Feed Me!!

Hey all! Finally registered after reading a metric ass ton of material over the last few days. Great site....great forums....great people.

I'm a 100% n00b when it comes to growing, and haven't started yet. I just needed to find a place where I can ask a question and have it answered. I'll give you a sit-rep, and then let you fire back.

What I had in mind for my room is the empty space below the steps that lead in to my basement. There is a ton of usable space under there, but if I square it off, I'd end up with a space 5 ' h, 3.5 ' w, and 4.5 ' d. The location is the only thing that I'm 100% sure on.

As far as seeds, my friends and family said I could have all the seeds they have from whatever they buy. My question is, should I use them or would I be better off buying feminized seeds online? If so, is there a reliable place I can buy from as far as quality and security?

Other than that, I need you guys to hold my hand in regards to what lights to buy....what kind of soil to use.....what brand of nutrients or what not. I have about $1000 US to play with. I don't have a problem spending it all, but I DEF want to spend it wisely.

I'm putty in your hands!!!

~hammer

Rosenhammer said:

Hey all! Finally registered after reading a metric ass ton of material over the last few days. Great site....great forums....great people.

I'm a 100% n00b when it comes to growing, and haven't started yet. I just needed to find a place where I can ask a question and have it answered. I'll give you a sit-rep, and then let you fire back.

What I had in mind for my room is the empty space below the steps that lead in to my basement. There is a ton of usable space under there, but if I square it off, I'd end up with a space 5 ' h, 3.5 ' w, and 4.5 ' d. The location is the only thing that I'm 100% sure on.

As far as seeds, my friends and family said I could have all the seeds they have from whatever they buy. My question is, should I use them or would I be better off buying feminized seeds online? If so, is there a reliable place I can buy from as far as quality and security?

Other than that, I need you guys to hold my hand in regards to what lights to buy....what kind of soil to use.....what brand of nutrients or what not. I have about $1000 US to play with. I don't have a problem spending it all, but I DEF want to spend it wisely.

I'm putty in your hands!!!

~hammer

Click to expand...

Hey - welcome to RIU. Glad to see new growers every day.

(Can't imagine what it will be like when MJ is finally legalized. You'll have even more crap to read through...LOL.)

So yeah, about seeds, that's a tricky question. I like clones better, but that's just me. I think you really have to trust the source for your seeds - and since this is your first grow, it might be better to just buy seeds from a seller. At the same time, getting seeds for free might be a good thing too, just in case things go south.

I would encourage you to check out a few more sources of info before going on a spending spree.

"Marijuana Horticulture" is a book I used in the beginning and it's really a good starting point, IMHO. Lots of info, pictures, and instructions.

These sites are also good:

http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/mjgrow10a.htm

http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/mjgrow2.htm

Page Dr. Google too - type in any question and you're bound to find an answer. Don't limit yourself to the forums. Good for info, but also a place where people are trying to advance their own agendas - really. Lots of people who are just trying to push people in different nute directions. Hard to sometimes sort through the fact and the fiction.

In my opinion (and it's only that), I would use Advanced Nutrients. They haven't let me down - and they're a good starting point no matter what sort of setup you decide to run with. I like hydro, but it's tricky for some newbies, so if you don't have a lot of time, go to the soil method.

Good luck man!

first, you need to make sure your space is usable for growing. minimum requirements are sufficient power and a way to ventilate the area. ideal would be to also have access to water.

second, you need to decide how to maximize your space - in this case your space is adequate for a separate veg and flowering area, something you are definitely going to want. if you have two grow areas it lets you have more than one harvest every 4 months. say five square feet for veg and eleven square feet for flowering.

IF you have good ventilation, then a 600 watt hps is ideal for your flowering area. you can use cfl's for your vegging area.

add carbon filter, fans, ducting, nutes, meters, etc and you'll be close to your budget.

use your friend's bagseed for the first grow to iron out the wrinkles but after that it's best to go with the superior genetics of seedbanks. lots of safe online seed sellers.

Rosenhammer said:

Hey all! Finally registered after reading a metric ass ton of material over the last few days. Great site....great forums....great people.

I'm a 100% n00b when it comes to growing, and haven't started yet. I just needed to find a place where I can ask a question and have it answered. I'll give you a sit-rep, and then let you fire back.

What I had in mind for my room is the empty space below the steps that lead in to my basement. There is a ton of usable space under there, but if I square it off, I'd end up with a space 5 ' h, 3.5 ' w, and 4.5 ' d. The location is the only thing that I'm 100% sure on.

As far as seeds, my friends and family said I could have all the seeds they have from whatever they buy. My question is, should I use them or would I be better off buying feminized seeds online? If so, is there a reliable place I can buy from as far as quality and security?

Other than that, I need you guys to hold my hand in regards to what lights to buy....what kind of soil to use.....what brand of nutrients or what not. I have about $1000 US to play with. I don't have a problem spending it all, but I DEF want to spend it wisely.

I'm putty in your hands!!!

~hammer

Click to expand...

Right on man. Welcome to RIU!

Well in reference to the seeds I always tell first time growers to start with bag seed. I really only say this because on your first grow no matter have much you really read on the internet there is no substitute for hands on experiance. Also if you spend money on seeds thats less money for your grow room. But seeing as you have a good amount of money to start with and are willing to spend it you can make a pretty nice grow room. Its really up to you with the seeds man. If you want some dank ass weed and don't mind spending the money or maybe killing a few of your plants (which in turn waste your money) then go ahead and order some dank seeds. Attitude seed bank is very good. I've ordered from the multiple times.
But I would really tell you just to start out with some bag seeds IMO. Just make sure they are good seeds from some good mid or even some dank (if you can find one!). Feminized seeds are good, no doubt, but again cost money and what not. If you grow from bag seed just plant about 8-10 plants because really percentage wise your prob only going to end up with 2-4 fems. I also just take 30% of what I planted and plan on them to be females. Like my first grow I started with 8 and all said in done I ended up with 2 females. And that was from bag seed. But if you get fem seeds you can plant 4 or 6 plants whatever you can expect to have all females. Its up to you.

If your going to have one room for flowering and vegging I would recommend a lighting fixture that use both HPS and MH bulbs. Depending on how many plants you want to grow and the size of your grow space really determines how powerful of a light you want. Of course they come in 250 400 600 and 1000w. They go higher I think but those are generally the watts that you will see. With a space that small I would prob go with a 250 or 400. Now mind you I grow ghetto under T8 bulbs and CFLS so my advice on these high tech bulbs is prob not the most solid but I do know my stuff.

You want some good soil. Many have made the mistake of thinking just reg MG soil is good. Now don't get me wrong you can grow in any soil mostly, seeing as weed is a weed and very hearty, but soil is a key to growing good weed. I go with a 1/3 mix of perilite vermiculite and peat moss (you can find these all at home depot or lowes) almost like a pro mix formula but not quite. This works well for me seeing as I don't have a local hydro shop or anywhere that sells fox farm organic soil and I don't want to order offline and pay the shipping. But if you order offline fox farm soil is good, light warrior for seedlings and then upgrade to fox farm ocean when they get a little bigger. But really you can use a 1/2 mix of perilite and peat moss also. All are good choices along with other brand name organic soils.

Nutes are you own choice. Whether you want to go organic or not. And some people don't use nutes at all. Depending on what you want to use I'm sure everyone has their own two cents and input but I use foxfarm tiger bloon for flowering and fox farm big grow for vegging and works fine for me. I've also used MG nutes but never gone the organic route so I don't know much about those. I just know MG nutes are not really that good.

Well hope this helps, need anymore advice let me know, sub to my journal or just ask.

i would suggest growing in soil for a start, its a lot easier, more forgiving of mistakes and relatively cheap to start. ur choice of soils is up to you( i use miracle gro but i wouldnt advise it for a beginner becoz it has slow release nutes in it). im assuming your a yank and if so you should maybe look at the fox farm range of soils(im in britain and cant get it but i hear a lot of americans talkin about and it sounds decent stuff. next up is seeds, in ur situation as a noobie i'd advise buying fem'd seeds( nirvana, barneys farm, speedyseedz, theres loads to choose from, its up to you). the reason im saying femd seeds is that it cuts down on possibilities of useless male plants (there no good to you at this point, in time you may want to try to breed with pollen but learn to walk before running). stick to four plants, its a manageable number and either a 400hps or 600 hps will do the job nicely. uv only got 5' height so remember when u turn ur plants to flower that they can double or even treble in height. the stronger the bulb the higher the heat so ur gonna have to think of removing that heat(and also smell!) so consider a decent extractor fan with a carbon filter. buy mylar for ur walls or paint them flat white, get lots of litlle odds and ends like pest strips, neem oil, watering cans etc. make sure u sit down and imagine your set up , try to think of all your gonna need , coz when u start u dont wanna be running out the house every day to buy stuff or even worse waitin on a delivery from an internet supplier. to start your seed get alittle cheap propogator and if u can afford it a little light to go with it, even make one up yourself from hardware store fittings on a peice of wood and put cfls in it, its hand y to have ur next grow ready to go as soon as you harvest the present one. and buy a good book(s) to read on the subject, theres loadss out there so look around the net maybe jorge cervantes book. be prepared is the best advice. if u need anything specific answered just post in here or even message me , im usually floating around in here( aint gotta life, i just grow and web surf)

I was just going to throw in that same comment dura72.

Always go with soil for the first grow - so much easier to adjust. And plants, especially in the beginning, seem to respond better to soil grows. They have time to build up roots without being too sensitive to root burn or to nute burn.

You don't want to get your plants off to a bad start.

I think you have plenty of information here already - not much more to add....