My First Grow

[Old TimingMan]

Soil is always prone to problems like gnats, you could bake the soil you have now in the oven at 150 degrees for a hour or two to kill the eggs that come with the soil, I would even do that with FF soil, because I have never read any claim that it is sterilized so you never know what kind of nastys come with it.
Soil outdoors is quite different than indoor soil gardening, outdoors there are lots of natural soil pest controllers, indoors not so much.

I am using Burpee Garden Coir soil from Walmart (about $3.50 for a 2 gal bag) with 25% perlite mix with it, no bugs, no worry about over watering, and by following the nute schedule from the line I decided to use, no signs of nute burn...and as mentioned above, a good PH meter is needed as well as a PPM meter if you do coco coir.

 

[Old TimingMan]

I have them under 4 24w LED standard screw in light bulbs... these are bright as hell! There is also a 45w LED Panel (not quite as bright as the bulbs.)

What you have now should be adequate for the next week or so, but you are going to have to upgrade to some more serious lighting soon, I would recommend at least a 4' 4 fixture (8 fixture would be better) T5 light with the proper bulbs for veg & flower or 600 watts of full spectrum LED (1200 watts would be ideal) for the best yield.

I am running 2 plants in coco coir and 4 in a DIY RDWC system that were 3 weeks old (since first popped out of the rooters) this Tuesday and they are very happy and showing lots of daily growth...If I can figure out how to up load a photo here I will give you a idea of how I am doing my grow...I haven't done one since the early 80's and never indoors, so I am just as new to this as you are!

 

[Nu2grow]

What you have now should be adequate for the next week or so, but you are going to have to upgrade to some more serious lighting soon, I would recommend at least a 4' 4 fixture (8 fixture would be better) T5 light with the proper bulbs for veg & flower or 600 watts of full spectrum LED (1200 watts would be ideal) for the best yield.

I am running 2 plants in coco coir and 4 in a DIY RDWC system that were 3 weeks old (since first popped out of the rooters) this Tuesday and they are very happy and showing lots of daily growth...If I can figure out how to up load a photo here I will give you a idea of how I am doing my grow...I haven't done one since the early 80's and never indoors, so I am just as new to this as you are!

I,m hoping to just use the lights that I have. Triple digit lights just are not in my budget this time. Veg time this grow will only be 4-6 weeks. I am hoping to get about an ounce from each plant to last while I do a longer grow next time. This weekend I'll be building a grow box with a reflective interior. Hopefully that will help.

 

[Nu2grow]

Thank You to everyone for their suggestions. All 3 are starting to look better since yesterday. Keep the comments comming!!!

 

[dctikitiki]

Can someone recommend a brand of soil to get locally from Home Depot or Lowes? I need to get my girls into some better soil before the gnats kill them.

 

[Nu2grow]

Is Fox Farm available at home depot?

 

[coopexquisite]

Mind if i tag along for the grow?

Agree with the previous posters, looks like you're over watering.

What lights are you using for this grow?

 

[Nu2grow]

Mind if i tag along for the grow?

Agree with the previous posters, looks like you're over watering.

What lights are you using for this grow?

Welcome to my first grow!

I have 4 24w led grow bulbs and a 45w led panel. I will be building a grow box with a reflective interior this weekend. I'm not going to water for about 3 days to let the nasty critters die.

 

[Nu2grow]

I am hoping to get 1oz of dried cured buds from each plant to last until my 2nd harvest. Does that sound likely with only a 4 to 5 week veg period?

 

[Pnut1127]

Water ph is 6.8 right out of the tap. I have some ph up and down to use when I start using nutrients.

Looking for a good cheap soil like I would try promix bx or hp. U can find at mostly any Home Depot, Lowes, CdnTire etc.... or try sunshine mix#4. Both are equally as good as the other. The promix bx holds water longer than the hp I'm pretty sure. Or it's visa versa

 

[coopexquisite]

I am hoping to get 1oz of dried cured buds from each plant to last until my 2nd harvest. Does that sound likely with only a 4 to 5 week veg period?

It could, but it's better to base it off of the size of the plant. A plant under 45 watts will be smaller than a plant under 450 watts in the same amount of time.

This is my first grow also and i let them veg for 5 weeks wnen they were about 9" tall. Didn't want to outgrow my tent so for this grow I wanted to start off with plants that were under 12" since I hear they grow about 2-3 times the size and I have about 30" of prime grow space.

I started with a chep 45 watt led light and I suggest you keep it close to help keep them from getting too stretchy in their young. Mine was too high and my stalks were 5" and only had 1 set of leaves. Lesson learned lol.

I'm hoping for at least 2 oz per plant, but realistically expecting 1oz or less. All we can really do is learn everything we can from our first grows and use that knowledge to make the second grow that much better!

 

[Nu2grow]

OK i had to get those gnats out of my house.I went ahead and transplanted much girls to new containers with better soil and about 30% perlite I hope to see some good growth over the holiday weekend. I didn't realize how bad the drainage was with that Kellogg soil. I didn't water them after transplanting because the Jiffy pellets were still pretty moist. The roots are several inches past the bottom of the pellets not too bad for 8 days old.

Here they are in their new home.

 

[Nu2grow]

The girls are a little droopy this morning. I suspect from being moved. I'm sure they will bounce back in a day or 2. I think they will love their new home the soil is much better with good drainage, and best of all no bugs!

 

[JoeDaddy77]

Looking good so far Nu2, I'm subbed up. Just finishing my very first grow. I was wondering if you have considered Promix HP as it is at most Lowe's or you can order from online. I've been using it with Advance Nutrients pH perfect line and I'm having excellent results.

 

[GanjaGed]

ulls up chair: "Anyone sitting here?"

I'd like to tag along if that's cool

My input so far would be this:

Personally if I was on a tight budget and trying to upgrade as I go along I wouldn't worry about "name-brand" or "good" soils. They should have bags of low cost Top Soil, like a dollar a bag. I'd get those and add perlite, at least for right now. I'd put every dollar I saved on the soil and put it into more lighting. More bulbs, reflectors, etc.

IMO, you'll get a better return for your set-up and budget at this point by pouring any "extra" money into more light. Don't get me wrong, good soil helps increase yields and quality, but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck with lights.

Again just my opinion

Looking forward to the grow

 

[Nu2grow]

ulls up chair: "Anyone sitting here?"

I'd like to tag along if that's cool

My input so far would be this:

Personally if I was on a tight budget and trying to upgrade as I go along I wouldn't worry about "name-brand" or "good" soils. They should have bags of low cost Top Soil, like a dollar a bag. I'd get those and add perlite, at least for right now. I'd put every dollar I saved on the soil and put it into more lighting. More bulbs, reflectors, etc.

IMO, you'll get a better return for your set-up and budget at this point by pouring any "extra" money into more light. Don't get me wrong, good soil helps increase yields and quality, but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck with lights.

Again just my opinion

Looking forward to the grow

Thanks for the input. My new soil wasn't too expensive. But the best part is there are no bugs. I'm looking for some used lights to really get them going. Most of the nee lights I've seen online are $300 or more. Any suggestions for lighting that won't break the bank?

 

[JoeDaddy77]

I tried to pm you but it won't let me yet. Check out eBay for the lights there's LED lights you can get there that I'm not allowed to say the name of but their are cheap Chinese LED lights for under $100. If you can pm me I'll tell you the name.

 

[DaddyDeLucKs]

Thanks for the input. My new soil wasn't too expensive. But the best part is there are no bugs. I'm looking for some used lights to really get them going. Most of the nee lights I've seen online are $300 or more. Any suggestions for lighting that won't break the bank?

I looked around for a little bit before deciding to order the viparspectra 450w LED, I have no complaints but I'm using it for two girls, this light was marked at $240 it went on sale on amazon for 100 off so I snagged it, let me see if I can't come across any deals right now that are worth it

Water ph is 6.8 right out of the tap. I have some ph up and down to use when I start using nutrients.

Looking for a good cheap soil like I would try promix bx or hp. U can find at mostly any Home Depot, Lowes, CdnTire etc.... or try sunshine mix#4. Both are equally as good as the other. The promix bx holds water longer than the hp I'm pretty sure. Or it's visa versa

 

[DaddyDeLucKs]

I looked around for a little bit before deciding to order the viparspectra 450w LED, I have no complaints but I'm using it for two girls, this light was marked at $240 it went on sale on amazon for 100 off so I snagged it, let me see if I can't come across any deals right now that are worth it

I shouldn't have looked at this lol, I think I might snag this 600w so I can do 4 instead of 2 next go round

 

[GanjaGed]

That Galaxyhydro is a steal...