First Time Grow Complications

Hey RIU,
I've just recently come into a 3 month(approximately) old short, bushy White Widow plant which I payed 120$ dollars for. I purchased this with the intent of growing and veging it in my closet, it's certainly big enough. My main concerns involve the stress the plant is receiving, how much and how frequent I should water her,and I'd also like to ask about nutrients and light cycles. I know I can't learn everything there is to know about growing from one forum post but I want to make growing a part of my life and I thought this would be the most flesh into action method of doing so.
The person I purchased the plant from bought 4 of them from a dispensary in California all of the same strain: White Widow. At the moment I have no idea what light cycle it is on, or how it was grown. I have no prior knowledge of the plant, so I want to make sure I'm not in the hole for buying this plant. At the moment I have the plant outside for 2 hours each day and in my room with the light on for approximately 8 hours, and then just natural night lighting for the remainder of the 24 hour day. I intend on lining my closet with that reflective plastic and using standard bulbs to produce the amount of light needed. Also, I have a few small oscillating fans that I will throw in there along with the closets natural air circulation. As this will take time I'm assuming, what is the best method of storing the plant?

I bought some Miracle Grow from Walmart that I plan on transplanting the plant into, it's just difficult to key in on the exact amount of water and nutrients the optimal soil plant would consume. As of the moment, Ph levels and the more scientific areas of growing I am ignoring this for this trial run. I want to grow, smoke, and make hash out of this 1 plant. I will diverge into the fine-tuning aspect of growing when I root some clones from this plant, but for now, It's just the 1. I will post pictures and keep this topic updated for as long as it lasts. Any feedback, advice, or comments would be greatly welcomed. I'd like to thank the community for any help you can give, happy smoking.

Ouch sorry about your loss.

don't use miracle grow,it doesn't flush out.you need to put that plant on an 18 on 6 off light schedule, don't use regular bulbs either,if you want to go cheap get the biggest twisty cfl bulbs rated at 5500k or higher you'll need quite a few. i use bc nutes. as for watering every 3 days is good you want the soil to dry a little between waterings. go to your local grow store for more help.this will get you started in veg. all i know is everyone grows differently and more than one way works.

Here is what I got from your post: you spent $120 on a plant, your giving it two hours of outside light a day, you plan on using "standard bulbs," your getting reflectic plastic (mylar?), your going to transplant it into MG soil and your looking to buy nutrients. Sorry, but your on your way to a dead plant if you continue on this path.


Indoors in a closet you'll need 400-600 watts to flower. Expect this to cost you around $200 to do it right. A 400W HPS would be perfect for a closet since it's heat is managable and it puts out three times the amount of lumens CFLs use. Never use regular bulbs. CFLs are okay, but you'll need a lot of them. I use a single 200W CFL bulb but i'd never try to flower with it. I use it for clones and seedlings only.


Fans are good at improving airflow, but don't point them directly at the plant. You just want a breeze.


SKip the mylar, unless you have expierence using this stuff correctly. Better to save your money and spray paint the walls a flat white. If your lighting is low, don't try to improve it with shiny reflective materials. Better to just buy another bulb and do it right. Plus white paint is a lot easier to clean and it last longer. And you don't have to worry about pests hiding in between the mylar and the wall and you don't have any hot spots to deal with.


For lighting, think about how the grower kept it when you bought it. Was it outside? Is so, keep it outside. If it was grown indoor then put it under 18/6.


You didn't say which type of MG soil, but hopefully you picked out the organic blend which is lower in nutrients. If so, buy some organic nutrients. There is no point is getting organic soil and putting in synthetic nutrients in it. If you got the regular MG soil with time released nutrients then don't feed them anything else until they used up those nutrients. good choices for starting out would be Alaska Fish Emulusions and Alaska MorBloom, both under $10 a bottle and will last multiple seasons. You can buy them both at Home Depot or Lowes and in most hydroponic shopes.


Most imporantly, buy lots of books and ignore the DVD grow videos you see on youtube and else where.

I had a bunch of the same questions you do and am doing my first grow...here's a link to a great "how to" guide on RIU

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/937-how-grow-marijuana.html

It is broken up into categories so you can read ahead to the areas you need info (it starts at the beginning of the process though). As for lights, sounds like you'll need to use CFLs for a closet grow as they don't put off the heat that the other lights do (and they don't raise your electricity bill significantly either). You'll need a lot of CFLs though. For Vegging use 5000-6500k range CFLs (18 hours on 6 hours off) and for flower use 2700-3000k CFLs (12 hours on 12 hours off). k stands for Kelvin and has to do with the spectrum range of the light being emitted.

As for soil & nutes, you're going to get a lot of different advice as well. You've got diehard Miracle Grow haters and then there are those that have been successful w/it. Other options for high quality soil are Fox Farms Ocean Forest and Happy Frog. These are organic and high nutrient soils but you will need to add nutes as well. From what I've read, most people water 2x a week and add Nutes 1x a week (into the water). You follow the instructions on the nutes but only use 1/4 the amount in the instructions. That link above will give good info on this as well. A popular nutes brand again is Fox Farms...they have nutes for veg and nutes for flowering.

One other issue is odor. I don't know if you have a concern a/b this being stealthy, but if you do, then when your girl starts flowering...it will smell A LOT. There are DIY carbon filters and store bought ones, but if you don't have an enclosed space for those filters to actually "filter" all the air before being expelled, the best stuff for you might be this stuff called ONA gel. I've not used it, but for a few plants, I hear it works.

Most important thing is getting her on a light schedule w/the correct types of lights and making sure she's watered/fed. Good luck!

Okay, first off thanks for all the replies. Sorry my first post was awkwardly written, I was a little spaced when I wrote it. Here's the pictures I promised.

Oh well its already in flower and clearly grown hydroponically. I'm betting it was indoors too and lighting was at 12/12. Have you already put it into miracle grow or is it still in the hydrocorn media?

wow yeah that is not what you described at all.you got buds. that plant was grown indoors.you could turn it back to veg but it'll be ugly for awhile.

i would clone a few lower buds..finish the top...looks very close to dune

Sir, that is an indoor, hydroponicially grown plant that is already well into flower. How exactly are you watering it? You could reveg, but it's not worth the time in most cases from what I've read. Just get it on 12/12 and call it good with that plant. Lights, ventilation, nutes, grow area, and grow method must all be decided and ready before you even consider bringing a plant you spent $120 dollars on into the picture. Check out the newb forum, the basics are there and you'll be able to get them figured out faster than waiting for people to post that which has already been posted and stickied.