Complete Noob first grow

redrrain

Member
I did a complete "learn as you go" grow for my first time and my plant is about 3 weeks away from being ready right now, and lemme tell ya there was no failure there. Giant stanky godess I have on my hands now. I see nothing wrong with people asking the ?'s they need as theyre trying to learn. I started with a pot with a 150watt hps in the corner of my closet now I have a full room built. people learn all different ways I hope you enjoy your experience as I have fully enjoyed mine. hope I get to see your progress :)
 

chargernm

Member
I did a complete "learn as you go" grow for my first time and my plant is about 3 weeks away from being ready right now, and lemme tell ya there was no failure there. Giant stanky godess I have on my hands now. I see nothing wrong with people asking the ?'s they need as theyre trying to learn. I started with a pot with a 150watt hps in the corner of my closet now I have a full room built. people learn all different ways I hope you enjoy your experience as I have fully enjoyed mine. hope I get to see your progress :)
Thank you redrain. I know I have opened my mind to learning on this one and future grows. I am excited about the journey. If it was the destination I actually cared about I would just go visit the horticulture students at the local university and buy some. I will keep the grow posted. I appreciate the input.
 

ghb

Well-Known Member
firstly decide whether you would rather grow small numbers of large plants with a slow turnaround or larger numbers of smaller plants with a quicker turnaround.
both have benefits and drawbacks mainly to do with the amount of effort and skill required to have success.

i really prefer to grow more plants with less veg time and concentrate all my efforts into making the flowers as nice as possible, rather than growing a nice big bush.
growing an 8 week strain you can easily manage 6 harvests a year if you have good enough cloning facilities.

here is an example of a garden i currently run:

veg tent is 3.5x3.5 with one 125w blue spectrum cfl. typically i will have one or two mother plants sitting under the light that will grow pretty slowly and steadily with no stretch, i will also use this tent for vegging cuttings and rooting clones, every time my mothers get too big i will take a few cuts of each and then choose the best one to be the next generation of mothers.
in the same room i also have an 8x4 tent that i use for flowering in. in there i have two 600w hps air cooled lights. i am currently running 9 plants per light of cheese, the yield is roughly 2 oz a plant, i could get more if i had a better yielding strain but not much better, and quality is always more important than quantity even if you are going to sell it. nobody wants average weed when they can have dank.

what i have been doing lately is taking cuts a good four weeks before i harvest my flowering tent, sometimes my clones root within a week sometimes they can take 3 weeks using the exact same method so better to be safe than sorry. an empty flower room is an empty heart in my opinion.

when my clones have rooted i will then veg them in 2l pots, sometimes they get 1 week in the pots sometimes 3 but there is never much of a difference because they seem to grow so slow under the cfl (healthy growth, just slow and mainly root development) when the flower tent has been harvested and cleaned (the same day) i will repot the clones into 11l pots and then give them 2-5 days of 24 hour light underneath the 600s, after this i will turn the timer to 12/12 and it starts again.

the products i use to grow (mainly)

canna coco professional plus is the medium, it looks like soil but it is a lot cleaner and lighter and in my opinion much better and actually easier in the long term.
i use canna coco A+B as my base nutes, they do not change through veg and bloom only how much you feed them
i use atami bloombastic as my pk booster and ripener/ sweetener
i also have used a lot of other products but they are not needed as i have completed entire cycles using only these two products and the shit was fire

i have to admit i do like to use canna rhizotonic as a cheat from time to time, it basically takes a week off your cycle time because the plants root system develops so fast they can be flowered earlier and fed more nutrients. again this is an option you don't have to use it.

basically the coco is void of all food, in soil you will have stored nutrients that are released as you water, not in this stuff. the only food in there is what you put there so you know exactly what the plants are getting.

this post has gone on a bit too long and i still haven't told you a thing about growing lol sorry, i will do another detailed post tommorow about how i would normally feed the plants etc.
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
no nutes for a while. then slow as you go is my advice. so many ppl kill their plants with to much love. i'm an organic grower so that's what i push on everyone but you'll find a method that works for you. it's not really rocket science. just don't over feed. you need a full compliment of nutes at some point but ez does it. hope that helps.
 

chargernm

Member
firstly decide whether you would rather grow small numbers of large plants with a slow turnaround or larger numbers of smaller plants with a quicker turnaround.
both have benefits and drawbacks mainly to do with the amount of effort and skill required to have success.

i really prefer to grow more plants with less veg time and concentrate all my efforts into making the flowers as nice as possible, rather than growing a nice big bush.
growing an 8 week strain you can easily manage 6 harvests a year if you have good enough cloning facilities.

here is an example of a garden i currently run:

veg tent is 3.5x3.5 with one 125w blue spectrum cfl. typically i will have one or two mother plants sitting under the light that will grow pretty slowly and steadily with no stretch, i will also use this tent for vegging cuttings and rooting clones, every time my mothers get too big i will take a few cuts of each and then choose the best one to be the next generation of mothers.
in the same room i also have an 8x4 tent that i use for flowering in. in there i have two 600w hps air cooled lights. i am currently running 9 plants per light of cheese, the yield is roughly 2 oz a plant, i could get more if i had a better yielding strain but not much better, and quality is always more important than quantity even if you are going to sell it. nobody wants average weed when they can have dank.

what i have been doing lately is taking cuts a good four weeks before i harvest my flowering tent, sometimes my clones root within a week sometimes they can take 3 weeks using the exact same method so better to be safe than sorry. an empty flower room is an empty heart in my opinion.

when my clones have rooted i will then veg them in 2l pots, sometimes they get 1 week in the pots sometimes 3 but there is never much of a difference because they seem to grow so slow under the cfl (healthy growth, just slow and mainly root development) when the flower tent has been harvested and cleaned (the same day) i will repot the clones into 11l pots and then give them 2-5 days of 24 hour light underneath the 600s, after this i will turn the timer to 12/12 and it starts again.

the products i use to grow (mainly)

canna coco professional plus is the medium, it looks like soil but it is a lot cleaner and lighter and in my opinion much better and actually easier in the long term.
i use canna coco A+B as my base nutes, they do not change through veg and bloom only how much you feed them
i use atami bloombastic as my pk booster and ripener/ sweetener
i also have used a lot of other products but they are not needed as i have completed entire cycles using only these two products and the shit was fire

i have to admit i do like to use canna rhizotonic as a cheat from time to time, it basically takes a week off your cycle time because the plants root system develops so fast they can be flowered earlier and fed more nutrients. again this is an option you don't have to use it.

basically the coco is void of all food, in soil you will have stored nutrients that are released as you water, not in this stuff. the only food in there is what you put there so you know exactly what the plants are getting.

this post has gone on a bit too long and i still haven't told you a thing about growing lol sorry, i will do another detailed post tommorow about how i would normally feed the plants etc.
GHB this is a great example of sharing wisdom. Thank you very much and I look forward to learning more.
 

chargernm

Member
no nutes for a while. then slow as you go is my advice. so many ppl kill their plants with to much love. i'm an organic grower so that's what i push on everyone but you'll find a method that works for you. it's not really rocket science. just don't over feed. you need a full compliment of nutes at some point but ez does it. hope that helps.
So, what you are saying is there is no silver bullet to make them done now? LOL
Dannyboy thank you for your feedback. I will go easy on the babies...
 

BBbubblegum

Well-Known Member
They are stretching, lower your lights and you will be fine. Also, I'm on day 9 of flower of my first grow with my new 96w 2'x4 tube T-5. Link is in my signature if anyone wants to check it out. Need some more people following it and giving advice.
 

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
they are stretching becuz the room is a bit warm probably. they'll be ok though. nice cool bright light. for little guys like that i always use floros. t5's. but you can even throw them right under your hid lights too. just not too close at first. i've stetched more than those and still grew them out fine. babysit them ya know? it'll pay off.
 

chargernm

Member
room is about 70...Ive heard of stretching to reach lights, but not heard of stretching because of temp. Another interesting thing to learn. LOL
Thanks Dannyboy
 

BBbubblegum

Well-Known Member
I've never heard of that either...I think he is referrering to your lights' temperature (Kelvin), but it looks like you have 6400k T-5's which are perfect for veg. Either way, post a pic of your setup, I'd like to see if they stopped stretching and see where your lights are.
 

ghb

Well-Known Member
how were you originally planning to grow charger?

i see you have already got your lighting set up and tent, did you not buy any growing medium or nutes when you got your gear?

if not i would highly recommend you give coco a try, here is how i would typically feed an 8 week strain starting with the veg period.

cuttings and seedlings that have 2 or more true nodes: 2ml/l canna coco A+B

veg plants and first three weeks of flower: 4ml/l A+B

fourth week of flower: 3ml/l A+B 0.5ml/l bloombastic

fifth and sixth week of flower: 2ml/l A+B 1ml/l bloombastic

seventh week of flower : 1ml/l A+B 1.5ml/l bloombastic

eighth week of flower : 1.5ml/l bloombastic for one watering then straight water until harvest. stop watering at least two days before harvest

this is a very basic feeding schedule and will work. you may have to adjust it if the plants begin yellowing prematurely, if so simply add an extra 1ml/l of A+B
you want the plants to yellow out at the end it makes for a much sweeter smoke in my opinion


i could do a much more detailed schedule using all of the products i would recommend if you like, this is just a very simple one that would be very easy for even a noob to follow
 

chargernm

Member
how were you originally planning to grow charger?

i see you have already got your lighting set up and tent, did you not buy any growing medium or nutes when you got your gear?

if not i would highly recommend you give coco a try, here is how i would typically feed an 8 week strain starting with the veg period.

cuttings and seedlings that have 2 or more true nodes: 2ml/l canna coco A+B

veg plants and first three weeks of flower: 4ml/l A+B

fourth week of flower: 3ml/l A+B 0.5ml/l bloombastic

fifth and sixth week of flower: 2ml/l A+B 1ml/l bloombastic

seventh week of flower : 1ml/l A+B 1.5ml/l bloombastic

eighth week of flower : 1.5ml/l bloombastic for one watering then straight water until harvest. stop watering at least two days before harvest

this is a very basic feeding schedule and will work. you may have to adjust it if the plants begin yellowing prematurely, if so simply add an extra 1ml/l of A+B
you want the plants to yellow out at the end it makes for a much sweeter smoke in my opinion


i could do a much more detailed schedule using all of the products i would recommend if you like, this is just a very simple one that would be very easy for even a noob to follow

Well GHB you talked me into it. I was leaning towards soil as it "should" be more forgiving but after reading your post and doing some more research I have decided to go with coco. My seedlings are in the coco base now and under the lights. just giving them ph balanced ro water at this point but will begin a feeding cycle in a week or so. I am going to try this feeding schedule you laid out as it seems the most simple and basic. One question I still have is, do you use cal mag or epsom salts for calcium or just the a b and bloombastic? I appreciate the feedback and help and look forward to sharing my journey. :hump:
 

chargernm

Member
how were you originally planning to grow charger?

i see you have already got your lighting set up and tent, did you not buy any growing medium or nutes when you got your gear?

if not i would highly recommend you give coco a try, here is how i would typically feed an 8 week strain starting with the veg period.

cuttings and seedlings that have 2 or more true nodes: 2ml/l canna coco A+B

veg plants and first three weeks of flower: 4ml/l A+B

fourth week of flower: 3ml/l A+B 0.5ml/l bloombastic

fifth and sixth week of flower: 2ml/l A+B 1ml/l bloombastic

seventh week of flower : 1ml/l A+B 1.5ml/l bloombastic

eighth week of flower : 1.5ml/l bloombastic for one watering then straight water until harvest. stop watering at least two days before harvest

this is a very basic feeding schedule and will work. you may have to adjust it if the plants begin yellowing prematurely, if so simply add an extra 1ml/l of A+B
you want the plants to yellow out at the end it makes for a much sweeter smoke in my opinion


i could do a much more detailed schedule using all of the products i would recommend if you like, this is just a very simple one that would be very easy for even a noob to follow
Well, first of all thank you for all the suggestions and ideas. The plants are doing well and seem happy in the coco. They are now getting nutes with each water cycle and after a very slight initial nute burn they are looking nice.

A couple questions - Should I add cal mag to the feed? I have read that coco is notorious for cal depletion. Next question is should I sprout seeds in coco or a rockwool cube and then transplant to coco?

Thanks everyone for great input.
 

budbro18

Well-Known Member
Check this out! its a nice video by a pretty respected grower/pothead, Jorge Cervantes, and he breaks shit down and explains at a good rate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO6GhtrgxJ8&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY66GdaQb4Q&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxVrE6mLM4&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=6

The first one is the only one you should need to watch but the second and third one go a little more deep into shit and have alot of extra plant videos and what not. More of a fun to watch with a little less information.

Everyone looking to grow should watch these. They give you a good choice of how you want to start growing and help you visualize it before you plunge into it.

Best of luck with your plants

post some pictures soon!
 

chargernm

Member
Check this out! its a nice video by a pretty respected grower/pothead, Jorge Cervantes, and he breaks shit down and explains at a good rate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO6GhtrgxJ8&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY66GdaQb4Q&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxVrE6mLM4&list=UUJLk5DhnVf4Q0LEqVbXLLiw&index=6

The first one is the only one you should need to watch but the second and third one go a little more deep into shit and have alot of extra plant videos and what not. More of a fun to watch with a little less information.

Everyone looking to grow should watch these. They give you a good choice of how you want to start growing and help you visualize it before you plunge into it.

Best of luck with your plants

post some pictures soon!
Great suggestion. Thank you. I will get some new pics up soon.
 
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