valuablevariable
Well-Known Member
A beginners guide
This is a crash course for anybody trying to grow indoors but doesnt actually know what they are doing. This it to get you started and should be enough to prevent your plants from any major mistakes in the beginning. It should buy you some time to read up on whats still ahead of you such as flowering.
An informed grower = happy plants
First off being informed is key so before getting started you should gather as much information as you can, there is plenty of info and people here willing to help you out.
Some basic subjects you should be informed about:
Lighting
Light cycle
Soil
Ventilation/heat
Reflective surfaces
There is much more to know such as ph levels, Co2, nutrients and such, but as for now this should really just show you the basics of how to start and make you aware of what you should know to prevent the usual beginner mistakes.
Lighting
Here we go.
Often when somebody more or less spontaneously decides to start a grow without really looking around for information first, is tend to use the wrong kind of light and placing them too far away. Im not going to go into HPS (high pressure sodium) or HID lighting (high intensity discharge), because if you already know about these and considering them as an option, then you probably already know about all the basics anyway. These are all more advances lighting systems that will give you great results but also require more knowledge.
If you are a beginner grower then you will want to go with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) or Fluorescent Tubes (FTs). They will be your new best friends.
Why these lights? They are cheap, will not get very hot and most importantly emit the right spectrum of light plants need. Stay away from regular light bulbs, flood lights etc!
Although both CFLs and FTs can be used, unless you want to use FTs you already have laying around the house im going to go ahead and suggest on not using FTs but rather the CFLs if you are going to grow a plant or two. This is for the simple reason that the light form a CFL is more focused on a smaller area than a FT. A 30 Watt CFL will focus that light nicely on one plant but a 30 Watt FT will spread all that light to its 4 foot length. This way a small plant wont receive 30 Watts of light but rather just a small amount because most of the light isnt reaching the plant. Also a CFL will fit into any grow space.
Using the wrong, too little or light that is too far away causes the plant to stretch and fall over. This happens because the plant is trying to grow towards the light in order to get more of it.
Type of light
There are two different kinds of CFL light you can buy that can be labelled with different names.
The first can be name cool bight white daylight or blue, this type of light will look blueish (duh).
Some of the names for the second are warm or red, this type of light will look redish (man am I smart).
So why two different kinds of light?
There are two main stages (if you dont count germination etc), vegetative and flowering. Both stages specifically require one of these kinds of light for better growth.
For the vegetative stage you will need the blue light. - Vegetation = Blue -
For the flowering stage, the red. - Flowering = Red -
You can still have both blue and red lights on a plant throughout both stages, however you will need to have at least blue for veg and red for flowering
Also a beginner mistake, dont go and get a regular red or blue light bulb thinking that your plant needs this colour, this is not any better than a white light bulb (hey thats what I did when I first read about plants needing red and blue light *puts hand in front of face in shame*).
For more detailed information on CFLs look at this part of the FAQ:
https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=25
https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=581
This is a crash course for anybody trying to grow indoors but doesnt actually know what they are doing. This it to get you started and should be enough to prevent your plants from any major mistakes in the beginning. It should buy you some time to read up on whats still ahead of you such as flowering.
An informed grower = happy plants
First off being informed is key so before getting started you should gather as much information as you can, there is plenty of info and people here willing to help you out.
Some basic subjects you should be informed about:
Lighting
Light cycle
Soil
Ventilation/heat
Reflective surfaces
There is much more to know such as ph levels, Co2, nutrients and such, but as for now this should really just show you the basics of how to start and make you aware of what you should know to prevent the usual beginner mistakes.
Lighting
Here we go.
Often when somebody more or less spontaneously decides to start a grow without really looking around for information first, is tend to use the wrong kind of light and placing them too far away. Im not going to go into HPS (high pressure sodium) or HID lighting (high intensity discharge), because if you already know about these and considering them as an option, then you probably already know about all the basics anyway. These are all more advances lighting systems that will give you great results but also require more knowledge.
If you are a beginner grower then you will want to go with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) or Fluorescent Tubes (FTs). They will be your new best friends.
Why these lights? They are cheap, will not get very hot and most importantly emit the right spectrum of light plants need. Stay away from regular light bulbs, flood lights etc!
Although both CFLs and FTs can be used, unless you want to use FTs you already have laying around the house im going to go ahead and suggest on not using FTs but rather the CFLs if you are going to grow a plant or two. This is for the simple reason that the light form a CFL is more focused on a smaller area than a FT. A 30 Watt CFL will focus that light nicely on one plant but a 30 Watt FT will spread all that light to its 4 foot length. This way a small plant wont receive 30 Watts of light but rather just a small amount because most of the light isnt reaching the plant. Also a CFL will fit into any grow space.
Using the wrong, too little or light that is too far away causes the plant to stretch and fall over. This happens because the plant is trying to grow towards the light in order to get more of it.
Type of light
There are two different kinds of CFL light you can buy that can be labelled with different names.
The first can be name cool bight white daylight or blue, this type of light will look blueish (duh).
Some of the names for the second are warm or red, this type of light will look redish (man am I smart).
So why two different kinds of light?
There are two main stages (if you dont count germination etc), vegetative and flowering. Both stages specifically require one of these kinds of light for better growth.
For the vegetative stage you will need the blue light. - Vegetation = Blue -
For the flowering stage, the red. - Flowering = Red -
You can still have both blue and red lights on a plant throughout both stages, however you will need to have at least blue for veg and red for flowering
Also a beginner mistake, dont go and get a regular red or blue light bulb thinking that your plant needs this colour, this is not any better than a white light bulb (hey thats what I did when I first read about plants needing red and blue light *puts hand in front of face in shame*).
For more detailed information on CFLs look at this part of the FAQ:
https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=25
https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=581
