Heres how I grew my first crop..start to finish feeding veg and bloom quickguide

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
I guess this kinda a quick guide for the newbies just starting. I am recommending a few products because they worked good for me. I am not affiliated with anyone and am just trying to help the new guys like I was helped. Paying it forward if you know what I meen. Anyway...this is short and covers a few of the important things one needs to know to have a successful first grow.

You need to know all your soils parameters before you plant in it. Make sure its good soil. Add some non hydrated dolomite lime 2 tablespoons per 5 gallon bucket of soil. This will go along way to buffer your soil and keep the ph where is should be. You still need to know the ph of your water. If you always water with water that is ph 8 then your soil ph will eventually be to high. Adjust your ph to 6.5 and always add the dolomite to your soil before planting. Use the pellitized epsoma dolomite or similer stuff. This way the ph will be correct and nute lockout will be much less likely. Soil PH needs to be between 5.9 and 6.5 with 6.2 being perfect.

If you plant in foxfarms ocean Forrest or roots organic you should not be feeding your plant till its been vegged for 2-3 weeks. Thats not 3 weeks from seedling.....thats 3 weeks after it is rooted and growing with roots all the way to the bottom of your pot. I would say after your plant is 6 inches....then start counting up to 2.5 - 3 weeks. When you start seeing the growth slow down and the leaves lightening up then feed with general hydroponics floranova grow formula. start with 200 ppm nutes. And this is important...if your tap water is 150 PPM to start with then you would add 200 PPM nutes to make a total of 350 - 400 PPM. Add your nutes first then check the PH of the water, If it needs adjusted to 6.5 then add your ph down or ph up. Chances are it will be close as tap water is usually 7 - 8 PH and floranova will lower it some. Also....let your water sit for 24 hours with an air stone running to burn off the chems in tap water. The chlorine will kill the microbes in the soil so 24 hours sitting will help. Also I heat mine to 73 degrees so as not to cause any shock...do you like cold water poured on your roots...er..down your back...neither does your plant. You want to love up your plants...spoil them with love and care and give her everything she desires and she will give back in big juicy buds...trust me on this. You really need to learn to know your plants. They tell me what they need.

After you get the first feeding done and your plants start vigorous growth then dont over nute them. Only feed every other watering and work your way up to 800 - 1000 PPM nutes. By this time they will be almost 2 feet. Time to flower. Start mixing the grow nutes with bloom nutes. Dont actually mix the nutes. First add one to your bucket then the other. Use equal parts grow and bloom for the first 2 weeks of flower then switch to only the floranova bloom formula. Now you should be feeding then 2 waters only then feeding once at 1100 - 1200 PPM floranova bloom ( depending on strain some are more Hungary ). At day 14 of flower I like to start with the Koolbloom flowering supplement. This will really ramp up the plants and get them ready to start really pushing out pistols and start budding heavy in the weeks to come. Now by this time I have also used black strap molasses when I water my plants. I usually use molasses once durring veg at 3 weeks and again in flower at 1 week. I use 1 teaspoon per gallon usually. Ok back to the Koolbloom. What you want to do is add the floranova bloom till you get up to 700 - 800 PPM then add Koolbloom till you get up to 1100 PPM in your bucket. Then ph it to 6.5 and water the plants. Do this once at day 14 then again at day 33 of flower. In between keep to your water water feed schedual. If you want to feed everytime then you could just always feed at like 400 PPM and just feed every watering. I like the feed water water method. If the leaf tips just barely turn brown this about the right amount of food. If you overfeed it will be obvious.

A few important things:

Dont overwater. Plants like their roots to completly dry out before watering again. Especially when they are growing their roots. If the soil is dry they will be growing roots to search for water. A big healthy rootball will meen a big healthy plant. The abundant leaves above ground are directly related to abundant roots under ground! So if you have lots of leaves going into flower you should be in good shape.

Did I mention dont overwater...cant be said enough..more plants are overwatered to death then every other reasons they died. Hope that sounded ok...my spelling sucks also so dont make fun. I hate typeing. Ok soooo...only water when the pots are really light and empty of water.

Add perlight to improve drainage and add oxygen to the soil. This is important especially for new growers till you learn to water. Always water the plants till 1 full cup comes out the bottom of the pot. If there is enough perlight in the soil then there will be no standing water in your pot. To much water = dead roots and anaerobic soil conditions leading to fungus and infections and generally poor plant health and root rot. My plants in flower right now in 5 gallon pots need water every other day. They drink about a gallon and a half every 2 days. Thats because I have grown a big healthy root ball and have perlight in the soil for good drainage.

Ok Im about done for today and will add to this again in the future.

Grasshopper
I am a organic grower now but I do think that this is pretty easy grow system and will teach a new grower whats up. Finish this first grow with this advice and then try other products. Go buy a book or read read read on rollitup.......Peace everyone :weed:

Good things that I use.
Hygrozyme
dolomite
floranova
koolbloom
superthrive
roots soil or fox farms soil
blackstrap molasses
Olivias cloneing solution
Clonex gel


 

<Grasshopper>

Active Member
I should mention that if you are feeding chem nutes you arent really concerned about the microbes in the soil. I am all organic in my current grow. First organic grow for me. Its deffinitly easy but I do think that new growers should start by useing chem nutes. Its easy and cheap and helps em learn about ph and ppms and how to add plant food in moderation. Then they can either join the hydroponic circus or become a dirt bagger like myself. Its personal preference I guess. I have smokes some amazing hydroponic and enjoyed awesome organic smoke.

GH
 

abudtokr

Active Member
Plants are made to grow in dirt!!

Nice thanks I will book mark this and read it again later very interesting stuff. Thanks
 
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