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indoor Total beginner looking to grow indoors

cdubb2010

cdubb2010

Hi all,

Desided to try growing peppers again with a new gameplan, growing indoors. I would like to grow super hots, Carolina reapers will be my first attempt. I just want to know the in's and outs of indoor growing and can I do it with out spending a foutune on hydro systems and lighting?
 
cheap lights
You can get a couple t8 light fixtures at lowes for 20$ each. 40$
 
cheap super basic hydro (no pumps, no recirculation, just pour a cup of water in each every day)
You can use a big bag of perlite (20$ at local nursery) as media for 8 5gallon buckets. 20$
You can find used 5 gallon buckets on craigslist for like 1 dollar each. 8$
You can get a small bottle of hydro nutrients like dynagro for 10$
40$
 
or
 
cheap soil grow
Can dig soil out of your backyard 0$
should probably put lots of perlite, pine bark, sand something to loosen the mix 20$
You can find used 5 gallon buckets on craigslist for like 1 dollar each. 8$
Get some tomato fertilizer at lowes 6$
35$
 
check the FAQ it's stickied.
 
Welcome to the forum.
 
I am not familiar with hydro - I use 5 gallon paint buckets - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Homer-Bucket-5-gal-Orange-Bucket-05GLHD2/100087613? - And fill them with potting soil.
 
Regarding lights, I like floruscents.  They don't run hot.  Last year was my first season growing indoors and I was able to get pods with this light:
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FGE6C0/
 
I'll let more experienced growers give you advice on fertilizer - I don't have it quite worked out yet.
 
Best of Luck!  Start a grow log and post pictures!
 
Fall is a great time to gather up pine needles, leaves, etc to make your own mix.  A lot of people like some peat moss mixed in too to keep the soil fluffy.
 
Do give them a lot of light.  As juanitos mentioned T8 4' fluorescent fixtures are about the most cost effective.  Also consider getting some metalized mylar reflective "emergency blankets" to create drapes or cardboard covered mirror panels around the grow area to maximize retained light.
 
Do water only as much as necessary letting the top of the soil dry out between waterings if possible.  Do spray a 1:10 ratio OTC hydrogen peroxide to water solution on them if fungus starts to grow.  Do point a low flow fan across the side of the grow area - not necessarily right at them, to invigorate thick stem growth, manage moisture including reducing fungal growth.
 
Do keep the area between 80F to 90F during germination for best results and between 70F and 90F after germination.  Give them at least 12 hours of light a day and 16 to 18 hours is better.
 
You don't necessarily need pots as large as 5 gallons for an indoor grow if you plan to later transplant them outside around mid-May of next year which is roughly the last expected Spring frost date for Michigan.  Continuing the grow outdoors will help a lot at that point.  Trying to produce as much artificial light as sunlight for plants a few months old gets very expensive.  A couple T8 fixtures won't be nearly  enough at that point to rival outdoor sunlight.
 
Very good thanks for the replies. Now how about heat lamps? I know reapers like warm soil, I've seen how to's in the past that used heat lamps to hold a constant temp. Any thoughts on that? I'm planning on buying seeds from Ocho Cinco off here on the board once he returns to business.
 
Dave has it right....if you go with T5's they will produce enough heat to warm the soil to 86F and the air above the canopy will be 90F. You will want a fan for all the reasons Dave said plus to cool down the canopy a little bit. My T5 8 bulbs put out enough heat to bring up the temp in my bedroom a few degrees. So heat lamp will not be required. You will want to start out with a double solo cup system and water from the bottom once your done germinating. If your seedlings get past that stage then worry about bigger pots (Dollarama). Remember it's an indoor grow and it's always warm enough inside for every stage of growth after germination. Any light will give off the extra little heat you'll need(most often to much).

And just for info...i tried to keep my grow cheap as I could but aim for success and if Im totally honest Im into this grow for close to $1000. Not that you can't cut a lot of the fat off my project....Im just lazy.
 
Thanks for the info Dart. $1000 is much less than I was guessing but also more than I'm looking to spend for this first grow. I was looking lights last night online and they really arent as costly as I was expecting just unsure of how many I will need in the later stages of being indoors when they take up some serious room. Im going out on a limb and underestimating my abilities to say likely 2 out of the ten seeds I've ordered will live to produce fruit, maybe 3 tops. I would love to grow a couple of the habanero trees, maybe some ghosts, I just don't want too much invested in lighting.
Also does anyone here have a mature reaper? What kinda of yields do you get from your plant? I realize the Fruit is quite small but does it produce a lot? Also is it a 120 day cycle with reaper plants? Harvest in the spring/summer winter and fall?
 
1968dart said:
Dave has it right....if you go with T5's they will produce enough heat to warm the soil to 86F and the air above the canopy will be 90F. You will want a fan for all the reasons Dave said plus to cool down the canopy a little bit. My T5 8 bulbs put out enough heat to bring up the temp in my bedroom a few degrees. So heat lamp will not be required. You will want to start out with a double solo cup system and water from the bottom once your done germinating. If your seedlings get past that stage then worry about bigger pots (Dollarama). Remember it's an indoor grow and it's always warm enough inside for every stage of growth after germination. Any light will give off the extra little heat you'll need(most often to much).

And just for info...i tried to keep my grow cheap as I could but aim for success and if Im totally honest Im into this grow for close to $1000. Not that you can't cut a lot of the fat off my project....Im just lazy.
Click to expand...
I like the balancing act with the double-cup setup!
 
Haha thanks Dragon49 need to keep a level canopy.

Cdubb2010 you can raise 50 plants to the size of the plants in the red and blue double cups in the pic I posted. And then you can pick your 10 healthiest plants and grow them to fruit under the T5 HO 4 ft 8 bulb. So you should be able to handle that grow of 10 plants to fruit. You'll have to do some topping and pruning and you won't get the yields up till you get them out under the sun. If they get to big and bushy 8 plants in 1 gallon pots gets you 1 plant each with 1sqft of room.
Should be able to get that grow on for under $500!
 
Well as of now Dart I'm looking at prolly 30 plants starting out give or take, ten reapers, 5 tree habaneros, 10 or so lemon drops and a handful of ghosts. I got hooked up with a seed trader whose hooking me up with basiclly free seeds from his surplus. I'm hoping for big yields from the trees but I want to perfect a chicken/fish marinade with the lemon drops and figure out a Tabasco like consistency sauce with the reapers for chili and wings. So I have high hopes from the reapers and lemon drops. This is a light I'm looking at

https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Jump-Start-Grow-Light-System--4-Ft-Stand-Fixture-amp-Tube_p_79799.html

I like the price and it's still a T5 , guide me here guys lol point me in the right direction on anything I just said....
I guess if I have 30 give or take I'm hoping my germination rate is 50% how much more lighting will I need to properly raise the 15 plants I hope to have? I guess dart is your set up overkill with ten plants or are you pushing it's limits
https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Sun-Blaster-T5-High-Output-Fluorescent-Strip-Light-3-ft-_p_79077.html actually this is the light I'm considering although I like the design of the other one I posted
 
cdubb2010 said:
Well as of now Dart I'm looking at prolly 30 plants starting out give or take, ten reapers, 5 tree habaneros, 10 or so lemon drops and a handful of ghosts. I got hooked up with a seed trader whose hooking me up with basiclly free seeds from his surplus. I'm hoping for big yields from the trees but I want to perfect a chicken/fish marinade with the lemon drops and figure out a Tabasco like consistency sauce with the reapers for chili and wings. So I have high hopes from the reapers and lemon drops. This is a light I'm looking at

https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Jump-Start-Grow-Light-System--4-Ft-Stand-Fixture-amp-Tube_p_79799.html

I like the price and it's still a T5 , guide me here guys lol point me in the right direction on anything I just said....
I guess if I have 30 give or take I'm hoping my germination rate is 50% how much more lighting will I need to properly raise the 15 plants I hope to have? I guess dart is your set up overkill with ten plants or are you pushing it's limits
https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Sun-Blaster-T5-High-Output-Fluorescent-Strip-Light-3-ft-_p_79077.html actually this is the light I'm considering although I like the design of the other one I posted
Click to expand...
$202.38 divided by 8 = $25.29
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002TJKS8Y?cache=d7ec06e18dd2526ce4c706fd315be803&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&qid=1413352778&sr=8-8#ref=mp_s_a_1_8

That's $26 per bulb 8× the grow power and 8x the canopy cover. The first light you posted a link to is for starting seedling. You'll only be able to get 10 solo cups under that light. Remember that the light needs to be about 3 inches from the canopy of the peppers and its only effective to about 6 inches from the bulb.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005H1C7NA?cache=d7ec06e18dd2526ce4c706fd315be803&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1413352823&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
this would be my minimum light I would go with. You could grow 4 healthy plants with this. Or get 25 pepper plant to a great transplant size to move outside come spring.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HE04WTY?cache=d7ec06e18dd2526ce4c706fd315be803&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&qid=1413353635&sr=8-7#ref=mp_s_a_1_7
Here's one for $170 I can't vouch for the build quality like I can for the EnviroGro lights but it's $30 cheaper.
cdubb2010 said:
Well as of now Dart I'm looking at prolly 30 plants starting out give or take, ten reapers, 5 tree habaneros, 10 or so lemon drops and a handful of ghosts. I got hooked up with a seed trader whose hooking me up with basiclly free seeds from his surplus. I'm hoping for big yields from the trees but I want to perfect a chicken/fish marinade with the lemon drops and figure out a Tabasco like consistency sauce with the reapers for chili and wings. So I have high hopes from the reapers and lemon drops. This is a light I'm looking at
https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Jump-Start-Grow-Light-System--4-Ft-Stand-Fixture-amp-Tube_p_79799.html
I like the price and it's still a T5 , guide me here guys lol point me in the right direction on anything I just said....I guess if I have 30 give or take I'm hoping my germination rate is 50% how much more lighting will I need to properly raise the 15 plants I hope to have? I guess dart is your set up overkill with ten plants or are you pushing it's limits https://www.greenerhydroponics.com/mobile/Sun-Blaster-T5-High-Output-Fluorescent-Strip-Light-3-ft-_p_79077.html actually this is the light I'm considering although I like the design of the other one I posted
Click to expand...
Im pushing the limits of this setup with 10 plants. 8 plants would give more space for them to spread out. My plan is to top and prune and pinch all the buds to get some fully developed plant to go into 10 or 15 gallon pots on my deck this coming spring. That's 5 months away. Some might say that's a bit early but I wasn't planing on being this successful so I wanted time to reboot the system if it failed.
 
So based upon the info here roughly you can grow on healthy plant per bulb, so a 8 bulb theoretically could raise 8 semi adult plants or 50 ready to transplant in the spring. I won't hold you to the numbers we are just guesstimating. So if I have two 8 bulb t5s I should be able to raise 16 plants to bear some fruit in my basement? That sound about right?
Also this might be a dumb question but is there any issue with plants cross breeding during germination?
 
Yes and that's what I have going on I have 20 plants in 1 gallon pots 10 per light. And there's still room at this point to have the 16 other plants in the solo cups up front on the shelves. I'm holding on to the 16 plants in front cause I'm still scared to throw them out cause there so healthy and I wish I had another light so I could keep them as well.

You have so many more light options in the states....this one is only $160 free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0099989Y2?cache=d7ec06e18dd2526ce4c706fd315be803&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&qid=1413355711&sr=8-28#ref=mp_s_a_1_28

make sure the bulbs that come with the fixture you buy are 6400k that's full spectrum.

even with the room I have I will be rotating the outside plants through the center of the self to give each plant equal light(every watering).
The problem with only having two light is the canopy coverage 1 square foot of light per plant your 4 ft 2 bulb will not give you the 8 square feet of grow area you want. Anyway just use that formula of 1 square foot of light per semi adult plant.
 
Very good, just for reference what would you rate a four foot two bulb to do? Four adults maybe? They aren't as good of value but still are much cheaper, maybe it can take care of a over crowding problem if more make though than I'm expecting. There are many options as you have said, what are your thoughts on buying used lights? I guess it's likely hit or miss, I just don't want to burn the house down. In michigan medical "herb" is somewhat legal so there's a mass surplus of indoor growing equipment, new and used. There's a used dealer of indoor grow stuff 30 minutes north of me I just discovered on craigslist, I'm looking in to pricing as we speak. Thank you very much Dart for the very helpful advice and everyone else who has added their 2¢
 
Used lights would be hit or miss if purchased online site unseen. Bulbs age and depending on the amount of use (hrs) they have seen the bulbs could be in need of a change. That being said if you can see the lights in person and plug them in and the lights come on and the light is quite (no buzzing) and you can get the fixture at a reduced cost so you can buy an 4 ft 8 bulb T5 with 1yr old bulbs you would still be way farther ahead then the a new 4 ft 2 bulb imo. You can buy new bulbs for $5 each online. And a T5 fixture sould be good for many years.
 
That guy has an awesome video on growing indoors. He's kinda a goofy guy to watch but he has lots of stright up good info. He's a link to that video. I pretty much follow how he grows. http://youtu.be/C7nVfrPro8Y
 
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