New grower, New questions

Also, check out the grow journals section and find grows similar to yours! And mine is in my sig, Id be honored to have people check it out Good luck!

 

OKIE DOIKE we got alot to go over. Its late where I am so I'm gonna answer your questions and try to get back to you page tomorrow with more suggestions.

Questions:
-Does a car windshield reflector do a good enough job reflecting the light and whats out there that is better? What about mirrors?
A: White paint works great!! Primer as well. Mylar is very cheap. At HTGsupply.com its 10bux for the smallest roll which is not small. This is 10% more reflective than paint. I dunno what your car reflector is made out of but is will be fine for now. Ive never used it but look out for hot spots.

-How does my soil compare to others? And whats the optimal soil that I can use that's readily available?
A: My first grow I used the MG you have. Get as far away from that as you can. For now go outside and get some yard dirt. Get all the grass and rocks out of it. This will do for the first week or growing. I'll suggest better soil tomorrow to start in. Also I will tell you what soil mix to use after the first week.

-I want to use a computer fan for my outtake, can some one explain how I can do this? A picture would be great.
A: It will work. I'm pretty sure you cut a power cord and the pc fan cord and connect + to + and - to - plug in. I'd get wire caps so you dont burn the house down and go to jail.

-Whats a good way to keep the humidity up inside of my box? I was thinking of putting glasses of water around my box.
A: Bowl of water or tray. More surface are the better. Put that on a heating pad if you have one. Less surface area needed w/ heating pad.

-Is the Vigoro Tomato & Vegetable plant food (12-10-5) good for the vegetative state and how do I use it? My thought is that it goes in the soil.
A: I'll look into it but i'd assume not to use it. But if its all you got it might work for weeks 2-5 then transplant into something better if you can afford which I will go over tomrrow or ASAP. But don't use any of that stuff of the MG wile germinating or in the first 7-10 days. After we have an established rooted plant we then transplant out of the plain soil into a mix w/ nutes and so on.

Keep them Q's commin. Good luck peace love happiness forever!

 

I highly advise you to stay away from the Miracle Grow potting soils, they can deff be rough on plants. Ive had terrible experience with it when I first started.

Next germinate seeds and get dirt that has no nutes or peat or anything in it. Then mix 25/75 perlite/dirt and place your newly germinated seeds into small containers. I'm talking 2"x2" peat pot. Hyponex is a descent soil that you can sometime get at Walmart when it's in season or if they have any let over at this time. Your best bet is going to a local gardening center to pick up these supplies. It's not odd to come in the middle of winter to get 8 bags of frozen top soil from out back. Our gardening center says its a more popular item than you'd expect in the winter.

Next once your seedlings are showing signs of good growth and are well rooted in the 2x2 peep pot its time to transplant into a new soil mixture. This is about 7-10 days. What you will need is "Espoma Flower Tone" organic nutrients, Lime, Vermiculite. Mix 40/60 50/50 perlite/soil. For every 5gal of mixture add 1 cup of Lime, 4 cups of Vermiculite, and 5 cups Organic Nutes. This is a fail safe flowering mixture. For vegging you would just use plant tone instead of flower tone.

I'd also suggest that you get Brer Rabbit Mollasses from a grocery store and mix 1 teaspoon into 1gal of warm water. The warm water really helps you mix the mollasses in since it is a thick substance. Every 3 waterings use this water mixture and you will have slightly more dense buds.

It is extremely important for your water to be at a ph level of 6-6.3 for you plant to be able to absorb all nutes. To do this go to your local pet stores and get a ph testing kit and ph down. They amount of drops that you add to just plain tap water and mol water are different. So you will need to figure out how many to add to each.

I'm totally here to help in any way. I'll get some pix of my setup to you soon. W/in 2 weeks.

Happy growing!

 

I like your econo setup. Very cool!

Flat white surface or cheap 1 mil mylar. Either would work well for your box, however what you have is fine at least until your plants start getting starved for light, which is still a good month off.

Note that PC fans run on 12 volts, so don't wire them into the house wiring or the fans will burn out immediately and might even flame up. For PC fans, you'll need a 12 volt adapter - like something that would charge a car battery. Then you'll mount them probably on the outside of the box, one blowing in in a lower corner and one blowing out in an upper corner. That should be planty of airflow without any other fans. If you can use the one you have to force air either into or out of the box, then just a vent hole for the other one will do in your box setup.

If i'm reading your meter correctly. it looks like you have PH of 35. That should be more than fine and your plants will eventually raise it up some. Even if that's not what your meter says, I don't think you'll have a humidity issue unless it just way out of whack where you live.

Soil is just too deep an issue, and I'm not good enough on it myself. You should probably research that for yourself. Personally, I lean towards a complete organic-based soil where you don't add chems that can easily burn and accumulate salts. I have successfully used a 1.25CF bag of soil like yours, add 8 quarts perlite, 8 quarts spagnum peat moss, 2 cups blood meal, 2 cups bone meal, 2 cups of garden lime (not hydrated though). With a mix like this, you should be able to get away with just watering until flowering, then you can water with something like high-P bat guano (0.2/12/0.5) mixed in the water for a couple of waterings. Over time, as you gain experience and read more and more, you can tweak your base soil to make it work better for you and the strains you grow.

You didn't mention whether or not stealth was an issue. If so, the PC fans are probably the quietest way to go. Heavy black plastic sheeting and aluminum foil ducting tape do wonders together for light-prooofing your setup.

Good luck! Post some updates when your plants get larger.

 

[quote name='MX Grower']I like your econo setup. Very cool!
You should probably research that for yourself. Personally, I lean towards a complete organic-based soil where you don't add chems that can easily burn and accumulate salts. I have successfully used a 1.25CF bag of soil like yours, add 8 quarts perlite, 8 quarts spagnum peat moss, 2 cups blood meal, 2 cups bone meal, 2 cups of garden lime (not hydrated though). With a mix like this, you should be able to get away with just watering until flowering, then you can water with something like high-P bat guano (0.2/12/0.5) mixed in the water for a couple of waterings. Over time, as you gain experience and read more and more, you can tweak your base soil to make it work better for you and the strains you grow.


Everything he lists here is already in my organic nutes mix and more. MX I'd suggest my organic mix so you dont have to buy 8 bags of nutes to make a soil mix. Peace homies.

 

Soil: Roots organic soil, Fox farm ocean forest, pro mix, sunshine mix any of these will do. Don't use soil from your back yard it has pest in it that you don't want.

Soil mix recipes: Check out Lumpdawgz which can be found in the Organic section of GC or subcools organic recipe.

Organic ferts: I personally like blue mountain organics which can be found on ebay they are cheap and many many growers use their products.

Dont use mirrors because light beams will be focused and can burn holes in your plants.

 

Hi Hate,

OK, I'm game. I'd like to try your organic nutes mix for a future grow. Are you referring to the FoxFarm Organic Soil you mentioned earlier in the thread? I think the local hydro shop carries it. Would it be complete enough to take most strains through to flowering before requiring additions?

I appreciate the tip. Soil has been difficult for me to say the least.

 

I have 100% success using this process for purchased seeds.

Use distilled water or at least pH adjusted water (to 7.0).

Fold up a paper towel, in half and in half again, and again, and again - until its about a 2 inch square. Moisten the paper towel thouroughly, then squeeze the excess water out by putting it between your palms and squeezing pretty hard.

Open one fold and put the seeds close to the inner fold and at least half an inch apart. Then close it back up. Put it in a baggie and seal it. You don't have to try to get all the air out, but whatever.

Fold the excess baggie over once and place it in between two pot holders. Put this somewhere semi-warm, like on the fridge.

Leave it alone and check it in 40 hours. I guess some will take longer, but mine never have. If so, just plant the ones that have sprouted and put the others back like they were and check everyday after that.

 

Ocean Forest is the best soil mix out there IMHO..it will take you beyond veg and into flowering..i use it in 5gal.bags

 

Get those lights a lot closer.

Take temps under the lights at plant-top height, not over in the corner. And if I'm reading 59F then get those temps up.

Don't have a heater blowing directly onto the plants, it will dry them out. Warm the area, don't heat the plants.

 

I've read a lot of different things about what the best RH range is. Some say 60 for veg and 50 for flower, some say 60 to 80. I've also read that low humidity is rarely a problem and that the real concern is for too much humidity causing mold to grow in your buds.

For what it's worth, my walls sweat at 55 and that worries me for when the buds fill out. At first, my room got down to 30 at times, so I got a humdifier. Now with 8 plants that are 2 to 3 feet tall , I don't use the humdifier at all and it ranges from 50 to 60.

I'm not sure how you'll get your box to 80 - I'm afraid it will be raining in there! IMO, you're not going to have to worry about RH.

 

so are you saying that MiracleGro Potting Soil is bad? what about Miracle Gro Plant Food?

 

All Miracle Grow Products should not be used in MJ growing. They are way too harsh on the puppies and there are many other organic nuts on the market that are proven to be safe for MJ plants.

MX I don't use FoxFarm but have heard of it. As far as "carrying you into flowering" I dunno if that's a good idea whoever posted that. You need to transplant you babies every so often, and I don't see how 1 potting could get you through flowering. Also the nutes you use for VEG and FLWR are different. I can't remember what the NPK's need to be exactly but the organic mixtures I've suggested are fine.

Germination, ah yes the beginning. Well AO I am a fan of the cup and water method but I don't let my seeds get water logged and sink. Seeds need oxygen to germinate, I let mine float the entire time and let gravity take over on the root system. I've had 4" roots hanging from a floating seed. Be extremely careful when moving the cup because the seeds do gain weight and they only thing keeping them from sinking is the waters surface tension. If you bump the cup too hard they will sink and possibly not root.

The paper towel is a great method but don't forget when germinating you want to keep you seeds in a dark, semi warm, moist place(cup paper towel) Place the paper towel in a bag or in b/t 2 paper plates. I like the paper plate method because once again this allows a good amount of oxygen into the paper towel to allow growth.

I think I've covered everything. Keep them questions coming guys. Peace Love Happiness Forever!