A noobs adventures in growing

[DrMJ]

Hey everyone,

Since having made the decision to learn to grow for myself, I figured I might as well start my own thread where I can post all kinds of dumb nooby questions and post my progress on this experiment.

I say experiment, because it's really just that right now.

Here's my plan - please be honest and upfront and let me know if I'm just too ignorant for my own good because I honestly don't know anything.

Over the past 6 months or so I've been saving the seeds I've found in my bud that I get from a friend (yes, st weed).
My thoughts are to germinate 2 of 'em (just to get my feet wet) and then pop those little ones into a 5 gallon bucket like you would get at home depot.
This way I figure I can save myself at least one step and not have to transplant later on and risk shocking it - see, I've been reading!

I'll be growing inside and out - I live in Arizona and while it's too cold to leave 'em outside for the night right now, it does usually stay over 60F during the day.
I was thinking of keeping it inside at night, and pop it outside during the day.
Being stealthy is not really a concern in the cool little private area I'm in so not worried about neighbors etc.. Plus I'm not going to be broadcasting this experiment to anyone outside of this site.

My questions:
1. Do you think the seeds I've been collecting will germinate? I've been getting medical grade pot for years now due to health issues so these seeds should be high quality.
Before you ask, no, I have absolutely no clue what the strains of the seeds are. I never paid much attention to the names they gave them. I just figured they got high and came up with silly names. But I digress...

1a. Is there a way to tell if my seeds are clones?

2. Is it okay to put my germinated seeds in a big plastic bucket like I plan to?

3. I'm on a crazy tight budget right now, so expensive lights, fertilizer etc... really isn't an option right at this moment. But I do plan to budget for the proper equipment in the near future. But until my finances change, it's basically a budget for a bucket and dirt. LOL

What are the basic MUST HAVE necessities I should start budgeting for.
- GREAT Lights
- Nutrient stuff but what? (I need to spend more time in the nutrient threads).

4. Smell - while I'm not worried about being super ninja stealthy, I AM concerned about odor. How strong of an odor do the plant semit as their growing?
I would presume it can get very strong when they start flowering. Some of the weed I got (maybe 4 grams tops) would instantly stink up my entire house just from opening the container for a couple of minutes while I packed the grinder. The crazy part was I was on the other side of the house! Not that I live in a mansion, but I was impressed by the potent odor of it. LOL yeah, some good good stuff there... Hopefully I've got a seed from that batch!

5. Is it okay to be moving my plant from indoors to outdoors so much?

6. How do you think this might impact the growth of the plant?

And finally (for now)...

7. Be honest with me, just how bad of an idea is this? LOL

I should have started off saying that the goal of this experiment is really to go through all the steps of growing and get some bud.
But I'm keen to learn so I can grow for life (a full hydroponics set up is my ultimate goal I think) and heck, you gotta start somewhere right?

Sorry for all the basic questions, but thank you for your help and guidance!

Any links you can share is also highly appreciated as I just joined the site and am still taking it all in. So much to learn about.

[Schmokin]

Your plan sounds just fine. DrMJ.
Remember that seeds out of bag weed might be male so you will need to keep a good eye open for sexing them.
If you are bringing them indoors and outdoors, you will need to make sure they get enough light to stay in veg ubntil you decide to flip them.. After that, you will need to make sure they get only 12 hours light and no interruption of the dark period. Broken dark periods during flowering can cause your pants to hermie.
The overall smell of the weed during flowering is totally strain dependent. Some strains don't smell, some strains stink like dead polecats. Was the bag of weed the seeds come from smelly?
If the seeds come from different strains then they may end up having different flowering periods, so be prepared for that.
If the budget is tight at the moment maybe just but a general fertilizer rather than special cannabis nutes. Tomato feed will help you. You're right, do some more reading about nutrients, once you understand their requirements you can meet them with stuff of the normal gardening shelves which is much cheaper than the specialist stuff.
Hope this is enough to help get you going. Be sure to ask more specific questions if you have them.

[Blaze4daze]

DrMJ

Schmokin has giv'in you great advice, 5 gallon buckets, some basic potting soil and inexpensive vegetable nutrients will get you started. As he has pointed out watch for your plants to start showing signs of their sex after about 5~6 weeks, normally since you don't know what strains your growing. Each is different like Schmokin pointed out.

By then they can be put in a totally dark room for 3 days and you should be able to see if their male or female a day or two after their brought out to the light. Since this is your first rodeo, (grow) bag seeds will work just fine to get you started learning how to grow. Your question (1a), no way to tell if your seeds came from a clone, or from seed form, if I understand your question correctly, seeds do come from a clone a lot of times, but not always. It depends on the origin of the original seed and there is no way to determine this, from a seed found in a bud from bag or dispensary weed.

Moving your plants to the sunlight will work, but they will need the most light that you can give them for those fat buds.

We are here to help new growers, like yourself with all your questions and help you get underway growing your own. So any and all questions are important in the learning process and we will help you every step of the way. Most of us here, really enjoy helping and seeing new growers succeed and love to see photos of your plants as they grow.

With a limited budget you still can make it work with just the basic stuff to grow your first plants, then you'll see how it goes and can invest more into better stuff for your plants, next grow. Buy then you'll have seen how it all goes down and will feel more comfortable about your next grow. Keep us posted on your progress and ask for more help anytime. Best of Luck to ya.

[slo-han]

Hey mj - look for some Petersons Fert - it will give you a starting platform(all fertilizers should be diluted at first). I also go for a non fertilized sack of dirt - that way you know what ya got. I might also suggest - you mention bag weed and it was commented that they can be either or. Why not start with 3 or 4 and if you get a male - kill it. It can be pretty disappointing to grow them out only to find you got males - 3 or 4 gives you better opitons and then take out the weaker ones(after they are sexed) - slo's 2 cents

[DrMJ]

Thanks everyone!

Slo-han, I got your msg but I haven't figured out how to respond. LOL
Thanks for the response and tips.

And I will definitely be asking a TON of questions.

My concern with germinating 3-4 seeds is if by some crazy chance they ALL go female on me. LOL what a problem... LOL
But you are probably right.
Since I've been so busy with work I haven't even had time to try to germinate the seeds yet.
But even more importantly, in my readings, it dawned on me my experiment might flower right when I'm out of town and we definitely don't want that to happen.
So I'm alright with waiting another week or two to start.
Just gives me a little more time to get my act together and learn more.

Is it normal for inside plants to flower in 8-12 weeks?

[jim16bo@yahoo.com]

Hi, I offer a seedling DNA gender testing at $3/plant. Just put a leaf in a plastic bag and send it to me firstleaf.xyz or call 858-344-0317. I also test seeds for gender.
Happy Growing, Jim

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