trying to save money, need help

[Super Silver Haze]

here's a link to HTG's nutrient section. you chose the company and see their line of nutes.
hXXp://www.htgsupply.com/nutrientsubcategories.asp?categoryID=2

i use GH in a dwc, its very thick. i have to make sure all clumps are broke up. i hear that GH 3 Part is not thick at all so i will change next time around.

you are using soil so im not sure what to use. read through some grow journals b/c they usually give the lowdown on their nutes.

like DFW said, read some more and ask away.

 

[Calico]

After becoming disabled my income went down quite a bit, now of course i'm not about to cut down on my "medicine" if you will.
So i germinated about 25 seeds from my last bag of commercial weed in wet paper towels in a sandwich bag and got 11 nice ones after 3 days.
I planted them in 9" pots, some with miracle grow organic potting soil and some with miracle grow "double the growth" potting soil.
I covered them with saran wrap and placed them in a room with a thermostat heater set at 79 degrees and a fan on at all times. i have a 4 foot fluorescent light 5 inches above them on 18/6. So far 6 came up and one in actually 3 inches tall !!
I only water them with bottled water.
Questions;
1) how much do i water? and how often?
2) am i missing anything? doing anything bad or wrong?
3) do i NEED to buy better lights or can i grow with the 4 foot flurescent?

Any assistance would be appreatiated, thank you in advance.

1) 250-350ml depending on the growth stage.Seedlings dont need much water at all, just keep the soil damp not wet. With the Miracle Grow you really need to make sure u dont over water. The MG retains water well and you really should try watering every 3 days ( atleast ) then adjust to your liking. Its better to have your soils top dry out a little bit then constantly have it wet. Alot of people that use MG make the mistake of over watering.

2) Reflective surfaces? Mylar is best in my opinion but white walls or plastic is a plus.Light that isnt reflected results in more heat. Depending on the strain and how big you plan to grow the plants, you might need to get bigger pots. Root bound will hinder your crops potential. 79 degress can be workable but depending on how inclosed your grow area is one fan might get you through veg but when you have to go to 12/12 and have to have your area solid dark heat could get uncontrollable. Best temp is 73-76 in my opinion. I'd say get another fan.

3) A 4' fluorescent wont be enough to grow 11 plants start to finish but it should start them fine. Flowering plants need 5000 lumens per square foot of fowering plant. You may be able to get by with a little less but this is the general standard . Good luck and happy growing..

 

[mrkingford]

Here are some recent photo's ( 10 minutes ).
I repotted another one to the green container since it was the smallest of all the plants and being in the black pot at the end it didnt get much light anyway. I used the soil from the container to top off the rest of the containers (that why the soil looks moist ) and to build up the soil around the plant stem.
There around 8 days out of the soil.

 

[Muddy Paws]

I use Miracle Grow on my grows, you have all the stuff you need except lime at Wal-Mart...home depot has the lime.

Get:

one bag of Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil,

one bag of earthworm castings

One bag of Perlite

One jar of Grandmas molasses (Mix a little bit into your water)

One bottle of Superthrive (small, brown plastic bottle)

Mix the entire bag of MG soil with half the bag of Earthworm castings and add a few cups of perlite in. Mix!

You'll need an HPS light or CFLs to get enough light...but you CAN grow in Miracle Grow..it's not "bad" soil, you just have to work around the fact that it wasn't really made for MJ.

Your soil needs perlite in it, my friend..that soil will get compacted and give the roots less space to grow. (it'll be okay to transplant..the babies are small, so you can replant and please be careful of overwatering...you give the plants what they need and nothing more; make the roots work for the drink )

If you have any questions, I'll be glad to help you, bro..

 

[mrkingford]

Thanks for your help, i appreatiate it.
When do i re-plant to bigger pots?
When do i start the nutes? About when there 1 month ?
when do you use the lime and superthrive?

 

[Muddy Paws]

1.When do i re-plant to bigger pots? The pots you have seem fine..

2.When do i start the nutes? About when there 1 month ? Miracle grow will feed them for about two months. Use the nutes later in the grow when your plants look like they need it.

3.when do you use the lime and superthrive? The lime can be worked into the top of the soil; just make a few scratches in the top and just sprinkle the lime on and work it into the soil.

Superthrive shouldn't be used until the plants are about 2 weeks old...

Use only one drop per gallon and stop using it at least a month before your plants finish flowering. Superthrive seems to keep them from finishing up.

Just take your time, relax and let your plants grow...don't soak the whole bucket next time you water..the plants aren't big enough to use all the water and you could get mold.

are you going to be able to get some better lighting for them? You can veg under the T5s but you'll need an HPS light to get em done right.

Patience is the key here, bud. I went spastic on my first grow and tried to do everything to my babies all at once. Just leave em be and read as much as you can about growing, everything else will work itself out.

DON"T tell any of your buddies about it...that is the biggest mistake, right there. I'll sit in with ya, but you have to do the homework on it. There aren't many questions that haven't been answered here before.

 

[framingman001]

I would have to say that M P nailed it. I too am starting a grow for the first time in 20 years and am on a fixed income. the only good thing is that i allready have a 400w hps for flower. i run 8 regular 4ft t8 bulbs=4 fixtures same as what you have, for veg.(there cheap) So if you dont mind i would like to pull up a chair and hang out with your grow. Peace and good luck

 

[mrkingford]

I would have to say that M P nailed it. I too am starting a grow for the first time in 20 years and am on a fixed income. the only good thing is that i allready have a 400w hps for flower. i run 8 regular 4ft t8 bulbs=4 fixtures same as what you have, for veg.(there cheap) So if you dont mind i would like to pull up a chair and hang out with your grow. Peace and good luck

Muddy paws;
i'm using regular flu. bulbs, NOT T5's. (cant afford now).
Thank you VERY much, and too everyone, thanks, i do try to read a couple hours a day but this is not (for me) the easiest thing to learn as everyone has different set ups and ideas.
The plants this morning looked FAT! the leaves really are getting large now that they ARENT streching anymore. The one plant has 3 sets of 2 leaves and 1 set of 4 leaves. The plants in the green container are staying rather small, the leaves are not growing as the others. They also lean toward the light.
THE LIGHT REALLY, REALLY DOES MATTER, what a lesson i learned there.
The green container is only for back up (because i dont have enough lights for all the plants)if the others die or or too many are male. Like i said, this is a test grow too work out the kinks CHEAPLY, prior to buying.
As for telling others, besides this post and my wife, NO ONE knows!
Besides, once i get my set up right, i'll NEVER grow more than 5 at a time, which is a minor slap on the wrist, AT MAXIMUM, in my state!!!!
In my state, you can hold up to 1.25oz. and only recieve a 200.00 CIVAL ticket. The governor just passed a law that takes effect in the fall ( ld250 )that now allows you to carry 2.5oz. with only a CIVAL ticket (equal to jay walking,and NOT a crime).
For growing the MAXIMUM for 5 plants is a MISDERMINOR and punishable up to 6 months in jail and 1000.00 fine.
5-20 plants,a felony, maximum is 1 year and 2000.00 fine.

framingman001;
Join the fun. Please post your set up and results so we can help each other and others.
I really am trying to raise the money for a 400hps set up, i have a few weeks before flowering so i still have time.

 

[mrkingford]

Wow, ok, so 15 minutes lost typing the last post and the server was too busy for me and i lost the post, so here goes AGAIN.

I took a ride on my harley today to 2 local garden centers. I read and found a lot of interesting stuff. They had Neptunes Harvest products and Pro Mix and all types of bird and bat quano bags, as well as grow and bloom products. I read the labels and came home and read more posts on nutes and mediums and i have a few questions, here goes.

1)Is pro mix a soil? does it have nutes or is it just a starter medium?

2)Can i use a mix of earthworm castings INSTEAD of a soil, mixed with perlite and vermiculite? what else is needed?

3) i know what perlite is for(to make the soil less dense, easier to grow roots and makes room for more air) but what is vermiculite for?

4) how do you mix these?? what ratio?

I have a couple more, but i'll wait for the answers here as it might answer the next ones,
thanks again all.......................peace

 

[dirtyolsouth]

Your last baby pic is looking like a mostly indica with it's broad leaves... that's great since you're growing indoors.

1. Yeah... ProMix is a soil product. It has some really good stuff in it although I've never used it. Are you near a store that specializes in indoor gardening/hydroponics? They have more choices that people here are more likely to use such as Foxfarm brand soils Ocean Forest and Happy Frog as well as a nice soiless product called Light Warrior...

2. NO! you don't want to use straight worm castings... use it as an addition to your soil mix.

3. Vermiculite is used the same as perlite... to lighten your soil and improve drainage. I prefer to use chunky perlite which is only found at indoor gardening stores.

4. I like to use a soil mix of about 25% Ocean Forest, 25% Roots brand soil mix, 15% Light Warrior, an additional 20% of chunky perlite added and 15% worm castings. F.Y.I... don't use any water absorbing crystals in your soil mix. Great mj growing requires the soil to dry out between waterings and this slows that process.

Your regular fluoro lights will work fine for vegging although I'd suggest getting another one to add to the setup. As long as you keep your lights an inch or two from the leaves they will do well. A 400w HPS is a great choice for a small personal grow setup. I'm with The Hemp Goddess on the need for an air cooled reflector. I can't stress enough how much the temps need to be kept down in the mid to upper 70's for dank bud. If you get a "cool tube" style of reflector and a good inline fan for pulling the heat off of your light and routing it out of your grow room you'll be much closer to an environment condusive for gooey bud. And if you do... what are you going to do about the smell? You'll need a good carbon filter too if you plan on growing stinky bud... More stuff to spend money on!

As far as nutes go... Since you're in MG soil don't add anything for about a month imho as it's already in the soil. After you have vegged for about 4-6 weeks and the plant is root bound in their current pot you'll transplant to a larger container i.e. 3 gallon, 5 gallon, 7 gallon, etc... depending on what size plants you are growing. I'd suggest transplanting them into one of the quality soils I mentioned above.

Scheduling... the days that the seed bank is mentioning is the amount of days the strain typically takes til harvest. How much you veg depends on many factors such as strain, your veg lights and how much grow space you have vertically. Remember, indicas often double in size when you flower them and sativa varieties can grow to more than 3x their height...

Lots to think about... don't overwhelm yourself. Take your time and be a good student of this amazing plant. Take it one day at a time and if you apply yourself you can master this hobby.

Good Luck and Happy Growing!

 

[mrkingford]

Your last baby pic is looking like a mostly indica with it's broad leaves... that's great since you're growing indoors.

1. Yeah... ProMix is a soil product. It has some really good stuff in it although I've never used it. Are you near a store that specializes in indoor gardening/hydroponics? They have more choices that people here are more likely to use such as Foxfarm brand soils Ocean Forest and Happy Frog as well as a nice soiless product called Light Warrior...

2. NO! you don't want to use straight worm castings... use it as an addition to your soil mix.

3. Vermiculite is used the same as perlite... to lighten your soil and improve drainage. I prefer to use chunky perlite which is only found at indoor gardening stores.

4. I like to use a soil mix of about 25% Ocean Forest, 25% Roots brand soil mix, 15% Light Warrior, an additional 20% of chunky perlite added and 15% worm castings. F.Y.I... don't use any water absorbing crystals in your soil mix. Great mj growing requires the soil to dry out between waterings and this slows that process.

Your regular fluoro lights will work fine for vegging although I'd suggest getting another one to add to the setup. As long as you keep your lights an inch or two from the leaves they will do well. A 400w HPS is a great choice for a small personal grow setup. I'm with The Hemp Goddess on the need for an air cooled reflector. I can't stress enough how much the temps need to be kept down in the mid to upper 70's for dank bud. If you get a "cool tube" style of reflector and a good inline fan for pulling the heat off of your light and routing it out of your grow room you'll be much closer to an environment condusive for gooey bud. And if you do... what are you going to do about the smell? You'll need a good carbon filter too if you plan on growing stinky bud... More stuff to spend money on!

As far as nutes go... Since you're in MG soil don't add anything for about a month imho as it's already in the soil. After you have vegged for about 4-6 weeks and the plant is root bound in their current pot you'll transplant to a larger container i.e. 3 gallon, 5 gallon, 7 gallon, etc... depending on what size plants you are growing. I'd suggest transplanting them into one of the quality soils I mentioned above.

Scheduling... the days that the seed bank is mentioning is the amount of days the strain typically takes til harvest. How much you veg depends on many factors such as strain, your veg lights and how much grow space you have vertically. Remember, indicas often double in size when you flower them and sativa varieties can grow to more than 3x their height...

Lots to think about... don't overwhelm yourself. Take your time and be a good student of this amazing plant. Take it one day at a time and if you apply yourself you can master this hobby.

Good Luck and Happy Growing!

Wow !!!! Another great post i understood well, thanks !

If perlite and vermiculite are the same, why do you need both?

Instead of an hps i wanted to buy a 4 tube t5 set up from htg supply, its 129.99 inclubing the 4 bulbs and you can switch from 3000 to 6500 for vegging or flowering, others have used them with great success, so i have read. It will put out less heat, use less electricity, and i'm ONLY growing 5 or less plants at one time.

Another question;
What ratio do i look for in a vegging and a bloom nute? 0-10-3 or 0-10-0 or.......??
There are soo many choices buy none state for MJ on the label so i dont know which i would need.

As far as being Indica goes, i would not know, it was bag seeds i used.
But the pic does NOT do it justice. The leaves are very wide.
Actually, i don't even know the difference between the strains.
Mostly i smoke commercial weed with seeds because its cheaper (175 oz. ) vs. seedless good weed that costs 300 or more an oz.
So, after learning to grow properly i can grow better weed and will need to smoke less, i hope at least.

I think with proper soil mixing and lights i would really like to try that auto flowering. If i could get 10 seeds for 50.00, get 5 females that give 1oz. each, thats not bad for 60-70 days total.

Which leads me to my last question;
Where is a trusted, honest site i can buy seeds from?
Peace my friends

 

[mrkingford]

Photo's taken 5 minutes ago. :hubba:

 

[Super Silver Haze]

with bag seed its hard to tell the strain. im new too and i remember by

Indica has Fat leaves...IF i hadnt smoked that joint then i wouldnt have couchlock. more body high

Sativa has skinny leaves....more up cerebral high

good luck

 

[mrkingford]

Is Happy Frog better than Ocean Forest ?

They are both made by Fox Farms.

There's a place near me that carries OF but not HF.

Cheers........................

 

[mrkingford]

So just now i pulled the 5 plants in the green container and killed them.
I took the soil from the container and topped off the remaining 5 planters left all the way up to just under the 1st set of leaves, i left the soil very loose. I hope none were females, lol.
I did this because AS I STATED, this is only a test grow and i did not expect to get 10 plants out of 11 seeds planted with zero knowledge, lol.

In my state it is only a misdemeanor to have 5 plants.

And i'm sure this yeild is not gonna be great anyway.
:hubba:

 

[Muddy Paws]

Check your local nursery...they have good soil mixes and they don't have time release frtilizers either. The soil I'm looking at already has lime in it..I'll search around and find the name brand.

It's called "Gardner & Bloome Soil" about $5.50 US for a 1.5 cu ft bag, but the money would be well spent; Miracle Grow keeps you on yer toes...lol

hxxp://www.gbsoil.com/site4/products.htm

They have a locater so you can find stores that carry it and it's all organic

 

[mrkingford]

I did find a store near me that carries fox farm ocean forest and fox farm liquid nutes, i think i'll spend the extra since its proven and needs nothing at all mixed with it, except the nutes later.

It's 22.00 per bag for a 1.5 liter but its better than messing around.

 

[dirtyolsouth]

Hello again...

I've never used Happy Frog but some growers really like it. Ocean Forest is great product but be sure to add some Perlite - chunky if you can find it - and mix it with your O.F. at about a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio to improve the soil's drainage as O.F. tends to compress over time and the perlite will keep the soil draining well and nicely aerated. You don't need to use both perlite and vermiculite. Perlite will suffice. O.F. has quite a bit of organic nutrient power built into it and your plants probably won't need any grow nutrients added until around a month or so of veg if you do it in O.F. Once caution is because it is a bit on the 'hot' (strong) side, don't grow your seedlings in O.F. I like to use a mix of 3 parts Light Warrior to 1 part O.F. so they get a bit of nutes but not too much. I've had babies in O.F. show leaf burn (tips of leaves turn brown) before I knew this.

Foxfarm makes some great stuff. If you search for threads you'll be able to find some growers who are using their stuff. You could use their Grow Big during the last couple weeks of veg and Big Bloom with Tiger Bloom added for flowering. Don't use any time release fert's for indoor growing. Make sure the top couple of inches of your soil surface dries out between watering as overwatering can do a lot of harm to the root system and invites root rot and bug infestation. I prefer to give my flower girls nutes every third watering and I water them about every 2-3 days. If you pay attention to your girls you'll know when they need watering. You'll notice that when they're properly watered the leaves will look perky and she'll look happy... When the leaves begin to droop ever so slightly it's time to water.

BUT... we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we? DON'T buy any seeds until you really have sprouting and growing bag seed down pat. I speak from experience and shame... Nothing's worse than going through the hassle of ordering some awesome strains to the tune of a nice chunk of cash along with the hassle of getting the money orders, doing the international postage, the waiting and waiting and paranoia of waiting for them to arrive and then failing miserably because your chops aren't up to par yet. The hardest thing for newbie growers to do with seedlings is leave them alone, killing them with kindness. They tend to over water and start giving them nute products way too early, long before they need it and the potential girls get cranky... I'm a big believer in the practice that limiting stress in your seedlings will produce more female plants. In my first few rounds with beans I had maybe a 40% - 60% success with plants turning out to be female. For many years I've been getting closer to 70% - 80% girls now that I've got more of a clue about optimal conditions and when they do and more importantly, do not need attention.

Regarding Indica vs Sativa... They are both awesome strain types. Indica strains have more of a delightful sedated effect on your melon... many people refer to it as a couchlock kind of high. You sit on the couch, fire one up and you are instantly couch locked, unable to do a damn thing. This is when a tasty snack, a cool beverage and a TV along with a remote control comes in very handy. Sativas have a bit more of an energetic 'body' high with a soaring quality and you might just get busy and finally finish that puzzle with your wife that's been spread out on the ping pong table since your mother in law gave it to your for Christmas. The Indicas varieties are originally from regions like the mountains of Afghanistan (The Taliban has been useful for something at least) and grow short and stout with dense budding and branching to a height of typically around 4-5 feet outdoors. Indicas have shorter, 7-9 week flowering cycles than sativa varieties which can flower for 10-14 weeks or more. Sativas also have sparse budding and branching with more spread out, fluffier bud sites and grow much taller outdoors and pure sativas are much harder to handle in the indoor garden.

Since your posted broad leafed baby looks mostly Indica, you're in luck if it turns out to be a girl. That plant will probably mature in around 8 weeks of flowering and will have around double the height when it finishes compared to how tall it is when you begin 12/12. Sativas easily double and can triple or more in height so you really need to flower them earlier when they're smaller to control them indoors. And then there's the delightful Indica/Sativa hybrid which has proliferated from our hallowed Dutch brethren and furthered around the world by growers everywhere. When you breed a male or female of and Indica with the opposite sex of a Sativa you get seeds with the attributes of both parents. Breeders looking for good new indoor varieties try to find examples - referred to as 'phenotypes' in the scientific circles - of hybrids that exhibit the short, squat growth of an Indica along with the soaring, energetic highs of the Sativa variety. That's why there are so many strains... imagine the possibilities!

T5's are great to flower with. The more the merrier. You won't have the production of HID's but you'll have a lot fewer problems keeping your temps down. I still would encourage good ventilation for your plant's health as well as odor issues. Can you exhaust air out of your closet with ventilation duct? You need to cycle the air periodically to introduce CO2 to your grow space. You can use an inline duct fan set on a timer to turn on once an hour for 10-15 minutes to exhaust the air and fresh air will be pulled into the room through the cracks around the door from the negative pressure from the fan cycle. You'll want to route the output of the fan through 4" or 6" duct into your attic and out of the roof through a vent. If you exhaust the air outside where it can be smelled you'll need to consider using a carbon filter to scrub the air of the odor before exhausting it.

Have you thought about a carbon filter? Your grow will STINK UP your pad if you don't do something. I don't know what your situation is but if you're trying to keep it on the D.L. you have to be prepared for the stank that will emit from your closet, especially the last several weeks of flowering. There are many ways to run a filter. You can hook up a can fan to the filter and continuously scrub the air and cycle it back into the room although if you do it this way the fan might add a slight amount of heat. You can hang the filter in your closet, attach an inline fan to it and exhaust the air into your attic or out of an existing attic roof vent to the great outdoors. Or... You can put the fan and filter in your attic with a piece of duct fed from a hole in your closet ceiling and pull the stinky air out of closet and push it through the filter and the odorless air will dissipate into the attic.

And re: seeds... I've only ordered from drchronic.com and it's been a few years but always had excellent service and product from them. They are great with communication and that's a biggie for me. Props to Marc Emery for the empire he had but ordering seeds from his company back in the day was a nightmare... Send off your cash or money order and wait forever with NO communication... When waiting for an order you could watch gray hairs appear on my head with each passing day in those days... Doc Chronic replies to email often, is reachable by phone during business hours in the UK and they do a great job of stealth packaging. You can place the order online with a CC but I'd suggest finding your desired beans and then calling to find out the availability of your choices and the total purchase price and then mailing them an international money order to keep down the paper trail. I had a buddy several years ago who ordered beans on a Wed night online and paid with CC and he had them by the following Monday... Zing! It usually takes closer to 8-12 days for international post. Do you have any stoner friends in California? The cat's out of the bag out there... lots of top notch strains to get seeds and clones in the dispensaries to choose from and no international shipping... but you gotta know somebody!

There's a very good thread with lots of recent discussion on the reputable and best seed banks right here on MP... Just use the 'Search' function in the menu bar and enter 'seed bank.'

Lots to think about....

Peace

 

[mrkingford]

That was excellent information, THANKS

However, today i bought lights, soil, nutes and even seeds, see my thread in the indoor section titled "invested my 1st 307.00", there's even pics.
I'm gonna try my luck, with help from people like you of course, lol, thanks again.............peace