New Grower WileyWilly's NL Virgin grower

Man I can't imagine me having grown something that looks that nice. But with ya'lls help maybe I can. well while I am waiting for the girls to wake up and move my fan etc... May I ask a few more questions.
1. I have 32 dry quarts of potting soil and 8 dry quarts of perlite should I just mix the whole 8qts in with the 32qts or do I need more or less perlite.?
2. I did buy a soil ph meter and according to the instructions it says to take a soil sample out of pot and mix with water to make mud then get reading. I am thinking that the soil sample would optimally come from the middle of the pots and I DO NOT want to do that for obviously disturbing roots, but at the same time I can't imagine just getting sample from the very top of the planter pot, that's not where the roots are feeding from. so is the equation for checking soil ph going to be as close as a meter. I do not have the equation memorized but you guys know which one I am talking about. ph water in +/_ run off out = soil ph something like that ? maybe I can take soil meter back if so.
3. is the one light I have, going to be enough light for the 2 plants ? would it be enough for just one plant ? I was originally just going to do one plant but I thought I screwed the first seed up, so I did a second seed and then the first seed showed up. My first lesson Be more patient.
4. I was going to use 5 gallon bucket for one plant, but now with 2 plants I think I am going to use two 2.11 gal pots my wife has laying around. will those be big enough for excellent root growth ?
5. last but not least I had a thought and that could always be trouble. What if your plant pot was big enough, for example a 5 gal bucket with one plant and when you watered the plant you actually just water in a certain spot, like the north side of the pot and then next time you water, you water the east side of pot then next time you water do the south side of bucket ect.... would that maybe guide or lead the roots around the pot so you ended up with more roots ???? just a thought. Like I said on very first post I am going to be a pain in the booty and a nervous damn wreck before this is all over with. Thanks again AFN you don't know how grateful I am for the helpful and friendly members you have assembled here. :peace:
 
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Hey again dubdub53. Hit this and sayyyyyyyyyyy "fuck it". :smokebuds: Well not fuck it really, but you know what I mean. Be easy and patient. And please please trust me, ask anyone here or go look at my crap grows..I have had SO many issues and am the same way.. I wanna pile a lot of questions on because I have to know NOW! :lol: Now worries. I for one can decipher through and answer ALL of your questions the best I can, it's what I do. I am no master, but I am FULL of knowledge. Let's go:

1. Does that MG soil have perlite already? And btw surely you've heard that we are disheartened by MG products, especially for Autos. Just beware, that stuff is icky. But I have seen plenty a successful grow with it anyway. So...back at it.
If it doesn't have perlite or just a little then yes you're good at the ratio. That's 25% perlite added. Cool hand luke in my book.
2. Yes, what kind of probe did you acquire? It definitely needs to be wet for the proper test and you should leave it in for about 10 minutes to get a sufficient reading. I wouldn't think it would need to be mud though, that's crazy, MJ don't really like mud. Wet/moist is fine. :D
Insert that bad boy about halfway in between stalk and edge of pot, CAREFULLY and SLOWLY, feeling your way through. They are designed to separate the roots sorta and slide through, but again, be careful. If you have a quality soil probe then runoff tests aren't really necessary. I still don't have one and I rock runoff tests.
3. No worries. Two will be good. General rule of thumb is 75-100 watts per plant.
4.Sounds good. 3 is average I would say, maybe even a kitten hair less. I use 5L Tiered with 32oz cups so that's about 2 gallon total. 3 is great, 5 is max for Autos and I think that depends on if you have the monster strains or not.
5.I wouldn't suggest that. Water your soil around the plant until it's big enough for a 'full' watering. The roots will search out and look for water no matter. Just my opinion and experience in Horticulture. Someone can feel free to correct me no worries. :D

And remember, you make AFN what it is...:peace:
 
Great news the fan blowing on the light has temp at a steady 81 degrees, and light is only 5 or 6 inches above tips of girls. and thermometer is right besides plants like I see in most pics. I think that's acceptable huh. TYVM Squid. need the emote dude that says DOHP, that was so simple and I never thought of it. it even puts the slightest breeze on the twins and that should help make them sturdy also right. Like a cool Jamaican breeze. I will add some pics tomorrow I don't want to wake the boss lady. I looked and there is no perlite in the soil I bought. Pic below with ingredients if you can see it. I still have time to run to lowes or homey dePOT if you think I should get something different. It also talks about being able to feed plants for 2 months. Should that be telling me it could be a little hot already ?
 

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Yes, your thermometer at about canopy level is what most do. Some of them have the little remote wired sensor you can stick wherever you wish.

Good deal on the fan and light, glad that helped. It's a good idea to point your fan at the wall and let it bounce around when they're seedlings especially. Good very good.

And oh man, I didn't know you were able to get something else, thought you were kinda 'stuck' with the MG soil. Ditch it! Wayy too much bark anyway for Cannabis. Pretty much ALL of MG stuff has time release nutes or just too much in general for the ganja. The NPK numbers are light on that, but I would still not use it for my Canna plants. Anyway...

Hopefully someone locally carries Promix. Home Depot or Ace Hardware should have it. I get mine from a local nursery. Look for the BX or HP mixes, they're around $35 for a bigass bale and it will last you a good while, it's compressed. Promix is what A LOT of members here use. It is peat moss, perlite, lime and a wetting agent, that's pretty much it. GREAT for starting seeds in and can be amended or added to anytime. If you can find that, get it! :lol:
 
Hey squid the girls are looking good temps ok 81 still. I looked at Lowes and Home depot and neither have the PROMIX by the way is BX or HP a thing in the pro mix or is it something totally diff. ? Sears has this stuff
http://www.sears.com/search=potting...5&autoRedirect=true&redirectType=CAT_REC_PRED
Or if I can keep my wife from beating me up for spending more money, I have seen the blackcow, I have egg shells ground fine I been saving, coffee grounds, and some of that baby powder stuff, All I would need is Bone/blood meal, liquid kelp, epsom salt to make the FD mix. and I saw all that at the place where I got the FF Nutes. Should I get that complicated or just try to find comparable pro mix. I owe ya one for your help bro.
By the way my digital Ph meter came in so I Ph'ed my bubbled rain water to 6.5 I had to add some vinegar. but it started at 7.1
 
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Sounds good. Where are you getting the FF stuff from? Maybe they have the Promix or Sunshine mix.
And you're welcome dude. My pleasure.
 
a feed and seed store in the lil town next to mine. I did call a local garden shop and when I asked if they carried promix she said NO. they make there own, I believe she said something about 6-6 ? said it had pete moss perlite and some other stuff, it is a lot closer. Dang I thought I was ready. BUT I guess it is part of the learning curve. I didn't want to be a chemist, but I do want to use what ever produces a quality product and I will learn as I go.

If I have trouble finding the promix or sunshine would a combo of these work ? the cow poop, petemoss and perlite ? don't know about vermiculite

http://www.lowes.com/pd_322730-8258...rentURL=?Ns=p_product_avg_rating|1&facetInfo=
 
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Anything primarily peat based would be great. Something with little to no nutes. Promix BX is peat, perlite, lime and a wetting agent. Not sure about the wetting agent, but the others should be fairly easy to get. Do they have FoxFarms Light Warrior at the shop? That would work too. I subscribed to your thread so it will be easier for me to find now. :lol: :D
 
Thanks a million Squid for all your help and I am just starting, I am not a idiot, I just think I have overloaded with all the reading for almost 2 months on a nightly basis. I was reading on the Ph again yesterday because my meter CyberTech PHTester PH-107 Digital pH Meter Tester came in. I took the gallon Jug of bubbled water. I have had it bubbling 20/4 just like the plants for a few days now. after calibrating I checked it (by the way it is rain water I have collected) and it was 8.2 so I added some distilled vinegar to lower it. I saw where it says in the thread that 5 ml should drop it one degree but it dropped all the way to 4.? so I had to add baking soda to get it back up. I finally got it at 6.5, so this morning I was going to water them for the first time (they really need it) I wanted to be safe so I checked the water and dang if it ain't back to 8.4 ( I thought FD's post said bubbling it will help it hold it's Ph longer. any way I rechecked calibration and sure enough the meter is still correct, so I checked un bubbled rain water supply and it is 8.2 My wife has some bottled water in the fridge and it says it has some flouride in it though, and it is 7.2 So now what ? I don't want to have to keep adding vinegar LOL I will be smoking pickled plants. Is rain water usually that high ? I need to figure out how to slap a rep on you even if it will not be to many points I think you deserve it.
 
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