New to growing

[Iwontstop]

i'm only looking to grow to supply my habit. so i don't need great results, just enough to keep me high. i'd like to grow in my closet. so any advise about soil, watering, ventilation, and anything else i need to know will be appreciated

[evertking]

Great results will come with experience...The FAQ will have ALL the info you are looking for... In a small space... ventilation is very important.. so buy the right one for the job now and it will save you some problems and money down the line..
Good Luck!

[klondike_bar]

for youself, youd want about 6-12 oz a year, depending on you and your friend's smoking habits.

considering an oz per plant is easy under the right conditions for a beginner, you could keep yourself supplied all year by growing 3 females under 10cfls and run 3 or 4 cycles a year pretty easily.

search for cfl grow advice

[sam111]

why dont you rent a warehouse and do a mass product line,growing 2000 plants at a time
using 1000w lights and canisters of co2, that way you will never have to worry about how many plants you need or how much bud u have to smoke, the only thing youl worry about is ho to get rid of all that bud.

[Iwontstop]

haha, sam, as much as i would enjoy that, too much work, too much money, and too much liability. and thanks for the info klondike, i am looking to get about a 1/2 oz a month so 6 oz a year would be right. i think i have an idea for a set up, my biggest concern now is knowing when to transfer from the veg to flower state, how much watering i need to do (i've read once every two weeks or so during vegetation, and reducing it during flowering). the lighting i think i understand as far as time of lights on vs lights off throughout the different stages (correct me if i'm wrong, 24/0 during the first couple weeks, an 18/6 cycle later in the vegetation, and 12/12 during flowering), but switching the bulbs i assume i can find out more by doing a search as you recommended. again, any extra help from anyone will be appreciated

[sam111]

i personally dont see the big worry about over watering as long as your pots have drainge in the bottom then water will escape therefore not causeing the roots to rot,
if you think about it plants feed using water,they use all nutriants and minerals in the water they need to grow the more water the more they grow!.i cant see dry soil doing nothing for them tho also look at hydro systems the roots dont come out of water!the only time i would worry about over watering would be when the plants are fragile and small and unable to cope with heavy feeding.
when to swich from veg to flower mainly i would say when you have sexed the plants,but this is usually down to the growers personal needs.most peole have differnt growing conditions and want to achieve differnt things with there plants.
lightinhting is anouther factour as when to start flowering,but the cycle you have done are the ones i would recomend and also the ones that work best for growing.

[Iwontstop]

again i'm new to this, what exactly is "sexing the plant"? once you realize what sex each plant is, or after they've had time to fertilize each other (which seems like it would be hard to realize)?

[ilovetv247]

I agree with the quote about watering: no need to worry about overwatering, unless you're watering your plants multiple times per day, each time with water draining out the bottom.

[ilovetv247]

One thing I did read in another thread is that keeping water a little bit scarce will help entice the roots to grow and stretch to reach that water. Is that true? If it is, it might make sense to give the plants JUST ENOUGH water when they are first sprouting, to entice the roots to spread. But...keep in mind that plants need water to grow. Don't starve them :)

[ilovetv247]

Sorry for three posts in a row.

You know, re-reading what I wrote, I guess it's not that helpful of information....haha. Oh well, I'm trying to work up to 50 posts so I can start posting pictures of my own grow :)

[basementbotany]

i'll help ya with that, i want to see your grow!

[keeko]

hey ilovetv247, the only useful info in this thread would probably be from evertkings post.....i found the other people giving out the info was misinformation.

(lets work on your posts)....welcome to the boards, there is tons of useful informtion regarding medical marijuana. how long have you been growing and whats your setup like?

[basementbotany]

ya know, i think you can still post pics. just go to the "post reply" button there by the last post, then click on the paper clip there and upload your photos, i remember doing that long before i had 50 posts

[ilovetv247]

Nope, they must have changed it. There is no icon of the paperclip anywhere when I go to post something. I guess I'll just have to wait. :) I'm over 1/5 the way there!

[ilovetv247]

Someone asked what my setup was. Briefly, I have a rubbermaid box. I lined the walls with aluminum foil (I know it's not very good, but I don't have the money to buy mylar) dull side out. I have 4 plants in pots. One is about 4 weeks old (from planting the germinated seed) and the others are about 2 weeks.

My 4-week old plant is definitely not as big as it probably should be. I didn't buy any nutrients for it at first, and I left it in the "Seed Starting" soil for too long, which stunted it's growth. Since then, I bought some organic Miracle Grow Potting Mix soil, and some 19-6-12 Osmocote plant food. I accidently put in way too much (I follow the recommended amount on the label -- I later read that you are supposed to cut than in 1/4).

My younger plants are definitely burned a bit; the leaves have yellow and brown spots on them. I tried removing as many pellots as I could, and poured in a lot of regular water. Hopefully it'll help restore them to health?

[ilovetv247]

Another concern I have is that on my older plant, the leaves are all curling up into "hot dog buns". Very peculiar. After some reading, I saw that it might be because they are lacking water, but I water them plenty. I'm wondering if it's because the leave are drying out, even though there's enough water in the soil. I have a fan blowing out the side (it's not blowing directly on the plants, but there is a breeze going over the leaves). Could this cause the leaves to be doing this?

God, I wish I could post pictures so people could see what I mean.

[keeko]

what are the temps in your rubbermaid?

[ilovetv247]

what are the temps in your rubbermaid?

God, that's a horse of a different color...

I didn't realize it until I put the temp. gauge in there, but my temps were up in the high 90s, almost 100 degrees! Fortunately, it was only like that for abour 36 hours (but I'm sure that's more than enough time to do some serious damage to my babies).

Since then, I installed a really nice fan on the side of the tub, and the temp is a constant 77-78 degrees. I could make it cooler if I wanted by turning up the fan, but I figured that's a good temp.

Any ideas why the leaves would be folding up like hot dog buns?

[ilovetv247]

(only 30 more posts until I can finally post pictures!) lol!

[keeko]

sounds like the heat turned your leaves up.....little hard to say without a pic but i would guess that from your post. good to hear you got them temps down

[basementbotany]

ok, it's hard to say whether the temps are curling your leaves up. i had the problem about week 2 into my grow and my temps are a constant 72-75, no more, no less!

[ilovetv247]

Well, even though I got the heat down, the leaves are still curled up.

I found a picture of what it looks like, but it's from another forum similar to cannabis.com. Is it ok to post a link to another forum? I don't want to get banned or anything...

[keeko]

i myself would post it....just make sure to say where your source was from

[ilovetv247]

Ok, here's what the plant looks like: http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=56&d=1109447803
(taken from marijuanapassion.com)

See how the leaves are folded up almost like a hot dog bun? That's what mine is doing, except it's folded even more than in that picture.

Also, the tips of the jagged edges are really curled, and almost look like they are bone dry. That's what mine looks like, exactly! When I touch them, they aren't really dry, but I dunno....

Any thoughts?

[keeko]

from the pic you gave it looks like its heat stress, im not the best with diagnosing sick plants. hopefully somebody else can chime in with their opinion.

earlier you said you had foil in your rubbermaid, foil will make more hot spots than reflectivity. have you fed your plants anything besides water?

[ilovetv247]

Just the 19-6-12 Osmocote plant food that I said before.

Maybe I'll take out the foil then. The lights are about an inch away from the plants (but the temperature inside the box is only 78 degrees), so I'm sure they will get plenty of light without the foil. I'll try that. Hopefully within a couple days they'll be happy again :)