1st Grow WW, Santa Maria.

[clekstro]

I began this first experiment with 11 seeds total: 10 Nirvana-ordered WW, and one SM seed dug from a bag while blazing in Amsterdam. My friend's buddy was nice enough to donate it to the grow as I had explained him my intentions...
Germinated seeds properly, i.e. the popular paper-towel method, kept damp/wet for 24 hours until first seed was ready (Santa Maria, of course), and planted in peet containers as I wanted to avoid the shock. My soil consisted then of floragard vitalblumenerde (a german hardware store flower soil, unsure of nutrient values... mixed with white aquarium sand, pinch of lime (actually greater at the beginning, perhaps 20% or so) and 10% perlite. Within 5 days, all seeds had sprouted and been planted, root down. The SM was still healthiest, although several WW seedlings were looking good as well.
Light consisted of a kitchen light, 40W and an 8" flourescent, run during the night and when there wasn't a windowsill available that was exposed to sunlight. 24/7 until 2.5 weeks or so when they were moved into a bigger closet. Before the had grown past the lids of the peet containers, I covered them at night with plastic to keep humidity up after watering and prevent mold.

 

[clekstro]

By the way, started with germination on apr. 17, SM came up the next day...
second batch of pics dates from days 3-5 to day 8 or so. Not exactly sure as I had assumed the camera would keep the date somewhere and it didn't. That's sort of the reason I'm trying to throw this whole thing together, to give it a little more order as well as to get some feedback/ideas. I've already had a few comments for pics that i had randomly chosen before to upload, but will post them here anyway so that everything is in it's right place...

 

[clekstro]

Once plants had grown taller than the peet containers, I found a somewhat larger pot to place them in, and kept the soil nearly the same. I added a porous material called seramis, which is a sort of nutritious hydroponic mix that completely replaces soil, and transferred the plants to their larger homes.
At this point I had no ph measuring device, so I watered with bottled water when possible and used tap water nervously, although it didn't seem to harm the plants. Also at this point, I prepared to move the plants into the grow closet I had constructed. I bought a regular 40W oscillating fan for air circulation, and ordered a 400 W HPS bulb to fit into my built in ballast/reflector. Had not yet used nutes, as the plants were at this point only 9 days old or so. Also pulled one plant before the transplant, bringing the total to 10: 9 WW and SM.

 

[clekstro]

It must also be said that the roots had already started to grow out of their peat containers before they were transplanted, but only barely. While shopping I spotted some lights which could be easily transformed into grow lights. While certainly not the ideal option (this, for me, was already on its way) it would give more light than none, considering that the larger pots could no longer fit on the windowsill and therefore received little direct sunlight. The bulbs were energy saving 20W bulbs supposed to put out 100W, and put out 1300 lm. apiece; at least the packaging said so. I had worried that the plants would suffer if the lights were too low, and wanted to avoid leaf burn or actual physical touching of plant and bulb as the plants were growing fairly fast, yes, stretching toward their pathetic light source. Yet I'm not so sure that such a start was to my disadvantage. I will discuss this in a more recently dated post. The plants stayed under constant light and "wind" conditions until the HPS bulb arrived (I ordered a plantastar 400W with extra blee spectrum) and i had begun to give them half strength nutrients between the second and third weeks. Growth at this point was rapid, meaning that the plants were stretching really badly, as they were not thickening. There were perhaps only four nodes with a height of over one foot.

 

[clekstro]

Started having problems as the leaves had started to burn due to some miscalculations. I had read that spraying the foliage with the foamy, carbonated water would be a natural (and especially inexpensive way in europe) to add co2 to the plants and increase growth. Unfortunately, this resulted in the burning of the leaves as seen in the first thumbnail.

The next problem became apparent as other leaves that had not suffered light burn began to show signs of nutrient deficiency, leaving me to ponder my next move. I still had no idea what the ph was, but followed a hunch that with the addition of the seramis, that the ph had lowered significantly enough to lock out the nutrients, as i had read on many other forums and grow logs. This proved to be a great move as the plants appeared greener and healthier overnight.

Recovery was prompt, and growth started once again to thicken once the nutrient problem was taken care of. I began to fertilize with full strength regular flower fertilizer, and then doubled it as it no longer sufficed (it was particularly low strength 7-3-6 NPK.

At this point, I also had to reconsider my grow closet's dimensions in light of the distance that would be required between the HPS bulb and the plants and accommodating the giant leap up expected during flowering. So I set to work to gut the closet, removing even the lower drawers to get as much room as possible. This left me in the end with a grow space (extremely small for an HPS setup I think) of 1.35m height, 1.15m wide, and .62m deep, which equals roughly 1.2 cubic meters. I was required due to temperature difficulties arriving from the use of the HPS to leave the closet doors open much of the day, wasting light and, seeing as the closet is located next to a window, perhaps attracting unwanted attention in the later evening hours. I should also say that I watered as every successful beginner probably does, a little too often than may be necessary, but not enough to kill them or cause severe irreversible problems. I was leaving the plants alone on the weekends while I was away, and worrying the entire time that they would die due to the heat. I was always pleasantly surprised, however, and found them each time to have grown healthier and thicker. I had bought some timers and set the fan to run 24/7 and lights on for 18, off for six and let the cheap energy efficient bulbs run all 18 hours, while having to shut off the hps every other fifteen minutes to keep from turning the closet (and my bedroom) into a furnace. Next on the list was a grow closet renovation...

 

[clekstro]

So the plants got some fresh air while the grow closet got a makeover. I set to hanging the HPS bulb with some manually adjustable chain, but ran out of time before I could fully finish hanging the rest of the white plastic. The plants had also outgrown their second container and were ready to be transplanted into their final containers. I could only fit 7 of them inside, however, and opted to choose the healthiest 7 that I could find, and let the other two feed off of the sunlight that made its way into the living room in the afternoons. I watered and left for the weekend, deciding to leave the HPS on and see what results would come. I was pleased with the results...

 

[clekstro]

In order to rid the grow closet of the heat, I ordered an inline fan with some dryer tubing attached to a coal filter for the eventual perfume of my lovely ladies... The heat is only a problem on hot days, as the temperature at my place rises above the 32 degree Celcius, and the fan can do nothing against it. The plants appear, however, to be healthy. From now on I will only be posting my progress. This set of pictures spans the week before last, days 30-34. Earlier I said that I would comment on how the stretching of the first few weeks may have in fact been to my advantage, and I would appreciate others' opinions on this as well.
I have seen in various grow films, posts and threads, how the cutting of the lower branches and leaves may be to the benefit of the plant's overall health: it lets the air circulate above the sections of the roots meant to soak up oxygen, does not waste the plant's energy in trying to maintain lower foliage that does not receive enough direct light which, in my opinion, would probably slow growth. My previous dilemma has left me with open stems that promote good air circulation (a huge plus in my tiny grow space) as well as not requiring me to trim the lower branches, therefore avoiding shock to the plant. I also have picked up a cheap soil ph monitor, and have been consistently between 6.5-7.
The fourth photo below shows the overall setup of the new and improved grow closet, as well as the healthy foliage underneath!
Also feel free to ask questions, as I am sure that I've forgotten tons of somewhat important info trying to summarize 38 days of growth in only 7 posts. The last pictures are as of yesterday.

 

[midgradeindasouth]

You need to be in a gal pot atleast.
You want 1gal per foot of growth.
You can bury the stem up to the 1st set of round leaves to combat the stretching.

You want the hps within 18".
As close as you can get it without burning.

You have not said anything about ferts (may have I do not recall).

You should add ferts at 1/4 strength after 30ds from seed.
Also you want to feed them and let them dry all the way out before watering or feeding again.

Ventilation is imparitive for plant health.
Ideally you want the air in the room to exhaust itself within 5 minutes.

Looking pretty good so far.
With a little learning you should do very well.

Happy growing

 

[clekstro]

ARRGHHH. So I've spent about two and a half hours typing this thing up and waiting for pictures to upload, and upon reading midgrade's response, realized that the last part that I had just posted for some reason never showed up. Tja. So I will give a quick response to midgrade, as I have left out some of the things he questions, and post the last set of pics that are from yesterday.

Containers: The containers are probably at least 1.5 gallons. I learned that same rule from Jorge Cervantes on the grow DVD, and took it to heart. Plenty of room for roots, plenty of porous material mixed in to facilitate good drainage and oxygen delivery to the roots.

Stretching now, and I think you can see it in the pictures, is no longer really a problem. Under the HPS, it seems to be coming in dense and bushy anyway, and the plantastar 400W with the extra blue spectrum seems to be doing its job. That really doesn't seem to be a concern, but maybe you disagree...

Ferts were unfortunately in my last post:
I decided that I would not be buying some expensive marijuana-specific fertilizer, as I have spent enough on the grow up to this point and will have a hard time convincing my wife, who doesn't smoke, to shell out even more money on this project (even though she will be ingesting some buttered deliciousness on occasion...)
Inspecting the nutes we already have at home, I came across some cactus fertilizer and bonsai fertilizer, and seeing as both had higher 2nd and 3rd NPK digits, decided to mix them. The cactus was 3-7-5 and the bonsai was 3-5-7 or vice-versa, leaving a solution (if balanced) of 6-12-12, a combination I have seen said to be appropriate. I have been using a 1.5 L water bottle for nutrient and water purposes, but the dilution instructions were different for each and required a little calculating to balance them out somewhat well. The final concentration works out to 13.5-26.3-28.3, which seems more on par with what I've seen.
@Mitgrade: I had been using 7-6-3 ferts during vegging stage, and had noticed how small those numbers were compared to other fertilizers, and have noticed no ill effects from the "double dosing." Could your rule have something to do with fertilizers of a higher concentration?

Watering, although tempting to do often (and apparently due to its ability to lower the temperature somewhat in my closet) has been done in my opinion correctly. I watered them today with the bonsai/cactus solution, .75 L per plant, and no water came out the bottom after I was done. I had not watered in 4 days, and had patiently waited until the middle of the soil had dried up before going ahead and watering...

Ventilation is no longer a problem: I have an inline fan set to clear out 410 cubic meters/hour. 410/12 will give me the amount cleared in five minutes, and this is over 3 times my grow area of close to 1.2 cubic meters. There is also a little fan hanging from the ballast, blowing the heat towards the coal filter to be jetted out quick, and this seems to be keeping the temp. around 28 degrees Celcius, but I can't go any lower than this when the temp in my place itself is also that high. No A/C in europe makes growing in summer a challenge, to be sure...

Thanks for the comments, and I will keep pictures coming every couple days. Let me know if something seems really out of place...

 

[clekstro]

The plants seem to have taken quite well to the new fertilizer, although I am wondering if the N value was not a little too high. I only have another 14-15 inches that I can move my light up, and am going to have to start considering alternatives to letting them simply grow up nice and small on their own. What strategies would everyone out there consider? I already plan on topping the plants at the end of the first week of flowering, so four days from now. But that doesn't solve the major dilemma I will have if the plants really start to shoot up in the next weeks. Can I train them, bend them, and force them to keep fitting within the tiny grow closet? Any suggestion welcome here, as I feel that height will be the real problem here, even though WW is not a very tall plant (so i have heard).

I should also say something else about the nutes, and defend the bonsai/cactus fert. mix: the bonsai fertilizer contains several trace elements that my plants lacked earlier in the veg. cycle. Some of them (at least one) appeared to have a magnesium deficiency, so I thought this might keep it from happening again.

I am leaving for a couple days again, put the lights up another couple links on the chain to avoid burning, temp is at 29 degrees Celcius, and new growth has already taken off. I took some photos of the nodes, thinking that some curious george might be interested in guessing the sexes only three days into flowering. I must say, however, that the ones with a "female" stature seem to be exhibiting little pistils. Was nervous when I saw the little balls, but a little pistil seems to be extruding from it. Will take some more photos when I return. Thanks for the feedback...

 

[clekstro]

Got home this evening and was happy to see that the plants had absorbed the nutes without problems. No burning, nothing but green crystal tops! I have positively identified some of the females, those being the shorter, stalkier plants. Pistils are starting to come out on top and at the nodes. I am, however, having a hard time determining the sex of the other plants. At some nodes, it looks like little balls are forming--but pistils emerge. Will post some pics and would love some help. I'm not sure if i will get rid of the males anyway, but would like to have the choice of avoiding seedy nugget if possible. Am going to water again today, as the heat has sucked a lot of moisture out of the soil... i suppose those little balls would not already have opened if they were males only 4 days into flowering. I'm beginning to wonder if I received female seeds?!?! as I don't see clear evidence of males. Will have to see...

 

[clekstro]

Much has happened in the last ten days that needs to be recorded:
I have successfully sexed most of the plants, finding 4 males, 4 females (and one not yet showing. The males have been either cut down (after harvesting the pollen or are outside the grow closet, getting little light during the day but enough to sustain them; it was difficult to knife them... They are/were taller than my dresser, and look almost healthier and fuller than the females! But cold reason prevails, and it makes no sense denying the ladies as much energy as they can get.
As of now, 3 WW females and the only SM seed I had is female too. Great luck I suppose (w/ the SM), though I plan on pollinating the SM with the WW for shits and giggles. If for any other reason, it should hopefully make the future SW plants a little shorter, which are ideal for my conditions.

Third, although taboo, I have taken clones off of the flowering plants. This was done as soon as sex was identifiable, and no male clones were taken. Unfortunately, with only one grow area with HPS, it would have been extremely difficult to take clones and actually flower them. My main justifications were: one, if I take clones that early, I have no place to possibly sustain them/flower them (yes the branch option [covering a small portion to determine sex] would have been an option, but I would have had to wait until they were larger); two, I didn't have time. But the clones have survived and are back in veg. mode under 24 hour lights (the same primitive lighting situation described in an earlier post) I used a powder clone solution (which the woman at the plant shop described to me as being more of a rooting solution than anything else), and it seems to have kept them alive, which is all that counts.

Flowering is in the 14th day, and has picked up considerably within the last 3 days. I swear I can tell the difference daily, but that it very improbable considering how often I check in on them . The sativa (leaning?) SM is unfortunately becoming a little too tall for the grow space, but I am not too concerned. I have two rooted clones tucked away (as well as 4WW's). If it becomes too tall, then I will have to hack it. I tried to talk my wife into a possible 3rd design of the grow closet to incorporate some monstrous plants, but it was swiftly rejected. Alas, indica varieties/short plants must do the trick.

Am also doing some pretty extensive research on LED's and thinking of vegging my next round of clones under them, and perhaps making a flowering light as well. I would encourage anyone interested in this to check out "cogi's LED experiment" at reeferworld to see what kind of bud can be flowered under LED's for a fraction of the electricity cost. Also, this goes without saying, but LED's will have a difficult time becoming grower friendly if there is not experimentation done on their behalf. Companies will not exploit a market if there is no demand for certain LED wavelengths specifically tailored to marijuana. These wavelengths, beside those known to sustain satisfactory vegetative growth, are yet to be fully determined. The extreme inefficiency of HID lighting is a nuisance to all growers, commercial or otherwise. You may think that growing your own is better than buying it from some sketchy dude that a friend of a friend is acquainted with, but the electricity costs (depending on location, of course) do add up, and should not be overlooked. 50W LED grow lights putting out less than ideal wavelengths have been able to successfully take the plants through the veg. stage, and cogitus at reeferworld.com has shown they can be budded. The yield is as of yet not worth the time, but without the research the community at large may never benefit it. Another guy, pearjamfan, at the same site, had set up a grow op. with better wavelengths, though I have yet to see the results.

Enough chatting as it does not pertain to this grow. Pics as usual...
peace
oh, have included pics of my males as I felt they deserved to be shown. Although the pics are kinda crappy, any suggestions on what criteria males should be chosen for for pollination?

 

[clekstro]

I have been attempting to control the light burn that has plagued the more mature females (3/4), snipping and soaking to bring the temperature down. The fact is that it's too damn hot in this city to grow under HPS without a/c, at least 400W. Perhaps I should have considered getting something smaller?

At any rate, the plants are more than just surviving. In spite of the bright/burnt leaves, the buds are coming on very strong. And, thanks to tips I have been reading from the generous growers, the plants are going to work out really well.

With the light burn, the cola's on two of the females were completely dried out/burnt, so I hacked them off and smoked them, having been jonesin' for some bud for some weeks now. Not too impressed, but bud was bud, and it got me stoned. Can't expect much from two week old flowers. The buds have since tripled in size since then, I would guess.

The fertilizer ratio has remained somewhat constant, although I have taken a little break the past week, not wanting to overdue it and throw a bunch of nutrients at the plant while it was burning up at a temp where photosynthesis probably was stopping (I thought it best just to give them water and cool off). I came home three days ago to find that all of the plants were completely droopy and looked like death. I checked to see if the fans were working, and they had been on the entire time. Just the fucking summer heat!

I had read recently that molasses was a great organic additive to ferts or just to plain water and that the plant (because molasses is organic plant material and therefore mustn't interact with the soil for the plants to take nutrients from it) can speedily absorb the sugars and micronutrients. I plan on using this from now on with every watering with or without my bonsai/cactus fertilizer. The recovery and bud production witnessed the past two days has been incredible! I thought I would take pictures yesterday to show the difference that molasses could make, but the difference had already been made. I had watered that night out of necessity (as my HPS heat and the general high temperature of my closet sucks out a lot of moisture out of the top of the soil) and had noticed a 200% recovery overnight. No more drooping, and the flowers seemed to have swollen after the "quick fix." I would love to hear at this point how it's looking...
Three weeks down, and 5-7 to go.

 

[clekstro]

Another set of pics I thought I would post. Is this normal bud development for week three? Actually, after looking around for a couple other WW grows, found some week 3 pics in hydro, and mine compare pretty well. Got bored and decided to take some better photos

 

[clekstro]

the last shot of the day...

 

[clekstro]

It has been one week since the last update, and plants have been receiving regular waterings. I gave them a heavy dose of the bonsai/cactus/molasses juice about three days ago, and a watering yesterday just to flush everything out and make sure I hadn't been overdoing it. I avoided the molasses that I had been giving with every watering to, as I was unsure whether it played a role in the spotted leaves plaguing two of my females. They show up as dark lesions, and in comparing them to the pics in the FAQ, it seems like a rare sort of poisoning, but this could also be the result of the tap water that I have used the entire grow without letting it sit out and evaporate off the chlorine. I nipped off the offending leaves where recovery seemed unlikely, and this has had no apparent ill effects on the plant.

The buds have swollen a great deal in the last week, and a slight pinch is making my fingers sticky with the sweetest dankness I could imagine! The molasses, I must say, has been laid on heavier than the molasses section by 3LB's (three little birds) on organic applications of molasses. He had recommended a dose of 1 tsp. per gallon, but noted that the double had been used with outdoor, and therefore larger, plants. I have consistently used 6ml per 2L; 1 tsp = 4.92ml, and a gallon is around 4L (3.87).

4.92/Gallon(3.87L) = 1.27ml/L. I have used 3ml/L and upwards (my highest single dose being around 5ml/L with no ill effects. I suspect that the problems associated with the plant lesions are more due to the fact of other nutrient deficiencies/excesses, as they existed before the application of molasses had begun. I noticed an immediate increase in crystal formation and resin accumulation, as well as a strengthening of the scent. The only downside is how sticky these buds have become, as if the molasses had oozed out of the resin sacks themselves. This is not happening, but the scent is unmistakable. Even my wife, who doesn't smoke and patiently looks on as the garden disturbs the bedroom chi with its loud fan noises during daylight hours, thinks the smell is incredibly sweet.

Marijuana, with the addition of molasses, has brought out a completely different flavor that even the bud that we have blazed in Amsterdam does not match. I smoked their WW, and I have smoked some of my own immature bud at 3/4 weeks flower after an incident involving a broken branch that I let dry, and it tastes better with the molasses. I just wish I had a diesel strain that I could try this out on, as the combination seems like it would be out of this world. Have seen a g-13/sour diesel strains that looks worthy of pursuing, and cloning that with my WW would be fucking ridiculous!!!

Picked out again the best bud pics after a photo shoot moments ago. Enjoy, and please do comment/give me input. This is my first grow after all...

Also, does anyone know why the leaves on the plant on the right, the ones in the last pic, curve so much and are so much skinnier than the other one? I have also noticed that it doesn't pack the weight of the other one...

 

[clekstro]

enjoy. i do.

 

[trapper]

wow they really turned out fine when they looked stretched i was worried for ya,what are you useinf for smell those girles must really be starting to smell up the joint

 

[trapper]

now i see a coal filter,sorry i missed that.what size of blower you have on the filter and what size is the filter,do you find it brings the temperture down as well.thanks

 

[clekstro]

now i see a coal filter,sorry i missed that.what size of blower you have on the filter and what size is the filter,do you find it brings the temperture down as well.thanks

the inline fan is set to expel 410m3 per hour, which suited my little closet needs just fine. my space is only 1.2 m3 or so; that said, it has not been as good as i had expected at getting rid of heat. perhaps i am not giving it the best conditions, leaving such a small amount of dryer pipe and no direct exit outdoors. the temps do not drop as a result; they remain stable with outside temps, however. it certainly keeps it a hell of a lot cooler. filter is 100mm to match the fan.
it does a great job of keeping the dank smell out of the room in which the closet is in, but they smell real lovely the moment i open it up again...