Looking for opinions on plans for 1st grow

[vintner]

Hi: I plan to start my first grow in a couple of weeks and am hoping that a few experienced growers here will will give me their constructive critisisms on my plans. For starters, I don't have a lot of money, and only a few bag seeds from some mediocre grass. (I'm usually too broke to buy, that's why I'd like to try to grow my own.) I'm really leary about buying seeds on line that have to come through customs. Besides, $30 for 10 seeds can be better utilized elsewhere.
I plan to germinate by soaking them in some warm spring water for 8-12 hours, then putting them in wet paper towels. That seems to be the prefered method by most on this site. Then I'll transfer them to 1 gallon milk jugs cut down to about 3/4 gallon. For soil, I'm going to use 3 parts top soil, 2 parts composted cow manure (both from Lowes), 1 part sand, and one part pearlite. Q. Should I poke holes in the bottom of my pots? Should I use any kind of root stimulator?
I plan to start them inside around March 6th in the same box I also use to start my tomatoes, peppers and broccoli. It's only 15 inches wide, but 2feet high, and 4 feet long. It has 2 sets of 4 foot fluros in it (40 watts/bulb). I plan to keep the plants in that untill near the first of May when I will transplant them into 3 and 5 gallon buckets, and move them to a larger grow area I'm building in an outdoor shed which will have 3 sets of flouros (each w/1 cool and 1 warm bulb), but I plan to trash the fixtures, and use plywood to space the bulbs out more. This is the best lighting I can afford at the moment. Q. How much difference would it make if I picked up a couple of those 4' "Sun Spectrum" type fluro bulbs? I can get 3 or 4 of the regular bulbs for what one of those costs.
I don't plan to fert too much since I'm using composted manure, but once I move them into the shed (or once they get about 18" tall, which ever comes first), I plan to put them into 12/12 and give them the flowering plant nutes, high in phos. Q. Does anyone here ever water w/peroxide to provide the roots w/oxygen? How often, and do you dilute it?
I plan to have an ocilating fan on them 24/7, and I plan to provide CO2 by fermenting sugar w/brewers yeast. (I know, it's time consuming, and not all that reliable, but it's a cheap source of additional CO2!) I don't feel the need to provide added ventilation other than keeping the doors cracked open as often as possible. I don't plan on folliar feed, and as of right now, I don't know too much about "flushing". What are the benifits/draw backs?
Sorry I've gotten so long winded. What do you think? Have I forgoten anything? Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
Vin

 

[old_smokey9483]

well, first off, I don't know if you're supposed to use manure in growing weed, I'd PM carp or ndw4m for more info on that. You might want a bigger grow space unless you plan to move them outside not long after they start. Milk jugs will work for a little while, but you'll definently need something bigger later. And yes, you need drain holes in the bottom of every container you plant in. Root stimulation isn't necessary for seeds, but if you want to roll em in some rooting hormone you can. If you don't plan on budding them in the same room as your veggies, then you'll be okay. Just make sure there are NO BUGS in grow room. More lights will be needed for your budding room though. Three fluoro light sets are good for the tops of the plants, but you may want to add some of those cheap spiral energy bulbs to the sides in the budding room, so that the sides of the plant get as much light as the rest of it does. About nutes and chemicals, PM one of the guys I listed before. What temp will both the rooms stay at? You might want to make a better ventilation system for the budding room as well, becuase of all the moisture and vapors that are given off from buds. With any money left over, try to go for a HPS light, or two if possible. The co2 levels are important, but it would probably be easier and even cheaper to get a co2 tank with an adapter. Post up a pic of those sun spectrum bulbs and I'll tell ya if they're worth it or not. Any questions further can be answered by me, blackturboteg, carp, NDW4M, etc.

 

[vintner]

Thanks for the repsonce Old Smokey: After reading it, I'm considering putting my grow off for a few weeks to a month. You're right in suggesting that my plants will probably be too big for the cut down gallon sized pots after just a couple of weeks. But, it wont be warm enough to move them into 5 gallon buckets and to the larger grow box I'm building in a metal outdoor shed. Temps will probably be a problem to. It still gets down into the 50's here at night @ the end of April/first of May. I'm limited on the amount of power I can get out to this shed, but I think I'll work on trying to run 2 extention cords out there so I can run a heater and a ventilation fan. As I said, I'm building a grow box inside a metal shed, should I ventalate the shed too, or just the grow box, and leave the shed door cracked open?
Thanks Vin

 

[vintner]

Thanks Carp: The shed is mostly shaded in the hotest part of the day, and I've been thinking about painting the roof white to reflect some of the heat. I might be able to suck cooler, dry air into the shed from the crawl space under my house which the shed is right next to. I'll work on that.
Vin

 

[vintner]

Post up a pic of those sun spectrum bulbs and I'll tell ya if they're worth it or not.

sunalite.com
That's a site for the bulbs I mentioned (or simular anyway). Now that I'm able to read more than just the package info. they don't seem all that great. The lumens are much lower than a standard bulb for starters.
Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[vintner]

Thanks Carp: The lumens are pretty low like I said. Old Smokey said "more lights" too. Working on getting more power to that shed.
Vin

 

[old_smokey9483]

yes, make sure you can get a decent power supply. And with all those lights, heaters possibly, and fans, you may want to run it out from 2 different outlets so you don't blow a fuse. A heater that you can set the temp on would work well for the shed, as long as it's not so cold that the cold over powers the heater. Like carp said, in the summer that shed would probably get to 90-110 degrees, which is much too hot for optimum marijuana growth. I'd start your plants off in a one or two gallon bucket, of course with drain holes. That way they can grow until about 1 1/2 feet tall. Your plant getting that tall will probably take longer than you think, so I'd say start them now. How many plants are you gonna grow? You want at least four, that way you have a good chance of at least one to be a female. For a hot summer shed, you will need serious ventilation. I'd try to set up a duct system in there, something that maybe ran out the used air underground then up out of the ground a few feet away. Because several fans built into a shed looks fishy to the law following neighbor. A portable cooler/heater would work good to keep your shed at correct temps.