What are common mistakes made by first time growers?

I would suggest you tell your friend the very best way to get a decent crop of meds on his first grow is to K.I.S.S. ( keep it simple stupid). I followed that very simple method and only used base nutrients and additives such as Calmag, silicon, and liquid cool bloom and ended up with a Plant of the month contest win and as of last night my first plant is tied for plant of the year, And as far as plant count goes the number will depend on wether he plans on vegging them long or lst But a good rule 1 plant per 1.5-2 square feet if you plan on vegging longer then 2 weeks or lst training but if your friend is using rooted clones around 6 inches tall he could get away with 4 per square foot I personally use a 1000w light in a 25 square foot space if I use 1 gal pots I transplant clones into them from peat pot once they are 7 inches tall and then veg for another week to get them well settled then switch to flower this allows me to have about 30-40 plants depending on size if I decide to veg them for say 2-3 weeks I go with 20 plants in 3 gallon pots
 
2 big mistakes

the "germ before u learn" scenario- People get a seed, plant it, and then go find a forum.

No. Build your environment, TEST AND TROUBLESHOOT your environment till it's STABLE. All the while, you should be plowing through forums, guides, tutorials, etc, soaking it all up and asking questions.

Now plant a seed.

mistake #2, no ph pen.
 
Stoned Redneck said:
P H Pen? havent heard of that one..like to hear about one.thanks,Red
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K not sure if your serious about not hearing of a ph pen or a ph tester or some sort but anyways you can find a decently accurate pen especially if your going to grow in soil by going to google and doing a search for a milwaukee ph600 if your gonna go hydro lookint a hanna ph/ec/tds/ppm/temp pen with auto calibration.

But these are neccesary you need to feed your plants a nutrient solution when growing in soil of around 6.2-6.3 in hydro you are going to go with a range of 5.5 and let it drift upwards to 5.8 during veg some growers will allow the ph to reach 6.0 during flower as phosphorus uptake increases at higher ph and nitrogen uptake decreases.
 
well i checked my PH with a 3 metal prong ,stab into the damp dirt kind of thing and it said 7. i have two types of weed growing some are sativa ,they are doing great and one indica? it hasn't changed in 2 or 3 weeks.other than some of the leaves curling up and dieing. that seemed to have stoped.it just sits there.i think i over watered the indica.it was doing great and i watered it real good and it almost died...curled up and looked bad.haven't watered it in 2 weeks and its doing better,just not growing.....you see up here in the great northwet(west) even though my girls are indoor i don't water them much.the satives havented been watered in 3 weeks and the soil at the bottom of the 5 gal plastic bag is still damp....i have a exaust fan going all the time.i think/know that there is just dampness up here. make any sence? i'm using those pig tail lights and they don't throw off much heat. my plan was to use the pig tails for growing and the "big guns"(halide) for budding. so my question is ...is 7 ok for my ph and if not what do i do.i really want to focus on the indica and someday make some sweet hashish..any thoughts? Red
 
IF you got a soil ph meter and it cost less then $100 it isnt going to be accurate I have seen a couple in the 70-80$ range that are accurate enought that if they read between 6 or 7 you have nothing to worry about.

In the future what your should do is start with a soil with a stable ph of 6.5 and when watering use ph 6.5 water record the ph of the runoff every watering if you see any major dips or rises in ph then you can sometime correct by increasing or lowering your watering ph. For instance if you water every time with ph 6.2 water and always get 6.2 run off and see a dip to 5.7 to bring it back up to 6.2 you would actually need to use water with a ph of 6.7 untill you see your runoff stabilize anywhere over 6.2 and in my opinion below 6.6 if you can maintain that range and water with the exact same ph nutrient or plain water solution your shouldnt see any problems , but if anything you will see acidity which is easily corrected by adding 1tsp dolomite lime per gal of medium and work it into the top 3 inches of soil it is slow acting but generally dolomite I have found will correct most minor acidity problems withing 7-10 days,
 
skinny-loc said:
hey ppl i am a noobie and i am going to jump straight into hydroponics (fuck it ill learn through trial and error). my main concern is i just order 40 seeds(4 diff. strains) in which 30 of those are feminized seeds i want to keep 1 mother from each strain. since im growing hydroponiclly these rest of the seeds that sprout on germination will be goin on to rockwool and then to da ponic system. BUT do i have to keep mothers plants in soil? or can i put in a 5 gallon bucket with nutes and airstone?
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Just read this I personally would look into producing a bonsai mother just read up on the techniques involved in creating bonsai trees, I personally have 4 mothers all of which are well over 4 months old now presently none of which are taller then 14" but are able to produce between 14-30 cuttings per plant every 2 weeks and care is as simple as taking cuttings wether needed or not every 2 weeks, root pruning which consists of trimming 1" off every side of the root ball and 2 inches from the bottom this will promote your plants to continue growing and thru proper care you can easily keep one of these going for years on end.
 
can two cold make a healthy plant start to yellow on the top ? Or lack of water.Im trying to do this for the hubby.Love to see the look on his face If I can grow.
 
Thanks Smokey acPopt. I need all the help I can get. Cn I repot these tall sknny plants deeper with the stems inth dirt or should I start over again.
 
Re: just realized my big mistake on my first grow..

Stoned Redneck said:
i tried to grow weed 30 years ago and failed bad,many times.but last year i got my "green card" and got lights, soil and 2 starts.what kind? i didn't even ask.i was so excited, i didn't even think to ask what kind of pot it was.so i grew plants and made cuttings by spring i had plants inside and out.but they almost all had a strong,almost uncomfortable high.....well i tried to make hash,hopeing for a real ralaxed couch lock stone.again too much buzz.didn't work at all...hmmmm so now i started to think whats going on here. then i did my homework and realized that most hash is made from indica,right? i looked up to see what kind of plant i have been growing.well it has long skinny leaves,not to condenced,more "open" of a plant,a sitiva strain? so a friend puts a old pot seed in my wifes flower pot in the front room as a kind of joke. she(the plant) came up fast and strong,i repotted it and put it along with my other plants.but this girl is different,way different.stout,wide dark green leaves and very condenced "indica"?i think/hope so.anyway, i was growing the wrong strain all this time just because i thought "well its all weed right?" so be sure you get the "feeling" you are after,by planting the strain that has the high you are after.i love dark "head kickin" hash.very relaxing,easy conversation.and that comes from an indica strain,not a sativa strain.is that right?. when i think of all the people that quit week smoking weed because it "was too much,too high,or something to that affect" was it the change from indica(more laid back weed ) to a strong sativa buzz. does this make sence? i think when i started smoking in the late 60's it was mostly indica pot around.then the "name brand" Colimbian ect. came around,with that super strong buzz(sativia?) and stoners dropped off like flys cause "it was too much".so what i'm thinking is ,i'm a laidback indica kind of guy,who dosn't really go for the intence, almost parinoid high of sative.......i hope this makes sence.thanks for letting me vent.my plan now is to convert over to all indica plants and make some good ass kickin hash to surprize friends when they come over.....Merry Christmas(if that applys) and happy trails,RedRoorRip
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Aan excellent medical indica strain is Great white shark from greenhouse seeds its a white strain however so you expect the hash produced by it to be a pale sometimes almost cream color but by letting the trichs get really amber you should be able to get some major relaxing couch lock hash of a golden red color from it , another great strain for making hash is dinafem seeds blue hash plant which of course is a plant that has its genetic roots in the hash producing areas of the world.
 
flower/bud them a week during flushing.then 2 days of 24/0 dark/ light. flush then 16/8 light during flush then 48 darkness. harvest on week 10. or longer if its sativa, try to amber 80%. thats total leg lock.:goodluck: i usually grow indica's aurora india, northern lights, ak-48, skunk #5, snow white from nirvana is good w/ a long veg. ak 48 is awesome 24%thc. but its done in at week 8 max. she could be flowered at 13/11 to make her bigger. after a 20/4, 9 week flower. then to 12/12. for 2 weeks. then to harvest.
 
It should very slowly come down unless you have a good deal of organic matter like twigs and such when these break down they become acidic but if the soil is a good quality soil like promix .sunshine or foxfar these have a noraml ph of 6.5 from the manufacturer so if you water at 6.5 it should eventually drop .
 
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