Your thoughts for A total New grower

[Emerald Archer]

Greetings growers:
I am New to growing, and to this forum. First post. I have done what I believe to be the necessary research to start a cpl tomato plants.
Ill be doing an indoor grow, in soil. scored a Spider Farmer kit (27x27x60) aka The Lab - closet grow. (Not stealth fwiw, but micro grow space is my sitch)
l have several amendments and will be using OF n HF as my ‘base soil’ and a few other things i have heard are beneficial for soil roots etc etc…
I plan on doing a run or two over the winter months starting very soon. I was able to procure some fem- auto-tomato beans that i want to run this winter. About the only things i think i will need are a small heater and hope that my research pans out on amendments and watering.

what i would like pick from you all‘s collective brains some of the following..
1 Tips on organization getting/staying…planning etc..
2 I wanna know your germination rituals. Do u start beans on the same day/time? Paper towel methods? Right in the soil (medium…what have you) with the beans? When does the timer start when u start germinating them? After they drop a taproot? When they pop shell n break the medium’s surface in search of light?
3 how YOU run your light times for autos? 18-6, 20-4 All dayum day?
4 what Temps u try and maintain ?
5 my kit came 5 gal cloth pots which i plan on ‘auto transplanting’ (seen a helpful thread here on the tech) any cloth potting tips n tricks or expectations while using cloth pots…
and 6.. I only have the one tent so again Id run two autos, i will decide if i start two different beans or just run a pair with run and swap the 2nd inww I digress. I want to best plan for drying in a one tent indoor set up. Thoughts are welcomed.

i plan to LST and maybe some really light defoliation. But am hoping to just observe how they grow and express this first cpl runs…my research dictates less is more with autos and as long as conditions starr

thanks for reading and i look forward to your replies and tid bits and or questions for me for this thread.

 

[nizmoKush]

Welcome welcome all the information is here just take a look around the different secsectsin the forums and you should some some very informative sticky threads at the top all the time.

 

[Suki]

Greetings growers:
I am New to growing, and to this forum. First post. I have done what I believe to be the necessary research to start a cpl tomato plants.
Ill be doing an indoor grow, in soil. scored a Spider Farmer kit (27x27x60) aka The Lab - closet grow. (Not stealth fwiw, but micro grow space is my sitch)
l have several amendments and will be using OF n HF as my ‘base soil’ and a few other things i have heard are beneficial for soil roots etc etc…
I plan on doing a run or two over the winter months starting very soon. I was able to procure some fem- auto-tomato beans that i want to run this winter. About the only things i think i will need are a small heater and hope that my research pans out on amendments and watering.

what i would like pick from you all‘s collective brains some of the following..
1 Tips on organization getting/staying…planning etc..
2 I wanna know your germination rituals. Do u start beans on the same day/time? Paper towel methods? Right in the soil (medium…what have you) with the beans? When does the timer start when u start germinating them? After they drop a taproot? When they pop shell n break the medium’s surface in search of light?
3 how YOU run your light times for autos? 18-6, 20-4 All dayum day?
4 what Temps u try and maintain ?
5 my kit came 5 gal cloth pots which i plan on ‘auto transplanting’ (seen a helpful thread here on the tech) any cloth potting tips n tricks or expectations while using cloth pots…
and 6.. I only have the one tent so again Id run two autos, i will decide if i start two different beans or just run a pair with run and swap the 2nd inww I digress. I want to best plan for drying in a one tent indoor set up. Thoughts are welcomed.

i plan to LST and maybe some really light defoliation. But am hoping to just observe how they grow and express this first cpl runs…my research dictates less is more with autos and as long as conditions starr

thanks for reading and i look forward to your replies and tid bits and or questions for me for this thread.

The search function is also super helpful! Depending on what you're planning, there is probably a sub forum for it. Reading grow journals is a fantastic way to learn, and always feel free to ask questions. Everyone here is super friendly and helpful.

 

[Suki]

I mostly just go through all the threads with new activity, and start at the beginning lol.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

to AFN buddy
As already said. Lot's of information to be found here, but do use the advanced search function. Lot's more selective. And if that doesn't work...there are loads of nice people around who are willing to help a hand

1. Keep everything clean. ie, no leaves lying around in the tent. This will cause pest problems, guaranteed!
2. I put my seeds straight in coco. Either in a coco plug to be repotted as soon as the seedling surfaces or direct in it's final pot.
3. 18/6 or 20/4 at most. Plants do need a dark period to do all kinds of interesting stuff.
4. 24°C/75°F - 27°C/80 seem perfect.
5. Not really. Fill the pot with your medium and of you go...
6. Or you could do a continues grow and dry somewhere else... Also take a look at the Solo Cup's grown here on AFN by many members. You can grow monsters in tiny pots and have a couple of different strains to choose from when you're done....MMmmmmhhhmmm.... So many to choose from....

 

[OldSchool718]

Greetings growers:
I am New to growing, and to this forum. First post. I have done what I believe to be the necessary research to start a cpl tomato plants.
Ill be doing an indoor grow, in soil. scored a Spider Farmer kit (27x27x60) aka The Lab - closet grow. (Not stealth fwiw, but micro grow space is my sitch)
l have several amendments and will be using OF n HF as my ‘base soil’ and a few other things i have heard are beneficial for soil roots etc etc…
I plan on doing a run or two over the winter months starting very soon. I was able to procure some fem- auto-tomato beans that i want to run this winter. About the only things i think i will need are a small heater and hope that my research pans out on amendments and watering.

what i would like pick from you all‘s collective brains some of the following..
1 Tips on organization getting/staying…planning etc..
2 I wanna know your germination rituals. Do u start beans on the same day/time? Paper towel methods? Right in the soil (medium…what have you) with the beans? When does the timer start when u start germinating them? After they drop a taproot? When they pop shell n break the medium’s surface in search of light?
3 how YOU run your light times for autos? 18-6, 20-4 All dayum day?
4 what Temps u try and maintain ?
5 my kit came 5 gal cloth pots which i plan on ‘auto transplanting’ (seen a helpful thread here on the tech) any cloth potting tips n tricks or expectations while using cloth pots…
and 6.. I only have the one tent so again Id run two autos, i will decide if i start two different beans or just run a pair with run and swap the 2nd inww I digress. I want to best plan for drying in a one tent indoor set up. Thoughts are welcomed.

i plan to LST and maybe some really light defoliation. But am hoping to just observe how they grow and express this first cpl runs…my research dictates less is more with autos and as long as conditions starr

thanks for reading and i look forward to your replies and tid bits and or questions for me for this thread.

Welcome,
plenty of good threads posted with all that info your looking for, up to you to decide what route you wanna go !
Good Luck,

 

[EP3]

to AFN. Best thing that ever happened to my plants was this place. Gold mine of information and friendly, helpful people. Its like family giving you good advice you can trust.
EP3

 

[DCLXVI]

Welcome welcome!

Three things I can suggest starting off as a new grower that will help you tremendously. And for a while it will probably feel liike there is always some extra thing to buy. However, a lot of it lasts a long time and will be used in future grows.

1) A pH meter/pen. The proper pH of your water and any nutrient solutions you mix up is essential to success.

Top companies:
BlueLab
Apera

I personally use a Milwaukee Instruments pH600AQ as it's ~$20 and has a calibration adjustment. I don't know how reliable the $10 cheap amazon/china/ebay units are.

You will also need calibration fluid and storage fluid so budget a bit for those. Relatively cheap but around $50-60 for the whole kit.

2) An EC/PPM meter. Knowing the "strength" of your starting water and any solutions you mix is key to maintaining your plants.
Shop around as you like. I have an HM Digital COM-80 myself. No cal or storage solution needed. (I do have calibration fluid)

It is inconvenient having separate pH and PPM pens but I found an all in one unit to be cost prohibitive especially just starting out.


3) A pH adjustment kit. Several available out there. The General Hydroponics pH Control kit is $20-ish and comes with a bottle of pH UP and DOWN, plus a small pipette. This stuff is highly concentrated, dangerous, strong, but works well. So just be careful and use a little, very little, at a time.


If you've got all that sorted out you'll be making tomato sauce in no time!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

If you've got all that sorted out you'll be making tomato sauce in no time!

 

[Suki]

Welcome welcome!

Three things I can suggest starting off as a new grower that will help you tremendously. And for a while it will probably feel liike there is always some extra thing to buy. However, a lot of it lasts a long time and will be used in future grows.

1) A pH meter/pen. The proper pH of your water and any nutrient solutions you mix up is essential to success.

Top companies:
BlueLab
Apera

I personally use a Milwaukee Instruments pH600AQ as it's ~$20 and has a calibration adjustment. I don't know how reliable the $10 cheap amazon/china/ebay units are.

You will also need calibration fluid and storage fluid so budget a bit for those. Relatively cheap but around $50-60 for the whole kit.

2) An EC/PPM meter. Knowing the "strength" of your starting water and any solutions you mix is key to maintaining your plants.
Shop around as you like. I have an HM Digital COM-80 myself. No cal or storage solution needed. (I do have calibration fluid)

It is inconvenient having separate pH and PPM pens but I found an all in one unit to be cost prohibitive especially just starting out.


3) A pH adjustment kit. Several available out there. The General Hydroponics pH Control kit is $20-ish and comes with a bottle of pH UP and DOWN, plus a small pipette. This stuff is highly concentrated, dangerous, strong, but works well. So just be careful and use a little, very little, at a time.


If you've got all that sorted out you'll be making tomato sauce in no time!

Blue labs has their combo meter on sale for $129 on Amazon currently. Just snagged one and holy cow what a game changer! I couldn't even figure out how to use my cheapo one so I neglected pH through my whole first grow and I'm kicking myself now over it cause I'm sure I would have yielded much more had my feeds/fluids been properly PHed.