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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
