The how to start growing weed for dummies and noobs thread

B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
GERMINATION AND SEEDLING STAGE:

Ok...So I am starting this thread because everyday I log on here and see one question after another from people new or relatively new to growing. Questions ranging from lights, grow space, soil, germination, problems with seedlings and the list goes on and on and on. Sometimes I start getting ready to reply to the post and then, I just get tired, realizing that there is just so much info that this individual should know, I'ts just to much to post so I just cancel my response. Not hating on new growers...thats what this site is for, to help one another but seriously people, lets be real....you want to grow your own bud??? You need to learn about the plant you are about to attempt to cultivate. So without further ado, lets get started.

1st step: Before you even consider germinating seeds,you need to invest a few bucks in a grow guide. While there is a ton of info on here and many people willing to help, sometimes your not going to get the answers you seek. Thats why you need to study and learn about the plant itself. A good grow guide will become your best friend as you get started. It will help you become familiar with different aspects of growing cannabis, terms and definations related to cannabis, Plant structure of cannabis through out its life cycle and all things related to cannabis including grow room and space set up.

These are a few books that are helpful: Marijuana Growers Handbook by Ed Rosenthal, The Cannabis Grow Bible by Greg Green, Marijuana Horticulture by Jorge Cervantes, this one is one of my favorites. They can be ordered online at www.fsbooks.com


2nd Step..... READ AND STUDY YOUR GROW GUIDE! I cant stress this enough! Many of the questions that get asked on the forums are answered in your grow guide. I recommend buying mulitple grow books. I have been growing for years and I still buy books related to Cannabis. You can study about the plant while you are in the design and set up phase of your grow space. If you study, your growing skills will evolve and as time progresses you will be able to identify problems occuring with your garden.


3rd Step...... Prepare your grow room. Not half ass. If you want to succeed with your grow, your GROW ROOM has to be ready. I like to use 4ft T5s for germination and seedling stage but you have options and this is part of your grow room set up and design. If you have taken the time to set up your grow space so that you have as close to ideal conditions for growing Cannabis, you will have automatically eliminated many possibilities of having plant problems related to enviormental stress. That is a HUGE advantage in the game!!! What are ideal conditiions for growing Cannabis?? READ AND STUDY YOUR GUIDES! IMHO, there is no such thing as a GOOD GROWER who is lazy...period. Growing grade A medicine involves knowledge, skills and hard work....its a garden for god's sake. You cant produce fruits if you dont know how to take care of your garden!

4th Step......Germinating seeds. I had prepared a in depth piece on this. let me summerize. Keep it simple. www.mandalaseeds.com check out thier germination part of thier site. It covers everything you need to know about germinating seeds. I use Fox Farm Happy Frog potting soil for germinating. It is perfect for this just as it comes right out of the bag...dont add anything to it. Remember, this is Germination and seedling stage. You want a nice light soil for this step....last thing you need is to be running a hot mix. You will burn everything to a crisp. No NUTES during this phase!!!! Period!!!!


More to come...
 
B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
I apologize about this...I worked on this for quite a while and when I posted it, this is all that posted...the entire post is missing with the exception of what you see!!

Who knows what the hell happened with the rest....go figure. Try to help out the noobs and cyber world takes a crap on us. LMAO...such is life ha!

If your getting on here and you are wondering what I am talking about on this post, when I first submitted the new thread with all the info on it, almost all of it was lost during the posting process. I have been using the Edit option to plug in as much info as I can in an attempt to get it where I had it....so it will be a work in progress. But for you experienced growers...by all means...continue to post your tid bits to help out new growers. My focus at this point is to get them through germination and seedling stage and ready for veg! You cant grow buds if you cant get past this stage!!!!
 
UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
germination: place seed 1/8 - 1/4 inch deep into moist but not soaking soil. soil should be loose, of high quality, and of a 'lighter' mix with respect to nutrients. seed starting soils are sold at most major retailers.

place under moderate amount of light and mist lightly daily to keep soil moist but not soaking. seed should appear in 1-3 days, but some can take as long as 5-7 days (i've heard reports of longer).

it's so easy, and people make it so complicated with paper towels and tupperware and surgical tweezers. i like the simplest method.
 
B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
germination: place seed 1/8 - 1/4 inch deep into moist but not soaking soil. soil should be loose, of high quality, and of a 'lighter' mix with respect to nutrients. seed starting soils are sold at most major retailers.

place under moderate amount of light and mist lightly daily to keep soil moist but not soaking. seed should appear in 1-3 days, but some can take as long as 5-7 days (i've heard reports of longer).

it's so easy, and people make it so complicated with paper towels and tupperware and surgical tweezers. i like the simplest method.
Click to expand...
Great minds..............It was all on the original ....but before they even germinate seeds they need to have thier grow space ready...not half ready, I mean ready, complete, dialed in. So many are chomping at the bit to get growing that they leave out the most important part...thier grows micro climate. Soooo many come on here asking WTF happened and soooo many are quick to say its a nute problem...well if your using nutes in that stage...ya, your going to fuck up your grow. But the truth is that so many experience plant problems because thier micro climate is out of whack....plant stress galore. I cant stress this enough....have your grow room READY!!!!!!! DO NOT GERMINATE SEEDS UNTIL YOUR GROW ROOM IS READY AND YOU HAVE TESTED IT!!!!!!!
 
cdd10

cdd10

Well-Known Member
I agree I didn't start until I knew my grow tent would work from day one. Preparation is a good number one rule imo this is my first grow though but I figured if I had the climate good to go right off that it would be easier to grow..
 
sandjsdad

sandjsdad

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
germination: place seed 1/8 - 1/4 inch deep into moist but not soaking soil. soil should be loose, of high quality, and of a 'lighter' mix with respect to nutrients. seed starting soils are sold at most major retailers.

place under moderate amount of light and mist lightly daily to keep soil moist but not soaking. seed should appear in 1-3 days, but some can take as long as 5-7 days (i've heard reports of longer).

it's so easy, and people make it so complicated with paper towels and tupperware and surgical tweezers. i like the simplest method.
Click to expand...

If you grow any other plant from seed, i.e. tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc... You start them just like this...put the seed in dirt, water it, and wait. In most cases you have a seedling in a day or two. folks overthink this noble plant of ours. Just put it on good potting soil, water it and the fertilize when needed...I use Peters.
 
UncleBuck

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
sandjsdad said:
If you grow any other plant from seed, i.e. tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc... You start them just like this...put the seed in dirt, water it, and wait. In most cases you have a seedling in a day or two. folks overthink this noble plant of ours. Just put it on good potting soil, water it and the fertilize when needed...I use Peters.
Click to expand...
cannabis is among the easiest seeds to germ owing to its size and vigorous growth.

only seed i can think of that is so easy would be radishes, corn, sunflowers, pumpkins and the like.
 
sandjsdad

sandjsdad

Well-Known Member
UncleBuck said:
cannabis is among the easiest seeds to germ owing to its size and vigorous growth.

only seed i can think of that is so easy would be radishes, corn, sunflowers, pumpkins and the like.
Click to expand...
Yeah the seeds are friggin huge. I always pick the biggest, darkest, stripeiest (SP) seeds and they grow great! And yeah, I plant tons of pepper and tomato vseeds.
 
B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
cdd10 said:
I agree I didn't start until I knew my grow tent would work from day one. Preparation is a good number one rule imo this is my first grow though but I figured if I had the climate good to go right off that it would be easier to grow..
Click to expand...
If you want to succeed it is critical!!!!
 
BeastGrow

BeastGrow

Well-Known Member
More roots = more fruits. Use small containers to get small plants. You can go as small as 10oz container or even smaller. You can get as big of container as you want to but you will need lots of electricity and space to accomplish a very large plant.

SoG = Sea of Green. (lots of small plants packed into small space).
Scrog = Screen of Green. (trellis netting for support)


Cannabis stretches when the plant is too far from the light source. Keep the lights close if you want short bushy... Raise the lights if you want the plant to fill up more space quickly. Cannabis also does most of its stretching during the dark cycle. Having 24 hour vegging and keeping lights close helps ensure the plant doesn't stretch more than necessary.


If you want your plant to grow more buds you need to open up more light to budsites... Budsites are points where fan leaves meet the trunk or the branch. If you put enough light to a budsite the plant will grow a new branch there. Many of the plant training techniques revolve around exposing budsites through removing upper portions of plant or otherwise bending the upper portions to the side so the budsites are not shaded.


Light drops off at an exponential rate for CFL. (therefore is builds at exponential rate closer you get to bulb)... CFLS can be useful when kept very close to plants. Once you get to more than 4 bulbs though it becomes a hastle moving the lights... Therefore I suggest using CFLS for vegging small plants only... MH or LED might be better suited for vegging larger plants.

As for equipment for flowering though... the 3 pieces of equipment you will want more than anything should be a grow tent, a HPS, and a carbon filter. You should be able to get all 3 for under 500
 
nevyn

nevyn

Member
BeastGrow said:
More roots = more fruits. Use small containers to get small plants. You can go as small as 10oz container or even smaller. You can get as big of container as you want to but you will need lots of electricity and space to accomplish a very large plant.

SoG = Sea of Green. (lots of small plants packed into small space).
Scrog = Screen of Green. (trellis netting for support)


Cannabis stretches when the plant is too far from the light source. Keep the lights close if you want short bushy... Raise the lights if you want the plant to fill up more space quickly. Cannabis also does most of its stretching during the dark cycle. Having 24 hour vegging and keeping lights close helps ensure the plant doesn't stretch more than necessary.


If you want your plant to grow more buds you need to open up more light to budsites... Budsites are points where fan leaves meet the trunk or the branch. If you put enough light to a budsite the plant will grow a new branch there. Many of the plant training techniques revolve around exposing budsites through removing upper portions of plant or otherwise bending the upper portions to the side so the budsites are not shaded.


Light drops off at an exponential rate for CFL. (therefore is builds at exponential rate closer you get to bulb)... CFLS can be useful when kept very close to plants. Once you get to more than 4 bulbs though it becomes a hastle moving the lights... Therefore I suggest using CFLS for vegging small plants only... MH or LED might be better suited for vegging larger plants.

As for equipment for flowering though... the 3 pieces of equipment you will want more than anything should be a grow tent, a HPS, and a carbon filter. You should be able to get all 3 for under 500
Click to expand...
Rofl.

Helpful info mate, thanks.
 
B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
Experienced growers....Add your tid bits of advice as to help out new growers. Some of us dont even answer noob questions anymore because we are tired of seeing the same questions get asked over and over. It would be much easier to just direct them to a thread like this.
 
sandjsdad

sandjsdad

Well-Known Member
Fox Farm Happy Frog is a great soil. I've used Ocean Forrest straight from the bag from start to finish as well. I have heard lots of comments about Ocean Forest being "too hot" for seedlings etc...but I plant seeds directly in straight Ocean Forest and have never had a problem with my plants at all. Perhaps that's because I don't germinate them in paper towels, etc.. I think that taking freshly sprouted seeds and throwing them in soil like ocean forest may be what makes the seedlings have problems. germinating them in soil allows the seedling to become adjusted to the soil mix from the get go...just my .02 Cents.
 
B

Bear Country

Well-Known Member
sandjsdad said:
Fox Farm Happy Frog is a great soil. I've used Ocean Forrest straight from the bag from start to finish as well. I have heard lots of comments about Ocean Forest being "too hot" for seedlings etc...but I plant seeds directly in straight Ocean Forest and have never had a problem with my plants at all. Perhaps that's because I don't germinate them in paper towels, etc.. I think that taking freshly sprouted seeds and throwing them in soil like ocean forest may be what makes the seedlings have problems. germinating them in soil allows the seedling to become adjusted to the soil mix from the get go...just my .02 Cents.
Click to expand...
I usually just use the Happy Frog for germination and seedling stage and transplant into Ocean Forest after pre flowers have shown up. I always have beautiful healthy plants for the first 8 weeks of the plants life with absolutly ZERO feeding of nutes. Once in a blue moon they start needing a little N...key words...A LITTLE!!
 
L

little butch

Active Member
A bump in the night Bear??? Sure it wasn't just a senior moment??? I can relate. My first book was so long ago it was called 'Mary Jane Super Weed's Grass Growers Guide. I think it was 1967, and to read it now is a real hoot. Fortunately I also became acquainted with ED R, and Cervantes. Ed was my sole bible for many years. Haven't checked out the Green though. I'll have to do that...maybe Santa will bring it. Props for the effort at training the newb's. I try, but don't always have patience with the younger generation that want the knowledge handed to them, instead of doing the work. Christmas Greetings to all. peace & be kind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top