Newbie here looking for help

[Shvin]

Hi there
I’m looking to start growing a couple plants outdoors. I’m on the south coast of British Columbia. I’m pretty good at regular gardening so I’m hoping some of those skills transfer over. I’m thinking if starting out with White Widow seeds and I’m hoping to grow them in a couple large pots. What else do I need to purchase or know to get this process started.
Thanks

 

[Pbass]

Hiya Shvin If you are going to be filling those pots with soil I have a few suggestions, but I grow indoors in smaller pots so use what you need toss the rest! I find it's trickier to water and track the wet/dry cycles for little plants in big pots, I think its easier to start in small pots and up pot to a medium, then the big for the ride home. Also a bit of cal/mag is good for weed plants (indoors needs more is what they say) and is rarely (I haven't seen it yet) included in nute packages from the various manufacturers. CHeers mate, gl to your grow!

 

[Azsmoker420]

I grow out doors

 

[Azsmoker420]

Dont over water, make sure they get lots of sun, once they flower cover from rain

 

[Shvin]

Thanks for the info
I do plan on starting small and transferring to larger pots as they grow. I’m thinking I’ll start the seeds in peet pods then move to small pots I have left over from flower seedlings I’ve purchased and so on. Will any organic putting soil work? What about fertilizers? Any recommendation on brand or composition and when should I use it? Just when I transfer to the larger pot? Any other chemicals or items I should have on hand? I’ve been reading some other posts on here but there is A LOT of info. Trying to weed () through it all and decipher what’s useful for my situation.

 

[Pbass]

Well, I can only tell you how I do it and what I read about others I guess... I like the peat pots, or rock wool, or just soil in small cups for seeds (that I typically germinate in paper towel first). The key I've found to seeds and clones is heat underneth. I put my seeds folded in a wet paper towel in a open plastic bag in a mostly closed plastic container on top of the cable box (left on). I do have a heat pad that I use also for clones and once the peat pots or whatever are full with my little germinated seeds, I move them to the heat pad for a little while for them to pop all the way or get a little height into them.

For soil usually I use a brand called Kellog, it's cheap from the HD and has no fertilizer in it. I like zero nutes in my soil to start. Sometimes I add a smaller bag of perlite to my 40lb bag of soil, seems to help hold the water nicely and stretches it some. Many people start with pre-nuted soil, which works good also, you just don't control the nutes for about the first month, then it peters out and you have to start in with the nutes. I find I still have to add cal/mag to that pre fertilized stuff when I use it, and I also need to change my pH with vinegar (not the absolute best pH lowerer but its cheap!) no matter what I'm doing in every gallon of water I serve.

As far as nutes go I use Fox Farms trio - Big Bloom, Grow Big and Tiger bloom...mostly because they sell it at my grocery store, but they are organic also. I add a 1-0-0 Cal/Mag because I think the Grow Big is a bit hot in veg and I get too much Nitrogen, but that's not organic. I'm not a stickler for that, it just happens that most of the stuff I use is organic. I follow their feed schedule for soil for the most part.

The other thing I have to have around in my basement grow is Neem oil! I'm constantly fighting bugs. I spray it from a gallon pump sprayer (again from HD) in veg and bloom, but they say it's a no no in bloom so I wouldn't suggest it. It works the best for me though and I don't taste it on my buds and they say it's possibly potentially dangerous for pregnant women which I am neither. I'm also not very discerning, cant tell the difference between that which does get it and that which doesn't, but I imagine others would take one drag and go omg you used neem oil on this!

I kinda just winged it to be honest, the key for me was running into issues that caused me to have to dial in my watering habits and pH level of my water, which I ended up measuring somewhat accurately with a old school pool tester with the colored windows. Once I got that I figured out how much vinegar it took to bring that down to about 6.5, and since then I've had a pretty easy time keeping my soil right at a pH of around 7 very consistently.