Hello everyone this is my first time growing indoors I recently got some white widow feminized seeds from ILGM and have been germinating them for 5 hours so far I have my little room set up it’s 3 foot wide by 9 ft tall a little closet. I have two different type of led light that I’ve had and was wondering if they’ll work for now I’m going to place the seed in a humidity dome with heat mat and under 2 36 watt 6500k lights about 6 inches away. Once the tap root appears.
The two led light I have are… I’ll also be starting them in a rapid rooter and then transplanting them in to solo cups with some miracle grow potting soil.? Should I run the light with both the veg and bloom switch’s on for both vegetation and flowering
I would have advised on different lighting, but since you already have them they could get you thru veg. When it comes to flower you really need to have more power. Next issue if possible ditch the miracle grow.
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Do you have any idea on better soil ? I’m new and don’t plan on doing to much feeding beside the water and how about a better light in a good price range ? Thank you in advance
You probably need something like kind soil or purple cow organics if you don’t want to use nutes and as far as lights you really need to supplement the lights you have or get a expensive light so probably get @dbrn32 to check that.
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Ok thanks I’ll check that soil out
I agree, not great lights but should get you through. See what your dry weights look like and if you are happy with results. You will definitely need a well amended soil if you dont plan in feeding at all.
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Thanks for the input what if I were to just add one more of the 1000w ones to the mix ? Or can your suggest something in reasonable price range I have seen in other post your the light guru. And do you have any Recommendations on soil. Thanks in advance
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Fox Farm ocean Forest is a good product . Will only need to use pH water till flower time or very close. Personally I would not buy another blue purple light. Go ahead and bite the bullet and get you a HLG 260 V2 RSpec XL would be a good fit for your space turn it long ways. And later you can add another one if you like. You have a real nice space to work with. Good luck
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I’m with @kellydans and @dbrn32 on this one. Buy once cry once. You can grow under the lights you current have. The buds my not be as dense as some of the pictures you see and your finished weight could be less. I was fortunate and started with an HLG then changed, lateral shift, when I set up my 4x4.
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Thanks everyone for the input I’m gonna check the hog light out and get some fox farm soil
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Now keep in mind that if you use fox farms you will need nutrients.
I think i would avoid buying another inexpensive light if possible. If you end up sticking around for a while you will eventually drop the cash on good lighting anyway.
If i were to recommend anything on soil would be follow one of the well know recipes for super soil, or hit up buildasoil.
Ok I’m still on the fences about the soil I don’t have any idea on feeding nutes. I was thinking about ordering the kits from ILGM but there sold out right now. Anyone have any good soil I could use we’re I wouldn’t need to feed so much ?
fox farm soils require feeding by the time you get to flower. you would need to determine from here how you want to go. you can go synthetic bottle feeds or you can go organic.
If you want to go organic and do minimal feeding (you still need to check and adjust Ph):
Kind soil is a super soil that you would put at the bottom of your pot that requires water only. people have had mixed results.
Coast of Maine is another all in one soil but if you have smaller pot sizes they have supplements that they suggest.
Sohum is a just add water soil.
Then there are methods you can use where you pick your own base soil and then mix in amendments at the start that mostly require just water. You would just pick a soil that is not already supercharged. This is basically like making your own super soil.
Green Sunshine Company’s Earth Dust is mixed in and then you would top dress only two more times through the grow.
I think it’s only available in Canada but Gaia Green is another one and I think they may have come out with their own soils as well that are all-in-one.
And there are a lot of people on here who could give you recipes on how to mix up your own, but for your first time this may be overwhelming. I’m a year in and still don’t want to do it lol.
If you’re OK with synthetic there is a line call Jacks that lots of folks on here could help you with. you’d still have to mix up but it’s pretty straightforward and many people use this with coco instead of a soil.
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Yes extremely overwhelming lol I’ve been doing as much research as I can before hand. Thank you for all the advice I’m really looking for something where I don’t have to do as much but water since it my first time I can and will check the ph though also will be using distilled water
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Start with organics then. It also eliminates some of the work that comes with having to water to runoff and disposing of that, that you have to do with many of the bottled synthetic nutes.
Now decide if you want an all-in-one soil, if you want to make an all-in-one with a one time mix, or if you want to start with a mix and then add a top dress twice throughout the grow.
Ok I think I’d like to buy an all in one mix I can top off twice no problem just don’t plan on adding any nutes till my next grow we’re I can get better lighting I plan on getting a HLG do you have any suggestions on the soil ? I keep hearing fox farm and a few people I heard say purple cow
Yep, this is what I’m doing right now.
There are different kinds of “soils”. there’s soil soil like Fox Farm Happy Frog and then there are others that are a mix of things. You can use Fox Farm Ocean Forest but it’s already loaded and pretty “hot” so you’re not going to want to add many amendments in the beginning. This is NOT an exhaustive list and others can chime in. I’ve used Roots Organics and Coco Loco. they are a mix of coco and “aged forest products”. Straight coco is considered “soiless” and you can use it in organics but it’s not ideal. In organics, your microbes in the soil are what will feed your plants. You’re feeding your microbes, not your plants. Roots Organics and Coco Loco are kind of a mash up and have the organic matter in there that your microbes need. That being said, some have done half straight coco and half one of these I mentioned.
Many people also will use Promix which is mostly peat moss. I don’t use it purely because it’s not an environmentally sustainable product and since other good sustainable soils exist, I’ve opted for those.
So you’ll get one of these base soils. Then one of these 3-time mixes: Gaia Green or Earth Dust from Green Sunshine company. Just follow the instructions. You’ll mix in a “base” when you initially pot up and then top dress twice according to their instructions. You can also supplement if you wish with a tea here and there.
The downside to growing like this is that if you do run into trouble, it’s harder to fix. You want to keep your microbes happy and if you lose them it takes time to bring them back. I will give a dose or two of calmag mid veg just as a preventative and give them a tea shortly before flower.
Benefits… it’s cheap. environmentally friendly. less work. and you can reuse your soil. i’ve done a handful of grows now and my second round reusing soil had fewer nutrient issues.
Wear a mask (not hard these days anyway) when you mix this stuff up, it’s very fine and full of poop. The earth dust amazingly doesn’t really smell though.
Great thank you for all the info definitely gonna have to go get some and mix it up before transplant the seeds I got just cracked and is showing a tap root so I placed them in some Rockwool and put in my humidity dome and sprayed the lid keeping two at 70 and humidity at 50 give or take hopefully I’ll see a sprout in a few days then will transplant into a solo cup with the soil mix ? Sound good or should I have skipped the Rockwool
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I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way. i’ve never used the rockwool but some people do that and rapid rooters. you will want to water the soil ahead of time and give it a little time to dry out so that there’s some moisture in there. punch holes in the bottom for water to drain out. i like putting clear cups inside of red ones so that i can pull the clears out and see how the root development is.
i personally make a little hole in the soil with a pen and drop my seed in with tail down without cubes. i also usually go right into their final home if i have the room for it. if my tents are full and i need to buy more time, i’ll go into a solo cup. the danger is over watering, but either way you should get a little turkey baster or something that can drip water and make a little ring around the baby once it has some legs under it. this all being said… for some reason i’ve been having bad luck with babies lately. didn’t lose more than one seedling in a year and all of a sudden i’ve lost a bunch or they’re growing really slowly. nothing is fool proof.
whichever way you go, don’t put any amendments into that initial soil- just use the straight soil out of the bag- it already has a few weeks’ of nutrients in it and the babies don’t need much. if you go right into a larger final home, i’ll usually carve out a hole the size of a solo and fill that with the plain soil.