First Time need help.

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by ne2grow, Aug 4, 2016.

  1. I am sick and the cost of buying, and never knowing what quality I will get has driven me to grow my own. I spent allot of money on a ton of stuff and now need to use it, this is a stealth grow and its frowned on where I live. I have a Superponics 8 I know its small but I have it so it will need to do in the short term, I was going to pump the water through a hose in a fridge to cool it but ruined the fridge and no money for a new one, so how do I keep the water cool in the superponics 8, the grow box is the size of a stand up freezer and I will be using an LED from Cal light works thank you for any help.
     
  2. Look. I hate to tell you this, but the first thing you need to do is throw all that hydro stuff you've bought out the door. No new grower should ever try starting out with hydro because it's just way too complicated to deal with if you have no growing experience. You need to invest some money into some formulated grow soil (Roots Organics Original) is what we use and it's about the best I know of. It's very expensive at around $25 a bag, but it's worth every penny because it does the majority of the work for you as far as feeding your plants. Chemicals are not the be all, end all, magic beans that most new growers think. They're just plant food and a plant doesn't need a lot of extra food until it's used up what comes in the soil....and ALL soils have them, even those sold as "organic." But a soil grow is the only way I would ever suggest a new and inexperienced grower start learning to grow. Next thing is space. If you don't have adequate space to grow a plant, you're wasting your time. A micro grow is great if you're into bonzai plants, but if you want to grow enough to actually yield enough to smoke, you've got to be realistic about the space each plant needs. The indica strains do better in the colder northern climates and the sativas are hardier and do better in the warmer and more humid climates. I'm not sure what strain you're planning to go with, but if heat is an issue with you, I would suggest a sativa hybrid to start with.

    Like most, I assume you've been spending the majority of your time thinking about putting together a grow setup. That's where most newbies spend their time in thought, but you need to put just as much effort into learning how to grow this plant, tend it and keep it alive from birth till death. You need an instrument that is RELIABLE to test the pH of the water you will use because indoor plants need the pH of any water or feed solution to be within a range of 6.3 to 6.7...which keeps the roots of the plant (the nerve center) happy and open to be able to accept water and nutrition. You ALWAYS want to have happy roots.

    Next, you'll need to be thinking about lighting. Simple CFLs will veg out a plant nicely (the period of time when the plant is simply growing to prepare for the flower cycle). During veg, you should top your plant a couple of times (you can read up on topping or pruning your plant by searching that term using the "search bar" at the top of the forums page on here). Understanding how to water one of these and more importantly, WHEN the plant actually needs water is also a big issue for new growers and most kill their plants by over watering. You never water your plant until it is almost dead dry. This forces the plant's roots to search out the entire container for food and water and makes a larger root ball and a stronger plant. DON'T START WITH AUTO STRAINS. Grow normal strains of seeds so you can learn the plant and how it grows normally...not some DNA-manipulated form of plant that you have no control over. Start your plants in containers that are close to the size of the plant and pot up only when the plant gets slightly root bound in the present container. Go up a size or two, but don't jump from a tiny container to a 5 gallon bucket. Every time you change a container, the plant has to reroot and the more soil for it to do this in, the longer it takes. While a plant is rooting in or resetting it's roots, it doesn't grow much or use any water to speak of...so don't freak out and think something is wrong because you don't see it growing.

    By using smart potting technique and keeping the container size relative to the plant size, giving properly pH'd water only and having it under the best light you can, you can get through veg (at least 8 to 10 weeks) without having to give a bunch of extra chemicals. We run on a 10 week cycle and I use the soil to feed my plants...so it's only about 2 weeks before they go into flower that I start giving nutes. I continue them throughout the flower cycle but at a very diluted dose...again, because of using premium quality soil.

    The thing that is going to be most important to your success is the lighting you plan to flower your plants under. Weak lighting isn't worth your time....CFLs, for instance, will veg a plant nicely but have nowhere near enough strength to force the plant to give all it's got to give. You end up with a scraggly lanky plant with buds that a fluffy and under-developed and not many of those. So it's imperative that you have a light that is strong enough and of good enough quality to get your plant to make you some nice fat and dense buds.

    It's very do-able on a fairly small budget for someone who only needs to grow one or two plants for personal consumption. But you desperately need someone to help you along with what you're doing so you don't blow money unnecessarily and help you as you learn to grow. I suggest you go to the beginner grower threads at the bottom of the forums page here and read the "sticky's" posted at the top of the page. They may not all apply to your plan, but in those is tried and true information on just about every aspect of growing these plants inside, how it's done and anything else you might have questions about just starting out. But the one thing you need to be willing to spend money on here is the lighting for flower. Without it, all the other money spend and time invested is a waste.

    You can pretty much chalk your first run up to experience because it's only very rarely that a new grower gets much out of the first plant or two they grow...at least I didn't. It took me awhile to figure it all out and have it make sense to me. But once you get comfortable with their life cycle and how they grow, you'll amaze yourself at what you can produce. At that point, if you want to change over to a hydro grow, then move on. But it's never something I suggest a grower with no experience start with.

    • Good luck. If I can do it, a 52-year-old grandmother of 3, ANYBODY can!! LOL Just remember, the more you know and understand about what you're trying to do, the better the outcome will be!!
    TWW
     
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  3. Thank you for all that, I did grow many years ago and used a hydro system much larger than this, I have a california light works 220 full spectrum light, i have a water probe set up that will give me ppm, temp and ph of the water res, as well as hand held ones to check the water before its changed. My issue is 17 years ago i never even looked at water temp, now the area will be small plants will only get to about 5 foot max, I have spent most of my time learning how , my pressing issue is keeping the water temp below 70, if I had room to veg a big plant I would use soil but due to the small amount of space scrog or sea of green with one or 2 plants with trellis will work best for me, i did spend a fair amount of time making the grow box so it would be as stealth as possible and it should do well, the only area i feel i went over board on cash was with the blue labs meters but I wanted quality, I fear I will have to loose the superponics8 box for a simple deep water set up, but will still have the same issue of keeping it below 70.
     

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