Need some advice for starting my first grow

Hello, me and my friends bought some equipement to start our first grow, but, I've got some questions I'd like to know before starting it and then ruin it.

We've got a 400W hps light for growing and flowering, my question is: can we, after the seeds are germinated, after putting them in the soil can we use the 400W lamp right away? Or should we get some other lamp whit less power? If so, what kind of lamp should we get?

How many plants can we grow under a 400W light?

Some seeds are auto, and some aren't, is there a problem growing them together?

Thank you for you attention

You will need some type of fluorescent for the seedling. I use a small 4 lamp 2' fixture just for my seedlings. They probably can't handle that much light this early. I scorched my first seedlings under my 250 watt metal halide, cost me about a month total. So in growing cannabis less is more.

Plants in the vegetative (grow) stage prefer the light spectrum of a metal halide (MH) bulb, but, that's not to say you can't use what you have. Find a comfortable distance for them from the bulb so you don't harm the little spouts.

The amount of plants you wanna grow is dependant on the size of space your growing in.

As far as having some auto and some not, they'll sort themselves out. Keep your eyes peeled for males once you get them on 12/12.

some people prefer to use less wattage at the beginning since they don't need much. i personally dont. yes auto require more light per day, so that would be a problem if u want to get max out of it. 2-4 plants in a 3x3 area.

Ooh well if I were you I'd do a lot of reading! Get a book or watch some vids

u need a florecent light for seedlings, you'll cook your babies if you try and stick a 400w hps on seseedlings

I think 400w is 24 x 24 inch footprint but don't quote me in that I've never used one that small...

The amount of plants you can grow to a decent standard is the amout you can fit in to the light footprint, it depends how you want to use the space, a few small plant, maybe 4 or 2 larger, or 1 bigger one.

ive never used autos but I think you have to run them 20/4 or 24/0 light cycles so in a word, no u can't mix normal and autos.... But double check that cos I'm not 100%

You should really read up the basics man, you'll never grow any decent weed if you don't...


Edit... 3 answers in the time it took me to write 1 lol..^^^^

Make sure before you do anything to ensure your "friends" are thoroughly educated about keeping their mouths shut about what you are doing. The more people involved, the higher the chance of getting unwanted attention.

Cannabiology said:

Make sure before you do anything to ensure your "friends" are thoroughly educated about keeping their mouths shut about what you are doing. The more people involved, the higher the chance of getting unwanted attention.

Click to expand...

That's for sure

Sounds like you are on a budget so it is lucky you can use the 400W'er all thru the grow. I would set the brand new seedlings,
0-7 days in dirt, at least 3 or 4 feet away from the light for their first week. ASAP get some sort of fan action going around the
new seedlings. Early wind action tells the plant to grow a sturdier stem to resist the wind. Better chance you won't have to do
the transplanting while working with a 9-inch toothpick. It takes a pro to TP those 'picks without a fatal TIMBER moment. So get
the fan out to blow indirectly on seedlings. Just enough to see them move in response to the wind.

As soon as the stem looks sturdy jack them nearer the lights. More, stronger lights early makes the plant grow more side branches
and makes everything bushier. More branches = more growing points = more buds!

Figure your plants can grow as close as 24-30 inches to a 400W bulb. With your light ceiling mounted, hold your arms 2-3 feet apart
and hold them under your light. That will give you an idea of how much area under the bulb you will have. With the bulb at 6 feet above the floor,
figure a pot at 12 inches tall and you end up with plants finishing at about 40-48 inches. A 4 foot plant is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet wide. So each plant
would finish at about 5-6 square feet. That would give you a total of 4-6 plants finishing at one time.

You are welcome!
BigSteve.

Hello again, thanks for the advice, i've started a few weeks ago they've been growing well so far, but now they look a little yellow, do you know what might be the problem? I'll send pictures as soon as i can, but if you have time, please answer as soon as possible, it's getting me worried.

Well, even though there aren't any photos yellowing of leaves typically means a nitrogen deficiency. But post the pictures anyway, I'm sure some more knowledgeable people will chime in and help you out.

here are some photos

you should put more dirt in there or else re-seat them (see the thread Long stretchy stems) just below the little round leaves. Do get some air moving around them to toughen up the stems afterwards. Otherwise those stems won't hold up

WTF?
It seems your plants are now about 8+ weeks past the beggining seed sprout/root grow...
How tall are they ? 6" what happened?


How much nutes you giving them ?

What happened the last 7-8 weeks...

Those look like one week old...

they're only 4 weeks old since I putted them in the soil... By now they seem a lot better, the stems looks more strong and they're getting bigger, some of them have a better color, but others still look a bit yellow, i'll upload more pictures as soon as I can. any one knows how to improve the color? Some of the plants are just a tiny little burned in the first leaves, do you know what might be? Sorry my writing, english ios not my mother language. thank you

botafumeiros said:

they're only 4 weeks old since I putted them in the soil... By now they seem a lot better, the stems looks more strong and they're getting bigger, some of them have a better color, but others still look a bit yellow, i'll upload more pictures as soon as I can. any one knows how to improve the color? Some of the plants are just a tiny little burned in the first leaves, do you know what might be? Sorry my writing, english ios not my mother language. thank you

Click to expand...

im not here to slate your grow but to work with what we have. Personally i would start adding some nutes to your soil now with every 3rd watering. eg water-water-feed-water-water-feed and so on. add the nutes to the value of 1/4 strength of the directions on the back of the bottle.. Also i would repot that stem down a little ( remove a few inches of soil at the top and curl the stem around a little to loose a few inches.), get a fan blowing on them a little as said before. Also maybe drop the bulb a couple of inches and see if you see more growth.

I strongly suggest that you move to an organic potting soil. The most amount of plants i would put under a 400 is 4 plants, but in my opinion its pushing it unless you train and prune them out the ass. For your first grow i wouldn't try to do to much to train them unless you further your education in high and low stress training. Heres a mix that is simply for beginners that im using right now without problems; seriously i have not had one except for a small P defeciency that is clearing up right now. Get Fox Farm Ocean Forest; pretty easy to find, and cut it with mushroom compost (great fungi under the soil that can be established). 1/3 of the mix is mushroom compost. that mix should set up up for about 2 weeks of veg. I use peruvian seabird guano after halfway through veg; i like the P for good roots, but people will tell you it can burn your plants...moderation is the key. instead look into kelp meal. side dress it, foliar spray it, or soak it in water with some sugar. Its a great source of N and K and won't burn them. feed kelp all the way through grow expect for like the last 3 weeks of flowering. also invest in Azomite off of Amazon.com. Great source for minerals and that will keep youor pH balenced. from there its kinda all up to you. a couple of suggestions: use molasses and and kelp meal for compost tea during veg to introduce bacterial colonies which convert nitrogen into ammonium nitrogen for veg, and use humic acid, oatmeal, and a nice P source like indo bat guano tea for flowering- this will make a fungi tea which converts nitrogen into nitrates though fungus that it connected to the roots. its a lot to abosrb but hopefully some people will help break it down for you- theres a lot that goes into it, but i want to keep it simple. good luck and let me know if you got questions.