The hardest part i dont understand is fertalizer. Can someone please explain the mixtures and what stages i need them for? or even like fert kits with everything i need. Please dumb it down for me.
General Hydroponics Micro and General Hydroponics Bloom and pH down/up kit. Start with 1 ml of micro added to 1 gallon of dechlorinated water then add 2 ml of bloom stir it up, use pH down to drop the water to 5.5-6.5. Can keep this same ratio through out and adjust for strength when needed as long as you're keeping the 1:2 micro:bloom ratio. It's called the Lucas Formula if you want to look it up. There's also a similar H3ads Formula that is real simple. Depending on where you live you might need epsom salt at 1 tsp per gallon if your tap water is low on Magnesium. This is what I used for my first grow
Pure organics: http://i.imgur.com/ZRDEySm.jpg If there was ever a "dumbed down" fert this is it. No ph check, no flushing, no worries, same yield.
N-P-K : Nitrogen - Phosphorous - Potassium Nitrogen is required in veg for green leaf growth. Phosphorous is required for general growth but especially for flower development. Potassium is essential for healthy vigorous plant development, especially during flower. Typical nutrients during veg would be high-low-medium such as 6-2-4. More N than the others. Typical flowering nutes have much less N (no new plant growth to supply it for) but much more P and K,, low-high-higher such as 2:8:10 Many general gardening products are heavy in N, eg miraclegro can be 24-8-16. Although it's strong it can be diluted, but look at the ratios. Three times more N than P! Maybe good for a veg feed but totally wrong for flowering. On the other hand, general garden products for tomatoes and potatoes are more weighted to the PK and tend to have added magnesium and calcium too.
Start with a good seed. Great soil. and you will use nutrients sparingly. I think people assume it is like some magical pixie dust.
Yes it is not magic plant-grow food. It doesnt make your plants grow. "Plant food" is water and light. Everything else is like vitamins, and you CAN overdose on some vitamins and it can kill you.
You should visit a local hydro store. That is a great place to learn. Just take everything with a grain of salt.
I hate to compare plants to humans. The roots act like a combination of veins, brains, and ingestion then sends all the chemicals to the rest of the plant. The leaves and chlorophyll act like a circulatory system, endocrine system, and major nerves plus absor sun like our skin does in a subtle way. Plants are fascinating.
It IS possible to FEED your plants nutrient specific formulas to maximize yield...BUT it requires a great deal of expertise and experience to know how to do it. I suppose you could bumble your way along making every mistake in the book, which most of us have done...but after years of trying to dial it all in, using a ton of different products, nutes, meters, methods and time....it really just makes sense to simplify the entire process to where you arent measuring, metering, watching, fiddling and fumbling along all day by just preparing super soil and allowing your plant to tell you what it needs is just so much simpler....cheaper and more effective. With an organic method you really only give your plant water , light and teas...and the results are magnificent. No PH issues, no constant tinkering (except with making your secret recipe teas which would bloom bust ANYBODYS plants..loan em some, let em try it and watch what they say after their plants explode)....Us organic growers arent trying to convince anyone that their methods are shit..because there are LOTS of ways to get some great flowers...but the simple way always just seems to make sense. Just try a season on organics and see what you get...I'd wager you wont go back...
You can't take the comparison too far, because plants are not animals. But plants and animals are both alive, both respire, both need a source of energy for growth and a source of 'nutrients' to facilitate essential functions.
I'm a professional greenhouse grower. Don't listen to anything anyone is saying, they are all wrong except Thicken Dense.. You can do whatever you want to do though. We can sit here all fucking day and argue our nutritional theories of Cannabis but at the end of the day scientists have already done that using SCIENCE instead of theory and speculation. Get a General Organics or General Hydroponics starter pack off Amazon.com and read the back of the label. At the end of the day it is that simple. To the guy who says plant foot is just supplemental vitamins i'm gonna need you to go ahead and not post advice anymore. I recommend the General Organics starter pack, for $40 you'll have 2 years worth of fertilizers maybe more. (You use tiny drops of this stuff) and just read the directions.
I will tell you in greenhouse ornamental crop production there's much much more that goes into it than that (switching from nitrate fertilizers to ammonical nitrogen or vice versa for pH adjustment, injecting acid and ferts into the irrigation, switching to low phosphorus formulas to prevent stretch and add calmag, using PGRS etc etc etc) but for a hobbyist growing cannabis reading the bottle will do all of that for you
Get a starter kit. I felt the same way. Even after days of research I felt like I wasn't getting it. I bought the biobizz starter pack. Like 70 bucks and it works good for me. I know most people start with the fox farms trio. It's only like 30 bucks and fix farms makes a ton of other products you can add into your grow later on when you have some experience and money saved up. My grow journal http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-medical-marijuana-growing/1353929-mopheads-purple-closet-adventures.html
Probably the most important thing I've learned about nutes & additives is to think this way about them. Even if it's not technically correct, it's a useful metaphor.
Get yourself a 2 or 3 part fert with a feeding schedule and start at 1/4 strength after cotyledon round leaves have fallen
Haha the guy asked for it to be dumbed down and people are throwing a ton of unnecessary information at him. This thread has probably just made things worse. Yunghooch, are you growing in soil or hydro? If soil, what soil are you using? Explaining nutrients for hydro or soil is very different so I don't want to assume anything. whichever you are doing choose a 1 part nutrient to make things easy. The manufacturers have chosen that ratio for a reason so you may as well trust them. Some nutrient programs come with 2 and sometimes even 3 bottles that have to be all mixed in particular ratios. Stay away from these, it's just an added complication. The bottle will have directions on it stating how much of the liquid you mix with how much water. Don't use that dosage, usually 50% strength is enough for any plant. Young plants require an even lower strength