First Time Grower Questions.

[SheikYerbouti]

First time grower here. Love the website growweedeasy! Have read Ed Rosenthal’s book but have gotten more practical information and information I’ve practiced here. My setup; 2 x 4 x 5 grow tent, 2 LED lights, a viparpectra 300v and a Morsen that is rated at 600w but pulls just 140 Watts. Thought I could originally use the Morsen but quickly realized I needed additional lighting. First mistake I made, should have gotten 2 Viparspectra’s, what I get for being cheap.




I’m growing in an attic, super stealthy bordering on dumb but it’s working out so far. Temps in that area aren’t too bad. When it is in the low 30’s outside the attic is in the mid 50s. I have a small ceramic heater that keeps temps between 70 and 80, staying at 75 mostly. We’ll see how that goes if we get real cold.




I have 4 plants in 3 gal pots. 2 Northern Lights and 2 Blue Cheese from Seedsman. Started 4 seeds and all germinated. Flawless setting up Bitcoin account and purchase. Going into the 3rd week of grow and the ladies look great! One BC is slacking a little, runt of the bunch, not stretching to the light like the others, chalking up to the plant itself since I’m ph’ing all my watering and following the drain to waste nutrient schedule with the GH trio.




I plan on starting LST next week. First question; with the limited space I have, because I need space for heater should I continue with LST or possibly use a trellis and do SCROG?




2nd question; Would I have been better off having just 2 plants in 5+ gal pots for better yield?




Question 3, I have been using distilled water as the canvas for my nutes and using spring water for my every other watering. It’s staring to get expensive now, using over a gallon of water every 3 days. Im not using city tap water because of the chloramines. Our city water measures around 200 ppm. Does anyone have experience using water treated with chloramines and what effect would it have on the plants? I’ve seen using absorbic acid to neutralize it. Would really like to open the tap and use that, but don’t want to damage the babies, since they really are starting to take off.




Thanks for reading and any advice I might get!
Thanks GrowWeedEasy!

[Mr.furley]

Hello SheikYerbouti,
One of my favorite albums of all times....

Lst will help you control how your plant grows, I give 3 sqft per plant minimum. I have 4 plants in a 3×4 and
And it's a little crowded. I'm in 5 gal pots, with 4 at harvest, 4 ready to flower, 5 in a cloner, feeding 1.5gal to each plant every 3-4 days = 24 gals. A week. I have to hall water a short ways to the grow room and it's a pain and the butt. It is just tap water and I have not checked what the water company uses in it, it ppm 245, I let it vent till use and I haven't seen anything definable problems yet.
happy growing

[SheikYerbouti]

Mr. F thanks! Started 4 not expecting everything to germinate beautifully, but hey they did couldn’t bring myself to kill any. Yeah I can see now it’s going to get crowded. I’ll play it by ear and if I need to make a change I will. Love Zappa!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Me too, alot of folks don't realize how great of a guitarist he was , really one of the best of all times.
I use tap water like MrFurley does alot of times also ,I've always got several gallon jugs bubbling all the time, never had any problems with it, plus it's also got good stuff in it, that distilled doesn't have.

[Aloner]

I found out partway through my grow that one of my tapwater sources uses chloramine. Everything had been fine up to that point so I continued using it as is (only adjusting the pH, of course) and it did not cause any problems. As long as your water doesn't smell of chlorine, you should be ok, I'd think.

[GRAND]

Hi & welcome! I have the same size tent. I only grow 2 plants, because of LST. Also, I use my tap water, but I let it sit for like 2 days to vent out the chlorine stuff then add nutes then adjust ph and done. The scrog idea, is a lot of up keep, as well as make weekly water changes more difficult. I would stick with the LST! Good luck with your girls!!

[SheikYerbouti]

Grand, that was big concern accessing plants in small space with scrog nettingg. I’ll stick with LST. THANKS

[PRIMO]

Chloramine Buster is a specially developed triple action compound that safely removes chlorine, chloramines and ammonia from pond water. One oz. to 500 gal. so a little goes a long way.I use two drops per gal.
I think Clear pond is the mfg.

[SheikYerbouti]

Primo thanks. I check it out.

[Canuck147]

This is what I would tell a first time grower. Topping your plants is not hard. LST is difficult, cuz if you can't throw out seeds that have germinated - keeping your babies tied down when all they want to do is grow vertically - is hard. Was for me, I tried LST, but gave in and let them grow vertically.
And I would not recommend a scrog setup for a newbie - unless your thumb is already green and can grow a veggie garden every year. Once your scrog is setup, one should be able to open all sides of your tent so you can access all sides of your plants. Cuz once you're setup, there's no chance of moving your pots.
But it's your setup, good luck growing.
Do the topping and LST if you desire and watch how they grow. Plan on a scrog for your next grow.
my $.02 worth of info.

[SheikYerbouti]

Dude, did the topping can already see that growth has increased in the other nodes and the new growth. Thanks

[Canuck147]

That's great - have fun growing.