i know there are tons of threads, and i've sifted through a bunch of them gleaning whatever information i can absorb. basically here's my story in a nutshell and i'm sure it's not a unique one. had some troubles with dealers, maintaining and finding connects, the usual. moved back to where i'm from which is a rural area and i can't find squat. i know people that smoke and they're of little help /rant over. point being i'm starting up my own grow to end all this stress but i have no idea what i'm doing, haven't grown any plants since we grew pea's when i was in first grade, so i'm hoping to use this thread for troubleshooting as i go if some of you would be so kind as to oblige me. i've got a small closet space to work with so i've got a couple of problems. 1) i don't want excess heat that might start a fire, but i think i've got a handle on that reading the grow guids, i'm assuming standard gro-lux is what i should be looking at? 2) height is an issue, conservative estimates by me tell me that i can't have this thing grow more than 5 feet in this space, how can i achieve this? 3) i've read things on transfering pots, is it cool after germination to just put it in the big pot that is going to be fully grown in rather than going small pot to big pot? 4) any tips that can get this thing fully bloomed and buds cured in the shortest amount of time would be excellent. the less amount of time it takes the better. thank you
A great way to grow with low heat (cost too!), and in an enclosed space is to use Compact Fluorescent bulbs (CFL's). They are very low cost, and last forever. You can put your CFL's as close to your plant as possible without actually touching. Standard is 100 actual watts per plant. It is okay to move your plants from germination, or early veg, into it's final pot. Just make sure you're using the right kinds of soils. Read up a bit on nutes later on, but you have a couple weeks at least before you would start using them. Read all the sticky's, and figure out what you think is your best option. Good Luck!
I have no personal experience with HPS, but my understanding is that an HPS bulb is an HPS bulb. The brand does not matter. You can control plant height with Low Stress Training (LST) and/or Screen Of Green (SCROG) techniques. Stick to indicas and indica dominant hybrids starting out. They tend to be shorter than sativas and sativa dominant hybrids. You can do that. I have done that. But I regretted doing that. The soil settles over time. You want your soil to be light and fluffy, not dense and compacted. And you want your soil line close to the lip of the pot, not 4 inches below the lip. Transplanting is easy, plus everyone loves those rootball photos. Autoflowering plants are the fastest, but you may pay a price in potency. They tend to stay short, too. I have not grown autoflowering plants. Indicas and indica dominant hybrids usually flower in 7 to 9 weeks. Sativas can go 12 weeks or longer.
1. CFL's are good but they still produce a lot of heat when you put enough to equal the wattage you need in a close space. I personally suggest sticking with HID. a 250 watt HID will put out as much heat as all those CFL's and be easier to control, it being just one bulb. 2. 5ft tall is more than enough space. remember to include pot height, distance to bulbs and distance from light to cab top. but 5ft is PLENTY. check out the stickies on LST/ Scrog/ Topping/ Supercropping . 3. yes you can go from solo cups straight to 3.5 or 5gal pots BUT you will get better root development if you "step-up" pots. this allows the roots to fill the space instead of just shooting to the bottom. but again either is fine. they wont be in the pots long enough to really make a difference. 4. Best thing you can do is start a grow journal asap. Get some pics up of your space, In no time you will have blades(ies) stopping by to give you a hand. trying to crop quick always leads to problems but some suggestions. if you can i would suggest setting up a 2nd box for vegging/clones. it will save you so much time in the long run. stick to 60day finishers and move to a 30day rotation. its nice to crop every month. Greens to you. Cyrate
alright so i got some autoflowering seeds, i think i've got a handle on how to produce them, my only question's right now are about watering, fertilizer and big pot soil i saw that i'm supposed to give two teaspoons per gallon, is that daily or weekly? is fertiizer as necessity? if so what's good and when and how much should i be adding? i have beginning grow soil, what about when i transfer the germinated seed into the big pot, what kind of soil should i be using? i've been digging through the links and all the info on all the grow threads but there's a lot of stuff and a lot of language i'm not hip to yet so if i'm asking questions i should already have answers to, i apologize. any help would be appreciated eidt: i almost forgot, the seeds i'm not planting, storage, what's good? tuperware container and put in the back of the fridge?
Give the seedlings no fertilizer during the initial two weeks or three leafsets, whichever comes first. Then start with 1/4 of the recommended dosage. Generally, in soil, you feed every third watering. You may end up feeding every other watering. It depends on what the plant wants. I have never fed more than half the recommended dosage of the primary fertilizer in a soil grow. If the food the plant needs is already available in the soil then fertilizer is not necessary. But normally it does become necessary at some point and many growers start feeding after the first two weeks. Other growers amend their soils with all sorts of nutritious goodies before they start, lessening their reliance on liquid fertilizers. Many organic growers do not use commercial liquid fertilizers at all. But if you want to go that route, it is more involved. I don't recommend it for a first grow, though there are growers who go organic out of the gate. Damn hippies! I use Fox Farm's trio: Grow Big for vegetative growth, Tiger Bloom for flowering and Big Bloom for the entire span of the grow. They are sold together or separately. Fox Farm Ocean Forest is a very popular soil. I have used it and I liked it. Your soil should not be dense, but rather well aerated. I add perlite to my soil in the ratio of 2 parts soil to one part perlite. That gives you good drainage. Good drainage is very, very important. With enough perlite, overwatering become impossible. Excess water just falls through. It is still possible to water too frequently, but it is not possible to overwater. Perlite is available in any garden center, nursery or big box store, and it's cheap. Avoid Miracle-Gro potting soil with time release nutrients. It's brutal. There is a lot of information to absorb and it is scattered about. Some of it is conflicting. None of it is authoritative. If you have no prior gardening experience, it can be quite challenging. I have found it to be so, anyway. It's a blast. Plus you get weed at the end. A pillbox in your desk drawer is a good storage solution for a year or three. Longer than that, and you might consider fancier accommodations. Keeping one of those desiccant packets in with your seeds is a good idea, it is said. You want them to stay dry. My seeds are in the little plastic envelopes they came in. And they'll all crack on demand, if they know what's good for them. My bagseeds are in a bag.
thanks a lot man, i appreciate it. yeah i feel like the whole process is complicatedly simple, ya know what i mean. i feel like this is a rather straight forward, simple thing but if you have no clue (and i have no clue) you end up wrapping yourself in to many minute details that ya end up overloading and confusing yourself. the best thing i think i've read is that "it's a plant, it's a weed, it wants to grow", so i've taken solice in that. i just want to not fuck this up. i don't need cannabis cup worthy buds, just something solid that is useable and then i can tinker from there with future grows when i know what the hell i'm doing. that's why seed storage is a big deal, i'm not going to be growing all the time and if i do mess up once, or god forbid twice, if i still have heatlhy useable seeds then i can still give it a shot. they stay fresh if just put in a pillbox for 3 years? i was concerned about proper storage and refridgeration cause i first tried with a bunch of old seeds in the bottom of my jar, they didn't germinate, and i don't want that to happen with this good bunch cause then i'd really be up shits creek.
there's no place in my area that supplies fox farm, i found out today. should i order it online (which i'll have to do to get the nute trio), or is there a type of miracle gro that is parallel to the ocean forest?