Lessons Learned From This 1st-Timers Failing Grow

Never posted in this subforum, so let's see how it goes. Not much response in the newbie section, which is understandable. 1) Listen to people when they tell you to learn on bag seeds. After dropping $100 or so with Nirvana, I tend to feel real dumb and pissed off when I kill some expensive seeds. You guys say this for a reason. I just learn the hard way. 2) Don't take off the wrapping on your germination plugs (can't remember the correct name, sorry) until you are ready to transplant. Or better yet, don't transplant at all. I kept wondering why they fell apart when I tried to put them in the 3 Gal. pots. Simple, yet I overlooked it. 3) Don't put your seedlings 2 freakin' inches from 23w lights. Tends to burn them. After I did that, they still have never fully recovered. Simple, yet easy to screw up. 4) Use quality soil. Of course I transplanted directly into Miracle Grow Organic Choice. They didn't care for it. 5) Watering, watering, watering. I over-watered predictably and the MG didn't help. I still have no clue about how much to use correctly (and maybe someone can help me here still - I didn't really understand the explanation in SMB's CFL book. Not his fault, probably mine.) 6) Perlite. I didn't use nearly enough in my mix and of course the bottom of my pots were like miniature lakes down there. 7) Roots are the key. Ive read it over and over and after seeing the root ball (or lack thereof) I understand why my plants haven't grown for crap in a month. I have NO roots at all. Looks like the only roots are from the initial germination plugs. Not sure what my goal here is; venting or maybe helping someone else see where I f*cked up. Probably just venting. So my plan is now to start over from scratch with some cheap bag seeds (whatever I can get cheapest from Nirvana or whoever.) I am going to get a pH meter, some light hoods, and try to germinate correctly. If you start off wrong, with no experience, the problems snowball from there. I don't have enough knowledge or experience to save them. I'm sure an experienced and seasoned grower could look at my plants and diagnose them and come up with a treatment plan in under 5 minutes. But that's not me, I don't know sh*t. I read several books, read these forums, ordered the Marijuana Bible, and so on. When it comes to putting the seeds in the soil, all that book stuff tends to be forgotten, or at least misunderstood. I guess finally, failure should be expected. Being a perfectionist, this doesn't sit well with me. If others want to join in and list their mistakes and lessons learned, this could be a very useful discussion. If not (after all, who the hell is this guy with 10 posts anyway?), that's cool too. At least I got it off my chest, right? Sorry for the long post, I tend to ramble. Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Hope everyone else's grow turns out better than my 1st attempt. Good luck to all.

Wow, what the hell is wrong with my formatting? I can't even read that. Well, I had it layed out better than that before it posted. Looks like crap. Sorry, TLDR.

I would suggest on your first grow to do an autoflower strain.

Germinate in paper towels. Do some searches.
Fox farm soil
2700 cfl bulbs on 24 hrs from seed to harvest (that's what I do). About 4 inches from plant.
Water about every 4 days until you get some runoff
Temp about 75


There really is not a "veg" stage with autos. Harvest is usually around 8-9 weeks from start to finish. You won't have to use nutes until about a month from seedling stage. I use nutes sparingly anyways.

This is a nutshell suggestion and will build your confidence. Then you can move on to bigger and better things.

Just my 2 cents.

Good luck.

-HLG

I think the Jiffy pots are ok to germinate in, I was just an idiot and cut them open 1st. For soil, I can't find FF anywhere near here. I ended up using a local product that seems pretty good. Has some dolomite lime mixed in and is the local organic choice. Maybe when I live elsewhere I can use FF. Shipping is eating me alive on supplies. 2700k the whole time? I was thinking I would order some 6500k and use them. Do autoflowers taste as good as the regular strains? I'm curious. Might be a very good suggestion. My main problem seems to be with over-watering and starting off poorly. Think I am going to go back to the drawing board and build a cheap box to maximize my lights. Think I'm wasting an awful lot of light leaving them open in a big room. Thank you for your reply. +rep.

Im in the middle of my first grow and my suggestion would be to have a properly prepared area for vegging and flowering, To some extent the more you are willing to spend the better your outcome.

As for the watering the rule i followed and what i read on here is wait till the top soil is dry then stick your finger about an inch into the soil and if its dry then water if not dont.

Also with germinating, Try using the paper towel method, get a plate, bowl, tissue paper and tweezers for handling the seed and sterelize everything first with boiling water. When you put the seed on the paper towel wrap it 3 times then cover with a bowl and keep in a dark warm place and be patient and after 2 days check it. 100% success rate so far for me.

no roots at all could be over watering, your plants want it dryer than most folks relize and over-watering is probably the #1 error growers make, ( yes i over-watered too!).
I water once every 3 days and it all depends on what size of plant and what stage they are in. I dont use those auto blooming things above poster mentioned and cannot then discuss that way at all. I grow in dirt with lots of perlite and natural nutes for the most part.

my veg closet, 4ftx4ft, is lined with panda plastic, ( black and white plastic) to reflect the light and protect the walls and floor of the building. I use all 5-6k temp lights in the 23-26 REAL watt range for vegging and use 2700k temp cfl bulbs for flowering. Vegging lights on timer for 18 hours but could be 24. The budding room is a 4x8 grow tent.

Grow tent for budding is on 12 hour timer with home made activated carbon filters, ( activated carbon and panty hose). I have an inline fan with carbon about 2 inches thick x 6in and other side of 6" flex tubing is another fan in window going outdoors while i have other side of window fan blowing into a flex-vent going to bottom of tent. Inside of tent i have a small powerful house fan paralle with ground with a flat paper plate holder with carbon in it and wraped ina pantyhose where the fan pulls air up thru carbon but has a couple inches space to allow a good air flow to circulate the cooler air inside of tent. ( i was having major ordor problems and they are completely gone now, so also with my heat problem as i was always struggling to keep tent under 85 f.

I used bag seed first and cut my teeth then got some medijuana seeds + 20 free ones. the free ones where trash and just held me back by taking so much room for stuff that is worse than my normal budd cuttings left overs. The 20 free seeds where unmarked and when i got ahold of company in Amsterdam they said they where just donated by growers and where all good plants so i trusted him.. Don't, if you dont know what they are, toss or give away, i wouldnt want someone else to waste a whole season on trash.. The medi seeds where awsome, best smoke i have ever smoked, i did buy some tomatoe cages as they are like spider plants with golfball size buds.

A friend had a couple seeds from bag he bought that where called Lemon Skunk gov 13... awsome big buds, 8-10 weeks budding time and so much more weight than the medi. Totally diff buzz too. Medi is a couch lock and the lemon skunk is a giggly head buzz even if i leave them matureing longer.. These two are all i need.. hope info helps :+)

Belesar said:

Im in the middle of my first grow and my suggestion would be to have a properly prepared area for vegging and flowering,

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I think you hit the nail on the head there. I wasn't prepared and ready when they sprouted. I vastly underestimated what I would need and when I would need it. Was trying to save cost by cutting where I could and it hasn't worked out so well. Looking into building a grow box or just ordering one at the moment. My thinking now is to finish a grow space and have everything I need ready, THEN germinate my last 2 nirvana seeds. I should have been clearer, I had 100% success germinating in the Jiffy Pots after letting them soak for 20-24 hours in some water. It was after the initial sprout that I began to screw it all up. Thanks for all the response so far. What are some mistakes you guys made on your first attempt?

tokingtiger said:

I use all 2700k temp cfl bulbs in the 23-26 REAL watt range for vegging and use 5-6k temp lights for flowering. Vegging lights on timer for 18 hours but could be 24. The budding room is a 4x8 grow tent.

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Is this backwards or have I been wrong the whole time? I thought you used 6500k or so for vegitative and 2700k for flowering. You are right, I do believe the "no roots" problem came from over-watering. I had maybe 10% perlite in there to start and that's being generous. Using 3 Gal. pots, the top part where I stuck my finger in would be pretty dry, but the bottom would still be soaking. Is that ok and normal, or is that a drainage issue? +rep given to all who have responded. Thanks guys.

yea, im high, sorry, 2700 for budding, friend came over and we burned one and i didnt re-read, ill try to change it up above too. TY

This is my box. It is not finished, but grows just fine for me. This was an old cabnet from my brothers Kitchen. I can grow 3 autos at a time in 3 gallon pots. That bud in there is leftover from one of the plants. It wasn't quite finished.

Lowes light fixture $10-15
y adapters 2-3 bucks
lights ???

You would not be able to tell the difference from an auto bud vs a reg bud. 3-4-5 good hits and I'm ripped. Smoke every day.

Of course it depends on the strain.

CFLs just work for me. Harvests are not as big with CFLs. My last harvest was 2.15 ozs dried from 3 plants. It's all personal bud for me.

Yep - 2700k the whole time 24/0. No timers to mess with. Some people use a mix of 6500k and 2700k.

IMO this is the easiest way to go. I haven't visited the dispensary in over a year.

Good luck to you.

-HLG

HighLowGrow said:

CFLs just work for me. Harvests are not as big with CFLs. My last harvest was 2.15 ozs dried from 3 plants. It's all personal bud for me.

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That's all I'm shooting for as well. Hell, in the CFL book he gets, what, almost half a pound from 3 plants? I'd like to produce just enough to last for 3 months at a time, along with some left over to experiment with making oil, hash, etc. I am going to design something like posted above as well. Slap a fixture into a cabinet, drill some holes, and get it ready. Just gotta learn to control the watering and feeding.

Learning2Hydro said:

That's all I'm shooting for as well. Hell, in the CFL book he gets, what, almost half a pound from 3 plants? I'd like to produce just enough to last for 3 months at a time, along with some left over to experiment with making oil, hash, etc. I am going to design something like posted above as well. Slap a fixture into a cabinet, drill some holes, and get it ready. Just gotta learn to control the watering and feeding.

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Watering is a lot easier than most people realize. You just got to remember it is better to underwater than over water. I always like the idea of waiting until you think they are ready to be watered and then wait one more day. Start out small, like a couple of tablespoons everyday/every other day for the first week or so. Then use a mug to water, then use a big bottle to water, etc. This helps you control how much you water because you are more concise of how much water you put in.
Same thing with nutes. Put off using nutes for at least the first couple of weeks. I think I started using them too early in my grow. Take however much nutes you think you need and use less than that. Start them on a really low dosage like (1/8 ) strength. If it works well try like (1/6) next time. Then try (1/4) next time. Eventually if you keep increasing you will nute burn. Then go one or two steps strength back down and use that.

Thanks for the response. I have gotten better at watering now. At this point, they are only being watered/fed once a week. They seem to be getting a bit drier each time, so it may get stepped up at some point soon.

Depending on the temperature and the size of your plant it may need watering more often than once a week. If you see your plants drooping and starting to turn yellow they probably need watering if you haven't done it in a while.. But do check the soil first. Also you should fertilize about every other week sometimes sooner or later depending on how your plant is doing. As long as you watch the leaves for a while you will see the difference between when they need to be watered or not. Any yellow leaves from under watering have been falling off about 5-10 days later but any of the ones that are just droopy or partially yellow usually recover.

whati learned is that you never ever want to check your plants every 15 minutes....... just let them do their thing..... just check on them once or twice a day max (for watering and all the shit but dont go do some stuff to try to speed up the growth.... learned the hard way too