First timer looking for advise/tips

Hello fellow herb-o-holics!

I moved into a new place recently and have an extra closet, which because I am sick of spending dough on bud Ive decided to grow it myself.

I germinated the seeds and put them into pots to grow big and strong.

Setup is as follows:

Seeds - asked my dealer to save some for me, so thats what I planted. Since I live on the east coast USA I am not sure on how to get a hold of REAL GOOD SEEDS because of obvious legal issues.

Lights - 3x Clear flourecent bulbs in simple holders from home depot.
I originally wanted the high pressure sodium bulbs but i was unable to find a simple ballast to use it in and still be able to use my closet space...
Any suggestions welcome...

Currently they are getting about 18hours of light per day.

Soil - Miracle grow seed starting potting mix. This seems to have everything I need, its moss and pearlite.

Water - tap water ( I leave it out in an open container for 24 hours so all the chlorine evaporates )

One thing I will probably get yelled at for is that I have multiple plants to a pot in some of them, and I know optimally there should be 1 plant per pot but I had more seeds germanate then I had pots... I couldn't let good seeds go to waste!

Questions I have:

At what point do I sex the plants in order to have all females?
What are the indicators for males vs females?
Is this going to be a disaster?

Again I am open to any suggestions/tips, I am new to this and don't want my first time to be a disaster.

Last pics...

I just typed a whole page of stuff then hit backspace and deleted it, so this is going to be alot shorter. I noticed several problems. What I say here is advice, its not meant to offend you. More importantly you NEED to check out the GrowFAQ. Much of your thread can be explained with it. And alot of people would not take the time to answer such basic questions.

First, your #1 mistake was telling your dealer to save seeds. If you didn't tell him directly whats up, he still knows. And if he gets busted, he will probably rat you out to take a plea bargin. You would have been legally safer ordering the "high quality seeds" from a site like nervana.com.

Secondly what kind of flouros did you get? CFLs, tubes?? And what kind of lamp? For vegging you need at least 24watt (=100w) @ 6500k (the light spectrum for vegging). You will need ALOT more lights for the amount of plant your growing. Check out HD's $9 bathroom light fixtures (100w max rating), wire three together and you should be good (follow instructions).

Third hps is generally used for flowering, not vegging. And you can convert HD's security HPS systems to work for you.

Fourth buy a timer to make sure you get the 18.6 cycle. Too much change in cycles can stress the plant out.

Fifth, Miracle Grow is horrible. It is synthetic. Your plants become dependant on it, its a quick perk then a hard crash. Even worse it's parent company is Monsanto, an evil corp. Check out organic ferts that are 100% better (fish emulsion, bat guano, worm castings).

Sixth you alreeady know you messed up by putting more than one plant per pot. From experiance I can tell you, only expect one per pot to live.

As for your questions:
1) The sex of the plant is genetically predetermined. There is nothing you can do to make it female. The 12/12 cycle will sex and flower the plants. Generally people wait until their plant is 10"-12" before sexing (8 nodes), that is a very general sense.
2) Check out the GrowFAQ for sexing, it will tell you more than I will.
3)First grow= possibly. The worst thing you can do is tell your friends. I guarentee you one will mention it to someone at one point (more likly right in front of you), just to get the attention and make theirselves look cool. (This I know fom personal experiance, luckly it ended there). With all those plants you have you need to check out your state laws. In my state that many is a big time felony. Many years with a guy named Tiny is not worth it.

Good luck, keep us updated, and be smart!

Demfer said:

Questions I have:

At what point do I sex the plants in order to have all females?
What are the indicators for males vs females?
Is this going to be a disaster?

Again I am open to any suggestions/tips, I am new to this and don't want my first time to be a disaster.

Click to expand...

the only way to have only femes is to having all the luck in the univerce.males have ball sacks(like seeds) and femes have a lil white hairs(pistils).you can't mistake that.my suggestions are - get more light and get all your plants in separated pots. Peace!!! Cheetah