Nutrients For Next Years (My first) grow

Hello all,
So Ive been an avid smoker for a year or two now, and now I want to grow to save money. Ive been reading alot about nutrients and when to feed but I still dont get it. So from what I understand this is best for the following:
Vegetation stage (Not budding, mature enough to take nutes):
Nitrogen is good for this stage
Budding(White hairs, stop pinching at this point)
Potassium is best here
So Ive heard a lot of different things about soil and nutrients and fertilizer, but my main question I guess is;
Could I use banana peels for potassium? I heard if you place the peel like 3-4 inches from the stem it works for other types of plants, would this work for Cannabis? Also if it helps I am in the NorthEast and am gonna grow Girl Scout Cookie. This is my first grow, so please try and keep it in simple terms as I am a massive noob

Just buy a base set from one of the major brands. Most have some form of: Micro, Grow, Bloom (trace elements, veg nutes, flower nutes). The Fox Farms Trio is less than $50 and at least guarantees you getting started in most (all?) soils.

The world of cannabis nutes is a Wild-Wild West of sorts, TONS of bullshit. I recommend you start with a popular set that can get the most people SOME results and explore from there. I started with FF, moving onto Heavy 16 now. Depending on how hard your water is, you might want to look into a cal-mag supplement.

check out purelifeveganix.com it basically gives you a whole line and schedule its pretty noob friendly its working on my first grow right now so far theyre looking great!

Traxxasfan said:

Hello all,
So Ive been an avid smoker for a year or two now, and now I want to grow to save money. Ive been reading alot about nutrients and when to feed but I still dont get it. So from what I understand this is best for the following:
Vegetation stage (Not budding, mature enough to take nutes):
Nitrogen is good for this stage
Budding(White hairs, stop pinching at this point)
Potassium is best here
So Ive heard a lot of different things about soil and nutrients and fertilizer, but my main question I guess is;
Could I use banana peels for potassium? I heard if you place the peel like 3-4 inches from the stem it works for other types of plants, would this work for Cannabis? Also if it helps I am in the NorthEast and am gonna grow Girl Scout Cookie. This is my first grow, so please try and keep it in simple terms as I am a massive noob

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General Hydroponics Flora series. It comes with the Grow, Bloom and Micros. $33 delivered and you can grow pounds and pounds with as much as you get of it. Add some calcium and magnesium (Epsom salts are perfect for the magnesium) and use the money you saved to buy equipment. There is nothing available though to make up for the lack of experience.KISS!

Yeah Ive been debating on buying nutrients from online and stuff, just to save me on the hassle, but I would eventually like to make my own, and make my own fertilizer and stuff like that, just for the sake of keeping it all under my control. Any tips on that? Ill probably just buy nutes this year, until I get the hang of things. Also, how much should I buy? Is just one order of the stuff good or do I need to get more?
Also, I am going to be growing outdoors.

1 nute start to finish. Gh. maxi,used with tap water(gassed out) reall no need for anything more.a bag big enought to grow 7-8 lbs. in hydro is only $10.

Traxxasfan said:

Yeah Ive been debating on buying nutrients from online and stuff, just to save me on the hassle, but I would eventually like to make my own, and make my own fertilizer and stuff like that, just for the sake of keeping it all under my control. Any tips on that? Ill probably just buy nutes this year, until I get the hang of things. Also, how much should I buy? Is just one order of the stuff good or do I need to get more?
Also, I am going to be growing outdoors.

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If you're going to buy nutes for only one grow, or only one year (so maybe 2-3 grows) I wouldn't spend a large amount of money. I would buy the smallest amount I could because they generally will last you for a long time. I use Jacks classic and Jacks bloom for my nutes, pretty inexpensive and very effective. The GH flora series is also at a good price point as hotrodharley mentioned too.

When you say you want to "make my own" nutes do you mean growing organically? If so I would hop over to the organic section and start reading up on organic soils and growing techniques.

I keep it simple and have amazing results with fox farm trio, and fox farm cha Ching. They even have an easy to follow schedule. Simple, and works great.

Traxxasfan said:

Hello all,
So Ive been an avid smoker for a year or two now, and now I want to grow to save money.

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Anything works. The key is your NPK ratios. I'm experimenting with MiracleGro Tomato right now specifically because new growers want to try growing without investing in nutrients. $6 US and you're done. About 30 cents per plant, per grow.

You can improve upon the NPK ratio, but it's not necessary to get started. I use Grow More Sea Grow which comes out to about $1 per plant, per grow. I document how I use it here.

I would stay away from the multi-bottle "lineups." You're paying to ship and stock water, and to use a "schedule" which keeps you in the dark about what you're actually feeding (in terms of NPK ratio).

At these prices, I wouldn't mess around with burying banana peels. However, you could save money by composting and creating a TLO (true living organic) soil. Or, if you're not into "cooking" a soil for months, @uwine99 has a recipe that doesn't require cooking. I'd like to try that myself.

astronautrob said:

If you're going to buy nutes for only one grow, or only one year (so maybe 2-3 grows) I wouldn't spend a large amount of money. I would buy the smallest amount I could because they generally will last you for a long time. I use Jacks classic and Jacks bloom for my nutes, pretty inexpensive and very effective. The GH flora series is also at a good price point as hotrodharley mentioned too.

When you say you want to "make my own" nutes do you mean growing organically? If so I would hop over to the organic section and start reading up on organic soils and growing techniques.

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Yeha, I want to grow organic, but I may just buy the fox farms trio, a couple people have reccomended it now. Do I only need the trio package or do I also need the cha Ching like turbobuzz said?

Traxxasfan said:

Yeha, I want to grow organic, but I may just buy the fox farms trio, a couple people have reccomended it now. Do I only need the trio package or do I also need the cha Ching like turbobuzz said?

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If you're going to go with FF for a year I'd just buy the trio pack. Or better yet I'd just go with the Grow Big (6-4-4) and the Tiger Bloom (2-8-4), but the GH flora series is cheaper http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Flora-FloraBloom-FloraMicro/dp/B0024NDVRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450021596&sr=8-1&keywords=GH+flora, and Jacks classic (20-20-20) (which can be used effectively your whole grow) is even cheaper http://www.amazon.com/Peters-Classic-20-20-20-Purpose-Fertilizer/dp/B00BIO560G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450021632&sr=8-2&keywords=jacks+classic. But I prefer dry nutes as opposed to liquid so I don't pay for the water weight.

astronautrob said:

If you're going to go with FF for a year I'd just buy the trio pack. Or better yet I'd just go with the Grow Big (6-4-4) and the Tiger Bloom (2-8-4), but the GH flora series is cheaper http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Flora-FloraBloom-FloraMicro/dp/B0024NDVRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450021596&sr=8-1&keywords=GH+flora, and Jacks classic (20-20-20) (which can be used effectively your whole grow) is even cheaper http://www.amazon.com/Peters-Classic-20-20-20-Purpose-Fertilizer/dp/B00BIO560G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450021632&sr=8-2&keywords=jacks+classic. But I prefer dry nutes as opposed to liquid so I don't pay for the water weight.

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So if I where to use the Jacks classic 20-20-20 wouldnt I need to add other nutrients to it or just use it all the way through? Because 20-20-20 is a very high NPK ratio from what I understand..

Also +1 to what az2000 said, you can really go with anything you want it doesn't have to be the "designer" nutes. You really just want the right NPK ratio and you're good, you don't have to spend $50 to get it though.

Traxxasfan said:

So if I where to use the Jacks classic 20-20-20 wouldnt I need to add other nutrients to it or just use it all the way through? Because 20-20-20 is a very high NPK ratio from what I understand..

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I don't add any other nutrients, no. The only thing I ever added, when I was in my earlier stages of growing, was cal/mag when I used RO water. I now use tap water though (I live in CO where the tap water is pretty good) so I don't add cal/mag anymore because tap water generally has enough cal in it already and if I'm not mistaken jacks already has mg in it too (I think). As to your point about the high NPK, some growers would say yes I however say no. I've used jacks classic throughout my whole grow and they have turned out fine, I mean really if you look at jacks bloom booster all they do is allocate a little more to the P side of things but it's almost the same formula.

astronautrob said:

I don't add any other nutrients, no. The only thing I ever added, when I was in my earlier stages of growing, was cal/mag when I used RO water. I now use tap water though (I live in CO where the tap water is pretty good) so I don't add cal/mag anymore because tap water generally has enough cal in it already and if I'm not mistaken jacks already has mg in it too (I think). As to your point about the high NPK, some growers would say yes I however say no. I've used jacks classic throughout my whole grow and they have turned out fine, I mean really if you look at jacks bloom booster all they do is allocate a little more to the P side of things but it's almost the same formula.

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Okay, sounds like its a lot easier than buying a bunch of liquid nutes that come in different bottles. How much of it do you give your plants at a time? And how often do you give it to them?

Traxxasfan said:

Okay, sounds like its a lot easier than buying a bunch of liquid nutes that come in different bottles. How much of it do you give your plants at a time? And how often do you give it to them?

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I think it's much easier IMO. So what I do is pretty simple, no nutes for the first 2 weeks (I use FF Ocean Forrest so it's usually good to feed the plants for AT LEAST 2 weeks, especially if they are seedlings), but even if I didn't use FFOF I wouldn't add any nutes in the first 2 weeks. So no nutes first 2 weeks then I just progressively start adding more nutes every other watering. That's another thing I do, generally in veg I'll add nutes every other watering, not every watering like it says on the back. So after two weeks I'll start with 1/8 strength nutes for maybe a week (so like 1-2 waterings), and then move up from there (1/4 week 2-3, 1/2 weeks 3-4, etc.). I usually try to keep it around 1/2 strength, but read your plants man its the best thing you can do, look for burning or nute def and add more/less depending on what you see.

With nutes I personally think less it better, especially during the early stages of their lives. Once you get in to flower though I usually will bump up the nutes a little, sometimes going to "full strength" (the amount they put on the back I think it's like 1tsp per gallon or w.e), and adding nutes every time I water, if I feel like that plant can handle it or is need of something.

Yeah, I read about that you shouldnt even feed the seedlings until they are a couple of weeks old, then start feeding them and introducing them to sunlight to plant them outdoors. So you never give them the full "feeding" of the nutes? Even during flowering/budding? And oops your post just camein when i pressed reply, so you can disregard some of this message

Traxxasfan said:

Yeah, I read about that you shouldnt even feed the seedlings until they are a couple of weeks old, then start feeding them and introducing them to sunlight to plant them outdoors. So you never give them the full "feeding" of the nutes? Even during flowering/budding?

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Yea sorry forgot to add that to the original post. But yea, if you see that one below it I talk about my flowering process. It's pretty straight forward but I will bump up to full strength in most cases during flowering.

Okay, sounds good. Ill def try your method, since it is pretty simple . But yeah next spring when I start my grow (Im going to germinate and start indoors in the late winter, I just cant have the plants indoors when they start to bud because of smell) Ill keep you inmind if I run into troubles with stuff, because like I said this will be my first grow. But Ive been doing a lot of research and planning so hopefully it will all go smoothly.