A Nurse's Journey (I am a man)

[mannurse801]

Hey fellas, well I am just now starting to germ my seeds.
I am growing in a small 4X4 closet. I am going to be using the Hempy Bucket method, and I hope for 3 ladies. I am using NL X Skunk strain of seeds.
I have mylar coating on most of the closet, good venting and a small Acticated carbon scrubber. A fan for strong stalks, some good Fox Farm nutes, and ph meter....
I am planning to veg under 2 100W CFL's, and then switch to a 400W HPS for flowering.
I will be using tap water for the most part, but will let it sit with a bubbler in it for a day before using, hopefully get most of the chlorine out.
Once I get things ready to go, and the seeds have germed, I'll post some pics and give you all a good update.
Cheers.

 

[jelven]

subscribed, good luck!

 

[mannurse801]

OK, no pics yet, as things are not doing much, but still exciting for me. I germed all 10 of my seeds. They were then placed in pre-soaked rockwool (ph 5.5). The grow room was a bit cool, in the mid 60's, so things started slow. This morning upon checking on them, 5 seeds had sprouted, and all others seem to be on their way.
I wasn't expecting many to do well due to them being almost 2 years old, but everything is going along fine.
I have them under 105 W CFL right now 24/7. Once some growth starts, I'll add the other 105 W CFL. Depending on growth rate, I plan to veg for 2-4 weeks. I want to get them flowering at about 24-30 inched.
I am going to put a small tower fan in there too for stalk stability, as well as get my ventilation going tonight. I have a 6 inch fan. I am just going to dfraw air into my crawlspace. Once I get my 400 W HPS going, I will attach some ducting to vent out the heat quickly.
I watered them a bit with a syringe, 3ml each rockwool (ph 6.0). It seemed so soak up well, and just be damp, not soggy, so I hope all will be well this way.
I will get some photo's going this weekend I believe, give you an idea of what the space looks like and how the sprouts are doing.
Anyway, I am out for now, and Cheers guys!

 

[mannurse801]

And just to add, if anyone has a comment or a suggestion, please feel free to post, just try not to jack my thread. Cheers guys... and I am sure gals too.

 

[mannurse801]

OK, well I transfered all my little seedlings into my mini Hempy's last night. I watered until a little flow of water came out the hempy hole 1 1/2 inch from the bottom of the mini hempy. I will start my seedling nutes next watering as suggested by Hempy himself, and rotate between feed and water to ensure no salt buildup.
I have my lights on 24/7. I got my ventilation going somewhat last night, I just have to patch up a few leaks and I'll be good to go.
Once these guys take off a bit, I will put them in their 3 gallon buckets for another few weeks prior to flowering.

Everything looks good right now, and on the weekend I'll post some pics.
Thanks for looking guys, and any suggestions/critisisms/comments are all welcome. Cheers!

 

[mannurse801]

Just a quick update, the little guys are doing good, strong stems, red tho, that seems on tho, I am not concerned. 8/1 seeds to seedling. It seems 2 seedling are not doing much. I will let them grow until they die, but I doubt they are gonna be too strong. 6/10 not bad for 2 year old seed....
I began light nutes testerday, as recommended by Hempy himself. He actually says full strength, but I'll tak it slow....
I'll get some pics up tomorrow of the setup and the little plants. Cheers for now.

 

[mannurse801]

Alright guys, photo's finally. Nothing much to show, here are my plants. 8 out of 10 seeds, I am pretty happy. Please make some rocommendations if you want, cheers.
I am using Fox Farms, full strength as recommended on the bottle, with no negative effects as of yet. The plantgs seem very hardy, and are doing great. Really starting to grow leaves quick. Still on 24/0 light, and loving it so far!
Temp is steady with the CFL's at 75, but I have a heater going full as well, an oil heater, so it is gently radiant heat, nothing blasting the plants.

 

[shnkrmn]

Hey mannurse, I'm gonna subscribe and watch how this grow goes. Your setup is great and I totally approve of your genetics! That's on my list.

You are really using full strength Grow Big on those seedlings? I would go 1/4 strength at most. Anytime I have tried to get close to the top feed rate, my plants have not liked it, especially when they are young.

I'd also be concerned about tap water, unless you've used it before. My tap water comes out at close to 400 ppm and it kills seedlings all by itself. I use RO and stopped having problems. Do you have a TDS meter?

 

[mannurse801]

Hey man, no problem yet with the nutes, been giving it to them half strength for the first week after they popped, and full strength since. I am using the full Fox Farms Hydro set, the 3 liquid ferts, along with the 3 soluble ones.
I always questioned the reason for full strength nutes at suck a young age. What are the benefits of doing so in such a young plant? I mean, it is not like I am going through gallons of nutes, but is it not wasteful?
I leave the tap water out for a good 24 hours, mix the nutes and adjust the ph to about 6-6.5
I don't have a ppm meter, that was my next purchase, but things got tight. I might get a large 40L jug of distilled water soon, but so far, the plants are doing great. I also have an option to use the snow outside as well... I'll keep an eye on the plants and go from there.
Hey man, glad you are here, especially since I havn't messed with this sytem before. Should be interesting.
h, one more thing, someone had mentioned that it looked like there may be some leaf turgidity? I think I will go down to water every otherr day now...... Cheers

 

[shnkrmn]

If your water is bad, you'll know it by the leaf ends going brown and crisp. Of course, too much ferts can do that too . . .

A lot of the growers I look to for guidance are in favor of frequent light feedings at 1/4 to 1/2 strength and never go to the full dosage. Do you have the Fox Farms hydro formula of Grow Big or the soil version (which is stronger). As for wasting nutes, another thing I do is water past just filling the res so a little comes out. I allow about a quart to spill out when I water. This helps flush out any salts that might be building up and corrects any pH wandering that might occur (this is one consequence of not watering as frequently as Hempy) and generally just revives the medium, at least that's my theory. It also gives me a chance to test the runoff for pH and residual nutes. I use so little nutes at 1/2 strength it just doesn't seem like waste to me.

There is something funny about your leaves, they are sort of rumpled, which could be the genetics, or water amount and or quality. They should grow out of it the next leaf set or two. I think your mix, especially since it has vermiculite in it, will hold enough water to go every other day.

Hmmm, never thought of using snow before. I'm going to melt some and test it when I get home. If it's good, god knows I've got enough of it (minnesota). I buy water from the supermarket. I have two 5 gallon jugs that I refill from the RO water dispenser there. It's 32 cents a gallon. Right now, when I fill my big girls up, they take about 1.5 gallons each. But, as you know, I let my buckets dry up and I overflow about a quart as I just said.

 

[mannurse801]

Hey guys, just a photo update. I am at watering every 2 days with full strength nutes still. I'll wait for the plants to tell me no before I lower them. I am still on 24/0 light, think I will till I flowers. Here are some new pics, nothing much happening....

 

[DrGreen007]

Nice Grow Mate

 

[mannurse801]

Thanks Doc.

OK, well, I decided to transplant my guys into their permanent buckets. I cut the bottom of the cups off and set them gently into some moist Hempy Buckets, close to 3 gallons. I will veg for about 3 weeks starting now. If they get to 12 inches I will turn to flowering.
I have to oder a conversion bulb for my HPS so I can shine MH spectrum. My CFL's, although 105 W each, just don't have the spread to cover all the plants prperly. Tomorrow I am gonna set up my HPS and get it going. I'll veg for a bit with it until my conversion bulb gets here.
Nutes are cut in half now due to the transplant, don't want to stress the little guys out. Water remains the same, and no signs of trouble yet. Some tiny yellow dots on one guy, but nothing major, I'll keep an eye on it, but it really isn't affecting anything.
Temp gets pretty cold with the heater off. I unplugged everything while I was transplanting, and it dropped a good 10 degrees in no time. When the lights go out I'll have to crank the heater to prevent any cold from setting in.
I am playing a bit with this one, instead of perilite and vermiculite the whole way through, I decided to put some Hydrotron clay balls at the bottom about 0.5 inches above the resevoir level. I was just thinking, hydrotron is super porous, I might be able to get some great O2 levels at the roots, we shall see.
Any comments on me doing thiss. Think it may effect me negatively? I think it is gonna helps pretty good...

Here is some pics. I couldn't fit all 8 of my gals (hopefully) in buckets, so I am gonna flower 2 of my little guys after I get my HPS up. I will remove the 2 from the closet and put them under a CFL. During lights out, I am just gonna throw a box over top of them. I really don't mind losing these little ones, but I will see how they turn out....

 

[mannurse801]

Just a quick update. I checked on them this am. I only gave them a light water after the transplant to try and get them to force their roots down to the resevoir. They looked pretty good this am, very little signs of stress. I watered them really well this am and got some good return from the resevoir hole at the bottom of the buckets. I can't wait to see them shoot up, just a matter of time for them to find the resevoir!
I'll keep everone posted!

 

[mannurse801]

Hey guys, well, I put the HPS up, and wow, CFL's are going in the trash. Within 5 minuts of the light going up the plants stiffened up and sort said, HELLO, to the light. I mean, this isn't even the right spectrum of light yet, but you can tell, much better and brighter!
Some stress from the trrasplant, but I am sure everything will come along fine. I am going to drop to 20/4 soon, probably on the weekewnd.
Temps with the light on are a nice warm 80-82, humidity staying at about 55-65, for veggin theat is great. Once I flower I will just put a dish of drying agent in the room every week to make sure I stay at 40-50%.
I am having a great time with this grow, and can't wait to reep the benfits. All of my product is personal use, I would never sell anything. I just want to get away fdrom supporting the dealers, I like to know where my money is going...
I am hoping for 3-4 females, 2oz dry weight each plant... at least, so that should give me 6-8 oz being gracious, but hopeful to break 10. That will give me a good year or 2 supply...

 

[shnkrmn]

Hey mannurse.

Don't trash the CFLs. They are much kinder to seedlings and clones than HID. And you can use them for sidelights so you get nice bushy side branches.

I have a new mom developing. She's about 7 inches high right now, in a 1 quart hempy. I'll be putting her in a 5 gallon in a week or so. I've always gone 100% perlite, but I have a bag of vermiculite so I'm going to go with the classic hempy mix. I expect it to hold slightly more water than straight perlite. After I finish up the current 6 plants, which are about 4 weeks apart, I won't be doing anything except making this mom as big as I can. I have 5 other clones which will veg all summer and flower in the fall. They should be truly huge by then (well, they won't get more than 40", that's the strain). I'll take more clones from the mom and flower her as well.

I can't have a social life at home until flowering is over. The only time I can't smell the reek of bud right now is when I'm cooking.



You would be surprised at how fast you can blow through a harvest when you aren't paying cash money for it! "2 year supply" lol.

 

[mannurse801]

Yeah, I was just being sarcastic about trashing the lights. I am gonna use them still. If the room gets tight for light, I have them to add.... Thanks man

 

[619SixFour]

Listen to SHNKRMN, It sounds like he knows what he is talking about. I agree with him and I consulted the bible for guidance and it also confirms his suggestions. It says in bold NO NUTES FOR YOUNG CLONES OR SEEDLINGS, Especially full strength. I believe they get what they need from whats available in the soil and photosynthisis for the first couple of weeks or until you get 2-3 set of true leaves. I only gave my seedlings B-1 and sweet for weeks 1-2 in light amounts and with each watering. At the end of week 3 I gave them their first nutes and a medium dosage. Here is a link to my grow.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/157723-619sixfour-first-grow-homebox-s.html

 

[mannurse801]

Listen to SHNKRMN, It sounds like he knows what he is talking about. I agree with him and I consulted the bible for guidance and it also confirms his suggestions. It says in bold NO NUTES FOR YOUNG CLONES OR SEEDLINGS, Especially full strength. I believe they get what they need from whats available in the soil and photosynthisis for the first couple of weeks or until you get 2-3 set of true leaves. I only gave my seedlings B-1 and sweet for weeks 1-2 in light amounts and with each watering. At the end of week 3 I gave them their first nutes and a medium dosage. Here is a link to my grow.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/157723-619sixfour-first-grow-homebox-s.html

Thankls for the comments. Yeah I'm listening to the Jedi warrior, I am just a young skywalker....
I am gonna cut the nutes in half, and switch to distilled water. I mean, best to avoid any type of problems if you can right?
I'll stop by the grocery store to pick up 2 large things of water. They should last me quite some time. Once I empty one, I'll go back to the store, so I will always have 1 full one at home..
One thing, should I premix my nutes in the water jug, or do it just before watering? I see people do it both ways....
Anyway, I'll take some picks tonight and give another quick update. Cheers guys!

 

[shnkrmn]

Thankls for the comments. Yeah I'm listening to the Jedi warrior, I am just a young skywalker....
I am gonna cut the nutes in half, and switch to distilled water. I mean, best to avoid any type of problems if you can right?
I'll stop by the grocery store to pick up 2 large things of water. They should last me quite some time. Once I empty one, I'll go back to the store, so I will always have 1 full one at home..
One thing, should I premix my nutes in the water jug, or do it just before watering? I see people do it both ways....
Anyway, I'll take some picks tonight and give another quick update. Cheers guys!

Your caution will repay you.

What do you mean by large things of water? I have two 5 gallon jugs I take to the store to refill. Pre-bottled water will cost you 3 times as much as if you fill it from the bulk dispenser. If things go well for you, in about a month you will need about 1/2 gallon per plant every few days.

I hate mixing one gallon at a time. I think larger scale leads to greater accuracy in dosing and pHing, so I mix up 5 gallons at a time now. Of course, I use all of that when I water for three plants, so I don't have any leftovers to store. If you want to store solution put a lid on it and store it in a dark cool place. Maybe even the fridge, but then again you don't want to give your girls a cold. . . . I have a couple gallons for my small clones, since they are still just sipping. I have it in a 5 gallon bucket covered under the table the clones are sitting on. You just don't want to start growing algae in it. . . .