Soil mixture

Firstly, I know Miracle Grow sucks but I'm broke so I'm using it.

This is what I bought:

Seed Starting Potting Mix
http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?tabs=general&proId=prod70340&itemId=cat50154&id=cat50154

Perlite
http://lawn-and-garden.hardwarestore.com/77-500-soil-conditioner/miracle-gro-perlite-100702.aspx

Potting Mix
http://www.acehardware.com/sm-miracle-gro-organic-choice-potting-mix-6-pack-miracle-gro--pi-2674876.html

Bone meal
http://www.acehardware.com/sm-miracle-gro-organic-choice-bone-meal-miracle-gro-organic-choice--pi-1369721.html

Blood meal
http://www.acehardware.com/sm-miracle-gro-organic-choice-blood-meal-miracle-gro-organic-choice--pi-1391830.html

The bone/blood/potting are "Organic Choice" so they shouldn't be too bad, right?

Do I want to use blood,bone,ect with seedlings?

Right now I'm germinating with the paper towel method. Then I was going to plant each seed into a styrofoam cup with the "Seed Starting Mix"

After the right leaf set shows up I was going to slice the styrofoam cup down the side and peal it off and the put the plant into a gallon bucket with:

2 Tablespoon bone
2 Tablespoon blood
1/2 gallon Potting Mix
1/2 gallon Perlite

Should I just go straight from the cup to a 5 gallon bucket and scale the mix x5?

Is the mix ok?

I also have a question about drainage. Everything says to cut holes in the cup/bucket for drainage but what do I do with the water when it drains out? I'm growing in two plastic tubs stacked on one another. Can I just let the water drain into the bottom of the tub and accumulate there and just dump it out after the grow?

Thanks guys. I'm totally new at this. It's a lot to take in so I'm just doing 3 seeds from bag seed with cheap soil and cheap lights (6 23w CFLs). I just want to get a feel for things before I buy high quality seeds and a HPS as stuff. Even if my yields are crap, that's fine. I just want to make sure I can do this without killing them.

Thanks!

I can't edit a post?

Anyways,

Update #1
All my seeds germinated via paper towel method. I planted them on the morning of the 27th. I'm giving them 24hr light. When do you think they will break through the soil?

Update #2
Its the night of 30th and no sign on anything living
Its been like 85hrs. Damn.

I made sure not to over water them. I was worried about the miracle grow frying them which I why I mixed 50/50 soil/perlite. I didn't add anything to the soil, but who knows what they put in the soil before I bought it. I planted each seed about an inch deep. Its also possible I fucked up the seed when moving it from paper towel to soil, but I was careful not to touch the root.

Whatever, I'll wait a few days and hope for better results.

Here are some pics of my stealth grow op:

Lights on



Lights off



Lights off



Lights on



The pots/soil


Its pretty damn stealth. Two plastic tubs with the top cut off one and the bottom cut off the other. Foil on the walls. 6 23x CFLs. I'll probably add a fan and filter later but I'm still waiting for them to poke through the soil. I've had people in my room with the grow lights off and they didn't even notice the tubs are there. Its pretty obvious with the lights on though, a big blue glowing container, lol. Whatever, I've been doing 18/6 so I can leave the lights off and my room unlocked from 6pm to 12pm when my housemates are around. The only thing that kinda sucks is that I have to remove the entire top tub to water or check on the plants. Not that big of a deal and I'll probably run a plastic tube directly into the soil and water via that in the future. I've also been careful to filter the water and let it sit out for 24hrs for the chlorine to evaporate so I don't kill anything.

EDIT: could a mod edit the thread title to something more relevant like "First grow (stealth grow with pics)"

I really hope I'm wrong (gulp) but I think that the soil mix you describe is going to burn the shit out of your plants. Your starter mix has MG (chemicals) in it, your perlite has MG (more chemicals) in it, your soil is rich MG soil, AND on top of that your adding bone meal and blood meal which makes the whole mix all that much richer. Its overkill IMO and I'll be shocked if your plants survive in it.

I didn't add the bone and blood to the soil. The soil I'm using is called "Seed starter" so I'm hoping it doesn't fry them. Anyways, 2 of the 3 plants just pushed their way through the soil

Congrats on the babies then, hopefully pink cigars will be inorder. The seed starter mix does have fertilizers in it, and mj plants generally dont need any for the 1st couple weeks, but i dont use the stuff so I dont know how you'll do with it for sure. I have read that a lot of people who use MG soil flush it 1st to get some of the chems out. Probably not a bad idea. Also keep a good eye on your PH over the course of your grow. MG + time = acidity. Happy growing.

That soil is pretty mild (5-1-5)so I think you'll be ok dude. I don't know what the big deal is about MG. I use and everyone I know uses it. I stick to their regular potting mix and the organic. Mix the two plus some perlite. No problems.

Keep it going dude.

I would have just used regular perlite instead of the mg one. Might burn them or slow growth. I have had great results with the moisture control soil . gotta mix dolomite lime in it tho. It feeds the plant for atleast a month its only for plants that have an established root system not for seedlings. for seedlings i just use regular potting soil, perlite, peatmoss and wormcastings. Works great, good luck with your grow. Aloha

Well heres the deal with MG the way I see it. If you know what your doing, MG can work great for you, no doubt about it. But inexperienced growers seem to always have all the problems with it because you cant control the feeding schedule. The amount of ferts released into the soil with MG depends greatly on the amount of water you give your plant. (water solvable chemical nutrients). And almost all new growers are over-watering or under-watering and then they are adding more ferts and then the acidity builds up, and ugggh its not pretty.
Also (and I always get some flack for this but i dont care because its true) chemical fertilizers such as the ones in MG have been used on this planet for decades and the runoff from all these chemicals into water systems and eventually the ocean are literally killing this planet by poisoning and devastating its delicate ecosystems. The future of agriculture on this planet will be organic or it will be non-existent. So if you have change for a nickel, there's my 2 cents. Happy growing. Peace.

itsgrowinglikeaweed said:

Well heres the deal with MG the way I see it. If you know what your doing, MG can work great for you, no doubt about it. But inexperienced growers seem to always have all the problems with it because you cant control the feeding schedule. The amount of ferts released into the soil with MG depends greatly on the amount of water you give your plant. (water solvable chemical nutrients). And almost all new growers are over-watering or under-watering and then they are adding more ferts and then the acidity builds up, and ugggh its not pretty.
Also (and I always get some flack for this but i dont care because its true) chemical fertilizers such as the ones in MG have been used on this planet for decades and the runoff from all these chemicals into water systems and eventually the ocean are literally killing this planet by poisoning and devastating its delicate ecosystems. The future of agriculture on this planet will be organic or it will be non-existent. So if you have change for a nickel, there's my 2 cents. Happy growing. Peace.

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I was considering being cheap and using MG with perlite since I already got the MG, but you have convinced me otherwise

JackHerer said:

I was considering being cheap and using MG with perlite since I already got the MG, but you have convinced me otherwise

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GREEN ,PEACE!