A few questions (sorry - this is my 1st grow - please forgive my ignorance).

1: I have a 400 watt HPS lamp - I was hoping to buy an 8 pot wilma system, but then methinks to mesel', "Hang on a minute, ya waster." Some time later, an idea had formed (I'm not the brightest) and I asked myself, "How many ordinary flower pots could I get under a 400 watt lamp? And if I didn't buy a wilma system and bought a 600 watt lamp instead, how many could I fit under that, roughly?"

1.1 Assuming my use of compost/soil/pots, what sort of pots and what size of pots would be suitable? What's a good pot to watt ratio?

2 Apart from the nutes/feeding, what's the big differences between pots and hydro? (I read that organic is better for taste, etc.) Are the growing times pretty much the same? (Told you I was thick).

3 Are the plants more, less, or just as likely to develop problems with soil mixes?

Bless you.

Never heard of a pot to watt ratio. Its going to vary anyway with growing style, such as SOG, SCROG etc. I usually grow SOG, so I use 4L square pots almost touching. I reckon go for 6.5L pots or if you want bigger plants go for a larger pot size.



Best wait for a hydro grower to come along, but I think I've read Owderb saying that hydro is faster in the Veg stage.

Thanks for the info Mr Jolly. Tbh - I did try pots before on my very first attempt (White Widow), with a few disasters I found re-potting to be a bit dodgy, at least in my hands - I then opted to just plant them in the big pots only and covered the tops with cling film to create a sort of propagator - it seemed to work, in that they sprouted and all but, when I put them outside in the back garden, some wee beasties got at them and killed them and I bumped into the washing-pole bringing the last one in and dropped it upside-down onto the concrete - eviscerated, I was.

I got a nice gee-gee bet up before xmas last year and, apart from paying for xmas, I decided to try growing my own again, so bought myself a wee NFT (in which I'm now flushing my first proper grow - sorry girls, but you only have about a week to live... ). Not sure if I could do a Sea of Green and don't know wtf scrog is - . I already had a light, but thinking along the grams/watt line, I look at my coming harvest, knowing how much I would normally smoke, and think to myself, "It's not going to be enough."

I know the 8-pot wilma system are 11 or 11.5 litres each and I seem to remember reading that 2 of them work well under a 600 watt lamp. I also know I can use soil/compost, as well as any other medium with it, which is what attracted me to her in the 1st place (get to learn a bit about each medium). The thing that worries me the most (other than the price and the smuggling of a large hydroponic system into the house unnoticed) is the height the pots sit at (must be a good couple of feet off the ground?).

Good to know about the vegging time - I thought there was something there (assumed flowering time was just flowering time - whatever that turns out to be) - suppose hydros are force-fed, like battery hens or something and pots are free-range? One day, I'd like to grow enough to be able to go to my ex-dealer and say, "Here's all that ganj I ever borrowed off you, now can you give me all that cash I lent you?" Thanks again Mr J - appreciated. Cheers.

Go with the 600 watt lamp, they are somewhat more efficient than 400 watt lamps. Get an MH & HPS bulb if you can but you can get away with just an HPS bulb. As Mr Jolly says there isn't a pot 2 watt ratio as such, depends on the size of the plants. I'd also go with the 6L square ones and up to the 11L for big plants.



Horses for courses really, compost is possibly easier to start with as it is a less complex system to learn. Most general problems are due to bad environment or overzealous feeding/watering if in compost.


I like that.

but what do you reckon a 400w hps would cost in leccy compared to a 600w ? say per quarter

This'll tell you
Grow room calculator

Felix.

edit : i take it if you grow in soil youll be taking the organic route ?

once youve tasted how good organic weed is youll never use synthetic chems again on your crop, so sweet n juicy .there really is a big difference ,hydro can yeild more but flavour/taste/potency/smell more important than yeild in my opinion .soil can have same problems as hydro, with hydro you can fix it quicker thats all