Need help. a lot please

[teachmeurways]

hey everybody. im a complete amature and dont know so much yet, ive been doing research for the past few days so dont make fun of me or anything please. but this will be my first grow, im just doing it in my closet its just a little average sized closet. i dont have much money to spend right now so im just hoping i could get a little help and ideas on what ordinary house hold items i could use to throw in my closet. ive got a bunch of mid seeds from the weed itself from when ive bought bags and i have some northern lights seeds as well. im just curious pretty much if i can use everyday stuff and not have to use like different solutions and if i can only use water and still get a nice reslult. basically is there like a bulb or two i can stick with the whole time, a type of dirt i can stick with, how often to change the dirt if needed, how often to water, stuff like that. i know im a complete noob but with a little help ill learn this stuff fast.

 

[Thawk]

Re: need help.. a lot please

Well before we can help tel you how to do anything, we need to know your goals.... How many plants? How much space you have? Etc

 

[PhishyPhil]

Re: need help.. a lot please

hey buddy, i started just like you, in a small closet, on a budget, wanting to use household items, just to alleviate the pain in my back and joints without getting hooked on synthetic pharmaceutical painkillers.

you are going to have to buy some stuff to make this worth your time, but it shouldn't be much depending what you have in your home. heres a list of bare essentials, and you can decide what you have and what you don't have.

closet - check.

lights - i suggest CFL's. they are ridiculously cheap, and barely give off any heat, so theres no need to worry about venting. the bright white ones are marked at 6500k (or as close to that as u can get). the amberish colored light ones are marked as 2700k. get some of each, more lumens the better. use 6500k to start and veg, then add in the 2700k bulbs when you switch to 12/12. you must be able to provide the lady with 12hours of uninterrupted darkness.

Soil - i'd suggest Fox Farm Ocean Forrest soil. anything with slow release nutes like miracle grow is bad. you have no idea how much of which nutes are released at which times. you can get a bag for less than 20 bucks. you shouldnt need to change the dirt until you start a new grow.

water/nutes - No. Water by itself will not work. your little lady with suffer nutrient deficiencies, stunted growth, and may possibly even die as she gives in and succumbs to these problems. if u want to grow organically i'd suggest Earth Juice products. ir organics dont matter, or, if the highest priority is simplicity, Fox Farm Nutrients. Google can give you tons more in depth information on these products and you can make your decision from there based on what works for you. on average you'll have to water 5gal buckets every 7-10 days depending how thirsty your ladies get.


all the info you could want is here on the site and the members here are very kind and knowledgeable. just read up everything you can, ask questions as needed, and you'll be just fine. we all have to start somewhere

Phil

 

[teachmeurways]

Re: need help.. a lot please

thank you very much phishphil for the help and tips! yea ive been doing research on this site for about a week but i spent literally all day today reading up as well. and with the foxfarm ocean forrest soil, would i need to by any other kind of chemical or anything or would that soil have the nutrients id need? and what kind of things would i need to add to the water i used to water my plants with? im going to go out and buy these things possibly this week. i also talked to a buddy today whos working on his second plant right now. i asked him and his way was just really simple. hes using miracle grow (even though everybody says not to), i forget what kind of bulb i know it wasnt a CFL though, didnt say what he has in his water if he does, but hes got one plant growing in a little bucket right now and its actually comming out pretty nice its probably around a foot and a half tall and in good shape for now.

thawk: my closet is probably around 6 1/2-7 ft. tall, 6 ft wide, and around 3 ft. of walk in space i would guess. (im not home now so i cant measure any of this). but i just wanted to start off with one plant so far and see how succesful i am with that and just learn from my mistakes pretty much and to ask questions as i go ya know?

p.s. i also wont have the gadgets to test any level types for my plant either. if i would have to wait to plant and get those first then i will.

 

[OldSkoool]

You might want to take a look at what I constructed for CFL/LST/Single plant growing, and the latest(4th) harvest produced by my little light canopy. I use eight 26W 5100K CFL's for vegging, and eight 42W 2700K CFL's for flower.

Foam Board Light Canopy

My buddy uses the same light canopy in a similar sized closet as your own, and his only problem was light proofing the closet while he was out of town.

Even though CFL's don't produce the same heat as HPS, or other high heat producing lights, they still produce enough heat that if contained in a closed closet, the heat generated would exceed acceptable growing levels. So you'll need to keep that closet door open while the lights are on.

Since he wasn't going to be around to close his closet door during the 12 dark hours. His solution was to hang black plastic sheets, blocking the natural light from his bedroom window, and wood frame folding panels covered in black plastic standing in front of the opened closet door. And it worked.

Containers: I've used 3 1/2 to 7 gal pots, but I'll be sticking to 5 gal from now on.

Ferts: I've used MG Tomato for vegging, and Greenlight Super Bloom for flowering (both at 1/2 the recommended amount), plus 1 teasp of unsulphured molasses per gal of water during flowering for the past four years with zero problems. Most use 1 tablsp of molasses, but again I bow to moderation. The final two water cycles before harvest are water only @ 3X the pot size. Example, 5 gal pot = 15 gals of water.

Soil: I use Fafard African Violet potting soil with no additives. Again, no soil issues in four years of using this product. You can spend more for soil and nutes, but I fail to see any advantages.

Water: I'm fortunate, I using tap water, and 'cure' it by leaving it exposed to the air for 24 hours to evaporate the chlorine.

Hope some of this helps you out.

Good Luck!

 

[Thawk]

Definitely listen to old skoool, he knows his stuff. I think he answered most of your questions but I can tell you if you don't have a way to ph your water then get one before you start, I've lost far too many plants to poorly phed water to let it happen to someone else

 

[teachmeurways]

thank you both you have no idea how much of a help this is! and yes i think you have pretty much cleared up my concerns. i was worried about the soil because ive seen on a lot of other post about adding the NPK and all that stuff its a relieve to see i dont need to worry about adding all the minerals and stuff. i checked out you're set up too oldskool and that is just art, really nice job on it. someday i will make my own set up and what not when i can afford it and get the maretials. im still young and in college so im runnin aruond a lot.

but just to clear up a couple more things (sorry for being a pain), if im only growing like 1 plant is 1 bulb ok for one plant or should i be safe 2? and same for 2 plants like 2 or 3 bulbs? and im a little bit unsure what you mean by adding the molasses per the gallons of water because i thought you just water the plant a little unless you mean your putting the molasses in the water during the flowering stage. and it is just water during the veg state? and do you add those ferts with the african soil everytime before you plant and transplant? and last question i think is would this type of soil and fertilizing work for any type of pot seed or clone and end up with a good outcome?

i think with the buckets im going to start out with something little like even maybe a little cup to start the grow after the germinating then maybe transplant after that to like a 3 gallon pot and then 5 if i have to which im sure i would.

thank you again for the help i really really appreciate all your input and think ill be good after i get what i need out of this post. and sorry about being a pain with all the questions.

 

[Thawk]

Some of those questions you will need to wait on old skoool because I don't know how to answer them haha, but just a couple things. While yes you can do a perfectly great grow without nutes even using some very basic ones is very helpful and sometimes necessary, u should grab one of the ferts that old skoool was talking about and maybe grab some superthrive if ur walmart happens to have a bottle, it's like 5 bucks and has helped me with many problems in my plants. Also when it comes to lighting with cfl's I am far from a pro, but I can tell you you should have roughly 100 CFL WATTS not what they are comparable to... I'm not sure how many lumens that is but it's a good start. Also home depot and ams club have had them very cheap recently, a 6 pack or 26 watt bulbs for $4. Hop to it! Also as far as container size, they prefer to grow down so taller is better than fatter and also you may not Need a 5 gallon depending on how big you want the plant, a good rule of thumb is a gallon for each foot of plant. Hope this helps and best of luck to you, I'll be checking in on your grow

 

[Be Irie]

While yes you can do a perfectly great grow without nutes even using some very basic ones is very helpful and sometimes necessary,

HUH a perfectly great grow??? What is this? and I would love to see an example of one....

Teach, take a look around here How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know
There are great articles that will help break a lot of things down for you.. Lights,nutes,mediums, environment and everything.. It's a great place to get a good foundation for growing and will give you more of an understanding of what the members are talking about when they are helping you out..

 

[XxUpInSmokExX]

i would recommend this

Marijuana Grower's Handbook

by ed rosenthal,

it will completely break down almost every aspect of anything you need to know
really great source of info

 

[teachmeurways]

Teach, take a look around here How to Grow Marijuana - Everything You Need to Know!
There are great articles that will help break a lot of things down for you.. Lights,nutes,mediums, environment and everything.. It's a great place to get a good foundation for growing and will give you more of an understanding of what the members are talking about when they are helping you out..

your right about it being helpful and having on the dot articles i need for help its just theres terms and abreviations and such ive never heard before and just dont understand that well because im a noob still at this but ive read about every article in there that i relates to me and most i didnt need anyways and it was just confusing at some points.

thanks for those couple tips thawk, ill keep those in mind. lighting one too ill probably just grab one of those 100 cfl watts to start and once it starts growing bigger and at a good pace ill add another.

and upinsmoke i checked out the handbook site you left me and even that is pretty helpful so ill definitely have to look at getting the whole handbook. thank you

 

[PhishyPhil]

hey buddy, just checkin in again.

remember for CFLs, you want high LUMENS, watts do not = brightness. As many Lumens as humanly possible for your CFLs. my last pre-HPS grow consisted of 9CFL bulbs pumping out almost 17,000 lumens, on a single lady that was maybe 20-25 inches high and about 36-42 inches wide. produced just around 3oz.

remember, keep your lady short and wide so that all the tops become level with themselves

 

[kfswantoon]

Cool. This is good. People who are willing to give it a try. I'm no expert but this is how my first grow went and I was happy with the turnout. I was tickled pink...I swear it looked like something out of a magazine. It was a single plant grown from bagseed(ak48?), planted in miracle grow with miracle grow nutes in a cabinet painted white on the inside. It was ventilated with two muffin fans and was illuminated with 100 watts of cfl divided among 3 clip on lights. I suspect I was somewhat lucky with the plant given the conditions but my second grow was also a good turnout, though I added another hundred watts of light. All I'm saying is that you can start with a little and end up with a lot.

 

[teachmeurways]

hey guys. heres the deal and my gameplan. ive got my pots, seeds, and a place to grow. i still need to get the soil which i probably am just gonna get some topsoilf and a fertilizer for the veg and flower process. and i just need to get some bulbs which ill probably get 1 6500 CFL bulb for the veg process then 1 2700k CFL bulb for the flowering. and i got a little fan for a little ventilation. 24 hour light during the veg process. and i only plan on growing it maybe 2-3 ft. i dont have a huge spac, around 1 1/2ft. wide, 2ft. deep, and 5ft. tall so i hope growing it 3ft. wouldnt make it too cramped and still give me enough nugs.

but does anybody have any tips about containing the smell thats a biggy right now too. would be appreciated.

 

[PhishyPhil]

but does anybody have any tips about containing the smell thats a biggy right now too. would be appreciated.

for the smell you can grow other herbs that smell stronger, or search for 'carbon filter' on this site and read up on those

 

[Dee House]

id get the fox farm soil it has everything n it so ul only need 2 add water the first 3 or 4 weeks then add bloom nutes

 

[teachmeurways]

id get the fox farm soil it has everything n it so ul only need 2 add water the first 3 or 4 weeks then add bloom nutes

so ill just mix in some bloom nutes with the fox farm soil after the first 3 or 4 weks for the rest of the veg process?

 

[Dee House]

veg plant 3 or 4 weeks then bloom cycle ul need grow & bloom nutes but not 4 the 1st 3 or 4 weeks

 

[PhishyPhil]

i usually add veg nutes after its 18-24 days from seed, and i start at half strength

 

[OldSkoool]

Had problems accessing the site for a few days.

Okay. Seems to be some confusion in translation here.

Let's start with soil. You want a quality potting soil FREE of ferts.....you'll be adding those yourself. Both during vegging, and flowering

For lighting you'll need to start with a 5100k or higher rated CFL bulbs for vegging, and 2700K for flowering. The more lights (lumens) you can use the better.

New seedlings should be started in nute free soil, with no VEG nutes added to the water until those new babies are at least 4 weeks old, and should only be added at every other watering. The same feeding schedule holds for flowering as well. Remember to use half the recommended amount.

Molasses is only used during the flowering cycle. I use a teaspoon of molasses mixed directly into a gal of 24 hour cured water at each watering, and can be mixed with flower nutes every other watering.

Pot size. You can start seedlings in any small cup with good drainage. This is the most critical time you'll have during your grow. You'll want to keep the soil somewhat damp, but not soggy. You'll also want to keep your seedlings a few inches away from your light(s) to avoid stretching. I transplant my seedlings from grow cups to 6" pots about 3 weeks for better root development. When I switch from 18/6 to 12/12 light cycle, I transplant to a minimum 5 gal pot, again you'll want pots with good drainage.

Watering: Once your plants are 3-4 weeks old, you can allow your plant to dry out a bit more than when they were new babies. MJ likes to dry out (not excessively) between water schedules to avoid male plant development by over watering.

LST, or plant bondage CFL growers would do well by gently tying down branches for several reasons. First, by tying down, and spreading the branches horizontally, you'll have much better light penetration. Second, you can have your lights closer to the plant. And third, you can better manage plant size in a small grow area.

As far as plant odor, you'll find a variety of solutions used by members using the search feature.

I hope this clears up a few of your questions, and good luck!