tired of chasin bags and all the BS that goes with it. gonna try to grow me own right here in my apt in tropical iiiiiowa!!!!!!. been checkin out all the great info here and just finished a book on growing. got the basic book smarts on it just no experience and that's where i could use yer help (and i will be forever greatfull to you for it, but ya ain't gettin none o my weed, hehe). workin with a 2'x4'x5.5' high space in a closet and here's my game plan: goals- total of 6 female plants 4' tall producing 1 oz each at harvest. will attemp to extent growing into subsequent 2nd and 3rd harvest. preparation- hang 3 soft/cool white flouros (double tube 4 footers) for a total of 240 watts of light. build roof and door with 1/2' insulation sheeting painted flat white to match existing walls. place on floor 6 shallow reservoir pans to recieve pots (regular five gallon buckets with roughly 20 one half inch holes drilled in sides at bottom). 2" layer of 1" crushed limestone in bottom of each five gallon bucket. procedure- start 30 bagseeds (20 from hyrdo, dunno if that makes any difference to anything) in moist paper towels covered with plastic wrap. move seeds to soil (regular potting soil tested for pH and adjusted for a target pH of 7) as soon as seed cracks and root is exposed [out of room, gotta post]
as i was sayin, move the seeds to soil as soon as the root appears. place seeds 1/4-1/2" down in moistened soil. (hoping for at least 18 seeds that germinate allowing for 3 plants in each bucket). turn on lights when the first sprout appears from the soil. lights on 24/7 till fowering. mist soil once per day with tap water until sprouts have reached surface. monitor rhythm of sprouting to determine if some seedlings just aren't gonna make it. will adust height of light to be constantly 2-4" above tops of plants. water from tap once/twice per week for first month. add soluble fetilizer to watering once every two weeks beyond the first month then back to once/month after flowering has begun. (would rather underfertilize than over fertilize i guess) cut back growing stem at 5th or 6th internode at 4-6 weeks or when roughly 2' tall. may repeat this depending on rate of growth to maintain 4' tall plants. if plants start to overcrowd will remove the weekest palnt from each bucket still leaving a minimum of 2 plants pet bucket going to full height of 4'. when plants reach 4' in height will cut light back to 12 hours per day to induce flowering. will monitor plants daily during the light-on cycle to check for sex. once males have been singled out they will be removed, buds stripped, dried and da shit smoked out of em. [look like i'm runnin outta room again
....or maybe i'm just stoned. yeah, that's prolly it. anyway, i'll keep the females going until the resin thingers start to cloud up but before they turn brown. i forgot the procedure on extended harvest so i'll have to get back with ya on that part of my plan plus i'm a slow typer nad i'm really stoned by now so i better go get some chili. anywho, what do yawl think......do i stand a chance?
Just a couple of notes: #1 - you should reach your 5 or 6 node quicker than 4 to 6 weeks using hydro, maybe 2 to 3 weeks or maybe sooner. #2 - if you cut back to 12/12 at 4' of growth, you are leaving only 1 to 1.5' of clearance from your dimensions. After that last bit of strertching the plants do when the lights are cut back you are going to be scrambling for space. You need to be prepared for topping or start the flowering at a smaller height - 24 to 30 inches. #3 - don't remove the weakest plant just because you are overcrowded. Wait til after flowering has started and then remove your male plants then to relieve the overcrowding.
Here's a thread with a pic of my grow area...http://forum.grasscity.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2747 I've got a 240W fluoro setup. I used 160W wide spectrum bulbs and 80W full spectrum bulbs. The only thing I've really changed was what I did today. I bought some poster boards and covered one side with aluminum foil. Then I stapled them to this styrofoam board. Now it's well insulated and promoting a better circulation amongst my babies! If I were you I would get more buckets. If the plants don't have their own space they might get rootbound eventually resulting in a loss of yield. It doesn't sound like you want that to happen so let them each have their own 5 gal bucket! A general rule of thumb is 1 gal per foot you want to grow vertically. Use tap water that has been sitting out overnight so that the chlorine evaporates, dissipates, whatever. Make sure it's cold water too. I heard that hot water is harder than cold. A pH of 7 is a tad high for marijuana. I try to keep the pH of my grow lingering between 6.3 and 6.8...but I'm growing in soil. Other than that you seem to be on the right track. Send me a PM is you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to share ideas. Here's a link to a good online grow guide I use http://www.cannabisx.com/freeguide.htm and there's some good info in my sig. P.S. Take Big Poppa's advice on his note #2. You only have 5 1/2' to work with vertically and you plan on inducing flowering at 4'? This would take a year with the Indica strain I'm growing now so maybe your batch is Sativa? The plant will double and maybe even triple in size once light is switched to 12/12. To give you an idea of what to expect my biggest is approaching 7 weeks and is about a foot tall. Before I topped it last weekend it was just starting on it's 10th node. I topped it 2-3 nodes down.
Dudes(ettes), thanks fer the replies! welll sheeeeeit, i've kinda resituated my closet grow space. it's now 4'x3' and i could knock out the shelf to make the available height 8'. sounds like i prolly better do that. i think i'll stay with 6 pots and four plants each to start. if the do well then i'll leave them alone till the males show thier nuts. if they start to show signs of crowding before flowering then i'll yank the weakest ones leaving (hopefully) two per pot till flowering. if two plants per pot is still crowded above soil i can extend the 4' to 6' (just tryin to keep everything to a minimum). ps: from a few of the replies it sounds like seeds from hydro batches grow at a much faster rate than seeds from soil grown crops. IS THIS FO REAL!!!!??? i can't imagine how that work but if it truew that COOL 'cause i just found about 20 more hydro seeds i saved from like two years back.
I don't think that they are "hydro seeds, and soil seeds." They are saying that if you are growing in a hydro system that the plant should be growing faster than if you were growing in soil. Not getting on your case or anything just thought I might clear that up.