need help starting first plant
- Thread starter Tiny
- Start date
In all honesty, just starting out you will need much more information than this thread could provide you. I would highly suggest getting familiar with the Grow FAQ, and the search function. Congrats on your decision to grow, best luck.
P.S. I've never heard that a floating seed is more viable then a non-floating seed, but I'm sure someone here knows.
P.S. I've never heard that a floating seed is more viable then a non-floating seed, but I'm sure someone here knows.
GoodFriend
Lumberjack
... put some soil in a pot, water soil... poke hole 1 cm deep, plop mj seed down... cover hole with soil... keep in a cool dark area until you see a lil sprout emerging... put the sprout under a cfl, or fluoro tube, or outside or wherever... and thats the best way i've found to start a seed...
simple, no transplanting with an exposed root right away... no rockwool, pete pellets, riot cubes, etc needed... just you're soil and a pot...
but yeah... read up on the faq a couple times before you plant... it'll save ya some headaches...
simple, no transplanting with an exposed root right away... no rockwool, pete pellets, riot cubes, etc needed... just you're soil and a pot...
but yeah... read up on the faq a couple times before you plant... it'll save ya some headaches...
email468
Well-Known Member
Here's a brief description I gave on another thread - maybe you'll find it of some use...
I'm no expert so take this with a grain of salt...
I would also recommend research and reading everything you can find. It ain't hard to grow a weed but getting something worthy of smoking is a different thing entirely.
But for what it is worth -- here is a synopsis of what i've learned from this site, other reading and very limited experience.....you'll need:
1) Space - it should be enclosed so you can have more control over ventilation, heat, humidty, security, etc..
2) Lights - very important. You need something that replicates sunlight as closely as possible. I'd recommend HID or High Intensity Discharge lighting (MH or Metal Halide for grow and HPS or High Pressure Sodium for flowering) but this site has a lot of proponents of CFL and other types of light. So your mileage may vary.
3) Something to put the plants in - soil or hydro? This can be a huge discussion so you have to decide if you're going with soil or hydro then go from there. The answer to this question can help determine how often to water (with hydro you are on a schedule - w/soil you check the soil and water accordingly). Soil vs. hydro can also define what nutrients you use and a few other choices you'll need to make.
4) Ventilation/Air Circulation - you'll need at least an 1) exhaust fan (to remove heat and replace CO2), an 2) air intake hole or fan (a passive air intake hole should be slighly larger than the exhaust opening to improve fan life and to avoid creating a vacuum in an airtight chamber) and a 3) circulating fan blowing on the plants (to strengthen them and keep air moving)
5) Odor control? this would include carbon filters/ozone generators
You'll also need nutrients and seeds. My opinion (and some others have recommended this also) is to start with bag seeds until you have had some success and then buy some decent seeds. As for nutrients or nutes, you can look online and find a ton of info but they usually break down into grow and bloom formula with a possible third one. For example: General Hydroponics has Flora Micro, Flora Grow, and Flora Bloom. You use all three for all growth/bloom phases but in different amounts (more grow during vegetative, more bloom during flowering). Instructions are on the packages. I think one of the easiest (and highly concentrated) choice would also be from General Hydroponics and that is the Flora Nova series. There are only two (grow and bloom). There are also a lot of supplements, foliar feeding, and other nutrients but using grow/bloom works fine. One word of caution - a little bit of nutes goes a long way!
Another thing you should know is how the plant grows. It obviously starts as a seed or cutting (clone), then enters the seedling stage. Vegetative is the next stage with flowering being the final stage before either dropping pollen (male) or generating seeds (female). Keep all the males out of your grow room and the females will not be pollinated. But instead will grow big resinous seedless buds (sinsemilla)! This is the point of getting rid of the male plants.
So it goes:
1) Cloning or seed germination
2) Seedling
3) Vegetative
4) Flowering
After the plant is done flowering and ready to harvest (a large percentage of the stigmas turn amber or brown), you cut it down, trim it, hang it in the dark (or in a paper bag) until the stems snap when broken and then you can start slowly curing it. You put the dry bud in jars or tupperware and release air daily (if mold forms get rid of the moldy bits and go back to the drying stage). Don't rush this step! the slower the dry/cure - the more tasty the smoke! Eventually the bud will not remoisten and at that point it is completely ready for storage and enjoying!
This was obviously a very brief overview with many missing bits of information. Please let me know if anything should be changed or corrected otherwise - good luck, have fun and happy growing!
I'm no expert so take this with a grain of salt...
I would also recommend research and reading everything you can find. It ain't hard to grow a weed but getting something worthy of smoking is a different thing entirely.
But for what it is worth -- here is a synopsis of what i've learned from this site, other reading and very limited experience.....you'll need:
1) Space - it should be enclosed so you can have more control over ventilation, heat, humidty, security, etc..
2) Lights - very important. You need something that replicates sunlight as closely as possible. I'd recommend HID or High Intensity Discharge lighting (MH or Metal Halide for grow and HPS or High Pressure Sodium for flowering) but this site has a lot of proponents of CFL and other types of light. So your mileage may vary.
3) Something to put the plants in - soil or hydro? This can be a huge discussion so you have to decide if you're going with soil or hydro then go from there. The answer to this question can help determine how often to water (with hydro you are on a schedule - w/soil you check the soil and water accordingly). Soil vs. hydro can also define what nutrients you use and a few other choices you'll need to make.
4) Ventilation/Air Circulation - you'll need at least an 1) exhaust fan (to remove heat and replace CO2), an 2) air intake hole or fan (a passive air intake hole should be slighly larger than the exhaust opening to improve fan life and to avoid creating a vacuum in an airtight chamber) and a 3) circulating fan blowing on the plants (to strengthen them and keep air moving)
5) Odor control? this would include carbon filters/ozone generators
You'll also need nutrients and seeds. My opinion (and some others have recommended this also) is to start with bag seeds until you have had some success and then buy some decent seeds. As for nutrients or nutes, you can look online and find a ton of info but they usually break down into grow and bloom formula with a possible third one. For example: General Hydroponics has Flora Micro, Flora Grow, and Flora Bloom. You use all three for all growth/bloom phases but in different amounts (more grow during vegetative, more bloom during flowering). Instructions are on the packages. I think one of the easiest (and highly concentrated) choice would also be from General Hydroponics and that is the Flora Nova series. There are only two (grow and bloom). There are also a lot of supplements, foliar feeding, and other nutrients but using grow/bloom works fine. One word of caution - a little bit of nutes goes a long way!
Another thing you should know is how the plant grows. It obviously starts as a seed or cutting (clone), then enters the seedling stage. Vegetative is the next stage with flowering being the final stage before either dropping pollen (male) or generating seeds (female). Keep all the males out of your grow room and the females will not be pollinated. But instead will grow big resinous seedless buds (sinsemilla)! This is the point of getting rid of the male plants.
So it goes:
1) Cloning or seed germination
2) Seedling
3) Vegetative
4) Flowering
After the plant is done flowering and ready to harvest (a large percentage of the stigmas turn amber or brown), you cut it down, trim it, hang it in the dark (or in a paper bag) until the stems snap when broken and then you can start slowly curing it. You put the dry bud in jars or tupperware and release air daily (if mold forms get rid of the moldy bits and go back to the drying stage). Don't rush this step! the slower the dry/cure - the more tasty the smoke! Eventually the bud will not remoisten and at that point it is completely ready for storage and enjoying!
This was obviously a very brief overview with many missing bits of information. Please let me know if anything should be changed or corrected otherwise - good luck, have fun and happy growing!
Dr High
Well-Known Member
Whao you pretty much said everything there eh
Gwarrior
Well-Known Member
First, get your seeds and place them inbetween a damp papertowel, and place in a dark warm place. Actually anywhere will do, just make sure the towel doesn't dry out. Check ever day or two to see if the tap root emerges, which is a small white tendril that sticks out of the seed shell. When it does, place it tap root down in some soil (only about 1/4 of an inch deep, sometimes only lightly cover it with soil) and it will come. Water once it's in the cup, then put a small plastic baggie over the top for humidity, but make sure its not air tight. As soon as it sprouts, remove bags and let it grow for one more day before putting it under 12 hours of light. Then, on the second day, start the 18 hour light cycle.
Keep it going for 3 weeks, watering every 2 days at first, then usually longer towards the end of the period (4-6 days). Just remember, it's better for the soil to be dryer than saturated. At 3 weeks, add a small dosage of nutes 5-1-1 or something similar, and voila - your plants should be big enough to thrive. Also make sure if you start them in party cups, transplant them at 1-2 weeks to a bigger container as the roots grow extremely fast and it can really inhibit growth. I find it best to place them in large 3 gallon containers even from germination.
For soil, use a fertilizerless mix and absolutely no Miracle Grow potting soil, as it will eat your plant alive. Marijuana needs no nutrients until around the 3rd of 4th week of growth.
I recommend going to your local nursery and getting a bag of Perlite (the styrofoam looking rocks) and a bag of organic potting soil. Mix them at a ratio of 3:1 (thats soil
erlite).
For lights, if you are on a budget, use CFL's (Compact Flourescent Lights also known as the energy savers) and get them in the 23w versions (100w equilivent). Use one per plant until around 3 weeks. I have found it best to use the "Daylight" type, specifically because it has a bluer spectrum and that makes vegetation go much fast. Place them 3-4 inches above the small seedlings, and watch them grow. If they start to brown and shrivel, raise the lights; if they begin to stretch and go beyond 3-4 inches, lower the light. It's all trial and error, but mastery of growing comes with time.
Good luck, hope that helps!
Keep it going for 3 weeks, watering every 2 days at first, then usually longer towards the end of the period (4-6 days). Just remember, it's better for the soil to be dryer than saturated. At 3 weeks, add a small dosage of nutes 5-1-1 or something similar, and voila - your plants should be big enough to thrive. Also make sure if you start them in party cups, transplant them at 1-2 weeks to a bigger container as the roots grow extremely fast and it can really inhibit growth. I find it best to place them in large 3 gallon containers even from germination.
For soil, use a fertilizerless mix and absolutely no Miracle Grow potting soil, as it will eat your plant alive. Marijuana needs no nutrients until around the 3rd of 4th week of growth.
I recommend going to your local nursery and getting a bag of Perlite (the styrofoam looking rocks) and a bag of organic potting soil. Mix them at a ratio of 3:1 (thats soil
erlite).For lights, if you are on a budget, use CFL's (Compact Flourescent Lights also known as the energy savers) and get them in the 23w versions (100w equilivent). Use one per plant until around 3 weeks. I have found it best to use the "Daylight" type, specifically because it has a bluer spectrum and that makes vegetation go much fast. Place them 3-4 inches above the small seedlings, and watch them grow. If they start to brown and shrivel, raise the lights; if they begin to stretch and go beyond 3-4 inches, lower the light. It's all trial and error, but mastery of growing comes with time.
Good luck, hope that helps!
Two more questions...how much will a plant smell while growing? Would it smell up an entire room if grown in a closet? If so how do I keep the smell under wraps? Also can I get smokable results from growing just one plant at a time or do I have to have more for them to grow properly?
email468
Well-Known Member
Plants smell .... a lot! Yes the odor of just 2 or 3 plants can fill a closet, the room, and the entire house if you aren't careful. Especially during flowering and harvesting/drying time.
Check this out: https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/33382-odor-control.html
for odor control from F4t4LShot.
Provided your one plant is female and survives to harvest, you can get quite a lot from one well trained plant under ideal conditions. From every 10 seeds I plant from bag seed, I might get 3 females a couple of hermies and the rest males. So I would try to have enough space to grow 2-4 plants at least assuming you'll only be taking 1 or 2 through to the end.
of course - you may have better luck than me.
email468
Well-Known Member
i'm sure there are plenty of people that grow close to neighbors. You just have to be ready to contain the smell.
I would be more concerned with maintenance or pest control (whatever) coming into your place (amazing what trouble you can avoid with a three dollar lock).
I would be more concerned with maintenance or pest control (whatever) coming into your place (amazing what trouble you can avoid with a three dollar lock).
GoodFriend
Lumberjack
its not the best situation... but completely do able...
No it wasnt Gwarrior it helped me a lot, thanx for the info i need all i can get. good job on the writeup.I believe my post which contained the exact method for growing was overlooked on this thread.
Sticky Budz
Active Member
Happy Growing! One Thing: be sure you generally know what you're doing before you even start to plant. DO NOT plant then ask the questions unless its starting to look bad.