Brand new grower, completely lost. Please help!

[Skylinedive]

Hello everyone. I recently made the decision to grow my own cannabis. I am completely lost. My level of experience with any kind of cultivation is peppers. No, I am not comparing cannabis cultivation to peppers, but simply stating my grow experience is at the level of... well... growing peppers. I've looked through the sticky, "How to Grow Cannabis - Everything You Need to Know!", and I am extremely overwhelmed. Any help, guidance, or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have so many questions so I thank any and all for your patience and understanding. This is also my first post.

Grow Area: I need to grow indoors. I live in Georgia so outdoors is out of the question. I currently have a 8'x10'x12' room that is used for minor storage. My girlfriend and I both think this would be a good place to grow. The room is on the second floor of the house, of which my girlfriend owns (so no housing maintenance or anything like that making surprise maintenance visits), and a large tree obstructs any view into the small windows. I plan to keep the windows blocked without making it look weird from the outside. The house has central air, of which we usually keep it between 70-74 degrees F during the day, 68 degrees at night. Winter, we keep it between 68-72. We can close the vents to the room if needed. I can not put any type of AC or external air system outside of this side of the house unless it's stealthy (HOA rules). We have 3 large breed dogs and HEPA filters in the central air that we change every other month. No one uses this room and pets never enter so keeping it locked wouldn't cause any suspicion from family or guests (of which we hardly get). There is no basement.

Strains and Method: We were thinking of growing 4-6 plants from soil. Something solely for personal, medicinal use. I'm not quite sure what strains to get. I've heard Northern Lights is perfect for first-time growers. It's hardy, forgiving of mistakes, etc. I've had this Indica many times and I like the body effects associated with it. I also wanted something of a strong Sativa-hybrid. In the hybrid, I want more of the cerebral, head effects of a Sativa but with the physical characteristics of an Indica. Yield is important to me but quality takes precedence over quantity. Taste is not important to me but is more so for my girlfriend. I would like something with a beautiful appearance. White fuzziness, orange/red/purple fibers, but this is least important. Quality>quantity>taste>appearance.

I plan on buying feminized seeds from Nirvana's seed bank online. I have zero growing equipment. I am a Marine Corps Veteran with chronic migraines, tension headaches, neck/back tension/pain, reconstructive ankle surgery that still causes pain (surgery took place in 2009), PTSD, depression, and anxiety. My girlfriend has back pain from her job, depression, and anxiety. That's a general background on us to better help with the strain question. I could smoke/vap every day, minimizing my need for prescription pain killers and negatively mind-altering drugs.

I don't know where to start.

1) What strains should I look into? What's best for novice growers? What would be good for our symptoms but also not too difficult to grow? Would having a few (2-3) dedicated Indicas along with a few (2-3) Sativa-heavy-hybrids be a good variety? I've heard good things about Northern Lights and AK-48, thoughts? Any other considerations?

2) If we want to try having a cannabis supply that would provide for us daily, will 4-6 plants with a room height of 12' provide us with a steady supply for ourselves?

3) Does anyone have experience buying from Nirvana? They come with a free 10 seed variety pack with certain orders. Should I try growing those or just what I order, so I know what I'm getting into? Is getting feminized seeds a good idea? Should I even try bothering with breeding, males and females, pollination, etc?

4) I've heard many good things about hydroponics. Should I stick with soil until I'm more experienced? Also, are grow tents worth investing in, especially for a novice grower?

5) Potting? Lighting? Fans? Air flow? Temperature/environmental control? Oder control? Soil and Nutrients? CO2? PH and watering/feeding? Pests? Diseases?! Fuck me...

6) When I harvest a crop, does this destroy the plant? Do I start fresh from a new seed or does the initial plant continue producing a crop? Cloning: is it worth doing/learning in the long run? Is this something I shouldn't even worry about right now?

7) The entire cultivation process from pre-seed to smoking my harvest?

Some of my questions may seem stupid. I have no idea what I'm doing and I wont learn unless I ask. I'm sure there's 101 more things I could/should/would ask. I knew this would be a difficult process to learn but I am dedicated to learning. I've seen many people write about using a K.I.S.S. approach, keeping it simple and all that. Thoughts? I am not made of money but will invest in equipment if need be. I would rather spend the extra money on quality gear and equipment to improve outlooks for successful and plentiful harvests.

Thank you for getting through all this. All constructive criticisms and helpful comments are welcomed.

 

[daTenshi]

Hey and welcome to
First will direct you to Sponsors : 420 MAGAZINE ® page.

Will do my best to answer some of those questions.

I would recommend using soil for your first grow, not saying hydro is very complicated, but it may send you into more confusion.


What to spend your money on after you get your seeds: 1. light 2. good soil 3. nutrients 4. light timer, fan 5. pH meter, temperature meter.

1. Light - you have different types to choose from, and don't get discouraged, you only need to understand this once! Most growers use LED, you won't regret investing most of your money on this, because it will pay off for sure. I have seen so many successful harvests with LED that I believe it is one of the most used light system currently. I am not trying to sell this off to you by no means, just a suggestion to look over.

2. Soil - a good soil is hard to come by, but once you spend at least a few minutes looking over what is available locally at the stores you have access too, you won't have to worry about this again. I am not from USA so I can't really say what's good or bad, only thing I can't point out here, is that I heard and seen many people burn their plants using Miracle Grow, I never personally seen that type of soil, so just to be safe, stay away from it.

3. Nutrients - here, you can't really go wrong. You can pick something for your budget, or plant needs. So many brands to pick from specially made for cannabis growing that it is not worth getting much into this. If you don't have access to a cannabis brand then you will have to pick one yourself from your local stores. The way you do is you look first at the designated use, it has to be safe for human consumption, and after you look at the NPK ratio. NPK stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. For vegetative stage the general ratio should be 3-1-2, and for flowering ratio changes to 1-3-2, what this means is N is the highest value for veg and the lowest for flowering.

4. Timer! - this is a must, cheap life-saver, you won't have to switch the lights on and off everyday.
Fan - a small or big or anything you can borrow from friends or family, a fan is good to keep the air moving in the room and for temperature control.

5. pH and temperature & rH meter, they are self explanatory, you can always buy these later on.

Also very important, fire extinguisher! Better have it and not need it then need it and not have it!



Now for your questions.

1) What strains should I look into? What's best for novice growers? What would be good for our symptoms but also not too difficult to grow? Would having a few (2-3) dedicated Indicas along with a few (2-3) Sativa-heavy-hybrids be a good variety? I've heard good things about Northern Lights and AK-48, thoughts? Any other considerations?

Those two sound great, I don't think you can choose wrongly here. You have so many possibilities that the best way is to just go directly to the store/breeder and just read the descriptions, they usually give plenty of info that fits your needs.

2) If we want to try having a cannabis supply that would provide for us daily, will 4-6 plants with a room height of 12' provide us with a steady supply for ourselves?

You will be the only one to answer this, after your first harvest. What advice I can give is, keep it small for the beginning, to just learn and gain a little experience, 4-6 plants sounds good.

3) Does anyone have experience buying from Nirvana? They come with a free 10 seed variety pack with certain orders. Should I try growing those or just what I order, so I know what I'm getting into? Is getting feminized seeds a good idea? Should I even try bothering with breeding, males and females, pollination, etc?

I have never ordered directly from Nirvana, but I have ordered their seeds from sponsors, and I can say I am not disappointed at all. In my experience so far, free seeds are as good, even better sometimes, respected breeders won't give you the leftovers. They want you to return and buy from them, so the free seeds are a very nice sales pitch because you can test different varieties.
As for breeding, I say leave that for later grows. Males are usually the enemy here and they get killed on sight, with feminized seeds you will however not have an issue with this.

4) I've heard many good things about hydroponics. Should I stick with soil until I'm more experienced? Also, are grow tents worth investing in, especially for a novice grower?

For a first grow I would say stay with soil, it is easier to maintain, figure out if something goes wrong, and you can always play around with your girls and move them around. Least I love to do that, and a pot gives me the freedom to move them around.

5) Potting? Lighting? Fans? Air flow? Temperature/environmental control? Oder control? Soil and Nutrients? CO2? PH and watering/feeding? Pests? Diseases?! Fuck me...

Think I covered most of that above, except the fuck you part
For now, CO2, pests, disease we can leave out. CO2 is very good for your plants and also for Oder control, but you already have a filtration system.
Oh potting. Forgot about that. I am not good with gallons and measurements. You can start your baby seedlings in small containers and transplant them from there to their final pot when the roots reach the drain holes. As for a final pot, always go with biggest possible for your space, the bigger the pots the bigger the plant, just make sure they fit in there

6) When I harvest a crop, does this destroy the plant? Do I start fresh from a new seed or does the initial plant continue producing a crop? Cloning: is it worth doing/learning in the long run? Is this something I shouldn't even worry about right now?

Yes and no, when you harvest a plant you in theory kill it. But there is also something called re-vegetation, where you leave a small amount of bud on the bottom part of the stalk, and with some love, patience, food and vegetative schedule light period you will have new shoots growing out of it. I can't say it is good or bad, it differs from person to person what they like. I successfully attempted this once on my 2nd grow and I was very happy with the outcome. But there are people who prefer to start over from seed. I have seen plants on their 3rd or even 4th re-vegetation. It's that kind of thing you have to try to decide yourself.

7) The entire cultivation process from pre-seed to smoking my harvest?

Some other helpful links and pictures:

New Member Start Links



Hope this covered it all. Good luck

 

[Skylinedive]

Thank you very much. This really helps. I appreciate the charts and pictures too.

I'm still interested in other people's opinions and methods so if anyone has anything to add or discuss, please do so. Again, thank you.

 

[Blueballavngr]

I think he/she pretty much covered it. I would consider air intake and exhaust for ur room. If u use led heat won't be as much an issue, if you use hps/mh u have many options for cool tubes and fans. If you are using nutrients, safe urself the headache and get a good ph and ppm tester. Is the room carpeted? There is this stuff called panda film that I believe reflects 85-90% of light. So if ur room isn't flat white or you want to protect ur walls it's worth a look at. What ever u decide for nutes I would enter it into the search and see results . Many members would share there info of nutrients. Do you have water or drainage in room? Can you run a hose into there? R u ok with lugging water around. If u use nutes don't forget ph up and down. My hardest decision was soil. So many to choose and what the hell r these ingredients? If there isn't decent around should I build my own? If u do a simple soil test will save a lot of plant issues, and what would be even more interesting is to compare it to a soil test at the end of the grow to see what was or wasn't needed and or depleted. Will you want a perpetual grow(taking clones before a plant goes into flower and growing them under a veg light cycle so they r mature when ur flowering plants r done) or 1 room start to finish which will be a harvest every 3-5 months pending on how big u want them. Many things to consider. If u have animals, a good cleaning even bug bomb and a good wash might keep u pest free. Well that's it for me good luck

 

[labexperiment]

I read and answer FAQ almost exclusively, and the 2 issues I see most with new growers are under/over watering and nutrient problems in soil grows. I would consider using soil to be an experienced growers tool(IMO).

For a novice or new grower I would recommend 60%peat-moss(or 60%coco coir but I prefer peat-moss), 20%perlite, and 20%vermiculite,(it is considered soil-less mix) and add nutrients every time(I prefer General Hydroponics 3 part flora series). The advantage here is you get time to diagnose an issue like with soil and increased growth rates, but not as increased as hydroponic or aeroponic systems. I would also recommend you use nutrients from all the same manufacturer, as I believe they engineer their products to work best together. K.I.S.S.

Use a large container and add your soil-less mix, fill the container with water so it is soupy and adjust the soupy mix to a PH of 5.8(use PH up or PH down bought at your local grow shop), you will need to stir the mixture thoroughly to even out the PH across the whole container. Let sit for 2 days adjusting the PH each day and stir. After 2 days drain the excess water and stir up the soil-less mix again, allow the medium to dry out a little, fill pots with PH adjusted soil-less mix and you are ready for plants. You can do this the day before you begin to germinate your seeds as they will be in water or a wet paper towel for 2-3 days anyway.

With a soil-less mix you want your nutrient solution to be 5.8 before feeding your plants.

I would also recommend reading the FAQ threads other people post every day to see what issues you may have during your grow, never hurts to be prepared.

 

[CO Finest]

I am late to this party. I think you have the best info given. I wish you the best and happy growing.

 

[mstangerine]

I don't have answers to most of your questions since my plants are outdoors, but I started growing (only 1 harvest so far) with only experience in other plants - your experience with peppers will help a lot. I grew mine in soil with the same fertilizer I use for tomatoes and it was loaded with fantastic buds. Peppers aren't easy to grow either.

And, absolutely learn to clone. It's easy. It's just like taking a cutting from any other plant. You don't have to use expensive rooting gels, etc. either, you can use the regular rooting hormone from a garden store. Super cheap and easy, and it lets you re-grow the plants that do best for you.

Have fun and good luck!

 

[PlanetJ]

Hello everyone. I recently made the decision to grow my own cannabis. I am completely lost. My level of experience with any kind of cultivation is peppers. No, I am not comparing cannabis cultivation to peppers, but simply stating my grow experience is at the level of... well... growing peppers. I've looked through the sticky, "How to Grow Cannabis - Everything You Need to Know!", and I am extremely overwhelmed. Any help, guidance, or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have so many questions so I thank any and all for your patience and understanding. This is also my first post.

If you click on my first (failed) journal, you will see the level of inexperience you just described, and how I only managed to kill my plants after feeding them lawn fertilizer in pellet form, mixed through the water in a WAY to high dosage. You will also see that the more advanced techniques, are not all that advaced .. I topped mine on the first go, and scrogged them pretty well if I may say so myself .. using CFL's, a cheap ass ductfan, a few computer fans and a temperature/hydro meter.

I did not bother with Ph, as my tap water is perfect for the job. You can probably look up the tapwater specs for your region online and see where you stand with that. If you can not get data for that, I would probably recommend a Ph meter .. if you are low on cash, take paper .. it's more guess work, but with the help of people here, you will get there with cheap stuff

Also, start a journal so people can follow you and help you out as you go along.

Grow Area: I need to grow indoors. I live in Georgia so outdoors is out of the question. I currently have a 8'x10'x12' room that is used for minor storage. My girlfriend and I both think this would be a good place to grow. The room is on the second floor of the house, of which my girlfriend owns (so no housing maintenance or anything like that making surprise maintenance visits), and a large tree obstructs any view into the small windows. I plan to keep the windows blocked without making it look weird from the outside. The house has central air, of which we usually keep it between 70-74 degrees F during the day, 68 degrees at night. Winter, we keep it between 68-72. We can close the vents to the room if needed. I can not put any type of AC or external air system outside of this side of the house unless it's stealthy (HOA rules). We have 3 large breed dogs and HEPA filters in the central air that we change every other month. No one uses this room and pets never enter so keeping it locked wouldn't cause any suspicion from family or guests (of which we hardly get). There is no basement.

Going with LED or CFL's, you do not need airconditioning. Paint the walls white if you plan on growing directly in the room, instead of in a tent/box.
You need to think on how you are going to do this .. there are multiple ways to an endless suply of weed .. either grow enough to last you at least 3 months, and repeat that, or go perpetual. What that means is that you will always have plants in veg, and in bloom, and nearing harvest. In that scenario, you would need a light-tight box/tent to either veg or flower in .. make sure they can hold at LEAST 10 liter pots for the amount of plants you plan to grow. Anything smaller is too small. For a first grow, I recommend doing a start to finish in the same room, to get some experience. It will reduce cost as well, as you would need fans, ductfans, filters, lamps, etc. for both rooms. (I grow without filter, but I do not know how stealth you need to be)

Strains and Method: We were thinking of growing 4-6 plants from soil. Something solely for personal, medicinal use. I'm not quite sure what strains to get. I've heard Northern Lights is perfect for first-time growers. It's hardy, forgiving of mistakes, etc. I've had this Indica many times and I like the body effects associated with it. I also wanted something of a strong Sativa-hybrid. In the hybrid, I want more of the cerebral, head effects of a Sativa but with the physical characteristics of an Indica. Yield is important to me but quality takes precedence over quantity. Taste is not important to me but is more so for my girlfriend. I would like something with a beautiful appearance. White fuzziness, orange/red/purple fibers, but this is least important. Quality>quantity>taste>appearance.

I can not help you there .. this is personal taste. Yield and quality are in your own hands. It depends totally on the amount of love given.

I plan on buying feminized seeds from Nirvana's seed bank online. I have zero growing equipment. I am a Marine Corps Veteran with chronic migraines, tension headaches, neck/back tension/pain, reconstructive ankle surgery that still causes pain (surgery took place in 2009), PTSD, depression, and anxiety. My girlfriend has back pain from her job, depression, and anxiety. That's a general background on us to better help with the strain question. I could smoke/vap every day, minimizing my need for prescription pain killers and negatively mind-altering drugs.

Given this, I would recommend a high CBD content strain .. look for the medical seeds in the seedbank. Then look here for a growjournal with that strain .. you are bound to find one. Maybe other medical users can recommend one, I can not. Also, taste is affected by how you finish. Do not feed the last week for harvest, maybe use some tea or molasses, and you should be fine.

I don't know where to start.

Buy seeds, drop them in a clean shotglass with room temperature water, and put on your cablemodum or other semi-warm electric device, and leave for 24 hours. Fill pots, poke 1,5cm holes in the dirt, drop the sprouted seeds in there, cover, put a 6500K CFL over it, and wait 3 days or so ..

1) What strains should I look into? What's best for novice growers? What would be good for our symptoms but also not too difficult to grow? Would having a few (2-3) dedicated Indicas along with a few (2-3) Sativa-heavy-hybrids be a good variety? I've heard good things about Northern Lights and AK-48, thoughts? Any other considerations?

Not enough experience to help you there m8 .. other will tho.

2) If we want to try having a cannabis supply that would provide for us daily, will 4-6 plants with a room height of 12' provide us with a steady supply for ourselves?

See previous answer .. depending on how well you do, the yield of 6 plants should last at least the time it takes to grow another 6. Or go perpetual, but that would require partioning the room in a light-tight maner to prevent your flowering plants from hermying.

3) Does anyone have experience buying from Nirvana? They come with a free 10 seed variety pack with certain orders. Should I try growing those or just what I order, so I know what I'm getting into? Is getting feminized seeds a good idea? Should I even try bothering with breeding, males and females, pollination, etc?

You should deffinately look into this: Bonsai Mothers

Pollination is for people who want to farm their own seeds, maybe sell them, or just love the quality of seeds better then clones. Clones are probably an easyer start .. and once you get going, you can always experiment with pollination imho.

4) I've heard many good things about hydroponics. Should I stick with soil until I'm more experienced? Also, are grow tents worth investing in, especially for a novice grower?

Your call .. hydrophonics gives a bit higher setup cost, if you want to go budget, go soil for the first run. First time soil grower needs to take care to not overwater .. you do not have that issue with hydrophonics .. but with hydrophonics, Ph becomes more of an issue, as does your feeding mixture. If you take some time to learn about it on this forum, ask some questions, follow a few hydro growjournals, and have the cash, I would say hydrophonics. Else, soil.

Both will produce cannabis.

5) Potting? Lighting? Fans? Air flow? Temperature/environmental control? Oder control? Soil and Nutrients? CO2? PH and watering/feeding? Pests? Diseases?! Fuck me...

Potting is not that hard .. start small, and work your way up to at least 10 liter. Multiple repots will make sure the roots fill the area, and not just grow to the side of the pot. Make sure you use smooth pots, so the roots wont be torn when you repot.

Fans: just put a desktop fan in there, blowing directly over your plants. This will circulate the air and train the stems.
Fans2: you need to change the air in the room ... so you need to be venting it out .. either into your central system (use a filter in that case) or outside .. probably use a filter then too. There are some great topics on here including calculations on how much air you need to refresh and what kinda fan should go with that. This is a little bit of homework, but it will pay off in the end result, due to better climate in the room.

If you are not going to use MH, forget about airco and heater and environmental control for your first grow .. check my first journal; no airco, no heater, on an attic with sub-optimal temperatures .. I switched my day/night schedule to have the lights on at night, when it is colder, and off during the day, when central heating provides some warmth to the room.

6) When I harvest a crop, does this destroy the plant? Do I start fresh from a new seed or does the initial plant continue producing a crop? Cloning: is it worth doing/learning in the long run? Is this something I shouldn't even worry about right now?

Harvesting destroys the plant, unless you plan on re-vegging the plant, in which case you leave the smaller buds. I would not recommend it .. as this would mean that you left those buds on, which took energy away from the stuff you harvest. Look into a bonsai mom: Bonsai Mothers

Cloning is easy as hell .. there are multiple topics on it here, and it can be done in a makeshift cardboard box if need be. Cloning is your endless supply of free new plants. Starting from seed is another option, and gives you the chance to try a few strains, but the ones you like, clone them.

You do NOT need a mother plant for cloning, but imho, it is easyer that way, as you can take cuttings when you need them, not when the plants need pruning.

7) The entire cultivation process from pre-seed to smoking my harvest?

Most of it is in this topic by now .. just keep reading other peoples journals .. a few at the same stage as you are, a few more advanced journals, and a few just ahead of you .. you can learn by example that way. Just make sure you check if you have your growroom like it should before you start .. and honestly .. you can not go too wrong there .. as long as you do not do stupid things with hanging lamps at 1.5m above the plants and wondering why they are stretching soo much

Some of my questions may seem stupid. I have no idea what I'm doing and I wont learn unless I ask. I'm sure there's 101 more things I could/should/would ask. I knew this would be a difficult process to learn but I am dedicated to learning. I've seen many people write about using a K.I.S.S. approach, keeping it simple and all that. Thoughts? I am not made of money but will invest in equipment if need be. I would rather spend the extra money on quality gear and equipment to improve outlooks for successful and plentiful harvests.

I would advice not investing too much for a first grow .. you do not need much, and with experience, you are bound to change things .. which will result in a double investment if you did not choose very carefully for your first run.

Thank you for getting through all this. All constructive criticisms and helpful comments are welcomed.

We all started at this point once I hope my contribution is of some help to you. Good luck! (And remember, she is forgiving, as long as you do not overfeed her)

 

[devils letuce]

are u going with auto flowers or photo period plants .. auto flowers yield a little less but it takes a lot less work to grow in my eyes . i used autos on my first two grows and loved them but now i want to grow a plant i can manipulate !! on my second grow i grew northen lights crossed with big bud and it was so easy to grow. i stunted her a few times and still ended up with ounces of great weed ..

! Buy Cannabis Seeds - Worldwide Delivery - Herbies Marijuana Seeds is a good safe place to get seeds and they give u great free seeds and hey , who dosent like free weed. ive placed four different orders with them and it was stress free and i had 100% germination ..plus they are a sponsor.. if u dont go with autos at least get feminized seeds .

start a grow journal and u will have interested people there to help .. get a cheap ph pen from flea bayy cause it will take the guesswork out of the ph process . people talk down on the cheap ph pens and i agree u get what u pay for but i bought the cheap yellow one for 10 bucks and got some calibration fluid and it has been smooth sailing since then.. as a mater of fact i got a ppm meter today and they had a combo deal with a ph and a ec/ppm meter for 20 bucks including shipping . all that ph ppm crap sounds confusing but with the meters its as easy as reading a digital # . otherwise u will have to take water samples add a few drops of this and shake , then compare colors and adjust.. u cant be exact that way .

soil is they way to learn .. an easy soil that worked for me was fox farm ocean forest or happy frog mixed 50 50 with light warrior and a few cups of dolomite.. u will see mixed reviews on the fox farm soils but i had no issues with that recipe above .. and it will run u around 60 bucks

once u start growing u will get the hang of lifting your pots and knowing the need to be feed .. all the advice and charts that were offered above will help u listen to what the plant tells u ..

on your first grow stick with something simple four your nutrients like the fox farm trio or the general hydroponics flora series .. u can find feeding schedules for both on this site or the internet .. also if u us the above recipe it will have nutrients for about a month so all u have to do is ad ph adjusted water..

thank your for your service SIR

 

[kygiacomo]

Hello everyone. I recently made the decision to grow my own cannabis. I am completely lost. My level of experience with any kind of cultivation is peppers. No, I am not comparing cannabis cultivation to peppers, but simply stating my grow experience is at the level of... well... growing peppers. I've looked through the sticky, "How to Grow Cannabis - Everything You Need to Know!", and I am extremely overwhelmed. Any help, guidance, or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have so many questions so I thank any and all for your patience and understanding. This is also my first post.

Grow Area: I need to grow indoors. I live in Georgia so outdoors is out of the question. I currently have a 8'x10'x12' room that is used for minor storage. My girlfriend and I both think this would be a good place to grow. The room is on the second floor of the house, of which my girlfriend owns (so no housing maintenance or anything like that making surprise maintenance visits), and a large tree obstructs any view into the small windows. I plan to keep the windows blocked without making it look weird from the outside. The house has central air, of which we usually keep it between 70-74 degrees F during the day, 68 degrees at night. Winter, we keep it between 68-72. We can close the vents to the room if needed. I can not put any type of AC or external air system outside of this side of the house unless it's stealthy (HOA rules). We have 3 large breed dogs and HEPA filters in the central air that we change every other month. No one uses this room and pets never enter so keeping it locked wouldn't cause any suspicion from family or guests (of which we hardly get). There is no basement.

Strains and Method: We were thinking of growing 4-6 plants from soil. Something solely for personal, medicinal use. I'm not quite sure what strains to get. I've heard Northern Lights is perfect for first-time growers. It's hardy, forgiving of mistakes, etc. I've had this Indica many times and I like the body effects associated with it. I also wanted something of a strong Sativa-hybrid. In the hybrid, I want more of the cerebral, head effects of a Sativa but with the physical characteristics of an Indica. Yield is important to me but quality takes precedence over quantity. Taste is not important to me but is more so for my girlfriend. I would like something with a beautiful appearance. White fuzziness, orange/red/purple fibers, but this is least important. Quality>quantity>taste>appearance.

I plan on buying feminized seeds from Nirvana's seed bank online. I have zero growing equipment. I am a Marine Corps Veteran with chronic migraines, tension headaches, neck/back tension/pain, reconstructive ankle surgery that still causes pain (surgery took place in 2009), PTSD, depression, and anxiety. My girlfriend has back pain from her job, depression, and anxiety. That's a general background on us to better help with the strain question. I could smoke/vap every day, minimizing my need for prescription pain killers and negatively mind-altering drugs.

I don't know where to start.

1) What strains should I look into? What's best for novice growers? What would be good for our symptoms but also not too difficult to grow? Would having a few (2-3) dedicated Indicas along with a few (2-3) Sativa-heavy-hybrids be a good variety? I've heard good things about Northern Lights and AK-48, thoughts? Any other considerations?

2) If we want to try having a cannabis supply that would provide for us daily, will 4-6 plants with a room height of 12' provide us with a steady supply for ourselves?

3) Does anyone have experience buying from Nirvana? They come with a free 10 seed variety pack with certain orders. Should I try growing those or just what I order, so I know what I'm getting into? Is getting feminized seeds a good idea? Should I even try bothering with breeding, males and females, pollination, etc?

4) I've heard many good things about hydroponics. Should I stick with soil until I'm more experienced? Also, are grow tents worth investing in, especially for a novice grower?

5) Potting? Lighting? Fans? Air flow? Temperature/environmental control? Oder control? Soil and Nutrients? CO2? PH and watering/feeding? Pests? Diseases?! Fuck me...

6) When I harvest a crop, does this destroy the plant? Do I start fresh from a new seed or does the initial plant continue producing a crop? Cloning: is it worth doing/learning in the long run? Is this something I shouldn't even worry about right now?

7) The entire cultivation process from pre-seed to smoking my harvest?

Some of my questions may seem stupid. I have no idea what I'm doing and I wont learn unless I ask. I'm sure there's 101 more things I could/should/would ask. I knew this would be a difficult process to learn but I am dedicated to learning. I've seen many people write about using a K.I.S.S. approach, keeping it simple and all that. Thoughts? I am not made of money but will invest in equipment if need be. I would rather spend the extra money on quality gear and equipment to improve outlooks for successful and plentiful harvests.

Thank you for getting through all this. All constructive criticisms and helpful comments are welcomed.

buddy i live in georgia to and i only do outdoors..outdoors rocks and we have great weather to do it in

 

[indica vet]

just a thought mate but something to consider is that indica and sativa strains grow at very different rates and sizes.
indies have a shorter stature as opposed to their sativa counterparts
most indicas flower in 7-9 weeks
most sativa flower up to 16 weeks
an untrained indica usually grow to about 4 ft and are christmas tree shaped with a large single main cola surrounded by smaller side colas.
most sativa grow from 6ft to 16ft are bush shaped due to heavy side branching and produce copius amounts of buds.
try and find a good hybrid that mixes the best of these factors for your needs and expectations. read read read!!!

 

[Skylinedive]

I was away for a few days and wasn't able to check in on the thread. I'm astounded by all of your help and suggestions. I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm so very excited about my grow, even more so after becoming part of this community. You all have my gratitude.

To answer a few of the questions: My grow room is not carpeted. When we repainted the interior of the house, we left this room alone because it was just used for storage. Painting it white would be no problem (and an excellent tip). From reading some of the other threads, I've seen a lot of positive feedback with LED's, so I'm leaning towards that. I also never considered doing a soilless grow either so I will definitely look into that, thank you. I like gardening though; the smell and feel of soil is very appealing to me. I feel that will be the direction to go, but I definitely won't overlook other methods. I also didn't give much attention to the grow journals, which seems to be a mistake. They have to a of information I could have been missing out on. The community I live in isn't prime for outdoor grows. I wish it were possible but that's ok. I'm lucky to have the space that I do (along with a willing and enthusiastic girlfriend lol). We both have decent jobs and inexpensive hobbies, so our budget will allow for spending where it's important without breaking the bank.

I can happily say I can adjust my "clueless" status to "slightly confident". I feel after learning from a few grows, along with the people in this community, that I'll be in great shape with beautiful and healthy plants. Thank you again. I look forward to getting to know the people here better.

 

[indica vet]

once your ready get a journal up and running ,if you run into any dramas you have a miriad of growers here who will help you through the journey

 

[PlanetJ]

Be sure to post a link here once you get your journal going .. so I cant miss it

 

[Guts]

Hey welcome to 420. Good to see another new grower. I'm relatively new here as well. I kinda skimmed through what people said so not sure what advice some gave. But just try to keep it simple your first grow. Cloning, pollinating plants, keeping mothers and advanced techniques I feel you should wait for those until you get a little experience and in the meantime gain as much knowledge on each of the stages. Vegetation, Flowering, Harvest, Curing

 

[Guts]

Can't wait to see your grow though man.