New grower, tips or advice for my grow plan?

[Littylovesdapiff]

Hey people, been lurking alot researching and want to introduce myself and maybe get some constructive criticism or added tips on my first grow plan. Never grew anything before but ive been researching like crazy for the past month. 3'x3'x6' tent, marshydro tsw2000 ac infinity cloudline t4 fan with controller and carbon filter, 3 gallon air pots, going to start 50/50 fox farms happy frog and ocean forest with 15% perlite but also taking a quart soil out of the middle of each pot and put in light warrior seed starter for seedling stage. Planning on germinating using the method seedsman recommends and since thats who i ordered my white widow auto and northern lights auto from. I have cold temp issues in my basement grow area so im using a 350 watt space heater connected to a inkbird controller blowing into the intake. Ive done a dry run and it seems to heat nicely. I have a small humidifer just incase I need to raise Rh. I have the ff nute trio which I plan on not using till close to after a month and at very reduced strength, calmag and recharge sitting on the side for when the time comes. Ph and tds meter are available and GH ph up and down. Im feeling confident that I can get decent yield and im really excited to start. Dont know if im missing anything but yea thanks in advance!!!

 

[Littylovesdapiff]

Also have questions about a couple things, is presoaking(watering till runoff)the soil days before initial planting a smart thing to do?
Also keeping light at same height or dimming at different heights for different stages?

 

[Old-fashioned Coughy Pot]

An analogue timer for your lights etc. The digital ones may get reset from a power outage unbeknownst to you.

 

[Littylovesdapiff]

An analogue timer for your lights etc. The digital ones may get reset from a power outage unbeknownst to you.

Ah i knew i missed putting something in, yeah i got one with the tsw2000 that marshydro sends with. Have it set for 20/4 when the time comes.

 

[Sheriffatman]

Hey there bud welcome. New grower here also, coming from the same place you are really, never grown before, did months of research before setting up and finally growing, all that homework does do You some favours, but you can’t beat the practical side of it for learning. I’m in week 8 now of my first grow and Ive learnt so much more than I ever did reading, keep up the homework though never stop learning, this place is the best place to be for a first grower, so helpful, very knowledgeable and friendly with it, your get all the help you need if you stick around, enjoy your ride because it will be one.
The Sheriff

 

[TexasGrows]

Ive only been growing cannabis about three years, so no expert.

After a lifetime of landscape and vegetable gardening and now trying to grow cannabis in a tent the biggest thing I have learned is beware over watering!!!!!

Outside here it is all but impossible to over water. You develop a habit of just soaking everything down quite often.

Dont take your outdoor water habits indoors. I have had off and on again success. I have stunted more than one!!!! And those that made it could of been way better.

Indoors less is more in my experience so far.

 

[LearningMore]

Newbie here trying to complete my first grow, but already have learned so much. A few thoughts:
-check if your heater/oscillating fans, humidifiers, etc have actual power switches. If not, then you have to reset everything in case of a power outage which is a real PITA
-whatever you plug into your inkbird MUST have a physical power switch or it won’t work
-watch YouTube for how to program your inkbird. I couldn’t make any sense of the “manual” they come with, but I love the device.
-get a lux meter (apogee par meter if $ is no object). DrMeter on Amazon is $40ish and a necessary tool for newbies. I burned my first group going by vague height/dimming percent guides. The meter lets you have an objective sense of how much light you’re giving, and allows you to repeat your settings in future grows
-after much research: you can achieve the same lux by adjusting height vs adjusting dimmer (going by measurements at the canopy). Higher light means more even coverage across tent but more power use to achieve the same canopy-level light, compared to lowering your light and reducing power
-watering: everyone gives the wise advice not to overwater, but you can also underwater (guilty). Think of overwatering more as excessive frequency than excessive volume (assuming adequate drainage). @Mañ'O'Green has excellent advice about how to learn to water by “hefting” the pot (and why you don’t want the soil to actually get DRY). His tutorial “a word on nutrients” under new growers forum is also excellent.
-do NOT use calmag. Your soil has plenty. I will never touch the stuff again unless one of the gurus here tell me I actually need it. I barely did any and I caused lookouts (I was in HF)

Final bit of advice: the majority of “advice” on Reddit is crap. Listen to the folks here and you’ll do ok. This is the best cannabis group on the Internet.

Good luck!

 

[DDubs]

Decent pH meter. No matter how good your soil and environment are, without proper pH your plant will not be at it's full potential.

 

[Littylovesdapiff]

Newbie here trying to complete my first grow, but already have learned so much. A few thoughts:
-check if your heater/oscillating fans, humidifiers, etc have actual power switches. If not, then you have to reset everything in case of a power outage which is a real PITA
-whatever you plug into your inkbird MUST have a physical power switch or it won’t work
-watch YouTube for how to program your inkbird. I couldn’t make any sense of the “manual” they come with, but I love the device.
-get a lux meter (apogee par meter if $ is no object). DrMeter on Amazon is $40ish and a necessary tool for newbies. I burned my first group going by vague height/dimming percent guides. The meter lets you have an objective sense of how much light you’re giving, and allows you to repeat your settings in future grows
-after much research: you can achieve the same lux by adjusting height vs adjusting dimmer (going by measurements at the canopy). Higher light means more even coverage across tent but more power use to achieve the same canopy-level light, compared to lowering your light and reducing power
-watering: everyone gives the wise advice not to overwater, but you can also underwater (guilty). Think of overwatering more as excessive frequency than excessive volume (assuming adequate drainage). @Mañ'O'Green has excellent advice about how to learn to water by “hefting” the pot (and why you don’t want the soil to actually get DRY). His tutorial “a word on nutrients” under new growers forum is also excellent.
-do NOT use calmag. Your soil has plenty. I will never touch the stuff again unless one of the gurus here tell me I actually need it. I barely did any and I caused lookouts (I was in HF)

Final bit of advice: the majority of “advice” on Reddit is crap. Listen to the folks here and you’ll do ok. This is the best cannabis group on the Internet.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the tips, definately going to check out everything you recommended and yea i noticed reddit users usually are all over the place when asking for help on nute deficiencies and etc. Hopefully i dont run into any but im trying to have all the basics just incase i come across a nute issue.

 

[LearningMore]

Thanks for all the tips, definately going to check out everything you recommended and yea i noticed reddit users usually are all over the place when asking for help on nute deficiencies and etc. Hopefully i dont run into any but im trying to have all the basics just incase i come across a nute issue.

What @DDubs said is 100% accurate: get a GOOD pH meter. Apera pH60 is what I bought. Very happy with it. Be sure to buy extra calibration liquid and storage solution, too.

The costs really add up at first, but you’ll “pay” far more down the road any time you cut corners.

This really is a great hobby. Avoid as many preventable pitfalls as you can so you can maximize the fun (and yield!).