Newbie help

[Christianyojanson]

Hello everyone I would like to start off by thanking anyone who takes the time to answer these questions it is greatly appreciated

I've recently been doing some light study on how to grow and have a good general idea of how the process will play out. Now all that is left for me to do is get all of my supplies

My setup is going to be 2 plants (blue dream strain) grown indoors in a small grow house. I have 4 25w CFL bulbs for light using a non fertilized soil as well as a 20-20-20 NPK fertilizer for seeding stage 30-10-10 fertilizer for vegetative stage and a 5-20-5 fertilizer for budding stage

The grow house has plenty of room for drainage as well as a carbon dioxide drip system

Lights are set on a timer and in a room of complete darkness when not lit as well as a small fan for air flow/ventilation

At this point if you have other useful/necessary supplies for an indoor grow that would be great

And last but not least the main part of growing that I haven't been able to figure out is how often to water/fertilize my plants throughout the stages of growth. I have never even tried growing a flower much less an entire plant so I'm worried mostly about flooding and or starving my plant any information will be greatly appreciated and I will continue to post questions as I move along in the growing process

 

[orbo]

Plants are really cool in that they will start to droop when they are in need of water. If you keep notes on the dates/times/ratios and overall appearance when you are feeding them you will start to see a pattern evolve. Eventually the pattern (as it relates to timing) will stabilize and become somewhat consistent. IOW, you will get to a point where you know they need watered every 3rd or 4th day. With your lighting you will probably need to water a little less frequently because the plants wont use as much water as they would with HID.

Here's what the droop looks like;


And here's one that's went a little too long and might not make it. (although it is possible that this one pulled through - not really sure)


So basically you'll be guessing when to water at first (error on the side of under watering) and then as the days and weeks go by the pattern will present itself (keep notes always) and you'll develop your routine.

 

[Christianyojanson]

Plants are really cool in that they will start to droop when they are in need of water. If you keep notes on the dates/times/ratios and overall appearance when you are feeding them you will start to see a pattern evolve. Eventually the pattern (as it relates to timing) will stabilize and become somewhat consistent. IOW, you will get to a point where you know they need watered every 3rd or 4th day. With your lighting you will probably need to water a little less frequently because the plants wont use as much water as they would with HID.

Here's what the droop looks like;
View attachment 3584097

And here's one that's went a little too long and might not make it. (although it is possible that this one pulled through - not really sure)
View attachment 3584098

So basically you'll be guessing when to water at first (error on the side of under watering) and then as the days and weeks go by the pattern will present itself (keep notes always) and you'll develop your routine.

Wow thank you so much for all of that. I will definitely keep an eye out for that!

 

[orbo]

I'm not sure I really answered your questions tho. I spoke to water frequency in general with the take away being there is really no set watering schedule for everyone. Lots of variables so the best thing you can do is keep notes and water when it starts to droop (fuck that finger in the soil shit) then metaphorically lather-rinse-repeat. You might want to try and catch the waterings a day before you know they are going to droop. That's where the notes come in handy.

As far as feeding, my only advice there is do not even consider feeding until the cotyledons fall off or shrivel and die, then you should be about ready to transplant at which point (depending on your soil) you might want to give it a tiny bit (1/8 recommended dosage) of nutes - see how she responds by watching and taking notes for a week or so - then lather-rinse-repeat.

One last piece of advice that doesn't get an awful lot of attention and that is your root zone. Mentally picture the entire area of your grow space from the floor to the tops of your pots. This is your root zone. Try to keep it warm. The canopy stays warm due to lights and sometimes growers forgot to be mindful of the root zone. When it gets too cold it starts causing lockout. Just my .07 cents worth. (.02 cents plus tax) Good luck!

 

[az2000]

And last but not least the main part of growing that I haven't been able to figure out is how often to water/fertilize my plants throughout the stages of growth.

I feed each watering. I haven't understood the rationale behind alternating, except that it's beneficial when feeding organic, living "teas" (sometimes called innoculants) which do better when kept separate from nutrients. Just feed weaker. (Instead of 1 tsp/gal every other watering, do 1/2 tsp/gal each watering). There may be a rationale for alternating. But, so far, it seems like the proverbial "six of one, half dozen...."

Realize that your 20-20-20 is stronger than the other products you intend to use. IMO, you could do better with those ratios you have for veg (3-1-1) and flower (1-4-1).

If I were you, I would use the 1-1-1 all the way through veg and flower. I'm doing that now, testing MiracleGro Tomato, just to see how simple, bargain fertilizer works.

- 3-1-1 is kind of high for N. That's a variable I don't think you need on your first grow. (I can't do N higher than 2-1-1.8 without getting N toxicity. But, others do 3-1-2 without a problem. I may be overfeeding, or the formulation of my nutrients might be different. That's a variable I wouldn't add to your first grow.
- 1-4-1 is very high P. I only go to 1-3-2 as a booster, just 1-2 times the last two weeks. I finish with my base nutrients (see signature) at 1-2-1.8. In mid-flower, i'm only 1-1.5-1.8.
- I think you could use more K in all stages. Closer to K=2.
​

If I were you, I would use the ratio 1-1-1 all the way through. That will eliminate variables. You'll have a baseline to judge how higher N, P and K work (whether "boosting" does anything, I don't think it does).

The way you're focusing on your NPK gives you an advantage over the typical, abstracted "lineups." You're already oriented toward focusing on the ratios you feed, not following a proprietary schedule.

You can mix those products to get different (better?) NPK ratios. This spreadsheet makes it easier to model how mixing works. It can also help you sanity-test the strength of new or mixed products. If you know something modeled in the spreadsheet works well, and it is 450ppm, you can target other products/mixes to that same strength. (It will measure lower when actually mixed. But, for comparison, it's handy to be sure what you are contemplating doing is within an appropriate calculated range.).

Which reminds me: Be sure to have a TDS/PPM pen. You can get an HM EZ-TDS or TDS3 on Amazon for $15-25 (US). This comes in handy to monitor your runoff and see if you're overfeeding before it turns into a serious problem like salt-buildup, nutrient lockout.

What do you intend to use for water? This seems to be a common pitfall for new growers. Often they use tap water when it's unsuitable for growing (too high ppm. Mine is 800ppm, mostly sodium). Or, they use distilled water, which lacks trace minerals. Then they add "calmag" to replace the minerals (but acidifies the mix, requiring more ph-up, adding even more salts that weren't needed. Although, in your case, with low-K, it could actually help. Ph-up is typically potassium.).

I mix reverse-osmosis filtered water (10 to 40ppm) with my tap to get 150ppm. I don't add "calmag" and don't ph my nutrients. You may not want to try ph-less on your first grow. But, you might give some thought to your tap water and use it to whatever extent you can (to avoid "calmag," which I believe complicates things. If you have minerals in your tap water, use them. If the concern is chlorine/chloramine, add a pinch of sugar to every gallon the night before. That will stimulate microbial activity and exhaust the minimal sanitizer which exists in tap water. A little sugar like that is also good to promote soil microbes.).