Basic growing

[stinkyattic]

Well, with your high post count you should know to read the FAQs...but I'll humor you.

i have never grown a weed plant before or any other kind of plant but im interested it learning.

READ READ READ. And grow other types of plants. It's good for you.

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Do you have to use UV lights or can you just use normal lights? (If you can use normal lights how many watts would they have to be?)

No, you don't use UV lights. You use ideally flourescents and/or metal halides for growing and high pressure sodium for flowering.

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How tall can they grow up to?

Strain-dependent. As tall as you let them. Sativas can soar past 15 feet.


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Whats the difference between a male and female plant?

Males produce small pollen sacs and are not worth smoking. The resin is concentrated on the calyxes and in good strains on the bud leaves of the females.
Read up on your botany. It will come in handy here.


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How often do you have to water it?

Um, when it's dry?


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Does it have to be kept in somewhere with a certain temperature? and if so what is that?

Yeah, 70-80 is good. 65-95 is okay but your plants will be stressed. Anything above 95 forget it.

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(I've never understood this) Why do people use foil? what does it do

Foil is stupid.They use it because they don't have access to mylar or white paint or are just too cheap.
You're supposed to use a highly reflective wall covering to make your lighting more efficient. Unwrinkled mylar (either from a grow shop or in desperation emergency blankets from the camping section of wal mart) is the best. Next best is flat white paint. Tinfoil is way down there.


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How long on average do they take to grow

As long as you let them. Again, strain dependent. 4 months seed to harvest is an approximate schedule for an indoor variety; 2-3 weeks in the seedling stage, 5 weeks vegging for training, pruning, putting on some side branches if it suits your space, etc. Then 8-9 weeks to flower. Lots of people veg for a lot shorter time, and use clones to speed things up even more.

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If i was to grow it indoors in a dark room would a light have to be hanging down and if so how bright and how many watts and how far would it have to be form the plant

YES you need a light hanging down silly!
To start off, plain old flourescent shop lights are perfectly serviceable. One aquarium tube and one cool white tube in the fixture. They should be almost touching the tops of the plants. You will need to be able to lift the lights as they grow. As they get taller, if you still are using flouros you have to add more, and side lighting. When you are ready to flower them, expect to fork over some cash for a REAL ag light, a nice HPS. A 400w will do a little more than a square meter of floor space. You can push it; I've got 2x400w illuminating 24 flowering plants. So the trick is to keep your plants kind of short. You'll see if you look at peoples grows. A 400 throws some heat and should be around a foot above the tops, with a fan blowing on the light.

Okay there you go, now go read.