Newbie

Nutes are super easy to fry your plants with and whether or not they need them at this point totally depends on the media you started them in and how large a container you started out with. You say soilless mix...what's the name of the stuff you're using? If you started these off in very small containers, which is always best for a new clone or seedling, and they have grown really large...they might could use a little. But you need to post some pics on here so we can see what you're talking about. Your nutes should have come with a recipe to mix them by and a schedule that they recommend to give them on. Personally, I think they recommend way too high a dose and dosing too often. When I started out with one of the multiple-bottle kits and used their recommended doses and schedules, all I did was fry my plants.

There are different instructions typically for each type of grow...hydro, soil, etc. You need to find the directions for the soil grow recipe and half that to start with....so you'll actually be starting out with about 1/4 strength of what they normally recommend for a hydro grow...where you're totally responsible for feeding them throughout their lives. If you've started yours in a large container, there is no way at 4 weeks old they're even remotely ready for nutes. If you started them in something small and they have grown very large in 4 weeks, then a transplant would be your best move instead of starting to pour chemicals into them. I've found over the years that by using excellent soil (we use Roots Organics original), proper lighting that is strong enough and water that has been correctly pH'd, I can get almost all the way through veg without using any at all. We generally start them about 2 weeks before they go into flower.

I chunked all that terribly expensive and complicated liquid nute packages and switched to a powdered nutrient combo called "Jack's"...made by J.R. Peters (website) a couple of years ago and haven't looked back since. Nutes are only plant food. A container plant, if you can keep it healthy and growing, will eventually grow to a point in a container where it has used up all the food in the soil. At that point, it needs fed. These work the same way. Now those who are growing hydro must constantly feed their plants and the chemical nutes seem to work well for that. But if you're growing in soil, you do not need near what they recommend you use....if you use premium quality soil. But the Jack's is a great powder form MJ growing nutrient combo (veg and bloom) that is very very simple to mix and use and my plants have never been healthier. We typically flower 25-30 plants every 10 weeks and I can buy enough of this stuff to last me over a year for under $20. It works, in my opinion, much better than the liquid stuff and at only a fraction of the cost.

Mixing nutes consists of running your water, figuring out how much to put in the water, mixing it in and then adjusting the pH back up to the right range. Adding nutes to water typically lowers your pH and you have to have a reliable way to measure and adjust it. This is the cheapest, best performing and easiest way I have found to feed my plants. The other stuff was just ridiculous. Any particular bottle of a kit that had at least 10 different bottles in it would cost between $20 to $30 dollars and I was constantly having to buy the stuff and at that price, it just seemed ridiculous. A good friend of mine from Southern California who has grown medically for years turned me onto Jack's and I was so glad to find it.

Remember, with nutes you can always add more, but if you mix it too strong and you put in too much, the damage is done...your plants will suffer some burn. There is an EC/TDS tester you can buy...and really should if you're going to do this with as few issues as possible, that is fairly cheap and tells you how strong your feed solution is by ppms. If I'm not wrong and you really should check me on this, but I think the range is between 500-800 ppms for soil growing. But depending on what soil you're using, you really don't need to start out at the high end. Start low and if you think they need it, you can always go a little stronger as the plant goes through the cycles.

Feeding your plants is a part of growing and you'll have to figure out what works best for you, but having a very good pH tester is something that is a must. You can't buy one of these tester pens for pH of Amazon, Ebay or Wally World for $12.99. Don't buy one and think your problem is solved. The cheap ones are not reliable and you can't count on them lasting or working right for very long. BlueLab makes the best pH tester I know and I just bought a new one the other day. It ran me about $80 but it's fast, accurate and I can get some "years" out of it instead of "days" with improper readings. If you water for a long period of time with your water not in the correct pH range, it will lock up the roots of your plants and not let them take in any nutrition. So knowing for sure and certain the pH is within range is a biggie to keeping your plants as healthy as possible. But THE most important part of your grow that has more affect on your plants than anything else is the quality of lighting you're growing under in both veg and bloom. It's the lighting that determines how fast your plants grow, how lush they are and most importantly, how large and dense your buds will be at harvest. The weaker the lighting, the weaker the plant and the more light and arid the buds will be in the end.

Take the time while your plants are in veg to use the forum and the net to learn as much about the plants you're going to grow, the strain itself and the system you're creating to grow with. You'll never regret buying top quality grow equipment. If the phrase, "you get what you pay for" ever applied to anything, it does here. Especially with lighting. Try to make sure your lighting is American made by a company that warranties their products and stands behind their warranty. The cheap stuff made in China is put together with the cheapest components, the cheapest labor and I would prefer to speak with people who can understand my language when I need help. You'll pay a little more for it, but the quality doesn't even compare. We converted a bedroom several years ago and I know for a fact I've got well over 10K wrapped up in that room. But unless something crazy happens, I will be able to use it for years and years without putting more money into. We set it up using only good equipment and when we add, we do the same.

In the beginning, timers were a huge issue for us....finding one that worked every time and you could depend on it working right every day. Couldn't find anything anywhere that didn't screw up on a regular basis. I finally had my husband build me a timer system out of a timeclock we bought at the electrical supply house. I can control several different things with it and it has never failed. So you might want to pay special attention to the timer thing when putting your setup together. I'm sure the grow houses sell something that is made for the environment that they must perform in that can handle the load. Timers are one of the most important pieces to your grow setup and you need something you know will work every time. Hope this book I ended up writing you helps a little. LOL It's a lot to ingest and digest when starting out. I was confused for months. But once you take a couple of plants from seed to harvest, it's just repeat, repeat, repeat. And if I can learn to do it, anybody can. Good luck! TWW