New Grower Gearing up for first grow, some questions

[InexpensiveBeret]

So I'm looking to start growing soon. So far, this is the plan:

- 60*60 tent (SJ or GL, depending on what's cheaper/available when I hit up the hydro store)
- 240w Vero 29 DIY COB light (some more info in my thread in the DIY forum)
- 1*Autopot+Airdome with 30 L reservoir
- 250 m3/h inline fan+filter
- Medium: Organic potting soil with 20% vermicompost (fresh if my buddy's farm has enough to spare, or dry humus) and 20% perlite
- Ferts: Local mineral fertilizer (4:2:6 base nut+0:11:7 bloom booster, maybe a chelated micro-nutrient additive)
- PH meter
- Thermometer/Hygrometer

Questions:

- What kind of little stuff am I missing? What are some small but essential things that you forgot/didn't realize about the first time around?
- What are your recommended strains? I'm leaning towards ordering from Mephisto - thinking AvT, Skywalker, HBBSS & Sour Stomper+whatever freebies I get. Any other recommendations? Doesn't have to be Mephisto, they just seem to be doing dope work worth supporting.

I'm sure more stuff will come up, I'll post any future questions here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[woody]

Not sure if the autopot kits come with a pump for the airdome? If not youll need one of those.
Always handy to keep some gaffer tape and string handy, trimming scissors- and some calmag.
As for strains, anything from mephisto, dutch passion, dinafem or sweet seeds you cant go wrong with. Good luck mate. Any questions dont be scared to ask

 

[InexpensiveBeret]

Any thoughts on harvesting stealthily in an apartment?
I was thinking of using a thick cardboard box (the ones with a bar for hanging clothes when moving) with a fan+basic carbon filter as a diy drying box stuffed in either a closet or the tent - should be fairly lightproof and help with odor control. Any ideas of how to actually harvest with stealth, though? Deck the halls with jugs of ONA and pray the filter gets the rest of it? Getting caught is to be avoided as far as I'm concerned.
If I get the sense that harvesting in an apartment without smelling up the neighborhood is impossible I might just ditch the project.

 

[InexpensiveBeret]

Not sure if the autopot kits come with a pump for the airdome? If not youll need one of those.
Always handy to keep some gaffer tape and string handy, trimming scissors- and some calmag.
As for strains, anything from mephisto, dutch passion, dinafem or sweet seeds you cant go wrong with. Good luck mate. Any questions dont be scared to ask

Yeah forgot to mention - both water pump for the res+air pump for the Airdome.
Water around here is pretty hard, pretty rich in cal-mag to begin with. Only problem is the hydro shop near me only carries AN Calmag xtra, which is crazy high in N. I'll look into seeing what other stores carry and asking some of my gardener friends, but I think I'll just start with the tap water; no sense replacing a cal/mag deficiency with N toxicity.

 

[woody]

I would get 2 or 3 of the ambi pur plug ins and place them around the appartment. Keep the doors and windows of the room closed and pull a chair right upto the tent and trim in the tent itself- the fan and filter should take away most of the smell. Then hang dry or brown bag in the tent also
My water is pretty hard too but i still get calmag defs. And under led you'll get it more so than a hps grower like me.
You could always order online- amazon or ebay?

 

[InexpensiveBeret]

I just checked the numbers; apparently, the base nutes contain .9% mag and 1.5% cal. Would that about cover it?

 

[woody]

I use plant magic magne cal+ it has around 3.5%calcium and about 1.5%magnesium
So if your water is as hard as you think you might be ok

 

[DarkGreen]

Just harvest in the tent itself or near it as Sanguine said.

And hang dry inside a cardboard box in the tent.

Don't even contemplate hanging it to dry outside the tent, the drying process is the time when your plants will be at their most pungent and stinky.

I harvest in the house then hang the trimmed plant in a large rectangle cardboard box stood on its end in the tent.


I also use AN sensi calmag xtra. It's fine as long as you keep in mind the extra N it has and adjust your base nutes accordingly when treating deficiencies

 

[InexpensiveBeret]

A buddy is going on a long trip and will leave me whatever nutes I need, grotek calmag included (it's about 2% N so should be fine).

Drying discreetly seems pretty simple - just keep it in a closed tent with the fan on. What I'm worried about is chopping in an apartment, but I guess if we work quickly in the quick of night (+ wet towels on doors and ONA gel buckets with fans all over the place) we should be able to get away with it. It's not like this neighborhood doesn't have a faint smell to beginwith, and we're high up enough above the street for the risk to be smaller.

 

[DarkGreen]

A buddy is going on a long trip and will leave me whatever nutes I need, grotek calmag included (it's about 2% N so should be fine).

Drying discreetly seems pretty simple - just keep it in a closed tent with the fan on. What I'm worried about is chopping in an apartment, but I guess if we work quickly in the quick of night (+ wet towels on doors and ONA gel buckets with fans all over the place) we should be able to get away with it. It's not like this neighborhood doesn't have a faint smell to beginwith, and we're high up enough above the street for the risk to be smaller.

Yeah I don't really find it a problem when harvesting indoors.

My GF doesn't smoke or like weed, but let's me harvest in front of the TV in the lounge, as the smell goes as soon as the product is taken off to dry, just have to make sure the trim is caught in a tray/box, as even a little in the carpet or under the couch can start to really stink...

I've even harvested a few outside on my decking in summer and wasn't worried about my neighbours.

Certainly the main effort is the really smelly part, drying/curing.