complete nub in need of assistance =/

[aheadatime]

hey all, im completely new to growing or even thinking about growing but ive been doing some studying. im thinking about growing either dutch passion super haze fem or an early strand, perferably early queen. the haze looks good though. im on a 200 dollar budget, so i need some mad advice. i have many questions in need of answering. first of all, if i buy a reflector and an MH bulb, can i just screw it in and turn it on? also, would a CO2 generator be highly recommended or something i can go without as far as closet growing goes? any advice on soil? compost mix / perlite? i want to get everything locked completely down before i even begin with the expensive seeds. im good with germination, ive been practicin bag seeds right n left to make sure i dont fuck up the good seeds but i need some expertise on the details. anyone willing to help a fellow stoner out?

[aheadatime]

postmandave? green? any help from any experienced growers would help greatly. thanks aheadatime guys

[evertking]

here ya go. Drugs-Forum - Cannabis cultivation: Overgrow's GrowFAQ (http://www.drugs-forum.com/growfaq/GrowFAQ%20Basic%20Topics.htm)

[faithlessxxx]

Dont buy a MH, they're only good for veg. Buy an HPS if you're only going to buy one lamp. Buy it ready, if you're not good at electric. there are massive sales on the internet, E bay, now and again.

Forget the co2, thats for pros and demands real equipment.

Good soil and perlite 50/50, proper nutes, temps between 25-30C at the canopy top, and you're good to go.

[aheadatime]

hmm, i was thinkin of buying a full spec 90 wat cool-flour for the center of my closet and hanging at the top using an hps i guess according to faithless. with this, the soil/perlite, a small fan and possibly a dehumidifier, what else would i need? how much is mylar and how necessary is it?

thanks alot for the responses guys

[aheadatime]

im only buying 10 fem seeds and looking for an o in dry yeild btw

[faithlessxxx]

250W HPS is the smallest I would recommend for flowering 1-2 plants.
They give off quite a lot of heat though, so you will have to think about intake and exhaust.
Are you sure you need a dehumifier? if you're around 50% generally, you'll be fine.

White (matte) paint is good and cheap.

[aheadatime]

hmm see i wouldnt want to much heat, since the exhaust/intake would be hard to set up with such a quick yeild wanted. oh and btw, if i want an o, how many plants would i need/how long should i veg before flowering?

[faithlessxxx]

6 ounces off a couple of plants under a 250hps...
If you cant take the heat you'll have to go fluors/cfl's then. Try to get a couple of hundred actual watts, not "equivalent" watts.

[aheadatime]

thanks for the advice faith, how long would you suggest i veg before budding if i want a quick yeild but a bare min of two oz's

[faithlessxxx]

One plant? From seed? At least a month. From a clone: 3 weeks maybe.

[aheadatime]

any recomendations on soils? brand names?
remember, i live in the states so keep it basic.
also, any good fert recomendations. thanks alot guys
=D

[r00tdoctor]

hey all, im completely new to growing or even thinking about growing but ive been doing some studying. im thinking about growing either dutch passion super haze fem or an early strand, perferably early queen. the haze looks good though. im on a 200 dollar budget, so i need some mad advice. i have many questions in need of answering. first of all, if i buy a reflector and an MH bulb, can i just screw it in and turn it on? also, would a CO2 generator be highly recommended or something i can go without as far as closet growing goes? any advice on soil? compost mix / perlite? i want to get everything locked completely down before i even begin with the expensive seeds. im good with germination, ive been practicin bag seeds right n left to make sure i dont fuck up the good seeds but i need some expertise on the details. anyone willing to help a fellow stoner out?

About the hid (mh or hps) lighting you will need a ballast rated for whatever watt bulb you are using. you are on a 200 dollar budget thats kinda tight but hidhut and htgsupply both got decent deals on 250-400 watt hps kits. Also you will need some sorta ventalation (hid bulbs produce lots of heat!) and a ph test kit (bghydro has a ph soil kit with ph up/down for 15 bucks) , along with some nutes. Growshopalien is a shop ive used for seeds so I will recommend them try one of the mandala or nirvana strains both are in the $20 price range , plus a few dollars for shipping. Theres alot of info out there on growing , and google is your friend.

[aheadatime]

hmm, root you live in the us? i saw growshop a lil while ago but im scared shitless to order my seeds online, im thinkin of driving a lil ways to canada to smuggle them in personally. but thanks for the ballast tip, i didnt know what that was lol =/ and as for the nutes, any suggestions? maybe a generalized schedule?

[aheadatime]

i do know this: do not fert until about 2 weeks into veg, and even then use 1/4 to 1/2 and reg amount of nutes. then full fert after a month or so of veg then cut back all nit about 2 weeks before harvest. am i right? wrong? any thing missing?

[r00tdoctor]

Yea I live in the usa , and you can order seeds just choose a legit vendor and if possible dont ship the seeds where your growing at. Walmart has a cheap fertilizer called "expert gardener all purpose" it is good for veg. Its pretty powerful so only use 1 tsp per gallon of water. It has done my plants well during veg. You will also need to get you a fert thats high in the middle n-p-k number during flower.

[aheadatime]

hmm, good looking man. what do you mean by legit vendor tho, and as for not sending seeds to the spot, yeah im most likely gonna get a po box just to be safe. so youve never had any trouble with this?

[r00tdoctor]

Well ive had 3 orders come from growshopalien and havent had any problems , most that could happen is customs seezing them really.

[faithlessxxx]

You want to slowly introduce ferts after a couple of weeks (soil) that are high in N and K, like about 10 / 8 ration, and a low P ratio, like 4 (the bottles always have "NPK" values on the labe, in this case 10/4/8)

Increase as much as they'll let you without burning, I find that after about a month, they'll eat anything I hit them with. I could probably throw small mammals at them and they'd gobble them up.

Then when you switch to flower, switch the NPK values of the ferts. In other words, drop the values of the N and K and increase the P. Like: 4/10/8

Preferably you want to increase the P value as they mature until you're like 4/16/12 the last two weeks before flushing.

[aheadatime]

thanks faith. with flushing, i cant understand how that wouldnt be considered overwatering.

[faithlessxxx]

It would be, thats why you only want to do it for a maximum of 10-14 days towards the end of its life.

[faithlessxxx]

Actually, it wouldnt be. The way I flush is that I continue to water them regularly each time the soil has dried, sans nutes, but I throughly dowse the soil in the shower room and let the water run off. I get to do that about 4-6 times before I harvest.

[aheadatime]

yeah i guess so. i dunno i had a lil guy one time about 7 inches and it was getting ugly cuz i overwatered a tad bit but it lived. i guess im just a lil freaked to do something like that since then. hey noone ever answered me, with LST would i use fishing line? and how long should i keep it down?

[faithlessxxx]

I wouldnt, might cut through, I actually use hemp string just for fun, soft string is what you want. Keep them LST'd all the way.

[aheadatime]

even through flowering?

[faithlessxxx]

Sure. The goal is to get an even canopy so that the lowest point you can lower your lamps to, will be an equal distance to all the plants and buds.

[aheadatime]

hmm, makes sense. if you look at atsar's grow log his one plant yeilded at least like 4 oz's. and he LSTed until just before budding. i wanna get that much =/ should i lst through budding or stop just before 12/12

[aheadatime]

ok, i just got back from english gardens and i have myself some miracle grow potting soil, a bag of perlite, a big bag of 1,1,1 maneur and some ferts for buddng stage. any recommendations as far as soil goes? is that all i need or am i missing something?

[Xsphere253]

I have 3 babies that came from clones.. they are a little over 4 weeks old. They were transplanted to 5 gallon buckets about a week and a 1/2 ago. All I've used aside from water is superthrive, and K-L-N root concentrate. When would you suggest giving them their first set of nutes? I just watered last night.

[aheadatime]

ok right now i have a 400watt hps, 2 fans, some mette paint, the bloom ferts, some 1-1-1 veg ferts, obviously some good soil, perlite, a few gallons of distilled water, n the seeds. any pointers guyses?

[faithlessxxx]

Set the room up for a trial before you put the plants in. Hang the lights about 1 yard up.
Test the temps at about a foot up, at canopy level. Try to keep them within 25-30C.

If you're going to use manure, which I never have, you'll need to use it in the bottom half of the pot, so you don't burn the roots the first couple of weeks.

Good Luck!