New Grower - Couple of questions

[nizmo]

I currently have 2 plants which are going alright but growing slowly. They are about 3 feet high and are not very bushy. Apparently they are about 2 to 3 months old and were clones from another plant. They are growing under a heat lamp and i really need to sort something out because the light isnt high enough and the leaf edges are curling up (which i assume is due to the heat - its a 500 watt bulb and is no more than 2 feet above the top of the plants).

It started out with a mate coming over and giving us a couple of clones. We rigged up a little closet, lined it with tin foil and attached the heat lamp to the top going 24/0 and left it in the garage with the closet doors open slightly and an oscillating fan blowing at it.

Honestly, we dont really know what we are doing. We water them once a day with one liter of water each (the pots they are in contain soil of unknown origin but looks quite good quality. One plant is in a 10 liter bucket and the other is in a larger one, maybe 15-20 liters). We fertilize it once a week (not sure what kind of fertilizer) and in the last few weeks they have really started taking off. Some of the leaves have turned yellow and are a bit fucked, but most of them look healthy (but ever so slightly droopy).

Anyway im going to throw all that shit out and go to the indoor growing store tomorrow and im going to just buy an entire setup and then transfer my plants into that.
My questions are as follows;

1) What is the best kind of soil to use, or should i use clay balls? I vaguely remember my mate growing using clay balls (im pretty sure they were clay balls - i know it wasnt soil, they were these little balls) and a water pump. What do you guys think of this? He grew some pretty nice shit with it towards the end there.

2) How high above the top of the plants should my light be during the stages of the life cycle? Im going to buy an HPS light (im unsure of the wattage im going for yet - im open to suggestions. I plan to grow 4 plants at a time.)

3) What is the earliest time you can start the flowering stage? Im thinking of switching my current plans to 12/12 to force them to flower, but im just a bit worried because they aren't very bushy at all but they are quite tall. Will they still flower?

4) With 12/12, does it need to be complete pitch black darkness during the dark period? How much light can i get away with during the dark period?

Cheers guys.

[toastybiz]

It's OK if you don't know what you are doing, everyone starts there at some point. What boggles my mind is how many people go ahead and start anyway. READ! So much of the info you need is right here, just read the sticky posts at the top of each growing thread and also check the links in my sig and in a few others here.

Heat lamp = WRONG lamp. Your choices are fluoro tubes, CFLs, MH for vegging, HPS for flowering and passable for vegging

Foil = WRONG reflective surface. Use mylar or paint the walls flat bright white, reflects more light that foil believe it or not.

Know your soil. Know your fertilizer.

To your questions:

1) Use any unfertilized pure organic potting soil. I mix with one-tenth perlite and two-tenths worm castings. Don't use clay balls as a soil grow, those are for hydro, which is what your friend had. It works well but is harder to learn and not as forgiving for things like pH getting a little out of whack.

2) Light height depends on the light. If fluoros (including CFLs) keep as close as possible without the plant actually touching, so 1-1.5 inches. If HID (MH or HPS) turn the back of your hand toward the light at plant-top height and if you can hold it there comfortably for 30 seconds its fine. For 4 plants you could get away with a 250w light but you may want to step up to the 400w because once you grow 4 plants you will want to grow 6 or 8 down the road, it always happens. The only downsides are that the bigger light will generate more heat that will have to be dealt with and cost more to run.

3) They can be put into flower any time once they are vegged out. But the longer you let her veg the bigger your yield will be. I don't understand why people want to flower as early as possible -- if you would just wait another 2-3 weeks you could see your yield double. Having said all that, sounds like you could flower your plants now, minimum veg time I would even consider is 4 weeks but encourage you to think towards 6-8 weeks.

4) 12/12 needs to be completely pitch black dark, zero light, not even a little. Light-seal your cabinet before you switch to flower and then make sure you set the light cycle so the lights are on when you can tend to the plants so that way you NEVER have to fiddle with them during the dark cycle.

[nizmo]

Thanks alot for that. I just have a few more questions...

1) How do you seal your cabinet (which is located in a room with windows - meaning light is going to get into the room) to ensure no light gets in while also allowing sufficient ventilation?

2) Is fluorescent light ok to use from planting a clone right through to harvest time? Are there any kinds of fluorescent lights i should steer clear from? And also, would i be better off getting fluorescent over an HPS (under the assumption that whatever light i get, it will be used for the entire life cycle)? Are fluorescents cheaper to run?

3) One more question actually. I notice that PH is important, and i often see people saying "adjust your ph". How exactly does one adjust the PH level of the soil?

[100WattWarlock]

Originally Posted by nizmo

Thanks alot for that. I just have a few more questions...

1) How do you seal your cabinet (which is located in a room with windows - meaning light is going to get into the room) to ensure no light gets in while also allowing sufficient ventilation?

2) Is fluorescent light ok to use from planting a clone right through to harvest time? Are there any kinds of fluorescent lights i should steer clear from? And also, would i be better off getting fluorescent over an HPS (under the assumption that whatever light i get, it will be used for the entire life cycle)? Are fluorescents cheaper to run?

3) One more question actually. I notice that PH is important, and i often see people saying "adjust your ph". How exactly does one adjust the PH level of the soil?

1. I would make a hole in your cab and run ducts along the side starting at the top and run it along the side. For a carbon filter heres a great way of quickly building one http://www.gardenscure.com/420/secur...on-filter.html

2. Cfl's are good. Blue spectrum bulbs like daylight are good for vegging, red spectrum bulbs like warm whites are good. Too be honest, bright white bulbs seems to like the best choice because it has a kelvin rating of 3500k and usually the most effiecient lumen wise. If you want to go even more energy effiecient but more with more heat output, get a mh or hps. They each work relatively well on both stages, but if I had to choose one, I'd go with mh because they keep plants short and bushy.