had any issues with the GH 3 part series....just when I try to drop the grow nutrient when they are growing. I have taken to using Flora NOVA Grow--a 1 part nutrient that GH puts out during veg and then use the Lucas formula for flowering.

I really wasn't saying that bloom enhancers were optional, I was saying that I have never seen any difference in yield or potency when I used them, so think of them as a waste of time, effort, and money. However, you may have different results. I do have a package of Kool Bloom that I use during later flowering if I remember. So, I end up using it on some plants and not on others and it hasn't made any difference that I could see.
Yeah im picking some nova series up today as im almost out of 3 part. I may just take your advice here and go nova in veg. Gonna veg for 8 weeks and really bush out my mamas...
 
The NOVA is not a series. The GH Flora series (no Nova) is a 3 part nutrient system with grow, micro, and bloom. The GH Flora NOVA is a stand alone 1-part nutrient that comes in grow and bloom.

I thought you were doing a sog?
 
Yes i am doing a sog. Clone to flower.
 
Mod....Moved to grow journals...
 

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