General setup question

Hello!


This weekend I put together a 250w HPS setup for growing only 2 to 3 plants. I have been searching a lot about soil mixes during the last days in the forum, but i didn't find specific threads about soil preparation. Is there an specific thread or section I am missing out?


Here some pics of the little plants. They were not put to indoor light yet, but this week i should be able to put each plant into separate pots, and i was much willing to learn more about soil preparation, so i can buy aditives or anything else that may be needed.


If anyone can help, i sure thank you in advance!

I use Happy Frog potting soil. It's fine as-is, but I usually add a little perlite, maybe 10% or so, and it works well. I really like it as a beginner, because I know I don't have to worry about anything but to add water for the next month or so, or until I'm ready to transplant into bigger pots with FF Ocean Forest anyway.

If you're set on making your own soil mix, I'll see you over there because I'm looking into that also. I'm just using this bag stuff because it's easy and a sure bet for now. YEMD

ETA: Whatcha got growin' there?

Jerry68W said:

I use Happy Frog potting soil. It's fine as-is, but I usually add a little perlite, maybe 10% or so, and it works well. I really like it as a beginner, because I know I don't have to worry about anything but to add water for the next month or so, or until I'm ready to transplant into bigger pots with FF Ocean Forest anyway.

If you're set on making your own soil mix, I'll see you over there because I'm looking into that also. I'm just using this bag stuff because it's easy and a sure bet for now. YEMD

ETA: Whatcha got growin' there?

Click to expand...

thanks for the help mate! Im sure the products available over there the northern hemisphere are trademark products, right? I heard about b-52 and some other additives. Problem is, I am based in brazil and here these products are most likely controlled by the army and prohibited.

i was wondering what are these products and what's their main composition, so i can dig the garden shops for similar soils and products. Weed here in Brazil is very shitty taste but very potent. Back in the old days, there were a lot of guerrillas growing proper weed outdoors. Nowadays all these have been extinct due to federal police control on illegal crops, so 95% of weed dealt in brazil comes from Paraguay, the weed is very dark, pressed very hard, so they can smuggle more quantity in less space. With that said, everyone that wants to buy weed has to go to local favelas, and pay very much for the worst weed in the world. Besides that im sure this weed has lots of chemical products in order to keep bugs away.

I am happy i am doing something against the corruption and the Paraguayan weed that is filling my lungs with all this crap. I have no idea what breed those plants are. But i am planting from these lots of seeds that comes with this crap weed i get in the favelas. I had a wee bag of proper feminized seeds i got from a friend from Scotland, but i cant find those

You know, I saw the electric plugs in the photo after I posted and figured you were somewhere outside the US and couldn't get it where you're at. Well good on you for trying to avert the cartels and stay healthy in the process.

I found this, maybe it can get you started in the right direction anyway. And hey, you never know when a bag seed might turn out to be something special! Good luck!

4. FoxFarm Happy Frog Potting Soil


· Average Cost: $10-15 Per 2.0cu ft Bag of Soil


· Ingredients: Composted forest humus, sphagnum peat moss, perlite, earthworm castings, bat guano, humic acid (derived from Leonardite), oyster shell and dolomite lime (for pH adjustment).


Happy Frog Potting Soil is a great inexpensive alternative to the Ocean Forest Soil. If you are more of a practical gardener with a rather small budget, Happy Frog is a great potting soil choice. The people at FoxFarm Soil and Fertilizer Company have come up with a great simple blend of components, perfect for growing potted vegetables, herbs and flowers. Happy Frog comes loaded with beneficial soil microbes and fungi. These creatures will supply a continuous supply of nutrients as well as promote root growth. This simple potting soil will exceed expectations!

Source: http://jetta17.hubpages.com/hub/The-Best-Potting-Soils-Top-Five-Commercial-Soil-Mixes

Thank you Jerry, im sure that will help, tomorrow i will
see if i can buy something similar! Thanks for the heads up!

i really need to find those seeds, there were at least 30 feminized seeds, i believe amnesia haze, blue cheese and other kinky seeds among them, i hope my mum didnt chuck it out!

Any recommendation on my indoor setup? This is what i bought:
Timer: 12usd
Fuji 250w HPS bulb: 8usd
Philips SON-T 250w HPS bulb: 14usd
Light power supply for metal halide/ hps: 25usd
Light bulb reflector: 14usd
Cables, connectors and sleeving: 12usd
* prices are approximated

Nice, looks like you did pretty well on cost there so far. So you're going o run the two 250w bulbs together? What's your overall setup going to look like? I mean, are you doing one room, or two?

Not going to run both lamps at once, i bought the fuji bulb as most growers here were recommending, its cheaper and apparently the fuji has more blue than philips, i will try 2 weeks on each bulb to see if the will be any different but i doubt.

i dont have a dedicated room yet, my flat is tiny so its most likely these plants will share the kitchen space. I font want to grow more than three plants, maybe later on when i can afford a bigger flat

bought potting soil and some bigger vases today!

Ok, so start to finish in one spot, just changing the light timer ... Gotcha
What are you going to do for light isolation during flowering?

Jerry68W said:

Ok, so start to finish in one spot, just changing the light timer ... Gotcha
What are you going to do for light isolation during flowering?

Click to expand...

No idea what am i going to do. Whats the importance of light isolation during flowering? I thought people setup those light houses to avoid others from seeing the grow.

Well there's that, but you'll need to switch the lights from 18/6 (my preferred veg light cycle) to 12/12 to induce flowering.

Light leaking onto your plants while they are in their 12 hour night period will cause hermaphroditism and leave you with seeded bud.

For the grower on a budget who may not want to buy a prefab tent, an enclosure can be made any number of other ways. Use an old cabinet or toss your pans on the floor haha, OR you could make one yourself.
You just need some panda film ... http://www.amazon.com/Panda-Film-Black-White-Poly/dp/B004OGYA5C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1378143621&sr=8-4&keywords=Panda+film

Some duct tape, and it's pretty straight forward from there. Just make sure you can get air in and out, but not light. The panda film is also nice and reflective for the ladies.

Some updates photos

Does anyone knows what these dots on the leafs mean?

That is leaf damage from spider-mites. Use neem oil, or a similar product immediately! You need to get rid of the little bastards now or they will destroy your crop. You will need to treat them again in 2 weeks to kill off the eggs. After that, you should spray the undersides of the leaves with COLD water at least 3x per week right before the lights come on. Look up pest control/spider-mites here on the forum for a more detailed analysis. Quit going into the growroom immediately after coming in from outside and don't let your pets in there either. Since you are growing from seed, there is NO WAY that the bugs came from the mother plant; YOU introduced them and you have got to quit exposing your plants to them. ie if you raked leaves and then went into the growroom without showering and changing clothes first, you just brought hundreds of them with you, and all it takes is one.

Rusty Trikes said:

That is leaf damage from spider-mites. Use neem oil, or a similar product immediately! You need to get rid of the little bastards now or they will destroy your crop. You will need to treat them again in 2 weeks to kill off the eggs. After that, you should spray the undersides of the leaves with COLD water at least 3x per week right before the lights come on. Look up pest control/spider-mites here on the forum for a more detailed analysis. Quit going into the growroom immediately after coming in from outside and don't let your pets in there either. Since you are growing from seed, there is NO WAY that the bugs came from the mother plant; YOU introduced them and you have got to quit exposing your plants to them. ie if you raked leaves and then went into the growroom without showering and changing clothes first, you just brought hundreds of them with you, and all it takes is one.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Rusty! Jesss not kind to hear this is coming from spider-mites. Here where i live is quite common to see Brazilian Wondering Spiders, just hope i am not bringing eggs to my flat. This is the only plant I am growing, the other plants outside in the garare are Pink Lapachos, those continue outside growing, but the weed is indoors now in my flat.



I am trying to keep checking the leafs quite often and i see very tiny black dots and i am removing those with my finger, will desperately go buy something to get rid of the spider-mites. Hope those aren't brazilian wondering baby spiders or I am going to freak

EDIT: I use neem oil here to control ticks away from my dog! I have a huge gallon from its concentrate and dog shampoo at home! I heard its an oil from a plant coming from India. It's actually been very effective to control tick away from my dog! Didn't know they could be use to control other insects and stuff away too!

Where is the 'true node'? I think i missed the correct timing, thinking the first node was after the first complete leaf pops out
Any ideas if i can still cut this to grow at least 4 main colas? Too late? Should i FIM instead?

View attachment 2842441

I use Dyna-gro pure neem oil, but any neem oil extract will do. The cold-pressed extract is what you really want if you have the choice. Spray it on the undersides of the leaves. You can do this once every 2 weeks. I stop using the neem 5 weeks prior to harvest and give them a light misting every other morning. I really don't think spider-mites are related to Brazilian Wondering Spiders.

I do a 1:1:.5

Fox Farm Happy frog, Fox Farm Ocean Forest, Perlite.

You must add perlite because these soils will hold way to much water for our plants.

---I wouldn't put two plants in the same pot. Not sure if I saw that correctly.

----The first node is where branching begins.

As for the Spider Mites!!! I hate those bastards!!! <---- Azamax is Omnri Approved (Organic and safe to use on fruiting plants)

Neem and Azamax - to me are preventive measures. If they are already there you need to kill them and their eggs quickly. They reproduce by the thousands. Within in a week you will have a full blown infestation.

This is how bad they can be: http://bit.ly/16FaV9c

I always light off a Dr. Doom bomb before flowering begins and again at week two to ensure they do not come back.

yktind said:

I do a 1:1:.5

Fox Farm Happy frog, Fox Farm Ocean Forest, Perlite.

You must add perlite because these soils will hold way to much water for our plants.

---I wouldn't put two plants in the same pot. Not sure if I saw that correctly.

----The first node is where branching begins.

As for the Spider Mites!!! I hate those bastards!!! <---- Azamax is Omnri Approved (Organic and safe to use on fruiting plants)

Neem and Azamax - to me are preventive measures. If they are already there you need to kill them and their eggs quickly. They reproduce by the thousands. Within in a week you will have a full blown infestation.

This is how bad they can be: http://bit.ly/16FaV9c

I always light off a Dr. Doom bomb before flowering begins and again at week two to ensure they do not come back.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help! I will get perlite when possible. Plants are not in the same pot anymore. Using NEEM OIL here the mites are going.

Here some pic updates of the taller planted fimed at its 5th node and cleaned up

I'm not good at math or anything but that doesn't look like the fifth node. Where are the other 4 branches and shoots?