first grow, all help welcome

[brian arellano]

so finally started my second grow here in Colorado and got some ffof mixed with perlite for this grow. my first grow i posted ended quickly due to the choice of inferior top soil that i got from walmart really goes to show how you shouldnt skimp out on anything so here goes round 2. i have 2 Dreamwalker (from what i understand some cross of skywalker and blue dream) seeds i got form dispensarybag and 3 purple cotton seed (purple x cotton candy i belive) from bag as well and finally a random bag seed my brother found in an OZ he got form the dispensary but not sure on strain, im not to worried about amazing genetics right now since im just learning and i figured i would come here for more advice so here goes my second setup any advice or comments would be much appreciated.



only have the dream walker and bag seed pictures right now i started them first with the hope of getting 3 tangerine dream clones from a friend that had gnats so i turned them down and germinated 3 purple cotton seeds that all took and are looking good ill try to get some pics of them soon.



sorry about pic quality my phone sux ill try to upgrade asap

 

[brian arellano]

80% ffof with an extra 20% perlite added not going to use any nutes for first 2 weeks



a fan at one of the exhaust ports to try to get some air exchange :/



i am also going to purchase a therm/hydrometer for the grow room soon but temp when i put my hand right up to light is not bad at all



i do have a ph meter but need to buy distilled water to calibrate so not sure of ph right now and watering with plain tap water



did a toilet paper germination haha all i had but good germination rate out of 8 seeds 6 germinated and placed them in jiffy pellets for about 24 hours before the taproot started to show so transplated into party cups with the ffof blend (after flushing of course)



the first three seeds (dream walker and bag seeds) look like there getting a little tall, not bad at all but always prefer a bushy plant over a tall one since im growing in an apartment with t5 lights... purple cotton are looking nice but i moved all the plants about 2-4 inches from the t5 to get maximum effect



the pictures i posted are 1 week after i put the seeds in the paper for germination will try to update picks at least once a week.



thanx for reading

 

[woody333333]

you should try just water and transplanting thru veg ..... maybe one feed before the next size..... transplant a few times during veg.....

 

[brian arellano]

you should try just water and transplanting thru veg ..... maybe one feed before the next size..... transplant a few times during veg.....

yes i was thinking something like watering until they are about 6 inches tall then change them over to the 3 gallon pots i have.
i dont plan on haveing the plants be any taller than 2-3 feet at most so i think that the pot size is about right

thank you for the advice woody!!! any other ideas are welcome

 

[woody333333]

yes i was thinking something like watering until they are about 6 inches tall then change them over to the 3 gallon pots i have.
i dont plan on haveing the plants be any taller than 2-3 feet at most so i think that the pot size is about right

thank you for the advice woody!!! any other ideas are welcome

go from the solo to a 6 in square ......don't go straight to a 3 gallon pot ..get more roots if you transplant more often..... end up w unused soil in the middle of those three gallons that way....

 

[woody333333]

i wouldn't mix any extra perlite into that ffof either..... its a pretty good idea in the solo cups but after that youre just messing up the mix........ i know people do but..........

 

[brian arellano]

ive heard that fox farm is a little heavy and could use the perlite so i figured i would make the bag last longer by mixing it but ill see how it does with just ffof on the transplant.

it does make sense that the root ball would have less soil to try to spread through ill see if i can get a few pots in the next couple of weeks so i can at least have one more transplant before the final pot.

very excited for this grow just hope the t5's do ok for flowering. thanks again for the advice woody!!

 

[brian arellano]

any advice on how the keep the campey even? i was thinking about super cropping along with a scrog just need to build a net for the room. anything else i could try that would have a low chance of damaging the plant?

 

[TheYokel]

You can keep an even canopy just by bending the branches down and letting the plants grow to the same height before swapping.

You'll still get about 2 weeks of stretch after you swap, and one or two plants might grow a little more than another, but over-all you'll still keep an even canopy. Keep it simple. Especially if you have to move your plants in and out to water them.

 

[brian arellano]

You can keep an even canopy just by bending the branches down and letting the plants grow to the same height before swapping.

You'll still get about 2 weeks of stretch after you swap, and one or two plants might grow a little more than another, but over-all you'll still keep an even canopy. Keep it simple. Especially if you have to move your plants in and out to water them.

yes i will actually need to be moving them around for watering at least until i sex them and figure out how may females i will have. ill try to look into tying the main shoot down when they get about a foot or so.

Thank you for the advice if there is anything i mess up with is trying to get to carried away with complicated techs and forget its about learning

 

[Kush Knight]

any advice on how the keep the campey even? i was thinking about super cropping along with a scrog just need to build a net for the room. anything else i could try that would have a low chance of damaging the plant?

It's High Stress, but try mainlining for 1.5-2 ft tall plants. Cant promise exact same results as link due to dif lights, but probably will leave you with the most desirable nug size, density, and trich count. Each individual canopy will be perfectly even.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/mainlining-nugbuckets


I just finished a tie down lst t5 grow and am rather satisfied and suprised. Density was eh, and I could tell I was asking too much of the light, but still performed above expectations.

Btw t5 (a 4 bulb has 20,000 lumens, 5,000 per sq ft) 2-4" from seedlings is a nono. At least double to triple the distance would be advised.

 

[TheYokel]

yes i will actually need to be moving them around for watering at least until i sex them and figure out how may females i will have. ill try to look into tying the main shoot down when they get about a foot or so.

Thank you for the advice if there is anything i mess up with is trying to get to carried away with complicated techs and forget its about learning

Tie them down before they get a foot tall if you plan on doing any training... start while the stem is still pliable before it hardens off.

 

[brian arellano]

It's High Stress, but try mainlining for 1.5-2 ft tall plants. Cant promise exact same results as link due to dif lights, but probably will leave you with the most desirable nug size, density, and trich count. Each individual canopy will be perfectly even.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/mainlining-nugbuckets


I just finished a tie down lst t5 grow and am rather satisfied and suprised. Density was eh, and I could tell I was asking too much of the light, but still performed above expectations.

Btw t5 (a 4 bulb has 20,000 lumens, 5,000 per sq ft) 2-4" from seedlings is a nono. At least double to triple the distance would be advised.

after reading about main lining from that article im very interested in doing something like that but am a little scared i would damage the plant i am very new and would hate myself for killing my babys but i think ill do one of the plants and see how it goes very interesting though thank you for the read

 

[brian arellano]

so checked on the plants and moved them away from the lights about 6 inches away and also turned off 2 of the lights on the t5 alot of ppl on multiple sites say too much light and heat for the seedlings so you guys think this is right or should i keep all 4 lights on and just move them further away? the reason i ask is i noticed a little purple on the first set of real leaves on the purple cotton and temps dont go very low at night in our apartment so thought it might be heat stress ill try to post pics of the purple and all the seedlings like i said my phones camera sux sorry if you cant see the purple on the leaves

 

[Kush Knight]

so checked on the plants and moved them away from the lights about 6 inches away and also turned off 2 of the lights on the t5 alot of ppl on multiple sites say too much light and heat for the seedlings so you guys think this is right or should i keep all 4 lights on and just move them further away? the reason i ask is i noticed a little purple on the first set of real leaves on the purple cotton and temps dont go very low at night in our apartment so thought it might be heat stress ill try to post pics of the purple and all the seedlings like i said my phones camera sux sorry if you cant see the purple on the leaves
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As far as I can tell, they look fine right now. Seedlings are extra sensitive to pH, so check that you are in the right zone for soil.

No early nutes! Slight N def at week 2.5 is better than N burn at week 2.5.

I wouldn't worry about the seedlings until they are on node 5, counting cotyledons as 1. At this age, they will generally self correct with properly pH'ed water.If the problem becomes much more pronounced, then post some more pics.

As for the mainlining, as long as you can minimize additional stressors, it is rather easy. Just make sure you don't overfeed near topping times, don't forget to water, and be on top of pest control. rH is rather important in this method.

 

[TheYokel]

You do realize it is rather hard to starve a weed plant to death. It is, on the other hand, quite easy to love one to death.

Stop stressing, take it slow, and let the plants talk to you. Let them grow for 2-3 weeks without giving them anything except maybe 3ml of CalMag/gallon of water every other watering.

Let them get a weed leaf on them before you go nuting them up and running for the bottle, lol!

 

[brian arellano]

As far as I can tell, they look fine right now. Seedlings are extra sensitive to pH, so check that you are in the right zone for soil.

No early nutes! Slight N def at week 2.5 is better than N burn at week 2.5.

I wouldn't worry about the seedlings until they are on node 5, counting cotyledons as 1. At this age, they will generally self correct with properly pH'ed water.If the problem becomes much more pronounced, then post some more pics.

As for the mainlining, as long as you can minimize additional stressors, it is rather easy. Just make sure you don't overfeed near topping times, don't forget to water, and be on top of pest control. rH is rather important in this method.

thank you for the diagram, i will pick up some distilled water later for the meter and make sure everything is ok on the next watering date (about every other day) and to make sure my tap water is at 6.5.

I think i am being a little over paranoid haha ill post pics if they stay purple when the leaves get bigger and sorry for my ignorance but is rH room humidity?

 

[brian arellano]

You do realize it is rather hard to starve a weed plant to death. It is, on the other hand, quite easy to love one to death.

Stop stressing, take it slow, and let the plants talk to you. Let them grow for 2-3 weeks without giving them anything except maybe 3ml of CalMag/gallon of water every other watering.

Let them get a weed leaf on them before you go nuting them up and running for the bottle, lol!

Thank you for the advice i have a bad habit of stressing and hitting the bottle for sure but i dont plan on adding but outside of ph correctors from general hydroponics and i believe the go box did come with CalMag so might look into giving them some of that toward the end of next week.

 

[brian arellano]

sorry about not being able to post in a long time job changed days off so time has been limited. but on i good note the plants looking good so far, the purple on the purple cotton went away i think it might have been heat stress and went away once the leaves got any real size. the three plants that i germinated first are definitely growing fast and all three purple cotton plants look identical

i think ive decided to mainline not only the bag seed but one each of the purple cotton and dream walker after looking at a few grow journals it looks promising

ive noticed a little green moss growing at the base of the plants and after looking online it seems ive been watering too much. does anyone know if this is really the cause of the moss growing?

 

[brian arellano]

o and still no nutes plants seem ok but maybe a little lighter green at the very top. i do plan on giving them a low dose of the general organics nutes on the next watering in about 3-4 days and also ordered 1 gallon pots to transplant and will be moving them to there new home once i get them, within the week, and ill start the topping half my plants and cutting down to the 3rd node on the other half once they get used to there home in the one gallon pot of coarse just smoked some golden goat from the dispensery in town and feeling very mellow hoping my plants are close to as good!!