First grow - different size plants - help

You do need fresh air. I have a fan controler that I set the temperature at 76 degrees. When the room hits 76 degrees the fan kicks on and brings in fresh cool air from outside the room. The fan stops when the room is at 73 degrees and the room starts to heat again from heat from a small radiator type heater. This keeps the fan comming on about every half hour. Also you need a oscalating fan blowing in the room. This will strengthen the stems and help them breath....as well it helps to dry the soil a little faster and plants like the drying soil. The roots love oxygen see....you should be mixing big chunky perlight into the soil about 25 percent perlight and 75 %soil. This will help the plants drain water well and provides oxygen in the soil. Also the soil dries out quicker which helps the roots grow. I use Smart Pots which are made from a felt like material. They allow the pots to dry quicker and there is less chance of anerobic conditions developeing from lack of oxygen and standing water in the bottom of the pots. Hell you can even put in a layer of perlight 3/4 an inch deep in the bottom of the pots if ya want...this is on your first grow only though....until you get a feel for watering correctly and know when they need water. 75% at least....of new growers kill or stunt their plants by overwatering or over fertilizing. Foxfarms soil has enuff fertilizer in it for 30 days or more. With marijuana less is by far better when it comes to feeding them. Alot of new growers fall to the shiny labeled bottles of expensive fertilizer at the grow shops. And the guy behind the counter gets paid well to push these expensive bottles of snake oil.

A little about soil and how I do it with great results.

Get yourself a cheap MR Turtle Pool like the kids use in the summer. They work awesome to mix soil in.
Go buy the biggest bag of chunky perlight that you can find...about 30 bucks
Go buy 2 bags of happyfrog and 1 bag of ocean forest.
Dump all 3 bags into the pool
Dump in 20 - 25 % perlight
Add 1/2 cup of pellitized dolomite lime.
Mix this really really well and let it sit uncovered overnight.....then mix it again in the morning and place into a plastic trash can.
You can start seedlings in this if you want....the soil will not be to hot.

OK....heres what I do next

Take the same kiddy pool and make up a batch of supersoil.....heres my recipe modified from subcools recipe which is awesome...... BIG THANKS to Subcool for this. The only thing I change is the soil brands because the roots organic soil quality and consistancy has failed big time...plus the gnats are horrible.

1/2 Batch:
4 bags Organic Base Soil.....I use Happyfrog
12.5-25 lbs. Worm Castings.....This is important....go find a worm farm and buy the castings fresh from the farm. No dried out expensive
bags from the hydro store. I pay 10 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket full and it comes complete with springtails and other critters...really good stuff and the plants love it.
2.5 lbs Fish Bone Meal
2.5 lbs Bat Guano
2.5 lbs Blood Meal
3/8 cup (1/4 cup + 1/8 cup) Epsom Salts
1/2 cup Sweet (dolomite) Lime
1/4 cup Azomite
1 Tbs Powdered Humic Acid
Dont forget the 20 - 30% perlight
Now mix this up really well....let it sit uncovered overnight then mix again then into another plastic trash can and dont use for 1 - 2 months. My supersoil is a year old and I need another batch mixed pretty quick.

Now when I transplant my plants from 1 gallon pots into 5 gallon pots I put about 2 - 5 inches of supersoil in the bottom of each pot depending of the strain.

All I add the entire grow is water and microbial teas....Sometimes a small amount of select organic boosters and mollasas late in flower I only make 2 teas per grow and dont apply the first tea until the roots have been completly growing down into the supersoil and are adult roots. When the microbes in the tea get down there in that rich supersoil something magical happens...really. The roots get massive and the stalks get thick and the plants really hit the gas and start growing like mad...this is when I start flowering the plants...you will get to just know when its time...

I know you did not ask for all this but it should help you and others that may read the thread.

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Peace and Pot
 
Growing with supersoil is really bullet proof....unless you get a strain that feeds really light. You would be surprised that some of the heaviest plants are the lightest feeders.....then some really like to be pushed with lots of supersoil to make it all the way through flowering.
Its really an inexpensive way to grow. All the amendments to make this batch cost around 100 - 125 bucks and I get a full trashcan of supersoil. this batch of supersoil lasts me almost a year. Thats a whole lot of weed for pretty cheap. I just wish that the power bill was less....shit it costs me almost 130 a month to run my room.
 
nvhunter said:
Thanks Wiz! I have a large vent system in place to exchange the air and scrub it when needed. I dont run it at this time because I can leave the door open for fresh air. Is this proper thinking or should I be forcing air through the grow?
Click to expand...

for maximum o2/co2 exchange the air flow should be making the leaves move, even a little.
 
Subcools methods have been posted in every forum Ive been on pretty much. Just look in the organic soil growers sections and you will find plenty of info on supersoil. There is videos on youtube about how the soil is made. If new to growing people could learn a few basics before planting their first seed that would go along ways to getting to the end of the first grow. PH and how marijuana takes each mineral from the soil only when the PH is correct is a HUGE must learn before starting. Maintaining proper soil PH and watering properly and getting proper drainage of water is in my opinion the 3 main things to learn. as far as plant care. Room construction and all the lighting and ventelation stuff is important to but if you have soil with PH that is off your plants wont grow....hehehe. Baked....really...baked this AM.

Cona
 
The first wilt photos you posted, looked to me, as someone else pointed out, that you were only watering near the plnt, the outside of the top soil looked quite dry.
If the plants look ok, just small, just keep watering as has been suggested.
The way I would learn how heavy wet/dry dirt is dry is fill another 2 post, and don't water one, really well water the other see the difference. and then get to know the weight, even pick up the dry and wet pot at the same time. I will look forward to watching how this goes.
 
Ok guys its day 29 and things are back on track. I have had great growth! Even the little ones are coming around. You might notice the small plant with the white sticks. I had one plant that stem made a loop while growing. Once I discovered this I made two plastic sticks that would put vertical presure on it. In two days it has stood up straight. This was my smallest plant and I hope that this will help it catch up.
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Very nice looking plants. Remember to keep it simple...dont mess with em to much. They look fine to me. I have used a plastic straw from a soda pop as a splint when I broke the stem on a seedling. Just cut the straw to length then split it with a razor blade and open it carefully and use it to splint the plant.

Today I was watering one of my big plants in the veg cabnet and nocked over a pot that crashed down and split the big plant down the middle of the stem. I just used some wire teis and a stake and mended it. It will take at least a week to mend this but will be stronger for it.

Keep up the good work and I will check back as I am subscribed to the thread.

Cona
 
Ok fellas im back. For some strange reason the site locked me out from posting replys. Admin fixed it though.

Plants have grown great! The smaller ones have caught up and we are one week into 12/12. I have a few issues now though that may be normal but thought I would post anyhow.

#1 As you can see in the picture below, the plants in the seeding medium have started to yellow and brown the lower fan leaves. Ive read that this is normal durring flower but I found it strange that its not doing it in the FFOC medium.
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Prob #2
I took clones about a 10 days ago now. They all were doing great until yesterday I noticed that the leaves are yellowing. Any ideas why?
clones_1-13-13.JPG


Last I thought I would just share an overall pic of the plants and thier growth in just a few weeks. Thanks for all your help!
plants_1-13-13.JPG
 
They look great. Glad to see the progress. About the clones....how many days ago were the clones taken. Some yellowing is I suppose not all bad. I use Olivias cloneing solution to soak my cubes in and use clonex gel to dip the cuttings and just seal them in a tupperware container in my veg cabnet and open it once a day and get roots 100%. I would just make sure the clones are sealed up and humidity is high. It helps to keep them around 78 - 81 degrees.

Looks good

Cona
 
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