simple check list.
1) clone or seedling I highly recommend that your plant be planted in the pot that is big enough to hold her; her whole life. Just keep in mind that you need about a gallon of grow medium & pot per foot of grown that she may reach during flowering & her fnal day. (she's gotta be comfy her whole life)
- keep in mine that sativas are known for wild growth spurt during their flowering stage. Sativae are quite the opposite & they nrmally have shorter life spans meanng they vegg(grow) for a very little time & flower in short time too.
2) whatever you grow give it about full month of healthy growth unde her own strength before you start feeding her nutes. You don't want to nute burn her. When you do start any nute feeding the NPK nute reading letters are what to need to keep an eye on. N(nitrogen) P(phosphorous) K(potasium)
-for fast strong growth r healthy growth period get any nutrients that are high in N (nitrogen).
-as for flowering get a nutrient high in P(phosphorous).
Make sure to flush for at least 1week before you put her into flowering so that any left over nitrogen in your grow medium won't be in her system as mch as high amounts of nitrogen delay flowering so you can ease her off the nitrogen before you switchto phosphorous to avoid any shock.
3) a fan is a must! She got to breath! Get a good air circulation goi g in your grow space.
-the air from the fan will cause a swaying that will her stress her out. Her stems will be bruised a bit but her sugar maknt process will heal her & she will grow an immune to the air. Therefore resulting in thick hardy stems.
4)GET GOOD LIGHTS. I get it's your 1st grow & budget & stuff but invest a bit more. You'll love that you did.
-florescents. You want as many actual watts on her as possible. Alot of floros display their wattage as what the light be given off is equivalent to. A 68 actual watter is a 300 watt EQUIVALENT. So the stronger the bulb the more LUMENS you aregoing to have. More lumens better grow.
You want 6500k. (KELVIN VALUE) color temperature measurement.
& 2700k for flowering. Better light spectrumthat you girl uses for her flowers to sprout VERY NICE.
5)pitch black environment when you want to begin flowering. It should be dark so dark you shouldn't be able to see your hand a foot in front of your face. Just so your plant doesn't have to stress over light leaks & she doesn't get to rest.
6) get a watering schedule going.Let your dirt go dry for a while & lift it up a bit to get the feel for the weight of a dry bcket. & then fully water it & you will be able to tell the difference in a wet heavy pot & a dry light pot so you will know when to water.
-dnt stress about underwatering. She will let you know she's stressing over water. But lettng the dirt go dry allows air to leak into the medium & her roots can use the oxygen to breath a bit. The dry dirt also encouragesyour girls roots to spread out in search of water. Strong roots.
-overwatering softucates your plants roots & she will droop & be massive stressed out.
Check me on anything I missed.