I Am A New Grower And I Need Help!

[bsinger]

Hey everyone This is my first grow I have ever done in my life, I am very excited to see how this turns out. I need alot of help, I know a decent amount about growing but I have so much stuff to learn. I need alot of help with two specific things, I dont know when i should flip my plants from veg to bloom. So manny people have said different things I dont know what is correct. The second is my lights are dimmable but how much light should i actually give them? I am growing 6 white fire og plants. I got them as clones they were between 3-6 weeks old when i got them they were 3-6 weeks old (I could be wrong) I have had them for 13 weeks as of today. I am going to share my entire set up, let me know what you guys think I dont mind constructive criticism I am totally new to all this. Thank you in advance to everyone who gives there advice. Alright here it is

(1) 4x4x8 foot viviosun tent
(2) Budget Led Series 3+ Red Spec 250 Watt Dimmable Grow Light, spectrum 3500k, XL heatsink
(2) 6” clip on vivo sun oscillating fans
(1) 6” standard fan
(1) temp stick hydro monitor to tell humidity and temp
(6) 3 gal non woven fabric pots for my plants
(1) twine trellis between 1-2” squares


Now i will go into what i do for my plants


I am using fox farm ocean forest soil.
For each bag of soil I use 1/2 cup of blood meal 1/2 cup of bone meal 1/2 cup kelp meal and 1/2 cup of bat guano.

I water 1-1.5 gallon every 3 days with tap watter ph level(7.2-7.8)
After I water 2 times I feed

My nuts are Age old grow
once i flip i will use age old bloom
I have a finisher that is age old sweet finish. (i have no clue when to use this)
I use cal mag to balance out the ph
When i feed my mixture is 6 teaspoons of age old grow also 6 teaspoons of cal mag to 1 gallon I divide that evenly between all my plants
The ph is around 6.5-6.7

temps 70-80
Humidity 50%-75%

 

[Virgin Ground]

One thing that hits me right away is the jute string. You are going to get fibers caught in your buds when they get sticky.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I dont know when i should flip my plants from veg to bloom. So manny people have said different things

That's because it is, in large part, a judgment call. I'd be tempted to pull all of that growth back under your grid so that it occupies a much greater percentage of your tent's area, drop the lights, and then switch lighting schedules now. If that doesn't leave you with a full grid, do the "pull back under and reposition thing" for the first week or so of the flowering stretch. When you've got a full grid, stop doing that and let the plant grow up through it, and begin raising lights as needed until the stretch is over. Harvest wall to wall buds.

Assuming those are all clones from the same mother. If not, there's a good chance that they won't all be ready for harvest at the same time, and that's kind of a PITA when one is doing the SCROG (Screen of Green) thing.

Anyway, you could flip now or wait, it's up to you. But cannabis tends to increase in size anywhere from 2x to 5x (depending on strain and a couple other things) during the first 40% of the flowering period. That's why they call it "the stretch," lol. So you'll want to take that into account, along with your ceiling height and the ability of your lighting to penetrate from the top of your canopy to the bottom. No sense having a 4' thick canopy if the lower 2½' is going to be larf, that just "steals" resources from the portion that is getting sufficient light. Which is why a lot of people trim off the lower part ("lollipop"). And/or use some sort of training from early on in order to encourage a larger - but thinner - canopy. The SCROG method of growing cannabis was developed by people who were using old-school 4' or 8' fluorescent tubes. Packing those SOBs in gave a fair amount of light,, but they didn't penetrate worth a sh!t. So people would install a "screen," park the lights right above them and leave them there all the way through the vegetative growth phase (and, generally, for part of the flowering stretch). End up with buds that were relatively short - but a dense carpet of them, filling the entire area of the grow space.

But the method works a treat with HIDs and LEDs, too.

One thing that hits me right away is the jute string. You are going to get fibers caught in your buds when they get sticky.

Lol. I always used something made of metal. But jute twine is a lot cheaper. Actually... NOT "lol" - if that's the stuff that smells like kerosene, it does so because it's full of carcinogenic JBO hydrocarbons. Definitely not something I'd want to smoke or eat. Sisal twine often has rodenticide mixed in with the oil. If, OtOH, it's non-oiled, 100% natural stuff, it's probably not going to be unhealthy, just annoying. IDK.