Good afternoon, all! I'm not sure if there is a more appropriate place for noob introductions, but I did try to look. Please don't hesitate to let me know if I'm doing this wrong.
Anyway, hi! I'm stoked to be starting my journey and decided it's time to find some community. I'm a middle-aged (45) dad who found that cannabis helps my anxiety way better than benzos years ago, and now trying to get self-sufficient. I started out with advice from a friend in a fantasy league, purchased some Gelauto seeds from Mephisto, and received a Vivosun 2x4x6 kit for Christmas. I have done tons of reading, bought some books, and feel reasonably prepared. I come from the tropical plant growing hobby as well as the mushroom hobby, if that provides context.
So my two girls are planted in 5gal pots with Ocean Farm soil (couldn't find Happy Frog in my small town). They broke the soil on Christmas and are looking good. My big initial question is: Should I let these two go without attempting training since it's my first-ever grow, or should I attempt some kind of training?
Thanks so much in advance for what I hope is the beginning of a new journey in this community for me.
Kris
Welcome to the best place for help and information on your project. You will find all manner of peeps here who have experience and willingness to help, and unlike most other places, behaviour is kept friendly by our great moderators.
You look like you are off to a great start, likely because you have done your homework.
For what my opinion is worth, here it is:
- I would not fuss with scrog nets on your first grow, it just adds unnecessary complexity and limits options like removing your plant from the tent to work on it if needed.
- As others have suggested, topping may be a good idea given the size of your tent. I top all my plants just because I like the easier canopy management. Topped plants always have flatter canopies, and doing low stress training on them is easier. Topping is easy, and so far, I have never seen any significant negative response to topping in any plant I have grown. The one detail I would suggest here is that if you top do it as soon as the stem at the topping location allows you to cut it without harming the new leaves beneath it. Waiting until you have significant leaf development above the snip point just wastes time and plant resources. Snip as soon as you can do it safely, IMO.
- If you are on organic nutes, understand that you need to add them early and wait for results. Availability of nutes develops slowly with organics. I don't grow in organics any more, but there are lots of peeps here who can help with that. OTOH, don't get dragged into complicated processes, just keep it simple with top dressings as needed. Knowing what to add, when, how much, and how to correct when stuff goes sideways are not easy, which is why I didn't stick with organics.
- If you are on salt nutes, use a balanced nute package that would work for hydroponics - you are not doing hydroponics, but you need to make sure that you are adding everything needed. Keep it simple, just use the main nute package, you do not need to fiddle with all manner of additions to chase minor improvements. I would recommend a two part or three part system that allows different mix during flowering, but even simple one part stuff can produce an acceptable crop. You can get fancier after you learn more. Too many rabbit holes there that do next to bugger all to help a new grower. Your only challenge in this grow is just to not harm the plants by doing something wrong, they will produce just fine if you just deliver the basics.
- One of your most important challenges will be watering/fertigating sufficiently, but not overwatering. Others here can advise better than I can, but be aware that with soil mixes, judging irrigation amount and frequency can be daunting. Bottom line, as far as I can help, is don't go for significant runoff, this risks overwatering and wastes nutes. Many peeps here go by weight of the pot - when it has dried back enough, the change in weight is apparent. The problem is that as the plants develop, the amount of water they use changes dramatically, as does the risk of overwatering. Most overwatering I have seen on here has been when plants are young, you really need to be careful then because the small plants remove very little of the water or nutes from the soil. If you add too much, it just leaves the soil saturated and the developing plant at risk of damping off or other mischief. So, in general, be really sparing with the liquid while the girls are small, and IMO, keep all watering outside the shade area of your canopy until your plant gets three or four sets of leaves on her.
That's it for my suggestions, good luck with your grow, and welcome to the club. Oh, and by the way, 45 doesn't even begin to make you old around here, not even close.
