El Novato - ie; The Noob

[ayr0n]

What's up everyone? I've been here quite a while but have yet to start and finish a grow for various reasons in the past, but this time will be different as my circumstances are much better now - for example: It's fucking legal to grow!~!!!!!!

So with that said, I've got a couple newbie questions to get me started on the right track - >

(BTW I feel pretty honored to have an entire section of the forum dedicated to me Newbie Central)

1. How long do seeds last? If I ordered a pack let's say, and let it sit in my room for a year or something, would they still be viable to plant?

2. Would something like this be large enough to start a couple girls? Lil Grow Tent - I'm aiming for indica because of limited grow space primarily, and I just want to start small until I have a better understanding of what I'm doing. I was thinking maybe doing 2-3 at a time, staggering each set of 2-3 by a couple weeks, so at some point I'll have something to harvest each month. SoG?

2b. Should I have a separate tent for vegging and flowering? I was planning on going Auto simply for the convenience and speed, but I'm not sure how viable it would be to try and make 2 light proof segments in one of those small tents (ie; top shelf veg, lower flower)...I don't think that the photoperiod is too critical when growing autos, so possibly I could even run veg / flower on the same photoperiod and not have to separate them at all? I'm sure there's something I'm missing in my understanding of how Auto's work - any insight is highly appreciated. Do you vary your veg / flowering photoperiods with auto's typically?

3. Suggested strains for quick / short plants? I'm not looking for giant yields, just a new hobby with a decent reward for the work put in. Should I run a combination of strains even though my space is limited? I don't want one giant freak plant that requires me to raise the light and then have a couple smaller plants that get the raw end of the deal...maybe I should stick with one, rather less finicky strain to get off my feet and expand from there when I become a little more experienced?

4. Would 1000 watt HPS be overkill for such a small grow? I've read from numerous sources that certain spectrums are better for the different stages in MJ's lifecycle, but from my understanding an HPS will suffice throughout the entire lifecycle if that's all you've got...? I just figured grab an 1000 watt ballast / bulb because it could prospectively be used for a larger grow if/when I do scale things up, rather then having to replace it with something stronger when the time comes...seems like 1k wouldn't ever become obsolete - you'd just need more of them if anything.

5. Is it worth the trouble to implement some kind of root heating system? This grow will be in a basement that's relatively cool year round, but I figured inside a small tent with a large HPS that there might be plenty of heat, maybe even too much...Not sure if it'll be necessary to heat the roots.

6. Do you even need nutes? I'm going soil rather then hydro/aero, and I guess I see more damage done from nutes than anything else...seems like it'd be safer to rely on just what a decent soil mix has, rather than adding potentially harmful doses of extra nutes during feedings? Whatdya think?

That's all I can come up w/ for now...any and all feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
Ayron

Edit: just noticed I put "ie; The Noob" in the thread title...let's pretend that 'ie;' is an 'AKA', for the sake of me not sounding mentally challenged. Pe@ce

 

[Commander Strax]

1 the seeds are probably fine

2 someone with more tent knowledge will chime in

3 can't beat Northern Lights, short, easy, hardy

4 seems like a bit overkill for a tent that small

5 I don't think you are gonna need to heat Anything

6 I don't need nutes, I have some.
if you are asking if you need them, the answer is no, if you want to grow tiny sickly plants then by all means starve your plants.

 

[ayr0n]

1 the seeds are probably fine


6 I don't need nutes, I have some.
if you are asking if you need them, the answer is no, if you want to grow tiny sickly plants then by all means starve your plants.

Thx for the help man. Fair enough on #6. I guess my nute question could have been worded better - 6. When growing in soil, beyond the nutrients in your mix, are nutrients only used as a regulatory process to accommodate any downfalls in your mix? Or do you actually add nutes to your soil/mix throughout the growing cycle no matter what?

 

[crazyhazey]

What's up everyone? I've been here quite a while but have yet to start and finish a grow for various reasons in the past, but this time will be different as my circumstances are much better now - for example: It's fucking legal to grow!~!!!!!!

So with that said, I've got a couple newbie questions to get me started on the right track - >

(BTW I feel pretty honored to have an entire section of the forum dedicated to me Newbie Central)

1. How long do seeds last? If I ordered a pack let's say, and let it sit in my room for a year or something, would they still be viable to plant?

decades if stored correctly, some seeds from hundreds of years ago popped, some really old chinese strain if im not mistaken. wish i could get my hands on some of that shit.

2. Would something like this be large enough to start a couple girls? Lil Grow Tent - I'm aiming for indica because of limited grow space primarily, and I just want to start small until I have a better understanding of what I'm doing. I was thinking maybe doing 2-3 at a time, staggering each set of 2-3 by a couple weeks, so at some point I'll have something to harvest each month. SoG?
2b. Should I have a separate tent for vegging and flowering? I was planning on going Auto simply for the convenience and speed, but I'm not sure how viable it would be to try and make 2 light proof segments in one of those small tents (ie; top shelf veg, lower flower)...I don't think that the photoperiod is too critical when growing autos, so possibly I could even run veg / flower on the same photoperiod and not have to separate them at all? I'm sure there's something I'm missing in my understanding of how Auto's work - any insight is highly appreciated. Do you vary your veg / flowering photoperiods with auto's typically?

id grow 2 in there, maybe 3 if your going 12/12 from seed with something good yielding like AK or a good hybrid, id prefer a short flowering sativa dom, autos will give you just about the same yield, photoperiods would also be under 12/12, as opposed to most growing autos 24/0 or 20/4.
and given its sort of tall, you might want to either add side lighting(id suggest some HO t5s if heats not a problem already, this also wont be necessary if your plants arent too bushy and allow light to hit as many leaves as possible).

or do a scrog for efficiency, maybe let the edges reach up so your getting all of the lumens out of your light, same idea as a stadium or vert, try to grow around your light and keep tops at equal distance to avoid allowing others to get more energy(thus maturing earlier, leaving popcorn nugs).

as for having separate harvests, i would just take clones and start up once the gals finish, maybe have a veg box off to the side for the clones, perpetual grows are good in some instances, you probably want a mother plant or have clones, for a small setup id just go for one big harvest, would probably save you some time and avoid having to deal with 2 different nute schedules, separate trimmings, switching lights(MH to HPS).

3. Suggested strains for quick / short plants? I'm not looking for giant yields, just a new hobby with a decent reward for the work put in. Should I run a combination of strains even though my space is limited? I don't want one giant freak plant that requires me to raise the light and then have a couple smaller plants that get the raw end of the deal...maybe I should stick with one, rather less finicky strain to get off my feet and expand from there when I become a little more experienced?

id suggest most things from sannie, most other seedbanks are a ripoff imo, anymore than $5 maybe $6 a bean isnt worth it, most strains have a pretty long description, if you like a strain look it up on open grow for more info(how it feeds, pictures of more phenos, etc). personally id suggest herijuana, seen plenty of other awesome looking strains on there though, and dont forget to ask for a freebie.

4. Would 1000 watt HPS be overkill for such a small grow? I've read from numerous sources that certain spectrums are better for the different stages in MJ's lifecycle, but from my understanding an HPS will suffice throughout the entire lifecycle if that's all you've got...? I just figured grab an 1000 watt ballast / bulb because it could prospectively be used for a larger grow if/when I do scale things up, rather then having to replace it with something stronger when the time comes...seems like 1k wouldn't ever become obsolete - you'd just need more of them if anything.

id run a 400w, some would maybe run 600 but even thats a little much imo. you have to remember how much heat they generate too. as for veg, itll make node separation pretty big, come flower time you probably dont want really spaced out buds. id invest in a good compact cfl or some good fluorescents, HO t5 preferably with a good spectrum, aquarium bulbs seem to have a pretty good spectrum if you get the right bulbs too.

5. Is it worth the trouble to implement some kind of root heating system? This grow will be in a basement that's relatively cool year round, but I figured inside a small tent with a large HPS that there might be plenty of heat, maybe even too much...Not sure if it'll be necessary to heat the roots.

dont believe it would be really necessary but if it does get really cold in there you might not need to worry so much about heat buildup with the HPS, id stay on it though. if the cold does stress them they'll be stunted.

6. Do you even need nutes? I'm going soil rather then hydro/aero, and I guess I see more damage done from nutes than anything else...seems like it'd be safer to rely on just what a decent soil mix has, rather than adding potentially harmful doses of extra nutes during feedings? Whatdya think?

That's all I can come up w/ for now...any and all feedback is appreciated.

Regards,
Ayron

Edit: just noticed I put "ie; The Noob" in the thread title...let's pretend that 'ie;' is an 'AKA', for the sake of me not sounding mentally challenged. Pe@ce

your on the right track, many still stand by synthetic nutes but id roll with organics, much easier to deal with. sea kelp extracts, bat guanos, worm castings, and much more nutrients out there are cheap and available about anywhere, i usually just mix them into the soil beforehand, or if they look hungry add it to the topsoil. id look into the organic growing section as well, compost teas, microbes, and all that good stuff.

 

[ayr0n]

your on the right track, many still stand by synthetic nutes but id roll with organics, much easier to deal with. sea kelp extracts, bat guanos, worm castings, and much more nutrients out there are cheap and available about anywhere, i usually just mix them into the soil beforehand, or if they look hungry add it to the topsoil. id look into the organic growing section as well, compost teas, microbes, and all that good stuff.

Well damn. You guys are going to make it real easy on me. I almost feel like I'm stealing years of knowledge that El Novato is not worthy of yet.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of mix do you run CrazyHazey? There's so many people trying so many variations it's hard to decide which route to really go. The possibilities seem endless for a soil mix. For the most part I'm sure much of it is over-complicated more often than not, but there have to be some benefits from varying retension levels, buffering, etc...

Also what kind of ballast are you running those T5's on? When you say HO T5's you are talking about 'high output' ? Of everything related to growing, lights are probably my weakest point in terms of actually understanding what's effective and what's not. There's an overabundance of information about growing MJ, a lot of it mis-information from what I've heard, so I'm just trying to get a decent understanding of the basics for now.

 

[dannyboy602]

Thx for the help man. I guess my nute question could have been worded better - 6. When growing in soil, beyond the nutrients in your mix, are nutrients only used as a regulatory process to accommodate any downfalls in your mix? Or do you actually add nutes to your soil throughout the growing cycle?

Lets review:
Q: When growing in soil, beyond the nutrients in your mix, are nutrients only used as a regulatory process to accommodate any downfalls in your mix?
A: WTF is a regulatory process? Are you asking about Photosynthesis? plants will use the nutes in the soil if its available to them. nutes from fertilizers are readily availablle.
did that answer ur question?

 

[ayr0n]

Lets review:
Q: When growing in soil, beyond the nutrients in your mix, are nutrients only used as a regulatory process to accommodate any downfalls in your mix?
A: WTF is a regulatory process? Are you asking about Photosynthesis? plants will use the nutes in the soil if its available to them. nutes from fertilizers are readily availablle.
did that answer ur question?

Ok umm...you see an issue that looks like mag deficiency or something...you add mag = regulated. The process of adding the nutrients to accommodate a fault in your mix according to El Novato: Regulatory process. I'm just making shit up bro, HBU?

I was asking if you have to keep adding nutes throughout the grow typically, or if whatever's in the mix initially should be adequate enough to finish the grow?

 

[crazyhazey]

Well damn. You guys are going to make it real easy on me. I almost feel like I'm stealing years of knowledge that El Novato is not worthy of yet.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of mix do you run CrazyHazey? There's so many people trying so many variations it's hard to decide which route to really go. The possibilities seem endless for a soil mix. For the most part I'm sure much of it is over-complicated more often than not, but there have to be some benefits from varying retension levels, buffering, etc...

Also what kind of ballast are you running those T5's on? When you say HO T5's you are talking about 'high output' ? Of everything related to growing, lights are probably my weakest point in terms of actually understanding what's effective and what's not. There's an overabundance of information about growing MJ, a lot of it mis-information from what I've heard, so I'm just trying to get a decent understanding of the basics for now.

just doing what plenty of others on this site did for me, knowledge is worthy to all who can listen and learn from it, though most the learning youll do with growing is mostly hands on, everyones got their specific methods.

as for my soil mix, i compost black kow with earth worms, over a course of about 1-2 months ill add eggshells, fruit, vegetables, just about anything not dairy or meat, lots of sugars are good for microbes, which will later on really help out your root system. after the mix is well broken down, i add about 30% perlite(for outdoors i sometimes add more if im preparing for a rainy season or if my surrounding soil isnt as aerated.). dolomite lime is also a great additive for buffering pH, and bat guano(with high p and k, i think its a certain type of fruit bat guano) for later on in flower, whenever i transplant(usually a week or two before flower) i make sure the pot its going into has some towards the bottom, as well as some more fresh compost if they look hungry. also compost teas are usually something id use every 2 weeks, depends how colonized i think my soil is however.

i used to run a 3ft 2 bulb lamp, i think the ballast was inside of the lamp itself, but the last veg box i made used cfls, growth was a lot better with the T5s though.
and yes, HO is better as far as lumens put out, and the better the spectrum is, the more usable the light. when your looking into spectrum, you want a specific nm of blue and red light that chlorophyll absorbs, theres many grows with aquarium bulbs on here that go further into it and will likely link you to some good vendors, it also seems LED is becoming more affordable and economical, might also be something to look into.

 

[hogbud]

For T5 HO bulbs look for/at GE 54 watt 4100K they kick ass !!!

 

[ayr0n]

So my situation just completely flipped. IDK what to do with this tent but it's not going to help me much. Somehow this turned from me doing a small grow in my basement to buying the acre lot behind my house n getting a mini greenhouse. The payments on the lot are like $50 / mo so it was def worth it, and no one can move in behind me now. Probably just pay off a years worth of payments at the beginning of each year for convenience.

Planning to fence the greenhouse to try to deter local shit heads, and lock the area up as best I can to keep it legal. Anyone have experience growing in a greenhouse during winter lol? Hoping it's not too much difficulty to keep the temps up in there when the snow starts dropping =\ Got plenty of time to make shit happen before that though n to plan for the winter...

 

[crazyhazey]

well its good grow space wont be a problem, as for keeping it hot in the greenhouse during the winter, getting a heater would probably be your best option.