noob/MarsHydro question

[charlie3]

This will be my first attempt to grow meds for personal use only. My plan is to grow only one plant at a time. I'm using an indoor closet lined with reflective material. I purchased a 300w MarsHydro and it is currently hanging above a sprout with its' second set of leaves just now showing... There is also a 250w screw in CFL bulb in the closet.

I would like to get an ounce of dried meds out of this sprout. The seed is a sativa hybrid from Mesphisto that reportedly can generate good weight if grown properly. Is the light I have now enough to produce that much or would I need to add more light? If the soil and other conditions were perfect, can anybody guess how much dried weight I'd end up with with the existing setup? I've read the forums a bit and it appears most people are using more light than my starter setup here... but I only want to grow one plant at a time!

Is there such a thing as a perfect lighting setup for somebody doing a micro grow like this?

 

[Chester]

I wouldn't call what you have a micro grow ... assuming you have at least 5' of height and at least 2'x2' of space you can reliably produce 3-4 ozs of bud every 3 months ... it may take a grow or two to get to that point or you may get it first time .... the light should be perfect for one big plant ... tell us more about your space ... check out a few grows ... ask a lot of questions ...

 

[charlie3]

I wouldn't call what you have a micro grow ... assuming you have at least 5' of height and at least 2'x2' of space you can reliably produce 3-4 ozs of bud every 3 months ... it may take a grow or two to get to that point or you may get it first time .... the light should be perfect for one big plant ... tell us more about your space ... check out a few grows ... ask a lot of questions ...

Thank you for the reply. I'm a bit nervous about posting a journal but the space meets those measurements. My main concern right now is the soil. I have one of those cheap garden store ph sticks and I get different readings at different depths. I don't think that was my error because (before planting the root cube) I saturated the soil with ph balanced water and mixed it non stop for at least 15 minutes by pouring back and forth between two buckets. Then I tested ph of the runoff but it was hard to read because it looked like soup. The liquid seemed to be the right color but the readings give me starter's doubts.

The other problem I had which may throw off the first harvest? is the fact that the sprout popped out my root cube a week before the light arrived. She sat there with those four initial leaves for a week with next to no light. She really loves the light now. Under the LED for around 48 hours now... the second set of leaves came up after 24 hours ish... growing fast it seems.

Thanks again for the answer.

 

[Chester]

What seed, what soil and what nutes will you be using ... the first grow can be a learning experience but assuming it's an auto flowering plant you've come to the right place ... You'll need CalMag ... I have 3 Mephistos approaching harvest ... each grown w/ about the same amount of light you have ... they are in my first signature link ...

 

[charlie3]

What seed, what soil and what nutes will you be using ... the first grow can be a learning experience but assuming it's an auto flowering plant you've come to the right place ... You'll need CalMag ... I have 3 Mephistos approaching harvest ... each grown w/ about the same amount of light you have ... they are in my first signature link ...

I chose the only sativa that Mephistos had to offer: Fantasmo Express. I do not like couch lock qualities in my meds and I wanted an autoflower. Hopefully this one meets my needs.

The soil ingredients were taken from the Lowe's soil thread on the AFN forums minus the fancy stuff so my starting ph was a neutral seven. (potting soil, perlite, biotone, coarse sand). When I typed Cal/Mag into eBay, I came across a lime/cal/mag mixture. I knew adding lime/cal/mag would raise the soil even higher so I sprinkled a little ammonium sulfate in to the soil. I learned quickly that you don't need to add much! The soil ph dropped down to the 4 or 5 range. So my noob self tries to over correct by adding the lime/cal/mag mix to raise ph. i ended up dumping the whole bag and still the soil never came close to 6.5. So I dumped it out, started over with the potting soil/perlite/biotone/oops no more coarse sand. Then I took a very small amount of the bad (super low ph soil packed with cal/mag) round one soil and put it in the round two soil... voila... soil ph of 6.5

I will definitely be reading your Fantasmo Express journal tonight!

 

[Chester]

Lamberts Organic Potting soil from Lowes is my base soil ... I think you'll like the Fantasmo ... very trouble free plant ... did you say what nutes you'll be using ?

 

[charlie3]

nutrients: right now i'm just using ph balanced / oxidized water. in that Lowe's starter soil thread (or maybe it was one of the other stickied threads?) there were instructions to start with fish emulsion when third set of leaves pops and then gradually shift toward the recommended organic plant food using that rough week to week guideline. so i have all of those ingredients but all of the fancy ingredients: bone meal, getting cal/mag/silicone? in your water mix and flower tabs? all of these steps/concepts are still foreign to me

i read some of your journals and now i'm working on hubba bubba's KISS journal for fantasmo now... the baby girl is still young and there is still more to read

 

[charlie3]

... did you say what nutes you'll be using ?

I decided to use the TaNg feeding schedule for the first time just to take a crack at getting mine to look like yours. But for my second go around I might try a HubbaBubba KISS grow because I don't needs tons of weight to grow for myself.

All that soil mumbo jumbo I wrote last night gave me a headache... so I visited my friend eBay tonight. Nutes should arrive in time for day 10. All of yall have been a fantastic help.

 

[AKsteel]

Relax my friend, you are doing good. You have the best genetics, good lighting, and all of us here to help. A journal in the new growers section would help us help you. Being able to follow along and see pics will help us diagnose any issues that may come up. I have always used Tangs nutes schedule and have never gotten less than 1.5oz a plant, usually 2oz+ on average. You don't need to have all the nutes, you can just start with the base nutrients and a cal/mag suppliment. I use the sensi ph perfect personally. You're gonna do fine. Keep us posted and happy growing.