Looking for advice on getting started

I'm completely new to growing and have no experience at all..

I would really appreciate any advice at all on the first steps to starting a grow.. what seeds should I start with? Where is a good place to get them? Should I grow outdoors or indoors?

My house is fairly roomy and my attic is pretty big.. but I also have a little ledge made from wood on my roof that I could use if I was to grow outside..

I also wanted to know about investment.. how much money I would have to put into a grow..

Are CFL lights just the standard energy efficient house lights? Or do you need special lights for growing plants?

Would I have to invest a lot of money in soil and fertilizers etc. ? Or could I just use general gardening supplies? I could try going through my house and making a little inventory of the stuff I have so I can get some advice on weather it could be used or not..

How about a fan.. wouldn't it blow up if I left it on all the time? Same with the lights..

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.. also any pointing in the direction of sources of information already on the forum as it's a bit overwhelming at the moment..

Thanks!

Atari

Easiest thing to do is look at the growfaqs. They are somewhat complete. After you decide on what type of system then we can help you out with specifics. CFLs can be purchased at any home improvement store and are usually marketed as energy saving bulbs. HID bulbs, like metal halide or HPS(high pressure sodium) are much better but thats usually for indoor growing. As far as lights and ventilation goes, most people reccomend a light sched of 18/6 for vegging(the initial growing phase. This gives the plant enough light while helping save on energy costs. Ventialtion is key because you need to keep the temps in the mid 70's so Im not sure about the attic situation. As far as ferts go, there is a wide range of stuff that you can use. However it is important that you dont over fert and def dont use miracle grow. Usually ferts that are used for orchids will work but you might be better off buying ferts that were specifically made for mj. As far as investments go, Zandor says it best "If you go cheap you grow cheap." This is all I can think of at the moment. Every grower has his or her own opinions as to what works best but maybe this will at least get you started in the right direction. Just my 2 cents

u can use floescent lights,the cfl,arefine to use,45 watt,4inches from plant.buy poting soil,and mix 1/2 perlite and 1/2 poting soil.run lights on all the time,or use timer 18 hrs on 6off.get soil damp not soaked,plant seed 1/2 inch deep,cover with plastic,put into dark,wen seed sprouts remove plastic,put under light.ur bigest problem now is u really need to learn hw to water.read grow faqs and grow guides,good stuff.write down wat u do,so u dont mak same mistake twice,easier to get help,and so u can make adjustments,that wil really save u alot of time+people always say the can rember,no,write it down,plus u can rember so much,i have attented alot of lectures outa state for 4 days at a time,nothin beats the notes.peace buthead/

I only grow indoors, so I can only speak to that. Indoor growing makes you God. Outdoors, God is God...and that God has lots of bugs and bad weather. I'm not a fan of that sort of God.

Prepare your grow space first. Paint your walls a flat white...spread mylar on your floor. Get your fan set up (yes, you leave a fan on 24 hrs/day). Buy your CFL's and get them set up in cheap shop light clamp ballasts.

Get a good potting mix that does not have time-release nutes such as Miracle Grow. You want to be in control of fertalizing.

Buy white pots---I use foil wrapped pots of whatever colors---and put a layer of broken up red volcanic rocks in the bottom (they hold moisture and allow the roots to grow into them and they are an added nute source).

I also recommend buying bat guano (I get it off of eBay), which is a high nitrogen fert and definitely a small bottle of SuperThrive. Also grab a bag of white marble or granite stones as a reflective layer for the top of the soil.

Get their home all set, then post some pics.

Wow.. thank's for all the information..

So Ski.. you think I should get my whole growing area set up.. and get all my bulbs and equipment.. and then start thinking about what seeds to buy etc?

Sounds like a good idea..

Do get maximum light I think I'll have to construct an enclosure in my attic seeing as it's a large space.. How big do you think I should make it? I'm trying to think of the best stuff to do it with..

Something like this..?

Hmm.. okay.. I also need to work out how to do thumbnails..

dude take 3 mounths and read evey think u can spend at lest a hour hear a day and read a book or 2 its not just jumpin plant soem seeds with some bulb to many good plants die liek that its sad i tryed growing 4 times and couldnt get them out of the seed ling stage and findy got it right also if u have lime wire downlond redy,set ,grow but make shur u get both parts cause its cut in half

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Originally Posted by atari

Wow.. thank's for all the information..
So Ski.. you think I should get my whole growing area set up.. and get all my bulbs and equipment.. and then start thinking about what seeds to buy etc?
Sounds like a good idea..
Do get maximum light I think I'll have to construct an enclosure in my attic seeing as it's a large space.. How big do you think I should make it? I'm trying to think of the best stuff to do it with..
Something like this..?

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Yeah, you wanna make an enclosure, or you lose tons of light. You can, of course, grow in a big, open room, but you'll waste lumens all over the place. I'd probably hang white shower curtain material, or something that would give the same results.

That's what every step of growing is about...making choices about degrees to maximize efficiency.

Say, for example, there are 50 steps in growing MJ. That means there are 50 different things you have to decide how far you want to go.

Some people grow using only CFL's, from veg through flower. It works okay, but you'll tend to get light, popcorn buds. So you have to decide if you want to spring for, say, an HPS light for flower. Uh, then you might also want to add an MH light.

What jake suggests is smart and good, but it's also okay to get yourself started and learn as you go. For me, growing is easy---growing GOOD is the hard part.

Lights: CFL's are Compact Flourecent Lights. They screw into any regular lighyt fixture If yo use these, they cost very little to run. The drawback is your plants will have to be short. How short, you ask? I have no idea, since I use and HPS :D

Growroom: You want to make sure your temps are within the 70-85 degree range. Anything more or less than that and your plant will not yield as much and may cause other health problems for your plant. What problems, you ask? I have no idea since I keep my temps in that range (well, I try to, anyway). Growing in an attic requires special consideration: it's cold in the winter and hot as balls in the summer.

Ventilation: No, a fan won't explode because it's running all the time. Just make sure the motor is not up against anything; keep it at least a couple of inches from walls, curtains, etc. just to be safe.

Soil and fertilizers: My first grow was in soil and in spite of all of my screw-ups, I still got 4 ounces. Just use regular potting soil WITH NO NUTRIENTS IN THE SOIL. This is important. Also, I recommend getting some coco fiber and mixing it into the soil at 70% soil/30% coco fiber. It improves drainage and only costs a couple of dollars to treat a 5 gallon bucket of soil. Fertilizers will run you about $45, which should last you a couple of grows. If yo grow in soil, go with Foxfarm fertilizers. Any fertilizer you buy should come in 3 parts: one for vegatative growth, one for blooming and one for boosting nutrients during blooming. Everyone likes their own brand and there are tons of brands out there. I like Foxfarm for soil grows. If you're gonna go hydroponic, ask the guys at the hydro store for their advice for growing TOMATOS..do not say you are growing weed, they'll call the cops and write down your license plate number. Don't even kid around.

Seeds: just go with bagseed for now. Even if it's bagseed from some schwag, it should be waaaaayyyy better than before, due to the lack of care commercial growers sometimes have.

Money: Well, you can do it cheap, or you can do it right. Which way do you want to do it? If you do it cheap, you could get by with spending ...$150 for materials? If you want to do it right, you should spend...hmmm...$600 for an 400W HPS light, hood, fan and all electrical equipment, not counting building materials for your grow room or cabinet. Don't forget, once you spend this money, you won't have to do it again, so save up, it'll be worth it!

No matter what you do, I strongly urge you to look at the journals and logs on both this website and others. Do NOT go to Overgrow.com. The feds busted that site and they record all visitors. There are tons of other sites out there, just look around (keep cannabis.com your main source, though ;) )

Books: Also, go and buy at least one book on growing marijuana indoors. Anything by Mel Frank or Jorge Cervantes is good. Your library may even have some books on it. If you go to the library, do NOT check such books out. You know why. If you buy any such books, pay in cash at a retail store and do not have them special order it for you; if they have it in stock, great, if not, go to another store that does have it. If you absolutely have to buy a book online or through the mail, I suggest you have it shipped to a friend who doesn't grow. Better to be safe than sorry.

Good luck, I wish you much success! :thumbsup:

Also, while your early in your set up---the biggest headache most people have is getting their lights close to their plants. CFL's are very cool and should be no further than 1" from the tops of your plants. You'll have to be either lowering the plants, or raising the light every day, so you want the easiest system possible. And you want them directly over the plants.

For 10 pots, I wrap about 50 books in foil (dull side out) and use them as booster seats. Plants tend to grow at slightly different rates, so it's nice to have a way to lower them individually.





BTW, this is all just hypothetical, of course.

Ski.. did you do your entire hardonna etc. grow with just CFLs? I don't want to be spending $600 (£300).. but I don't want to skimp out too much either..

Are you saying that a good way of varying the distance of your lights from your plants is to raise or lower the plant with books rather than raise or lower the light?

The shower curtain idea sounds good.. I need to some how make some kind of ceiling as well.. maybe with some kind of plastic sheet material too..

What do you think are the most important elements to spend enough money on?

Also.. is a single HPS light (400w) enough for several plants?

You can prolly start with a fluorescent untill it gets bigger. Then buy yourself a hps in a couple weeks. I think you can get 9 plants in a 3' by 3' plot with that light. Prolly wouldn't hurt to use the fluorescent, if you get one, with it. I think there is a company that makes special fluorescents specifically for growing (PURple, or something like that). There are some nice videos if you look around for a P2P program. Buy, "The Cannabis Grow Bible" if you can. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to research hortculture a bit either.

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Originally Posted by atari

Ski.. did you do your entire hardonna etc. grow with just CFLs? I don't want to be spending $600 (£300).. but I don't want to skimp out too much either..
Are you saying that a good way of varying the distance of your lights from your plants is to raise or lower the plant with books rather than raise or lower the light?
The shower curtain idea sounds good.. I need to some how make some kind of ceiling as well.. maybe with some kind of plastic sheet material too..
What do you think are the most important elements to spend enough money on?

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I vegged that grow for 49 days, all under CFL's. I think I did 18/6 (18 hrs. light and 6 hrs. dark).

Then I switched to 12/12 and turned on a 400w HPS (even just a 250w HPS will cover just a few plants). Then I also bought a 250w MH light. I flowered for 77 days under those two lights. Both were relatively cheap...$125 or so for each.

It makes no difference whether you raise the lights, or lower the plants. It just works better in my setup to lower a few inches at a time. Shop light style clamp ballasts have a hinge that allows you to adjust them up or down a little, also.

The most important thing you should spend money on his light...it's also the most expensive. CFL's are cheap and last a long time. But if you want to take your grow to the next level and make the biggest jump in final quality, then you need a good flowering light; my recommendation is a HPS.

Okay.. I've been looking at lights on ebay but it's really overwhelming because of the number of people selling them.. you seem to be able to get 1000watt bulbs for £20.. doesn't that sound a little cheap? Any advice on good ones to buy?

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Originally Posted by Jdzzl03

def dont use miracle grow.

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Why not use Miracle Grow? It's easy to find and use. I'm getting really high on bud grown with miracle grow and it hits smoother than most stuff I've bought. Just straight use water toward the end.

Shultz makes a 10-59-10, The Miracle grow 15-30-15 works too, but can (YMMV) lead to nute lockup (usually people give to much fert.) I've done it with miracle grow myself too, it works, but I've switched to the shultz bloom booster, I like it better.

Make sure you are buying a bulb AND the ballast. Replacement bulbs aren't very expensive, but the ballast to run the light is. You can also buy a "switchable" ballast that lets you run MH for veg and HPS for flower. But I prefer CFL's for veg and HPS AND MH for flower. Somebody on here will point you to a good site to buy a little in your country.

Mircale Grow works for growing pot. Lots of people use it and swear by it. But it contains time-release nutes...in fact, the wrong nute balance all together.

I use Prom Mix, which is a good organic potting soil. I don't add ANY nutes for the first 2 weeks...just SuperThrive. Then, I start feeding with bat guano, which is high nitrogen. Mine is 10-1-1, or something close to that.

from latewood, bear with me. I always said 9ski9 was good for a laugh...

[QUOTE=9ski9]I only grow indoors, so I can only speak to that. Indoor growing makes you God. Outdoors, God is God...and that God has lots of bugs and bad weather. I'm not a fan of that sort of God.


[QUOTE=9ski9]Prepare your grow space first. Paint your walls a flat white...spread mylar on your floor.

lw...Only you would put the expensive stuff on the floor and paint the walls...lol mylar has higher reflective value. If anything, you would want to paint the floor, or mylar the floor, as you said. just picking, because............

lw...I recognize Harddon's method here...

Buy white pots---I use foil wrapped pots of whatever colors---and put a layer of broken up red volcanic rocks in the bottom (they hold moisture and allow the roots to grow into them and they are an added nute source).

I also recommend buying bat guano (I get it off of eBay), which is a high nitrogen fert and definitely a small bottle of SuperThrive. Also grab a bag of white marble or granite stones as a reflective layer for the top of the soil.

lw...I remember you learning back before college, right? or am I thinking of someone else?

Just having fun, later lw