For all new growers with questions... Tons of information and answers..

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
i've decided to put my knowledge to good use and share what i can with the new growers on RIU.. this is going to as comprehensive as i can make it.. and cover as much possible information as i can think of and fit into a single thread... im sure it will get added onto.. but i will try to fit it all on one... i will you things to think about and consider, pros and cons of different growing methods, and basically everything i can possibly think of... i will try to keep it simple, but as imformative as i can...


before reading i just have a couple things i want to say... im not a book writter.. i did my best at trying to keep things organized and seperated and what not.. but im a terrible speller, and by no means any sort of author... so dont bust my balls for stupid stuff.. i've been adding in things here and there as ive written it.. so i appologize if its not perfect.. i want to wish you all the luck in the world with your grow... but keep your expectations realistic.. you will more than likely not get the 1 pound yield you want.. your plant wont look perfect throughout the grow.. leaves will discolor and die... they may curl up or down... the thing to remember is its a plant.. its not perfect... unless its affecting growth, or a portion of the plant and is spreading, its not worth stressing about... you will know the difference between a little spot on a leaf and a real problem like nute burn or a deficiency when its over... things arent going to go perfect... you will have unforseen problems... it happens to everyone.. even experienced growers.. you will learn what to look for and how to fix it over time... there is almost always a window of time in which almost every problem can be fixed and your plant recover.. and, for the most part, you get what you put in... this goes along with keeping realistic expectations.. dont use 2x 23w cfls and be disappointed when you have a small plant that grows slow... dont be surprised when using cheap soil that some weeds sprouted up in your pot or you have bugs.. im not saying you have to spend 1000s to get the ultimate setup.. but its worth the money to get quality products with reputable names that have been used tried and tested with success by other growers... you could have success growing with "snookie and ray-rays discount nutrients", but it isnt worth saving the money.. and the biggest thing is just to sit back, relax, and enjoy the grow.. if you get caught up and stress over every little thing you will miss the zen your garden should give you... stress will turn it into a job... again.. its just a plant...

happy growing and enjoy the read...
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to begin with lets start at the basics.. marijuana can be broke down into 3 different types; cannabis indica, cannabis sativa, and cannabis ruderalis.. within these 3 types there are many differences..

INDICAS - these are shorter and bushier than sativas.. the leaf structure on them are shorter and broader, with fatter "fingers".. the branches are usually shorter, and the buds are thick and dense.. they finish flowering sooner than sativas.. indicas are good to grow in less than perfect climates because of their shorter flowering times outdoors, and good for indoor grows where space is limited... indica highs can range from relaxed/social to knock you on your ass.. great for a night cap...

SATIVAS - these grow taller and thinner than indicas... the leaf structure shows longer, thinner fingers than that of indicas.. the branches are usually longer, and buds are longer and skinnier and far less densely populated on the plant.. it takes intense light to get true sativa buds to swell to their fullest... sativas take longer to flower, and vary greatly depending on strain... these tend to grow best in warm, sunny places, where the grow season is longer and more stable... they are great for indoors as long make sure you have plently of vertical space as these can greatly increase in size during flowering... the sativa high is an uplifting, energetic, more cerebral high.. great for morning wake and bakes..

RUDERALIS - this is actually a cousin of the sativa... i wont go into great depth about this since it is not what we are growers normally grow.. i did want to mention it, tho, because of its use in creating the autoflower strains... autoflowers were created by crossing sativas/indicas with ruderalis plants... the results were marijuana plants that would flower under any light cycle.. but, for our purposes here, we will only worry about knowing it was used in the creation of autoflower strains...


most strains available are crosses of indicas and sativas... depending on what you are looking for as a high, the size of space you have to grow in, how often you want a harvest, and what your outdoor conditions are like (if you are growing outdoors) you may want to do some research into strains before choosing what you will grow...

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STAGES OF GROWTH AND LIGHTING NEEDS


-Germination-
most of you will start from seed, although ill cover both seed and clone.. bagseeds are what most of us began with and is the best way to start.. **your first grow will be a learning experience, full of trial and error... you are more than likely not going to yield a 1/4 lb plant... things will happen and you might lose one or all of your plants... its happened to us all.. we all have been through the stresses before... the best advice i can give you is to start with a few plants.. maybe 3 to 5.. use bag seeds to learn on.. and make the first grow as simple as possible.. ** choose seeds that are dark and dont crush when you squeeze them... those are 2 easy ways to tell if a seed is mature.. there are 2 basic ways to germinate seeds; paper towel to medium and straight from medium... with the paper towel method you simply moisten down a paper towel and fold it in half.. make sure its well moistened, but not soaking wet... place the seed(s) down and fold the paper towel over them... this next part is my personal suggestion, and not required, but place the paper towel/seeds in a zip lock bag and seal... this will keep moisture in there longer in case it takes a little longer for the seeds to germinate, so you dont have to worry about re wetting it all the time.. if you want to you can just put the paper towel/seeds on a plate and just moisten it as needed.. either way you need to keep it in dark, warm place... once the seeds have popped out a tap root gently, and i cant stress how important GENTLY is right now, move the seed(s) to their germination medium, with the tap root pointing down into the medium, about 1/4'' to 1/2" deep.. tweezers are very helpful for moving the taproots, just be GENTLE.... if you are planning on going straight from medium, you will benefit from soaking the seeds in room temp water for 12 to 24 hours before placing into the medium.. this will allow water to penetrate into the seed and kick start the germination process... after the soak place into medium of choice, again about 1/4" to 1/2" deep... the seed will right its self in the medium, so you dont have to worry about the way you plant it... you do not need to keep any kind of lighting going until you see a sprout break the surface of whichever medium you are choosing... after which you do need light.. the lighting should be on a 24/0 cycle, and the need is very little.. a typical 4' 2 bulb shop light is plenty of light to get you through until you transplant into your vegetative growth medium... once you see roots popping out of your stater cubes, or growth slows/stops (if using soil) its time to transplant..

- seeds need a constant supply of moisture to germinate.. make sure that whatever germination medium you choose you keep moist...
- during germination/rooting you want warm temps (mid 80s is good) and high humidity (90% to 100%)
- you can keep your germinating seeds in a humidty dome until they sprout to help retain moisture in the medium
- placing a heating pad under your germinating seeds will help them to sprout quicker
- rockwool cubes, jiffy pellets, rooting cubes all need to be soaked before use..
- some people say to soak rockwool cubes for 24 hours.. personally i only soak them for 20 to 30 minutes and havent had a problem yet.. but i would say at least 20 to 30 minutes minimum, over night if you have the chance..
- the only thing besides water you need to use during this time is rooting hormones, if you use anything at all, such as root 66...
- rockwool cubes, rooting cubes, and jiffy pellets all retain their moisture very well and should make it through without needing re-moisten.. they might feel dry on the outside but be wet in the middle.. be cautious not to drown
- if using soil mist the top of it to keep it from drying out..
- germination can be as quick as 2 to 3 days, or take as long as 10 to 14... if after 14 days you dont see your seeds pushing through the top of the medium its likely the seed is not viable and you can safely call it a loss...

ok i think that pretty much covers seeds.. now onto clones.. im going to cover how to take a cutting as well as rooting it.. they pretty much go hand in hand so it just makes sense.. first to take a cutting, make sure you have a nice healthy mature plant (will cover how to tell plant maturity in the veg growth section).. cutting can be as small as 4 inches or as big as a foot+... the size of the cutting is up to you.. but take a cutting that works in relation to the type of grow and size of the grow area... obvioulsy 1 foot tall clones wont fit into a pc grow, and it makes little sense to take tiny clones if planning to veg them out when you can take larger ones and have that much size already on your clones.. to take the cutting you will need a sharp cutting utensil such as a razor or exacto knife, some rubbing alcohol for sterilization, cloning gel or powder, humidity dome, and rooting medium... once you have the plant chosen and the cloning supplies around its time to begin.. start out by dipping the blade into the alcohol to clean it.. carefully make a 45 degree cut at the base of the branch you want to use as a clone... make the cut as smooth as you can... once you have the cutting off the plant remove the bottom 1/2 to 3/4 of foliage completely, and cut the remainning large fan leave fingers in half width wise... what you should end up with is a stem with a few small sub branches and a few fan leaves that are cut down... after you have removed the excess foliage, gently scrap the bottom 1/2" to 1" of outer flesh away from the stem, exposing the moist inner flesh.. now cut up the middle of the stem at the bottom as high as you scrapped... so the bottom should have exposed flesh and be split up the middle... take the split part and submerge into the cloning gel or powder, taking care to cover the exposed area well.. once covered place into rooting medium.. same rules apply to the clones rooting medium as seeds.. keep moist but not wet... the only difference is it is much better to keep the cutting in a humidity dome the first couple days than not.. since the cutting wont have roots it has no way to absorb moisture and relys on the moisture you give it or the moisture in the air to get what it needs to survive... the humidity dome helps ensure there is enough moisture that it doesnt dry out until it starts cutting roots... usually after a couple days you can remove the dome... if you choose not to use a dome, make sure to mist your cuttings down a couple times a day... you may also choose to do a bubbler style cloner... more on that later...


-Vegetative Growth-

so your seeds have all sprout, roots popping out of the rooting cubes, cutting slowed or stopped growing in the dixie cup, and your ready to transplant into a larger pot and begin growing your plants out to the size you want them... you are ready to start vegetative growth... the procedure for transplanting is pretty much the same across the board... take your now rooted plant and place into the growing pot of choice, and back fill with grow medium of choice... now obviously you need to fill the pot up with some of the grow medium before adding your sprout and back filling... i will go over different grow mediums and growing containers more in depth later...

anytime you transplant you will shock the plant.. the amount of shock will depend on the amount of "abuse" the roots incure... the less you can move the roots around the better... when back filling take time to do to easy.. the more gentle you are to the roots the faster growth will return to normal... but be prepared for growth to stop for up to a week.. sometimes it just takes a while to recover for transplants... its best if you can transplant into the final pot the first time.. but you can transplant into larger pots more than once with little affect in the end..

vegetative growth is basically the time between when you transplant your plant to start growing and the time you switch to a 12/12 light cycle.. the plant must receive between 18 and 24 hours of light to maintain proper vegetative growth... any light cycle that has 18 to 24 hours of light will work... 18/6, 19/5, 20/4, 21/3, 22/2, 23/1, and 24/0 will all grow your plant out vegetatively.. there are many arguments as to what light cycle works best and helps yield the most in the end... im not going to put my input in only because its just my opinion and is very very very debatable.. i will say this... experiment over time with different ones to see what gets you the results you want... if you are happy with what you get then that is all that matters... keep whatever cycle you choose the same throughout the entire veg growth stage tho... messing around with it can stress your plant...

plants that are vegging uses the blues in the color spectrum... anything from 5000k to 6500k will work... these are known as cool bulbs or daylight bulbs in you are looking at CFLs or MH if you are using HID lighting.. if using HID lighting, you can use hps bulbs throughout the entire grow with success if you choose.. many companies are now producing "enhanced spectrum" hps bulbs, that contain something like 20% more blues... this means they are even more affective during veg growth... this can save you some money on buying additional bulbs.. if you are hell bent on using MH during veg and hps to flower, i would recommend using a dual ballast or purchasing a digital ballast that will support both bulb types.. also it is possible to use a mh bulb in an hps ballast without any problems as long as the mh bulb is less than or equal to the wattage of the hps ballast... this may shorten the life of your mh bulb.. but it does work...


this is also the stage where will begin using nutes, maybe... i say maybe for a couple reasons, and it really just has to do with soil grows... if you build up a good soil mix there is a chance that the soil will have enough nutes in it to get you through veg growth without needing to use many nutes or any at all in some cases.. if you plan on using soil to grow its worth the investment to buy good quality soil... fox farm and ocean forest are among some of the best... if you cant find them, buy the most expensive soil you find wherever you end up purchasing it from.. you get what you pay for... i will go more into that later.. there are some signs to know you need to add nutes are yellowing of the leaves and slowed/stopped growth... the yellowing is a sign of a nitrogen deficiency, and will go into it more later... the slowed/stopped growth is another good sign it needs some food... assuming the pot is the right size.. a good rule of thumb is 1 gallon for every 1 foot you plan on your plant being at the end of the run.. it should more than likely be around the 2nd or 3rd week of vegetative growth when you start using nutes.. start out with a 1/4 strength application.. meaning use 1/4 of the total amount of nutes they recommend... you need to gradually ween your plant onto the nutes... adding to much too soon can burn and possibly kill your plants.. not to mention the headache of having to flush and having to sit back and just watch it happen.. after the first feeding or two you can gradually start to increase the amount to half strength, then full strength... take note of your plant and how it reacts to the nutes tho.. she will tell you if its too much.. also a good practice is to only feed every other watering... this will ensure that your plant uses all the available nutes before you feed more... this will help reduce salt build ups and help maintain soil ph... if you are growing in a hydroponic setup that will be different of course.. you'll want to follow the same idea about gradually increasing the nute strength.. but you obviously need to use nutes all the time.. the type of nutes you use will be up to you and how much you want to put into it.. you can order anything over the internet so everything is always available.. maybe not with the ease of running to walmart or something.. but you can get ahold of any nutes you want... there are 1, 2, and 3 part systems.. 1 part are the "all-in-one'' style nutes such as miracle grow and scotts.. they can be used with success but take more care to use.. you have to really be careful how much you apply because you have no control over any ratios.. and since some nutes get used faster than others you can run into problems with these... 2 parts have a veg and bloom formula and contain all the macro and micro nutes you need for these stages.. these are better than 1 part systems because they are more tailored to the specific stage of growth you are in... 3 part systems have a veg, bloom, and "boost" formula.. the boost is used throughout the entire grow, while the veg and bloom are used during their specific stages... these are best if you want to custom blend your nutes or want to better control ratios... there are liquid or dry.. some work in different applications also.. more on that later.. either way you choose they all work... always be looking out for signs of nute burn when you do start feeding... nutes are one area where more often than not less ends up being more...

during this time is also when you want to do any pruning, should you so choose to... this includes LST (which should be done from the beginning), topping, FIMing, super cropping, lollipopping, ect.. i will cover these later.. some can be successfully done during the early stages of flowering, but it is not good practice to do during flowering... stressing during flowering increases will lessen your harvest.. try to plan things to have whatever pruning you so choose to do done 1 week before flowering to give the plant time to heal itself...

you ideally want temps in the mid 70's and humidity in the 40% to 60% range.. you can run warmer temps with success as long as a couple things are done... first you must have good air movement and exchange, you must have a plenty of fresh air available to the plants, or if a fresh air intake is not possible you will need to suppliment co2.. i will explain more about each of these later on..

vegetative growth times will varry.. you want to allow your plant to grow to maturity.. a mature plant will yield better and have more potent buds than one that is immature... there are 2 ways to tell when your plant has reaches maturity.. the first is the appearance of alternating nodes... a young plant will produce branches in pairs.. by that i mean everywhere a branch comes out on one side of the stem, another appears exactly opposite of it.. once a plant has reached maturity the branches will alternate appearance up the stem.. once you see this you will know it has reached maturity and is ready to flower... this usually takes around 4 weeks of vegetative growth to achieve... you may also choose to wait until you see preflowers.. preflowers will show you the sex of the plant before you begin flowering.. which means you can remove males before risking pollination of females.. the only thing is this can/will take longer than the appearance of alternating nodes.. this can cause problems if you dont have the vertical space to flower taller plants.. you may have to induce flowering at the appearance of the alternating nodes to keep plants to a manageable size and just watch closely for males.. if you have plenty of space you may choose to veg your plant out more to get a larger yield off of it.. the larger the plant the more it yields and the larger the buds.. this will also depend on the lighting you have.. there is no point in growing a 6 ft tall plant using a 400w hps that wont penetrate deep into the plant... use space and flowering lighting to help determine over all veg times.. clones that are cut from a mature female and rooted do not need to have any veg time at all... they are ready to go into flower the moment they are rooted and transplanted... this is what is done in sog grows where there are more plants that are smaller... keep in mind also that your plant can double to triple in size during flowering depending on strain.. a 1 ft tall plant going into flowering could end up being 3 ft tall at the end... this will also be a determining factor as to when to induce flowering...

-FLOWERING-

you've germed your seeds, grew out your tree, and are ready to produce some buds.. to induce flowering you must cut back the amount of light to 12 hours and give them 12 hours of dark... different strains have different critical photoperiods.. some can start flowering with a 14/10 cycle, and some only need a 10/14 cycle to sucessfully flower... unless you know for sure what the needs of your plant is it is best to stay with a 12/12 cycle.. this will ensure that no matter what your plant will flower... you are more than welcome to experiment with your light cycle, but dont expect any different results.. actually you can adversely affect the plant and lessen your yield... stick with the regular 12/12 cycle.. why fix what isnt broken..

during flowering your plant will use the red/orange light spectrum.. these are in the 2000k to 3000k (approx) ratings for bulbs, warm color temp with floros, or hps with HID lighting... it takes more light to flower than it does to veg.. hps lamps or floros like these http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?t=prod&sku=SSB104&AC=0 are best to use for flowering.. you can still have success using other lights.. just remember it will take more during the flowering stage than it did to grow the plant..

if you are using mixed seeds expect anywhere from 7 to 21 days before knowing sex.. sometimes it can take longer.. just be patient.. you are looking for to white hairs at the internodes.. that is a female.. if you start seeing small clusters of little green grapes, those are male pollen sacs, and you want to remove that plant as soon as possible... dont do anything until you know for sure what it is... if you arent sure post pics on RIU and ask for help... you may also get a hermie.. these will show both female and male traits.. removing the pollen sacs on these will ensure they do not pollinate themselves or any other surrounding females...

flowering takes about 2 weeks to start setting in.. in which time you will start noticing bud sites all over your plants.. they will appear as light green, almost yellow spots, all over your females.. each of these is where a bud will form.. they will start out as small popcorn sized nugs and fill in over the length of the flowering... it will take several weeks before they start to resemble a normal bud... but once they start filling they will rapidly start looking more and more "normal"... the buds will fill out and swell the most the last few weeks of flowering as they are ripening..

you can onset flowering and speed it up a little by giving your girls 24 to 36 hours of straight dark before going into the 12/12 cycle... this helps let the plant know that without a doubt it is time to start producing flowers.. it helps slow and stop the production of veg hormones and helps kick start the production of flowering hormones.. it also helps speed sexing up by up to a week... some claim this increases the chance of getting hermies... i personally have done it and dont believe it affects anything at all other than flowering time.. try it on one or two of your plants and start the other straight into 12/12.. see if there there is a difference between the 2...

make sure to keep the room sealed up nice and dark during the dark cycle.. light leaks can cause prolonged flowering, and enough light can revert your plant back to veg growth... take time and care to cover all light leaks in your grow room prior to flowering...


as always you want to take care introducing nutes to your plant... you'll want to wait until you start seeing bud sites before starting flowering nutes alone.. in between starting flowering and that time you may lessen the amount of veg nutes and start introducing bloom nutes.. a 1/4 strength application of each will ensure the plant gets some of all the nutes it needs during the transistion... with hydroponics you may choose to flush your system with a cleaner, such as flora clean, to remove salt build up.. but again you want to ween your plant off of veg nutes and onto bloom nutes... switching without some kind of flush and slight transistion can cause nute burn..

the flowering cycle itself will vary greatly from strain to strain.. some will get done in 6 weeks.. some will take 12+ weeks... indicas will flower quicker than sativas.. there are so many crosses out there tho that 8 to 10 weeks is a good guess at how long it will take to flower.. there is no way to tell for sure how long it will take.. just be patient and watch the clock tick away...

also during flowering be prepared for your leaves to yellow and fall off... unless your bloom nutes have small amounts of nitrogen in them your leaves will yellow... as the plant progresses and gets further to being ripe the large fan leaves will start raining of your plant.. dont go pulling leaves off tho.. let them fall off.. remove ones that have fallen and are stuck in the plants branches...

some strains will smell more pungent than others... odors and odor strength will vary from strain to strain as well.. always be prepared for a skunk, that way you can handle whatever your plant throws off..

pistils will die and be replenished throughout the flower cycle.. dont stress if your plant spits out some red hairs here and there.. they will be replaced with bright white ones within a few days.. if you spray your plant or bump the buds it can make them turn red also...

your temps should stay cooler during flowering than veg... this is the time when you really want to strive to have temps in the low 70s... but again, if you have good air circulation and movement you will be ok... also humidity needs to be lower.. to much humidity can lead to bud rot and mold/mildew... a dehumidifier my be needed if air flow is not great... hotter air will hold more moisture, which means higher humidities.. so if you are growing in a warmer room with little air exchange humidity could be high, so a dehumidifier may be needed in that instance..

trichrome production will also vary from strain.. some will be heavily frosted, and some will have few.. they will start appearing at different times too.. there is no specific week you should see them.. so dont stress about how long it takes to see them or start thinking there is something wrong with your plant..


-HARVEST-

now for the pay off section to your grow... you hopefully have a few beautiful girls with big buds just calling your name... but the question arises of when to chop... the answer is it all depends on the stone you want... first off get the idea that the pistils will tell you much.. there are some things the pistils will tell you, but im not there yet.. the trichs are what will tell the story... during the life of trichs they will go from clear, to milky, to amber... you dont want clear thats for sure.. the first stone you can achieve is a good head high.. this is achieved by harvesting early into the ambering of the trichs... when around 10% of the trichs have gone from milky to amber this is the high you will get... harvesting at around 50/50 will introduce a nice body high with it... and the further into ambering you go the more "couch lock" the affect will be.. now if you are looking to get the absolute most out of you buds, which will end up being a knock you on your ass high, you need to pay attention to not only the trichs but the pistils... as the plant ripens the pistils will eventually change from white to red/orange... they will also start receding into the bud... once they are receeding into the bud you know you are at about the point where you have flowered her completely out and she has nothing left.. you can over ripen your buds.. it is possible.. so once you start seeing the pistils start receding inwards you know its close to time to start chopping.. but you also know that you have gotten as much out of the plant as you possibly can, both yield and potency wise...

you'll want to flush your plant before harvest also.. some growers say you dont have to.. its debatable.. the idea behind flushing is to remove all the salts and nutes from the plant and making sure the plant has used up everything it has... unflushed plants can taste chemically from nutes still in them.. try both ways and see what you like best... flushing is easy tho... you start out running 2x the amount of water as the volume of the pot through the pot.. so a 5 gallon pot would get 10 gallons of water ran through it.. then the next 1 or 2 watering just use plain water.. your plant will be fine without nutes during this time.. you can use molasses throughout the flush to continue feeding a little something to your plants if you choose.. ill get more into molasses later... whether you choose to flush or not to, you should try to plan it out so that when you chop your plants down it is on a day you need to water... this will speed the drying since the plant is low on water already.. chopping is best done right before or as close to lights on as possible.. this will keep the roots from pushing anything up into the plant prior to harvest... two common questions i hear asked are "should i boil the roots? so and so said it will help push the thc out" and "i heard you hang them upside down to let thc run out of the stem"... niether of which are true.. boiling the roots is just stupid... and hanging the plants is for convenience...

trimming is easiest when you do prior to drying... start out by removing all the large fan leaves from the plant.. you can keep these and use for honey oil later if you want.. you have two choices when it comes to attacking the trimming of your plant... whether you are going to hang the entire plant or just branches.. its easiest to do branches individually.. its hard to move around larger plants.. start out by removing the branch from the main stem.. i like starting at the bottom and working up... take a sharp pair of trimming prunes begin trimming all the leafs around the buds flush with the buds themselves.. try to trim over something to save the trimmings for hash or canna butter later... also if you can look from the bottom of the stem and see a leaf stem in the bud, cut the leaf off.. basically you want to trim the bud up as nice as you want it to be...

once you have trimmed up the buds on the branches its time to hang them.. you can use anything to secure them to whatever you plan on hanging them from.. make sure to leave enough room at the bottom of the stem to attach something too... hang them in a medium humidity room... 50 to 60 percent works well... this is assuming you have adequate ventilation and air movement.. the slower the buds dry and cure the better the final product.. so if you can dry them slowly in a more humid room it helps get the most out of the dry.. but higher humidities can cause bud rot, mold, and mildew if air movement and ventilation is low... so keep in mind that the lower the air movement the lower the humidity should be.. you will want to keep some sort of fan going to keep air moving of some sort... you also will want to make sure you leave breathing room between the branches when you hang them.. warmer temps and lower humidity will still give you good results in the end.. dont get me wrong.. but a slower process will give you amazing results... lastly if you cant hang the buds you can use a large screen from a picture window for instance as a drying rack.. you still want air movement in the room tho... drying usually will take 5 to 7 days... you'll know your ready to start curing when the stems snap, but arent brittle...

mason jars are the best thing to cure in... they are cheap and easily available.. curing evens out the remaining moisture in the buds and helps further develope flavor.. a good cure can be the difference of good bud that tastes and smells like hay or good bud that tastes devine and smells like a skunk.... to cure fill up the jar with buds you have trimmed from the stems after drying.. dont pack the jar full.. you want breathing room in them.. 1/2 to 3/4 full is about all you want... keep them sealed tightly... open them a few times a day to allow the air inside to be replaced with fresh air, then seal back up.. this takes about another 5 to 7 days, but is WELL worth the wait..

so that is the basic growing process.. now to touch more in deepth on a few areas...

your ready to start planning your grow.. first thing to do is to choose a location... is it going to be indoor or outdoor?? here are some things to consider when choosing where to grow..

first and foremost, IS IT OK?? now aside from the legal issue in some states, is it ok for you to be growing where you are?? i dont know how many times i've read posts that say "i'm growing at home and my parents dont know, how can i hide it" or "i found out im moving and need to move my grow, how can i do this"... think about it.. plan it out... if you are living with someone, be it at home with your parents or with a roommate, and you are putting them at risk with your grow, have the balls to tell them.. or better yet, ask them first...

also take into consideration if you are planning to move anytime during the grow... i have read quite a few posts of people who are trying to figure out how to move their setup, knowing they were going to have to move it, and putting no thought into it previously... its hard to move a grow op successfully and is risky, both to you and the plants...

do you have the space to grow?? this is more indoors than outdoors, but whether its in a closet, pc case, garage, basement, attic, ect., is the space there to do it without cramping yourself or the plants up... MJ likes space.. she grows based on the room she feels she has.. the more space the better... and be realistic about things.. obviously the bigger the space, the bigger the grow, the more the yield.. dont think you are going to get pounds per harvest growing in a closet...

do you have the funds to purchase equipment?? again this is more indoors than outdoors.. you dont need thousands of dollars to build the ultimate grow room.. but you do need to spend some bucks on some key items... nutes, ph/ec meters, soil, lights, and fans are the most important things to not skimp on... again, im not saying you have to purchase top of the line stuff.. but you get what you pay for..

who else may find out about your grow?? hopefully the answer to this is no one.. no one should know... no one needs to know.. so do you have a house full of people all the time?? do you have parties with wandering people?? if so it may not be the best thing for you to grow... no matter how well you hide it, given enough time with enough traffic someone is bound to stumble upon your grow... this is talk from experience.. if you plan to grow indoors plan on living a little more secluded.. the bigger the grow, the more secluded... its just a safety precaution... johnny might be your friend.. and he might swear to keep it a secret.. but if johnny gets drunk and runs his mouth accidently you could end up going home to a kicked in door with all your shit gone... i dont want to sound like i mean you need to be a hermit and lose all your friends.. just be smart about the traffic and company you have in relation to the size of your grow.. and outdoors its even more important to keep your grow a secret.. its much easier to steal plants that the owner cant see than it is breaking into their house and taking them from inside...


you have a location, now to plan on how you are going to grow and what style you are going to grow...

the how to has a few options.. outside you are pretty much stuck with soil.. indoors you can choose from 2 main catergories; organic or hydroponics.. besides the obvious difference of medium there is also a difference on how the nutes are delivered to the plant..

soil acts a buffer between the nutes and the plant.. the nutes must be absorbed from the plant through the soil.. fertilizers and soil additives must first be broke down before becoming available to the plant.. this means there is a "delay" between when you feed and when your plant reacts... which means if you over feed you have a small time frame before nute burn sets in where you can flush the medium out without it affecting the plant, if you catch it early enough.. it also means that if deficiencies and bad nute burn set it the problem has been a problem for a while, so it will usually get a little worse before getting better once fixed...

if growing in soil spend the time one good potting soil.. cheap soils can contain weeds and bugs and low levels of nutes.. which means you have to start feeding them sooner... they can also be very heavy and drain poorly... no matter what soil you get you'll want to add some things for aeration and drainage... perlite is the most common.. they are the little white things you see in most potting soil blends.. although there is some in there, its rarely as much as needed.. you should want around 30% of the mix to be perlite or some other soil additives.. sand, peat moss, vermiculite, coco "croutons" are some great examples of things that will help with areation, drainage, and water retention... you can also add things such as guanos and worm castings to your soil to enrich the nutrients in them... placing an inch or so of rocks at the bottom of the pot will help keep it the plant from tipping over, but will also assist in drainage...

there are many styles of hydroponic growing.. ebb and flood, DWC, wick systems, drip systems.. to make it easy hydroponics covers and grow where the nutes are available through watering and not through the grow medium... in hydroponics the grow medium is inert.. this means it adds nothing to the grow except water/nute rentention and something for the roots to cling to.. some styles of hydroponic grows dont use mediums at all... the biggest thing to understand with hydroponics is that nutes are available and replenished everytime water hits the roots.. whether its and ebb and flood style that soaks the roots and medium for ___ amount of time ____ times daily, or an aerogarden that constatly mists the roots... within the realm of hydroponics, tho, the set ups vary, but there are few differences.. you either are going to flood the system on a regular basis or have sprayers that spray the roots.. and you are either going to use a recirculating system, where the same nutes are kept in a reservoir and reused, or use a drain to waste system where the nutes are used once and then thrown out... recirculating systems must be changed out weekly and the nutes/water replaced...

when growing with hydroponics there are a couple things to remember... nute burn will set on much faster if you have your solution to strong... you have to balance flooding/misting the roots with letting them get enough air... to much water and your rots can rot and die... water temps are important... water above 85 will slow/stop growth and can cook your roots... so make sure you can keep your reservior temps down.. you need to check the PH and EC of the water frequently.. the PH is how acidic or basic the solution is... if its too high or too low it will lock out nutes... you want a range from 5.5 to 6.5, with 5.8 to 6.0 being ideal.. EC is the electrical conductivity of the solution.. basically it tells you how much "stuff" is in the water... the more nutes you add the higher the EC.. EC is more accurate then PPM, and is universal.. you want to keep your EC in the 1.2 to 1.8 range... hydroponics is a little more tricky to learn, but once you are locked in the results are quicker and larger growth with a larger ending yield...

now that you have the how, its time to choose style..

this really comes down to the amount of plants you want and the size you can grow them too... SOG styles are many smaller plants, usually straight to flower clones... it goes quicker because there is no veg time.. this works well if you want a quick turn over but dont have the space for a seperate veg room.. you can also choose to have fewer plants that are vegged longer.. this will take longer if you only have 1 room to veg and flower in.. but the result is a larger yield per plant, and larger buds.. if you have both a veg and a flower room you are really limited by space.. you can veg as many plants as you want during the flowering of other plants as long as you have the space to hold the in the veg room and space enough for them to stretch in your flower room... you can yield the same either way.. the choice is up to you... some growers will want 20x 4 to 5 ft plants while some want 100 1 ft plants... there is not a right or wrong, just what fits best for you...

so now you know where you are going to grow and what kind of grow you want... next thing is ventilation...

i put this early on the list because i feel it is one of the most important things to consider.. a poorly ventilated grow room will have many problems from slow growth to heat to possible mold and mildew issues... there is no secret answer to how to set up ventilation... it may take some playing around to get air movement just right.. but there are some things to think about when planning..

first is how you are going to exhaust the hot, stale air from the grow room... removing old stale air is more important that trying to being in fresh... removing air will cause a negative pressure in your grow room, which will actually help bring in new air passively.. by passively i mean that as air is exhausted from the room it will pull more air in the room from outside as it fills in the empty space from the removed air.. if you are removing more air than you are putting in, it causes a negative pressure, which means it will constantly be pulling air from outside the grow room in.. you also have to consider how you are going to "clean" the air thats leaving.. whether it is a carbon filter, and ozone generator, or some sort of gel, there are a lot of options.. do some research and decide which will work best from you... an ozone machine or carbon can filter isnt needed for a few small plants, while a container of ozium gel is not going to take care of the stench from 20 large plants...

second is air intake.. are you going to run an air intake or let air in passively?? can you run a fresh air intake at all, even it is passive?? nothing beats fresh air.. its a free supply of limitless co2.. co2 is used by the plants rapidly, and unless replaced often, can limit growth.. a fresh air intake of some sort can drastically improve the speed of growth in your plants.. if fresh air is impossible to get to you may choose to co2 supplement.. there are many ways.. the most efficient way is to get a regulator and a tank... initially the cost is high... a regulator can cost anywhere from 70 to a couple hundred, and co2 tanks cost a couple hundered initially to.. after that tho it pays for itself.. refills are cheap.. and again it can increase growth tremendously.. now you can grow without a fresh air intake and co2 suppliment just fine... it just may mean slower growth... thats where a good exhaust will help by pulling air from outside into the grow room and replace the old air with new..

third is air movement.. you'll want some sort of fan in the grow room moving air around.. an osilating fan works perfect for this.. having a breeze blowing on your plants will not only help strengthen the stems, but help make sure they have fresh air around them all the time...

another tip for ventilation is to place the exhaust fan towards the top of the grow area, opposite of the fresh air intake or where cool air comes in... this will help pull the new air across the grow and of course heat rises so it will help pull the hot air out...

i wanted to explain why its more important to have more air exhausting than intaking... if you are pushing more in air in the grow room than you are exhausting you will end up with a possitive pressure in the grow area... this is bad for a couple reasons... high air pressure allows air to get warmer.. which mean warmer temps in your grow room.. it also pushes the air within the grow room out through any cracks there are in the room.. this means smells are being pushed out and exhausted that you may not want escaping the grow room...

lighting is going to be the next issue... there are somethings to consider when choosing lighting.. budget, power consumption, heat, and room size will all play a part in things... first what can you afford?? if you are growing indoors you do want to skimp on lighting if you can afford not to... here is a list of lighting from the strongest to weakest..

1000w hps/mh
600w hps/mh
420w satellite floros
400w hps/mh
anything else (smaller hps/mh, CFLs, leds, t5/t8s)

the weaker the light the more you are going to need.. the stronger the light the more heat... the smaller the grow area the more the heat from the bulbs will affect the grow.. a larger room has more space to dissipate the heat into... if you know your ventilation will be poor, then opt for a smaller bulb until you can get better ventilation... everyone wants to run a huge powerful light.. but it cant always be done.. if the heat from the lamp can not be dealt with, and the temp of the grow room is high, having the strong light isnt worth it... so you have to use some common sense when deciding the light you are going to use... also take into account power consumption and available amps to the grow room.. if you only have a 15 amp circut, and half the amps are used already, you cant run a large ligh without risking blowing a circuit.. do you have the power to run the lights you want or are you going to have to install a larger breaker to run your equipment?? i had to run an extra 80 amps to my grow room to ensure i didnt trip my breakers... nothing is worse than coming home and seeing darkness when your lights should be on... plus over heating the wiring from drawing too much power to the room can cause fires and is a safety risk...

water is another important thing to consider... tap water can contain chlorine, which is not good for your plants.. if using tap water it is a good idea to leave it sit out for 24 hours to evaporate the chlorine... some growers, such as myself, dont practice this and have no ill effects.. but its best to play it safe unless you have tried the water straight from tap and know it wont harm your plants... you may also choose to get a dechlorinator or reverse osmosis machine.. both will "clean" your water, although a reverse osmosis machine works best... these are really best if you have a hydro system or extremely hard water...

this brings me to a small lesson in EC, PPM, and PH... first is EC and PPM.. to keep it simple they are the same things in that they tell you how much "stuff" is in your water... with hydro this is very important because too much "stuff" in your water, either before or after adding nutes, will cause burn... its important in soil also.. but is less of an issue.. ec (electrical conductivity) is the most accurate and is universal.. PPM (parts per million) is either figured in x700 or x500... this is why ec is more accurate, because if you dont know whether you are using a x700 or x500 ppm reading, you could end up with a lot stronger of a solution than you thought.. spend the money, especially if you use hydro, on a good ec meter.. truncheon has an amazing one that reads ec, ppm (both x5 and x7), tds, and cf... http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?t=prod&sku=TRU500&AC=1

ph is the messure of how acidic or basic your solution/soil is.. its important to maintain the correct ph to allow all nutes to be absorbed.. to high or to low of a ph will cause some nutes to become unavailable and you get nute lockout... if growin in soil spend the money on a soil test kit as well as a water test kit.. know what the ph of your nute solution is before putting it in the soil.. this will help maintain ph.. also check your soil ph every couple weeks.. a low soil ph could mean you have salt build up, which means you may need to lay off the nutes for a while or flush if its bad enough.. or if its to high you know you need to add some soil acidfiers to lower it.. you can also check the soil runoff after you water to see what the ph of it is.. this will help tell you the overall ph too.. you can get a good idea of where your soil is at by checking the solution and runoff if you cant get a soil test kit... 6.5 to 7.0 is ideal for soil... in hydroponics it is ultra important to keep PH balanced... 5.5 to 6.5 is ok... 5.8 to 6.0 is perfect... ph issues in hydroponics will cause more problems than in soil because they arent gradual.. in soil the ph will gradually raise and lower, so problems can be fixed before they get too bad.. in hydroponics, ph problems cause instant lock out... having a good EC and PH meter with a hydroponic setup is very important...

water temp is important too.. if you have a hydro system with a reservoir, temps over 85 can cause problems from algae in the water, to the roots being cooked and roting, to slow and/or no growth at all... you may have to look into ways of controlling res temps.. you can use a bunch of frozen water bottles that you replace as they thaw to keep temps low.. if you can afford to purchase an aqua chiller that is ideal and will be your life saver.. when i first sat up my hydro grow an aqua chiller was on my list, just towards the bottom.. had i known how much of a difference it would make it would have been at the top of the list...

you need to think about odor control.. how are you going to get rid of the smell?? there are many ways to do it... from gels, to ozone emitting cfls, to ozone machines, to duct filters, to large carbon filters... carbon filters are most common and work great... the activated charcole in the filters has microscopic holes that trap the smell molecules.. they need to be replaced about once a year... they have large ones that can sit on floors that have their own exhaust fans for grows of all size.. they also have ones that can be attached to the end of exhaust ducts... ozone machines and bulbs work well but have a couple requirments.. they usually have to be ran on timers.. too much ozone is harmful to you and your plants... and they need time to work so they are best used in a situation where the air from the grow room is exhausted into another "containment" room with the ozone generator, and then exhausted from the "containment" room after a half hour or so..

there is a multitude of nutrients out on the market... depending on if your using soil or hydroponics there are wide variety of choices to choose from... the nutes you choose are based on how much you want to put into it and how much you want to control things...

the main nutes are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium... nitrogen gets used during veg growth and needs to be replinshed often.. so nutes with a high N are best for veg... during flowering the plant will use a lot of phosphorus... so a high P rating is good for flowering.. potassium is used throughout the entire grow in different amounts.. as long as the nutes you are using contain some it should be fine.. theses are known as macro nutes

there are many micro nutes... the most commonly talked about ones are magnesium, calcium, and iron... these are the most common deficiencies you will run into... using a supplement like MagICal (i think thats what it is), or some other similar supplement should take care of any issues you will have... this is a pretty big generalization.. but in most cases, if it isnt a macro nute issue, it will be related to one of those 3 nutes... other deficiencies can occur tho...

if you think you are having some nute problems, check the ph first.. this will help you determine if its burn from over feeding or a deficiency from lock out... from that point you can start figuring out the problem...


all in one nutes are great for the casual grower who wants something, but doesnt have the time to waste on customizing blends.. if you use one of these kinds be vary vigilant.. you can not control ratios of nutes in these and are stuck with what they give you.. if you arent careful you can end up with nute burn.. different nutes will be absorbed and used at different rates.. you could end up with a bad problem if you dont pay attention.. some 1 part systems are only the macro nutes (NPK) and will need to be supplimented.. make sure to check what all the nute has if you use them..


2 part systems are good if you want a little more control, and want to give your plants the specific nutes they need for the growth cycle they are in... the include a veg and bloom formula... this includes the macro nutes that are needed for the growth cycle they are in and some/all micro nutes... you may find you need to suppliment these as well, since the levels of micro nutes are not adjustable... but these are a big step up from the 1 part programs..

3 part programs are great, but also take some knowledge to use.. the contain a gro, bloom, and "boost" formula... this means you can custom blend formulas to feed your plants.. if the have a deficiency its easy to increase the part of the program that contains those nutes and fix it.. but again, it takes some knowledge of not only the nutes but how the plant reacts to over and under nuteing, as well as being able to identify nute def/burn early on... im in no way saying you cant use these as a new grower.. but if you do use them stick to the recommend feeding schedule provided by the manufacturer until you are more familar with everything...

if you are growing in soil invest in a moisture meter... they are cheap and very useful.. this takes the guess work out of whether or not to water... just stick the probe in the soil and it tells you... MJ grows best in a wet to dry environment... that is they dont like being drowned.. water the soil until it is wet all the way through, and dont water again until it is dry.. to help reduce the risk of dry pockets in the dirt you can break up the top 1" of dirt.. this will help the water to penetrate the soil more evenly...

fans can be loud and can give away a grow room easily to a passer by... try to mount fans away from windows and exterior walls... you can wrap the fan in towels or tshirts to help absorb vibration if you want.. they make muffler ducts to help reduce the sound from them...

helicopters dont look for hot roof temps, they look for flurs, or rather a stream of hot air exiting a building.. such as your dryer vent... if you have multiple flurs, one in a place a dryer vent shouldnt be, or a very large one, this can cause a red flag... be cautious when exhausting air outside... and make sure any air exiting your grow room is scrubbed clean before leaving...

keep your grow room as clean as possible.. bleach it down between grows.. take care to remove food or pop cans/beer cans from your grow room if you have them in there.. these can attract pests... if you are outside during the day, dont enter your grow room wearing what you did while you were outside.. its a great way to bring pests into your grow op.. dont let a fellow grower with a pest problem into your grow because they will most likely bring them along.. sterlize all equipment in between uses.. such as the razor you use to cut clones or the sheers you use to remove branches when lollipopping... this will ensure that your plant does not get an infection next time you cut/prune....

have a back up plan incase things fail... dont only have 1 plant started.. start a few seeds.. some may not make it.. have some seeds saved incase the plants you have die... hell plan things out for the entire grow.. know when you want to clone, if you are.. know when you want to start flowering, or at least have a target date... have all the supplies you need for the growth cycle you are on before you start it... this will save you running back and forth to get stuff... we all need to make those last minute store runs.. but the more planning you do the better off you will be, the less running you have to do, and the more you can relax and enjoy the grow...


ive covered a lot of stuff in here... over the 3 or 4 days it has taken me to get around to typing this i've added and taken away.. at this point i dont know if i have covered EVERYTHING or not.. should be pretty close tho..

its more than likely that you will come across problems you cant get a direct answer from this thread for... some nute defs can appear as other ones, some problems will need more information provided by you as the grower to help solve... remember, everyones grow is unique... what works for one person may not work for you... you may like another nute better than this one... maybe you like 18/6 over 24/0... the point is there are many variations of what is right and wrong.. a lot will depend on how you set your grow up and how the environment where your at affects the grow... providing information as well as pics will help the other growers on here to help you... good information to have when posting a problem is the cycle your in, lights you use, actually light cycle your using, the ph of the grow medium, temps, humidity, kind of nutes your using, where the problem is on the plant, obviously what the problem is, and any pics you can provide.. please try to make the pics as clear as possible...

if i have missed anything.. or there is anything that anyone wants further discussed, feel free to ask.. i will do my best to keep answering the questions as you ask them... i really hope this helps answer questions for any of you who read it...


good luck and good growing
sampson
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
if they do they do.. if not than they dont.. not sure what the requirements for a sticky are... oh well... as long as someone can use something from the thread to learn and help them its worth it!
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
as i go along if i think of something more to add i will do so... this is the first addition...

covering your grow walls with reflective materials is HIGHLY recommened to do... especially when lighting is low.. it will help get the most out of all your lights and the light they produce by reflecting the light back into the canopy... this will increase your lights efficiency... there are a few choices you have when deciding what to use.. each one has its pros and cons.. some work better than others.. some cost more than others... here a few choices... decided which works best for you and is most easily accessable...

mylar is the most common, its cheap, but a pain in the ass to put up... when using mylar get the thickest mil you can find in it.. the 1 mil is flimsy and rips easily.. 2 mil is a lot stronger and easier to use.. im not sure if they make a 3 mil, but i again, recommend the thickest you can find... make sure you keep it as flat on the wall surface as possible.. kirinkles in it can cause hot spots on your plants if the light is not reflected right.. not to mention it might not be reflected towards your plants at all if you dont have it flat... take time and care while installing it...

poly or panda film, whichever you want to call it, is quickly gaining popularity... its easy to work with, durable, and much more forgiving than mylar.. it is also more expensive... it doesnt create hot spots near as much and doesnt rip easily either.. again the thicker the mil you can get the better... it is mold and mildew resistant and can be bleached and wiped down with ease.. this would be my personal recommendation for reflective material in a grow op, if the money is there to purchase it..

you can also use flat white paint or the mylar style wrapping paper (the shiney shit that is available everywhere)... both work if cost effectiveness is important.. but they dont preform as well... also the silver thermo blankets you can find at sporting good stores will work....

aluminum foil is not a good idea... it doesnt stay flat.. it doesnt reflect well.. and really shouldnt be used... if you are on a budget flat white paint is just as cheap (almost) as a roll of foil and will work a TON better...
 
I am looking to start growing for the first time this weekend. I've been reading alot on this website and it's amazing the amount of resources that are on here...I just have a couple of questions because I haven't seen a question like it yet but I'm sure there is somewhere on here...I am only looking to grow about 2 plants and will be growing in my closet in my apartment. Just for personal uses. I think its safer than buying haha. What type of light(s) would you recommend for that? Also as for ventilation, I cannot install one because I rent my apartment so I was wondering if their were some alternatives to that? Like having my bedroom window open and closet door and what not? I think I pretty much got the basics down as long as I don't nuke it...Just what how I water it, the amount of nutrients in the water, levels of PH, temperature, pests and water and grow? haha. Thank you and anymore information would be appreciated towards indoor growing in a closet lol. Thanks.
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
Thanks Simpson, very informative.
not a problem... glad to help!

+rep just for the time that must have taken...
it took a few days... appriciate the reconginization for that..

I am looking to start growing for the first time this weekend. I've been reading alot on this website and it's amazing the amount of resources that are on here...I just have a couple of questions because I haven't seen a question like it yet but I'm sure there is somewhere on here...I am only looking to grow about 2 plants and will be growing in my closet in my apartment. Just for personal uses. I think its safer than buying haha. What type of light(s) would you recommend for that? Also as for ventilation, I cannot install one because I rent my apartment so I was wondering if their were some alternatives to that? Like having my bedroom window open and closet door and what not? I think I pretty much got the basics down as long as I don't nuke it...Just what how I water it, the amount of nutrients in the water, levels of PH, temperature, pests and water and grow? haha. Thank you and anymore information would be appreciated towards indoor growing in a closet lol. Thanks.
for lighting you have a couple options... biggest thing is budget.. if you are going to have possible heat issues you might want to consider getting some CFLs... 2x 300w cfls will give you a ton of light and very little heat... and its not really 600ws.. its the equivalent of 600ws.. so it will be a lot less than that... that takes care of not needing any exhaust fans and takes away the heat worry.. make sure you get a couple daylight or cool cfls (blue spectrums) for germination/vegging and a couple warm ones for flowering (red spectrum).. you will only need to use one to get through germination and then use both when starting veg... this will give you the most amount of light with the smallest amount of heat.. a small fan moving the air inside the closet with a cracked closet door should be plenty of ventilation... plus i assume you have a/c in your apartment.. so this will help keep the air cool also as long as it is being moved through the closet by a fan... if you can afford a little more you may want to check into a 250w or 400w hps ballast and set up.. this will add a lot more heat, so you might have to do some playing with temps to keep them down, using the open closet and bedroom door.. but this will also yield you the more.. the cfls will give you a good yield too, but not as much as the hps... so you have to weight those 2 options and decide what works best.. i would say tho in your situation cfls might be best... plus you can add more cfls as you want with little affect to temps... **size will play into this as well.. if you want larger plants you are going to need bigger/more lights.. take into consideration what you want your final plant size to be and buy lighting accordingly**

watering is simple and probably the most overly complicated thing new growers worry about... first suggestion would be just to spend 10 bucks at a gardening center and get a moisture meter.. this takes all the guessing out of watering.. it will tell you if its wet or dry so you will know whether to water or not.. if you cant get ahold of one there are a couple other ways to tell..

first way is to stick your finger in the top inch of soil.. if its dry there try to stick your finger into a drain hole in the bottom of the pot.. if its dry there as well you should water... the other way is to lift your pot before and after watering to get an idea of how much it weighs.. then just lift it a few days later.. as it drys out it will lighten... when it feels like it did before watering then water.. if not, then wait... your plant will start to droop if it gets thristy.. this is another way to tell, but you have to be VERY vigilant and not let it go too long without water...

when you water, just gently break the top layer of soil up to allow more even penetration of the water... water the plants until you see water coming out of the bottom of the drain holes and into the drainage tray.. once that happens allow it to sit for about 10 minutes, and water some more... once you have more water pushing out the bottom you can stop.. allowing it to set will help the soil absorb the water in the drain tray.. sometimes water can run straight through the soil without actually being absorbed properly.. this will help take care of it... how much and how often to water will depend on the soil and amendments in them.. some will hold moisture better than others.. just remember its better to underwater than to over water.. you cant take water out of soil once its in.. but you can always add it..

soil ph you want between 6.0 and 7.0... again you will want to get a ph test kit... 1 for you solution and 1 for your soil will be best.. but not needed.. if you check the ph of the water/nute solution you are using before you water, and check the ph of the run off when you water, you will have a good idea where your soil ph is... most nute related problems come from an inbalance in ph... when lockout (the nute become unabsorbable or less absorbable) occurs you can end up with a build up of some nutes in the soil while other become deficient... different nutes get used at different rates and get locked out at different phs.. trying to maintain a solid 6.5 ph will help eliminate lockout and help to discover if you really have a nute def/nute burn from over/under feeding, or if its all caused from lockout...

water temps when you water should be cool... 65 to 75... cooler water holds more oxygen, which the roots need.. so try to keep the water cooler when you do water... air temps ideally should stay in the 70 to 75 range if you cant have a good exhaust system of fresh air intake set up... with as small of a grow are you are talking, and the ability to keep your entire apartment cooler, you shouldnt have any heat issues...

there shouldnt be any pest problems that you run into... and depending on the pest will depend on the treatment... so as far as those go its kind of hard to get into since who knows what, if any, you'll run into... just make a plant check for bugs part of the daily routine... check the leaves for signs of damage... if you see anything that doesnt look "normal" look under the leaves... look for anything crawling, moving, anything that looks like eggs, anything flying, moving on the soil... if you see anything like that then its easy to identify and treat them.. but again you probably wont have to worry about them.. but if you are playing outside, or go walking in some woods, or something like that, shower and change your clothes before working with your plants at all..

nutes are another area that is kind of hard to get into.. it depends on what you choose to use as to how much you use... a basic rule of thumb tho is this... start with 1/4 strength applications and build from there.... when vegging, dont start adding nutes until you see growth slowed/stopped or you begin to see yellowing of the leaves.. both of those are signs its ready to start feeding.. this is usually around 3 weeks into solid veg.. any earlier can result in nute burn or possible plant death.. when switching to flowering, wait to start feeding nutes until you see budsites appearing.. this will tell you its got enough flowering hormones to properly start using the flowering nutes... this is somewhere around the 2nd week of flowering.... you can introduce the flowering nutes earlier than this.. just use 1/8 applications along with 1/8 applications of veg nutes.. but as soon as you start 1/4 strength+ flowering nutes, stop using the veg nutes all together..

only other piece of advise i can give you is to line your closet with either mylar, white poly, or paint them flat white... this will help reflect the light back onto the plants and increase their efficiency...

anything else i can help with feel free to ask..
 

syze

Member
i only want to say the most important aspect of the plant has been left out of this WHOLE thread, and that is the life and processes of the soil( roots and etcetera) that should be in a lot of areas throughout the thread, other then that pretty good job, with a lot of things to debate about, but still good job, looks like you read a few familiar books, greetz syze
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
i only want to say the most important aspect of the plant has been left out of this WHOLE thread, and that is the life and processes of the soil( roots and etcetera) that should be in a lot of areas throughout the thread, other then that pretty good job, with a lot of things to debate about, but still good job, looks like you read a few familiar books, greetz syze

good call with the roots.. ill have to edit in a part for that... said it in the beginning.. i knew id forget some stuff and have to add in... and most everything when it comes to growing is debateable to some extent.. and as the writer it is hard not to interject personal habbits or opinions in without knowing.. i didnt really proof read it to see how it came across either.. thanks for the heads up tho...
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
so thanks to syze i am putting in a post about roots... cant believe i forgot.. but i am just a stoner... it happens...


roots are the means by which nutes and water are absorb by the plant.. the bigger and stronger the root system the bigger the plant will grow, the stronger it will be, and the heavier it will yield.. poor root systems will result in slower growth, smaller plants, and a lighter yields...

when starting from a seed, the root system will grow out from the taproot... the tap root is the beginning to what will be the entire root system.. clones will start popping a root system straight from where the exposed flesh of the clone is... in either case it takes around 5 to 10 days to develop a root system big enough to be ready for vegetative growth.. this can be sped up by using some sort of rooting stimulator/hormone...

the biggest influence on root growth is the environment they are in... roots grow best in cooler environments... this means warm soil and reservoir temps can/will slow root development... if temps are to high it can actually cook and kill the roots... they also need oxygen.. if you dont have good aeration in your growing medium the roots will not be able to breath and will die... same goes with moisture.. they grow best in an environment that goes from wet to dry... overwatering in soil and over flooding in a hydro system can slow root growth and/or drowned them out... cooler water holds more oxygen than warmer water, so water with 65F to 70F water can increase the amount of oxygen to them and lower the temp.. as i said, make sure you have good aeration.. also make sure you have quality soil that is not to heavy and has some sort of amendments, like perlite, sand, ect. in it.. not only does this help with moisture control and aeration, but it also keeps the soil from becoming to heavy.. heavy soil will make it difficult for the roots to push and grow through..

another issue to talk about is light... it is generally agreed on the dark is better for roots.. but they will grow in light... roots will die if they stay too wet (root rot/drowning) or dry from lack of moisture (air contact/dry medium).. but they will grow in direct light.. now im going to try to explain this as best as i can.. but it may bounce a little bit...

if you ever root, or have rooted, a plant in a starter tray that has a little bit of water in the bottom you may have seen, or might see, roots growing along the bottom.. this is because roots CAN grow in lights.. this doesnt mean they SHOULD tho.. more on that in a minute... but it is possible to grow a plant in a clear container where light hits the roots... now to explain why this is not a good idea...

since soil is of course going to keep the roots in the dark, this is more for dwc style grows where the roots have no real medium to grow... in a dwc system the water and roots are contained in their own area so water doesnt splash out... this means its a high humdity area that can be get warm.. if the container was clear, which would let light in of course, the humidity high, and the temp warm, it would create the perfect environment for mold, mildew, or fungus... keeping your root zone dark will avoid that entire problem... again IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE LIGHT HITTING YOUR ROOTS... roots that grow above soil will dry out and become unviable.. but with harden up like the stem of the plant..

also its worth mentioning that plants DO NOT NEED a dark period to grow roots.. they will grow them all the time regardless of light or dark... now, if given a plant that is given a dark period may develope a larger root system because the plant will have time to focus on root growth more than foliage growth during the dark period... but they will grow roots just as well in a 24/0 lighting environment...

i am sure the above info will cause some debate about root growth... and im ready for it... but again, and i stress this, do not attempt to grow a plant in an environment that light can constantly hit them.. it is a recipie for disaster... i just wanted to clear up the myth about them ONLY growing in dark environments and ONLY during the dark cycle, while letting you know the main factors for root death come from to much/not water and drying out from not enough water or air contact..


also there are other things that happen in the soil.. soil contains millions of micro organisms that are beneficial... these are the things that break down organic matter within the soil into the nutes that your plant will absorb and use to grow... they live throughout the soil and all around the root system.. they also help keep a strong healthy root system for your plant...

now these beneficials are much different than mold or fungus that would grow on your soil... you actually want to keep these beneficials alive and kicking... the more you have in your soil, the better and quicker nutes will become available to your plant and the healthier the roots will be...

using too much nutes, a poor growing environment, or having ph issues can all decrease the amount of and efficiency of the work these beneficials will do.. keeping them happy and working well are very important..

again, keep soil temps down to a safe zone... 7o to 75 is good... not overwatering/underwatering will help.. keep ph around 6.5.. you can also feed them with molasses... they sugars in the molasses will supercharge them and help them mulitply and increase the job they do... make sure to use unsulfured molasses tho.. about 1 tsp per gallon of water.. it can be used every time you water...

hope this helped cover what i missed... anything else anyone would like to see added, or even debate about, feel free to post!
 

R. tallman

Active Member
How do you lollipop a marijuana plant? i'v allways been interested in the process, but never knew how to pull it off. You mentioned it in the report. just never explained it.
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
i responded to your PM.. but will answer for anyone else interested...

lollipopping itself is removing the lower branches of your plant before/at the start of flowering so the plant focuses on the larger top buds and not waste the energy on lower buds you know will be small...

you can lollipop at 2 different times... first is about a week prior to flowering... this will give the plant time to recoup and repair, and if removing a large amount of branches, the ideal time to do it.. the second time is about a week into flowering, when stretching and new growth are slowing, and bud sites start appearing... this works well if you are only removing a few branches (5 or less)... the plant will have less to repair and it wont stress it out to much.. but if you do remove a lot, 5+ branches, you'll want to allow it to fix itself a little bit...

in order to actually lollipop use a sharp cutting utensil (razor, exacto, trimming prunes) and cut the branch off at the main stem.. thats it.. sterlize them in rubbing alcohol in between cuts to keep from causing an infection at the cut site... but its really that easy..

this will stress your plant out and can cause hermies in weak genetics or certain strains... you may want to try it on one plant to see how it responds before trying it with the rest of them..

you can use the cut off branches for clones if you want, or throw them out if you dont need them..
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
it basically makes the plant focus bud production on the top buds verse the buds on the bottomw that would not end up being much of anything.. the plant can focus all its attention on the important buds... you will get a few less buds because you are removing branches.. but the buds will be bigger on the remaining plant.. you can benefit from it pretty much in any situation.. unless you have weak genetics or a stain that has a tendency to hermie...
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
damn thats what i been doing bro. lolipoping and i hope that it dont hermie mine
as long as you do it at the appropriate time for the amount of cutting you are doing and you strain isnt know for hermie tendencies you shouldnt have to worry about hermies to much... again some strains are more proned to hermie than others anyways... so if you arent sure about the strain you have i recommend only trying it to a couple of your plants to see how it goes first, before doing it to the entire crop... this will also allow you to see the differences in final yield...



this brings up a good things to add into the guide i didnt before... the first is staggering your harvest..

now for lack of better words i used staggering.. what i mean by that is harvesting the plants tops and then harvesting the bottoms later..

the top of the plant, since it is closer to the lights, will finish faster than the bottom buds... if you choose you can harvest the top 2/3 to 3/4 of your plant and allow the bottom 1/3 to 1/4 to finish out a while longer to allow the buds to fully ripen... of course if you lollipop your plant this will not be possible since you should have cut up far enough that all the buds will finish at the same time...

also another thing you can do if you dont lollipop is to re-veg your plant... with this you harvest the top 2/3 to 3/4 and trim the main stem down to where you stop harvesting... you stick the bottom of the plant, which should still have all its foliage as you will not be harvesting this part, back into 24/0 lighting and start feeding veg nutes... after a while it will begin to grow again...

you may also choose to trim off some off some of the root mass and replant her in new soil.. this may be on of those things you only try on one of your plants to see how well it goes before doing it to them all..

dont be alarmed if the new growth is a little deformed.. it will happen... you can also take clones from her after she returns to good growth..

the yield on a revegged plant is less than the original harvest... so that is to be expected also..

you can "stagger" your harvest and re-veg if you want.. but the more live foliage you can leave on the plant if re-vegging the quicker it will start re-growing...
 

DattPiff

Member
now i have a few clones and there light cycle has been messed up for a few weeks now being outside in this crazy new england weather. One of the clones looks like its ready to bud already and its only like a foot tall. It has crystals hairs and everything. I just bought a 400w hps/mh setup and i was wondering what to do with the light cycle? The other clones are still veging so i was planning on putting it 18/6. Is this a bad idea?!
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
now i have a few clones and there light cycle has been messed up for a few weeks now being outside in this crazy new england weather. One of the clones looks like its ready to bud already and its only like a foot tall. It has crystals hairs and everything. I just bought a 400w hps/mh setup and i was wondering what to do with the light cycle? The other clones are still veging so i was planning on putting it 18/6. Is this a bad idea?!

ok so i take it you plan on bringing them in and letting them go longer indoors?? well ill give you all the options i can think of and you can figure what plays best...

first if you took the clones from a mature plant they are already ready to start flowering and do not need to veg.. there is a chance that the plant you see that looks like it is ready to veg is showing extreme signs of preflowers.. i dont know much about how the weather is on your half to know if it is enough to induce early flowering or not.. but either way here are your options...

you can continue to let it go and do its thing.. if it has started flowering it will sort of be in limbo between now and when it actually would have started flowering.. basically somewhere between flowering and vegging.. this will stress it and can cause it to go hermie.. if you have strong genetics it may very well be possible nothing happens.. but if you have shakey genetics you may want to start flowering..

which is the other option you have.. you could set up your light and start a 12/12 cycle with that plant.. or you could just take it outdoors during the day for its light cycle and bring it indoors at night during its dark cycle.. this could get annoying and cause problems if you forget or miss timing.. so if you do start flowering it would probably be best to use the light...

with it being a 400w only, you may want to just let them do their own thing outside since the sun is a LOT more powerful than the 400w hps... you could have that set up and ready incase the weather gets flaky and you need to bring them in.. which is another option you have.. just bring them in when the weather outside is less than ideal under the hps...

now if the other clones are still vegging you'll want an 18/6 cycle.. this can cause a problem with the possibly flowering plant.. so make sure you can close the flowering plant off from the light if you do bring them in and choose to just flower the one right now..

that pretty much covers it... if you want a little bit better idea of what i would personally do i need to know whether you plan on bring them in or leaving them outside to finish and if you can post a pic or two of the possibly flowering girl...
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
i recently supercropped a few of my girls.. some took and responded well.. some not so much... a couple responded so well i had to do it again to control growth...

first just to give some quick background just to illustrate how resiliant these plants are... for the first 3 weeks of growth my plants were hit with 90 plus degree heat and reservoir temps that were just as bad.. i was doing contruction in my grow room and wasnt prepared for the heat that insued during the additions.. i was also waiting for a larger exhaust fan and an aqua chiller... this is also a testament to how much a good environment can play into your plants health..

i almost pulled all of my plants and started over.. but i didnt... and now am very happy.. i will also post pics of my girls 3 weeks into growth and 11/12 days later which was yesterday... more on that later..

so lets begin with todays focus... pruning/training..

there are two basic types of training, low and high stress... basically anytime you physically damage your plant its consider high stress training.. each for has its own extent of stress and recoup time... low stress is anything where you dont physically harm your plant, such as LST or scrog..

the idea of pruning, without making it to difficult to understand, is to make growth hormones move to specific areas of the plant based on the pruning technique to increase growth on that part of the plant... most pruning techniques stand to force the lower branches to grow out and upwards to give a more "bonsai" appearance than the typical xmas tree style... this helps limit smaller buds on the lower branches by forcing the branches up towards the light...

i will try to explain what the plant thinks and why it does this... MJ grows upwards as long as there is a main top to the plant.. this is why you get the christmas tree appearance.. the top grows up and the sides grow out.. if you remove the top of the plant, or make the top of the plant lower, it will trick the plant into thinking it has no top, and make it reach for the light... pretty much everything below said point will grow upwards as the plant trys to make a new top to continue upwards growth... so all those little branches at the bottom of your plant will start growing upwards vertically instead of outwards horizontally... again different techniques have different levels of stress it causes.. and some strains dont respond well to certain techinques.. so its worth playing around with a couple to see what gets the best results for your plant...

lets talk about some HST techinques and how to do them..

the most commonly talked about HST technique is topping... topping is simply done by cutting the top of the plant off below the second or third growing node... this cause the sides to begin reaching upwards, which helps to bush out the plant... it also stops vertical growth for a while, so it can help keep height down.. and it also creats multiple colas when you flower on the top of the plant... typically 2.. but i have read many grower who say they have gotten more.. this is perhaps the most stressful type of pruning due to the amount of physical damage.. but it works well... recoup times will depend on the strain and plant.. expect about 7 days, give or take, before growth returns to normal...

the next is FIM'ng... FIM stands for FUCK I MISSED... which is literally how the technique came about.. in all probability someone who was to stoned or too drunk, or a combanation of the two, went to top and missed the cut... this resulted in a new way to "top" your plants... with fim you dont remove the top of the plant... you just remove the new growth at the VERY top... if you look at the VERY top of the plant you should see a bud... this is not like a bud bud.. but a leaf bud.. you may have to move some foliage away a little to see it... you then want to cut or pinch about 3/4 of that leaf bud off... this will make the plant react much in the same way as topping... recoup time is less that topping, but can still take a few days...

**there is also lollipopping.. its not so much a pruning technique to encourage vegetative growth, as much as bud growth.. the idea when you lollipop is to remove the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of branches from the main stem to encourage the plant the concentrate on top bud production... for this lessons purpose tho, i am not concentraiting on this**

these are the two highest stress pruning techniques you can do... expect slow to no growth the first few days... and then for things to return to normal... you will notice that your plant will begin to bush out and the lower branches will start to grow upwards... then you will see the plant start to return to vertical growth...

the next few techniques are low stress training...

supercropping has quickly become my favorite pruning technique.. its simple, has almost no recoup time, is cool to watch, and is VERY forgiveable... with supercropping you choose a place on the stem that you want to see the branches below it push up.. using your pointer and thumb, gently squeeze the stem until you feel it give.. DO NOT PINCH THE STEM.. you dont want to sever the stem.. just weaken it... after you have pinched in on spot, move your hands exactly 90 degrees and do it again.. this should allow the stem at the spot you squeezed to bend over freely... this is what you want... this will cause all branches below that point to begin to push upwards... your stem will correct itself after a few days and be fine.. it will actually be stronger in the spot your SC it... and there is almost no recoup time.. growth should barely slow if you have done it right.. just take caution NOT TO sever the stem at all... this technique is sorta on the fence between hst and lst tho, since its techincally damaging the plant.. its just minor..

you may also choose to use do some LST to your plant... the LST technique is just tieing your plant down as it grows... how you actually LST is up to you.. its worth looking at some other grows to see how they chose to tie down their plants.. but thats all it is... tieing down your plant to maximize light penetration... tieing down also will reverse how the plant grows.. instead of the main stem being vertical and the side branches, horizontal.. you end up with the main stem being trained to grow horizontal and the side branches start growing up towards the light.. this helps keep height down and increase the amount of bud sites that get exposed better to the light during flowering.. here is a link that helps illustrate things better... its easier to understand after you see.. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=6090 again there is not right or wrong way to tie them down... just keep the main stem as low as possible...

you can also use scrog.. scrog is not really a pruning technique, as much as a way to train your plant.. its also somewhere between a growing style and training technique.. the idea is that you place a screen, such as chicken wire or fence, over your plants canopy.. you can then feed the plant in and out of the screen holes as it grows.. so you end up weaving your plant all over the screen.. it also helps to keep plants short...

lastly is just bending your plant over and tieing it.. its the least stressful of all and can still get good results... all you are doing is bending the top of the plant towards the ground and tieing it in place.. you must do this gently and you can increase the amount of bend every couple days... this will achieve the same thing in making the lower branches grow up towards the light...

all these techniques help to encourage more bud sites closer to the light... again some plants and strains will take to different pruning techniques better than others... do some research into the strain your growing and see what techniques have worked for different growers..

now for the pics i am posting... i will first post the pics of the supercrop i did this time... i choose to do it in more than one spot on the plant... which you can do.. it does not have to be done only to the main stem... anywhere you want to encourage lower growth to push up you can do it.. i personally do it on the main stem, and then anywhere that may be above the point i did it at... so the first pic is of an OG KUSH i supercropped yesterday.. you can see on the pics the light green growth on the stems where it has pushed out over night... you can also see where the stems are starting to correct themselves and grow back towards the light...

the first couple pics are the og kush at week 3.. you can see how bad it was looking.. the next couple are over the last 12 days... the 2nd pic is of the kush plant before i supercropped the first time.. the 3rd is how it looked after it healed itself from the super crop (3 to 4 days later)... and the final ones are of this supercrop.. this should show you not only how well the first supercrop went, but how much environmental issues are important to your plant growth.. again take note of the light green stem growth where the plant has pushed that much growth overnight...
 

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simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
this is the pics of the bad supercrop and what happens if a plant doesnt take well.. as you can see the worst thing that happened was the plant becoming unsymetrical.. it still is growing at a good rate... and recovered just fine..

again the first one is at 3 weeks from seed... the next are inbetween then and now.. including how the plant looked after the supercrop (4 days ago) and how its recovered and growing now... then the last two are of the supercrop spot on the stem and the way the girl looks today... aside from a few leaf issues, it is completely fine...



again, these plants are forgiving.. as long as you show care in the pruning technique you choose your plant will survive just fine even if it doesnt like the technique you choose... and also if you take care and get your environment in check your plants can all but save themselves...

i will include a pic of the best illustration i have of this as well.. the very last two pics will be of a white shark 12 days ago and now.. you can see the difference...
 

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simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
i would like to make an edit... i am not sure if i said you can use and hps bulb in a mh ballast or if i said you can use an mh bulb in and hps ballast.. but i would like to clarify just because i think i said wrong.. you can use an MH bulb in and HPS ballasts AS LONG AS the wattage of the MH bulb is equal to or less than that of the HPS ballast.. you CAN NOT however use an HPS bulb in and MH ballast...

again

MH bulb in HPS ballast = good and ok
HPS bulb in MH ballast = no worky
 

Joy2298

Active Member
I'm planning on re-vegin kitty's favorite plant it didn't produce much but I want to keep it for him any hints on how to go about assuring her survival
 

simpsonsampson420

Well-Known Member
I'm planning on re-vegin kitty's favorite plant it didn't produce much but I want to keep it for him any hints on how to go about assuring her survival

first, for those who dont know what re-vegging is.. re-vegging is the process in which you revert a partially harvested female plant back to vegetative growth and grow her out to harvest her again.. this can be done 3 or 4 times if desired.. but would strongly recommend not doing it more than once... the yield will decrease with every re-veg.. after the fits re-veg it can become not worth the time to grow the plant for the yield you will get...


if you are planning on re-vegging here are the things to remember..

1) be patient.. it can take a while to revert back to vegetative growth... different strains will take different times to revert... again.. be patient..

2) this will stress out your plant.. there is a chance it can turn hermie.. if you have weak genetics or a strain that is known to hermie, you will want to pay very close attention during the next flowering..


it is very simple to re-veg your plant.. to actually re-veg your plant here is what you will do;

1) when you harvest your plant, only harvest the top 2/3 to 3/4 of it.. the more foliage you leave the better off the plant will be...

2) this step is optional... remove the plant from the pot and carefully remove the lower 1/3 or so of the root mass.. then replant in a new container with fresh soil.. you will want to water with a root stimulator and transplant shock inhibitor if you do this....

3) place plant back under 24/0 lighting... it will take a while, maybe 2 to 3 weeks, to start seeing new growth.. the growth may looked deformed.. but it will be ok.. once it resumes growth you can remove clones as needed...

4) when ready to flower stick back into 12/12 again..


the biggest piece of advice i can give you is to transplant your plant into a larger container if at all possible... and especially if you dont root prune... also use some sort of shock/stress inhibitor as this can really stress your plant..
 

mowux

Member
Ok i got a question that i hope some one can answer. I am growing my bud outside and need to bring the bud inside to dry but i got a room mate that i want to keep it hiddin from, for now lol So i was going to make a box with string in it to hang the bud but was wondering if there are some kind of carbon bag like filters that i can throw in the box with the bud to eliminate the smell, or some of that gel stuff what would be better? i would love any help or a push in the right direction :D
 
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