1st Practice grow Journal (using bag seeds)

[Matchbox]

Hi, this is my first ever grow and this seems the best place to document it XD.

I got about 200 seeds off a mate and sieved throught them threw out all the naff ones, broken etc. got down to about 100 or so. I also brought 2 female Critical Mass seeds and got a free fem white widow one too so will be saving these for when I know a lot more so I dont kill my good plants!

I started by setting up a small 7 plant NFT hydroponics system with a space underneath for vegging clones when and if I get that far

at the moment I'm using 4, 45 watt aquarium fluorescents for plant growth. I'm looking to get a 600w metal halide in there within the next 3 weeks. (currently no ventilation but i have a tower fan to circulate air)

I've spent £70 on this so far as i had most of the materials handy around the shed and from old fish tanks, after the new lights and maybe a carbon scrubber will have set me back about £250-£400.

I have started germinating 50 seeds as I don't know how viable most of them will be.

My only worry is only about 2 of them so far have cracked and started rooting after 5 and a half days, do some seeds take a while to start germinating?

Roughly how long from rooting does it take for a shoot to grow?

I suppose it all depends on the strain but would like other peoples experiences with long germ periods..

Thanks I'll try and update this every week or so with new pictures.

EDIT: Also if anyone has any experience growing in an NFT setup I'd like to hear from you

 

[Matchbox]

Out of 50 seeds over 7 days, none have germinated...

I did it using the paper towel business, I started a second set of 5 seeds, 4 days ago and again nothing... I have now started a 3rd set of 10 pre-soaking them in a glass of britta filtered water then going to move them to the paper towels.

I've kept all the other seeds as they were just incase maybe a glimmer of hope or divine intervention brings them to life.

Fingers crossed that its 3rd time lucky sad times


good job I haven't started my paid for seeds jeez that'd be a bitch losing those

 

[vairocks]

Out of 50 seeds over 7 days, none have germinated...

I did it using the paper towel business, I started a second set of 5 seeds, 4 days ago and again nothing... I have now started a 3rd set of 10 pre-soaking them in a glass of britta filtered water then going to move them to the paper towels.

I've kept all the other seeds as they were just incase maybe a glimmer of hope or divine intervention brings them to life.

Fingers crossed that its 3rd time lucky sad times


good job I haven't started my paid for seeds jeez that'd be a bitch losing those

bro u gt a very cheap n gud sysmtem i like it ....gues wt my seeds dies as wel...i donno wts wrng wit it it is d 2nd time hpnd like dis....my soil is my prb mst probably....i wish u al d best fr ur nxt grow n advice wud b to folow sm1 or sm grow of similar systems like ur NFT hydroponics...keep in touch.....
grow wit power !

 

[Matchbox]

lol yea I'm still tryin' got a couple more on the go now, stuck em straight into rockwool, hopefully they'll germ.... I've looked at other threads but rarely anyone uses an NFT system so I'm kinda on my own XD

 

[Matchbox]

Finally some good luck I put my seeds in the loft (summer time so silly temps up there, 85-95f) and so far, 4 out of 22 have cracked!

Hopefully I can set the ball rolling and plant them tomorrow, after the seed massacre of last week, RIP those 50 odd seeds.

 

[Matchbox]

Payday coming up in 2 weeks gonna break the bank on my lighting setup... going for 2, 45w LED specialist grow panels (to mount on the wall behind the plants) 1, 90w UFO LED light panel and 1, 120w LED lamp for blooming (might save this for a later date as its £200 but super awesome might also get another one of these fitted with only blues a couple months down the line)

Along with my fluoro's.

possibly gonna be the 1st LED/NFT combination grow ever? who knows...

nothing to report on my plants however.. just planted my rooted seeds this evening, thought fuck it and broke out my critical masses now have 3 bag seed mystery plants, 2 CM's and 1 white widow, hope they pop up soon.

 

[Matchbox]

So much for 4 out of 22, they kinda cracked and nothing came out after a couple days, again left 'em where they are just in case.

on the up shot my CM seeds have properly kicked off growing long roots out of the seeds starting to think the bag seeds were all duds.

Will post pics in a couple of days when they have broken ground.. from a shakey start I'm now more optimistic about this grow

Sorry I've just been posting crap about if's and buts lol my bad, getting a bit carried away XD

 

[vairocks]

hmm luks like bag seeds aint much of a shot... nice to know that u wil be growin wit leds nw dts some wattage u got n i think nft systems is less hectik than all hydroponics kool man hopin u get d best out of it....so got any plant(s) on d move...? update us...

 

[Matchbox]

Yeah I think my bag seeds were all just dead... but anyways as I said here are pictures of the girls day 4 since planting Claire popped up 1st but Cassie isn't far behind maybe later today or tomorrow XD

And I now only have 2 plants but I'm gonna train them to grow horizontally to maximise the yield.

 

[Matchbox]

Cassie popped up late last night and straight up pwned Claire

images:
left; claire
right; cassie

 

[Matchbox]

Nothing to report on the lovely ladies.

Spur of the moment change :s after reading up on most hydro setups (especially NFT) I have noticed that most setups use a lot more water than I am....

Sooo Ripped out the old 1 gallon res, and now have a 6.5 gallon res woot XD


plus if fish keeping is anything to go by, its much easier to hold a stable environment in a larger tank than a small one, Updated pics attached:






By the way this is a completely stealth grow, so I've made a point to not let any light or noise out, this is a silent setup

 

[Matchbox]

Just a Quick update... Just ordered a 90W UFO, Cassie is rocketing ahead while Claire isn't really growing at all, been the same height all week but still green, so I assume she's still alive.

Will be posting pics later tonight

 

[newgrower21]

ufo are shit get a hps and get high

 

[Matchbox]

Is that out of experience or are you just jumping on the hype of everyone saying they are shite? and at the moment a UFO is cheaper than a decent HPS setup (rockin in at a shallow £120, where the proper HPS setups I've seen cost around £180-£250) if I'm getting a HPS, MH or whatever, I aint doin' it by halves XD

Down the line I have also decided to invest in a 600w pure Red (630nm and 660nm) LED grow lamp which should, in Theory produce considerably better results than a HPS.

 

[vairocks]

loved d idea of ur slidin nft....post some piks man !

 

[Matchbox]

thanks XD

As promised Pics of the ladies umm, Day 6 I think, Claire is stil very stunted, just checked her pot, was very dry so gave her a bit of a soaking, hopefully this'll sort her right out.. dunno tho.

Does anyone have any Ideas, I only have 2 plants from female seeds, and it would suck if one didn't work

 

[vairocks]

keep feedin dem wit water at regular intervals n also sprayin dem....keepin der roots moist is d issue here....long live claire n cassie.... !

 

[Matchbox]

only thing is my daytime periods for the plants is 4:30pm - 10:30am cos of work, so I water em when I get back and once before I go to bed then once when I wake up, I dont like disturbing them while they're sleeping on weekends.

 

[Matchbox]

Might be being a tad paranoid but Cassie seems to be very yellow (or a very light yellowy green) I've been seeing pictures of everyone elses seedlings and they are a very deep nice looking green, also her leaves a curling slightly upwards, she's literally right underneath the light (about 1 inch away) :s


I couldn't deal with her death as Claire has already half died, I've got her in the sun on my windowsill to hopefully pick up.


very worried about Cassie, any ideas?

 

[Matchbox]

Day 10

It seems Claire has pretty much stopped growing, she's sitting on the windowsill with some good ol' sunshine (when we finally get some) to bring her back, still the same height as day 6 and still green.... maybe theres still hope.

Cassie, the healthier one has now started growing a whole bunch of leafy goodness despite being very yellow (possibly from an epic overwater) or weak lights not letting her produce enough clorophyll or both,,, my bad, but hey she's still growing and my new lights should arrive in the next week or so, she'll just have to hang on a little longer, and the leaves seem to get greener as they grow bigger.

I'll be posting some pics at the weekend when I get a chance, the 'rents are about for a couple of days so gotta keep it all locked up, another reason why my light hours are evening dawn