Newbie Advice!

Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Hey Guys,
I'm starting my first grow in a wooden wardrobe, it's 24" deep, 31" wide, and 76" tall. I plan on growing 2 C99 or Grapefruit in soil (advice on other less stinky, forgiving plants?) and I just purchased a Lighthouse Blackstar 100watt UFO LED 6 band light. I bought a 136.5CFM High static pressure fan, and I'm rigging up a DIY carbon filter made from honeywell pre-filters, duct caps, and aluminium screen.

There's no hydro shop nearby, so I need to get fertilizer at the local Home Hardware store, I've been advised to use something close to 20-20-20 for veg, but to use 1/4 of the directions on the box? (corrections please!) but I'm not sure what to use for flowering. I don't have a ton of money, so recommending Advanced Nutrients to me is kind of useless.... Something common enough to grab at a local store would be nice.

I can easily fit x2 5 gallon buckets in half of the wardrobe, I was thinking of making some sort of partition to lessen the amount of light loss by cutting the wardrobe in half, thoughts? What should I line the wardrobe with? Or should I paint the inside white?

I was considering doing a scrog grow as well, I read that c99 is a great plant for just such a thing. Is it advised for a first time grow? I really like the idea of having the canopy contained under a screen so more light can hit the leaves as I don't have the most powerful light in the world, although, correct me if I'm wrong it's somewhere on par with a 300-350watt HPS? I was thinking of putting one of those twisty looking fluorescent lights in underneath the canopy for some supplemental lighting...

Thanks in advance for helping a noob!
 
lakew00d

lakew00d

Well-Known Member
On fertilizer Id recommend something with Iron, calcium, magnesium...ect. for both veg and flower. Im sure the stuff you have for veg will work. but something with more N will be better.

IMO i wouldnt do a scrog grow, I think itll be best to start small, for your first, maybe some topping or FIMming. and some LST. but all up to you (:

Any HPS will be great for growing, even a 250 is good for 2 plants.

And CFLs "twisty fluorescent lights" lol. would be good for under the canopy for the denser buds.
6500k for veg. 2700k for flower.

:D

:peace:
 
Xcon

Xcon

Active Member
Beefbisquit said:
There's no hydro shop nearby, so I need to get fertilizer at the local Home Hardware store, I've been advised to use something close to 20-20-20 for veg, but to use 1/4 of the directions on the box? (corrections please!) but I'm not sure what to use for flowering. I don't have a ton of money, so recommending Advanced Nutrients to me is kind of useless.... Something common enough to grab at a local store would be nice.
Click to expand...
In my opinion, it would be better for a noob to use $15-$20 worth of organic additives to his soil than it would be to use some $5 all-purpose nutes, but if you must... use 1/4 strength and get a 40lb bag of powdered dolomite lime for $3.50 at home depot. Add lime at 1 cup per cubic ft of soil, this will buffer your soil against ph drops from nutes/calcium uptake.

Jack's Classic nutes are widely available, they make a flowering nutrient for $5

Beefbisquit said:
I can easily fit x2 5 gallon buckets in half of the wardrobe, I was thinking of making some sort of partition to lessen the amount of light loss by cutting the wardrobe in half, thoughts? What should I line the wardrobe with? Or should I paint the inside white?
Click to expand...
I'd paint it white and leave it open only because I place a higher priority on airflow than I do on ambient light. Especially if you have cfl side lighting, that makes up for any loss in ambient light and then some.
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Xcon said:
In my opinion, it would be better for a noob to use $15-$20 worth of organic additives to his soil than it would be to use some $5 all-purpose nutes, but if you must... use 1/4 strength and get a 40lb bag of powdered dolomite lime for $3.50 at home depot. Add lime at 1 cup per cubic ft of soil, this will buffer your soil against ph drops from nutes/calcium uptake.
Click to expand...
Ok, I could be down with organic buds, they're some of the best I've ever smoked! What should I get for nutes, and what type of mixtures should I use?
 
Xcon

Xcon

Active Member
Beefbisquit said:
Ok, I could be down with organic buds, they're some of the best I've ever smoked! What should I get for nutes, and what type of mixtures should I use?
Click to expand...
All measurements are for 1 cubic ft of soil, assuming your soil has perlite.
1 cup bonemeal
1 1/4 cups bloodmeal
1 cup lime

Mix this together with a small bag of worm castings and all you need to add is water from seed to smoke. If your plants show a P deficiency in flower, you can use a guano tea as a booster.
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
So, I just need to figure out how many cubic feet are in each 5 gallon bucket, mix the 3 ingredients according to your measurements and voila? (sounds almost too good to be true lol) How would I know if during the flowering stage I'm low on Potassium?

EDIT: What about soil composition? I've read 3 parts soil, 2 parts perlite, 1 part vermiculite - what would you advise?

Would using Dry Bar Cave Bat guano from this site work well as a P booster for flowering?

http://www.dirtworks.net/Bat-Guano-Organic-Fertilizer.html
 
Xcon

Xcon

Active Member
Beefbisquit said:
So, I just need to figure out how many cubic feet are in each 5 gallon bucket, mix the 3 ingredients according to your measurements and voila? (sounds almost too good to be true lol) How would I know if during the flowering stage I'm low on Potassium?

EDIT: What about soil composition? I've read 3 parts soil, 2 parts perlite, 1 part vermiculite - what would you advise?

Would using Dry Bar Cave Bat guano from this site work well as a P booster for flowering?

http://www.dirtworks.net/Bat-Guano-Organic-Fertilizer.html
Click to expand...
If you're working with 1.5 cubic ft bags, you multiply each measurement by 1.5.

I overstated the bloodmeal measurements. I used 3/4 cup per 1.5 cubic ft bag, and 1 1/2 cups bonemeal per 1.5 cubic ft bag. 1 1/2 cups lime per 1.5.... you get the idea.

I've never used vermiculite, but I did add perlite to my organic mix about 25%. The soil I used for my organic grow was 50% sphagnum moss, or Pro-mix, and 50% Miracle Grow Organic Choice garden soil. 10 gal = 1.5 cubic ft, I used a 10 gal storage tote to measure, and a 40 gal tote to mix.

That guano would be great for flowering.
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Ok, So I'll get x2 10 gallon buckets instead of 5 gallon buckets....

I'll get some standard top soil and add equal amounts of pro-mix, then mix it with 25% perlite? Then add 3/4 cup bloodmeal, 1 1/2 cups bonemeal, and 1 1/2 cups lime? Mix it ALL together, then just water them with regular water until flowering stage, when I can use the Guano tea?

This may be a silly question, but when you're watering the plants, do you water right at the base of the plant? Or should you pour some ON the plant? Same question but with regards to the Guano tea as well....
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Meth On Zombies

Meth On Zombies

Active Member
I'm not sure, but I'm gonna go with the base, since if you water the plant it can cause droplets on the leaves and they might cause burning since they'll probably magnify the light. But I'm not sure, this is just coming off of the stuff I've read.
 
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