First Grow Ever

Re: first grow ever :)

:adore:I signed up here, and began talking with others, and decided I would prefer to acknowledge a wise artist and accept/or look for friends who have been recognized for their masterpieces. :Namaste:
Xlr8 said:
ML - there's nothing wrong with changing the lighting gradually, and there are people who do that, but it's not necessary at all. I just prefer to keep things simple, especially for newer growers. 18 on/6 off for vegetating, and 12 on/12 off for flowering. There are other ways that will work, but I guarantee this will work every time if all other things are in order. How often do you get a guarantee in life? :)

What you'll want to do is purchase a timer, even a cheap one, that you'll plug your lighting system into. If you have a lot of "plugs" from your lights, plug them into a power strip that goes to a timer (timer is plugged into outlet) Then your plants will get the consistent light patterns they need. If you are using fans to keep things cool in the closet, they can be going 24 hours, or you can leave some of them on the timer with the lights, and one that keeps air moving.

Edit - make sure that the plants "dark" period is really dark. You won't want light coming in from under the closet door, for example. Seal up the lighting as best you can as they can get confused by even a little stray light during "lights off"
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Re: first grow ever :)

Hey gusy n gals, just to chime in for a second, I'm a total noob myself, BUT, I do pretty well with what I've been doing, feel free to check out my journal from the beginning, and feel free to ask your questions there as well. There are a lot of great guys there who are always willing to help, and most have experience with soil...That being said, I'd just like to add that, misting, in my humble opinion, is unneccessary, except with clones. Some people like to foliar feed (spraying the plants with nutrients in the water)

I think for the sake of learning, you should forget about lighting patterns, and stick to a 12/12 light cycle. Auto flowering strains will flower no matter what. Also, forget about nutes, until you get to know the plants, and know how to use them. You may need to suppliment with something sometime in the next month, but there should be enough nutes in the soil to sustain them for now. Keep the journal updated with weekly pics and people will tell you when it looks like time to feed them.
XLR8 is right, dont water until the pots are considerably lighter than when you first watered.
As for the light heighth, put your hand under the light, and if it feels comfortable to you, it probably is for the plants as well.

There are plenty of good soils out there, but to be honest, its hard to find the real good ones in sizes that are affordable. I used miracle Gr@# for and entire grow, but dont do that lol. Fox Farms Ocean Forest is what I'm using now and is great so far. But you could use regular MG soil for your first time until you learn......

To review, keep it simple is your best bet for now.

Good luck and happy growing, and welcome to the wonderful world of :420:

P.S. to go to my journal, just click on my signature below....
 
Re: first grow ever :)

hello everyone! wow lots of great advice being said......who knew there was so much to growing! as for right now im finding out that no matter how or what i do i cant seem to stop burning my plants with the squiggly cfl 23w bulbs even when the lights are 5 inches away from them. i have 2 of the fast buds under 2 75w fluorescent tube lights and they are doing extremely well so i went out and bought another fluorescent light just now for them so im hoping the other fast bud will start looking alot better by tomorrow.
i bought a ph meter and the soil is at seven for all of them so thats good right? my seedlings are doing great and im hoping i have enough light for them not to stretch. my monster kush is not doing well at all dont really know what happened with it but i guess i did everything i could for the poor thing.
.......o and p.s i wanna show you guys the awsome zong i bought the other day i love to collect all kinds of peaces and thought this was the perfect addition :allgood:: ill post a picture of it soon
 
Re: first grow ever :)

I had my light on 24 hours a day for 10 days then went to 18/6, compost with no nutrients is best for seedlings and im intrested in what lights you have and the position of those lights, can you take a wider shot of your grow setup please ?

cheers
 
Re: first grow ever :)

well 2 of my auto flowers are under 2 fluorescent 75w tube lights and a 23w fluorescent tube light. and my other auto flower and the monster kush and the seedling are under a 75w fluorescent tube light untill tomorrow when i will pick up another 75w light because i am having no luck with the cfls. i will post pictures of how close the lights are. i have a fan blowing on them to you just cant see it in the pictures. also i am going to redo my whole grow setup so if anyone has any ideas on how i can do that would be great. i also just got some soil just like goodolddays suggested so should i repot everything into that soil?
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Re: First Grow Ever :)

veg for 24 hrs of light. for 17 days from seed they dont seem too small to me

seedlings dont have a big root bass that young, they only nedd a cap full or so of water just watch so they dont get too dry. but you dont waana over water either.

as far as nutes go like 1/8- 1/4 strength with foxfarm. a i feed my big plants every other watering, but you really just need to watch your plants reaction to feedings.

once your around 4 or 5 sets of true leaves thats where i consider veg to start from seedling.

from there go off what your plants telling you if shes hungry or overwatered.. if you need to up the strength of your feeds. just be careful FF are some strong nute..

also youre going to need bloom feed for flowerr once theyre big enough to bloom out.
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

WeedyMcWeedWeed said:
p.s. clear or light colored pots = BAD!! no lights on the roots. it is not good for them at all
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just wrap some black plastic or somthing around them youll be ok!

p.s I rave on about this all the time dont take me the wrong way thou all good every one is different :) i dont like that auto flowering crap normal way is the best way plant seed see if its a female then take cuttings (old way is the best way no one can play god)even feminized seeds are risky cause there made with the hermie gene built into it cause the female must of grown pollen sacks at somtime!
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

WeedyMcWeedWeed said:
p.s. clear or light colored pots = BAD!! no lights on the roots. it is not good for them at all
Click to expand...

Agreed - a cheap and easy fix would be to paint them or wrap them with an opaque tape somehow. They can even be put within another "bucket" or pot the same size that's darker/opaque - the advantage to that is you could pull out the "see-thru" bucket whenever you wanted to get a look at your roots. :)

Just a couple thoughts for you on fixing it...
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

Ozman said:
just wrap some black plastic or somthing around them youll be ok!

p.s I rave on about this all the time dont take me the wrong way thou all good every one is different :) i dont like that auto flowering crap normal way is the best way plant seed see if its a female then take cuttings (old way is the best way no one can play god)even feminized seeds are risky cause there made with the hermie gene built into it cause the female must of grown pollen sacks at somtime!
Click to expand...

I agree to a large extent Ozman that regular seeds are the ideal way to go - but for a newer grower, someone with limited space or no time/space to mess with males, feminized seeds and auto strains can be a good option. There are a number of very reliable feminized varieties, and good breeders usually have the hermie trait under control - even on feminized. Also, I've seen some really great looking autos grown on this site!
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

Hey 420 Girl!! Great to hear that you have joined the growing amount of grower's worldwide!!! I am only on my first grow as well, and went from clone instead of seed so I can't help too much from the beginning but I do have some suggestions for you that helped me quite a bit.

First off I would recommend that any advice you get from this site, or any other forums, you should always research first before doing it to your plants. There are a ton of very knowledgeable growers on her with really good advice, but I also have seen quite a bit of mis-informed advice on this site...so just a word to the wise...always double check the info....

I would definitely suggest picking up a PPM or EC meter. I have the Hanna Primo which only costs around 20$, but it is very helpful in knowing what your TDS or Total Dissolved Solids is in the water you are feeding your babies. I know that here in SoCal, my PPM of my tap/sink water is around 300 which is too high to feed new seedlings and clones from everything I have read.... Its always good to know what, and how much you are adding to your nutrient mixes...and this will greatly help.

What kind of PH tester did you buy? I would recommend a digital one, as long as they are calibrated weekly, you will find they are very easy to use, non-messy and time consuming as well as easy to read when testing "discolored water" unlike the liquid tests which get a little tricky to see the correct color, when your nutrients are already brown/yellow.

Definitely get those plants out of the clear pots/buckets and go with something smaller and not clear. Like dude said above, roots do not like light. Going with a 1 or 2 gallon pot for the veg period and before flower, upgrade them to a 3-5 gallon pot.

What type of soil are you using??? Is it organic, does it already have nutrients in it (like mericle grow?) Its good to know what is in your soil, if it is already fortified with tons of time release ferts you may not need anything but ph balenced water at this point. If you are going a more organic approach, you really should only need very low amounts of nutrients at this point...like 1/4 strength and focus on soil enhancers like Myco mixes, humic acids and carbohydrates.

With your waterings, make sure you leave a few days inbetween watering. At this stage of growth, from what I have read, plants tend to get "lazy" if watered constantly by soil or by foliar feeding when they are this young, and they will not focus as much energy on root growth when the soil is constantly oversaturated. Make sure u test your PPM's at this stage the plants should only be getting 220-330ppm in there feedings...Like I mentioned before...my tap water is already at 300ppm...too much for this stage...I would recommend at least for the next 2 weeks to use RO or distilled water (with Cal/Mag additives and micronutrients)

Superthrive seems to be very popular for reducing stresses in plants and I have read that many have used it with success. I use it as well but haven't finished my grow, so not total success yet. All u need is the smallest bottle because you only use 1 drop, per gallon of water.

Humidity at this point is pretty important. Plants in the early stages like a higher humidity because this allows them to relax there transpiration thru the leaves and focus on root growth. When it is too dry, plants focus too much on sucking up water thru roots and transpiring thru leaves, when there is not a large root structure to keep up with the amount of water needed with a low humidity, this will stress your plants. A higher humidity lets the leaves work less and the roots work harder creating a better root base for your plant to feed as it matures... If you are having issues with keeping the humidity up...try some clear, plastic bags put over your plant like a tent. This will help you not have to water as often as well as keeping your RH high for the next week.

With nutrients, do your research and don't just take other's words for it. There are many out there to try, all different kinds so you really gotta know what your using and what it works with. For instance, I am growing organic, well 94% organic at this point. I was using all organic nutrients and soil additives to feed my soil, not the plant like you do with chemical/salt fertalizers. By using chemical PH up and PH down, I was killing my micro biology in my soil and countering my productiveness without knowing it....so always know your nutrients, soil, what direction you are growing-going because some nutrients work well with others, some dont...

Good luck with your grow!!! I will stay tuned to watch your ladies bloom! You will find that many people on here know there stuff..I've learned a ton from this site....Thanks everyone!!
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

Thanks for uploading photos of your grow room...I started my grow from 8th of may when i planted 5 seeds and again on 11 may 3 more seeds, if you take a look at my gallery you can see the size of my plants and there a lot bigger, I started with 2 covered seed trays with just compost no nutrients (only 7 seeds germinated in the end) and put them under 2 energy saving 9 what cfls 24 hours a day for i think 10 days i ended up with 3 inch stems so i decided to re pot but i made the mistake of using compost with nutrients and that turned 3 of them into toast ( but they did recover i just put them in the garden for a week) also it was a few days after that i got some decent 36 what cfl flood lights and i placed them about 8 inches from the tops of the plants, in a week they had made huge progress and now ive put 2 of the 3 from outside back into my grow cupboard and everything is good...
From seeing your setup i can say it was most likely you didnt burn your plants with the cfl's but by adding the nutrients and the fluro tubes your using although good for seedlings wont put out enough luminance to really make your plants grow fast.

Its important you get your lighting right and there are many types of cfl bulbs on the market so i would start by looking online for large cfls not the small ones, get at least 4 50-80 watt high lumen output bulbs and then you will have a decent amount of light for your plants to grow. check out SkooterClowns grow room SkooterClowns CFL Cabinet Grow this will give you some idea of how much cfl light you will need. ill be back later ive got to get some sleep !!!
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

Now this is an informal and neutral post here....:thumb:

Icemud said:
Hey 420 Girl!! Great to hear that you have joined the growing amount of grower's worldwide!!! I am only on my first grow as well, and went from clone instead of seed so I can't help too much from the beginning but I do have some suggestions for you that helped me quite a bit.

First off I would recommend that any advice you get from this site, or any other forums, you should always research first before doing it to your plants. There are a ton of very knowledgeable growers on her with really good advice, but I also have seen quite a bit of mis-informed advice on this site...so just a word to the wise...always double check the info....

I would definitely suggest picking up a PPM or EC meter. I have the Hanna Primo which only costs around 20$, but it is very helpful in knowing what your TDS or Total Dissolved Solids is in the water you are feeding your babies. I know that here in SoCal, my PPM of my tap/sink water is around 300 which is too high to feed new seedlings and clones from everything I have read.... Its always good to know what, and how much you are adding to your nutrient mixes...and this will greatly help.

What kind of PH tester did you buy? I would recommend a digital one, as long as they are calibrated weekly, you will find they are very easy to use, non-messy and time consuming as well as easy to read when testing "discolored water" unlike the liquid tests which get a little tricky to see the correct color, when your nutrients are already brown/yellow.

Definitely get those plants out of the clear pots/buckets and go with something smaller and not clear. Like dude said above, roots do not like light. Going with a 1 or 2 gallon pot for the veg period and before flower, upgrade them to a 3-5 gallon pot.

What type of soil are you using??? Is it organic, does it already have nutrients in it (like mericle grow?) Its good to know what is in your soil, if it is already fortified with tons of time release ferts you may not need anything but ph balenced water at this point. If you are going a more organic approach, you really should only need very low amounts of nutrients at this point...like 1/4 strength and focus on soil enhancers like Myco mixes, humic acids and carbohydrates.

With your waterings, make sure you leave a few days inbetween watering. At this stage of growth, from what I have read, plants tend to get "lazy" if watered constantly by soil or by foliar feeding when they are this young, and they will not focus as much energy on root growth when the soil is constantly oversaturated. Make sure u test your PPM's at this stage the plants should only be getting 220-330ppm in there feedings...Like I mentioned before...my tap water is already at 300ppm...too much for this stage...I would recommend at least for the next 2 weeks to use RO or distilled water (with Cal/Mag additives and micronutrients)

Superthrive seems to be very popular for reducing stresses in plants and I have read that many have used it with success. I use it as well but haven't finished my grow, so not total success yet. All u need is the smallest bottle because you only use 1 drop, per gallon of water.

Humidity at this point is pretty important. Plants in the early stages like a higher humidity because this allows them to relax there transpiration thru the leaves and focus on root growth. When it is too dry, plants focus too much on sucking up water thru roots and transpiring thru leaves, when there is not a large root structure to keep up with the amount of water needed with a low humidity, this will stress your plants. A higher humidity lets the leaves work less and the roots work harder creating a better root base for your plant to feed as it matures... If you are having issues with keeping the humidity up...try some clear, plastic bags put over your plant like a tent. This will help you not have to water as often as well as keeping your RH high for the next week.

With nutrients, do your research and don't just take other's words for it. There are many out there to try, all different kinds so you really gotta know what your using and what it works with. For instance, I am growing organic, well 94% organic at this point. I was using all organic nutrients and soil additives to feed my soil, not the plant like you do with chemical/salt fertalizers. By using chemical PH up and PH down, I was killing my micro biology in my soil and countering my productiveness without knowing it....so always know your nutrients, soil, what direction you are growing-going because some nutrients work well with others, some dont...

Good luck with your grow!!! I will stay tuned to watch your ladies bloom! You will find that many people on here know there stuff..I've learned a ton from this site....Thanks everyone!!
Click to expand...
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

hey everyone sorry i haven't been keeping up with updates of the plants but allot of stuff went down and i had to keep them at someones house for a day and i just got them back today. they look terrible because they were not under any lights at all yesterday and the monster kush (22 days old) didnt get any light cycle routine at all so do u guys think its messed up now because of this and the fact that it still looks like its almost dead because it got over watered? ill post a picture of the monster and the others to let you know if it can be saved or not. now that i have the plants back and my grow room was destroyed i just have them under alot of light in the open now. i want to have a really simple but effective way to grow them without all the mess of tin foil and the closet so lemme know what you guys think. i have 3 23w cfls and 2 23w fluorescent tubes on the monster kush and the 2 3 day old mystery seedlings. and i have 2 75w fluorescent tube lights on the 3 22 day old fast buds. should i even bother with nutrients for now till they start looking better? also i want to say thank you to everyone for your awesome advice and wisdom.
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the 2 first pictures are 2 fast buds, the second picture is the monster kush, the next picture down is the 3 day old mystery seedling, and the last picture is of the other fast bud. and yes i know they look way to over watered, the guy taking care of them doesnt know anything about plants and watered them a bunch more :(
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

I'm growing a auto strain myself and you should add about 30% of perlite to your soil mix and check your ph levels if your giving the plants regular tap water from the sink. If your going to give the plant regular water I would get it from the bathroom I've found my ph levels to be lower in the 6-6.5 range from the shower and as for lighting just put them on a 24hr. sched. for about 3 weeks then the 4th week put them on a 18/6 sched.for about a week easing your way into a 12/12 sched. because by the 4th or 5th week you will see signs of sex and preflowering. I'm now on my a flowering 12/12 sched. with my first grow ever and I started with a auto strain.(My first auto soil grow) I have posted in grow journals with a white dwarf auto strain by big buddhha hopefully this will help you get those little ones boosted up right and I would ease up on the watering only water if the soil is dry, then water again in about 2-3 day. Remember to much love can kill your plants I've learned that the hard way from trail and error.... Hopefully this will help and everything works out for you..:thumb:
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

thanks for the info nycebudz. im going to pick up some perlite like u suggested tomorrow. also i checked the soil, i have an old fashion ph tester (non digital) and it only shows the whole number so you have to kinda guess what the correct reading is but the soil is always in between the six and seven when i test it. can a ph tester test the water too or what do i need to get to check the water levels? i read these plants will do just fine with 24 hours of light all the time because there autoflowering, this is just what i have read so i have been keeping fluorescents on them constantly with lots of air flow.....is this not a good thing to do? just a few questions i had on my mind so i thought id clear everything up. thanks XD
 
Re: First Grow Ever :)

Think Diatomite stone is better than perlite but they work great together too. you can get liquid ph tester its like 7 bucks.
 

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