I recently got my medical card and realized that means I can grow my own plants (6 mature and 6 immature at any given time). So having never grown anything in my life…this has become my new obsession/hobby.
Follow along and offer input and suggestions. I literally am still learning sooooo much!
Welcome to the community! you’re at the right place and it is a very enjoyable Hobby.
This is my grow room. I had a spare garage under my house that we weren’t using. I took the garage door down and built a wall with a door. Added an exhaust fan to create a negative air pressure and pull air from a crawl space on the opposite side of the room. Being under ground the space stays pretty cool. But humidity was an issue (hovering around 80%) so I got a dehumidifier. The space is 14’x19’. There were existing shelves and three walls but I removed the side shelves and painted the walls and floor white.
I’m in the lighting industry so I got some good deals on six 480w led grow lights. I powered them up so that I can switch them on or off individually as needed and their on pulley systems. Next up…the plants.
Welcome to the forum! Looks like a nice space to work with.
Do you have a goal for harvest and yield amounts? Are you just growing for your own consumption or more than that? And if for yourself; how much do you need per year? This is a very important question.
If you are looking for yield, photoperiod plants should be grown instead of auto flowering strains. Partition your space to allow for a veg and flower room separate from each other.
One problem you may have with those lights is footprint. You are going to have difficulty getting more than one plant under the light unless it’s so high you lose efficacy.
I strongly suggest you peruse some grow journals to get ideas. For example: dividing your space up can be done with not much more than some rigid Styrofoam, a few furring strips and a utility knife. Tents inside a controlled space like that work very well too: then you control the environment of the room to maintain the grow space(s).
Being my first time growing I decided to do autos. I’m not a heavy user but there’s a lot of demand for bud at the dispensaries here so while this is technically a hobby, I do have my growers license in the works. Quality is my number one priority right now. And just getting something that grows haha. I decided on doing two Auto grows three weeks apart and then move to a photo grow for my third round since the auto flowers won’t care about the lights being on in the room. I figured I’d cycle like that to get the most use out of my space.
The lights are on a pulley system and have a recommended 5’ on center spacing. The horticultural lighting company ran photo metrics for me so that’s what they told me. I’ll post photos in a minute of how many plants I’ve got under the lights.
I went with ILGM GSC autos for the first grow. 10 Seeds came and all sprouted in a solo cup that I left in my laundry room. I set up coco coir and perlite but I used rehydrated bricks so I made sure the water I used to hydrate it was ph balanced tap water that had calimagic in it. Seeds went in and I put them under lights (didn’t realize I didn’t need to do that just yet). I had 7 out of 10 pop up ranging from 2 days to a week after going in the coco. I also had no idea what to expect for the size of these plants (hadn’t found this forum yet) so I went too big on the fabric pots and got 10 gallon short ones. Next time I’m doing it in 5 gallon. I also thought I’d put some outside so I bought big 20 gallon ones but ended up putting two seeds in each of those. Yeah, in retrospect I didn’t realize that was a bad idea. Didn’t matter much because only one in each pot popped up!
I was told that the lights should be 3’ off the plant and I’m pretty sure I burned them up A little as babies. Oops…one got ultra crispy. Moved the lights about a foot higher. All doing good (#4 is my beast and I named her Sheila). Poor little #7 is so sad. I named him Lazarus because he’s come back from the dead at least once. Not gonna give up on the little guy though.
And then nothing fun and exciting happens for the next two weeks. I’m right at three weeks on the girls. I’ve given nutrients a couple of times now (basically every other watering). They seem happy and healthy. I have had an issue with bugs so neem oil once a week.
So this is where we are. Three weeks. Not really sure what to expect next. Flowering?
What nutrient line are you using?
Do you check PH? If so; how?
How about TDS?
Coco is one that is fairly technical as well to maintain ideal conditions. This means you should be using both meters to mix nutes and to check runoff when you get to that point.
Looks like a nice start.
I bought this off amazon but I don’t like it. I’ve been using the drops to get my water in range with some ph down.
I don’t know what TDS is. I just bought a test that measures Nitrogen, phosphorous and potash. I haven’t used it yet but I’ll see my plants on Wednesday. (I have a friend who takes care of them while I’m gone).
Looks like you’re off to a great start. I would enjoy following along. I have a plant in coco as well, I didn’t think I would enjoy that medium, but I have. Larger plants in smaller containers.
Sour Diesel is talking a little there. Yeah it came down @Myfriendis410 weights in my thread in bit. Maybe…
How did it smell? IIRC mine never developed that sour fruit/fuel profile until jarred for a couple of weeks.
@violagirl0 that meter is kind of hard to calibrate. They have another one that is much easier to use. That said I own a Bluelab now. The meters you use for PH and TDS (PPM) will be the most used tool you have, growing cannabis. The TDS meter tells you the strength of a solution. This is essential when supplementing or running hydro. This is something you really should get a handle on.
@violagirl0 glad to see you go ahead and make a journal. So many folks like @Myfriendis410 @Covertgrower and several others on here guided me through the process on both my grows. With everybody’s help, I’m now making my rdwc. Looking forward to watching you “grow”… lol 
Do you have a tds/ppm that you recommend?
Also, when should they start to smell? I figured flower stage but damn if I don’t have two girls that are fragrant since week two. Not all but about two of them 
I literally can’t wait to taste my own grow. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.
Looks like you have a great space there! Best of luck with everything, you got this! 
@Covertgrower I thought it might be easier to try some different mediums but I realized quick I’m way too inexperienced. Coco is somewhat difficult to come by so I looked for what I could get locally and not have to add nutrients to. I started another grow the other day and I’ll tell you, the coco is soooooo much more responsive. I’ll post on Wednesday the results of my “experiment” 
With local potting soils vs coco. Spoiler alert…going coco for awhile.
I’m just gonna come right out and say it, if you’re growing more than two plants, you’re way out of my league.
@Myfriendis410 and @Covertgrower taught me everything I know but dang it, they refused to teach me everything they know…
@HappyHydroGrower what happens next? My autos will start to flower? Anything I need to know about when that starts? Or just sit back and watch em get bigger?
I’ve never done an auto but have seen plenty that have.
After about 6 weeks maybe?.. you’ll start to see pistils growing.
One thing about auto’s is, it doesn’t matter what light schedule you’re on. I believe most would run 12/12 if they can.
Then about 6-8 weeks later you’ll have something to smoke. @Covertgrower @Myfriendis410 can explain the cycle way better than I can Am so envy of the space you have to grow. You’ll be able to become a manufacturer out of that space…lol
Forgive me if I ever tell you something you already know. I just like sharing my experiences. 
Total disolved solids, it passes a small curren throught the probes which measures electrical conductivity of the solution. This means only compounds that have metalic elements inthem are detectable. As an example, iron, Phosphorus, magnesium are detectable, whereas chlorine is not. Pure water is not very conductive. Water with impurities becomes more and more conductive. Hope tha answers your question about TDS? Nice start. Have fun!
