New Grower Questions before my first grow attempt

[Yog Sothoth]

Hey everyone!

I'm looking into growing my own cannabis so i can stop paying good money for meh bud. After doing some research I've chosen to do autoflowering plants and I've got a pretty good idea of what i want to do so i'm just going to write out what the plan is in my head to hopefully get some experienced growers advice. All of this is still in the planning stages and can be adapted as needed.

1 DIY grow tent, 3.5' x 2' and 4 or 5 feet tall made from 1" PVC piping and panda film. A la http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdMdD4Oc7Gk

CFL Lighting, I'd shoot for 4000 lumens/sqft which would end up being 18 23w bulbs or 11 42w bulbs. I'm not entirely sure which wattage to choose but I'm leaning towards 23's because i can't find any 42w 5000k CFL's here. For the 23w's i would put 6 lights hanging, 6 lights on the back and then 3 lights on bith sides, 20/4 the whole lifespan

I want to grow the Heavyweight 2 Fast 2 Vast preferably but Fast and Vast would be just as good, i just like that potential 1% THC boost. My only concern is some of the pictures ive seen of these things are massive, would a 3.5'x2' or even a 4'x2' box hold them?

I know plant size will ultimately depend on pot size and length of time until it gets root locked(I think?)
I'm planning on using either 2 or 3 gallon buckets
The only local nursery here only sells Dr Earth fertilizers, but after looking them up http://drearth.net/ i think they sound pretty good and since im not on the biggest budget shipping nutes here seems pretty expensive. They also sell soils with their organic nutes in them, i can't find a lot on autoflowers with that brand but none i have found seemed to have adverse seedling effects from the nuted soil.

Fans/ventilation is one thing i still havent really figured out but I do have an old junk computer i can scrap with 3 fans in it (I think it's 2 80mm's and a 120mm, do I really need to get a fart fan to hook up to a carbon scrubber? is there something smaller or quieter i can use that will still move enough air through the filter to be stank free outside of the box?

Any help is greatly appreciated, I'm very eager to get growing soon

 

[faded187]

what up bro? have you looked into the 250w cfl grow lights w/ hood, or maybe even led. reason I say is that's a lot of bulbs.lol and that means heat and yull need more than a few computer fans. just a regular oscillating fan will work. led is a lot less watts and electricity for way more solid heavy buds. I started cfl and when I switch to led power bill was way cheaper and plants started getting oz instead of grams. lmao just a thought.. look into mars hydro 300w led. perfect for that area. I use 2 of em. check my link. peace

 

[Yog Sothoth]

I've actually wanted LED lights, just most of the ones i find are all super expensive and dont actually put out enough lumens (I've heard you want at least 2000 lumens per sqft. I hadnt seen the old mars hydros just the newer ones.

http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light-100-3w.html If im reading that graph right if the lights are 20" away then it puts out 8900 lumens? Is that enough to do 7 or 8 Square feet for LED? i know the panda film is super reflective but damn. would I still have to put a few CFL's in the box to boost the lumens or what?

Those are some sexy ladies by the way! Nice job man, and thanks for stopping by

 

[BRICH999]

Welcome to afn yog! As a new grower myself i find cfls great to start plants, but i move them under led as they get bigger. There are lots of leds for most budgets, but my experience with them is lumens arent everything. Where other sources throw "more light" leds send more focused light for plants needs hence the multiple spectrum leds and this is where less led should equal higher output from other sources.

 

[Yog Sothoth]

I can dig it, less wasted means less lumens can do the same area. On the Old model mars hydro it says Coverage: 3'x2.5' standard, does that mean that with a 3.5'x2' box i'd have a half foot on the long side without adequate light and a wasted half foot on the short side? Would just building the box a slightly different dimension be a better alternative?

or how do the Mars Hydro reflectors work out?
http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/reflector-series has a coverage of 4.4'x2.2' without the crazy number of CFL's needed i could add the extra 1 sq foot for an additional 60 bucks have the coverage dimensions fit my box almost exactly and probably get way more than 60 bucks off that one square foot of extra space

 

[faded187]

With led its par not lumens. That 300w led would be perfect for your space with bout 4 or so cfls for heat and side lighting once you start flowering. I keep my led closer than most because I like shorter plants. But yeah you would have to have quite a few cfls to equal the amount of bud that led could produce. As for as the reflector I never tried but theres a few peeps on here that should b using

 

[Yog Sothoth]

this is where less led should equal higher output from other sources.

Does this mean I need some white light from a CFL or something else in the mix too and the lower the wattage (or PAR? idk) the more white light needed?

Faded: How do you tell the PAR of an LED? Do you mean i only need the additional CFL's during flowering and not during veg? or that i need them in there for heat in general and then on the sides especially for flower? Also I'd make any changes in the light once veg growth has slowed and just about stopped right?