Getting ready to grow

I will be ordering AK-47 seeds from Marijuana Seeds (cannabis Seeds) High Quality Low Prices soon and I'm currently in the process of putting together a list of items I'll need to purchase to ensure a successful and healthy growth.

Basically:
The setup will be outdoors in a greenhouse.
The plants will be in pots.
I am uncertain which soil will be used, but I'm aiming for an organic mix with peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite with a PH of 6.0-7.0
Yates "Thrive All Purpose" and "Thrive Flowers & Fruit" fertilizers will be used.
Possibly tap water which will sit in a large drum for 24 hours before being use. I may mix nutrients in said drum also.

A few things I would like to be clearer on are the pot sizes and the soil.

What dimensions should I aim for when purchasing pots?
How many different sizes will I need?

How much peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite should the soil contain?

Lastly, as the plants will be growing in a green house, would covering the greenhouse in a tarp be sufficient to reduce sun light and induce the flowering stage?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

(1) I recommend very small pots for freshly germinated seeds. Once the first set of leaves has opened up your plant will be ready for a solo cup sized pot. After that, the rule of thumb is 1gallon of container per 1 foot of growth... in essence, the strain should help you decide the final container size.

(2) these plants like to be on the dry side, and from my experience I would recommend to use minimal peat moss. In my mix I use 4-5 parts potting soil, 1-2 parts vermiculate, 1-2 parts perlite, 1-2 parts top soil (for nutrient value) and lastly 1/4 part peat moss. It is very easy to over-water your plants, especially for beginners and peat moss will retain higher concentrations of moisture to compound this common problem.

(3) yes, covering the greenhouse in tarps that light cannot penetrate would be sufficient to induce flowering... however, remember that 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark is the key to flowering. I don't know where you live but when that happenes naturally outside the greenhouse your plants will begin to flower- regardless of their size or that you haven't put up a tarp yet

Thank you for your input! This information will help me greatly Oh and I am located in Australia and it's currently Spring.

What's a good brand of potting mix that I can just buy in bags and pour straight into pots? I'm afraid of messing things up if I do the mixing myself. Something I could easily find at my local Bunnings Warehouse or Mitre 10 would be fantastic.

Hey dude, let me know how your grow goes.
I'm and Aussie too, starting my first grow tomorrow, it'll be an outside grow seeing as i'm completely broke, pretty sure I have the basics though, not too sure about neuts though... I'll have to rummage around in the shed
Hopefully all goes well for both of us aye, what state you in?

Hey great to hear from another Aussie It's been recommended to me to use Yates Thrive All Purpose ($10) for strong stem and leaf growth in vegetative stage and Yates Thrive Flower and Fruit ($12) for big, fat, juicy buds in the flowering stage. I'm getting mine from Bunnings Warehouse, I've also seen it for sale in Big W (however at an increased price). Also I'm in NSW.

Ah yeah, thanks for the info, luckily there's a Bunnings about 10 mins from here, but unluckily I have 0 dollars

Flat broke, got fired the other week and went on a weeks alcohol/weed binge, aha, was fun while it lasted, but now I'm regretting it

NSW huh? BOO THE BLUES! GO THE MAROONS! Guess where i'm from? aha

My seeds are just bagseeds, nothing special for the first go, as long as it produces some fine bud, i'm happy

Got 8 seeds germinating as we speak, just wondering, how long will they live for in a tiny pot, like, an average drinking glass size until they need to be transplanted? Because i'm not sure if my money will be through in my account soon enough, hmmmm, perhaps I should have waited a little longer... Too eager aha

Also, when do you know when to start feeding them? Are there signs on the plant I should look out for?


p.s. With the Yates products, are you talking about the soluble or the concentrate? (The box or the bottle)?

The boxes.

Im in nz and also got yates flower n fruit and was wondwring what the dosage for weed would be. O saw an aussie vid of this guys with a shit load of plants using it but didnt mention what ratio he used

((Grams÷Litres)×DecimalPercentOfElement)×1,000 = ppm

At the recommended 8g/4.5L from the box; you get, in ppm: 248.8 N, 46.2 P, 373.3 K and 154.6 S

It's completely lacking Calcium, and is very low in Magnesium.

All depends on situation; but my guess would be good results if fed every 48 hours to a plant in dolomite and calcium phosphate buffered soil.

Double the strength or half the duration would almost certainly cause potassium burn, and half strength or double the duration may result in phosphorus deficiency.

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As a point of reference; the Bruce Bugbee method works out to recommend (in ppm/day) 120 of N, 60 of P and 120 of K.

You'll find some criticism around that would suggest you wouldn't want to go much lower than this, yield expectation wise.

Just a quick following after going down a bit of a rabbit hole of discovery on plant nutritional requirements.

Looks like the ideal NPK for all stages (ppm/day) from emperical data is 194, 58, 194 - at least based on the results of a comprehensive dwc trial, links below.

The fertilisers major contribution, aside from covering the essentials, to yield at least, appears to relate heavily to the nitrogen and phosphorus ratio, so long as all other elements are in range.

An excess certainly isn't better than not quiet enough. Increased environmental nitrogen and phosphorus pollution is a major public safety issue (cyanobacteria in rivers feed on it, and kill animals like for example pet dogs), increases osmotic stress reducing the plants ability to lift fluid internally against gravity, kills soil biology and decreases yield. To name a few.

Looks like Bugbee has it right - keep the feed in range and push them with light.

References