So me and a buddy have started growing in his closet. it is about 3 feet wide and about 5 feet tall area. the whole spot is in enclosed in cardboard with tin foil wrapped around everywhere. we have 4 2 1/2 gallon pots with 1 seed in each and each of them sprouted about 5 days ago. the seeds were ordered on the internet and called Dutch Dope. we have 3 clamp on lights (i think you know what i mean) 2 of them of soft white 100 watt bulbs and the third has a 50 watt blue plant light in it. they are all pointed down in somewhat different directions. and they seem to be working good. we also have a clamp on fan set on low blowing full time as are the lights and 24/0. the soil we used is just basic miracle gro brand potting soil. im not sure if that is the right stuff or not. we water once every 2-3 days. and we also have a thermostat hanging and the temp is usually 72-78 degrees. ok, so now that you know almost everything about it WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? what specifically do i need to know about: PH balance, food, lighting, keeping bugs out, knowing whether or not they are female, C02??, carbon, just everything that an amature needs to know. sorry for the long write-up just want to do this right! thank you very much in advance. Please help!
Hey dude, you can learn all you need to know by reading the threads and sticky's around here. Good luck with your project, the grow journals section is a very cool place to hang out if you're looking for the best ideas to steal. Peace and good luck I'd swap the tin foil for something else, I just don't like it. White paint or a fire blanket but thats up to you. Some people do use it. Also you should have more light, the more the better.
well the first thing your doing wrong is using foil wrap this is gonna make everything twice as hot and you dont want the girls sweating, go with mylar wrap or if you have a white wall that will do grat just clean it up . the next thing is that your using the wrong bulbs, you should use cfl's for vegging for likr 4-6 weeks, and then use a hps ( high pressure sodium) light for flowering, make sure its 12 hours of light and darkness from this point. the next thing is that your using miracle grow and your gonna burn the roots if it has ferts, or time release ones and these suck, use a sterilzed not fert rich organic soil, like fox farms and dump some worm castings, this will set you back like 20 bucks or so, cux it did for me. but its all worth it, and make sure you have ventilation to make things cooler, to make the stems stronger, and to cool your equipment. AMEN
ok so is the foil wrong just because of heat then? isnt it good for reflectivness though? where can i get these cfl's and hps lights locally? besides the internet. and they are only 2 weeks old, should i got to 12 on 12 off this early? can i get this fox farms organic soil at home depot? and i have tryed reading the stickys and other posts for answers just alot of the words used i dont understand lol thanks for the help guys. what else?!?
You may already be using CFL's, they are just energy saving light bulbs, if not then you can get them from most hardware shops. Use blue for veg around 55-6500k I think and red 2700k for flowering. You can go with a HPS or better light but you will have to order or go to a hydro store I would imagine. Tin foil is not the worse thing in the world but I don't think it works as well as white paint, a fire blanket or mylar are also very groovy. I'd ditch the tin foil though, I just hate it. If you are going to use it then make sure you only use the dull side. You're going to have to read post and stickys at somepoint if you wanna grow some groovy bud.
thanks man. i just printed off the newbie grow guide that is a sticky on here. that seems to be very informational. so veg is from what time period to what time period? sprouting to 2 months orr...? and when is flowering? and should i get even more light in there? i am going to post pictures here soon so you guys can get a better idea. sorry for the dumb questions!
Veg is kind of up to you, when you put flip the lights from a veg cycle 18/6 24/7 20/4 to 12 on and 12 off 12/12 and switch to flowering nutes then they should start to flower. Lots of people use a small veg time and have a smaller plant to harvest but faster, I like to veg for as long as I can spare the space before I flower and grow monsters. If you are growing with bagseeds though and are unsure of the strain then I would flower early as they could get big or they could take a long time to flower. Happy reading dude
mylar like i said is better becuase it doesent make heat and it reflects well, yes you can go to any harware store and get them but your gonna need a ballast for the hps. and no i idnt say get on 12 12 wait for like 4 more weeks then go 12/12 and yeah the soil you can get it a home depot or kmart or walmart. you should search for some good nutrients when feeding your plant,
i am using seeds i ordered called dutch dope. so when do i know visually that i should go to the flowering stage? and wat do i change in my setup?
They are going to grow alot during flowering so if you only have limited space them flip early. I don't know anything about Dutch dope but it should tell you where you got them from flowering times and height. Also I hope you got some form of odor control like a carbon filter because Im sure they will stink. Good luck
thats exactly what i was going to ask next was about an odor neutralizer. once again, home deopt? build my own?
Dude its all here in the city but you have to use the search tab near the top of the page. I bought my Carbon filter but it was expensive, next time I'd use one of the guides around here for making my own. I started my project before I found GC and now I'd do lots of things different and better if I had the chance to start over. Check out my journal, the blue link below my signature. I have seedlings, clones, veggys, flowers and a whole lot of bud in there. Feel free to ask away in there
ok thanks...i changed up my setup, i got rid of all the tin foil and now it is completely sealed in the mylar plastic and i got 4 100 watt cfl's. my temperature has been steady at 73 degrees and humidity around 45%. all is well, they seem to double in size each day. i am about 1 week in. oh and my buddy i am doing this with seems to think we need to cut off the water leaves at this point. what do you think? they are not yellow or dead yet but he thinks they are taking nutrients away from pot leafs themselves....?
Don't listen to your friend unless he has read more than you, which he aint. Do not cut leaves unless they are 50% or more dead or yellow. During flowering you might want to prune a little. They are called "sugar leaves" or "fan leaves" and they don't steal nutes they feed on light and make your girls grow. Think of the as solar panels, you can tie them out of the way if they cover bud sites but it might be best to leave your first girls untrained, I did before I tried LST'ing them (shaping them or tying them down). Congrats on the setup upgrade, don't make changes unless you know they are for the best. Good luck
thanks for your help usualsuspect and for being direct. i still want to get pics up to show you...that will be next! oh, one more thing, should i be adding a little sugar in my watering for C02?
Sugar don't make CO2, I used a CO2 setup and for what it cost to buy I didn't think it was worth it. Anything less than a full CO2 setup is a waste and they cost lots. Dude, you aint reading these messed up tips off Grasscity thats for sure. When I first started out I had a friend who setup at the same time but he don't know that I grow. He is still growing poxy little auto's, chopping early and smoking nute burned tiny plants with no resin. Its best to read the threads or just look at some journals and copy somebodys grow that you like and that suits you. You will see some bad grows to, best not to copy them LOL. Enjoy dude, I didn't learn it all at once, I made a bit of a mess with my first crop before I found GC. Good luck dude, sounds hard work but after months and months of growing then you really wanna be smoking dank and you can.
Listen to Usual... Read read read....as much as you can. When you see something that does not look right, come here and search for it "my leaves are turning yellow"...you WILL find the answer. I lurked here for months learning and finding out what I thought was the best way for me to grow. I've stolen ideas from what I consider the absolute BEST growers you can find anywhere right here on this board and tweaked them to my liking. You will too if you want to grow the best weed that you can. Since your doing a small grow, start searching the boards for 'closet CFL' 'Stealth Cabinet' etc...or just start going through the indoor grow journals and find those threads related to the type of grow you are doing. You will find that people are pulling off some AMAZING micro grows...I think you will too, your at the right place and your asking questions. I think reading the stickies is a great start, your on the right track. People never mind helping around here unless it's someone who has an issue trying to help themselves (usually to lazy to search and read)! What's the saying...you can't help the helpless? LOL Good luck with the grow, can't wait to see your pics!
thanks guys, i agree i should be searching a little more for my answers and get vocabulary down cuz a lot of the words some use im not sure what they mean. anyways, thanks again. can i guys show me pics of your setups or plants themselves? just curious