First Time Growers: You bought clones, now what?

Congratulations! Ordering your first set of clones is very exciting. Now the fun begins with experimenting and growing one of natures most rewarding plants. Many first time growers will start with anywhere from 4-10 clones/teens.

These clones are approximately 21-28 days from being put into soil.  They can grow fast under the right conditions, and once they start growing they take off quick.  We use Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil for new clones.  Fox Farm has a diverse array of essential organic plant food. Once repotted, we water our plants with filtered hose water. The filters are cheap and screw right into your hose. They work great at removing harmful chlorines and chloramines.

Re-Potting Plants

A big question first time growers always ask themselves, when to re-pot.  These clones are certainly ready to transplant, usually anywhere from 3-4 weeks is a good time.  If you re-pot too soon, the soil structure will not be strong enough to transplant whole.  This will cause growth to be stunted if you lose a large part of your rootball mass.  If you re-pot too late, the plant roots will be root bound and roots will not get enough food and will be stunted.

A good sign when your plants are ready to transplant is needing to water every 24-36 hours in a stretch of 3-4 days.  You can always check by holding the base of the stem, turning the plant upside down and letting gravity show you the root structure.  Check out the photo below for an example of this.

Transplanting Clones

This clone is ready to transplant.  First thing to consider when transplanting is how long you want the plant to spend in the new growing medium (we use Ocean Forest).  For example, a plant will out grow a 1 gallon pot in about 1 month, where a 3 gallon pot will provide enough soil and root growth for about 3 months.  So if your goal is to flower immediately, a 3 gallon pot will be plenty large.  A 1 gallon pot is too small to flower a plant in and your plant will not reach it’s potential while causing you to feed more often and with higher doses of nutrients. Check out our Pot Size Guide  for more info.

In this example, I re-potted the clones into 3 gallon plastic grow bags.  Using Fox Farm, I filled the medium up about halfway, padding the soil down firmly but not hard every 3-4 scoops.  It is very helpful to pad the edges more firmly using your fingers, this will give your bag a good structure.  Place the clone on top of the soil and then start filling more soil around it.  It helps to also cut any extra leaves towards the bottom that will not receive good sunlight later.  These nodes do not end up producing good buds as the energy of the plant will focus flower production to the tops.

Leaving a little room in the bag at the top will allow you to add more soil later.  As your plant grows it will be consuming plant food in the soil and the soil you add later will help replenish what has already been used by the plant.

Where to Grow

Lastly, first time growers always wonder where to grow their new plants.  If you plan on growing outdoors, check out our Outdoor Summer Grow Journal. If you have a nice enclosed backyard, having a southward facing sunspot will provide you with the strongest and most natural light source possible.

However for this example, we choose to do a small closet grow. Closets are very popular as their insulation within the house keeps temperature rather stable.  Growing in a garage will be more susceptible to temperature swings of either too hot or too cold due to poor insulation.  Using a grow tent anywhere in the house will absolutely help with temperature and reduce grow room contaminants.  Proper airflow is very important to consider which is a big reason consulting any grow on a basic level is never easy without seeing the space.  If you have a nice enclosed backyard, having a southward facing sunspot will provide you with the strongest and most natural light source possible.

In our example we chose a closet with good airflow.  6 plants is the legal limit in most areas of California for the home.  6 plants is also very manageable from start to finish, that includes canopy space, drying space, trimming and storing.  You can expect anywhere from 10-28 grams per plant.  Many factors for finished product are dependent on the lights used and size of plant at flower time.  We chose Mars Hydro LED lights for economical reasons and because they produce less heat that needs to be exchanged.  LED lights in this situation should produce anywhere from 10-14 grams yield per plant.

There are many more topics essential for first time growers, please have a read of some of our other blogs.