New Wannabe Grower...Need Suggestions

Hey everyone,

I got this wild idea to plant a few seeds and see what would happen. Honestly, I didn't even expect them to sprout. One week ago today I planted several dark grey seeds in a little green pot and potting soil. Now I have three little green sprouts, and they are growing fast! Now that I have these little babies, I have NO idea what to do with them. I've always been horrible with plants.

There is tons of information out there, but it's quite overwhelming and I'm not sure where to begin. As of right now, I'm only watering every few days and I am growing in doors, in my window sill. One of the sprouts already have leaves.

I am looking for any advise that you pro's, or even amateurs may have to offer, as I'm at a loss. Now that the little beauties have sprouted, I find myself rather attached and I really want to take care of them.

Thanks everyone,

Red

Hi RED FOX..

1. PH TESTER - this is a must and is the corner stone of all growing.. You must water your plants with PH 6.8 water. see link
http://www.plantitearth.com/store/product.asp?pid=304&catid=65

2. Lighting.. window sill lighting is not enough. Purchase 150 watt CFL (purchase 1 or 2 or 5 or 10) at Home depot or Wall mart and keep it as close as possible to your plant. Less than 1 inch..


post a picture..

iloveyou

I did exactly the same thing a few years ago. I just left them on the window sill and repotted as and when required. I bought a bag of soil and just let them grow. I also gave them miracle grow. I didn't measure it just poured it in along with the water. Those little babies grew to about 3 feet tall... but that's all they did. I live in England, and as you are probably aware the weather isn't too clever over here, but they still grew. They never grew any buds, i'm not sure about sex organs because I didn't even know that plants had them. Maybe I'd grown 2 males, I'll never know. I had to get rid of them as I was getting into a little trouble with the old bill on different matters.

Anyway, none of this helps you... so all I can suggest is...

Buy 3, at least, 10 litre plant pots. The bigger the better! Remember though that you'll have to fill these with a soil and perlite mix. Buy a 40 litre bag of soil and a bag of perlite if you want to mix it yourself. Else you can buy it ready mixed for a few extra sheckles.

Next, buy one metal-halide lamp or high pressure sodium lamp of at least 400w and set it up 12-20 inches above the top of the plants. Common sense determining the wattage to distance ratio.

Next, ph the soil to 6.8 (as only i found out today! I ph'd mine to around 6.5, 6.6). This is easy. Find a local grow shop, one that sells cannabis seeds, hydroponics and suchlike. Ask for a ph tester kit, then ask how to use it.

That's pretty much it. Let them grow for a week under the light and start adding plant food. Keep the light on for 18 hours and off for 6. Work out a time frame that suits you best. Remember that you should disturb the plants as little as possible during their night.

Set all this up asap to get the most out of your plants.

I was thinking of possibly transplanting them outside once they got a bit bigger, but I'm wondering if it's not too late in the season.

BTW, I have a fourth!

if you live anywhere in the US, it is too later to transplant outside. theyd probably just die due to cold weather. if youre planning on an indoor setup, you need to consider a couple things. like space, budget, security, etc.

Well, I tried to take Garden Knowm's advice, but Wal-Mart and Home Depot didn't have jack shit in my area. I ended up purchasing a 30 watt sun bulb for the time being...it's all they had. Talk about frustration.

wal-mart has compact fluorescents. i know because thats where i get mine from. i think the biggest one they have is 42 watts

OK........well, I just about have all of my necessities to do this right, just waiting on a few more items to come in that I ordered. I've added a few more lights and now I have 15 little guys growing. I'm not sure how I ended up with that many.....I guess I only expected just a couple of them to actually do anything.

Wish me luck everyone, and I'll keep you posted on how it's going. By the by, should these plants actually succeed, then I intend on investing in White Widow, or something of higher quality then just a few seeds that I picked out of my most recent purchase.

Happy growing!

Hi Red,

I travel around a lot. I have been to 25 states in the past 4 months and at least 25 wall marts. I have checked on these bulbs in all the wal marts I have been in. They have all had these bulbs in store.

I have seen the price vary. The cheapest I have seen them at wal mart is $8.40 and the cheapest I have seen then at Home Depot is $4.96 (because PG&E were subsidizing the bulbs in California).

These really are the best low end bulbs around. I highly recommend you use them.

iloveyou

Ooohhhhh! NOW I get it, Garden Knowm, what with your helpful nature, and all that iloveyou stuff, and you travel around to different stores,


You're the walmart greeter!

15 plants are going to need a lot of light. Get as many bulbs as you can and keep them real close. Only if you're still using flourescents though.

Do you have people that greet you in supermarkets in the U.S.? That would do my head in, people acting all cheery to pick up minimum wage. Do you have that in the U.S., a minimum wage?

yes skunk we have the dreaded minimum wage

I'm a new grower myself and last year I did the same thing kind of. Somehow a seed sprouted, and I just watched over it and watered it once in awhile as it grew. It did end up having buds, but only literally about 5 or 6 and they were really small, minus the cola, (maybe enough for a bowl full or 2) it was very good quality however, I imagine because there were only a few buds to focus the energy on, but anyways.. I become very infatuated, intrigued and altogether amazed with the growing process and how resilient and just beautiful these plants are. Gave me a whole different perspective on MJ altogether. A new appreciation you could say.

I am on my first real attempt this year, after last year's big inspirational "AHA" MOMENT LOL....and im almost done I would say now. Maybe another week or 2.

What really helped me was that 1st year just watching and reading up on stuff. Learn as much as you can before you attempt to grow anything....It was my biggest help. Once you learn and understand why a plant does what it does, all the color changes from nute burn/toxicity/etc.. you will know exactly what to do if you ever encounter an n issue, especially because of how resilient they are, you can have up to a week or longer to figure out a easily fixable problem.

The best and biggest tip I can give to you is learn to understand what the plant is "telling you" I call it. Once you understand your plants, it's literally like a non verbal communication process.. you just have to listen lol.

My plants are outside In decently sized sized pot(so I can move them incase of to much rain/sun/anything unexpected), I have a nice soil/fertilizer mix and literally all I have to do is water them 2 or 3 times a week, and nature does the rest. I just add or take away different things depending on what my plants are "telling me". After that I imagine it's just experience and personal preferences on what you do, or how you do it.

For a first try with no enhancers, special tools or lights, no chemicals pre-made or store bought, (i used banana peels for potassium, coffee grounds for slow release nitrogen/bugs, heard it helps and I've had no issues with bugs thankfully. ] and honestly I used some odd stuff for nutrients sometimes just on a whim, like all natural/sugar free apple juice , and sometimes vitamin waters....diluted with purified water, they have a lot of potassium, manganese, and other little vitamins and minerals that I figured couldn't hurt as long as they were diluted in small doses and not all sugary... which honestly may or may not have helped but, it definitely didn't hurt lol. I treated them like they were my child and only fed them the best I could and used common sense. ... I feel like most people's mistakes happen, on ANYTHING, come from overthinking things or not trusting your instincts. Best of luck to you my dude.

Here's what what my babies look like as of this morning, i germinated the seeds on June 1st, (I wanted to keep them short for security purposes where I live) so you can decide whether or not to take some, all, Or none of my advice ... up to you.

My sativa is first, then my indica. Idk the strains, they were random from my collection as this year was just a trial run to see if I had the time to do it properly..