Complete Newbie, First Grow, Just Seeking Any Tips Tricks Or Pointers For Soil Grow

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CandaceMarie

CandaceMarie

12
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I have never grown anything in my life before and started about 8 weeks ago, i knew absolutely nothing and the best advice anyone gave me was “google it”. Ive been researching as i go but I’m far from an expert and would love any advice, tips, tricks, money savers, or any other good info from experienced growers! (Also would like a little confirmation that I’m not destroying these plants)


I started in 2 tubs wrapped in mylar with desk fans and regular kitchen lightbulbs. At first I watered with plain distilled water without adding anything at all or checking the ph, 24 hr of light, red solo cups of 50/50 coco and miracle grow for approximately 6 weeks. Just 10 random bag seeds, no changes at all from what i mentioned above.


Now Ive got them each in a 5 gal bucket with 1” perlite in the bottom then a 50/50 mix of fox farms happy frog and ocean forest. I’m watering twice a week about 1/5th of a gallon with fox farms dirty dozen following their feeding schedule (minus kelp because it’s not in the dirty dozen) using filtered tap water and aiming for ph between 6.0 and 6.5 after adding nutes, (spritzing with flower kiss daily). In a 5’ x 5’ tent, 600watt hps light, 4 fans, 12/12 light schedule, and i made alllll of these changes at the same time. I found out about plant training pretty late in the game but i bent 3 plants and topped all of them 2 days ago, as far as ff feeding schedule I started 1/2 strength the first time i watered with them and full strength the next and i just sorta started in the middle at week 5. Ive started rotating the plants around the tent because a few seemed to be getting crispy. High temp is 77f, low temp is 67f; high humidity is 48%, low humidity is 40% (todays highs and lows-just example)


My plan from here is to keep with the feeding, watering, light times. When i start seeding actual bud growth I’ll trim most leaves off of it so the plant will focus on the buds, about 2 weeks before theyre ready to harvest (ive read that should be when trichomes just start turning from clear to a milky color) I’ll start flushing, cut, trim more, dry, then cure.


Next grow i aim to at least have the time to find and add a mycorrhizal inoculant to the 50/50 mix. I want to start in pods then go straight to 5 gal buckets. I would prefer a super soil but it seems expensive and time consuming. I want to start them off on an 18 on/6 off cycle then switch to 12/12 when they start flowering.


The info I’m going off of is primarily from growweedeasy.com and when forced to make a choice i google and try to find forums or blogs and go with the majority.

I am including pictures of the set up, the best looking plant, and the worst looking plant.

Any responses are appreciated!!
 
Complete newbie first grow just seeking any tips tricks or pointers for soil grow
Complete newbie first grow just seeking any tips tricks or pointers for soil grow 2
Complete newbie first grow just seeking any tips tricks or pointers for soil grow 3
Complete newbie first grow just seeking any tips tricks or pointers for soil grow 4
OldManRiver

OldManRiver

1,390
263
The weak overall growth makes me wonder about your setup. It looks like you have plenty of light, but your plants are very sparse. Overwatering has the effective of making it harder for the plants to take up nutrients. I wonder if your soil pH is off. Do not increase feeding, if anything, I'd reduce it until the plants are thriving better. I'd get something like this, and find out where your soil is at.

As far as taking the leaves off, I'd be cautious. Most people way over do this, and then wonder why they get no yield. Without leaves, the plant can't produce energy/bud.
 
Mr Bee

Mr Bee

3,776
263
Let your soil dry out a good bit between watering. Also in future grows i would suggest you top your plants on a lower node.i usually top on the 2nd or 3rd node early on.just my 2 bobs worth.
 
Mr Bee

Mr Bee

3,776
263
I too would advise against removing leaves from plants this sparse.leaves help the plant take up energy.you only take leaves off plants that are totally healthy with lots of leaves and shoots crowding each other out.even then I try to tuck leaves rather than remove them.in my opinion there are times when you may need to De-leaf a bit but not in this situation.
 
CandaceMarie

CandaceMarie

12
13
Let your soil dry out a good bit between watering. Also in future grows i would suggest you top your plants on a lower node.i usually top on the 2nd or 3rd node early on.just my 2 bobs worth.

Thank you for the tips, i will definitely top them lower next time. As for the watering, would you recommend giving them less water to continue watering multiple times a week, or is about 1/5th of a gallon when they begin getting drier better?
 
CandaceMarie

CandaceMarie

12
13
I too would advise against removing leaves from plants this sparse.leaves help the plant take up energy.you only take leaves off plants that are totally healthy with lots of leaves and shoots crowding each other out.even then I try to tuck leaves rather than remove them.in my opinion there are times when you may need to De-leaf a bit but not in this situation.


Ok, that clears things up quite a bit. A lot of the leaves i cut off simply because they were almost entirely dead and i didn't like looking at my failure lol
 
Madbud

Madbud

3,906
263
Hi CM, all of the above and i would nip off the bottom branches, they’ll never reach the canopy and it will boost growth on the higher nodes. Good luck!
 
H

hawkman

2,209
263
Remember once you see a plant issues concerning nutrients (to much, too low) you are ALL ready tw (2) weeks behind in fixing it !!!! soil is forgiving - Possiblly the lights are too high which causes plants to grow tall/streach It's one a male plant ?
 
Last edited:
Mr Bee

Mr Bee

3,776
263
Remember once you see a plant issues concerning nutrients (to much, too low) you are ALL ready tw (2) weeks behind in fixing it !!!! soil is forgiving - Possiblly the lights are too high which causes plants to grow tall/streach
I agree.the nutes u give now will take around 2 weeks to show on the plant.with the exception of teas n shit which can act faster than bottled nutes.in soil at least which is what your running so don't go bananas if u feed and don't see any difference in a few days.dont increase doses or anything until u give the plant time to take up what your giving it.the problem with that is once your plants 3/4 weeks in bloom and u encounter issues the plant will b near finished by the time what you gave makes any difference
 
OldManRiver

OldManRiver

1,390
263
Thank you for the tips, i will definitely top them lower next time. As for the watering, would you recommend giving them less water to continue watering multiple times a week, or is about 1/5th of a gallon when they begin getting drier better?
More water at a time, much less often. That size, they probably don't need to be watered much more than once a week. If those are five gal buckets, they should be getting about 1/2-3/4 gal. Water when the soil is dry two inches down, or obviously if the plant wilts. The bucket will feel light when its time. Weed likes dry feet.
 
H

hawkman

2,209
263
Thank you, I've been so stressed about that poor plant

Not to worry the marijuana plant is very, very hard to kill - God made it that way - One learns something new during/after each grow - your plant's will be OK , keep them growing !!!!!!!!
 
H

hawkman

2,209
263
I agree.the nutes u give now will take around 2 weeks to show on the plant.with the exception of teas n shit which can act faster than bottled nutes.in soil at least which is what your running so don't go bananas if u feed and don't see any difference in a few days.dont increase doses or anything until u give the plant time to take up what your giving it.the problem with that is once your plants 3/4 weeks in bloom and u encounter issues the plant will b near finished by the time what you gave makes any difference
Good information see were tea's are an exception anyway it's organic
 
oldskol4evr

oldskol4evr

12,306
438
I have never grown anything in my life before and started about 8 weeks ago, i knew absolutely nothing and the best advice anyone gave me was “google it”. Ive been researching as i go but I’m far from an expert and would love any advice, tips, tricks, money savers, or any other good info from experienced growers! (Also would like a little confirmation that I’m not destroying these plants)


I started in 2 tubs wrapped in mylar with desk fans and regular kitchen lightbulbs. At first I watered with plain distilled water without adding anything at all or checking the ph, 24 hr of light, red solo cups of 50/50 coco and miracle grow for approximately 6 weeks. Just 10 random bag seeds, no changes at all from what i mentioned above.


Now Ive got them each in a 5 gal bucket with 1” perlite in the bottom then a 50/50 mix of fox farms happy frog and ocean forest. I’m watering twice a week about 1/5th of a gallon with fox farms dirty dozen following their feeding schedule (minus kelp because it’s not in the dirty dozen) using filtered tap water and aiming for ph between 6.0 and 6.5 after adding nutes, (spritzing with flower kiss daily). In a 5’ x 5’ tent, 600watt hps light, 4 fans, 12/12 light schedule, and i made alllll of these changes at the same time. I found out about plant training pretty late in the game but i bent 3 plants and topped all of them 2 days ago, as far as ff feeding schedule I started 1/2 strength the first time i watered with them and full strength the next and i just sorta started in the middle at week 5. Ive started rotating the plants around the tent because a few seemed to be getting crispy. High temp is 77f, low temp is 67f; high humidity is 48%, low humidity is 40% (todays highs and lows-just example)


My plan from here is to keep with the feeding, watering, light times. When i start seeding actual bud growth I’ll trim most leaves off of it so the plant will focus on the buds, about 2 weeks before theyre ready to harvest (ive read that should be when trichomes just start turning from clear to a milky color) I’ll start flushing, cut, trim more, dry, then cure.


Next grow i aim to at least have the time to find and add a mycorrhizal inoculant to the 50/50 mix. I want to start in pods then go straight to 5 gal buckets. I would prefer a super soil but it seems expensive and time consuming. I want to start them off on an 18 on/6 off cycle then switch to 12/12 when they start flowering.


The info I’m going off of is primarily from growweedeasy.com and when forced to make a choice i google and try to find forums or blogs and go with the majority.

I am including pictures of the set up, the best looking plant, and the worst looking plant.

Any responses are appreciated!!
first off,light is way to high,reason for so much stretch,these plants are gonna stretch even more when you go to flower,a lot more,take light down to 2 ft,lay your hand at canopy level,leave it there at least a minute,if you dont feel warmth from light on back side of your hand,go down 6 in at a time till you do,at that point just raise the light back up about 3 inches.
second turn that damn light off for 6 hrs,them poor girls need rest too,they uptake nutrients better with sleep ,ever girl gotta put on there makeup if you dig,take your light to 18/6,also in veg get more humidity going on in there,they love humidity in veg,not in flower,when you switch to flower which i would at this point,from height and size of buckets,if flipped right now they are gonna go about 1 to 1 1/2 ft taller by end of stretch,you being a new gardener its hard to explain how you can control a lot of the stretch with your light ,so i wont hahahah,but ya flip um,there not much foilage there now and stretch will bring more just sayin.
third i swear one them plants is already flowering,probally a stud,get him out of the room if it is,or you want seeds from pollinating the whole tent.
fourth take a empty bucket and fill with your same soil mix,take that bucket and lean it towards you and feel the weight of it dry,then water it and do same thing,feel the difrence? make sure plenty of holes in bottom of bucket too,anyway i grow monsters in 5 gal buckets 7 ft tall at times and i feed only once a week,closer to harvest time you will find your hog plants that need more feed or water,just give um what they need and all will work out fine.
last off fox product have always been dead on 6.5 ph from the bag,might be difrent in your region,so check it,take a jar with distilled or ro water and put a hand full of soil in the jar,shake the shit out of it,let it settle for about 2 hrs and then stick your ph pen in the liquid section of the jar and it will give you a ph reading of your soil,called a slurry test,if it comes out 6.5 do same with your feed 6.5,if it is 6 feed at 6 ,let the plants stabilize to what your giving and the match in ph,after it settle start bumping up your ppm slowly with your feedings,if the tip start to burn,you have the comfort level of the plant,with the burn say you got your ppm at 750 and it burnt the tip,drop ppm just a little and let stablize couple feeding and then try again to bump it up,dig what going on here,long winded shit but hope it helps you out,as mentioned above you learn as you go and experience come with it,you can handle it,so dont get frustrated there plenty of folk here that help you as you go.
last off and closing keep in mind every time you see a pic of a plant with burned tips,you be doing same thing as stated above,with all i said this is my pet peeve,you cannot period flush soil period,you can drench it and make mud,but you cannot flush the nutrients from soil unless it just disapear,so mistake when folk say there flushing,all there doing is in last couple of week or until that plant damn near turns yellow,is feeding with just water
 
H

hawkman

2,209
263
first off,light is way to high,reason for so much stretch,these plants are gonna stretch even more when you go to flower,a lot more,take light down to 2 ft,lay your hand at canopy level,leave it there at least a minute,if you dont feel warmth from light on back side of your hand,go down 6 in at a time till you do,at that point just raise the light back up about 3 inches.
second turn that damn light off for 6 hrs,them poor girls need rest too,they uptake nutrients better with sleep ,ever girl gotta put on there makeup if you dig,take your light to 18/6,also in veg get more humidity going on in there,they love humidity in veg,not in flower,when you switch to flower which i would at this point,from height and size of buckets,if flipped right now they are gonna go about 1 to 1 1/2 ft taller by end of stretch,you being a new gardener its hard to explain how you can control a lot of the stretch with your light ,so i wont hahahah,but ya flip um,there not much foilage there now and stretch will bring more just sayin.
third i swear one them plants is already flowering,probally a stud,get him out of the room if it is,or you want seeds from pollinating the whole tent.
fourth take a empty bucket and fill with your same soil mix,take that bucket and lean it towards you and feel the weight of it dry,then water it and do same thing,feel the difrence? make sure plenty of holes in bottom of bucket too,anyway i grow monsters in 5 gal buckets 7 ft tall at times and i feed only once a week,closer to harvest time you will find your hog plants that need more feed or water,just give um what they need and all will work out fine.
last off fox product have always been dead on 6.5 ph from the bag,might be difrent in your region,so check it,take a jar with distilled or ro water and put a hand full of soil in the jar,shake the shit out of it,let it settle for about 2 hrs and then stick your ph pen in the liquid section of the jar and it will give you a ph reading of your soil,called a slurry test,if it comes out 6.5 do same with your feed 6.5,if it is 6 feed at 6 ,let the plants stabilize to what your giving and the match in ph,after it settle start bumping up your ppm slowly with your feedings,if the tip start to burn,you have the comfort level of the plant,with the burn say you got your ppm at 750 and it burnt the tip,drop ppm just a little and let stablize couple feeding and then try again to bump it up,dig what going on here,long winded shit but hope it helps you out,as mentioned above you learn as you go and experience come with it,you can handle it,so dont get frustrated there plenty of folk here that help you as you go.
last off and closing keep in mind every time you see a pic of a plant with burned tips,you be doing same thing as stated above,with all i said this is my pet peeve,you cannot period flush soil period,you can drench it and make mud,but you cannot flush the nutrients from soil unless it just disapear,so mistake when folk say there flushing,all there doing is in last couple of week or until that plant damn near turns yellow,is feeding with just water
hope they don't hermie
 
CandaceMarie

CandaceMarie

12
13
Remember once you see a plant issues concerning nutrients (to much, too low) you are ALL ready tw (2) weeks behind in fixing it !!!! soil is forgiving - Possiblly the lights are too high which causes plants to grow tall/streach It's one a male plant ?


I actually had no idea that plants took 2 weeks to show issues or improvements! Thank you so much for that!!!

Actually the stretching happened while i had them in their original tubs and i just let them because i didn’t know any better at the time but i just lowered the lights a few minutes ago and lowered down to a 400 w hps bulb because I’m struggling to keep it cool enough with all the fans running.

As far as sexing, i was under the impression that they needed about 3 weeks of flowering be you could tell so i hadnt even tried. I gave it my best guess this morning and had a friend come by to confirm and, although my guesses were correct, unfortunately i had 6 males and only 4 females. I pulled all the males out and reorganized the tent.

Thank you for your advice 😁
 
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CandaceMarie

CandaceMarie

12
13
first off,light is way to high,reason for so much stretch,these plants are gonna stretch even more when you go to flower,a lot more,take light down to 2 ft,lay your hand at canopy level,leave it there at least a minute,if you dont feel warmth from light on back side of your hand,go down 6 in at a time till you do,at that point just raise the light back up about 3 inches.
second turn that damn light off for 6 hrs,them poor girls need rest too,they uptake nutrients better with sleep ,ever girl gotta put on there makeup if you dig,take your light to 18/6,also in veg get more humidity going on in there,they love humidity in veg,not in flower,when you switch to flower which i would at this point,from height and size of buckets,if flipped right now they are gonna go about 1 to 1 1/2 ft taller by end of stretch,you being a new gardener its hard to explain how you can control a lot of the stretch with your light ,so i wont hahahah,but ya flip um,there not much foilage there now and stretch will bring more just sayin.
third i swear one them plants is already flowering,probally a stud,get him out of the room if it is,or you want seeds from pollinating the whole tent.
fourth take a empty bucket and fill with your same soil mix,take that bucket and lean it towards you and feel the weight of it dry,then water it and do same thing,feel the difrence? make sure plenty of holes in bottom of bucket too,anyway i grow monsters in 5 gal buckets 7 ft tall at times and i feed only once a week,closer to harvest time you will find your hog plants that need more feed or water,just give um what they need and all will work out fine.
last off fox product have always been dead on 6.5 ph from the bag,might be difrent in your region,so check it,take a jar with distilled or ro water and put a hand full of soil in the jar,shake the shit out of it,let it settle for about 2 hrs and then stick your ph pen in the liquid section of the jar and it will give you a ph reading of your soil,called a slurry test,if it comes out 6.5 do same with your feed 6.5,if it is 6 feed at 6 ,let the plants stabilize to what your giving and the match in ph,after it settle start bumping up your ppm slowly with your feedings,if the tip start to burn,you have the comfort level of the plant,with the burn say you got your ppm at 750 and it burnt the tip,drop ppm just a little and let stablize couple feeding and then try again to bump it up,dig what going on here,long winded shit but hope it helps you out,as mentioned above you learn as you go and experience come with it,you can handle it,so dont get frustrated there plenty of folk here that help you as you go.
last off and closing keep in mind every time you see a pic of a plant with burned tips,you be doing same thing as stated above,with all i said this is my pet peeve,you cannot period flush soil period,you can drench it and make mud,but you cannot flush the nutrients from soil unless it just disapear,so mistake when folk say there flushing,all there doing is in last couple of week or until that plant damn near turns yellow,is feeding with just water

Lowered the lights this morning, I posted a picture in a response above.
The stretch actually happened when they were in tubs under a 60w kitchen bulb before i knew better. Ive done the research now and have a pretty decent idea of how to control it better.
They’ve been on a 12/12 flowering cycle for a little over a week now, next time i intend to start on 18/6. Never doing 24 hr of light again.
I sexed them today and out of the 10 bag-seeds i had 6 males and only 4 girls so i got them out of the house immediately. Luckily i didn't see anywhere that looks like the sacs busted so, fingers crossed, i got em out in time.
I will definitely do a slurry test on my soil and adjust from there.

Thanks for your tips!
 
SoLowDolo

SoLowDolo

1,251
263
Sorry if it was already mentioned, I didn't read all of the replies, but I would suggest better drainage. Maybe elevate them above the ground a little so eat can flow out easily. Drill plenty of holes in the bottom, and you can even drill them all over the side to improve air flow to the roots. Good luck to you!
 
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