i want to start growing

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unoitmakesense

Well-Known Member
i want to start growing, not mass amounts just a plant or two, i dont have any instruments or anything im starting completely from scratch, the reason i only want to start growing small plants it because i want my first few grows for personals and then later when i become more experienced, grow more.

for now just small plants will do though

any suggestions?

(cheap suggetsions please)

thank u
 
kieahtoka

kieahtoka

Well-Known Member
The grocery store has been my best friend while growing. First. you'll need a lighting arrangement. If you wanna go cheap then some T5 Fluoro tubes will work fine. Get about 4 of these over your two plants. You could also go with CFLs which are a little bit more expensive. You need to look at lumen output and actual wattage. generally having 3000 lumens per square foot around your plants is a good idea.

The cheapest and easiest way of growing to date would be soil. buy a huge bag of soil and just plant your babies once you've germinated them. you'll need a PH testing kit to test your water before you feed them, and a moisture meter is very helpful in telling you WHEN it is time to water.

like userfriendly said though, the growfaq has a lot of info, pm me if you don't understand part of it.
 
babygro

babygro

Well-Known Member
kieahtoka said:
The cheapest and easiest way of growing to date would be soil. buy a huge bag of soil and just plant your babies once you've germinated them. you'll need a PH testing kit to test your water before you feed them, and a moisture meter is very helpful in telling you WHEN it is time to water.
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It's certainly true that soil is the probably the best starting point for most newbie growers, but the rest of your advice here is unnecessary.

Not all soil is the same - some is much better than others and particularly Miracle Gro, which any newbie growing Canna should avoid like the plague due to its nasty time release fertiliser capsules.

A ph meter? Are you kidding me? You're advising a newbie to get a ph meter which is more than likely going to swallow up most of his budget when he doesn't even need one?

I would have thought you would have learnt and understood this by now Kieahtoka, but it seems not. Soil/compost/dirt whatever you want to call it is self-ph-buffering. That means in real terms that soil/compost contains ingredients with ph buffering capabilities. That means its going to take an awful lot of either very acidic or very alkaline irragation water to start moving the composts own ph value.

So if soil has the capability to buffer irrigation water very effectively why do you need to concern yourself with ph meters and phing your water when you don't need to? Thousands of growers grow perfectly healthy plants in soil without ever phing their soil or their irrigation water - I'm one of them - I've never ph'd my water once.

Newbies have enough to think about (and learn) without concerning themselves with ph or ph meters and ironically - that's why soil is so well suited to beginner growers - precisely because they don't have to concern themselves with ph or ph meters, like you would need to if growing in hydro.
 
kieahtoka

kieahtoka

Well-Known Member
babygro said:
It's certainly true that soil is the probably the best starting point for most newbie growers, but the rest of your advice here is unnecessary.

Not all soil is the same - some is much better than others and particularly Miracle Gro, which any newbie growing Canna should avoid like the plague due to its nasty time release fertiliser capsules.

A ph meter? Are you kidding me? You're advising a newbie to get a ph meter which is more than likely going to swallow up most of his budget when he doesn't even need one?

I would have thought you would have learnt and understood this by now Kieahtoka, but it seems not. Soil/compost/dirt whatever you want to call it is self-ph-buffering. That means in real terms that soil/compost contains ingredients with ph buffering capabilities. That means its going to take an awful lot of either very acidic or very alkaline irragation water to start moving the composts own ph value.

So if soil has the capability to buffer irrigation water very effectively why do you need to concern yourself with ph meters and phing your water when you don't need to? Thousands of growers grow perfectly healthy plants in soil without ever phing their soil or their irrigation water - I'm one of them - I've never ph'd my water once.

Newbies have enough to think about (and learn) without concerning themselves with ph or ph meters and ironically - that's why soil is so well suited to beginner growers - precisely because they don't have to concern themselves with ph or ph meters, like you would need to if growing in hydro.
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I was going under the clause of "better safe than sorry" Not all soil is Ph buffering. I'm not talking general knowledge I'm talking from what I've dealt with in my plants. I've had to adjust my soil several times, while using miracle grow(evil shit). the Ph was in fact down at 5.8. I didn't say Ph meter either, I said a kit, meaning a 2$ one you can buy at any grocery store.
 
babygro

babygro

Well-Known Member
kieahtoka said:
Not all soil is Ph buffering.
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Yes it is, or at least most of it is. The only ones that aren't, are the ones you don't want to use.

kieahtoka said:
I'm not talking general knowledge I'm talking experience. I've had to adjust my soil several times, while using miracle grow.
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Serves you right for using crappy soil then. Miracle Gro is probably the worst choice for growing Canna. It's not very good soil and probably lacks the ingredients that provide the ph buffering. I don't recommend anyone use Miracle Gro for growing Canna in.

Unfortunately you're making the same mistake as many newbie growers make - you're trying to 'micro' manage your grow. ie fussing over it every 5 minutes instead of understanding the processes - doing them and letting the plant look after itself.

So many newbie growers kill their plants with 'kindness' instead of simply leaving them alone to get on with what they do - grow.

Did you ever wonder why all the plants in your garden don't suddenly keel over and die when the soil ph goes out of whack? Did you ever wonder why the ph of the soil in your garden never actually goes out of the acceptable range?

Ph buffering mate - does the same thing in the garden as it does in pots.

kieahtoka said:
I've had to adjust my soil several times, while using miracle grow. the Ph was in fact down at 5.8.
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5.8 is fine - it's still within the 'acceptable' range. It's not ideal, that's 6.4-6.8 but Canna will grow happily in soil with a ph of anything between 5 and 8. You're actually doing more damage to the soil micro-flora using the ph up and down acids, than you are in simply leaving the soil alone.

kieahtoka said:
I didn't say Ph meter either, I said a kit, meaning a 2$ one you can buy at any grocery store.
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Waste of time and money. They're just not accurate enough to tell anyone anything useful.
 
GraF

GraF

Well-Known Member
jesus christ-

the relationship you two have is what Im looking foward to in marriage
 
GraF

GraF

Well-Known Member
lol- and you just grabbed my old avatar!!!! congrats!! that might be worth money now..
 
K

krime13

Well-Known Member
all right, here are my 2 cents, the soil, get one of those pro soil cubes they sell at hardware store, think they come from canada, lots of perlite, the cube got some in it but not enough, cube $20 ,perlite $15, moisture meter $4, I personally would advise starting bout 6 plants to increase your odds, start in16 oz cups under fluoros or cfls if you already got em, if not ,I would advise spending a little more and getting 250 watt security hid light, shop around and see if you can get one to use with hps and mh , or maybe find some conversion bulbs, you looking at bout $250 but it will be worth it in a long run, also 6 5gallon pails, maylar and a fan (even if temps are good its good for the stems), when starting a grow my best advise is to be vigilant and save money whenever it is possible (keep yer eye out for downed street lights) and dont get zapped...The rest you can find at growfaq...Good luck!
 
GraF

GraF

Well-Known Member
LOL!! everytime I look at him for more than 5 sec. I just burst out laughing
 
U

unoitmakesense

Well-Known Member
krime13 said:
all right, here are my 2 cents, the soil, get one of those pro soil cubes they sell at hardware store, think they come from canada, lots of perlite, the cube got some in it but not enough, cube $20 ,perlite $15, moisture meter $4, I personally would advise starting bout 6 plants to increase your odds, start in16 oz cups under fluoros or cfls if you already got em, if not ,I would advise spending a little more and getting 250 watt security hid light, shop around and see if you can get one to use with hps and mh , or maybe find some conversion bulbs, you looking at bout $250 but it will be worth it in a long run, also 6 5gallon pails, maylar and a fan (even if temps are good its good for the stems), when starting a grow my best advise is to be vigilant and save money whenever it is possible (keep yer eye out for downed street lights) and dont get zapped...The rest you can find at growfaq...Good luck!
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thanks for the advice compadre
 
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