Having recently moved in to my own place I am keen to try and get a plant grown. Who on here has done this before ? How did you get on ? Im more than aware its not as easy as growing your average plant, but I want to give it a try. So an easy (as poss) to follow step by step guide would be very much appreciated, and with it being my first attempt im obviously not looking to grow any sort of super strain, so the less money and equipment involved the better. And before anyone says, I will also be having a good read of the Marijuana boards on this website, but would also be good to hear others experiences techniques. cheers
Been growing on and off for over 12 years now. Its a weed mate, piece of piss to grow only needs light, water and food but obviously you can get real advanced, my mum grew a 3 oz'er a couple of years back and she has only ever had one puff! Register on hg420.com, its doc chronics forum and he's the best seedbank in the u.k, people from all over the world use him, if you're a member of the forum then you get 10% off all orders and he'll often chuck a free pack of seeds in with orders and theres often freebies from forum members, a real nice, tight community there. They also have a auction site which can get you some great deals and some real nice genetics! Are you on msn? If you are add me(spacedoubtGR@hotmail.com)and we can have a chat!
No im not mate, I use the internet at work. Had the internet at home but not at my new place. I may invest in a lap top, cos at work I have to be careful what websites I use. Out of interest, where in the uk are you ?
What plant food and soil would you recommend ? Im heading to the garden centre after work. Also what strength bulb is best ? Im gonna start by trying to grow just a couple in seperate pots, so shouldnt need too high wattage, or am I wrong ?
Growing weed in summary. Yes it can be easy but it can also be very involved. As far as hydroponics is concerned there are several ways of doing it. 1.NTF, Nutrient Film Technique, where the water and feed gets constantly pumped around the root system, it uses no soil. 2. Flood & Drain. A pump is used to fill the pots where the root system is to a certain level then instantly drained. Roots can be in something like perlite/rockwool. 3. Soil, Watering and feeding it manually or this can also be automated with a pump as well. Apart from that you need to know about the feed and PH levels. NPK = Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium, you need to know the correct ratios of each if your growing weed without soil, adjusting accordingly throughout vegetation through to bloom and PH levels should also be watched in unison. Lights. Use Metal Halide to veg the plant and then use Sodium for the bloom. Fluorescent strip lights will work but they have to be special ''Power Twists'' like you use in an aquarium. Forget using Mercury bulbs or day light bulbs and IMO it's fairly pointless growing outside in the UK climate. Apart from all that there is one big important factor remaining........... get the best possible seeds you can afford, preferably feminised or get to know another grower to get some cuttings. It really is all a piece of cake, given the right equipment and knowledge.
Cheers for that Nemesis. Im just going for the easy number 3 to start with. Soil, watering and feeding. What plant food do you recommend ? Ive put my seeds in the pots, resting on top of the damp (not drenched) soil and covered them with paper towls. Apparantly im waiting for them to 'crack' and 'sprout' and then they are to be planted an inch deep in to the soil ready for growth. Does this sound about right for starters ? A mate once tried growing a plant, it got up to about 4/5 feet (it smelt ok, looked ok) and suddenly died. What could have caused this ? Over watering ? Not enough watering ? Not enough light ? Mixture of them all ? What light times should I go for aswell, ive been told 24 hour light for starters, then switching to 12/12. But I have also been told taking it out of light for 12 hours does nothing but stop the growth ? Sorry for all the questions, im a beginner to this.
swas1, put the seeds in a glass of water, room temp, after a few hours they'll sink(if they're viable), then place them in soil about 1cm deep cover them with soil but don't compress it, 2-3 days later they should sprout.(you can always raise the level of the soil if they stretch) When they're seedlings they don't need much water, it sounds like you've got the soil just right, moist but not drenched. Learn to time when water is needed by lifting the pots and judging the weight, take a pot with dry soil in and compare it to a pot with moist soil in, feel the difference? It doesn't take long to know when your plants need water. Once the plants are about 4 weeks old and into the vegative stage its quite hard to kill them so its really just getting to this point that you have to worry about. At first just watering a little when the top inch of soil has dried out will suffice for a seedling but once the plant gets a few inches big and is developing branches then water until you see it start coming out of the bottom. As for light I have always used 18 hours on/6hours off during the veg stage as the plants need their dark period as this is when roots develope mainly, when you eventually want to start flowering you can put the plant in darkness for 24 hours to kickstart the process and then continue with 12 on/12off but I personally don't bother with the 24 hour period of darkness. As for food I'd use the biobiz range, they're pretty much designed for weed and don't require mixing, just dilute in water and away you go. What soil are you using? It should have enough food in the soil for at least a month, also do you have any perlite in the soil? you can get biobiz all-mix soil which is already pre-mixed with everything you need to feed the plants for their first six weeks and it contains perlit which basically airates the soil so the roots have plenty of access to oxygen so its hard for a noob to drown them. Also post what strain you are growing, sativa or indica or hybrid? also what light are you using? If you want help people will need this info.
I'd reccomend getting an envirolite for vegging, they're basically bigger versions of those energy saving bulbs, a 125w blue envirolite will cost about £30, for flowering I'd get a hps light, you want to be running at between 50w per square foot and 100w per square foot anything higher than that is overkill and anything less won't give you the buds you're looking for. How much do you have to spend? If you're going to grow then it's worth doing properly and you're outlay is easily made back by knocking a few bags out to your friends at harvest time, don't tell them you're growing just tell them you've got a new hook up, its funny when a friend phones you up and goes on about how nice the weed you got them is and the satisfaction you get from smoking a bud which you nurtured from seed is one you can't obtain from a bud you bought on the street, its not just about getting stoned theres a spiritual relationship between you and the plant, treat her well during her life and she'll treat you well afterwards! btw I'm down on the south coast.
Cheers for that Space Doubt, VERY usefull info, ill have em in a glass of water as soon as I get home. The soil is just multi purpose that I bought from the local garden centre, would that do the trick ? As for pertile, excuse my ignorance, but never heard of it !? I have 3 NYC Diesel seeds which we brought back from dam, and about 8 other seeds from various weeds we have had in England, but couldnt tell you the names of them im afraid, so I guess its just wait and see with them. Some of these are a few months old though so might that make a difference as to whether they grow or not ? If im anywhere near succesfull with these seeds ill be buying some better ones off the net. I havnt bought any lighting yet, what light to use is something else I need to know ? Will 1 type of light do the full job or do you need a certain light for the veg stage and another light for flowering ? Or is it all about lighting times ? Please try n reply to this before half 4 so I know what light to get at the weekend. Can this biobiz be bought from a garden centre ?
Everything has more or less been said, but as for lighting it's highly recommended to use a 400w metal halide throughout veg and then to use a 400w sodium for bloom as it has the neccesary full spectrum that the plants needs. However it is possible to just use 1 light throughout the plants life but remember, increase the lux (light) increase the yield so if you can use both lights during bloom you have more or less both ends of the spectrum covered. Personally I wouldn't bother with anything less than 400w. If your going to spend all the money on some top lights you just as well get a decent one to start with so that you have the option to increase your set-up when you get proficient. I'm in a rush to go out but check out the link below for absolutely everything you need to set up a growroom. The prices are fairly steep compared to others, I know, but it's a great place to learn all aspects of hydroponics. Remember, to take cuttings of your best plants and to monitor which ones are males and females. You will kick yourself if you grow a lush plant that you forgot to take cuttings from that turns out to be a great smoke. Hope you have a good yield, wink, wink. http://www.blunt.co.uk/
Sorry I couldn't answer you in time, I went around to see a mate. The multi-purpose soil should be fine and if you're starting in little pots then just use that for now and then buy some perlite and mix it with your soil before you transplant into bigger pots, you'll want a 70/30 soil/perlite mix. Perlite is made from volcanic rock and it looks like little bits of polystyrene, it provides aeration and moisture retention for healthy roots as they need oxygen and water. I'm assuming because you only have 3 NYCD seeds that you found them in a bud, if you did then theres a good chance they'll be female as the 3 seeds I've grown that were found in a bud all turned out female, one of them did produce a couple of males flowers that I picked off but they weren't full blown haemaphrodites which you don't want but you're a long way off flowering so we'll worry about that later! The other seeds should be alright but you can never tell until you try germinating them. One thing you can do in future is store them in the fridge in a small airtight container with some grains of rice, the rice will absorb any moisture which can screw up your seeds. refridgerating them also can help the germinating process which is a nice side affect. Now for lighting we need to know where you're planning on growing them, at the moment I'm helping to convert an old wardrobe for a friend into a grow chamber, the base is 2' x 3' so 6 square foot altogether, like I said we need at least 50 watts p.s.f so we need a minimum of 300 watts of light. A 250 watt hps would only give us 41 w/p.s.f so we'll be using a 400w giving us 66.6 w/p.s.f. The chamber is 6 foot high giving us plenty of headroom and the light will be suspended on something called eazy-rollers which allow us to adjust the height as the plants grow so we always have the lights at the optimum distance from the top of the plants. Now if you are planning on growing in a small chamber an hps lamp may not be viable as it could cause problems with heat and if it gets too hot then you're plants will stop growing(you ideally want a temp range of 70-80 degrees when the lights are on and no less than 60 when they're off). In this case your best bet would be envirolites, they come in 125w(£30) and 200w(£50) versions and output either blue(veg) or red(budding)light. you can start off with one for vegging and then when it comes to flowering add the other lamp doubling the amount of light in the process. If its possible to use an HPS then do so as the light penetrates much better than the enviros and you can get HPS bulbs that output 10% extra blue light so they can be used throughout the grow. The advantage of enviros is that they can be placed within an inch of the top of your plants and they don't output much heat. Biobiz probably won't be found in your local garden centre but theres bound to be a hydroponics shop near you and they are bound to stock it. They'll also stock perlite which is about 50p a litre. also I advise getting some square pots of you can, much more space efficient. That should be enough info for now, I'm off to Amsterdam on monday, my first trip in quite a while and my anticipation levels are through the roof!!! I'll probably get access to a computer at some point so I'll check this topic to see how you're doing, if for some reason I don't get to a computer(you know how things go in mokum!)then have a merry christmas and that goes for anyone readin this even our beloved koopa!!!! take it easy!!!! Space.
Cheers for that Space Doubt, I dont have time to reply at the minute but will do once im back at work on Monday. Ive printed the info anyway so will go from there. Have a cracking time mate, it must be said im jelous as fuck !!!!
Cheers Nemesis, info very much appreciated. I think I know where im heading now for starters... I'll post on Monday anyway and let you know how im getting on. Just one thing, wheres the best place to buy lights ? Aquatic centre or something ?
Aquatic strip lights are ideal for cuttings and bringing on a plant but are not good for general growing as such. You will need quite a few of them btw, but as your starting out it's not essential at this stage, I think you just want to have a go at growing a plant or two, if I'm not mistaken. Look in your Yellow pages for horticultural suppliers or hydroponic specialists that supply zoo's or farm greenhouses, etc. I've got 3 hydroponic warehouses in my area, one has even got a full on show room in operation with all sorts of kits and equipment being used, although they don't grow weed they grow other herbs but you can see all the potential though. These places can also supply some of the best feeds, replacement bulbs (which can become volatile after a few crops), CO2, PH control (remember never mix PH up with PH down....natural rainwater is better than tap water). But to be honest you don't need to get too bogged down with all this technical stuff, I'm sure you'll do fine, growing weed is easy given the right environment, just be aware the smell of the plants and heat build up of the lights making sure you have plenty ventilation using fans gently blowing across the tops of the plants.
Yeh thats right mate, im only looking at growing a couple of plants to start off with. Im willing to spend the money on lights etc but dont plan on going overboard to start with. Was just gonna see how I got on with the seeds ive got and go from there. If I get on ok then ill look in to buying some better quality seeds off the net. Anyway the seeds have been in pot since Friday evening but nothing yet. Are the plants ok to start growing in natural day light for the first few days ? The problem is they could sprout at any time and I doubt ill have the lights until Friday (pay day) !! If not, would a 3 or 4 100w household lights do for a couple of days just to get it started ? cheers
Nemesis, is this the sort of thing I need to be looking at ? Remember I only have 4 pots on the go, in a space of about 1 sq metre. Would this 400w HPS grow light give out too much light ? Or perhaps not enough ? And I know you said use a metal halide for veg, and sodium for bloom. But would this light do the trick for the whole process (providing I got the lighting times correct of course...) ?? I'd have a fan aswell, and a temperature gauge so I constantly knew the temp and could keep it between 60/80 like Space Doubt said.
Yes, that set up will do fine, 400w is fine for the amount you need. Also, once the seedlings have sprouted they will do fine sitting on a window seal for a day or two afterall they will be vulnerable at this stage so it's best not to ''nuke'' them straight away with intense light, but don't leave them too long. If you havn't already done so, paint the inside of your grow area with white paint, better still get some mylar sheeting so that it reflects all avialable light. Watch humidity build up which can promote unwanted mould or disease. Apparently brewing wine or lager, I forget which, close to the plants will help them grow better due to the chemicals that are released in the brewing process. Parrafin heaters also do the same but are more ideal for greenhouses as they also give off a by-product that helps the plants. have a good one
