Newbie pre-grow (Pot size, Nutes,etc.)

So you know I am analytical person by nature System Analyst by trader. I do al ot of research before I do something. I don't blindly post without reading on it first. This is my contribution for newbies, because I am a newbie and I thought it might help someome else or some with more experience can help me. I am reading INDOOR MJ HORT by Jorge Cervantes. Good book, but it gets confusing and for newbies it has MORE INFO THAN YOU WILL EVER NEED, he gets technical. But I guess that is why he grows BIG BUDS!

Thanks for all the encouragement and help. I really am getting into this!

Questions:

Fert: How long should I wait before I start fertilizing? I am kinda scared to start hitting it hard with fert. So I was gonna take the reccommened doses and make them a weaker soloution and feed with every water. Is this safer? Should I slowly introduce the fert and then increase the stregth (1/4 the strength and then 1/3, then 1/2 over a period if time)?


Pot Size + Transplanting : I was gonna plant right into 5 gallon buckets from jiffy. Now I realize this is a dumb idea, because I will be using more material (fert, soil, perlite, etc) for a plant I might not even keep. I think I will now go from Jiffy to 6 inch to 5 Gallon bucket. So transplanting 2 time, Is there any way I can reduce the shock?


Vegging + Flowering time periond: I am doing Northern Lights. Seems people do differrent Period of times. From my research I am guessing it depends on how big you want the plant. It is as simple as that? Is there a quality vs Quantitiy issue here. I just want my plants to grow to their full potential. Of course I am excited, but I am an old dude now and I realize patience has more potential. I would rather harvest more at a good quality, than jump the gun and harvest less. Any thought on this? Does SOG reduce the quality. I realize you are growing smaller plants quicker with more turn around, but what are you giving up. For this grow I am gonna veg until the thing is 2-3 feet (Is this smart?). I see some post where the person only vegged until 18 inches and then they forced flowering. Wouldnt you grow more buds if you Vegged longer?

FERT- sounds good... start slow... If you are half as analytical as you say you are.. then you will see when your plant asks for more FERT (specifically NITROGEN) Keep close eye on PH.

Start with 3-5 gallon pot and take her to the end...It really is that easy!! Especially if you water propoerly... "soak - dry -soak - dry- Good soil and perlite mix!!!

Vegging- really depends on your light set up.. If you are growing with a 1000watt bulb - flat garden - light overhead, then you should flower between 12-20 inches...

If you are going to go XXX, hardcore, balls to the wall, Zandor style (insane side lighting) then you can grow your ladies 3 feet tall.

I would recommend you grow until they are 16 inches tall... Clone the SHIT out of them...let them grow for 7 more days.. and then flower them....

If you veg till 3 feet you will be fucked , cause the plants will grow another 2-3 feet througout flowereing.. And then, abut 2 weeks into flowering your plants will either fall over, or be so dense that light won't reachthe bootom buds.. not to mention you are askig for bugs and mold and other petulance found in the bible.. LOL

Congrats to your first grow..now go plant yer shit

LOVE
smb

Thanks for the reply. I love it when people get involved. I am really trying to get as much info as I can. I have wasted alot of money trying to get this going. Like for instance I bought 5 - 40 watt flourescents ( around $45.00) and then said screw it and bought a 400 watt HPS/ML (Converter bulbs). I wonder if I could use the Flor's for keeping a mother alive or maybe I could use them for supplemental/extra light with the Metal Halide Run them vertically down the side of the wall and keep the plants 1-2 inches close to the wall. Would that confuse the plant?

I bought 5 gallon buckets (Only a $1.00 apiece at Sprawl-Mart), now I am thinking for Northern Lights Maybe at 18-24 inches, I really needed only 3 gallon. I dont want to waste 2 gallon of growing material. I guess I could only fill them up to only 3 gallon (What do you think?), that would leave a slight space. Or better yet I can add 2-3 inches of draining material at the bottom and still only use 3 gallons of soil. I dont want to water/nute for 5 gallon when I only need 3.

Thanks for the reply, 6 months from now I will be able to help someone else out



I dinked around with Aluminum foil. BIG MISTAKE. The shit got all crinkly and was ripping and was just a hassle trying to hang up on the wall (