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Indoor Soil Based Growing Guide for the Novice ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Table of Contents
Stages of Growth – 2 -Germination - 2
-Vegetative Growth – 3 -Flowering – 5
Harvesting – 7
Sexing your Plants – 8
Lighting Needed for Growth – 9
Fertilizers for Various Stages – 11
Soil – 12
Cloning – 12
Plant Moisture and Heat Stress – 14
Solution Burn – 16
Nutrient Problems and Plant Cures – 16
Hermaphrodites - 29
STAGES OF GROWTH AND LIGHTING NEEDS
-Germination- most of you will start from seed, although ill cover both seed and clone.. Bag seeds are what
most of us began with and is the best way to start.. **your first grow will be a learning
experience, full of trial and error... you are more than likely not going to yield a 1/4 lb plant...
things will happen and you might lose one or all of your plants... its happened to us all.. We all
have been through the stresses before... the best advice I can give you is to start with a few
plants.. Maybe 3 to 5.. use bag seeds to learn on.. and make the first grow as simple as
possible.. ** choose seeds that are dark and don’t crush when you squeeze them... those are
2 easy ways to tell if a seed is mature.. there are 2 basic ways to germinate seeds; paper
towel to medium and straight from medium... with the paper towel method you simply
moisten down a paper towel and fold it in half.. make sure its well moistened, but not soaking
wet... place the seed(s) down and fold the paper towel over them... this next part is my
personal suggestion, and not required, but place the paper towel/seeds in a zip lock bag and
seal... this will keep moisture in there longer in case it takes a little longer for the seeds to
germinate, so you don’t have to worry about re wetting it all the time.. if you want to you can
just put the paper towel/seeds on a plate and just moisten it as needed.. either way you need
to keep it in dark, warm place... once the seeds have popped out a tap root gently, and I cant
stress how important GENTLY is right now, move the seed(s) to their germination medium,
with the tap root pointing down into the medium, about 1/4'' to 1/2" deep.. tweezers are very
helpful for moving the taproots, just be GENTLE.... if you are planning on going straight from
medium, you will benefit from soaking the seeds in room temp water for 12 to 24 hours before
placing into the medium.. this will allow water to penetrate into the seed and kick start the
germination process... after the soak place into medium of choice, again about 1/4" to 1/2"
deep... the seed will right its self in the medium, so you don’t have to worry about the way
you plant it... you do not need to keep any kind of lighting going until you see a sprout break
the surface of whichever medium you are choosing... after which you do need light.. the
lighting should be on a 24/0 cycle, and the need is very little.. a typical 4' 2 bulb shop light is
plenty of light to get you through until you transplant into your vegetative growth medium...
once you see roots popping out of your starter cubes, or growth slows/stops (if using soil) its
time to transplant..
- seeds need a constant supply of moisture to germinate.. make sure that whatever
germination medium you choose you keep moist...
- during germination/rooting you want warm temps (mid 80s is good) and high humidity (90%
to 100%)
- you can keep your germinating seeds in a humidity dome until they sprout to help retain
moisture in the medium
- placing a heating pad under your germinating seeds will help them to sprout quicker
- using soil mist the top of it to keep it from drying out..
- germination can be as quick as 2 to 3 days, or take as long as 10 to 14... if after 14 days
you don’t see your seeds pushing through the top of the medium it’s likely the seed is not
viable and you can safely call it a loss...
ok I think that pretty much covers seeds.. now onto clones.. I’m going to cover how to take a
cutting as well as rooting it.. they pretty much go hand in hand so it just makes sense.. first to
take a cutting, make sure you have a nice healthy mature plant (will cover how to tell plant
maturity in the veg growth section).. cutting can be as small as 4 inches or as big as a foot+...
the size of the cutting is up to you.. but take a cutting that works in relation to the type of
grow and size of the grow area... obviously 1 foot tall clones wont fit into a pc grow, and it
makes little sense to take tiny clones if planning to veg them out when you can take larger
ones and have that much size already on your clones.. to take the cutting you will need a
sharp cutting utensil such as a razor or exacto knife, some rubbing alcohol for sterilization,
cloning gel or powder, humidity dome, and rooting medium... once you have the plant chosen
and the cloning supplies around its time to begin.. start out by dipping the blade into the
alcohol to clean it.. carefully make a 45 degree cut at the base of the branch you want to use
as a clone... make the cut as smooth as you can... once you have the cutting off the plant
remove the bottom 1/2 to 3/4 of foliage completely, and cut the remaining large fan leave
fingers in half width wise... what you should end up with is a stem with a few small sub
branches and a few fan leaves that are cut down... after you have removed the excess foliage,
gently scrap the bottom 1/2" to 1" of outer flesh away from the stem, exposing the moist
inner flesh.. now cut up the middle of the stem at the bottom as high as you scrapped... so
the bottom should have exposed flesh and be split up the middle... take the split part and
submerge into the cloning gel or powder, taking care to cover the exposed area well.. once
covered place into rooting medium.. same rules apply to the clones rooting medium as seeds..
keep moist but not wet... the only difference is it is much better to keep the cutting in a
humidity dome the first couple days than not.. since the cutting wont have roots it has no way
to absorb moisture and relies on the moisture you give it or the moisture in the air to get what
it needs to survive... the humidity dome helps ensure there is enough moisture that it doesn’t
dry out until it starts cutting roots... usually after a couple days you can remove the dome... if
you choose not to use a dome, make sure to mist your cuttings down a couple times a day...
you may also choose to do a bubbler style cloner... more on that later...
-Vegetative Growth-
so your seeds have all sprout, roots popping out of the rooting cubes, cutting slowed or
stopped growing in the Dixie cup, and your ready to transplant into a larger pot and begin
growing your plants out to the size you want them... you are ready to start vegetative
growth... the procedure for transplanting is pretty much the same across the board... take
your now rooted plant and place into the growing pot of choice, and back fill with grow
medium of choice... now obviously you need to fill the pot up with some of the grow medium
before adding your sprout and back filling... I will go over different grow mediums and growing
containers more in depth later...
anytime you transplant you will shock the plant.. the amount of shock will depend on the
amount of "abuse" the roots incure... the less you can move the roots around the better...
when back filling take time to do to easy.. the more gentle you are to the roots the faster
growth will return to normal... but be prepared for growth to stop for up to a week..
sometimes it just takes a while to recover for transplants... its best if you can transplant into
the final pot the first time.. but you can transplant into larger pots more than once with little
affect in the end..
vegetative growth is basically the time between when you transplant your plant to start
growing and the time you switch to a 12/12 light cycle.. the plant must receive between 18
and 24 hours of light to maintain proper vegetative growth... any light cycle that has 18 to 24
hours of light will work... 18/6, 19/5, 20/4, 21/3, 22/2, 23/1, and 24/0 will all grow your plant
out vegetatively.. there are many arguments as to what light cycle works best and helps yield
the most in the end... i'm not going to put my input in only because its just my opinion and is
very debatable.. I will say this... experiment over time with different ones to see what gets
you the results you want... if you are happy with what you get then that is all that matters...
keep whatever cycle you choose the same throughout the entire veg growth stage though...
messing around with it can stress your plant...
plants that are vegging uses the blues in the color spectrum... anything from 5000k to 6500k
will work... these are known as cool bulbs or daylight bulbs in you are looking at CFLs or MH if
you are using HID lighting.. if using HID lighting, you can use hps bulbs throughout the entire
grow with success if you choose.. many companies are now producing "enhanced spectrum"
hps bulbs, that contain something like 20% more blues... this means they are even more
affective during veg growth... this can save you some money on buying additional bulbs.. if
you are hell bent on using MH during veg and hps to flower, I would recommend using dual
ballast or purchasing digital ballast that will support both bulb types.. also it is possible to use
a mh bulb in an hps ballast without any problems as long as the mh bulb is less than or equal
to the wattage of the hps ballast... this may shorten the life of your mh bulb.. but it does
work...
this is also the stage where will begin using nutes, maybe... I say maybe for a couple reasons,
and it really just has to do with soil grows... if you build up a good soil mix there is a chance
that the soil will have enough nutes in it to get you through veg growth without needing to use
many nutes or any at all in some cases.. if you plan on using soil to grow its worth the
investment to buy good quality soil... fox farm and ocean forest are among some of the best...
if you cant find them, buy the most expensive soil you find wherever you end up purchasing it
from.. you get what you pay for... I will go more into that later.. there are some signs to know
you need to add nutes are yellowing of the leaves and slowed/stopped growth... the yellowing
is a sign of a nitrogen deficiency, and will go into it more later... the slowed/stopped growth is
another good sign it needs some food... assuming the pot is the right size.. a good rule of
thumb is 1 gallon for every 1 foot you plan on your plant being at the end of the run.. it
should more than likely be around the 2nd or 3rd week of vegetative growth when you start
using nutes.. start out with a 1/4 strength application.. meaning use 1/4 of the total amount
of nutes they recommend... you need to gradually wean your plant onto the nutes... adding to
much too soon can burn and possibly kill your plants.. not to mention the headache of having
to flush and having to sit back and just watch it happen.. after the first feeding or two you can
gradually start to increase the amount to half strength, then full strength... take note of your
plant and how it reacts to the nutes though.. she will tell you if it’s too much.. also a good
practice is to only feed every other watering... this will ensure that your plant uses all the
available nutes before you feed more... this will help reduce salt build ups and help maintain
soil ph... if you are growing in a hydroponics setup that will be different of course.. you'll want
to follow the same idea about gradually increasing the nute strength.. but you obviously need
to use nutes all the time.. the type of nutes you use will be up to you and how much you want
to put into it.. you can order anything over the internet so everything is always available..
maybe not with the ease of running to Wal-Mart or something.. but you can get hold of any
nutes you want... there are 1, 2, and 3 part systems.. 1 part is the "all-in-one'' style nutes
such as miracle grow and Scotts.. they can be used with success but take more care to use..
you have to really be careful how much you apply because you have no control over any
ratios.. and since some nutes get used faster than others you can run into problems with
these... 2 parts have a veg and bloom formula and contain all the macro and micro nutes you
need for these stages.. these are better than 1 part systems because they are more tailored to
the specific stage of growth you are in... 3 part systems have a veg, bloom, and "boost"
formula.. the boost is used throughout the entire grow, while the veg and bloom are used
during their specific stages... these are best if you want to custom blend your nutes or want to
better control ratios... there are liquid or dry.. some work in different applications also.. more
on that later.. either way you choose they all work... always be looking out for signs of nute
burn when you do start feeding... nutes are one area where more often than not less ends up
being more...
during this time is also when you want to do any pruning, should you so choose to... this
includes LST (which should be done from the beginning), topping, FIMing, super cropping,
lollipopping, ect.. I will cover these later.. some can be successfully done during the early
stages of flowering, but it is not good practice to do during flowering... stressing during
flowering increases will lessen your harvest.. try to plan things to have whatever pruning you
so choose to do done 1 week before flowering to give the plant time to heal itself...
you ideally want temps in the mid 70's and humidity in the 40% to 60% range.. you can run
warmer temps with success as long as a couple things are done... first you must have good air
movement and exchange, you must have a plenty of fresh air available to the plants, or if a
fresh air intake is not possible you will need to supplement co2.. I will explain more about
each of these later on..
vegetative growth times will vary.. you want to allow your plant to grow to maturity.. a
mature plant will yield better and have more potent buds than one that is immature... there
are 2 ways to tell when your plant has reaches maturity.. the first is the appearance of
alternating nodes... a young plant will produce branches in pairs.. by that I mean everywhere
a branch comes out on one side of the stem, another appears exactly opposite of it.. once a
plant has reached maturity the branches will alternate appearance up the stem.. once you see
this you will know it has reached maturity and are ready to flower... this usually takes around
4 weeks of vegetative growth to achieve... you may also choose to wait until you see
preflowers.. preflowers will show you the sex of the plant before you begin flowering.. which
means you can remove males before risking pollination of females.. the only thing is this
can/will take longer than the appearance of alternating nodes.. this can cause problems if you
don’t have the vertical space to flower taller plants.. you may have to induce flowering at the
appearance of the alternating nodes to keep plants to a manageable size and just watch
closely for males.. if you have plenty of space you may choose to veg your plant out more to
get a larger yield off of it.. the larger the plant the more it yields and the larger the buds.. this
will also depend on the lighting you have.. there is no point in growing a 6 ft tall plant using a
400w hps that won’t penetrate deep into the plant... use space and flowering lighting to help
determine over all veg times.. clones that are cut from a mature female and rooted do not
need to have any veg time at all... they are ready to go into flower the moment they are
rooted and transplanted... this is what is done in sog grows where there are more plants that
are smaller... keep in mind also that your plant can double to triple in size during flowering
depending on strain.. a 1 ft tall plant going into flowering could end up being 3 ft tall at the
end... this will also be a determining factor as to when to induce flowering...
-FLOWERING-
you've germenated your seeds, grew out your tree, and are ready to produce some buds.. to
induce flowering you must cut back the amount of light to 12 hours and give them 12 hours of
dark... different strains have different critical photoperiods.. some can start flowering with a
14/10 cycle, and some only need a 10/14 cycle to successfully flower... unless you know for
sure what the needs of your plant is it is best to stay with a 12/12 cycle.. this will ensure that
no matter what your plant will flower... you are more than welcome to experiment with your
light cycle, but don’t expect any different results.. actually you can adversely affect the plant
and lessen your yield... stick with the regular 12/12 cycle.. why fix what isn’t broken..
during flowering your plant will use the red/orange light spectrum.. these are in the 2000k to
3000k (approx) ratings for bulbs, warm color temp with floros, or hps with HID lighting... it
takes lighter to flower than it does to veg.. hps lamps or floros like these
http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?...ku=SSB104&AC=0 are best to use for flowering..
you can still have success using other lights.. just remember it will take more during the
flowering stage than it did to grow the plant..
if you are using mixed seeds expect anywhere from 7 to 21 days before knowing sex..
sometimes it can take longer.. just be patient.. you are looking for to white hairs at the
internodes.. that is a female.. if you start seeing small clusters of little green grapes, those are
male pollen sacs, and you want to remove that plant as soon as possible... don’t do anything
until you know for sure what it is... if you aren’t sure post pics on RIU and ask for help... you
may also get a hermie.. these will show both female and male traits.. removing the pollen sacs
on these will ensure they do not pollinate themselves or any other surrounding females...
flowering takes about 2 weeks to start setting in.. in which time you will start noticing bud
sites all over your plants.. they will appear as light green, almost yellow spots, all over your
females.. each of these is where a bud will form.. they will start out as small popcorn sized
nugs and fill in over the length of the flowering... it will take several weeks before they start to
resemble a normal bud... but once they start filling they will rapidly start looking more and
more "normal"... the buds will fill out and swell the most the last few weeks of flowering as
they are ripening..
you can onset flowering and speed it up a little by giving your girls 24 to 36 hours of straight
dark before going into the 12/12 cycle... this helps let the plant know that without a doubt it is
time to start producing flowers.. it helps slow and stop the production of veg hormones and
helps kick start the production of flowering hormones.. it also helps speed sexing up by up to
a week... some claim this increases the chance of getting hermies... I personally have done it
and don’t believe it affects anything at all other than flowering time.. try it on one or two of
your plants and start the other straight into 12/12.. see if there is a difference between the
2...
make sure to keep the room sealed up nice and dark during the dark cycle.. light leaks can
cause prolonged flowering, and enough light can revert your plant back to veg growth... take
time and care to cover all light leaks in your grow room prior to flowering...
as always you want to take care introducing nutes to your plant... you'll want to wait until you
start seeing bud sites before starting flowering nutes alone.. in between starting flowering and
that time you may lessen the amount of veg nutes and start introducing bloom nutes.. a 1/4
strength application of each will ensure the plant gets some of all the nutes it needs during the
transition... with hydroponics you may choose to flush your system with a cleaner, such as
flora clean, to remove salt build up.. but again you want to wean your plant off of veg nutes
and onto bloom nutes... switching without some kind of flush and slight transition can cause
nute burn..
the flowering cycle itself will vary greatly from strain to strain.. some will get done in 6
weeks.. some will take 12+ weeks... indicas will flower quicker than sativas.. there are so
many crosses out there though that 8 to 10 weeks is a good guess at how long it will take to
flower.. there is no way to tell for sure how long it will take.. just be patient and watch the
clock tick away...
also during flowering be prepared for your leaves to yellow and fall off... unless your bloom
nutes have small amounts of nitrogen in them your leaves will yellow... as the plant
progresses and gets further to being ripe the large fan leaves will start raining of your plant..
don’t go pulling leaves off though.. let them fall off.. remove ones that have fallen and are
stuck in the plants branches...
some strains will smell more pungent than others... odors and odor strength will vary from
strain to strain as well.. always be prepared for a skunk, that way you can handle whatever
your plant throws off..
pistils will die and be replenished throughout the flower cycle.. don’t stress if your plant spits
out some red hairs here and there.. they will be replaced with bright white ones within a few
days.. if you spray your plant or bump the buds it can make them turn red also...
your temps should stay cooler during flowering than veg... this is the time when you really
want to strive to have temps in the low 70s... but again, if you have good air circulation and
movement you will be ok... also humidity needs to be lower.. too much humidity can lead to
bud rot and mold/mildew... a dehumidifier my be needed if air flow is not great... hotter air
will hold more moisture, which means higher humidities.. so if you are growing in a warmer
room with little air exchange humidity could be high, so a dehumidifier may be needed in that
instance..
trichrome production will also vary from strain.. some will be heavily frosted, and some will
have few.. they will start appearing at different times too.. there is no specific week you
should see them.. so don’t stress about how long it takes to see them or start thinking there is
something wrong with your plant..
-HARVEST-
Now for the pay off section to your grow... you hopefully have a few beautiful girls with big
buds just calling your name... but the question arises of when to chop... the answer is it all
depends on the stone you want... first off get the idea that the pistils will tell you much.. there
are some things the pistils will tell you, but i'm not there yet.. the tricks are what will tell the
story... during the life of tricks they will go from clear, to milky, to amber... you don’t want
clear that’s for sure.. the first stone you can achieve is a good head high.. this is achieved by
harvesting early into the ambering of the tricks... when around 10% of the tricks have gone
from milky to amber this is the high you will get... harvesting at around 50/50 will introduce a
nice body high with it... and the further into ambering you go the more "couch lock" the affect
will be.. now if you are looking to get the absolute most out of you buds, which will end up
being a knock you on your ass high, you need to pay attention to not only the tricks but the
pistils... as the plant ripens the pistils will eventually change from white to red/orange... they
will also start receding into the bud... once they are receding into the bud you know you are at
about the point where you have flowered her completely out and she has nothing left.. you
can over ripen your buds.. it is possible.. so once you start seeing the pistils start receding
inwards you knows it’s close to time to start chopping.. but you also know that you have
gotten as much out of the plant as you possibly can, both yield and potency wise...
you'll want to flush your plant before harvest also.. some growers say you don’t have to.. it’s
debatable.. the idea behind flushing is to remove all the salts and nutes from the plant and
making sure the plant has used up everything it has... unflushed plants can taste chemically
from nutes still in them.. try both ways and see what you like best... flushing is easy though...
you start out running 2x the amount of water as the volume of the pot through the pot.. so a
5 gallon pot would get 10 gallons of water ran through it.. then the next 1 or 2 watering just
use plain water.. your plant will be fine without nutes during this time.. you can use molasses
throughout the flush to continue feeding a little something to your plants if you choose.. ill get
more into molasses later... whether you choose to flush or not to, you should try to plan it out
so that when you chop your plants down it is on a day you need to water... this will speed the
drying since the plant is low on water already.. chopping is best done right before or as close
to lights on as possible.. this will keep the roots from pushing anything up into the plant prior
to harvest... two common questions I hear asked are "should I boil the roots? so and so said it
will help push the THC out" and "I heard you hang them upside down to let THC run out of the
stem"... neither of which are true.. boiling the roots is just stupid... and hanging the plants is
for convenience...
trimming is easiest when you do prior to drying... start out by removing all the large fan
leaves from the plant.. you can keep these and use for honey oil later if you want.. you have
two choices when it comes to attacking the trimming of your plant... whether you are going to
hang the entire plant or just branches.. it’s easiest to do branches individually.. it’s hard to
move around larger plants.. start out by removing the branch from the main stem.. I like
starting at the bottom and working up... take a sharp pair of trimming prunes begin trimming
all the leafs around the buds flush with the buds themselves.. try to trim over something to
save the trimmings for hash or cannabutter later... also if you can look from the bottom of the
stem and see a leaf stem in the bud, cut the leaf off.. basically you want to trim the bud up as
nice as you want it to be...
once you have trimmed up the buds on the branches its time to hang them.. you can use
anything to secure them to whatever you plan on hanging them from.. make sure to leave
enough room at the bottom of the stem to attach something too... hang them in a medium
humidity room... 50 to 60 percent works well... this is assuming you have adequate ventilation
and air movement.. the slower the buds dry and cure the better the final product.. so if you
can dry them slowly in a more humid room it helps get the most out of the dry.. but higher
humidities can cause bud rot, mold, and mildew if air movement and ventilation is low... so
keep in mind that the lower the air movement the lower the humidity should be.. you will want
to keep some sort of fan going to keep air moving of some sort... you also will want to make
sure you leave breathing room between the branches when you hang them.. warmer temps
and lower humidity will still give you good results in the end.. don’t get me wrong.. but a
slower process will give you amazing results... lastly if you cant hang the buds you can use a
large screen from a picture window for instance as a drying rack.. you still want air movement
in the room though... drying usually will take 5 to 7 days... you'll know your ready to start
curing when the stems snap, but aren’t brittle...
mason jars are the best thing to cure in... they are cheap and easily available.. curing evens
out the remaining moisture in the buds and helps further develop flavor.. a good cure can be
the difference of good bud that tastes and smells like hay or good bud that tastes divine and
smells like a skunk.... to cure fill up the jar with buds you have trimmed from the stems after
drying.. don’t pack the jar full.. you want breathing room in them.. 1/2 to 3/4 full is about all
you want... keep them sealed tightly... open them a few times a day to allow the air inside to
be replaced with fresh air, then seal back up.. this takes about another 5 to 7 days, but is
WELL worth the wait..
so that is the basic growing process.. now to touch more in depth on a few areas...
you’re ready to start planning you’re grow.. first thing to do is to choose a location... is it
going to be indoor or outdoor?? here are some things to consider when choosing where to
grow.. -Sexing your plants-
To find out if its male or female you will have to flower the plant. To flower the plant
you need to put it in 12 hrs of light and 12 hrs of complete darkness. After a week to ten days
you will start seeing the flower. Males will have little pollen balls that look like a bunch of
grapes. The female will have a little tear drop bud with two white hairs coming out of it.
You want to kill the males. They do not produce bud. Only pollen. You dont want the pollen to
get on the female flowers or it will produce seeds. You pretty much have a 50/50 chance of
having a male/ female.
Its simple to tell...
-The males have balls. If you look close to where your buds would form you will see a bunch
of tiny balls growing, usually hanging down or sideways.
- The Females have two tiny hairs coming out of a little sac. The sac and hairs can look like a
snail head growing off the side of your plant at first. You can DISTINCTLY tell the difference
simply because the males don’t have pistils growing out their balls.
Male – Figure 1.
Female – Figure 2. LIGHTING
Color rating- Measured in Kelvin (K). The higher the number, the more bluish the light.
4000K-7000K is mostly on the blue side of the spectrum, while 3000K and under goes from a
white spectrum, to a redder spectrum.
6500K or higher for vegetative stage, Blue light promotes closer node sites and thicker foliage
and branch development.
2700K or below for Flowering Cycle, Red light in the spectrum promotes denser bud clusters
and overall growth of the flowers.
How much light is needed?
The minimum amount of light required by marijuana plants is around 3000 lumens per square
foot. However, it's not 100% accurate, since although you may have a 10,000 lumen light, the
amount of light that reaches the plant varies with the distance between the light and plants,
and reflectivity of the grow box. The ideal amount is somewhere around 7000-10,000
lumens/sqft, and as long as the plants do not burn, as much light can be used as you want.
(*note, the sun produces about 10,000 lumens/sqft, on a sunny summer day).
Determining lumens for your grow area:
Determine the square footage of your area (example in a 4 foot by 4 foot area, there is 16
square feet)
If you have a 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium, that produces (approx.) 107,000 lumens.
Divide this by 16 (your square footage) 107,000 / 16 = 6687 lumens per square foot.
So just divide the total amount of Lumens, by the total amount of Sq ft, and that’s your
lumens per square foot.
How far away from my plants do the lights go?
The lights in your grow room should be as close as possible to the plants without burning
them. There is no such thing as too much, unless there is sufficient heat to dry out and burn
the leaves. A good rule is to put your hand under the light, if its too hot for your hand,
chances are that the plants will be too, so move the light up until your hand feels more
comfortable. For seedlings and clones, I keep them a little further away from the light,
because they are very susceptible to burning and drying out, at these stages.
Efficiency is very important when choosing a type of light. The wattage is not the most
important thing, as you can see below, different types of light produce different amounts of
lumens per watt. A 300 watt incandescent will produce about 5100 lumens. While a 300 watt
Metal Halide (just an example, they do not come in 300 watts), will produce 27,000 lumens.
Obviously far more efficient for growing, while still using the same amount of electricity.
Approximate light production:
Incandescent: 17 lumens/watt
Mercury vapor: 45-50 lumens/watt
Fluorescents: 60-70 lumens/watt
Metal halide: 90 lumens/watt
High pressure sodium: 107 lumens/watt
Incandescent lights: Incandescent are the most popular type of lights in the world. They
may come advertised as incandescent, tungsten, quartz, halogen, or simply standard. The
important thing about incandescent is they suck.
There are some incandescent which are sold as 'grow lights.' They usually have a blue coating
and usually come in 60W and 120W sizes. While they may seem like a good choice to new
growers, they are next to useless; they produce some light at a usable spectrum, but only
have about a 5% efficiency and generate more heat than usable light. Most of us have these
in our homes right now. Don't use them for growing, instead opt for a Compact Fluorescent as
a cheaper but more efficient alternative.
Fluorescent lights: Fluorescents are a lot more useful than incandescent. Their efficient
enough, and cheaper than HID lights. Compact fluorescent tubes are popular with growers
because of their good output to size ratio. Compared to standard 4' tubes, compact
fluorescent bulbs are smaller, and more can fit into a given area. Fluorescents are good for
small grows on a tight budget, and for novice growers, since they do not require any special
sort of wiring or understanding of the necessary bulbs for a given fixture, and are very widely
available.
Fluorescent lights come in many different Kelvin ratings; often the spectrums are labeled on
packaging as being 'cool white' or 'warm white.' Cool white is bluer, and is good for the
vegetative stages of growth, and warm white light is more orange or reddish, and is best for
the flowering stage.
If you are going to go with fluorescents for your system stick with T5HO lamps, they output
48% more light than T-10 and use almost 65% less power.
High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lighting Systems:
Mercury Vapor (MV)
Mercury vapor lights are not the most efficient light for growing. They are very bright, and
relatively cheap. They do emit light at the wavelengths necessary to support your plants
growth, but not nearly as good as a MH or Hps light. Much of the light emitted by MV lights is
bluish-white. Street lighting is what most MV lighting is used for.
Metal Halide (MH)
Metal halide lighting systems are optimal for use in the vegetative phase of growing. They
emit mostly blue light, which encourages vigorous growth of foliage. They are very efficient,
but can get rather expensive to start with; fluorescents may seem more appealing because of
their lower price, and they are not much different when compared on a lumen-to-lumen cost
level. These lights can be used through-out the grow, but will most likely result in light, fluffy
buds.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
High pressure sodium lights emit mostly orange, yellow, and red spectrum light, which is
perfect for the flowering stage of the plants growth. They are (in my opinion) the most
efficient type of light available for any application. HPS lights can be used through-out the
entire grow. They produce denser and usually larger buds than any other light.
HPS lights are generally a little more expensive than MH systems of similar wattage. They are
more commonly used by experienced growers because of their ability to produce tighter buds,
higher lumen-output-per-watt, and will produce from start to finish.
Fertilizer
I would recommend using Fox Farm organic nutrients, the whole lineup is about 100
bucks, and is well worth the investment. Start your plants off at half strength and work up to
full dose to prevent nute burn. http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf for the fox farm feed
schedule.
If you want to go cheap get something that’s 10-10-10 or close to that. Be careful as
to how much fert you give them as they are prone to nute-lock if you’re not cautious on the
amounts your giving them. Always try to stay with liquid or water soluble, organic if you can,
ferts and stay away from time release or extended release nutrients for your plant.
If you are in soil, forget all the fancy stuff. Here's some good ferts for you:
For vegging use: Peter's "Jack's Classic" 20-20-20.
For flowering use: Peter's "Jack's Classic Blossom Booster 10-30-20.
Here's where to order: http://www.jacksclassic.com/
Use these at only 1/4 strength throughout your grow and you will have beautiful plants
producing great buds.
Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula—Big Bloom®, Grow Big® and Tiger Bloom
- The Right Juice for the Right Use! http://botanical.com/hydro/nutrients/foxfarm.html?gclid=CNbBifi3_pwCFQ4MDQodPkq-0A
Pay attention to the soil, and be wary of existing nutes. I tend to stay away from the
pre-fertilized soil, with soil price is quality, and quality of the growth medium matters.
Plants tend to need less nitrogen and more phosphorus and Potassium in the flowering
cycle. Where as they need about equal amounts in the vegging stage.
Soil–
There’s not much to picking out the right kind of soil. Keep it simple and light, price
does matter, with soil you get what you pay for. The soil\growth medium must be firm yet
aerated so new air can enter. Not much on this part, experiment and figure out what works for
you. I use a mixture of soil, sphagnum moss, and perelite, mixed 3 parts soil, 3 parts
sphagnum moss, and 1 part perelite.
Cloning -
Clones are easy to make. And they are the exact genetics as their mother. I keep 8
mother plants and grow them about 3-4 feet. Large enough so I can take 50 or so clones from
each mother. Moms wont ever bud cause we keep them in the grow (18 hours of light) room.
Sorry I had to throw that in real quick.
Cloning is very easy to do, alot of differant techniques are out there, bubblers,
powders, soil to many really to mention. However this method is by far the easiest out there.
The only thing you need is water, a little bit of light, and the little piece of plant you want to
root. The example shown below is of 3 cuttings that I have already taken and would like to
root them. The first one with the two leaves and one single growing tip, we will call this (R).
THe next one has four nodes on it, as well as a couple larger leaves, we will call this (O). The
third piece is taller and has 7 nodes and a couple more well sized leaves on it, we will call this
one (L). S=R O=M L=L
Along with the regular way of cloning, after you cut you will right away dip the clone in water
for about 25 seconds, make sure you tweak it to get rid of any air bubbles that could be
around. Now here comes the fun part, normally you would remove it dip it in powder and stick
it in a rocwool cube. This time you will be leaving it in water untill the cutting has roots and is
strong enough to support itself. Make sure the cup is not clear and cannot see light through it,
this way the roots wont be damaged.
Now we have finished the hard part, the most critical part is the light that these will receive,
again many differant oppinions here but this is what works for me and it works 100/100 so
why would i change take the cuttings and sit them on a window sill that is not in direct
sunlight. You probbly want to make sure its slightly shady. Just make sure they get 12 on 12
off or approx. The important thing is no direct sunlight or artificial light on them.
The pix below show the 3 clones in the cups, O and L have about 1" of water in it, if I were to
add any more water it would be covering one of the stems. The smallest one out of the three I
put in the plastic because the stem was to short to stay in water and still be standing up in the
cup. You must do what you have to do to keep at least half of the stem submerged in water