First grow, T5 fluorescents

[Bezzin]

wassup, this is my first grow and its growing in my closet which is like 7x4x7. This is gonna be a completely organic grow and I'm not totally sure if imma go all the way with the T5's or not...we'll see. I'm using the pioneer 4 grow HO T5 set up tho, and its working pretty well. I started them in rockwool and then transferred them into 1 gallon pots. I actually just quit using the rockwool cause i didnt like it. I'm using foxfarms oceans forest potting soil with some compost and some non-soil aerated medium.


The first 2 pics are of my best plant, imo, which i transplanted to soil and the other one in the rockwool is its friend. All my plants are bagseed from my best smoke. These pics were takin 3 days ago making them about 4 days old from breaking the soil.

 

[Bezzin]

Alright this is 6 days from breaking the soil. I took these pics yesterday. Their leaves are pointing straight up which i guess means they're happy. (learned from a previous thread that i started a few days ago) They also have just been watered.

 

[Bezzin]

Alright today it looks as if the leaves have flattened out and more growth is on its way. I've put 4 seeds into red cups with glad plastic around them, waiting for them to break the soil. I forgot to add that yesterday I planted a seed in one of the pots and today it broke the soil!


All is good except one thing......I think I might have a nitrogen deficiency. On one of my plants the root is turning brownish, with a little bit of red starting from the base. The leaves look fine and healthy tho. My compost is made up of mostly fine bark and perlite which someone told me that bark eats up nitrogen. Can anyone back me up on this or help me out? The second and last pic is gonna be it but im using my iphone for pics and it doesn't focus well up close.

 

[Bezzin]

So anyone know why my stems are turning brown/red?

 

[roomsupervisor]

So anyone know why my stems are turning brown/red?

Could be too cold... the youngin's like warm soil when they're startin out. I keep my newbies at 85 till 3rd or 4th set of leaves.
On a bigger plant red stems might mean your PH is off and the plant is having problems gettin nutes. BUT it's pretty normal so i wouldnt be worried as long as your leaves are nice and healthy. and of course if they turn purple then please send me your address and i'll visit you in 3 months

biggest problem i see is your grow medium. bark mulch is HORRIBLE to work with when trying to regulate moisture. It'll be too wet or too dry ALWAYS. It's terrible at maintaining PH and is more likely to leave salts in pockets around your root mass.

Id recommend looking into a soil-less grow medium (was your mulch pasteurized so no buggies in it? most of it isnt)

everyone has their own opinions and different things work for different people. but with enough input we can all only get better

 

[Bezzin]

Could be too cold... the youngin's like warm soil when they're startin out. I keep my newbies at 85 till 3rd or 4th set of leaves.
On a bigger plant red stems might mean your PH is off and the plant is having problems gettin nutes. BUT it's pretty normal so i wouldnt be worried as long as your leaves are nice and healthy. and of course if they turn purple then please send me your address and i'll visit you in 3 months

biggest problem i see is your grow medium. bark mulch is HORRIBLE to work with when trying to regulate moisture. It'll be too wet or too dry ALWAYS. It's terrible at maintaining PH and is more likely to leave salts in pockets around your root mass.

Id recommend looking into a soil-less grow medium (was your mulch pasteurized so no buggies in it? most of it isnt)

everyone has their own opinions and different things work for different people. but with enough input we can all only get better

Alright good to know, my temps are a usually around 76-82 and ye if they turn purple you'll be the first to know....well second
Ye i read yesterday that bark was really bad for plant growth, should i transplant? I dont wanna put to much stress on them and have a higher chance of males. My buddy is taking horticulture classes so i figured he knew what he was doing when he gave me the bucket of compost....guess not. I totally agree with you tho bro, I guess now the only question is should i re-pot them or not? Thanks for your help btw.

 

[roomsupervisor]

Ye i read yesterday that bark was really bad for plant growth, should i transplant? I dont wanna put to much stress on them and have a higher chance of males. My buddy is taking horticulture classes so i figured he knew what he was doing when he gave me the bucket of compost....guess not. I totally agree with you tho bro, I guess now the only question is should i re-pot them or not? Thanks for your help btw.

If they're in rockwool you should be ok since they're still kinda tiny. what ever medium you're gonna end up using, fill your container, tap on ground a couple times to settle material (dont press it down) and then water it till you see it draining out the bottom. Then wait a bit for it to settle, then drop your plants in...nutes (if any) should be no more than 1/4 strength.

be sure to do transplanting towards the end of the light cycle (jorge cervantes suggestion and sometimes i follow it, sometimes i dont)

as far as the mulch goes...for everything but our sweet weed , it's fine IF it's used for outdoors. since it may contain beasties or like insects or bacteria. Your indoor grow should be treated like a laboratory..... a lab where everyone smokes herb and it's not all uptight and scientific and shit

here's the recipe for my soiless mix that has always treated me good, plants younger than 2 weeks shoudn't get nutes
60% soiless mix
25% perlite
10% wormcastings
5% premix of 12-6-6 with 1/2 cup of dolomite lyme added for shits and giggles (the lyme stabilizes the ph, theoretically

i hope this helps ya.

 

[Bezzin]

If they're in rockwool you should be ok since they're still kinda tiny. what ever medium you're gonna end up using, fill your container, tap on ground a couple times to settle material (dont press it down) and then water it till you see it draining out the bottom. Then wait a bit for it to settle, then drop your plants in...nutes (if any) should be no more than 1/4 strength.

be sure to do transplanting towards the end of the light cycle (jorge cervantes suggestion and sometimes i follow it, sometimes i dont)

as far as the mulch goes...for everything but our sweet weed , it's fine IF it's used for outdoors. since it may contain beasties or like insects or bacteria. Your indoor grow should be treated like a laboratory..... a lab where everyone smokes herb and it's not all uptight and scientific and shit

here's the recipe for my soiless mix that has always treated me good, plants younger than 2 weeks shoudn't get nutes
60% soiless mix
25% perlite
10% wormcastings
5% premix of 12-6-6 with 1/2 cup of dolomite lyme added for shits and giggles (the lyme stabilizes the ph, theoretically

i hope this helps ya.

Well its not all bark, just the mixture for my babies has bark in it. I have Fox farms ocean forest that i use, its like a 50/50 mix of that and the fine bark with perlite. The only reason i mixed in the fine bark stuff was because i didnt want the ferts in the ocean forest to fry my babies. Anyway, I'm for sure gonna try out this recipe for the soil-less mixture, sounds great bro! Oh and thanks for all the help and advice man......Happy growin

 

[Bezzin]

Hey RIU, today is day 10 for my two babies. They seem to be growing a lot faster now. These T5's are doing nicely. Just thought I'd drop off some pics of them.

My seeds sprouted, they will soon be on their way.

the first four pics are of my babies, they're in pairs of two's.

 

[Bezzin]

So today is the two week point, how they look? One is smaller then the other one and has a little bit bushier growth. My seedlings are on day 4 and are looking good. I put a fan in my closet the other day to strengthen their stems....when should I add nutes for the two bigger ones? I have the fox farm line-up.


Also one plant's leaves are really fat while the other ones leaves are really scrawny and not as big, but they are both growing at the same rate. Could one be indica and the other sativa? Doesn't sativa grow thinner and taller while indica short and fat?

 

[Bezzin]

This is my first grow, so any tips would be pretty chill.

 

[pattystaff89]

hey. nice grow. just harvested my first grow. Had two sativa strains. IMO the smaller leaves could POSSIBLY give a slight hint as to indica or sativa. But, i really don't know for certain. Both of my plants came from bagseed, both were the same strain, both were purp sativa. Both also had smaller scrawnier leaves when they were at that age. You can check my grow out, i didnt start posting till day 14 so its perfect for you. search= cfl mini fridge bagseed micro grow. word.

 

[Bezzin]

hey. nice grow. just harvested my first grow. Had two sativa strains. IMO the smaller leaves could POSSIBLY give a slight hint as to indica or sativa. But, i really don't know for certain. Both of my plants came from bagseed, both were the same strain, both were purp sativa. Both also had smaller scrawnier leaves when they were at that age. You can check my grow out, i didnt start posting till day 14 so its perfect for you. search= cfl mini fridge bagseed micro grow. word.

Alright pattystaff, I just got done reading your fridge grow. All I have to say is......NICE PURP ON THE BAGSEED! haha. You probably could have vegged longer but that was an awesome grow. I bet it felt nice to smoke your own home grown....I can't wait till that time. I hope my bagseed turns out just as well at yours.

Ye I'm hoping one is sativa and one is indica and that they're both females (obviously) sativa more though because I like the uppity high it gives. Happy Growin

 

[Bezzin]

So I need some help on identifying why my leaves look like they do on the pictures below. Its happening to the first set of 3 set leaves. They're just withering up it looks like, and having some discoloration. Its happening to my other plant as well but the other one is just turning more yellow at the tips. Dude if anyone could help me outta this little problem it'd be greatly appreciated.

 

[pattystaff89]

it looks to me like your plant is starting cholorosis. I had the same exact issue. Once i saw this, i used a urine/water combination to give the plants nitrogen. I used a 1 to 4 ratio of urine to water, and i made sure i balanced the PH before applying. helped me out- within 2 days they were lookin green again.

 

[Bezzin]

it looks to me like your plant is starting cholorosis. I had the same exact issue. Once i saw this, i used a urine/water combination to give the plants nitrogen. I used a 1 to 4 ratio of urine to water, and i made sure i balanced the PH before applying. helped me out- within 2 days they were lookin green again.

Thanks for gettin back at me pattystaff. I'll drink a bunch of water and do that asap bro. I would normally be skeptic about giving my plants urine but I've read it multiple times that its a source for nitrogen, just didn't know if it actually worked. Ill let you know if it works out.

 

[Bezzin]

So today I gave my two bigger plants some FF Nutes, the big bloom and grow big, I figured out that one had Nitrogen Def. and the other one had Phosphorus Def. Hopefully the nutes take care of these Def.

I'm thinking of buying an 400 HPS system this weekend. I found one on craigslist for $100, its a hydrofarm setup with a dual spectrum bulb ( I thought HPS was only a flowering bulb?) anyway I'm not sure if I'm going to get it but I think it would be a good idea when I finally switch to 12/12

 

[pattystaff89]

So today I gave my two bigger plants some FF Nutes, the big bloom and grow big, I figured out that one had Nitrogen Def. and the other one had Phosphorus Def. Hopefully the nutes take care of these Def.

I'm thinking of buying an 400 HPS system this weekend. I found one on craigslist for $100, its a hydrofarm setup with a dual spectrum bulb ( I thought HPS was only a flowering bulb?) anyway I'm not sure if I'm going to get it but I think it would be a good idea when I finally switch to 12/12

great idea my friend. my next move for the mini fridge is either 90 watt led ufo, or 70 watt hps.

 

[diesal71]

Looks good...FYI you can now buy single and double strip T5s frome home depot. A fraction of the price from the hydro store. I do a small stealth grow at my office "IN CITY HALL" and I use t5s. My box looks like a entertainment system. Be surprised how many city officals smoke out with me

 

[Bezzin]

Looks good...FYI you can now buy single and double strip T5s frome home depot. A fraction of the price from the hydro store. I do a small stealth grow at my office "IN CITY HALL" and I use t5s. My box looks like a entertainment system. Be surprised how many city officals smoke out with me

Thanks for checkin it out diesal, and for the tip on the t5s. I need to get some more so i can surround the plants.

Haha! City hall! Thats when you know your a true stealth grower. It actually doesn't surprise me that a bunch of city officials smoke, everyone is smoking these days, but....that's still badass bro.