1st Timer!

Hello all. I've been wanting to start gardening for awhile now, but hey, you know how life goes, right? Anyways, I thought I'd share my experience as a 1st timer and try to gain some insight from those with more knowledge and experience. I received my 3 seeds of Pure Power Plant (feminized) from Sensiseeds. 2 popped within 48h and the 3rd on the following day. I got 7gallon plastic planters, lined the bottom with an inch of argile clay balls for drainage, and mixed 1:1 all purpose planting soil with nitrogen enriched horse fertilizer. I wanted to add perlite but couldn't find any around here. Guess I'll have to order it online next time. Anyways, 3 days after putting them in soil I saw my little ladies for the first time! The 2nd and 3rd pics are at 2 weeks old. I just ordered some newts and will start feeding them soon. They're outside 14-17 hours a day in direct sunlight but if it's too hot I put them under a tree to keep them a bit cooler. I initially made the mistake of leaving them on the tile terrace which I figured was baking the roots. Lessons learned, and not too late. I found that chopping some fresh garlic and scattering it around on the top soil keeps most insects away but it needs to be refreshed when it's no longer such a potent smell.

I'm going to experiment a bit. So, now here's where my questions begin...
1. With the exception of adding nutrients, I'm going to let one plant just grow 100% naturally - No topping, pruning, Scrog, etc. Just to see the difference.
2. Another plant I'm going to try Scrog.
3. The 3rd is where I'm kind of lost....

I'm open for suggestions as well as feedback.
Thanks for reading what's now turned into the forward for a book...
K

Welcome. First, I am not a grower these days, though, I am much like you were, waiting for the opportunity, and it will come. All I can add is this, I use to grow every year outdoor back in the 70's. I have never had a plant go male and I believe part of that reason was the pruning technique. You may want to try topping each branch every second set of leaves, of course, you want your plant to be a bit larger but don't wait too long. What this did for me was create a much shorter but much wider bush that was easy to maintain, plus, the amount of flower was insane. Just my two cents, a very old two cents coming from the old school days... Let me know if you try this, I think you will be very happy. Oh, and what strain are you growing?
Peace to you and yours

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. It's 60/40 sativa/indica (pure power plant). Looking forward to trying different teks to see what works best!

Just don't start feeding them to soon.

OK. I read that I should start feeding them 1/2 doses of nutrients starting from the 1st day of veg. What's too soon? Please clarify...

Kruture said:

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. It's 60/40 sativa/indica (pure power plant). Looking forward to trying different teks to see what works best!

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For sure, try different techniques, but dont over do it on your first time. Understand how the plant grows...walk before you run. Good luck, friend!

Skewbong said:

For sure, try different techniques, but dont over do it on your first time. Understand how the plant grows...walk before you run. Good luck, friend!

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Sound advice! Thanks!

Kruture said:

OK. I read that I should start feeding them 1/2 doses of nutrients starting from the 1st day of veg. What's too soon? Please clarify...

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Those are seedlings, once you get a few branches then give nutes...3-4sets of branches....very lite nutes at first...even 1/4 strength...less is more. First timers almost always nuke their first grow...i did, lol.

Skewbong said:

Those are seedlings, once you get a few branches then give nutes...3-4sets of branches....very lite nutes at first...even 1/4 strength...less is more. First timers almost always nuke their first grow...i did, lol.

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OK. Much appreciated. They're 2 weeks old now and I just ordered Reefertilzer from CA which I assume will take at least a week to get here and then I was going to start right away. I'll monitor it a bit since I certainly don't want to nuke them... LOL

Kruture said:

OK. Much appreciated. They're 2 weeks old now and I just ordered Reefertilzer from CA which I assume will take at least a week to get here and then I was going to start right away. I'll monitor it a bit since I certainly don't want to nuke them... LOL

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Hahaha, i only looked at your first pic, sorry. They can be fed very lightly at that point.

don't scrog outside. Topping is good, but being that your days are now getting shorter you don't have much more time to train without hurting her. Maybe top once in a couple weeks. Next time start it inside before may 1 and you can get a bigger plant...ive seen people start in Jan Feb and they grow into freaking trees...no joke.

Go to you tube and look up kyle kushman...training techniques, He knows his stuff

Skewbong said:

Hahaha, i only looked at your first pic, sorry. They can be fed very lightly at that point.

don't scrog outside. Topping is good, but being that your days are now getting shorter you don't have much more time to train without hurting her. Maybe top once in a couple weeks. Next time start it inside before may 1 and you can get a bigger plant...ive seen people start in Jan Feb and they grow into freaking trees...no joke.

Go to you tube and look up kyle kushman...training techniques, He knows his stuff

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OK. I'll check him out. I'm in a Mediterranean climate, btw. I see you're in Canada so the temps and hours of daylight probably differ quite a bit. But why do you say to not Scrog outside? I thought the point was to keep the plant down to a managable size and allow more light to get 'into' the plant, right? I was also thinking that 1 plant I'll try to force to flower after 30 days of veg, approx. 1st week of August. Any experience with doing something like that?

I'm an indoor grower, but I do read a lot. Experienced outdoor growers can offer better advice for that.
Youre right, your factors are different than mine. Our days are very long right now...4:00 am to 10:30 pm. You're So lucky to be in Mediterranean climate, I'm envious. im sure you daylight hours are much shorter than mine.

What country?

Topping you're plant will bush her out. Scrogging is done indoor to get an even canopy...efficiency with the space and light you have. The sun is super powerful, so just top or FIM and supercrop...watch kyle kushman videos. It's very scary at first, just be gentle.

I'm in the south of France. I wake up and take the ladies outside between 6-7am (most of the time). I bring them back in around 1030pm (but not always... depends on the weather). I picked this strain just for my climate conditions. I read PPP grows up to about 6ft but I want to keep the height down as I'm not worried about how bushy it gets... just want to get lots of buds from them! Going to spend the rest of the evening watching his videos. Thanks again!