First timer, just a few newbie questions

as for tonic water i have never seen anything like that but i wouldnt reccomend it ..its not natural for plants, if u want more oxygen in your water by some hydrogen peroxide or a airpump.. and what type of HID light is it the construction sites use ? if its a vapor i wouldnt reccomend it , to much heat.u can use miracle grow soil but do not water to much as most noobs do u will kill your plant , and if your going to order seeds order it to another property and under someone elses name , unles your only growing like 1 plant in that case i wouldnt worry about it

i have had success using tonic water foliar feeding, sprayin the plant itself, i also like to use a mix of it with liquid light for foliar feeding. plants go crazy....

tonic water: the ph is too low and your roots don't need co2 they need o2 ,if you added nutes to it by the time you are done mixing the co2 would be gone anyway...so don't bother with it.
lighting: for 7-9 plants try to find a deal on a switchable 600w cool tube you'll thank me later. HID worklights will burn your plant and are no good there light out put is not right and they use a lot of power and make a lot of heat.
soils : i have done 2 soil grows and i'm in the middle of a hempy bucket grow.go with a hempy bucket get a 3 gallon plastic mop bucket and a bag of perlite from walmart.put a 7/16 hole or so about 2 inches from the bottom start your seeds in peet pucks and when there ready put them into your bucket you can water everyday or every other day after its rooted good you can water as much or little as you want its very hard to mess up.check out this link for more info but i use 100% perlite i get from walmart for $4 and it works great.http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=3010 if you need any thing else i'll check back here later to answer.

i think the amount of co2 in seltzer water is so low by the time you mix the ph up and foliar feed and spray your leaves you might as well just save your money and use your normal water. the ph of that stuff is 4 i would not put that on your plants its too acidic.you would be better off just pouring it into a bucket next to the plants to let the co2 just mix with the air in your room .but again its such a small amount i wouldn't waste the money.

i have germinated a lot of seeds the most successful way i've found is to put the seeds in a wet paper towel and put it into a ziplock bag ,fill the bag with air and seal it ,put on top of something warm and check them every day re-wet and blow into the bag as needed.i wait until i have about 1/2 inch root coming out of the seed .and when you plant it the seed part goes up(root down).put it about 1/2 inch under the soil and it will sprout in a day or 2.

If you do happen to use miracle grow or ANYTHING with time release fertilizers, mix the up with something else (perlite, or ANYTHING), so that you don't get too much fert. I thought my first grow would be good, as I'd researched tons, but the miracle grow completely DESTROYED my plant. It's still alive, but its so damaged I doubt it will yield much at all.

Be very very careful with the time released ferts.

thanks everyone for all the info! its been a huge help. im just waitin on tax return to get here so i can purchase my equipment but the lights i was referring to were the halogens. ive always heard miracle gro works wonders on everything BUT cannabis, but then again i just gotta work with what i got for the time bein. i def will though probably use perlite instead. but a couple more ?s since i happen to have them on the brain lol...

-is the perlite able to be decontaminated and re-used?

-as for feeding and watering, if im using multiple solutions like nutrients, hydrogen peroxide, and molasses, can they all be mixed into the same feeding as long as the ph is balanced? or do they all need to be done separately?

-is there any better way over another to feed as far as drench feeds vs foliar sprays? or maybe just drench to water and foliar feed the nutes, or vice versa?

-plant colors: what determines the light green vs dark green buds? is it the potency of the plant, the time that its harvested, or just characteristics of the strain? i like the light green myself, im all about the body upliftin buzz rather than the head high n couch potato feel, but it seems the body buzzes arent as intense or last as long (or maybe ive just always smoked schwag n never knew it LOL)

again, thanks for all your alls help, this is something ive been wantin to do for a very long time, just never had the resources or space to do it in.

Gann said:

If you do happen to use miracle grow or ANYTHING with time release fertilizers, mix the up with something else (perlite, or ANYTHING), so that you don't get too much fert. I thought my first grow would be good, as I'd researched tons, but the miracle grow completely DESTROYED my plant. It's still alive, but its so damaged I doubt it will yield much at all.

Be very very careful with the time released ferts.

Click to expand...

I dont think it was Miracle grow that destroyed your plant that would be you. Miracle grow did not water you didand probably too much. Have Fun

yep you can reuse the perlite its actually better the second time you use it.just wash it in a strainer and your ready to go again.
as for feeding and watering :you can mix them all just watch your ppm.and don't start using nutes for about 2-3 weeks in veg they just don't need and yet.
foliar feed:i use advanced nutrients vho i got a liter on ebay and it lasts for a really long time.i does work i could see a huge improvement in how bushy the plant got after i started using it.
leaves my leave are usually a lighter green its s the nutes and the strain.if i foliar feed with fish oil it makes the leaves dark green.thats why i say nutes affect it.

here are some pics of my room so you can see it works.i'm a huge hempy bucket fan after doing soil. this just so much better in every way.i love to grow and for a low budget you can't beat this .. i paid $2 for these buckets and a $4 bag of perlite was perfect to fill it.at walmart i got the $10 dome that came with 72 peat pucks. i will help in any way i can just ask and i'll answer

i only have a 400w mh on these but i wish i just got a 600w to start with i feel like a made a big mistake with my money thats why i said look for a 600w cool tube there lighter and easier to work with and they have the best power to lumen ratio and are close to the same price as a 400w set up.for cheap nutes look into general hydroponics they have good stuff cheaper then what i use (advanced nutrients)if your going to use miracle grow keep your ppm at about 200(above your waters ppm) and your ph at 5.8 for a hempy bucket...and give them nute free water every other feeding.

alright, ill definitely look into that. thanks again! also, ive read in a growers guide that u can supplement the plants with tanning bed lights, usually in two 30 minute sessions a day. ever know anybody to try that? if so i might go ahead and get a couple single t5 fixtures too

i've never tried that but i can see why it would be done its the uv rays from the tanning lights that might help resin production.

daaamn, very nice plants dude! thats exactly what i want my closet to look like LOL how many of those beauties u got growin? did u say u started w/bag seeds?

those are my big bud clones right now there in veg under a 400w mh agromax. i have 10 of them and 10 diesel flowering under a 1000w eye hortilux super hps (see pic)in a week or so i will take 10 clones(from the big bud) and as soon as the diesel is done i can bud them.

i hand water so with soil its a pain i have to get them right when they need water and if i give too much nutes its hard to fix but with the hempy bucket i can water every day or once a week,and if i see it has too much nutes i can just give them a gallon of plain water and its fixed.there really is a lot of benefits to doing them this way,the bottom 2 inches always has water to mimic ground water,its kind of in-between soil and hydro.

those buds are tits! lol so r u not a fan of the batwing type reflectors? and the holes u drill in the bucket, do/could u run an air pump to it to flush more oxygen through, or does perlite aerate enough on its own? n after u harvest, do or have u made hash oil/skuff w/ur small buds and bud leaves? ive read on multiple ways to do it n i intend to do it myself, just wonderin which way is the easiest. sorry for the 1000 questions by the way haha i just havent ever done any kind of botany or gardenin n i just wana make sure i kno everything i need to to make sure my 1st go round is successful. checked wally world by the way, thanks for that tip, found the peat pellets n perlite. now after cloning or germin the seeds in the pucks, do u take them out of the pucks or do u transfer them pellet and all? n how do u keep the bottom 2 inches of water from becoming stagnant?

i put the peat pucks right into the perlite..i've never had any problems with stagnant water its not really water in the bottom it's really wet perlite, and i water them every other day anyway.(but i've left them for a week before and they did great)..i've never made hash i smoke my small buds and resin covered leaves in my vaporizer..the only thing with the wing reflectors is you can't get them as close to the plants and for the price of the one your looking at you can get a much better light the 600w cool tube is the way you should go(maybe look for one that does both mh and hps and comes with both bulbs i bet you can get a good package deal you need a timer anyway and a lot of them on ebay come with free stuff like that) i still kick myself for getting a 400w(the first light i bought was a 400w mh open wing, its on a shelf in my basement because my plants stretched to much so i needed a cool-able one so i bought a 400w hood with the glass and wish i did more research because i could have a 600w cool tube right now for the same $ i spent)..i've never tried an air pump maybe post that question there is a lot of methods out there i would not be surprised if others do it..if you plan on keeping your plants 3ft or less you can do 2 gallon buckets i use 3 gallon and let my plants get 5 ft or so.

arite, well it all sounds simple enuff lol i guess we'll see. and final ?, i kno it varies a whole lot from strains n conditions, but 10 3ft plants, how much in just a ballpark rang would i yield?