needing help on basics lol..

hey everyone,

just wondering if there is a thread or site with step-by-step instructions on doing a proper 1000w grow in soil?? I'm a little confused about super basic things like when to start adding nutrients, what kinds to get, when I should lower/raise my lights and increase the % on the ballast, ideal temps/humidity, etc.. ATM I got 30 seedlings in sunshine mix for 9 days under a 1000w dimmable digital ballast set at 50% and the mH light is 4' high/away from seedlings. I'm sure it's annoying to be constantly asked these questions but I can't find any stickied posts with details on this stuff wondering if anyone could answer those questions/ direct me to detailed posts? someone told me to look at grow journals but they don't really cover these basic questions in detail (or atleast the threads I looked over haven't).

please help! lol
thanks!

edit: forgot to mention I plan on adding another 1000w light once flower and determine how many are female, space is 8x8x8 I plan on shortening it to 5x5 while they're still small till they grow

yeah, growweedeasy.com
and when you're in the phase where "now it's time to be patient" come back here and read and read and read for your entertainment and curiosity and research.
I'm in the reading and reading and being patient stage myself

The site @borbor suggested,growweedeasy.com, is a good sight to gain basic info.
In my opinion you did that in the wrong order. You planted 30 seeds then tried to learn about them instead of learning about them then planting 30 seeds. Not trying to be mean, I'm just sayin.....

thanks and you're totally right. my circumstance caused this to happen, and jump right in with a busy schedule so I'm kinda screwed ATM lmao gonna just wing this thank you for the site.

ill help ya, let me grab a beer lol, ok.

you have good height on your light, bravo. when the seedlings are the size on top of the container that the container is on the bottom its usually a good time to transplant. don't go huge with the transplant container like from a solo cup to a 5 gallon. try to get a half gallon pot in-between. it'll help with the wet dry cycle cannabis likes. over watering is the biggest problem new growers report. pick the container up and get a good feeling what dry feels like.

if your in organic dirt like fox farm or happy frog you don't need to ad food for the first two weeks and then still, minor amounts for the first while. twoish weeks after bloom starts the plant is feeding really hard so thats where you want your feed levels high and then it tapers off in the last two weeks. that being said, the other biggest mistake is burning plants. FwwwFwwwF is a good feed to water schedule in dirt and you can knock out a water in heavy bloom. calmag is also an important additive. i do 100-150 ppm in the water all the time. an easy way to do it is a ml per litre if you don't want to check it all the time. you need calmag. i start adding it after two weeks.

i don't ph my water in soil. soil is very hard to change ph in. its made that way on purpose. just remember, the dirt has enough nutrient to get you through to the end naturally. so don't try and grow the plant with the nutrients, let the plant grow itself and just help it when it needs it. synthetic feed charts shouldn't be followed ppm wise because hydro and soil less like coco need more food and thats what the chart is for. with dirt and synthetics i use less than the max dose on synthetic bottles.

drainage is important, if your plant is 9 days old you should be watering her appropriately, a small amount, or you'll see slow growth and drooping leaves. also you want to empty your drainage some how or elevate you plants out of it on blocks or something so you plant doesn't absorb the run off again therefore raising the ppm in your soil and causing salt buildup and other bad things involving lock out of new nutrient and burning leaves. eventually when the plants taller you want some amount of run off, 10% or a little more is usually enough to wash salts out of the root zone so they don't accumulate.

a screen, net or some type of trellising is important because buds will get so big that they will break the skinny branches right off the plant eventually. some guys just stake the plants with bamboo rods at transplant and tie to that if the plants get top heavy.

one of the biggest things that effect your plants success is climate control. too hot and the plant stretches, too cold and it grows slowly. usually its the too hot so get an a/c unit. also humidity can be a bad thing, 30ishto 40ish is good for flower. you don't want to get powdery mildew or bud rot from high humidity. dehumidifiers work very well.

crank that light to 1000 or 100% and leave it where it is when they get to be around six inches tall. then just wait. it takes about ten days to sex the plants, sometimes more and sometimes less. you can return the females to begging mode from flowering mode if you want to grow them bigger and fill up your whole light footprint. just remember that the plant will "stretch" when you trigger flowering. probably 50% to 75% some taller and some less, it also has to do with how big they are when you trigger flower. young small plants stretch more than mature large ones. but plan for it, they will double in size in three weeks at the bloom switch at least usually.

other than that, be diligent in your cleanliness, read, spray neem on them once a week or too until you do get a bug and then don't freak out when you do get bugs. we all get them, just deal with them. look into bennificals for your soil web, read up on teas, don't be afraid of molasses, in small doses, and remember cal mag. other than that, have fun with it and try not to stress too much, they'll be fine. good luck.

the grow bible by robert bergman is pretty informative you can down load it off growweed easy.com . grow easy is really good to.nebala haze is great.

I put new seedlings into solo cups first thing. Wait until they have been in dirt a week before starting your nutes. At first, take nute package instructions and cut in half the first 2 weeks nuting. I also flower with a 1000W HPS bulb in a 8 x 8 x 8 room. Maximum number flowering at any one time (I got a perpetual grow bringing in 2 plants a week) is 12-13. With all those beans started at once you may want to do a sog grow. That means you have a lot of plants in small pots (1-1 1/2 gallons) that are kept uniformly short. If the plants start to look tall and scrawny you will want to top them early, like when they are 5-6 inches. That will encourage the plants to grow bushier instead of taller. I would set the ballast at 100% and leave it there.

Good luck, BigSteve.

thanks for the replies everyone! really helpful advise thanks again