For all new growers with questions... Tons of information and answers..

So what medium should I start with I am talking I have some seeds, and where do I put them, can I start in my permanent pot.

After i clone this last baby and put it in hydo the leaf turned brown...i grow full mama under only T8 light with some help for some CFLs...check it

JohnnyKnoxville said:

So what medium should I start with I am talking I have some seeds, and where do I put them, can I start in my permanent pot.

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well to answer your last question first, you cant start them in their permanent pot until you know if you are going to use soil or hydro...

and even then, it is more wise to start only the soil grow in the final pot.. hydro works better if you germinate and root the seed first, then transplant..

but either way you go, you can start the seed in any one of the following...

1) soil - you will have to transplant into a larger pot (if you dont start out in the final pot).. or if you are transfering to hydro you will have to wash out the roots.. thats another lesson for another day.. you'll want to plant the seed about 1/4 to 1/2 inch down... and water the soil.. so its well watered... and then keep the top moist until sprout.. misting with a spray bottle works best for this... you may choose to use thrive alive/super thrive when you water... this is fine..

2) rockwool, jiffy pucks, root riot cubes, ect... these are ideal since they can be put in either hydro or soil... the key to these is to keep them moist, but not wet... out of the three, rockwool seems to give people the most problems until they have used them a few times... you'll want to soak whichever of these you use for at least a half hour in ph'd water.. you may also choose to include thrive alive/super thrive in the soaking liquid.. that is fine..

3) you can germinate in between 2 wet paper towels placed in a zip lock bag (to retain moisture).. i dont personally like this method.. but there are tons of information on it floating all around if you want..

no matter which way you go i do recommend soaking the seeds in water for 12 to 24 hours.. this will help start the germination process by letting water wick in through the shell...

mikerollup said:

After i clone this last baby and put it in hydo the leaf turned brown...i grow full mama under only T8 light with some help for some CFLs...check it

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what was the ppm and ph of the hydro water??

its not uncommon to have transplant shock.. sometimes the leaves will suffer a little.. as long as the plant doesnt look like its dieing or the browning spreading, which it doesnt, its nothing to worry about..

the ppm not sure im using BC grow and mixed it perfectly the PH is 5.6. Does it matter that the Momma is old. like 4 months??
thanks./.

age of the mother shouldnt matter..

i really wouldnt stress out about it at all.. if it starts getting worse then its time to start diagnosis...

a big thing to remember is that no matter how good of a grower you are, in the end its plant.. just like everything in nature there will be imperfections.. leaves will yellow without cause.. die without cause... unless your plant has stopped growing or the problem is spreading throughout the plant, 90% of the time its not worth worrying about..

Well first off let me say this is a great post!
I have spent several days reading post here now making my first post to ask a few questions?
First I have not started yet, still in research mode, this post has been great info !!!

1) I found these CFL lighting systems and they seem (from what I have thus far learned) to be "some" of the best (as far as cfl's go)
http://www.stealthhydroponics.com/section.php?xSec=40
and I am curious as to what your thoughts or opinions may be. Seems they are only available from this company and thier website seems to say they have these systems specially made to thier specs (not that it matters)

2) would like to hear more about your ideas on soils and soil mixes, seems most ppl here are against miraclegro, what are your thoughts/experiance?

and my last question is about seedbanks, but perhaps should post it in that section. (which seems kinda sketchy?) but seems ya first gotta get the seeds before any of this starts

once again thanks for all the great info!

riddleme said:

Well first off let me say this is a great post!
I have spent several days reading post here now making my first post to ask a few questions?
First I have not started yet, still in research mode, this post has been great info !!!

1) I found these CFL lighting systems and they seem (from what I have thus far learned) to be "some" of the best (as far as cfl's go)
http://www.stealthhydroponics.com/section.php?xSec=40
and I am curious as to what your thoughts or opinions may be. Seems they are only available from this company and thier website seems to say they have these systems specially made to thier specs (not that it matters)

2) would like to hear more about your ideas on soils and soil mixes, seems most ppl here are against miraclegro, what are your thoughts/experiance?

and my last question is about seedbanks, but perhaps should post it in that section. (which seems kinda sketchy?) but seems ya first gotta get the seeds before any of this starts

once again thanks for all the great info!

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welcome to RIU... always glad to see a new growers on the site... thank you for the compliments on the thread.. and glad it has been helpful to you!!

1) as far as cfl lighting systems go those seem to be very proficient... worth the money they cost for sure... as with all potential cfl growers i will always recommend getting as many large ones as you can get... the multi-spectrum 315 and 420 would be the recommendations of them... but there are some other lights i would also recommend depending on your budget and grow area.. i would be more than happy to give you more details if you have a better idea of those things...

2) soil is one of those areas, if you go that route, i am a strong believer of not skimping on... good soil will make a huge difference over cheaper soils...

as a starting point ill begin with miracle grow... i am not a big fan of it.. mainly because they contain time released nutes.. these nutes are released everytime you water... regardless of what stage of growth or what your plants needs are.. and you are in no control how much is being released.. so it is easy to nute burn plants....

also since nutes are used at different rates there is a possibility of excess salt build up.. this build up with fluctuate the soils ph.. which can later cause additional nute lock out.. causing more salt build up.. which leads to more ph fluctuation.. ect ect.. this can be a mess...

if you really want to use miracle grow soil i personally would recommend mixing it 50/50 with plain nuteless potting soil...

i always suggest picking up the most expensive soil you can find... fox farms has a great line of soils.. when it comes to soil you get what you pay for... soils like fox farms typically will contain enough nutes to get through veg growth (4 weeks roughly) without the need of watering with nutes.. and the nutes in the soil are from the ingredients in the soil, and not added in in the form of chemical additives... these soils are also lighter which allows better root growth and more aeration in the soil...

lastly it is important to add perlite or some other soil additives to your soil.. most soils are to heavy alone, and even if they arent, can benefit from some extra aeration/drainage additives... perlite is the easiest and cheapest.. its the little white balls you see in most soil mixes... make 20 to 30 percent of the soil perlite to greatly increase both drainage and aeration... peat moss and vermiculite are also used for this purpose... all three choices will help drainage, help retain moisture, and help aeration...

seeds are another issue.. i highly suggest to new growers to try to use bag seed their first couple grows.. basically just the seeds you get out of the bags of weed you buy.. although the majority of the time the seeds, genetics, yield, and potency are somewhat inferior to seed bank seeds, it gives you a good idea of growing.. and breaks you in a little... also it frees up money to spend on other more important things such as lighting, air intake/exhaust, nutes, ect...

if you really want to purchase seeds, which is fine i recommend attitude http://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/feminized-seeds/cat_37.html

they carry many different breeders.. have the largest selection of seeds.. and have a ton of shipping options... i have received all my orders in a timely fashion.. and shipping is discreet...


i hope this gives you a couple answers more.. if you have any feel free to ask...

Thanks Simpson! Great post. I try to collect as much knowledge as I can from as many sourses as possible. Some stuff I already knew but much else was super helpful. Nothing like first hand experience from someone generous enough to share what they know. I especially like your mellowness. Very refreshing.

While I have your ear .... My PH is around 7.5 guess I should bring it down a point. Potash? Vitamin C? Sulpher?

Thanks Bro

Last question for you weed jedi, lol, do you know anything about the Aerograden? Would you recommend this for a first timer...I have read a little bit about it, but it seems a bit complicated. This seemed like a good idea for the size and convenience how everything is self contained. Just looking for your opinion.

bobbychuck67 said:

Thanks Simpson! Great post. I try to collect as much knowledge as I can from as many sourses as possible. Some stuff I already knew but much else was super helpful. Nothing like first hand experience from someone generous enough to share what they know. I especially like your mellowness. Very refreshing.

While I have your ear .... My PH is around 7.5 guess I should bring it down a point. Potash? Vitamin C? Sulpher?

Thanks Bro

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not a problem BC... very glad to share the knowledge i have...

i try to stay as mellow as possible.. it takes a lot to work me up.. whats a stoner if not mellow

so yes, 7.5 is bit high for soil.. i would personally use with sulphur, aluminum sulfate, or a soild acidifier like this http://www.planetnatural.com/site/chelated-iron.html

regardless of which you choose try to adjust your ph slowly... its better and easier to continue to lower than to over do it... if you can get it down to around 7.0 or a little less that will be plenty sufficient...

captain insaneo said:

Here is a dumb question, but how does one evolve past the stranger level on this forum.

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post count.. thats it.. just gotta keep posting..

JohnnyKnoxville said:

Last question for you weed jedi, lol, do you know anything about the Aerograden? Would you recommend this for a first timer...I have read a little bit about it, but it seems a bit complicated. This seemed like a good idea for the size and convenience how everything is self contained. Just looking for your opinion.

Click to expand...

aerogardens are nice... they offer very fast growth... great results... and are fairly simple to operate...

the down side is there are minor adjustments that need to be made.... parts of the "puzzle" that may fail... and takes a little more attention to get started.. but once you get it up and going its easy...

with it being hydro you have to watch ph and ppm much more closely... to much nutes will cause burning really quickly... the wrong ph and you'll suffer bad lock out...

you always have to adjust the feeding lengths.. which means watching your plants for signs of over and under watering...

in my experience i am happy i started with soil and to hydro.. soil is more forgiving in that the soil acts as a buffer zone.. so nute burn or deficiencies, over and under watering, things like that, take a little longer to affect the plant.. which means you have more time to figure and diagnos the problem before it really becomes a problem.. with hydro that reaction time is drastically reduced...

now im not in any way trying to shy you away from starting with aero... im just warning you that if you do start with hydro it will take a little more "fine tuning" than dirt will.. which could lead to frustrations.. i, of course, will be more than happy to offer any help i can either way...

I woke up and went to check on my girls and one of them looked like these pics i need to know if i can save her and how to save her im using soil and cfl's 20 30w 3000k bulbs and this is 28 days into flowering and the first problems i've had with my 5 girls. the wierd part is ive treated all the girls the same same light same nutes same soil and this one is looking bad, one of the others looks like its starting to do the same as the other plants

couple questions i need to know...

1) how often do you water them?? feed them nutes??
2) how well does the soil drain??
3) do you have anything in the soil like perlite to assist draining??
4) do you know the ph of the soil?
5) do you know the average ppm of the nute solution you water with??

simpsonsampson420 said:

couple questions i need to know...

1) how often do you water them?? feed them nutes??
2) how well does the soil drain??
3) do you have anything in the soil like perlite to assist draining??
4) do you know the ph of the soil?
5) do you know the average ppm of the nute solution you water with??

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i water every 3 days the soil does drain but not really fast just normal i guess, i use nute every 2nd or 3rd watering. i dont know the ph or ppm ive never checked it the whole grow so i thought the water i used was pretty well balanced. the water i use is from a well right next to a lake so theres no chlorine any thoughts if i can save her? i did flush her quite a bit a little while before posting here, cause the curled leaves seemed really dry but the soil was still a little damp

hsbalan said:

i water every 3 days the soil does drain but not really fast just normal i guess, i use nute every 2nd or 3rd watering. i dont know the ph or ppm ive never checked it the whole grow so i thought the water i used was pretty well balanced. the water i use is from a well right next to a lake so theres no chlorine any thoughts if i can save her? i did flush her quite a bit a little while before posting here, cause the curled leaves seemed really dry but the soil was still a little damp

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its hard to say for sure.. i have 2 different ideas tho...

1) you said the water comes from a well... which means it is full of dissolved minerals... which makes the ppm's of the water high to begin with.. you add nutes.. and all of a sudden you have a very strong solution... this causes a couple things to happen..

it starts by causing salt and other build up in the soil... the build up causes the ph of the soil to lower... even if the water itself is ph'd ok... the soil ph can vary quite a lot... as the soil becomes more and more acidic, the nutes get more and more locked out, which means more and more build up, ect ect... the flush probably helped a little since it does take a large amount of build up away.. but it basically starts all over... all that amounts to nute deficiencies within the plant.. and ph problems in the soil...

the second thought i have is root rot... the soil looks like there is not a lot of anything in it.. the roots need room and air to breath.. soil that has little amendments, such as perlite and peat moss, become heavy when watered, which causes slow root growth, cuts off air to the roots, and can eventually rot them out...

sometimes root rot can be over came.. but depending on how bad it is it could mean death...

the problem right now is, without knowing anything about your soils ph, the waters ph, and the strength of the water without nutes even added makes it hard to really figure out...


you can check the roots for root rot, but its somewhat risky in your plants condition... you would need to fill a bucket or something similar with water, remove the plant and root mass from the pot, soak the roots to remove the dirt to get a good look at the roots, and then replant it if the roots are ok.. the problem with this is the shock the plant would go through may make things worse than they are....

if you can get ahold of an enzyme product like cannazyme use it... the natural enzymes in it will eat away the dead roots and take care of the problem.. you can also use H202 (hydrogen peroxide).. just dont use h202 if you are using anything organic...

other than that without some basic idea of the ph's of the water or soil, or the ppm of the water, its hard saying how good the outcome looks...

if you can get some reverse osmosis water in gallon jugs i would suggest using that to water with.. there is nothing in the water.. it is pure.. so you will only be feeding it nutes... not a bunch of extra dissolved "stuff"... i would also flush it well with a gallon of 1/4 strength nute solution using the RO water.. this will help remove a lot of build up thats in the soil..... and flush the plant as well if there is build up in it... it wont do anything for the soils ph... so that may still need to be addressed.. but this will at least give you a course of action to start with... it may be to late to save her.. and with puzzle pieces missing, getting to the answer may take longer than she has... i will do everything i can to help tho...

OK. Thanks for the PH advise. Also, I've read that wrong PH can promote males. I would have thought that was genetically predetermined. Any information about that. Sorry if you already answered this. I haven't gotten through the whole thread yet.
-BC

marijuana seeds are either going to be male, female, or hermie...

if the seed has male genetics it will be male.. if its got female genetics it will be female.. all others fall into the hermie category.... this is all pre-determined at seed..

now... a lot of people will argue with this... and give reasons why.. but in my experience this is what i have found and stick by it..

i've germed many mixed seeds in many different environments, and i've always came up with the same ratio, about 75% female to 25% male...

now here is my logic behind my thinking.. and how i break things down..

males are males no matter what... there is not dancing around this.. a male will be a male no matter what environment you grow it in.. from seed to adult its a male...

females are females, in much the same way males are males... regardless of the environment a true female is grown in, it will remain a female... it wont hermie at all.. wont self pollinate in any way.. it will just produce flowers... now the better the environment, the better the flowering goes.. but you get the idea..

and then there is the hermie category.. now a hermie, by definition, has both male and female genetics, and can show either sex dominance.. this is where i believe environmental factors play into... here is why.. there are a TON of strains out there that have hermie tendencies.. some have a more dominant hermie trait than others.. some you wouldnt even know a hermies... now at seed, we try to be as gentle as we can and give the best start we can.. most of the time this leads to the female dominance in the hermie... those traits are brought out more.... so the plant grows with more female dominance.. leading to flowers (buds)... there is always a chance it could produce male flowers (pollen sacs) later on its own.. but the better we treat it, usually, the less likely it is to show them...

now if you take the same seed, and stress it out from birth and through its life, there is a good chance it could show male dominance... leading to more pollen sacs than female flowers... and if the male gene is triggered enough from stress, it could lead to what almost appears as an almost all male plant...

i want to clarify tho, that in order for the above to happen in either direction it would have to be a VERY unstable hermie and is a VERY extreme example to make a point... most strains that have hermie tendencies are more female dominant by nature.. it takes few males to pollinate a LOT of females.. so in nature that is typically what you get... a lot of females with a few males...

i want to state also that some of this is theory based on experience and knowledge... i am not a breeder and dont know much about actual genetic make up or how dominance or any of that works.. but i do know that sex is pre-determined.. although environmental
factors after birth can affect the way the sex is expressed, it is genetically determined before birth what the sex of the plant is...

If anything a bad ph environment would cause a female to go hermie. There are some nice threads on how to cause a plant to become a gender bender. Aka what not to do for the first time grower.

I use either pumice or some lava rock that I take a hammer to and mix that up with my soil when potting citrus, it helps the drainage a ton, again with citrus I also read about people mixing hydroton (HEC) or a product called growstones with their soil. Believe me citrus is a very angry plant if its roots are kept too wet. that might help on your next run.

i took your advise and washed the root system out the roots were not rotten they the soil seemed realy packed tight so i added some clean beach sand and some sure to grow polyester grow medium and soil addative. ikts like a filter material but made for soil or hydro, it seemed to make room for air and water for easier penitration to the roots. i also did the same for one of the other plants i have that looks like its starting to do the same. i hope this helps cause it looks like there all going to do the same. if it helps ill do the other 3 plants any other help would be great.

captain insaneo said:

If anything a bad ph environment would cause a female to go hermie. There are some nice threads on how to cause a plant to become a gender bender. Aka what not to do for the first time grower.

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ph problems will cause more than just hermie problems.. but it is a high stressor and can cause hermie tendencies to show..

captain insaneo said:

I use either pumice or some lava rock that I take a hammer to and mix that up with my soil when potting citrus, it helps the drainage a ton, again with citrus I also read about people mixing hydroton (HEC) or a product called growstones with their soil. Believe me citrus is a very angry plant if its roots are kept too wet. that might help on your next run.

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there are a TON of additives you can add to your soil.. these are also great suggestions.. the key is to keep your soil mix around a 70/30 blend of soil/additives..

hsbalan said:

i took your advise and washed the root system out the roots were not rotten they the soil seemed realy packed tight so i added some clean beach sand and some sure to grow polyester grow medium and soil addative. ikts like a filter material but made for soil or hydro, it seemed to make room for air and water for easier penitration to the roots. i also did the same for one of the other plants i have that looks like its starting to do the same. i hope this helps cause it looks like there all going to do the same. if it helps ill do the other 3 plants any other help would be great.

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so the roots were nice and white?? thats a good thing.. that means there is a better chance of survival... there may take a few days before you see improvement or change.. patience is going to be key.... and also the hardest part...

if the transplant doesnt help improve the health, then its is related to the water and build up... i do recommend using something besides well water tho... it will be much better for your plants.. ideally RO water... if thats not possible you may want to think about purchasing a water purification system, depending on how serious you are...