Just a few questions on my first grow.

[Zell]

hey everyone,

I just started growing about 2 weeks ago and i started off by germinating 2 seeds. They both cracked open and i waited til they had a little bit of a white bit coming out of them. Then i put one in potting mix with blood and bone in it and One in seed raising mix with a bit of blood and bone and i poured a bit of miracle grow on top of both of them. Now one has come up (about 3-4 cms) but the other one diddnt =(. So now i only have one plant but im germinating more seeds now. My question is since its hot is it ok to water it everyday in the morning? And what else should i be giving my plant? Should i keep giving it blood and bone or miracle grow or something?

 

thanks guys.

[Luke Skywalker]

You won't need to provide any nutes for the plants for the first few weeks of life, and if you do it would be at a very low concentration. (like 1/6th the recommended dose on the side of the nutrients) Blood and bone is slow release, so depending on just how much you added it should be okay for now. But flush out that miracle grow. It's a shit soluble nutrient and it's crap for growing weed. Sorry, but I just really dislike these types of nutes sold in supermarkets to unsuspecting newbies... Anyway, enough of that...

 

So yeah, flush out the miracle grow with fresh water, and then water every time the plant appears thirsty, or just before. That might seem stupid, but just think about the conditions that will be prevailing in the pots and think about how much water it might need... In high summer with full sun you'll need a lot of water regularly to keep it wet, but even this depends, as you may be in a large pot with plenty of moisture holding capacity, or in a margerine container.... As much possible information you can provide about the grow will help any diagnosis, the best would be a pic if possible, but I understand that isn't always possible.

 

Just realise it's young, check out the growing faq and use the search function to look for topics on seedlings and young plant growth, and you should do fine. Take it easy on the nutes, (it's ALWAYS better to underfertilise than overfertilise) and don't overstress the plants when young. You've planted a little late, but you should still be able to harvest a decent yeild depending on where you are in oz. Anyway, good luck, hope this post has helped.

[Tom]

It may help for you to get one of those moisture probes from a gardening centre, they are great for new growers, get one of the ph testing probes too as it will come in very useful.

[chief23]

Or use you finger as a probe. Stick your finger in the soil, and when it drys out about 1" down, then water. I also use Miracle Grow, but not in the first few weeks like Luke Said and I also cut back during flowering, cause its a little high in Nitrogen for flowering. I also flush the plants (no nutes - just plain water) in the last few weeks too.

 

Luke if Miracle Grow is no good, what do you recommened?

 

Chief

[200sx]

Hey mate and good luck on ya grow!

 

Well the combination of the natrual nutes and mirical grow in such a high dose was most probably the cause of the other plants death, and may kill that one if you arent careful. Like luke said flush the mirical grow away.

 

Secondly in terms of a good vegative growth stage fertiliser, id recommend you use solubale 'Thrive' as ive found this to contain the right amounts of goodness to get my plant skyward in no time

 

So just leave it with the blood and bone in the soil for now, for a month, watering it twice weekly ( moreso if its hot, its really a personal choice) but like someone has said ( sorry forgot to see who wrote it ) stick your finger in the soil, if top inch is dry, water.

 

Also make sure you watch carefully, as if a plant is low on water it becomes more subseptable to sun burn. So keep and eye out.

 

All that said and done i hope its of some use, take care and best of luck with the grow. any other questions just holla!

 

-ben

[200sx]

Oh and Zell, ive started a Beginners Guide to Outdoor growing, in this forum ( General Outdoors ) so check it out, it may answer some questions you have. I wrote it for a beginners perspective, because believe me, if i didnt know so many ppl that grew, id be a comeplete newbie myself, so have a read

[Luke Skywalker]

Thrive is also of the same level in my mind as miracle grow. Why? Because they are not designed for mj or mj like plants. They're designed so they cover as broad a spectra of nutes for as broad a selection of plants as possible. Yes, it will grow buds. Yes, you can use it as a fertiliser for MJ. But no, it's nothing like the best, or even the second, third or fourth best....

 

I recommend personally that growers either use organic nutrients like blood and bone and seaweed or fish emulsions... there are a lot of good general nutrients out there which are far more effective in outdoor growth in an organic grow than thrive/mg and similar so called "soluble" nutrients... These are more effective because they're released slowly, and it's more a process of feeding the soil and soil biota than actually supplying plant ready nutrient salts. The cheap soluble powder nutes are usually anything but soluble, and there's usually, if not always, a dense precipitate in the water as it's mixed and leaves large deposits of these salts on the surface and through the media. This can lead to a quick toxic buildup of salts for the plants, particularly when young, and this can be very hard to flush out of the pots... because of the insolubility of the nutrients when applied it's very hard to make it soluble in water when you want to get rid of it... I digress. If you want to go the balanced salt fertiliser route for your plants, you should a] consider seriously planting in hydroponic or semi-hydroponic media, as these allow much better uptake of nutrients in these forms, and b] consider using a "soiless" mix, with no added nutrients in the mix when purchased. Using an organically derived or composted and nutrient enriched media for plants grown with nutrient salts for the further feeding of said plants usually leads to problems, I've found anyway. It's quite possible to grow great crops with em, and many growers will show them to ya, but it's better to start blank when feeding your plants with nutrient salts in plant-available forms IMO, as you're making things as simple as possible for yourself.

 

Aaaaaanyway, there are quite a few different brands of soil specific, mj specific nutrient lines out there in hydroponic shops and similar outlets, as well as nutrients derived from organic sources and concentrated for use in such outdoor growing. An exception to the "cheap nutes is crap" rule in the avg garden center is the manutec line. They produce a blossom booster and "hydroponic nutrient" in a line, as well as trace elements and ph testers, and other sundry elements on their own. I have used these and received good results, although the best were when I dissolved the powdered and pelleted nutrients into two seperate bottles of distilled water. They dissolved excellently.

 

I know that there will be a hundred outdoor growers who will jump at this post and scream at every second sentence in here, disagreeing with me on various parts of the advice I give. And that's a good thing, because in the end it's what works for you is what you should be using. IF it is giving you bad results, then you should evaluate everything to see what the problem is, (air, water, light, nutrients, soil/media, ph) and then adjust your growing methods according to what makes sense to you. Don't take anyones growing advice as gospel, or absolutely right, as there are always, always exceptions to every rule, and many more ways to grow than there are growers of the stuff.

 

But anyway, I don't like thrive and miracle grow for those reasons, and I'd recommend that any grower who wants good results should strive to provide as balanced an environment for their plants as they can. They are living things, not machines, and as such are requiring of the nuturing and care that all living things need, particularly when they're displaced and put in artificial conditions.

 

I'm really wasted now, so I'll stop before I offend everyone.

[coughmaster]

fish emulsion and a brew made from worm castings/juice works good for me i mix a bit of that osmocote slow release in the hole with heaps of well composted organic matter sulphate of potash,and a little blood and bone oh yeah and water

[ThcAholic]

...Yeah, true organic oudoor growing is just that...purely organic

..I've used thrive, and it makes the plants thump. When using a watering can however, you notice how water soluble it really is, when the Nozzle keeps clogging up!!! :: Also the chemical analysis on the back reveals umpteen chemicals......that's not organic!!!!!

..I try to build up the soil to avoid having to fertilize my plants 2 much..It may be extra work...but is less work in the longrun, and usually with better results......

..When I do fertilize, I use a Fish-emulsion fertilizer. It's much more soluble and it's all natural. U can smell the fish after watering 2. In late afternoon I also foliar feed with it...but not more often than fortnightly...sometimes monthly (don't get 2 see them that long sometimes!!)

..While thrive soluble fertilizer isn't the best, I swear by their potting mix. I started half my plants in it, the other half in another Premium mix. The thrive ones grew with vigour, and were an excellent green. The other ones were yellow and stunted...The Thrive p/mix seems to contain a nice organic blend of fast and slow release nutrients directly to the root-zone.

...Bagged Hot-composted manures with b/bone, washed de-composed seaweed and this thrive p/mix have made for a great soil blend for me pre-dug into my grow-holes. (providing adequte blending time allowed before planting)

..As has been said...it's all about what works best for You. It will come with experience, or trial and error. Making mistakes, and having failures is not such a bad thing. It is an excellent way to learn about anything in life.

..Take care fellow stoners, and Good luck

Edited January 13, 2004 by ThcAholic

[chief23]

For the record I have never had any problems with miracle grow. Yes fish emultions and dynamic lifter are great and I have used them before, but if you are growing inside they tend to smell really bad.

 

Chief