First grow

What if I make my own compost from grass clipping/leaves/sticks/etc. And add nutes and perlite to it. I'd have to burn all the stuff first but I have a compost pit in my yard filled with all kinds of organic stuff. Can using compost be done? That would be way cheaper for me. As for lights I know t5s are better, of course they are there small and don't produce much heat but they're extremely expensive, what about t8s? T5s are only like 5% more efficient (I think) either way there's not a huge difference like there is between t12s and t8s.

So compost and t8s?

It sucks cuz I didn't plan ahead, which I know now that you must have all the supplies, or a means of getting them, but now I'm so far in and my plants look healthy so why would I give up on healthy plants? My soil is not extremely "barky" anyways, there's just a lot more on the top. But besides that, let's talk about nutes, npk as all growers know, is what mj needs to strive, what are some good organic foods that produce them for both veg and flower , is there one food that has all that mj needs, or do I buy separate and mix according to what stage its in? And how often do I feed, can they be foliage fed using water soluble nutes, or is that only for chemical foods? I'm not giving up here, as I get money I'll buy some better supplies, but I need supplies that will work good, and is cheap(er) too.

Well I'll be making compost for myself, however its not quick. So next grow I'll probably have home made compost but not now.

What if I add perlite to my mix, I looked it up and other people have used the same kind of soil, but nobody's updated to say if they've had success or not. But perlite could help loosen up the dirt right?

Yes, Perlite will help loosen up the dirt.

OK thanks

Would I be able to determine the sex of my plant right now? Because I think one is definitely female then, unless it grows into herm, I see a little "v" thing coming out the middle(main) stem. Its too small right now to get a good picture, my phone is only 10mpx

Can you post a picture of it?

View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1399740414977.jpg That's the best I can do

It's too early to tell. Let it grow more.

I think this set-up would be good to learn a little about seedlings and how to take care of them, I'm not sure if you will get the results your looking for, but definitely a good first go, If you want to chat about what I have learned over the past thirty years feel free to shoot me an email, I would be glad to offer any advice you feel would benefit you.

@Hackerman Okay, I figured it was too early, the could just be small leaves growing, I assume.

Plants are not sexually mature until they have alternating nodes.



View attachment 291660d1369103273-my-first-grow-ever-can-i-get-some-feedback-nodes.jpg

Thanks that makes more sense

It is way way too early. It will most likely be another month before you will be able to sex your plant. New growth often looks like pistils, but like I said, that is weeks away.

Compost has to cook--sometimes for a year or so. Compost that is too hot will fry seedling in the blink of an eye. The trouble with trying to make organic nutrients yourself with various ingredients is that you will have to know what proportions to mix things in. You need to know how fast everything breaks down. You will need to make up something that has a lot of N at first and a fair amount of K and little P. As the plant gets older, you will need to have the N almost depleted from the soil, you will have to have some kind of P that will break down at this point and you still need some K. I do not know of any prepared nutrients made for mj that don't have different vegging and blooming formulas.

You know what I think may be ideal for you--organic teas. You can make organic teas out of stuff that you can most likely find. The teas do not need to cook like compost or manures, they just need to be bubbled for a few days. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier :doh: You should be able to find teas for both vegging and flowering phases. Most organic teas use compost, worm castings, composted manure, bone meal, molasses, kelp meal, things like that. I like to put the ingredients in a mesh bag. I dangle it in the water and aerate the solution for 2-4 days. The bags should contain most of the solids so it doesn't even need to be restrained and you can just dilute and feed.

What is the white thing in the pot? And the red thing?

The thing in the bottom right is a moisture measurer, and the red thing is a wire, just for support if it needs it, its not planted deep

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0054ZFO2U/r...9763419&sr=1-6-catcorr&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70
Also would this work?

I had to edit that link to get it to work. I always add perlite to my soil mix. It's good stuff.

Yeah sorry idk why the link did what it did, I posted it regularly like I have before. And okay I was just making sure that it would be good to use

Obvious answer, but using straight blood and bone meal is best right? And how much to add of each and how often to feed?