Short Grow Guide
Get Your Grow Room
Build or buy a grow room for your plants.
What your grow room needs
1. Good ventilation.
2. It has to be completely dark when your grow light is off.
Ventilation
Ventilation is a necessity to every grow room. If you have the right sized light for the right sized grow room they say you should get a fan that will clear the room's air with in 5 mins. I keep mine clearing in one minute to keep humidity down. You need to know the CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) of the fan you are buying. I make sure mine is more then the cubic feet of my room. I have a 4x4x6.5 grow room, so I multiply 4 times 4 times 6.5 and get 104 Cubic Feet. So I bought a 115 CFM 4" inline fan.
Get your Grow Lights
Grow lights are extremely important for marijuana plants. The more light you have the more yield your going to get. I recommend spending a couple hundred bucks on a light and make sure its the right size for your grow room. If you are using fluorescent lights you need to keep your lights two inches above your plants. If you are using HID lamps you will need to keep your lights 4 feet above seedlings and clones and 6 inches for 400 watt and below and 1 to 2 feet for anything above.
HID Light Output | Primary Growing Area | Supplemental Growing Area |
100 watts | 2' x 2' | 3' x 3' |
250 watts | 3' x 3' | 4' x 4' |
400 watts | 4' x 4' | 6' x 6' |
600 watts | 6' x 6' | 8' x 8' |
1000 watts | 8' x 8' | 12' x 12' |
Get your soil
Don't skimp out on the soil! It is one of the most important things. Get quality organic soil that has been treated for bacteria and insects. if you get un sterilized soil you will almost certainly have an infestation after it is too late to transplant. I recommend Biocanna's Bioterra Plus or Fox Farm's Ocean Forest. Bioterra Plus gives a better flavor and Ocean Forest holds more nutrients, you choose what is more important to you. Bioterra, you're going to have to feed nutrients more often. It has excellent drainage and holds a lot of water.
1. It should have great drainage. It should have some sand and/or sponge rock or pearlite.
2. PH should be around 6.5 to 7.0 because marijuana doesn't grow well in highly acidic soil. And the high acidity in the soil causes seeds to be predominantly male.
3. Soil should also have humus or matter similar to retain water and nutrients.
If you can't afford good soil. Get the best disinfected soil you can or get the best you can outside and bake in the oven from between 180 to 190 F for 30 min's. No higher then 190 F or it will produce plant toxins. Now take 4 gallons of your soil with two parts moss, one part sand, one part pearlite or sponge rock. Test the ph of the soil with a soil ph testing kit. To raise the ph one point add 1/2 lb of lime to 1 cubic foot of soil. Warning, skimping out on the soil DOES NOT PAY OFF!!!
TIP!!! A combination of 2 parts Fox Farm Ocean Forest and 1 part Biocanna Bio-Tera Plus has really increased my growth rate, size and potency!
Get your Pots
Pots are very important because your plants need lots of root space. The pot most have good drainage or the plant will drowned. Its easier to kill a plant by over watering then not watering enough. The size of your plant is determined by the size of your pot. You should only transplant your plant once so make sure you get the right pots. To avoid transplanting at all get Jiffy Pots and just put them directly into the soil. Get small pots for seedlings and clones and 2 to 5 gallon pots for adults. Make sure your pots are sterilized. Square pots have more space to use then circular but when the roots hit the corners they quit circling around the pot so it sort of evens things out.
Marijuana Nutrients
Marijuana plants love lots and lots of nutrients or for short, nutes. They can take as much as you can give them just as long as you add it over a period of time. If you can't afford the Bio Boost then you can replace that with unsulphured molasses, it is not as good, but it is as close as you're going to get.
Watering
Do not water marijuana plants with new root systems with strong nutrients. Work your way up slowly. Water thoroughly when you water and only water when you have to. Make sure you water until water is coming out of the bottom of the pots. If you do not water all the way threw the roots will start growing upwards towards the water. Over watering is one of the biggest killers of marijuana plants by newbie growers. Marijuana plants will die faster from over watering then from lack of watering. So be careful when you are watering your plants. Water with nutrients twice, then with water once and repeat. You can also foliar feed your plants by mixing 1/3 of your nutrient solution with water and putting it in a spray bottle and spraying the tops and bottoms of your leaves.
Humidity
Humidity for vegative with marijuana isn't a problem with vegative plants unless its above 90%. During flowering you need to keep it between 30% to 45%.
Picking your Marijuana plants
Make sure you select plants that need a similar environment when picking your plants. Make sure if you get indica you only grow indica and if you get a sativa you only grow sativa. Indica plants are very short with more buds and sativa is very tall with fewer buds. Most people grow indica because you can get more marijuana per square foot. I don't like indica so I just grow all sativa. If you grow a sative and you flower at 1 ft tall, your plant will get about 3 ft. Indica stays much shorter.
Starting from seeds
If you are starting from seeds. Here are the steps to go through.
1. Take your seeds and soak them in water tell they sink to the bottom.
2. Then put them between several wet paper towels in a warm area and they should pop open within a week.
3. As soon as they pop open and the white tail sticks out. Put them in some moist soil with the white tail sticking UP! I know it sounds weird, but that is how they grow. Then sprinkle some soil over them.
4. Put the seedling under some fluorescent lights or 4 feet below an HID
5. Make sure you transplant before the roots become root bound. Once a plant becomes root bound it's growth will be stunted forever.
Starting from Clones
If you are starting from clones then your job will be much easier. If you are growing sativa, put it on flowering when its a foot tall, it is going to get a lot bigger. Put your clones under a fluorescent light until the root system grow and then put them under an HID until it gets a foot tall and then start the flowering cycle. Make sure you transplant before the roots become root bound. Once a plant becomes root bound it's growth will be stunted forever.
Transplanting
Transplant when your roots start wrapping around the inside of the cup. Make sure you don't let it get too bad. If the plants get root bound it will stunt the plants growth forever. Remember that if you are going to low stress train your plants that you do it before you flower.
Pruning
You should prune in the morning to give the plant time to repair during the day when it gets sun light. Try to only prune in the early vegative stage or it will reduce yield.
Flowering
When you are ready to flower your plant remember its going to stretch out so do it before your plant is to big for your grow room. To initiate the flowering cycle you need to put your plants on a 12/12 light cycle. That means for 12 hours your grow lights need to be turned on and then turn them off for 12 hours. Your grow room needs to be no brighter then what light the moon would create when you are flowering. If you would like to clone a bud and grow it out of the ground.
Stages of flowering
Week 1 - Tops of plants start developing with leaves tighter and closer together with a tight hard center. These are your first buds but you are no were near done.
Week 3 - Tops are covering with pistols leading to small bubble like areas.
Week 4 - Heavy noticeable resin and smell appear.
Over the next few weeks they will get denser and taller. Between week 6 to 10 weeks is your prime harvest.
When you start noticing amber trichomes its time to stop watering with nutrients and use water only to flush the plant of nutrients so you don't smoke them later..
Harvesting and Curing
When the hairs starting turning red is when its about time to harvest. Depending on what kind of high you want is when you will harvest. If you want a stony cerebral high you harvest early, a late harvest will give you a narcotic effect. To harvest, Then you Harvest over a piece of wax paper to save all crystals that fall.
1. Clip the branches off with the buds you want.
2. Clip off all of the leaves and save the leaves with crystals for keef or hash.
3. Hang these branches upside down and a cool dry room until they are nice and dry to the touch.
4. Cut all of the buds off the branches
5. Get a mason jar or some air tight container and fill the jar with your trimmed buds and close.
6. Vent every few hours the first couple days, then once a day for 2 to 6 weeks
Your done! Time to smoke!