New member looking for medical grow help

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Argo

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Jun 27, 2017
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I am looking for info and help with a first time grow. I am trying to help a family member with serious health issues that has a medical grow permit. Some will also be for me as I am a 100% disabled veteran and can use while visiting in their state. I have some gardening experience and have been doing a lot of reading and research but I definitely have some questions on how to set things up so he can take care of the plants when I am not there. Thanks for all of you that are willing to provide help here as it seems to be a great resource.
 
Argo, you came to the right place. Do either of you have any experiencing growing MMJ?

It will be easier to assist when a few questions are answered.

1. where and how many plants [ tent, closet, new grow space]
2. what type of medium [soil, or soiless]
3. what type of lights [LED, HID, Fluro]
4. what type of ventilation [ air flow is key]


also a few pictures of the set-up would really be helpful. Good luck...old combat Marine here with PTSD myself. Peace
 
Welcome to Marijuana passion! Let us know how we can help. Growing medical or regular pot is very fun. I am an organic dirt farmer, but there are lots of ways of growing. Good for you for doing your research. I am glad you found us.
 
Argo, you came to the right place. Do either of you have any experiencing growing MMJ?

It will be easier to assist when a few questions are answered.

1. where and how many plants [ tent, closet, new grow space]
2. what type of medium [soil, or soiless]
3. what type of lights [LED, HID, Fluro]
4. what type of ventilation [ air flow is key]


also a few pictures of the set-up would really be helpful. Good luck...old combat Marine here with PTSD myself. Peace

It will be 2-3 plants in a 2x4x6 grow tent. 2 300 watt leds for now, a humidifier as the humidity was running around 37% without and now with it is around 50%. Temp is running from 73-79 depending on the AC that is ducted into the tent. There is a 220cfm exhaust fan but I am getting ready to buy a better fan, a filter and a switch to control fan speed. It is in soil that has been sterilized and I have started out using RAW nutrients for the fertilizer and soil supplements. I have 3 12" plants in there now that are #1 Skunk from a buddy that I am using to try as a test run so my mistakes during this first grow won't be on expensive seeds bought from a store. I have seeds from 2 different seed companies that are from several strains that are going to mainly be for help with chronic pain and mood. I have some OG Kush, Purple Buddha, Berry Bomb, Girl Scout Cookies, Liberty Haze, Peppermint Kush,The Purps, Blue Dream, and some Borderline XTRM. I am going to do some experimenting with some LST and try to keep 3 different strains in each grow to get a better understanding of how each one reacts to a rookie gardener and how the effects work for what our needs are. So far they are doing pretty well and are looking good with no pests I can find and only one looks like it might be Nitrogen deficient as the bottom 2 nodes are showing yellowing leaves. I have some Nitrogen from RAW being delivered today so I am going to start out with a small dose of that to see if it helps. I am having trouble with sexing the plants but I am pretty sure two are females and the other I can't tell yet. I am going to let them get from 2 to 2 and 1/2 feet before flipping them to 12/12. I have some experience with growing from helping friends back in my younger days but really am new to trying it on my own. I did garden vegetables outside every year fairly extensively but have cut back in the last couple of years as I can't walk very far anymore and bending down is too hard with my back injury. This site has been really helpful in answering many of my general questions and I am sure I will be picking the brains of many of you as I go through this. Thanks you guys for sharing your experience.
 
Sounds like you have it mostly covered, your reply was well worded and though out. next order of business is to start a grow thread and polst pic's as you go and that will be where your journal will be and others will come in and out to answer questions. I'm looking forward to being helpful if I can. I still have a ton to learn myself :)
 
Thanks Kraven and Rosebud. I need to put some pics together but I don't want to use my cell camera. Need to dust off my old Kodak.
 
We really do need more specific information. Your soil is very important. Just stating that you are using a soil that has been sterilized tells us very little about it. Tell us what is in it and what you added to added to it. Without a good starting soil, nothing else you do will make the plants thrive. Good soils are generally made up of multiple ingredients to insure a healthy root environment.

I also wonder about the nutrient line you have chosen. I am not familiar with it, but it looks like it may be a bit complicated for the newer grower. How many of their product are you going to buy? How are you going to determine if the plants are getting enough of all the different nutrient they need? I am also a little confused as the N (20% ammoniacal nitrogen--) does not appear to be organic, but they have you using all these microbes? You might want to look up ammonical nitrogen before you use it on your plants. Ammoniacal nitrogen is an acidic chemical used primarily for waste treatment, water purification and liquid fertilizers. It is a combination of the chemical element nitrogen and ammonia. I annot see microbes surviving in this environment.

How old are your plants? They may be too young to sex yet. Do you have alternating nodes yet?

Also, pictures are invaluable.
 
The soil bag is gone so I will have to check the garden center when I get down there to get the info on that. It was an organic label, had a nice amount of organic material and I mixed it with 2 parts soil, 2 parts peat and 1 part pearlite to help with drainage. The nutrient line is based on some videos I watched on plant nutrition by Harley Smith. I am using the Grow, Bloom and some supplement Nitrogen, Potassium, Kelp, Amino Acids as well as some Humic acid. The ammonium nitrogen is used for a quick uptake of nitrogen by foliar spraying if there are signs of a deficiency as it is able to be absorbed in a few hours as opposed to root feeding which he said can take a day or two. The amount used is very small, like 1/16th TSP in a 800ml spray bottle.The grow formula has nitrate nitrogen which is used with each feeding but in case of a deficiency he asid to use the ammonium nitrogen to spray the leaves. I am also using a small amount of yucca with any of the foliar feedings. I know I am heading into this grow mostly blind but he has a great series of you tube videos that are several hours long and broke it down so I could understand the process and the theories was talking about. As far as knowing the time and amounts of additional nutrients touse I am just going to try starting out with what he suggested at the different times of the grow cycle until I get more familiar with how they react to them and also seek help here when I see the plants reacting poorly. The plants are about 5 weeks old but were grown outside for the first 4 weeks and have only been in the grow tent for a week. This is a learning experience as I know I am a complete novice and am just trying to get a handle on the basics before I try to get a decent grow with some good seeds next. Thanks so much for responding with such an in depth response. I really do appreciate you all taking the time to help those of us that are starting out. I will get some good pics this weekend when I travel up to my relatives place where the plants are. It's legal for him there but I still live in a backwards state that is fighting legal mmj as hard as it can.
 
This is an article I had read also that talks about the conversion of ammonium nitrogen and the affects it has on PH which is somewhat of an issue with the tap water we have access to. It does also talk about the toxicity of the ammonium and how to identify it. It was a little over my chemistry level but did seem to be helpful.

View attachment nitrogen_form.pdf
 
Is that the kind of "food" you want to give to your plants that are meant as medicine?
 
Is that the kind of "food" you want to give to your plants that are meant as medicine?

I had thought so but if it isn't healthy then I would like to hear it before I get close to harvesting it. Is it not good because it isn't organic or what specifically is unhealthy about it. I don't have a problem with using fertilizers but if there is a real health safety issue then of course I would want to avoid it. Thanks for helping me through this process, I know I have a long way to go on learning about raising good plants and I can use all the help I can get.
 
I really don't know. I am just saying as this is a medical grow, know what you are putting on your plants.
 
I appreciate it. I am so used to taking meds that are from a big company that are regulated that I really had not given enough thought to exactly what is in the meds I am growing. My early experience with MJ was in my my college years and we were not to worried about anything back then but how strong it was. Things have changed a lot in 30 years both as far as my health and the potency and variety of MJ.
 
Really, IMO, organic is best if you are growing medicine. I am always suspicious of nutrient lines that I can find little info on. The growing community is still kind of a small community. Outstanding products are talked about. I can literally nothing about the nutrient line you have chosen. Also, when they have you use products with microbes and then have you use ammonium nitrate as a source of N, I wonder about them as ammonium nitrate will kill the microbes. I also kind of hate to see someone base an entire grow on 1 You Tube video, especially a beginner. Realize that anyone can make anything look like they want to on You tube. Have you actually purchased all these products already?

Full disclosure--don't want to be a hypocite--I do grow hydro inside in the winter, which uses chemical nutrient.
 

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