I'm new and looking for advise.

Hello. Hope you are all well.
I have 3 starts that I inherited from a friend. I am hoping to pick some brains and gain some knowledge.
Here's what I am working with at the moment:

Light: MH 250w
Plants: 3 (currently in veg. mode)
Medium: 80% MG and 20% soil from my garden
Room: 4x3x3
Air: Large fan and exhaust

I have been:
watering when soil is dry about 1.5-2" down, watering with about 10% runoff.
Pinching the stalks and leaves.

I have been looking for litmus paper to test ph but can not find locally yet.
I have not bought any nutes or food yet.
I started all of this about a week ago.

Based on the info given above and the picture below, what am i doing right or wrong.

Any feedback or suggestions would be great.

www.growingmarijauna.com

forget litmus, get a pen for 15$. don't stress on dirt, dirt buffers and will almost always be between 6.5 and 7.5. if the dirt ain't right, you won't be able to fix if after planting.

read and read, but don't over complicate things; consider this an experiment, and try to make it all the way. very very few people see professional results their first time.

focus on how to take, root, and care for cuttings; this will be future stock to continue your training.

pictures get more replies than words.

hope this helps! good luck!!

looks good but next time leave the outside dirt out. It'll bring in bugs. And like cat said read read read. Lots of luck

Dose look good man Id personally I'd use coco instead of dirt good luck.

Decide on salt ferts or organic and do your best to not intermingle.

Salts damage the micro life that assists the plant in taking up organic nutes.

It is a waste of time n money to counteract your own efforts.

Might be easier to start with bottled nutes just to get a few grows under your belt while you read up on organics.

Imo organic is very cheap n hassle free
but for some reason
it can be information overload and when you are starting out.

I also suggest not applying any advanced pruning methods.

Watch the plant grow n watch the cycle.

Next grow apply some of your newly aquired knowledge.

Grow the same strain repetedly so you can have a good baseline to judge your new techniques.

In short.
dont get no big ideas.

Try not to freak out n dump a bunch of different shit in the soil everytime a leaf looks funny.

Stay calm, read, pay attention to the effect your actions and dont hesitate to ask for help.
Prior to adding a bunch of shit and expecting someone to unravel the mystery.

Enjoy

Thank you all for the suggestions so far.

@charface: yeah i don't want to start dumping anything in until i read some more and test some levels.

@cat: which pen would you recommend?

@Weedman2007: coco?

Coco Coir is is a natural fiber extracted from the husk of coconut its great to medium to grow in. A couple of good products I have ran is General Hydroponics Coco Tek and B Cuzz Coco. The coco has nothing in it which makes it nice when adding your nutrients help fine tune everything.

I use mix of root and ff and have never had any big problems indoors.

Shoulda filled those pots to the top, more room for roots and better light access.

well based on the picture i would suggest getting some good soil like fox farms ocean forest and retransplant and bring the soil to the brim of your pots leave about 2 inches at the top. more room for root development. and put your exaust fan up high and connect the ducting pulling hot top air out[]» and pulling cool low air up. you will want a high pressure sodium bulb for flower. keep your metal hylide bulb in for the first 2 weekf of flower to ruduce stretching. then use yourHPS bulb to finish. stick with soil your first run and read bud then try coco. coco is considered hydro and if you havnt read read up on it dont try it yet. gain knowlede throu you first soil grow. lot more to stress on in other methods. just ask questions and get anwers ya know!!!

Great ideas. Thank you.

Can I go ahead and pull the plants out and add more soil to fill the containers, then place plants back in?
Or should I just use a different container with the suggested soil filled to the top, and replant these babies?

@w2learn: thanks for the light change suggestion. No one has ever mentioned that to me. I haven't heard it on any videos or books I've read. Thank you.

Aye. Keep it simple. Scratch the MG. For literally a couple extra bucks, you can get some decent soil. Good advice to keep the advanced training techniques to a minimum. You'll learn a lot getting through a grow and seeing the life-cycle of the plant.

Sorry, I can't see the pic for some reason. Any perlite or method of drainage? I saw 80% MG and 20% garden soil but no drain/aeration. Some soils will retain water too well. I prefer pots with heavy drainage. Can always add water, but tough to get it out if the drainage is no good or the soil stays wet for weeks. If there is perlite, never mind, haha

SeaGrow1 said:

Great ideas. Thank you.

Can I go ahead and pull the plants out and add more soil to fill the containers, then place plants back in?
Or should I just use a different container with the suggested soil filled to the top, and replant these babies?

@w2learn: thanks for the light change suggestion. No one has ever mentioned that to me. I haven't heard it on any videos or books I've read. Thank you.

Click to expand...

I would mix up a good soil and replant. Good opportunity to get a good soil mix working as well.

best advice i could give is leave em alone haha and let them grow go h/g nutes fuck this fox fam bullshit its crud ph dont worry about and get a hps for flower job done veg for 4 weeks flower for 8-12 let me no how u go

SeaGrow1 said:

Thank you all for the suggestions so far.

@charface: yeah i don't want to start dumping anything in until i read some more and test some levels.

@cat: which pen would you recommend?

@Weedman2007: coco?

Click to expand...

tds/ph pens are pretty much all on par from my experience. i'd look on ebay for a tds/ph combo pen in the 15-30$ range. they're simple tools, so paying more is just someone price gouging.

i can't see your pic, not sure why, but i recommend strongly to NOT unpot it, just transplant into better/more soil. superthrive is a product sold at walmart, and i swear by it. it negates transplant shock and makes the roots explode with fresh healthy growth. more roots mean more uptake, which results in faster plant development, and ultimately, higher yields.

run chicken wire across the top off em lst to much of a fuck around in ur room every other day were i just dont have the time to be doing feed em as water water feed and let em dry out dont do a me and water ever day like i did wen i started out any other advice u want inbox me

I NEVER PH IN SOIL THERE IS NO NEED FOR IT ALL UR GUNNA LOOSE IS A GRAM OR 2 LOL

rob333 said:

best advice i could give is leave em alone haha and let them grow go h/g nutes fuck this fox fam bullshit its crud ph dont worry about and get a hps for flower job done veg for 4 weeks flower for 8-12 let me no how u go

Click to expand...

why would you tell someone new to go buy the most expensive nutes on the market first run.Then give more bad advice by saying a premium soil like ocean forest is crud thousands of new growers are successful with it daily. Why do you think most hydro stores order 2 pallets at a time.

Drainage its just the holes in the bottom of the containers.
No perlite added, how much should I use?

Sparkticus said:

Aye. Keep it simple. Scratch the MG. For literally a couple extra bucks, you can get some decent soil. Good advice to keep the advanced training techniques to a minimum. You'll learn a lot getting through a grow and seeing the life-cycle of the plant.

Sorry, I can't see the pic for some reason. Any perlite or method of drainage? I saw 80% MG and 20% garden soil but no drain/aeration. Some soils will retain water too well. I prefer pots with heavy drainage. Can always add water, but tough to get it out if the drainage is no good or the soil stays wet for weeks. If there is perlite, never mind, haha

I would mix up a good soil and replant. Good opportunity to get a good soil mix working as well.

Click to expand...

I would pick the fan off the floor.
Hot air rises cold air stays on the floor so your exhausting your cold air x.x lol
Your plants look happy bro why you need any help? Always experiment. What works for some people might not work for you.

Daggy said:

I would pick the fan off the floor.
Hot air rises cold air stays on the floor so your exhausting your cold air x.x lol
Your plants look happy bro why you need any help? Always experiment. What works for some people might not work for you.

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@Daggy: Thank you, i will put the exhaust up higher. They do look happy, i just wanted to get some advise before anything goes wrong/ I do something wrong. LOL
@cat: thank you for the pen info.
@W2learn: Thank you
@rob333: Thank you for the advise.

What do you folks know about sunshine #4?

Someone suggested this for a soil mix:
FF ocean Forest = 1 bag
Sunshine #4 = 1/3 (to the FF bag)
Perlite = as much as you want to experiment with

Any thoughts on the mix?
(Rob333 if you want you can substitute FF for another brand... LOL )