If i was to build a grow tent
 

THEORETICALLY. i think this is everything i would acquire and put together. mainly posting for @Hush so he has all this info in one place. i've become fond of TOMATOES and after researching for awhile this is what i've come up with for growing them, all organic

tent - vivosun 48''x48''x80''
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

light - mars hydro tsw2000
https://www.amazon.com/MARS-HYDRO-Sp.../dp/B07PLYR5HG

air filtration - vivosun 4'' kit
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

dehumidifier - eva-dry edv1100
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

humidifier - homech cool mist
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

humidity controller - inkbird digital prewired dual stage controller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ambient fans - genesis 6 inch clip on x4
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

soil ph meter- sonkir soil ph meter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

liquid ph meter - vivosun ph and tds meter combo
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ph control liquids - atlas scientific ph up and down
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

pots - gardzen 5 gallon grow bags
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

plant saucers for runoff- youniversal 16''
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

support/training wire - all purpose 328 feet twist tie
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

grow medium - canna coco brick, perlite
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

fertilizer/amendments - dr earth 4-4-4, and dr earth 3-9-4
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Earth-Prem...3991666&sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Earth-707P...3991653&sr=8-2

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things im going to look into if i ever get around to actually building and growing TOMATOES, in terms of when it comes HARVEST time.

microscope for inspecting when they're RIPE
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...16URS7F1&psc=1
trimmers-fiskars
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...YDTUK2Z5&psc=1
bin for trimming - trim bin
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1
curing jars - 32oz mason jars
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...2YR1942T&psc=1
humidity monitoring during cure -binfrog digital humidity meters
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...Z52DBCEB&psc=1
humidity control during cure - homlux 2 way pack
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...MFRQNEQC&psc=1
scale- digital foods scale
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...JNFQ9DBU&psc=1

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whew. its been a couple weeks now i think. maybe a week i dunno since i got this idea and it hasn't left my dumb brain and ive been obsessively researching and searching for quality shit and methods. this is what i've come up with so far. if i was to order all this and begin i would've ordered these special wedding cake autobloom tomatoe's to give it a go.

i'd be growing 4 of them. each in a 5 gallon bucket.

for the soil i'd use the coco i linked instead, its relatively inert, no nutrients in it, and i'd be doing like a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio of the coco and perlite. the fertilizer and nutrients go into that as well but the feeding cycle changes throughout its life, but for the first soil mix prior to planting a 5 gallon pot would take around 20 tablespoons, and it'd be like a 70/30 mix of the 4-4-4 and 3-9-4.

from there though i would only water them, but i'd ph balance the water to 6.3-6.8 ish since the medium is coco to ensure the roots can uptake the slow organic nutrients mixed in the coco. but as they age i would topdress with the two solutions progressively looking to flip it so the final feed would be basically the opposite but top feeding/dressing also requires much less than the initial mix btw, i think its half i got the DOCUMENTS somewhere lol.

the light could realistically be upgraded to the 3000, but im not trying to completely fill the tent to bursting. the light linked is rated for 4x4 veg, but only 3x3 bloom. shit outside the 3x3 radius is still getting quality light, just not the full on blast (i guess). the videos i seen using the light show some HEARTY tomato's tho.

also for humidity, both the dehumidifier and humidifer plug into the humidity controller. you set a humidity range with it and they will kick on and off as needed. i specifically chose those two cheapo units because they have a POWER SWITCH. not a digital interface. when the controller turns the units off, its like you unplug them from the wall. any digital humidifer/dehumidifers will need to be manually turned on and off and reset etc. these you can just switch on and off and they run until full or empty respectively. so this way the controller can work efficiently.

i thought about supplementing co2 as well, and UV lighting. the light comes with a solid IR spectrum but not UV. UVB is dangerous but can help with toughening the plants. they will secrete more delicious oils to protect themselves from the radiation and if used sparingly won't damage them. but the only solution i could find is like another 150 dollar light setup and it needs to be centered, so i might be able to run 2 to even it out (one on either side of the main light) but who would want to spend another 300 on something that only helps a little that you barely use toward the end of the life cycle. i'm gonna look into it in the future tho. but yea co2 is another thing that could boost the overall yield but its not as effective in such a small grow. the extra juice it provides is only worth it if you got like a warehouse lol, since supplementing co2 is expensive. you can just mix sugar water and yeast and get some too if youre worried about it but also a co2 monitor is ridiculously expensive. basically isn't worth it to care. just circulate air and the tomatoes will be fine.

but word.

long ass post but if anyone was interested in growing tomatos this is a solid amount of info and starting points, without having to literally obsessively search for like a week and read a bunch of idiot pseudo science from filthy hippies. you can go smaller. especially with the autobloom crops since they don't get very big. this is probably overkill but if i do ever decide to venture this path i'd like to have pretty much everything needed for optimum results

“Tomatoes”

I will be “buying” these same items if I were to grow myself some nice asparagus

I’ll be your test monkey send those tomato’s my way

Idk about any of this but I can sure pitch a tent in the mornings

I can’t fuck with coco. Might as well save yourself the hassle and do full hydro

Organic soil is what you do

But I didn’t read but a few sentences of your post

But I see your suggesting dry ferts in coco. Tried it before and it just didn’t work for me. Like they died lol. I’m sure it was my fault but I never tried again. Organic soil

word this will be my first attempt and im just following some youtuber dudes method. it seemed the most straightforward and least likely to fuck it up. and since ill be doing the autoflowers its only like a 7-10 week run in total so i only have to feed it like twice

alot of the soils come packed with nutrients so you can overfeed and burn the plants up i guess? its gonna take me awhile before i can figure out if somethings dying because too much or not enough of X. so i figured this way would be the easiest since im responsible for everything they get and im not guessing when the soil runs out etc

i was looking at fox farm soils tho, like ocean forest and liquid nutrients but again it just seemed kinda overwhelming lol

but word i've got no experience at all this is just all research from forums and youtube. will definitely be trial and error

i also added a fishtank air pump and stone to the list. to dechlorinate tap water faster. was gonna use purified water but im reading the calcium and minerals in tap water is good and more than enough so you don't need to supplement more. basically throw the bubbles in a bucket of water for an hour and voila

im hype to try all this tho

be careful boys...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....BL._SY445_.jpg

You can use ocean forest.

You can also you espoma potting mix. Which would be a better option for autos

What I did in the past: 6 parts espoma mix; 3 parts perlite (buy a big bag from hd for ~$17) 2 parts compost (earthworm castings, I actually use a product that is half cow manure half chicken manure). Then add calmag. Doesn’t matter if you use espoma calmag or the big bag from hd or Lowe’s for $5, although the big bag is definitely more cost efficient if you decide to continue.

Then add your dry ferts. Personally I would layer it. Nothing for the first gallon. Then 4-4-4 for the next gal or so. Then the 3-9-4 for the bottom gal or two. Then all you would have to do is water with tap water/dechlorinator and add compost tea after about four weeks or so. You would do the compost tea once a week say Monday, then water weds and fri

And don’t overwater. water a party cup full or water each time the seedling needs water, gradually increasing the amount of cups you give it as it gets bigger and fills pot. Using this method I incorporate whatever else I would want to give my tomatoes on Monday’s. And I have some phenomenal recipes that I will not be sharing in open discussions I can pm you once you get to that point

If you use ocean forest use one tablespoon of dry ferts per gal. If you use espoma use two. For my last run I used espoma and two tablespoons per of nature’s care 9-2-6 for veg and switched to half espoma with a mixture of garden tone 3-4-4 and bulb tone 3-5-3. The other half is using soil king big rootz instead of espoma but that’s only because the gardening place ran out of espoma soil so I had to go elsewhere. I also have a bag of ocean forest just in case I ran out but I didn’t do everything is perfect and I will use that bag on the next run for a side by side beside big rootz.


If you aren’t making a tea then you can just add fish tank dechlorinator to water instead using pump. Really even when I use pump I still use that stuff, it works instantly

I rarely ph using my method too but in your case you would definitely want a liquid ph test and you can forgot the soil test all together but spend he extra money if you want to feel safe but you can do a soil test with the liquid test, by simply doing a slurry test. Mixing half a handful of soil (1 part) with about 5-6 parts distilled water and then agitate it then test the water with water ph test

Although with my recipes of compost tea the ph is usually 6.8-7.0 every time without fail

He’s suggesting coco for yield but the taste difference between soil and coco will make you forget coco although you would yield more in coco. But it taste like tap water

You did your homework

Your electric bill is what u have to worry bout, need to stop that meter occasionally

Anything over the normal use. Challenge on the play

That being said I’ll buy ALL your tomatoes htl

Also unless you have specific reasons on why you want to do auto flowers fuck autos. Get a set of feminized photos from a reliable source and pick out a mother from the set. I can tell you exactly how to do things bro from beginning to continuous the choice is yours. Notice I didn’t say from beginning to end.

Starting to get the sense this isn’t about tomatoes

good reference.

Word eddie you're the man. Ima give this first run a go with the coco medium and shit first, and im only doing autos cuz the quick turnaround and I plan on using the tent to dry them too. Im not looking to sell my tomatoes just tryna get a ton for personal pasta purposes lol

But word once I get the first batch I should be good for awhileeeeee so I might go with regular feminized ones. Veg the fuck out of them and try to fill every square inch of the tent with an even canopy with a net before going bloom.

Ima hit you up for sure.

But word also with the autos ima just throw my light timer on 18-6 and forget about it. Just adjusting the height of it. There is also a dimming setting ill have to figure out how to adjust during the life cycles. Like you're supposed to start out low and gradually crank it. But i might just crank it from the jump and keep it far away from them and just gradually move it down i dunno

Also in 7 weeks your tomatoes will only be about half way done in my experience. You will need to add at least 5 more weeks and pray that it actually finishes in 12 weeks

How are you with identifying Deficiencies?