1st Try, but have a few questions

[Maulrat]

Last week, a friend of mine dumped of a trash bag of leaves that he didnt want. I like smoking weed just as much as the next guy, but if leaves is all i have to work with... I just use em for cooking. After rummaging through the bag, I discovered a ton of seeds. This gave me the idea to try to grow a couple. I have no idea the strain, but I will ask my friend for the info later. All I know, is that the buds were wicked sticky when I havested some of his plants and the potency was the best I have ever smoked.

1 week after planting seeds in a foam cup filled with some kind of sprouting mix 4, here are my results.

Plant 1 = Approx 4inc in height, with 4 leaves... the two cots and a pair of 1st leaves.

Plant 2 = Approx 3 inc in ht, with 4 leaves... the two cots and a pair of 1st leaves (but these new leaves are super tiny)

Never fertilized. As far as lighting is concerned, they have been in indirect light, sitting on my window sil. But this seems to be very insufficient. As for soil, I made sure that the soil is always moist to the touch, but not excess. The soil is very well losened to eliminate compaction. The more and more I look at my two new plants, I have decided to go ahead and create a growbox.

The new plan:
I am a super newbie to indoor plants, so any help is always appreciated.

I am going to transplant these seedlings into 2ea, 5 gallon paint buckets that have been cleaned, rinsed, and dried for a few days now.

Growbox --
I am considering building a 5 tall foot growbox, approximately 3' x 4'. I will have the front panel have hingest and a lock so i can swing the front panel as a door. As for the inside lining, I don't have access to mylar so I will probably be lining the top and sides of the box with the shiny side of a heavy duty tin foil.

Lighting --
Lights are very limited in my are and I don't want to spend a ton of cash on my power bill. I am considering installing a 2' fluor light on the back panel of my box, mounted vertically abox the height of the bucket. I found a 2' fluoro plant light 33 watts with housing for about $22 at the local hardware store.

Fertilizing --
Prior to transplanting, I will till in some Osmocote (time-released granules, triple 14) into the top 4 inches of the soil... hoping that this will provide a decent base of nutrient for my plants for 1 to 2 months. If my plants show some signs of macro-nutrient deficency. I will probably fertilized once a week by banding my plants with a granulated 10-20-20 fert.

Questions -- (Trying not to spend a ton of cash)

Would this heavy duty, shiny side tin foil be sufficient for refecting enough light throughout my plants?

As for soil, should I use a bag of potting soil? Or will the soil from around my house be sufficient.

Would a 2' fluoro plant light be sufficient? or should I intall 2 of these? What is a decent wattage to use for my box that is cost effient? I am going to install a thermometer in my box to monitor temp, what would be the ideal temp during daylight hours and night hours? I am not sure if these are C3 or C4 plants, so what would be a good amount of daylight hours?

Ventilation. What would be the best way to vent my box? The box will be kept in a room with an air conditioner, medium to low light in the day and no light at night.

Resources--
As for resources, I have the web of course and I have a horticulture text book for agriculture majors and 3 handbooks ( a cucurbit guide, eggplant-pepper-tomato guide, and a peticide handbook with tons of info in different brands of insecticides, pesticides, and fungicides... brand names and even restricted pesticides).

I know this is a ton of information with a lot of questions. I really appreciate any advice on my 2 plant project. Thank you all in advance.

[Maulrat]

Ok, just got a call from a friend. His forest had a frew different strains. I am not too knowledgeable on weed, but he told my that my new plants are either Bubble-berry, white rhino, or white-something else, hehe i forgot. Anyone know if these are any good?

[burnable]

REFLECTION: the foil is good, but use the dull side as the shiny side displaces the light spectrum too much. or just paint it white and not worry about replacing torn foil lining.

POTTING: paint contents sound harmless enough, but you might clean them again with bleach. unexpected chemicals could kill a plant. poke holes in the bottom for drainage

LIGHTING: fluoros are good, but people usually have them horizontal over the canopy so they can be kept within an inch which is ideal with fluoros, so if vertical mounting along the lengths of the plants is close enough it would work, but you might have to do crazy pruning to get the lamps close enough to the stalks of your plants

ORGANIC MEDIUM: you should prolly spring for potting soil; I haven't found any bugs using it. it's like 6 bucks a bag. using ordinary free soil might introduce bugs and you would have to fertilize the soil from day one (with the store-bought soil you can wait 3 months before feeding your plants). with backyard dirt you'll have to bake it to cook out harmful bacteria and shit. that stinks up one's kitchen. Plus the growing medium is one of just 4 most important cultivation factors in addition to air, water, and light. so for the love of pot just buy the soil

TEMP: I like mine between 77 and 80 F. It depends on the strain and where it originally came from. but it sounds like you have bagseed, so just remember that above 90 for long will kill the plants, below 70 will stunt growth. When in doubt, i just put my face under the lamp and if it feels like the sun in summer, it's a good growing condition. just keep fresh air moving through. in darkness, the plants like it around sixty. I hope you're considering humidity, as it will influence resin production and flowering. during vegetation humidity between 40 and 70 percent is good. during flowering try for between 30 and 50. keeping a barometer in your grow vault will be beneficial. you have to convince the plant it's a dry climate so that it will produce luxuriant, glossy leaves to prevent itself from drying out.

VENTILATIOn: is pretty fookin important. you have a pretty small operation, so you don't need to worry as much about your plants breathing. even if you checked on them every couple of hours, which is hard not to do, you'll stimulate enough air movement to get all their CO2, plus you breath it out. if you are going away for a while, mix up some baking soda and vinegar in a 2-liter bottle. the gas expelled is CO2 and you can fill up a balloon with it and release it into your grow chamber. these options I suggest because I assume you want to seal up your cabinet so it's lightproof and therefor airproof. if you don't need to keep it sealed up don't, and blow a gentle fan through it. mounted computer fans inside would be great.

growing your own is very therepeutic and everyone who smokes it should grow it I believe. If you need a stress outlet, just go tend to your plants. who needs to deal with black market thugs whose herb exists only to earn profits, when you can produce it in your closet and concentrate on quality.
the first plants i grew I let nature take it's course on the windowsill. without having educated myself, the plants were co-ed, and the female flowers got fertilized. so I guess I had schwag, and it was seedy, but man alive I was old-school ripped when I smoked it! I learned then that freshness and quality were neglected when I bought pot from my friends.
anyway, good luck. remember that growing should never be stressful. you'll probably not nail every factor down the first time u grow, but whatever you do harvest will be transcendent of anything on the street

[4x5]

Put them in separate pots, 2 in one pot will give you trouble any way you do it.

[thuG]

Hey Maulrat, your posttook the exact words I was thinking to write later on today, since I am also a beginner in growing bud and with the interest in growing soon :)

Since the post I was going to make later on today is similar to the one here, there are a couple more questions that could be critical within growing.

Should we be using flourescant lights or HPS lighting during the first couple months?

How many times a day do you water the plants during the first couple of weeks?

What type of lighting schedule would you start with? End with?

I've read that if you add a good amount of gravel at the bottom of the pot it would help a great amount for drainage purposes. Is this true?

Do you fertilize during the first couple weeks / months ?



I'm sure there are more questions but these are the ones I really don't understand. I've been reading and searching for quite a while now, and I have almost all the tricks and tips jotted down to begin my plant grow.

[stinkyattic]

Your seeds are very unlikely to be pure strains if your friend was growing multiple strains. You will end up with a bunch of different genotypes AND phenotypes.

On the up side, I'll bet you get an outstanding plant or 2 that you'll want to save as a mother.

[burnable]

Hey Maulrat, your posttook the exact words I was thinking to write later on today, since I am also a beginner in growing bud and with the interest in growing soon :)

Since the post I was going to make later on today is similar to the one here, there are a couple more questions that could be critical within growing.

Should we be using flourescant lights or HPS lighting during the first couple months?

How many times a day do you water the plants during the first couple of weeks?

What type of lighting schedule would you start with? End with?

I've read that if you add a good amount of gravel at the bottom of the pot it would help a great amount for drainage purposes. Is this true?

Do you fertilize during the first couple weeks / months ?



I'm sure there are more questions but these are the ones I really don't understand. I've been reading and searching for quite a while now, and I have almost all the tricks and tips jotted down to begin my plant grow.


I hear that cfl's are excellent for the vegetative phase. hps is ideal for flowering, as it simulates autumn light and convinces the plant that winter's coming soon and it needs to flower out quickly. personally, I have found that hps lamps are the best overall if you're going to use one light source. but don't be paranoid about switching light sources in your plants' lives, it doesn't need one constant light source throughout its life. flowering is more demanding like I say, and requires more of the red-end of the light spectrum


there really shouldn't be a strictly uniform way of watering; although it might turn out to be a regular watering regiment. the plants are better dealing with dryness than over-wetness. the watering requirment will depend on the volume of the soil in the pot. for small pots, you might need to water every 2nd or 3rd day. the rule of thumb is; if you can't detect moisture with your finger after digging down slightly into the soil, it's time to water. when using HID lamps, you'll probably need to water more, as they cook out moisture quickly. don't be afraid to wait a day or two if you feel a hint of moisture in the soil


the lighting schedule during the vegetative phase (roughly the first 6 weeks of the plants life) can easily be given light 24 hours a day. I like to shut off my hps lamp for 4 of those 24 hours just to let the light cool down. admittedly, that's just paranoia because I'm unacquainted with pro lighting systems. honestly, the lighting during the veg state doesn't matter really; we're really just trying to get the plants to grow faster so we can harvest quicker (it's really not a botanical health issue at all). However, the flowering phase is much more discriminant of its light cycles. once the plant is 6 weeks or 2 months old, you can start flowering (although you will ultimately have more potent buds if you prolong the veg state as long as possible). To induce flowering, give the plant a strictly uninterrupted schedule of twelve hours of darkness per day-the more absolute dark the better. it might need 2 months of that scedule before it's ready to harvest. when roughly half the hairs on the individual bud have turned from white to red or brown, it's ripe and ready to harvest. ideally, the whole plant is ready to harvest at once. sometimes you need to havest the buds separately, clipping off the mature buds and letting more light reach the undergrowth to finish maturation.

you would only need a drainage substance like gravel if you're using your own dirt. commercial soil usually contains perlite or vermiculite to ensure proper drainage. this issue and the plant food issue are resolved if you just use soil from the hardware store. after 3 months, you should fertilize the soil. or just buy more and not stress yosef widdit. LATES