New Grower Vegasbear's Noob Growing Adventures

[Vegasbear87]

After asking a bunch of questions in the New Growers Q&A Forum, I figured I should start a thread and chronicle my first grow journey. At least it should provide for some tragic humor when I kill everything on accident!

So, my better half and I are about to start growing for the first time, and want to start with (and probably stick with) autoflowering strains.

We bought the following to begin our growing journey:

Gorilla 4x4 Grow Tent
AC Infinity Cloudline S6 Fan
TerraBloom 6"x16" carbon filter
Spider Farmer SF-2000 LED lights (2)
Timer
5gal cloth pots
Mother Earth Coco with Perlite mix
Fox Farm 3-pack (Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom) - a friend had a spare pack and gave it to us.
Cal-Mag
PH U&D - already had this on hand
PH Meter - already had this on hand
TDS/EC Meter - already had this on hand
Several Thermo/hygrometers
Couple mini fans that clip to the tent poles
18" pedestal oscillating fan
Net that stretches across the inside of the tent
Rolls of landscaping twist-ties for training (where I will probably screw up)
Carbon water filter because our city water is pretty meh

So, I got my tent up on Monday (second light was not in yet but got in yesterday and got installed). The Gorilla Grow tents are super nice, and I was impressed at the level of detail paid to even the packaging - each of the metal poles was separated with plastic brackets to protect them and the tent was incredibly easy to pop up. The Spider Farmer SF2000 panel gives off a surprisingly low amount of heat and it is BRIGHT. Picture was taken before I tidied up, so please excuse the mess!

My seeds came the same morning, and I decided to start my first grow with four of Homegrown's White Widow x California Snow Autos. Soaked them for about 12 hrs in a jar of water, then put them in Roto Rooters and directly into final pots (5gal pots with Mother Earth Coco/Perlite mix). I had presoaked the soil while the seeds soaked (though I worried that I hadn't moistened it enough) and let it drain well - it felt moist to the first knuckle when the RRs were put in. Left the lights off and misted the RRs every 12 hours with a spray bottle, covered with humidity domes that I made from water bottles with the lids off.

Today they have popped up and the lights were turned on. I am excited! I have the lights set at 18/6 and due to the high heat out here, scheduled to be on in the evening/night hours to avoid excessive heat during the hottest parts of the day.

I am not sure if I need to go ahead and remove the domes, or if I should wait a couple more days - any advice there? I have one straggler in the back right corner, but the other three are scooting right along.

I have read that I should give just fresh water for the first fifteen days, and I am pretty nervous about screwing up with the Trio as I am still trying to figure out how to adapt their nutrient schedule from the 12-weeks they list, and I feel like I need a hand-held walkthrough of how I should use them from start to finish, because all of the different opinions and information are making me feel Neanderthal-dumb.

 

[Iriee Vibez]

Nice setup, man! You certainly didn’t skimp on your equipment! I am a big proponent of getting the best equipment and tools that you can afford to start off with. Good luck, brother!

I would leave those domes on for a couple days, let them get the second set of leaves for sure.

 

[AFNG]

Hey I smell a lot of copy and paste here lol

Welcome!!! I actually already saw your blog posts lol.

I'm brand new as well. Have my first two girls going. Have a few more weeks at least for first to be done. I'm growing in soil though.

Any reason you're thinking of sticking with autos?
I went with autos thinking they would be easier then photos honestly. One less thing I could screw up (lighting schedule) lol.


There is a bit of learning curve but if you ask questions the awesome people here will help make sure you stay or get back on the right track!

One last thing.... Check your manual for lights, I'm thinking your light may be to far from seedlings. If it's to far it will stretch and then it can fall over. Ask me how I know lol? Also you could run with just 1 light for now and move all the pots under one light until they get bigger and save some energy costs.

 

[Vegasbear87]

Hey I smell a lot of copy and paste here lol

Welcome!!! I actually already saw your blog posts lol.

I'm brand new as well. Have my first two girls going. Have a few more weeks at least for first to be done. I'm growing in soil though.

Any reason you're thinking of sticking with autos?
I went with autos thinking they would be easier then photos honestly. One less thing I could screw up (lighting schedule) lol.


There is a bit of learning curve but if you ask questions the awesome people here will help make sure you stay or get back on the right track!

One last thing.... Check your manual for lights, I'm thinking your light may be to far from seedlings. If it's to far it will stretch and then it can fall over. Ask me how I know lol? Also you could run with just 1 light for now and move all the pots under one light until they get bigger and save some energy costs.

Ah! Good catch, my lights say 24 inches for seedlings! I will adjust them before I go to bed.

I am thinking of staying with autos for the first three or four grows just to familiarize and pack a few runs into a shorter timeframe, kinda to play around more than anything else. I want to do some lst with these and have been studying up on that quite a bit tonight.

 

[Vegasbear87]

Nice setup, man! You certainly didn’t skimp on your equipment! I am a big proponent of getting the best equipment and tools that you can afford to start off with. Good luck, brother!

I would leave those domes on for a couple days, let them get the second set of leaves for sure.

Yeah, the pain in my wallet will subside eventually... I think that my bank account is still screaming in agony, LOL!

I am a big proponent of buy-once-cry-once as much as I can manage, simply because I learned long ago getting into hobbies and then spending good money after bad never benefits me in the long run. I gave myself a budget of around $2k for everything altogether, and I definitely hit it. Including some equipment for later!

I am really hoping that last seed breaks soil! The temptation to pull the little plug out of the hole on top of the Rapid Rooter and peek is intense.

 

[Serious Home Breeder]

Good on you for taking the leap, I look forward to watching your progress, its a fun journey.
My advice is to keep doing what you are doing and remember that those of us who are experienced, got there by making plenty of mistakes along the way. Hopefully the members can help you to avoid the common ones but bare in mind, the frustrating mistakes become big learning curves and experience.
Good luck, you are off to a great start.

 

[Vegasbear87]

Seedling looking good today, all opened up! Plant #2 is the one that hasn't broken ground yet, but the little bit of material plugging the top of the Rapid Rooter has pushed up enough that it's just laying on top, hopefully that lil guy survives and pops soil soon.

Purchased an APEC-90 under-sink RO system today. Rated for 90 GPD, should be good for pulling water for my plants, considering our tap water is 7.9 and very hard with a PPM reading right around 385 (this is after running it through the RV filter). I am currently giving 50% tap and 50% bottled water mix, about 1ml from a syringe onto the Rapid Rooter every 8 hrs or so and misting the rest of the soil after the domes are replaced to ensure it stays and feels moist.

Lights are on 18/6 and scheduled to turn off at noon and back on at 6pm. This should help avoid the hottest parts of the day, and I am planning to tint the one window in that room and then cover it with styrofoam to keep the radiant heat out. I plan to build a spacer for the sliding window so that I can vent outside, but have to figure out how to make it airtight enough that it won't let the brutal outside heat in.

 

[oldnewbdude]

Seedling looking good today, all opened up! Plant #2 is the one that hasn't broken ground yet, but the little bit of material plugging the top of the Rapid Rooter has pushed up enough that it's just laying on top, hopefully that lil guy survives and pops soil soon.

Purchased an APEC-90 under-sink RO system today. Rated for 90 GPD, should be good for pulling water for my plants, considering our tap water is 7.9 and very hard with a PPM reading right around 385 (this is after running it through the RV filter). I am currently giving 50% tap and 50% bottled water mix, about 1ml from a syringe onto the Rapid Rooter every 8 hrs or so and misting the rest of the soil after the domes are replaced to ensure it stays and feels moist.

Lights are on 18/6 and scheduled to turn off at noon and back on at 6pm. This should help avoid the hottest parts of the day, and I am planning to tint the one window in that room and then cover it with styrofoam to keep the radiant heat out. I plan to build a spacer for the sliding window so that I can vent outside, but have to figure out how to make it airtight enough that it won't let the brutal outside heat in.

View attachment 1185282

Hey buddy that rooter is prolly good for a day or two on water, don't wanna drown the little root. I learned this the hard way. You might wanna dome em to keep humidity up fire a few days. Looking good!

 

[420Forever]

u've got the right attitude & ur gonna do jus fine ppp

 

[420Forever]

Hey buddy that rooter is prolly good for a day or two on water, don't wanna drown the little root. I learned this the hard way. You might wanna dome em to keep humidity up fire a few days. Looking good!

ah yes, forgot to say -> domez for the win! ppp