Ok so this is the schedule ive come up with so far on my first grow, i got the room setup nicely and im planing on doing 9 plants. Just want other peoples opinion on my setup and if i should be doing something differently before I start and mess things up. For lights ill be using about 18 CFL lights (2 per plant) with the right spectrum and wattage etc. And im using Technaflora starter kit. For soil im not sure what kind to use so a little help on that would be great. this setup is indoors, obviously, and im near the equator so nice humidity as well. Week 1, Germination stage: · No light cycle. Put seed in cup of warm water in a dark place for up to 10 days. Once the white tip comes out its ready for soil. Keeping a temperature of between 75 to 85 Fahrenheit is excellent for starting seeds. · Once seeds sprout nutrients/fertilizer is added 2-4 weeks later Week 1-4, seeding stage: · Light cycle 18-6. Seeding stage starts when the second pairs of leafs grow. · 1-2 weeks after the seed is planted, you should see it popping out of the soil. Another 2 weeks after that and you will need to start giving your plant nutrients and balancing its pH. OR · After seeing about 8 nodes in the plant its time to start feeding nutrients. Start with half the recommended and work your way up to full amount. Follow instructions on Technaflora. Week 4-12, Vegetative stage: · Light cycle 24-0. Can keep in this stage as long as you want or until your reach the size of the plant you want, 4-8 weeks generally. Keep light 20inchs over plant and lower every day. Your plant should be 18" inches or taller, and have at least 4-6 leaf branches before moving them into the flowering stage · Room temperature. Should stay between 72 - 85 degrees Fahrenheit, room can get to 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit at night (lights out) · Humidity. Is good if 45 - 65 percent can be maintained in your vegetative grow room. Week 12-14, Pre-flowering: · Light cycle 24-0. Find males and remove them. Can start cloning at this stage. Enter flowering stage once the plant is half the size you want it to be. Change light cycle to 20-4 for a few days, then light cycle to 18-6 for a few more days before entering flowering stage. Week 14- 26, Flowering: · Light cycle 12-12. On week last 2 weeks use clean water with no nutrients, before the last 3 days flush the water, before the last day or 2 keep light cycle to 0-24, complete darkness. · Flowering typically takes 8-10 weeks for indicas and 12-14 weeks for sativas. And thats what i got so far.. hope it looks right! if not please correct me. ill be growing different strains but my main is Big Bud.
If you haven't already purchased the lights, I would suggest adding up all the cost and I bet you could get at least a 600w hps for the same amount of coin. For soil I would suggest Fox Farms Ocean Forest (FFOF). It's very user friendly and they sell a nice nutrient trio for beginners. You can start your seeds directly in soil. Just don't plant them very deep. about a finger nail deep is good or at least that's my measurement.
jm2c. you wanna start nutes at first sign of true leaves 2-3 nodes. 8 nodes is a bit much. start at 1/4 strength. if you need more you can add more. too much and you'd have to flush and all that mess. they would be huge and likely have died by then from lack of nutes. i flipped mine around 8 nodes high and was at 900ppm already. again jm2c. everything else looking good though. only other comment 24/0 as soon as they break soil. no need for "night" in veg.
Thanks for the replys guys. ill take note of what you said. as for lights im on a budget and kinda forced to go with CFLs instead.
for an indoor grow i am not sure you want to go to 12 weeks for vegging....basically, during flowering your plant will double (indica-dominant strains) or triple (sativa dominant strains) in size. usually by 4 weeks my plants are in the 6-8 (maybe 12) inches in height range and they end flowering (usually 8-9 weeks) around 4ft. if you extend the veg out you could in theory enter flowering around 2ft which means you are looking at ending somewhere around 6ft. i am not sure of your size restraints but that is a whole lotta tree to groom, feed,....cure. you probably won't need to go pass 6 weeks of vegging (on your scheduling that would be 4 weeks of seedling stage and additional 2 weeks). you should be focused on achieving compact dense buds for this first grow. with denser buds your cutting/curing doesn't have to be all the way on point which is a good thing.
ok yeah i was counting weeks as if it was outdoors i suppose. ill rewrite my setup and repost it, should make more sense and hopfully other newbies like myself can benifit from a simplified 'cook book' style how-to.
Ok, so i re-wrote it and if anyone wants to add some more to it please let me know. i think its about right for a general idea at least. Germination -> seeding-> vegetative ->pre-flowering -> flowering Day 1-3, Germination stage: •\tNo light cycle. Put seed in cup of warm water in a dark place for up to 10 days. Once the white tip comes out its ready for soil. Keeping a temperature of between 75 to 85 Fahrenheit is excellent for starting seeds. Week 1-2, seeding stage: •\tLight cycle 18-6. Seeding stage starts when the second pairs of leafs grow. •\t1-2 weeks after the seed is planted, you should see it popping out of the soil. Another 2 weeks after that and you will need to start giving your plant nutrients and balancing its pH. You should see 2 to 4 leafs by now. Week 2-6, Vegetative stage: •\tLight cycle 24-0. Can keep in this stage as long as you want or until your reach half the size of the plant you want. Keep light as close as possible to your plant (if using CFLs). Your plant should be 18" inches or taller, and have at least 4-6 leaf branches before moving them into the flowering stage. •\tRoom temperature. Should stay between 72 - 85 degrees Fahrenheit, room can get to 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit at night (lights out). •\tHumidity. Is good if 45 - 65 percent can be maintained in your vegetative grow room. Week 5-7, Pre-flowering: •\tLight cycle 24-0. Find males and remove them. Can start cloning at this stage. Enter flowering stage once the plant is half the size you want it to be. Change light cycle to 20-4 for a few days, then light cycle to 18-6 for a few more days before entering flowering stage. Week 7-11, Flowering: •\tLight cycle 12-12. On week last 2 weeks use clean water with no nutrients, last 48 hours give no water or nutrients. Before the last day or 2 keep light cycle to 0-24, complete darkness. •\tFlowering typically takes 8-10 weeks for indicas and 12-14 weeks for sativas.
Alright man, if you're going to use cfls for the whole grow, you want a short veg. You'll never get enough light penetration with just 18 on 9 plants to grow big ones. Here's a link to Seemorebuds.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2143463.Marijuana_Buds_for_Less He does a really nice grow and gives you a total play by play so that you can copy his technique. My only other suggestion is to learn to read through the BS on this forum.