I have been on these forums for some time now, but have never really posted. Most of what I learned about growing I read on these forums. I typed up my own grow guide in hopes that it will be a help to anyone looking to start out! I am also going to be posting an extensive LST guide with pictures in the next week or so.
GROW GUIDE
(Use feminized seeds, its worth paying a little extra for all girls)
Starting with the seeds, you have to germinate them before you put them into dirt
*Start 1 more seed than you want for plants incase one is weak or doesn't germinate or come up*
Place the seeds in between a moist paper towel and place that on a plate with a cover to trap in moisture and place this whole thing on top on a warm surface
The seeds should germinate within 2 days, but they can take longer than that
It is important to keep the paper towel moist at all times so the seeds don't dry out, easiest way is to just use a spray bottle
Check them every few hours because they dry up quickly, make sure not to move them around or touch the taproot because it may harm the seedling
The seeds will be ready for planting once the taproot (white root) comes out of the seed, let it come out about an eigth of an inch before you plant it
Once you are ready to plant the seeds, use a pair of tweezers to pick up the seed and place it in the dirt
- Setting up the starter cups for the seeds you need to buy party cups (not clear) and seed starter soil from home depot will work fine
Use something sharp to poke abut 3 or 4 good holes in the bottoms of the cups for drainage(very important)
Fill the cups almost to the top with dirt, don't pack the dirt in though
At this point you want to water all the cups so that the dirt is wet but so that it isn't soaking wet, you want to make sure though that it doesn't dry up fast
Then use your finger and make a small hole in the dirt about a half inch or the tip of your finger deep
Put the seed in the damp dirt with the root facing down and lightly cover it up with soil
At this point you are going to place them under your lights
Because you are using high pressure sodium lights you are gonna want to start them with the light about 2 feet away
Because they are so small at this point you don't want to burn them out with the lights
Keep an oscolating fan lightly blowing on them as well once they start coming out (they will be weak without some sort of air circulation going over them)
Make sure you check them multiple times a day, because you don't want them to dry out, being really small they will most likely die if that happens
They should break the soil in a day or two and they will slowly come up and will throw off their seed casing
Don't try to take it off, it will always fall off on its own at some point
Once they reach about an inch and start developing their real first set of leaves you can lower the light if you want about a half a foot, you don't really need to though
They will take about a week and a half before they are ready to be transplanted, they will be about 3 inches or so tall and will have developed 3 or 4 sets of leafs
When you go to transplant them, make sure that the dirt is moist or else when you try to get the rootball out it will crumble apart and break the roots up
They easiest way to do it is cut the side of the cup open with scissors and carefully peel the cup open and pull the whole rootball out
Then you are going to want to place that into your 5 gallon bucket of dirt
- Use 5 gallon buckets so that you don't have to worry about them ever outgrowing the buckets, because if you "top" them at all, it promotes root growth (5 gallon buckets are a good size so you don't have to worry about them becoming rootbound)
Also you have to water them less often because they can take a lot more water (I used to water them every 3 to 4 days)
Use Miracle Grow potting soil from home depot, each bag will fill about 2 or 3 buckets worth, also get PERLITE to mix in
Mix about a 1/4 to 1/3 of the bucket worth of perlite with the dirt, don't pack it down, the perlite helps make the soil looser
Don't fill the buckets up all the way with dirt, dig out a hole about the size of your fist ( big enough to put the rootball in)
Place it in and fill around it and around with dirt lightly, don't pack it down
Make sure to put 3 or 4 holes into the 5 gallon buckets as well and also get some plastic drainage tray to put under them
Because you used potting soil they shouldn't need any fertilizer for another 2 or 3 weeks, use Peter's 20-20-20 or any fertilizer with a similar NPK ratio
- For fertilizing, start off at 1/4 strength of what the package says to use and everytime you fertilize them up the amount until you reach full dosage after 3 times of doing it
You shouldn't have to worry at all about over fertilizing if u just go by the directions
You are going to have to get a light timer as well in order to set up the light cycles, 18 hours on and 6 off for vegetative stage, then 12 hours on, 12 hours off for flowering stage
At this time (vegetative), the lights will be on the 18/6 schedule, a good height to grow them to is when they are all about 15 inches tall or about a month and a half after they were planted
Once they hit the desired height is when you are going to switch the light cycle over and they are going to start budding
- An example of the light cycle would be the lights come on at 6 in the morning and they go off at midnight
Once they are changed to 12/12 you just change it instead to turn on at noon instead of 6 in the morning
You are going to want to put the light about a foot away, maybe a little closer if you have good ventilation, it is important to put the light as close as you can to the plants
If you use a COOLTUBE you can put the light a few inches away, this is the best choice for a style of light, easy to vent and can be close to the plants tops
*Important* your grow space cannot have any outside light leaks, during the dark times it has to be pitch black and don't interrupt it with light
It can be kinda tricky, but you have to make sure there are no light leaks (get inside your grow space and look around)
For the first 2 to 3 weeks of flowering the plants are going to "stretch" a lot, expect most plants to about double in height, so make sure to have enough room to raise the lights
During this time also, you are most likely going to have to raise the light everyday or every other day because of how fast they are going to grow
White hairs will start slowly appearing and the buds will eventually form from those points
It will take a few weeks before the buds really start forming, after the 5th or 6th week is when they really start to take off
Just maintain the watering and fertilizing schedule during this time, but when you switch the plants over to flowering is when you are going to start with new fertilizer
Miracle Grow Bloom Booster works fine, its 15-30-15, try to fertilize them when you change the lights in the first week to give them a boost
For the most part, all strains will take at least 8 weeks to finish, most likely it will be 9 or 10, you don't want to cut early and lose out on more bud weight!
A lot of people say cutting them down early is a common error, so just let them go their full time
It will say on the package when you buy the seeds roughly how long the flowering time is, some people use a magnifying glass to look at the trichomes on the plants (crystals)
I think its hard to tell, just let them go the full flowering time and it should be good, you can tell what finished bud looks like (if think they are done, give them a few more days to a week, it is hard for them to "over ripen")
For the last 2 weeks of the plants life before you cut it down, just give them plain water, this flushes all the fertilizers out of the plant making it smoke smoother (supposedly) (I have tried flushing and not flushing, and to me honestly there was no noticeable difference between the two)
During flowering, you will get leaves that turn yellow and die, you may even lose most your leaves by the end, its not that big of a deal, as long as the bugs continue to grow and look healthy
I have noticed, once a plant makes it past a month or so, it will take something pretty drastic to kill it before you could harvest it, don't worry about yellowing leaves during flowering
When the day comes that they are done you are going to want to let the lights go off at their normal time and then let the plants sit in the dark for 48 hours afterwards (this is not a vital step, again, i don't know if it actually does anything)
After the 48 hours of darkness, time to cut them down, make sure to leave fans on during that time to keep the air circulating
- One of the worst things is mold, it ruins weed really easily and its annoying to waste good bud to mold
You can go to home depot and get a pair of trimming scissors ($10-$15?), cut off all the leaves and trim the buds up nicely
Trim the leaves close to the bud because when it dry it will shrink and you maybe have to re-trim some leaves
Save all of your trim because you want save it to make hash with, all the small leaf clippings with crystals on them (you get really good hash)
Hang them in a dark area (your grow space) that is vented and have a fan blowing, but not directly on the buds, you don't want to dry them too fast, also don't dry them in the sun, it destroys the thc
I have heard people say they only hang dry the bud for a few days, in my experience, it takes at least a week for me at 60-70% humidity and in the 60's
You are better to slightly over dry it then lose it all to mold, after a week or so of drying it will go into jars for curing
The stems snapping is a rough indicator that they are done drying, but it depends also on how dense and how big your buds are, play it safe at this point
If you have very large buds, you are going to have to break them up slightly or else they won't dry evenly
Fill the cars, but loosely and not all they way, you are gonna want to open them 2 or 3 times a day for the first week, shake them up, move buds around and let them air out for about 5 minutes each time
Just shake the buds around and open it, let it sit then seal it back up, it is important to do this step, this is where you can get mold fast
*Do Not go more than a day without opening them in the beginning of curing*
After the first week, do it once or so a day, remember when you initially put them in jars they are going to moisten back up slightly because its drawing the moisture out
After about a week, it will smoke and taste better, and after a month they will look, taste and smoke way better then when they were first dried, it will also be a smoother smoke
I usually smoke out of 1 jar while the rest cures, and then the stuff you are smoking is sorta curing as you smoke it
Additional Notes:
Make sure that your grow space temps stay in the 70's
I have used Miracle Grow soil and ferts and have got good results, some people claim otherwise though
Realistically you are going to get around 2 ounces per plant just growing them out normally
My advice would be if you think you can take on LSTing them, DO IT, you will 4 -5 ounces per plant and it will be all top cola buds, hardly any popcorn
Run you lights for a day or two before you start to make sure that your temps stay ok, heat can build up over the course of the day, so make sure you are venting well
Refrain from touching the buds as much as you can
For lights - 100 watts per plant minimum, ideally use 200 watts per plant (2 plants per 400 watt HPS) and you will get very good results
********Tell as few people as you can!!!!********
If I missed anything or anyone has questions just let me know. I uploaded some random pictures from my last few grows. Good Luck!
GROW GUIDE
(Use feminized seeds, its worth paying a little extra for all girls)
Starting with the seeds, you have to germinate them before you put them into dirt
*Start 1 more seed than you want for plants incase one is weak or doesn't germinate or come up*
Place the seeds in between a moist paper towel and place that on a plate with a cover to trap in moisture and place this whole thing on top on a warm surface
The seeds should germinate within 2 days, but they can take longer than that
It is important to keep the paper towel moist at all times so the seeds don't dry out, easiest way is to just use a spray bottle
Check them every few hours because they dry up quickly, make sure not to move them around or touch the taproot because it may harm the seedling
The seeds will be ready for planting once the taproot (white root) comes out of the seed, let it come out about an eigth of an inch before you plant it
Once you are ready to plant the seeds, use a pair of tweezers to pick up the seed and place it in the dirt
- Setting up the starter cups for the seeds you need to buy party cups (not clear) and seed starter soil from home depot will work fine
Use something sharp to poke abut 3 or 4 good holes in the bottoms of the cups for drainage(very important)
Fill the cups almost to the top with dirt, don't pack the dirt in though
At this point you want to water all the cups so that the dirt is wet but so that it isn't soaking wet, you want to make sure though that it doesn't dry up fast
Then use your finger and make a small hole in the dirt about a half inch or the tip of your finger deep
Put the seed in the damp dirt with the root facing down and lightly cover it up with soil
At this point you are going to place them under your lights
Because you are using high pressure sodium lights you are gonna want to start them with the light about 2 feet away
Because they are so small at this point you don't want to burn them out with the lights
Keep an oscolating fan lightly blowing on them as well once they start coming out (they will be weak without some sort of air circulation going over them)
Make sure you check them multiple times a day, because you don't want them to dry out, being really small they will most likely die if that happens
They should break the soil in a day or two and they will slowly come up and will throw off their seed casing
Don't try to take it off, it will always fall off on its own at some point
Once they reach about an inch and start developing their real first set of leaves you can lower the light if you want about a half a foot, you don't really need to though
They will take about a week and a half before they are ready to be transplanted, they will be about 3 inches or so tall and will have developed 3 or 4 sets of leafs
When you go to transplant them, make sure that the dirt is moist or else when you try to get the rootball out it will crumble apart and break the roots up
They easiest way to do it is cut the side of the cup open with scissors and carefully peel the cup open and pull the whole rootball out
Then you are going to want to place that into your 5 gallon bucket of dirt
- Use 5 gallon buckets so that you don't have to worry about them ever outgrowing the buckets, because if you "top" them at all, it promotes root growth (5 gallon buckets are a good size so you don't have to worry about them becoming rootbound)
Also you have to water them less often because they can take a lot more water (I used to water them every 3 to 4 days)
Use Miracle Grow potting soil from home depot, each bag will fill about 2 or 3 buckets worth, also get PERLITE to mix in
Mix about a 1/4 to 1/3 of the bucket worth of perlite with the dirt, don't pack it down, the perlite helps make the soil looser
Don't fill the buckets up all the way with dirt, dig out a hole about the size of your fist ( big enough to put the rootball in)
Place it in and fill around it and around with dirt lightly, don't pack it down
Make sure to put 3 or 4 holes into the 5 gallon buckets as well and also get some plastic drainage tray to put under them
Because you used potting soil they shouldn't need any fertilizer for another 2 or 3 weeks, use Peter's 20-20-20 or any fertilizer with a similar NPK ratio
- For fertilizing, start off at 1/4 strength of what the package says to use and everytime you fertilize them up the amount until you reach full dosage after 3 times of doing it
You shouldn't have to worry at all about over fertilizing if u just go by the directions
You are going to have to get a light timer as well in order to set up the light cycles, 18 hours on and 6 off for vegetative stage, then 12 hours on, 12 hours off for flowering stage
At this time (vegetative), the lights will be on the 18/6 schedule, a good height to grow them to is when they are all about 15 inches tall or about a month and a half after they were planted
Once they hit the desired height is when you are going to switch the light cycle over and they are going to start budding
- An example of the light cycle would be the lights come on at 6 in the morning and they go off at midnight
Once they are changed to 12/12 you just change it instead to turn on at noon instead of 6 in the morning
You are going to want to put the light about a foot away, maybe a little closer if you have good ventilation, it is important to put the light as close as you can to the plants
If you use a COOLTUBE you can put the light a few inches away, this is the best choice for a style of light, easy to vent and can be close to the plants tops
*Important* your grow space cannot have any outside light leaks, during the dark times it has to be pitch black and don't interrupt it with light
It can be kinda tricky, but you have to make sure there are no light leaks (get inside your grow space and look around)
For the first 2 to 3 weeks of flowering the plants are going to "stretch" a lot, expect most plants to about double in height, so make sure to have enough room to raise the lights
During this time also, you are most likely going to have to raise the light everyday or every other day because of how fast they are going to grow
White hairs will start slowly appearing and the buds will eventually form from those points
It will take a few weeks before the buds really start forming, after the 5th or 6th week is when they really start to take off
Just maintain the watering and fertilizing schedule during this time, but when you switch the plants over to flowering is when you are going to start with new fertilizer
Miracle Grow Bloom Booster works fine, its 15-30-15, try to fertilize them when you change the lights in the first week to give them a boost
For the most part, all strains will take at least 8 weeks to finish, most likely it will be 9 or 10, you don't want to cut early and lose out on more bud weight!
A lot of people say cutting them down early is a common error, so just let them go their full time
It will say on the package when you buy the seeds roughly how long the flowering time is, some people use a magnifying glass to look at the trichomes on the plants (crystals)
I think its hard to tell, just let them go the full flowering time and it should be good, you can tell what finished bud looks like (if think they are done, give them a few more days to a week, it is hard for them to "over ripen")
For the last 2 weeks of the plants life before you cut it down, just give them plain water, this flushes all the fertilizers out of the plant making it smoke smoother (supposedly) (I have tried flushing and not flushing, and to me honestly there was no noticeable difference between the two)
During flowering, you will get leaves that turn yellow and die, you may even lose most your leaves by the end, its not that big of a deal, as long as the bugs continue to grow and look healthy
I have noticed, once a plant makes it past a month or so, it will take something pretty drastic to kill it before you could harvest it, don't worry about yellowing leaves during flowering
When the day comes that they are done you are going to want to let the lights go off at their normal time and then let the plants sit in the dark for 48 hours afterwards (this is not a vital step, again, i don't know if it actually does anything)
After the 48 hours of darkness, time to cut them down, make sure to leave fans on during that time to keep the air circulating
- One of the worst things is mold, it ruins weed really easily and its annoying to waste good bud to mold
You can go to home depot and get a pair of trimming scissors ($10-$15?), cut off all the leaves and trim the buds up nicely
Trim the leaves close to the bud because when it dry it will shrink and you maybe have to re-trim some leaves
Save all of your trim because you want save it to make hash with, all the small leaf clippings with crystals on them (you get really good hash)
Hang them in a dark area (your grow space) that is vented and have a fan blowing, but not directly on the buds, you don't want to dry them too fast, also don't dry them in the sun, it destroys the thc
I have heard people say they only hang dry the bud for a few days, in my experience, it takes at least a week for me at 60-70% humidity and in the 60's
You are better to slightly over dry it then lose it all to mold, after a week or so of drying it will go into jars for curing
The stems snapping is a rough indicator that they are done drying, but it depends also on how dense and how big your buds are, play it safe at this point
If you have very large buds, you are going to have to break them up slightly or else they won't dry evenly
Fill the cars, but loosely and not all they way, you are gonna want to open them 2 or 3 times a day for the first week, shake them up, move buds around and let them air out for about 5 minutes each time
Just shake the buds around and open it, let it sit then seal it back up, it is important to do this step, this is where you can get mold fast
*Do Not go more than a day without opening them in the beginning of curing*
After the first week, do it once or so a day, remember when you initially put them in jars they are going to moisten back up slightly because its drawing the moisture out
After about a week, it will smoke and taste better, and after a month they will look, taste and smoke way better then when they were first dried, it will also be a smoother smoke
I usually smoke out of 1 jar while the rest cures, and then the stuff you are smoking is sorta curing as you smoke it
Additional Notes:
Make sure that your grow space temps stay in the 70's
I have used Miracle Grow soil and ferts and have got good results, some people claim otherwise though
Realistically you are going to get around 2 ounces per plant just growing them out normally
My advice would be if you think you can take on LSTing them, DO IT, you will 4 -5 ounces per plant and it will be all top cola buds, hardly any popcorn
Run you lights for a day or two before you start to make sure that your temps stay ok, heat can build up over the course of the day, so make sure you are venting well
Refrain from touching the buds as much as you can
For lights - 100 watts per plant minimum, ideally use 200 watts per plant (2 plants per 400 watt HPS) and you will get very good results
********Tell as few people as you can!!!!********
If I missed anything or anyone has questions just let me know. I uploaded some random pictures from my last few grows. Good Luck!
