williamyoyo said:

Hello all Im about to start my first grow soon. Was looking for any advice that anyone has as to what to do and what not to do in growing. Im getting a 76-Inch x 48-Inch x 48-Inch grow tent, a 600 watt hps light, 525 cfm exhaust fan, a regular isolating fan to circulate the air. Havent decied on which soil to use yet or nutes. But any advice you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

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as a beginer myself i would recomed watcing the gorge cerventais ultimate grow dvd ( mainly the frist one the seconds move of an out door focus) you can find it on you tube

but other than that theres not much more advice i can give at this point

Jorge Cervantes does have a lot of good advice. I watched all his videos when I first started up. Im pretty sure he says to use fox farm soil and nutes. Anyways that's what I use, its simple to use, pretty straight foward feeding schedules. Some mistakes I made as a beginner, don't sprout your seeds or start your clones in soil thats to strong. I use this stuff called light warrior, its mainly peat moss and perlite so it has little to no nutrients and its sterile. Also be prepared for your girls to at least double in size when you flip them over to a 12/12 light cycle.

Thanks for the advice guys.. i will check out those you tube video's as soon as im back state side.. right now im in china and cant watch youtube here. Also white widower you have convinced me to use fox farm nutes. I have been looking and reading on which ones to use. Which fox farm nutes do you use. I only want to by the ones i need not just buy it because the company wants you to. Any advice on that?

just do organic soil mix, the "just add water kind". You will find this is easiest and best for many reasons. Try a "supersoil" mix, they are all over this site.

ps. by organic I don't mean a bottle that says organic, I mean soil and compost tea.

Quick question pollen chucker, Will going organic reduce my final yeild? I would love to be able to get at least a ounce and half off of each plant.

^^^The amount you get off each plant depends mostly on how big you get the plants--how long you veg them. And for your first run, I would suggest you start with a single soil/nutw line, like FF or roots organic. Get their soil, and a few of their nutes (one for flower, one for veg to start off with) and use as directed.

read this



and this...........but keep this close



and watch your plants let them tell you what they need rather than trying to judge it be for they need it.......... reactive not preemptive

and you know it EVERYBODY GROW EVERWHERE

Awesome info there, free grow thanks! NE OBLIVISCARIS that's what i was thinking of doing was getting the ff ocaean forest soil and then get their Big bloom and then for flowering get Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, and Cha Ching. Will that be to much? Thats what the ff sight calls for. The first grow Im only growing 4 plants in my room so I think I will have plenty of room to let them get big... Or at least I hope.

P.S The seeds I want to grow are sannies sugar punch and extrema.

williamyoyo said:

get their Big bloom and then for flowering get Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, and Cha Ching. Will that be to much?

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Different strains really like different amounts of nute's. If you are going to use all of those, start off at half the dose they reccomend and see how your girls like it. The mistake I made most often early on was overferting--I still occasionally hit em too hard. And I;ve never used FF personally, but all those soils have TONS of nutes in them, so you really dont need to give them much else. As others have said, the single most important thing is to watch the plants, they'll tell you what they need.

Well you're starting out right. You have a nice list of gear and you're asking the right questions and you arent scared to do some research. You're gonna do ok.

I didnt check out those links so I dont know if I'm saying stuff you already know but..here are my views on a couple of points. Oh..and I'm not familiar with the FF nutes or medium.

SO..there are several ways you can go.
You can get soil and go organic.
Soil is..or should be alive. It should have organic matter in it that is being broken down by critters like enzymes, bacteria, fungus, even insects..and turned into "nutrients" or elements that the plant can use. I'm gonna put on my asbestos suit for this next part cause I'll probably get a good flaming from the organic guys but..if you ask me...with organics..or soil..you have less control than with non-organic and soiless or "mediumless" methods.
It's harder to flush (rinse) should a problem occur, you have a hard time knowing what's exactly in the soil, and, hydroponic methods usually promote faster growth.
NOT to say that you can't achieve stellar results in soil organically..just if you ask me, I keep organic growing outdoors.
Soil is more forgiving than hydro though or can be..and can also be a bit less of a learning curve...not that you can't go pretty deep into organics.

Another option is to go soiless with something like coco, sunshine mix, peat... Those are mediums that contain no nutrients. I'd say though that for what we do, you could add pearlite to all of them...
ANYWAY..since those mediums have nothing in them nutewise, YOU have to supply all the nutrients for the plants in your watering solution. BAM..you're doing Hydroponics. Hydroponics doesnt mean you're growing in a lab with no dirt..it just means that you're adding nutrients to water and feeding your plants that way.
It's easier to flush some of these mediums than soil and (buildup and depletion aside) you know a little better what your plants are getting.
Since you have no beneficial "critters" in the medium though, the door is left wide open for bad critters to get in.
When growing organically, nature's balancing act helps to take care of a lot of the nasties with the good soldiers.
Like soil, it is quite forgiving and imo is a great method to start learning by. These are inert mediums with nothing in them so you can do either organic (with organic nutes, enzymes, and beneficial bacteria and fungi..) or non organic with liquid or dry nutes.

Then there's what you could call mediumless. Full blown hydroponics like UC, Aeroponics, DWC to name just a few.
Those are pretty much where your roots are suspended in the air or water with a small bit of medium like lava rock, rockwool, expanded clay..just to support the plant.
There is very little tolerance for error in these systems but once you know what you're doing the results can be staggering.

Now on to the nutrients. Since I'm not an organic guy I will only tell you a bit about non-organic nutrients.
Typically, with whichever method of non organic growing you're doing, you have a base nutrient "diet". It can be a 3-part system or two or even just one.
The 3-part liquid usually has 3 bottles with names like grow, bloom, and micro. Depending on the stage of the plant, the bottles instruct you on how to mix the proper ratio of nutrients. The plants want higher nitrogen in vegetative stage and a bit less in flowering/bloom stage etc. These "base" nutrients supply everything the plant needs (well..if it's quality nutes). They display the N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium) in large print usually and on the back of each bottle it should list all the other micro and macro nutrients.
The base nutrients are ALL you need to grow WICKED bud.

BUT...there are a zillion additives out there seemingly to either just confuse you or just to pry more $ out of your wallet or both.
MOST people use at least one or two additives and some use a TON. I've never found it to be...or even read anywhere (except for in advertising) that using additives make a HUGE difference. YMMV I guess.
There are additives that boost certain elements, some that are supposed to add more crystal, make HUGE buds, make it taste sweeter, additives for flushing, to keep your plants shorter, taller...you name it.
Then there are additives that are kinda like conditioners. They can do things like keep your solution sterile, make it have more oxygen, add enzymes, bacteria, fungi...
This group of additives can be very beneficial...not together all at once but..that's a whole nuther lesson.

SO...If I were you, (I'm not..I know) for starters I'd choose a method (I'd choose method 2..sunshine or coco...) and just get the base nutrient line from whatever reputable manufacturer you choose.
Keep reading and watching and learn as you grow.
Once you start getting the hang of it, start trying some additives and maybe try increasing the difficulty level by implementing a more advanced or involved method...or just keep doing what you know.
Either way..I wouldn't recommend that you run out with a big shopping list and coming home with a cart full of bottles of blast this, candy that, Jacks magical beanstalk jiuce..at least not right away.

Hope you got at least a grain of something from all this.
PEACE and good luck man.

Oops...forgot...one of the most..if not THE most important thing is pH.

There arent a whole lot of "single most important" things. You can have crappy or wicked light and still do ok. You can have crap or even next to no nutes...or the best...you can have CO2....but..

If your pH is out NOTHING else matters. Kinda like oil to an engine. You can have all the cubic inches in the world, a blower or turbo, nitrous,wicked tires and wheels...no oil and you aint going nowhere!

Read about pH.

First all NE OBLIVISCARIS thanks for the advice, overfeeding is one of my major concerns going to put alot of work, money and time into this I really dont want to kill them.

Smokestack23 good looking out man, I learned alot from your post about the soilless method with the coco and all. I think im going to take your advice a go that route. The ph I have read about it. How to raise and lower the ph and all im going to get me a ph meter before i start my grow. I should hopefully start the grow in mid august, In china right now not going to be back stateside until the 21st. But as soon as I get back I will make sure to start a grow journal with pics and all. Because Im sure Im going to need more help the futher along I get.

smokestack hit the nail on the head about PH. truer words have never been spoken. Infact, that post alone should be a sticky! lol....in essence, PH is the primary factor that makes your plants either thrive or die. Like mentioned above....you can grow in a shitty piss poor environment and under/over feed all you want and still come out ok. But if your PH is outta whack then everything else goes south bound in a hurry.
What's strange is I dont hear this fact brought up too often when touching the basics with fellow beginner growers. Even the Cervantes books dont really emphasize on the subject much at all and i see people are recommending his stuff still. personally I think those books are a waste of $$$ that can be used on other things needed for the grow room.

As for fox farm, I've heard mixed results over the past couple of years about the quality of their Ocean forest soil from other growers. I personally have bought bags in the past that had rusted nails in it and even an old hot wheels car toy once. lol. so I quit buyin the stuff to say the least.
although I do still use Big Bloom for about a week or so as a pre-flush before the final flush and chop.

Im in coco now and wont EVER go back to anything else unless by some chance the world suddenly has a shortage of it.
But I personally find it easier to grow in an inert media as appose to dirt or using organics. yet some folks are just the opposite. Im sure you'll find your happy medium tho (pun intended) :)

Thanks alot highburn, Yea smokestack pretty much convinced me to go coco.. Before he wrote that i kinda consider them to be the same as soil pretty much. So I know better now. Is there any more advice you guys might have I would love to hear it. Thanks

williamyoyo said:

Thanks alot highburn, Yea smokestack pretty much convinced me to go coco.. Before he wrote that i kinda consider them to be the same as soil pretty much. So I know better now. Is there any more advice you guys might have I would love to hear it. Thanks

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Right on man ...happy to hear you made a decision although im gonna be a little up front and honest with you. coco is very demanding and acquires much attention to detail. but once dialed the results are staggering.

Depending on what kinda coco you get you may have to flush the crap out of it then pre-charge it before even using it and thats a little bit of a process in and of itself. but since you're only going to be growing four plants it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I personally use Canna Coco straight out of the bag with excellent results. I also use it cuz it's what my local hydro store carries.

....and trust me, it DOES matter what kind of coco you use.

williamyoyo said:

Awesome info there, free grow thanks! NE OBLIVISCARIS that's what i was thinking of doing was getting the ff ocaean forest soil and then get their Big bloom and then for flowering get Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, and Cha Ching. Will that be to much? Thats what the ff sight calls for. The first grow Im only growing 4 plants in my room so I think I will have plenty of room to let them get big... Or at least I hope.

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well this is like playing a guitar everybody sounds different jimmi hendrix didnt sound like randy roads..........so with that being said ......IMHO stay simple with nutes and enhancers at first till you learn the plants ( wish I had LOL spent alot of money for not ) my recomendation is to read this and you choose but even with these use only the grow +bloom + silica and moleasses at first till you learn what the ladys like then your good to go brother


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