Looking for A little help for this newbie.

[Spirit Molecule]

Well as the title says I am new to cultivation, and I just made a sealed and well ventilated 5.5x5.5x8 seperate space for my baby's. I am for the most part ready to start, and I have a couple questions, but any pointers and ideas from some vets would be well recieved. Let me give you a little more to go on.

I am working with 1 600w hps bulb, and a 600w metal halide. The seeds I bought were "LSD" and "Arjans Ultra Haze 1". The question I have is what size pot would you start them off in, and subsequently at what week would you transfer them to what sized pot and so on. Steming off a bit how many plants would you say I should grow during one period based on the space I have? I hear the sea of green works quite well, but I'm just looking to keep i managible for my first time.

Secondly would you recommend just running the metal halide during the germination and seedling stage or continue suplimenting it with the hps during veg and flowering?

Lastly what brand or mixs of plant food would you recommend, ad if your feeling super genourous a good feed and watering scheduale.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Spirit Molecule Reviewed by Spirit Molecule on 02-25-2012. Looking for A little help for this newbie. Well as the title says I am new to cultivation, and I just made a sealed and well ventilated 5.5x5.5x8 seperate space for my baby's. I am for the most part ready to start, and I have a couple questions, but any pointers and ideas from some vets would be well recieved. Let me give you a little more to go on. I am working with 1 600w hps bulb, and a 600w metal halide. The seeds I bought were "LSD" and "Arjans Ultra Haze 1". The question I have is what size pot would you start them off in, and Rating: 5

[silent leprechaun]

Just check out my grow log. All the info on pot sizes are in there.

Use the metal halite during seedlings and veg stage. Be careful to keep the light a good distance away. Those 600w blubs get super hot.

Germinate on a plate between 2 sheets of kitchen roll in a warm place. Keep the kitchen roll damp by spraying with just water every now and then. You should have 1 inch tap roots in 2 or 3 days. This method will give you a much higher success rate in germination. Good seed are expensive when starting off.

I used the compressed cardboard cups to start the seedlings off. Fill the cardboard cup and water. When the soil settles put more dry soil in and water again to raise the soil level to the top. Punch holes in the sides on the bottom to let water run off easily. Make a 1 inch hole in the 'damp not soaking wet' soil and gently put the seed into it. Maybe let the pots sit and drain for a few hours as the wet soil can rot the seedlings if it's too wet. Gently push the soil around the the seed. You can put the top of the seed a half inch under the soil. Keep them all the same depth so all grow at the same rate. I would start off with about 9 plants but it's up to you. I think 9 good sized plants will be enough for a 600w sodium vapor. 3 rows of 3. You will find that if the room is too stuffy with plants you will end up with less yield as you are forcing the plants to compete for the light, also the canopy become too dense and the lower leaves don't receive enough light. There is also the point that too little plants can be a waste of light. But for the 600w HPS should be just ok with 9 plants. Veg them for 4 weeks or so, until they are about a foot to a foot and a half high. Don't let them veg too long or you will have monsters on your hands. Use LSTing to create a more even canopy, this also promotes more top colas where good size buds will form. Don't begin the LST until week 4 or so. The top of the plant will still be flexible then. LSTing is just bending and tying down the plants, a little bit more every few days so you don't snap them.

Getting on to your Sea of Green idea. Sea of green usually work better from cuttings rather than seedlings. The rooting systems of cuttings are a little different than seeds and makes SOG growing easier. You need to have a mother room to be able to access cuttings, unless you have another source.

You can see the mix of nutrients I went with. They are not the normal food types you might read about regarding weed. I used a good soil mix, potting soil, moss peat, top soil, compost, perlite, worm castings and bat guano. The soil is a rich mix. The nutrients I use are organic seaweed, and seaweed & tomato soil conditioner. I used a bat guano soup from time to time too. Everything I used was organic. Burning was not an issue. They even say you can harvest without a flush, but I flushed anyway. The only issue I had was a magnesium deficiency which I fixed with some Epsom salts. Other than that I was good all through my grow. But I'll leave it up to you what nutes you go with.

Dont use nutes when the seedlings are starting. When you see roots coming out of the cardboard cups it's time to repot. I just went ahead and and put them into 2 gallon buckets. But you should, in theory if there is one, put them into 2 or 3 litre pots to continue vegging. Then at week 3 - 3.5 or so do a last transplant into the final 3 gallon pots (buckets). Don't use pots that are too small. This will choke the roots and you will get a bad yield.

Water only when the soil is becoming dry and the pots feel light. If you over water you could get infestations like gnats etc. Also the plants like to soak up most of the water in the pots before a watering. In the top of the pots the soil will feel dry and a crust will appear. Be sure to rub the soil with your fingers to take this layer away. Watering with this layer on top can cause dry spots in the soil.

So thats my 2 cents. I hope it helps.
You can check out my grow if you like. It's meant to be informational. I documented every week from seedling and there are good pictures too.
The link is in my signature.

Take care and good luck.

[Spirit Molecule]

Could not have asked for a better response, thank you good sir. I hope all goes well, if it does I'll post some pictures.

[silent leprechaun]

No worries. We are all here to help and from time to time be helped in return.

Just one last thing on light height during veg. The best indicator to say that your light is the right height is to keep an eye on the node lengths. (the distance between the leaves on the main stem)

Try to keep these at about 1 inch apart. If the light is too far away your plants will begin to stretch towards it. You dont want too much of this or you will get a scraggly plant.

Keeping the light too close will obviously burn it, or if not burn it the nodes will be too tight and the plant will be too bushy.

I was once told to listen to what your plants are telling you. I try to do this all through the grow.

Take care and good luck