Welcome to my article on the basics of growing weed!

I have been growing for 15 years off and on. Some of my techniques may be out dated so if some of you grow nerds see something wrong with my techniques please send me a pm and we can fix it. I would like to make sure we get the best knowledge to the people. Im sure I left a few things out but...

I cant go into every detail but these are the basics...

Seeds

If you want some killer pot you have to start out with killer seeds. You will want to do a little research before you pick out the strain you are going to grow. Some strains like outdoors and lots of light and some like indoors under lower light conditions. I like indoors because you can control the plants environment. Plus you don't have to worry about pest and critters eating your plants. Well not totally but your chances are better than the open outdoors.

The seed is where it all begins. You cant just take any old pot seed and expect it to grow bad ass weed. Its all in the genetics. To grow bad ass weed you have to have bad ass seeds.

I hear these are some good places to buy seeds...
http://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/1288-marijuana-seeds.html

Germinating

I use a couple paper towels and a glass. Some people use a plate but I don't. Basically I get my paper towels moist with tap water and throw all my seeds in the towel and wrap them up and place them in the glass in a dark space. You want the towels good and moist but not too wet cause I have rotted seeds from over watering my glass. As long as there is less than a 1/2 ounce of water in the bottom of the glass then you should be ok. Some people freeze their seeds over night before they germinate but I also don't practice this and have very good results doing it my way. Usually after 3 days my seeds crack and are beginning to show a root. Once the majority of the seeds have roots then you are done with this step. Time to find something to grow them in.

Here is how I do it step by step. I used a blue shop towel just to show how I use the towel. I would normally use a regular white paper towel.






3 days later...

Grow mediums

Probably the most common hydroponics medium is rock wool. It works well. It is like fiber glass but its rock instead. It holds water and air very well. There are many different mediums you can use but to start out a new plant I use 1 inch rock wool cubes. The main thing you need to think about is what kind of system you are going to use and go from there. Rock wool holds lots of water and doesn't need watering as often as say volcanic rocks.

Some people swear by soil and soil less mediums. If you decide to go this route make sure you get some quality soil. I have been using miracle grow potting soil with pretty good results. EDIT: Now that I got a soil ph meter I am seeing that my miricle grow soil was a bad idea. I got some scotts soil and its ph is closer to nutral. Just make sure it drains water well. you can add sand or perlite to make the soil more drain-able and airated. Once you get past the cups you will want to transplant into bigger pots. A good rule of thumb is for every foot of growth you will want 1 gallon of pot space.

I still start out with the rock wool and transplant to dirt later on. But if you cant get rock wool then soil will be fine to start in too. Just make sure you allow your medium to dry out before waterings. You want the roots to stretch and search for that water. The heart of the plant is its root system so roots are what I work on first. You can purchase a moisture meter from walmart for under $10. It really helps.

Water can be a medium also. I really like airoponics. That is my favorite system. It always has the perfect o2/ h2o ratio. So its never starved or flooded. It always grows.

Here is a pic of some 1" rock wool cubes



Potting soil works good too!


Pic of airoponics system. Sorry I dont have any better pics.


Airoponics work real good.

Planting the seed

Once you figured out what medium you are going to use make sure your medium is moist before you start. Rock wool needs to be soaked 24 hours in 5.5 ph water before you start because the glue in the rock wool has a high alkaline level. Dirt is usually pretty neutral so just water will work for now. I will get into ph later. Like I said I use rock wool cubes but for dirt I would use a small clear plastic cup(16 oz) to start my plants. I like to see my roots grow at this stage but people will say dont use clear pots. All you have to do is place the sprouted seed in the medium about a half inch deep. Cover the seed gently with dirt or if your using rock wool just kinda pinch the hole a little with your fingers. Shazzzam your on your way to growing some grade A kill. Before I go any farther we need to learn more about whats going on in our system.

I fill my cup with moist soil.


Then I poke about a half inch deep hole.


Place 1 seed in my hole.


Then I gently cover it up. Make sure you water it in.

Lights

I strongly suggest using a combination of cool white and warm white florescent bulbs for growing your newly hatched plants. Place the lights about an inch away from the lights. Its ok if the plant grows into and touches the light a little since florescents don't get very hot. You will be fine. Just try to keep an average of one inch away. In less than a week you should see the roots working their way to the bottom of the cup. After this stage you can upgrade pots. I would suggest a gallon pot for your next transplant. You can continue using the florescent bulbs but they really don't put off enough light for fast growth. CXompact florescent bulbs (cfl's) work good too. You will want a bunch of them .

I like to use mh (metal halide) lights for my vegetative cycle. They emit a lot of the blue spectrum which the plant likes for root, stem and leaf growth. Depending on the size of your garden will determine what wattage you should use. I do it big so I use 1000 watt bulbs. They come in 250, 400 and 600 watts and a few others. Your plant will love this light.

Hps (high pressure sodium) bulbs are like mh lights but they put out a lot of red light. The plant likes this light when flowering. It also is a little bit brighter than a mh light of the same wattage. A 1000 watt mh puts out around 80,000 lumens and the hps put out about 125,000 lumens. And yes brighter is better. These lights are not cheap and if you can only afford one then just get the hps light.

The mh and hps lights (High intensity discharge) put out lots of heat. You will need a good ventilation system or a good a/c to keep the room from getting too hot. Some light hoods have built in vents you can hook up an a/c duct to exhaust the heat. Another thing that should be addressed here is a light mover. I talked my friend into buying one for his crop and he yielded 3 times more than normal. We use the light tracks that go back and forth across the room but they also make sun circles that twist in a circle. Either way you will get the whole crop good light instead of just a few plants directly under the light with a stationary light.

For a stationary light you will want to keep it at least 14-24 inches away from the tops of your plants. With a track you can lower the lights to 12 inches or less. With the hood we use we can touch the tops of the plants with the light hood without burning the plant. These cool tube hoods are not cheap but they seem superior to everything else I have used. See pic. But a good rule of thumb is to place your hand under the light and if it burns your hand it will burn your plant.


Here are some florescent tubes.


A metal halide bulb.


A high pressure sodium bulb.


The light mover.


A cool pic.

Electricity

This is going to be your biggest expense after your light investment. It takes a lot of electricity to run a grow room. You have lights, vents, charcoal canisters, air conditioners and a few other things like pumps and fans. My bill has raised about $350-$500 with my system. Its fairly large so yours probably wont get this high. I have 3 1000 lights, a big 220 a/c and a few fans and canister.

Don't steal electricity. Whatever the bill is just pay it. If the elec. company reads their grid meter and things don't add up they will start investigating. That will probably get you busted. The power company can see what your meter is doing every day. They can see the power jump up at 8pm and drop back down at 8am every day. But don't worry because everything is pretty much automated. A real person doesn't get involved unless there is a problem. The cops can use this to bust you, but they wont check unless they have reason to believe you are doing something wrong. If thats the case you are already busted. They just use that to help get a warrant.

One major important thing is not to overload your circuits. 1000watt Hps and mh lights pull 9 amps. So if you are going to have a multi light system you may need to run some more cables to your breaker box. I always build a 220v power/timer box. I already know I will blow all the breakers in the room with ease. They sell these boxes for $200-300. I make mine for about $60-$80. I put about 8 110v plugs and around 4-6 220v plugs in it. I also use a 220v hot water heater timer. Works great up to 50 amps.


Here is a pic of the 220/110v timer box I make.


The ballast for my hps lights.

Fertilizers

I use a hydroponics solution even for my soil plants. Basically it has everything a plant needs to live in it since water alone doesn't have these. There are 14 nutrients that a plant needs to survive. But all we are going to talk about are the main nutrients. N-P-k. Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Ever wondered what those 3 numbers on the front of the bottle meant? Well there you go.

During our grow cycle the plant likes a fertilizer high in nitrogen. Something like 20-5-5. It uses the nitrogen for strong stem and leaf growth. After you change over to your flowering cycle you will want a fertilizer that is high in phosphorous and potassium. Something like 5-15-15 should work well.

I use a two part solution that I feed the plant all year round. I use enhancement solutions for root, grow or bloom for what ever cycle I am in. It is a bit more costly this way but I have had good results so I am staying with it. Its more for the semi-advanced grower since a little more thinking is involved.


Here are my grow nutrients.


And my budding nutrients. This shit gets expensive.

PPM

Parts per million is how we measure the amount of fertilizer (salts) thats in the water solution. You will need a ppm meter to read this. I have a $50 one and also a $300 one that reads ph and ec. Basically start out cheap and when a few crops start rolling in then buy the big baller stuff.
Unless you can afford it up front unlike most of us.

I try to keep my seedlings and clones at about 100-250 ppms. After about 10 days I bump up the ppm to around 500-600 ppm for the next 2-3 weeks. After about a month I raise it to 800-1000 ppm. When I start to bud I am at around 1000 and start taking it up slowly to no more than 1500 ppm. I don't suggest going past 1300 till you have a couple crops down.

If you over fertilize your leaves will start to burn. If you see this you will need to flush immediately. Just use pure water and basically drown the plant. Four times the amount of grow medium should be fine. One other thing. If I use tap water it usually has a ppm of 250 in my area. I pretty much add 250 to whatever I'm shooting for. So for a 1000 ppm my meter will read 1250. I will get into waters later.

After the hairs on my buds get 1/4 red I stop feeding the plant nutrients and just give them pure water. This will allow the plant to use up the nutrients it already has and makes the smoke taste a lot smoother with out all the chemical taste.

These are my ppm and ph meters.


Over fertilized.

Ph

Ok so we need to control our ph in our nutrient solution/ medium for healthy plant growth and good nutrient absorption. Weed likes a slightly acidic medium. For soil plants I keep my ph around 6.2-6.8. For hydroponics I keep a lower ph of 5.5- 6.5.

So how do I figure what my ph is? Its simple, buy a ph meter. Duh. Mine is a cheap digital meter that cost me $75. Mine is for water but they sell them for soil too. They can get expensive into the $300 range. If your tight on cash you can also buy ph drops. Its been a while but I think they are less than $10. So now you got your meter and need to change your ph. I go to the local hydroponic store and buy a bottle of ph up and ph down. Makes things real easy to adjust. You can also use baking soda to go up and vinegar to go down.

I stole this off my ph up bottle.