First grow experiences

Hello everyone. I thought it would be a good idea to collect people's experiences on their first grow. Just add anything that you feel would be relevant to a new grower that is reading on the forum. Include things about any problems you have had or anything to watch out for.

Be sure to add tips that you would give a new grower that you have learned since your first grow.

Also, I would like to know people's yields on their first grow as well . Just so that new growers will have some basis for comparison.

I will start. I currently have 9 black widows in flowering (plus 3 freebie females) under a 1000w. Everything is going pretty well so far.

Although I am not qualified to give advice yet, I would recommend keeping things as simple as you can for your first grow. Make sure that you don't overwater and that you don't overfertilize.

So far the biggest problem that I have run into is not being prepared for growing. When I started from seed, I had a poorly designed system that had almost killed the plants by the time that I transplanted them to a larger pot. Make sure that you have everything prepared before you start growing because it is hard to adjust things when you are already in the middle of a grow. If you can, try to find a system that you have seen work online and duplicate that one.

Looking forward to hearing others experiences

Well I think growing is more than just planting a seed, proper temperature etc... The first time grower needs to be mentally prepared too.

Example, my first tries at growing my expectations were set too high. Don't know why but I expected my seedling to grow an inch every day and if didn't I did dumb things like water and add more nutes. Basically I picked at the thing until it died. When I changed my expectations and learned to let the plant do what is natural I finally got a proper grow and harvested.

* Being patience & reading info everywhere you can find it (RIU, YouTube etc...)

* A good rule of thumb I read somewhere, "Less is more", especially when it comes to nutes.

* Don't make growing any harder than it needs to be.

* First grow should be looked at as an experiment, and each grow afterwards you change something in your process to improve until you get the exact results you are looking for.

Cheers
- SB -

Lol my first grow i used a bagseed i got outta some bad weed then i dug up some dirt from my backyard and put it in a party cup and put it in my closet with a flurosent tube light my friend found in somones garbage it after like 2 days i got sick of my closet glowing so took the light out and put the plant in my window for like 2 or 3 weeks watering it with tap watter every other day then when it got to tall i moved it into my backyard then went on vacation and it died beacuse it didnt rain so do everything oppisite of me and ull be ok

get a min. 3 gal plant contianer with tray for under it to collect run off good potting mix with nutes already in it.and a good light like a 400 watt which you will be able to grow many under the light at one time to minamize cost water when soil is dry 3-4 inches down then water with rain water if can you can add super thrive in at first to help roots grow like crazy maintan 75 degrees temp, good ventalation, air blowing on plants for strong stems and help with insect control not to humid it will cause problems.,and you can get good yeld depending on how long you veg. veg at about 2 to 3 foot got about 2.5 dry oz if i had more light getting lower branches would be great harvest but only saved buds from half way to top of plant do to the buds not ready and didnot want to wait by only take half an then wait longer for rest to mature so maybe grow smaller plants or have another light for lower branches .dont over water or fertilizer good light and air = good harvest.

dont go cheap on soil, if that is the grow medium you choose for your fist grow, make sure its with in the right PH (between 6 and 7)
and make sure there is sumthing in it to make it light and airy and so it drain well, weed like air to its root net, stuff like Perlite, coco and lega nuts works well

choose containers so they match your plant size and do a few repots along the way, choose a big enough container as your final pot based on your veg time and do the final repot before you begin to flower, and make sure the pot`s have nice drain holes in em, reason for making a few repots is mostly to build up a nice root net in the middle of the final pot and as its more easy to control watering (easy to over water a small seedling in a big pot)

genetic, is the key to good smoke and a nice yield, buy good seeds or clones

light, weed need strong light +3K foot candles and preferable +5K doing flowering so forget about a single CFL if you want to grow seriously, IMO you need either a HID or a LED fixture, a nice 400W or 600W MH/HPS would be a good start

air and Co2, plants need both to grow, so good air circulation is a must, also to prevent mold/mildew and to keep temperatures under control

odor, need to take this serious, even one plant can make a hole apartment stink, so a active carbon filter is a must IMO, the money is well spend

water, tap or RO, needs to be room tempered and if the Tap hold chlorine you need to let it sit out for a day to make it evaporate (check your water plants home page for info) and in most cases need to be PH`d (6,5 in soil and 5,8 in coco/hydro) unless your in a organic super soil mix full of micro life witch will correct and steady the PH of the water if its off a bit (get a PH test kit/pen and some PH down/up)

use a basic nutrients line, its easy to add stuff, but get the basic in order before you ruin your self on bud boosters, do some research here, its not only NPK weed need, its also micro and trace elements, like Calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, zink, copper, Bor aso.

look in to cheap stuff like Epsom Salt and black strap molasses, both do "miracles" for small money

Ooh yea, allmost forgot

fist haverst

two plants, Violator Kush, in not to good soil to start out with, got it corrected and ended up in 7 gallon pots with 7-8 weeks of veg/from seed




ended up with about 5 Oz of dry top Buds and maybe 3Oz more of flimsy bottom Bud`s I made Oil of

T5HO tube´s for Veg and a 600W HPS for flowering + a 6 inch ventilation/filter and a fan, nuts and end soil was both Plagron organic products

Cool guys. I agree with everyone's advice so far.

@ slipon - That looks like a great first grow! With 8 weeks veg I am surprised that they were not larger though. What light did you have in there?

Anyways, looking forward to more first grow experiences!