First time grower - Let me get my facts straight!

[ElVerdeDiablo]

Hello all!
Firstly i would like to say that i have never grown cannabis before! so all pointers and tips are Helpfull!

But what i'm hoping to create here is a post where other people who are thinking this could be the hobby for them, but have a few holes between the blank spaces, can find all the answers they need and at the Same time i can learn for my first grow!

So here we go!

My grow has not currently started, but i am in the process of setting up for it!

My main grow chamber is slightly restricted in terms of space, I have Hollowed out an old set of draws, and but it in my wardrobe. (i have lots of wardrobes :3).
The Dimensions of this box are as follows:___
/ /
/____________<95cm>________________/|
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
^ | | |
70cm | | |
| |___________________-________ | |
| / | |
| / | /
| /_ | / 40cm
|/________________________________|/

So its 95Cm Long, 70cm tall and 40cm wide.
Container is a reflective white, and i stuck some shiny side up tinfoil around some of the edges as well. i know its not mylar, but it helps right?
Within this box, i am going to mount (already Ordered) a 450W Grow light.
The growlight is 40cm long 7cm tall and 21cm thick, So should fit perfectly to the roof of the cupboard And distribute light fairly evenly within the container.

For a Growing Medium, (a.k.a - The substance i'm gunna grow my cannabis from, i've decided to go Hydroponic.
Now i know a lot of growers don't recommend growing hydroponically for the first time, but i'm determined to do it as have heard a lot of good reviews about hydroponic growing, and how hard can it be!

So i've ordered a gt205 NFT Grow Tank.
The grow tanks dimensions are 70cm long, 20cm tall, and 39 cm wide!
This grow tank will fit very snuggly in my container, leaving me 20 cm at the end of the container for storing equipment? or other misclanious tasks.

I have also ordered a PH Meter with the solutions to Adjust the Ph of my Tank, as well as a small green desk fan, and a thermometer.

Thermometer shall be mounted on the inside wall of the container, as well as the fan, probably above the 20cm gap on one side of container. I have heard Airflow is important for gaining the most out of your crop!

I am planning on using this type of cannabis seed:
Cream of the Crop Crop Circle Auto | 800 gr/m2, 55 Days Total

So now that we have a better Understanding of The Grow Space that i am working with, Im going to talk myself through the stages of grow that i understand, asking questions along the way to fill in the blanks!


I have bought an auto flowering Indica Dominant Seed.
(Autoflowering means that the light cycle can remain consistent throughout the grow)
(Indica Dominant because i want a fast harvest and short plants)

When i receive my seeds, i want to start the process of germinating them. I was planning on doing this in a saucer with some wet tissue paper until the seeds are showing a centimeter or maybe two of root growth. At which point i am going to insert them into some rockwool cubes. I will be using 5 seeds

QUESTION NUMBER 1 - What is the best conditions for the seed to spend the first -lets say two- Weeks of its life?

Do i need to add any form of nutrient in this early stage of growth? Should i keep the rockwool cube in a propogator? How much light is efficient for the seedlings?

Basically Please clarify, in possible, the process of getting those seeds to nice small MJ plants from a seed in rockwool, to a small plant in a rockwool cube, and mesh basket, with roots that are ready to be used with the NFT Tank

Once i have my little plants, in they're little mesh baskets with a nice web of roots through the rockwool, i want to space my plants out evenly along the tank, leaving each as much room as possible to grow!

Now for my plants to grow and be nice and big and healthy! Im going to need to keep the nutrient solution in my Tank at the right levels.

So as a beginner my questions are!

What Nutrients would you guys Recommend for The Growth and Flowering Stages of growing my crop?

What Should the PPM of my nutrient solution be? (parts per million)

And what should the PH of my solution be? (acidity levels)

ALSO

Looking at the seeds i've bought, it says 55 days from start to finish! Brilliant nice and quick right!!
However At what point for an auto flowering seed should i swap between the two nutrient solutions?!

And how often should i go about changing the nutrient solution? and how is that done?



Once all the above has been answered and seen too! I believe its just a waiting game, making sure they get 18 hours of bright light, followed by 6 hours of solid darkness every day! until around the 55th - 60th day, at which they will be harvested. Not gunna talk about harvesting here though.


Do i have this all figured out correctly?

Final Questions:

-Will the 50cm of grow room be alright?
( would i benefit from LST?)

-What Nutrient soloutions do i use and when? also in what "dosage"?

-How does the Fan actually help my crop? will it strengthen it?

-do seedlings need nutrients?

-If i where to attempt to clone this plant ( despite it being autoflowering) any recomended methods or tools?

-What is the correct temperature to keep inside the box ?

-Correct PH of solution

-Assuming this grow goes pretty well, plants are healthy and kept stress free, nutrients is ballanced, air is right - What kind of yield Approximately can i expect?


Hope this post answers my Questions, and i hope it is usefull to somebody else who has aquired knowledge like myself, but is still missing a few gaps!

Thanks for taking the time to Read!
Yours truely,
Green Devil

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

This is the box as is since my little sketch got fucked up!

 

[Major PITA]

Welcome Diablo!
I have zero experience with hydro so I won't try to offer advice, except to say I think your questions and grow will get a lot more assistance if you put it into a journal rather than the FAQ area.
I will say I tried a soiless grow for my first time out and it was not a good experience. Obviously, it can be done with great success, but after switching to High Brix soil, I doubt I'll ever go back.
Cheers and best of luck with your first effort!

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

Welcome Diablo!
I have zero experience with hydro so I won't try to offer advice, except to say I think your questions and grow will get a lot more assistance if you put it into a journal rather than the FAQ area.
I will say I tried a soiless grow for my first time out and it was not a good experience. Obviously, it can be done with great success, but after switching to High Brix soil, I doubt I'll ever go back.
Cheers and best of luck with your first effort!

Thank you for this, maybe i shall repost this under the grow journels section? however i do not want to get in trouble for re-posting? maybe if a MOD could get back to me on just copying the post into journels section, or even getting it moved? that would be great!

And would you mind explaining how a High Brix soil grow works to me? have heard it mentioned before but info seems scarse
Thanks though!

 

[Major PITA]

Thank you for this, maybe i shall repost this under the grow journels section? however i do not want to get in trouble for re-posting? maybe if a MOD could get back to me on just copying the post into journels section, or even getting it moved? that would be great!

And would you mind explaining how a High Brix soil grow works to me? have heard it mentioned before but info seems scarse
Thanks though!

You can use the "report a post link" to get assistance from one of the Mods. It is the star in the lower left of your post, next to "Blog this post".

As for High Brix, your best resource here is to follow Doc Bud's journals. In them you will find many other members who are also journaling their HB grows. In a nutshell, HB = low potassium and high calcium in a very active and highly mineralized soil community. This is a huge simplification and I don't fully understand how/why it works so well ... but it does.

Here is a LINK to get you started. You'll find plenty of reading and examples.

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

Your the man!!
Thank you

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

450w light !

If that is a hps style of bulb you may well run into heat issue's.

Or it may be a led panel, i'm not sure...

Mmm total height seems a little restricted but we can work around that & perhaps a scrog style of grow would be more suitable.

Going to need to think better air flow as plants breath so er venting like intake & exhaust is a good idea.

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

450w light !

If that is a hps style of bulb you may well run into heat issue's.

Or it may be a led panel, i'm not sure...

Mmm total height seems a little restricted but we can work around that & perhaps a scrog style of grow would be more suitable.

Going to need to think better air flow as plants breath so er venting like intake & exhaust is a good idea.

Thank you! Yeah i bought an LED light because i knew torching my plants would be a ris- a Reality! if i didn't haha!! and yeah im working on a venting situation as we speak will keep you posted!

About SOG an Scrog growing, - i assumed that 5 plants in that kinda space was more of a scrog style grow anyway? or am i missing a key point?

 

[BuddroGreen]

Welcome aboard ElVerdeDiablo

1) The seedlings when first sprouted are best kept in a clone dome/humidity dome until you have two (2) sets of true leaves, the first leaves are called cotyledons (rounded) and they are not true leaves, they are the interior seedling wrapper. The first two sets of true leaves will be (serrated edges) like what you have known as cannabis leaves, once you have them you can remove the clone dome/humidity dome cover and let them have regular air...it's important to keep them in the clone/humidity dome so they can grow roots in a good environment of around 60%-70% RH (relative humidity)

You do not need any nutrients when they are seedlings, they have all the nutrient they need inside themselves already for a few weeks (I have clones that are a month old that only get pH'd RO/bottled water) only plain pH'd RO water/bottled water is needed to keep them lightly moist in the rockwool cubes or propagator until you have roots coming out the bottom of cube. I use a 15 watt under cabinet light for my seedlings and up to about 10"-12" tall if you have to use it that long before putting them in hydro system....key is keeping light an inch or so away, you don't want them stretching for light as well so get bulbs in the 5000k-6400k range which is blue and promotes great growth....2700k-3000k are red in color and promote flowering...so get 5000k-6400k for seedlings and vegging, or use the blue spectrum on your LED light if it allows for it.

2) You can start the seeds in the rockwool, take your rockwool cubes and place them in 5.5pH'd RO/bottled water and let them soak for 10 minutes, take cubes out put in container (don't squeeze water out) then place your seed in the hole made at factory about 1/4" or so deep, cover the hole with rockwool from around the hole so you can't see in, with the cubes in a plastic carry out container/with lid...I use a plastic Pei Wei carryout container and it works great, close lid and place container in a 72f-80f place like a closet in the dark (no light) and in 1-3 days you should have sprouted seedlings, once they have sprouted place them under the 15 watt light (low wattage light) with 5000k-6400k bulbs....(not 2700k-3000k bulbs, red spectrum will make them stretch) keep them in clone/humidity dome (they make different height lids for clone/humidity dome so you can get the light right on top at first, after the first true sets of leaves have grown in you can remove the clone/humidity dome lid and keep light an inch or two away from top until you're ready to go to the hydro system, keep light schedule on 24 hrs or 18 on 6 off it's your call

Once they have two sets of true leaves and roots you can start them on a low EC/ppm of nutrients in the 0.4-0.6 EC or 200-300ppm range. I would use either General Hydroponics GMB (Grow, Micro, Bloom) 3 part, or Advanced Nutrients pH perfect GMB 3 part nutrients.

The ppm's change as the plant grows, when in the seedling with roots stage 250ppm is a good starting point, later in veg you'll want to bump it up slowly to see how the plant will take it...most Auto's like light nutrient ppm's so slowly add another milliliter of nutrient solution every week or every other week as the plant grows, it will let you know it's being fed too much...rule of thumb is use 1/4 of bottle directions at the plant stage the bottle states....if your ppm drops from what you started with they are hungry, and if the ppm rises they are drinking more water, you want your ppm and water level to go down evenly together...the pH will swing up when they are feeding correctly which is normal, if the pH goes low it's another sign of over feeding or a root issue. I use no more than 800-1000ppm in mid flower with a regular photo period, when the plant is huge...so 250-800ppm (1000 max) is what I use throughout a complete grow...I also use some additives so those ppm number I use will not be just base 3 part nutrients alone...so probably take off 200-250ppm from my numbers for my base 3 part nutrient ppm level...no additives when seedlings true 250ppm base 3 part....only in mid veg when much bigger do I add in additives through flower end.

The pH in hydro should be in the 5.6-6.2 range, your grow space is tight so you'll probably have to LST, train the plant you want, or super crop. The fan helps to move air around the plant and to strengthen the stalk and also helps to keep molds away late in flower. In veg you want a RH of 60%-65%, and in flower you want a RH of 35%-50%.

Cloning Auto's will be very hard since they are on a time schedule, so cloning a Auto can be done, but won't be easy to continue on with. Cloning only needs a sharp clean razor blade, and cutting at 45-60 degree angle, once taken from the plant the cuttings should be put immediately in 5.5-5.7pH water so an air pocket isn't taken up into the stem of the cutting which would be bad for the cutting. Place rockwool cubes in 5.5-5.7pH water, take a small clean phillips head screw driver the size if hole in rockwool cube, and stick through until it comes out the other side, now make sure you have a nice 45-60 degree cut on cutting (60 degree promotes more rooting area) and stick it in until you see it come out bottom, and then back it off from bottom 1/4", place in clone/humidity dome with light on dome either 24 hrs on or 18 on 6 off, your call again. Keep dome in warm 72f-78f area and in about 7-10 days you should have roots.

Temps in the box should be 72f-82f, and your reservoir water temp should be as close to 68f-72f.....if you use Hydroguard, z7, Great White etc...they will allow the reservoir water temps to go up to 82f and still keep the bad bacteria's away...you still want it as cool as possible to those temps stated in the box & reservoir.

Predicting your harvest weight is really tough, all you can do is your best and learn and as you get better at growing your harvest weight will go up until you have hit the yield limit for that strain in your growing conditions, as I always tell new growers, "The better you grow, the more you get".

Don't forget about a good pH pen, EC/ppm pen, pH up & down, also get calibration solution for both pens so they read out correct, I usually calibrate every other week...Also, a nice temp/hygrometer will help tell you temp/RH in the grow box area.

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

Buddro Green .

That was an absoloutly incredible responce and just the sort of thing i was looking for! Thats a massive plus one to you!

Really! REALLY REALLY!

Thank you

 

[ElVerdeDiablo]

Buddro Green .

That was an absoloutly incredible responce and just the sort of thing i was looking for! Thats a massive plus one to you!

Really! REALLY REALLY!

Thank you

Like i don't even have any questions on what you said

 

[Rifleman]

Like i don't even have any questions on what you said

I'd suggest searching the completed journals section for grows similar to yours before you start. There are a lot of pitfalls when you begin hydro, it's best to see some solutions before you experience any problems.