I have a few seeds from decent reg pot and want to plant them. I have been reading on here for awhile but im more of a hands on learner and need to do that kind of practice before I get good at this. Ok so I go 2 my local Lowes today to get some potting soil and looked for the NPK and the only thing I could find with the numbers being like 20-10-10 were 28-3-3 and it was Scotts turf builder it was 13 bucks a bag. Im not concerned about my yiled or how good the pot is I just want to learn and get better so I know trial and error will occur. I will prob try about 20 plants and have a 4wheeler to go to my grow spot. I live in Nc and the weather is still cold now with heavy winds at time. With that set aside I have several more ?s..... I want to start my seeds in regular dixie cups and go from there. 1.Am I supposed to put the plants in the ground after time or can I continue with a bigger pot? 2.Do I need to germinate the seeds in paper towels or can I throw them in the cups and let nature do its thing or is that wrong? 3.After I start the seeds in cups do I need to keep them close by or set them in my grow area? 4.How often do I water them? 5.Do I need to worry about any food or nutes at the time? 6.After they begin to grow when should I move them to a bigger pot? There are more because its all I can think about but I am brain dead right now. I dont mean to ask ?s that have been answered a million times but I want to do this good and the right way. I can provide pics the whole way. Thanks for any help/advice.
Usually it's not recommended to use stuff like Scotts. Answers... 1. You can continue putting them into larger and larger pots, or you can just stick them in the ground when they're big. I suggest using pots, since you can move them if something comes up. 2. You can do both. How can "let nature do it's thing" be wrong, man? That's how the world originally worked, before we discovered Bounty . If you stick 'em straight in the dirt, you'll need to wait about 3-5 days for sprouts. 3. What exactly do you mean? "Close by" what... ? 4. That depends as well. Usually you can tell by the double-knuckle method. Stick your finger about 2" into the soil. If it's dry all the way to your finger-tip, you need to water. Otherwise, let it be . You can also try foliar feeding, where you mist the leaves, but directly to the roots is better. 5. DON'T GIVE ANY NUTES TO THEM WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG. Nutes should only be used when they're big and can handle the initial stress. And be sure to follow the nute's directions, or you can kill off your plants in a matter of days. 6. Once they get like 3-4" tall I always move them to larger pots... usually like 6" ceramics. You could also just move them to a larger, 10" or so pot directly, instead of doing it in increments. Good luck, bro.
Thanks alot man and by close by I mean like a few feet away from my house to make sure they start off ok before I move them to a safer place. And I am clueless on what soil to get from my local Lowes can anyone tell me what to get?
If you're going to keep them near your house, you might as well buy a couple cfl's and veg them for a while under those first. At least it will be out of sight. If it's near your house and cops find it, it's going to be pretty difficult to explain. Find soil without initial nutrients. It needs to break up and drain well. Buying pearlite will help aerate the mix and improve drainage.
Thanks nugget, but can anyone give me some specific name brands or pics of the actual bags of soil or other things I could use to make my plants grow the best they can? Thanks
Ok well I am going to My local Lowes in the morning if anyone is familiar with the soil they have there please recommend me something along with anything and I do mean anything that I will need from here on out for my grow and I will appreciate it! lol
I've bought ferti-lome product in the past. Pearlite, vermiculite and peat moss. All very good. You'll want to mix these with a potting soil or something organic. Don't buy the cheap shit. I've actually had pretty good success with Scott's potting mix with added phosphorus. It says it's good for root growth. What's most important about it is that it worked and didn't burn my plants. Don't buy anything with added nitrogen or any added nutrients in large quantities. Stay away from time release stuff. I bought the Scotts because it was the best I could find at home depot. Good luck at Lowes. I mixed it with peat moss, pearlite and just a little vermiculite. The pearlite helps to make the mixture really light. Drains much better. You want to be able to soak the whole mixture and drain easy when you water but let it sit for a week or more before it dries out. Read about proportions many times because once you plant it, it's really hard to change the mix.
Your the only one giving me good responses lol and you dont happen to know any specific brands do ya? I guess ill just have to look like a dummy and read on the back of all this stuff
Scott's, ferti-lome. not the best, but you're probably not going to find much better at lowes. If the bag says it has nitrogen in it at all, don't buy it. You don't want pre-ferted soils but Scott's with added phosphorus has worked for me.
I been there 3 damn times now tryin to figure out what to get lol, I remembered the NPK thing and all I could find was 28-3-3 and it was somethin by Scotts it was 13 bucks a bag. So the N is for Nitrogen obviously.....I really wanna grow but this just seems so much harder than it should be. I thought it would be like throwin a seed in the soil and lettin nature go at it but its not
it dosent have to be complicated you just need to put some effort into studying all the stikkys and grow guides and old threads here on GC ,i spent about 2 months reading ,reading and more reading before i jumped in .all your soil questions have been discussed a million times on here .im nopt trying to be a dick or anything but all your answers are on this site allready so do some searches . peace .