Looking for advice/help for 1st grow. No stupid questions.

OK, so I've decided that I want to start growing (which should be fairly obvious considering where we are.) Anyway, I'm still in planning stages, although i do have some seeds ready, and I need some advice and guidance from you more experienced types.

I'm not planning on a huge operation, I wanna grow primarily for me and about 5 friends. So I'm thinking I'll have like 4 plants at a time (obviously in the early stages I might get screwed over by too many males, but once I get a good girl and clone her I shouldn't have any problems).

My initial plan was to use SOG, because I really only have probably a max of 4 feet and I have to fit lighting and pots into that, so I doubt these plants can get much bigger than 3'. I was going to have a 4x2x4 box to house everything in, which would help avoid light leaks and smells. That would give me eight square feet, so each plant could have 2 with possible expansion for eight plants with 1 square foot each. The box would have two computer fans on either side for airflow, and a flouro mounted on chains (so it could be kept close to the plants as they grow.) I figured I'd veg until they were like 2.5', and then induce flowering.

Now I think I may have been thinking too simply. I was just planning on using regular potting soil and regular flouros from home depot. Will that be ok, for the size of operation I'm running? I mean, I really don't even have room for anything bigger than that.

I guess what I'm really wondering is if the flouros would be ok to grow four plants with SOG, or if it is necessary to invest in a MH lamp. I figure I could probably run 4 floros in the box, and they don't get real hot so I wouldn't have to worry about my box burning my house down.

Sorry for wall of text, hope my question's not too noobish for an answer.

Hmm. I couldn't find an edit button, so I'll double post. CFLs, as I understand them, are floros that plug into the socket of a regular incandescent bulb. Should I be looking into adding those? Or, maybe I could order this , if the floros aren't going to work. Remember though, I only wanna grow for me and some friends, so paying 120 bucks for lights is kind of a lot, and that thing probably runs too hot for a box of that size. Plus ordering a light is kind of tricky because I'm only 18 still living with the rents. So any packages show up for me, they're going to be asking whats in them.

If you have 3' of headroom, you want to start flowering at no higher than 12" -- MJ will stretch 2-4X in height when you go into flowering stage. For a first grow, a lot of pro's recommend going simple as possible -- no SOG, pruning and bending, etc and other things people do to enhance small grow spaces. You'll have enough challenges just figuring out what the plant does normally as it goes thru its stages -- germinating, seedling, sprout, mature veg, flowering etc. -- all these things have their twists and tweaks. I've found that to be good advice.

Since you're planning to exhaust your box, I'd go ahead and get a HPS or MH lamp (preferably HPS or a switchable -- you can get "enhanced bulbs" for HPS that take the place of MH). Are you building your own box? If so, consider making that 2' dimension a 3' -- that extra foot will come in handy in later stages when your plants will grow out laterally as much as upwards.

I almost went flouros, then reconsidered and went 400w HPS/MH switchable. What a smart move that was.. Your box may be a little tight for 400w; maybe 250w is better. But, maybe prowl around on the Indoor and Grow Room forums and see how small folks get with cabs and 400's -- you want all the light you can afford and manage heat off of... Good luck.

AgentWiggles said:

Hmm. I couldn't find an edit button, so I'll double post. CFLs, as I understand them, are floros that plug into the socket of a regular incandescent bulb. Should I be looking into adding those? Or, maybe I could order this , if the floros aren't going to work. Remember though, I only wanna grow for me and some friends, so paying 120 bucks for lights is kind of a lot, and that thing probably runs too hot for a box of that size. Plus ordering a light is kind of tricky because I'm only 18 still living with the rents. So any packages show up for me, they're going to be asking whats in them.

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Sorry.. didn't see your second post. Damn straight -- a 40-pound HPS box on your doorstep is likely to raise questions. But my other advice still applies..

Still, go to the Indoor Forum -- there's a sub-forum devoted to CFL's and various set-ups thereof...

Kriegs said:

Sorry.. didn't see your second post. Damn straight -- a 40-pound HPS box on your doorstep is likely to raise questions. But my other advice still applies..

Still, go to the Indoor Forum -- there's a sub-forum devoted to CFL's and various set-ups thereof...

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Yeah, I just found that forum, and I think CFLs are definitely the way to go for what I'm doing.

I see now that SOG isn't really necessary. I thought, at first, that it was required, because I thought that the plants actually wouldn't flower at that height unless I did it. Yeah, I'll be doing a simple grow to get it under my belt.

I know this is probably a difficult question to answer, but what would be a reasonabl estimation of the yield of 4 plants grown with CFLs about 3 ft high? I'm hoping to get about 2 oz, dried and cured, but I'd love to find out that that's an low estimate.

OH - one more question. Should I worry about fertilizing? Because there's SO much info on it, and I'm pretty confused.

I think I might be able to find room for another foot. I am a little worried about odor control though - I just got these seeds from my friend, he said they were in the bag. So I have no way to know how smelly these plants are going to be.

Oh well, can't grow pot in your parent's house without SOME risk, right?

AgentWiggles said:

Yeah, I just found that forum, and I think CFLs are definitely the way to go for what I'm doing.

I see now that SOG isn't really necessary. I thought, at first, that it was required, because I thought that the plants actually wouldn't flower at that height unless I did it. Yeah, I'll be doing a simple grow to get it under my belt.

I know this is probably a difficult question to answer, but what would be a reasonabl estimation of the yield of 4 plants grown with CFLs about 3 ft high? I'm hoping to get about 2 oz, dried and cured, but I'd love to find out that that's an low estimate.

OH - one more question. Should I worry about fertilizing? Because there's SO much info on it, and I'm pretty confused.

I think I might be able to find room for another foot. I am a little worried about odor control though - I just got these seeds from my friend, he said they were in the bag. So I have no way to know how smelly these plants are going to be.

Oh well, can't grow pot in your parent's house without SOME risk, right?

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Yeah.. simple is good. Trust me - you'll thank yourself six weeks from now.

Two oz might be reasonable, maybe even low; I don't have enough experience to tell you. I'm on my first grow with 400HPS... no CFL experience. But, you'll get a sense from the CFL threads... lot of yield claims in there (take grain of salt here).

Fertilizers... yow!! People have written whole books on this.. much of it good, much of it bullshit. Here's what I did and what I learned: used pre-fertilized MiracleGro potting soil (the one that says "feeds for 3 months!"); planted germ'ed seeds right into 2-gallon pots full of it. The grew out, got a little nutrient burned early (cause seedlings don't need any nutes at all), and worked their way thru it and took off. All looked fantastic at 4 weeks. Then, I tried to be smarter than the plant and started adding Foxfarm nutrients despite no sign from the plant that it wanted any. Burned the shit out of 'em. So, first time around, get a pre-ferted soil and don't add anything to it besides water. And don't buy any of these bloated claims from nutrient companies with MJ leaves or psychedelia on their labels. They're all about the same, do have a lot of good stuff in them, but one's really no better than the other.

No matter what the g-damn bottle says, use it at 1/4 strength at first -- give your plant at least a week to tell you if it approves.

Odor.. yes.. must control... You'll need to duct your exhaust thru a carbon filter. Nothing less will do in your situation. Check the Grow Room forum -- lots of DIY on carbon setups there --- I don't have one, can't help you with that.

Above all, don't ever forget that MJ is a plant, a weed... it's not a heavenly entity that needs a special voodoo to grow that corn doesn't. It has requirements, no doubt, but it can all be very simple. Light, water, decent soil, love..

Good luck man.. keep us posted!

Yeah, you know, I got the idea to do this about a week ago and I've been reading up on it all over the web, but this site is by far the best, simply because you can get answers to any questions you have.

I was thinking it might be cool if I did a grow journal on my first grow. I know a lot of people do journals but I think a lot of people would find it interesting to see a noob's first grow. Also, anyone in the same situation as me could definitely benefit from it, (i.e. having to control odor, keep it stealthy.)

AgentWiggles said:

Yeah, you know, I got the idea to do this about a week ago and I've been reading up on it all over the web, but this site is by far the best, simply because you can get answers to any questions you have.

I was thinking it might be cool if I did a grow journal on my first grow. I know a lot of people do journals but I think a lot of people would find it interesting to see a noob's first grow. Also, anyone in the same situation as me could definitely benefit from it, (i.e. having to control odor, keep it stealthy.)

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I hear you.. you're a young guy. I'm an old smoker who's been tokin' for decades and it finally (DUH!!) dawned on me to grow my own. Started a little 'net search and... holy crap.. what a world opened to me eyes...

It would be very cool to do a grow journal. I didn't think of it, and wished I did. You'd all get a good belly laugh out of the stupid things I did, and would also be very encouraged by how tenacious and willful MJ is to grow and produce bud. MJ is one bitch that will never quit!!

Well, since Kriegs answered pretty much all of your questions, I just want to encourage you to do a grow journal. That way, noobs(like me) can learn from your mistakes, and pros can give you advice if you run into trouble at any stage of your grow. It will make things much easier for you, and you'll probably learn a lot in the process.

Well, I'm getting close to ready. However, I don't have a digital camera of my own, so we'll have to settle for shitty cellphone pics. Now I basically just play the waiting game - I was at Home Depot today scoping out prices on stuff, so I'm pretty close to ready. I need to get another 50 dollars or so for supplies (which might take a while) and I want to wait until it warms up a bit - we were having nice 50 degree weather and it dropped down to 20 (almost killed my cat), so I guess you'll hear from me again when I start this thing up. Thanks for your help, guys.