Indoor :: 600W Digital HPS :: All Soil :: BG,NL,BB,TS

[focus.on.the.grow]

Greetings everyone!

Earlier today I started germinating my seeds by dampening paper towels with drinking water from the grocery store. The towels where folded over a few times and placed instead zip-lock bags without sealing the ends closed. They are resting in between two plates with a heating pad set to medium underneath them. Five Northern Lights, Five Bubblegum, Five Thai Stick, and Seven Big Bud. All from marijuana-seeds.nl

My Equipment:
Lumatek 600W Digital Ballast
600W GE HPS Bulb
EconoWing Reflector
(2) 4' 40w Tubes
(4) 23w 4500K CFL

I will be making a run to the hydro store tomorrow evening to pick up a bag of Fox Farm Light Warrior to use as my medium for seedlings. I may add a little perlite to the mix. I intend to later transplant them into Fox Farm Ocean Forrest and will also be using Fox Farm Liquid Nutrients.

The operation will be started at a temporary location because I am in the process of finding a new apartment. I will be selecting one based on how it will suite my grow needs.

Questions and Comments are more then welcome in this thread!

I will be continuously updating and adding photos when the action begins, so stay tuned and stay focused!

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

Ended up picking up a bag of Light Warrior which is what is placed in 22 16oz party cups. Soaked them with distilled water that was pH'd between 6-6.4. I also picked up a bottle of SuperThrive. I put one little drop in a bowl of water and soaked the paper towels again to hopefully improve germination. I am going to mix 1/4 tsp per 1 gallon of h2o and water the cups right before putting the tap roots in. A small update, but I only found limited documentation on SuperThrive so hopefully this helps some one down the road.

-focus-

 

[ghengiskhan]

I wouldn't add any perlite to the light warrior, cause if it's anything like I think it is it's already super light (I use the botanicare equivelant in a drip hydro setup). Why not wait till you get your new place? Moving 22 seedlings sounds like a hassle.

 

[stizikle]

how big of a grow area are you working with using the 600 watt?

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

ghengiskhan: The light warrior was extremely light like you said and already had enough prelite in it so i left it alone. Moving 22 (Assuming 100% germination, a few are poking through already!) seedlings is no big deal.

As far as the grow area I tested the 600W in a 2x4x6.5 foot closet and it was very hot in there! I'm going to be looking for an at least 5x5 foot area and will still be using some sort of ducting to remedy the heat.

-focus-

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

I wouldn't add any perlite to the light warrior, cause if it's anything like I think it is it's already super light (I use the botanicare equivelant in a drip hydro setup). Why not wait till you get your new place? Moving 22 seedlings sounds like a hassle.

Your right. Light Warrior is already super light and it had plenty of visible perlite already. Moving them is no big deal

how big of a grow area are you working with using the 600 watt?

I have the benefit now of being able to select a location that has what I need! I won't go with anything less then 5x5 ft. I tested the 600W out in a 2x4x6.5 foot closet already and it got above 90F+ and this is when it is 50F outside. Going to have to do some ducting to ventilate.

So the seeds have been germinating for about 36 hours now and a few are poking out. Here are the results so far.

4/5 Bubble Gum
0/5 Northern Lights (Tiny Seeds!)
3/7 Big Bud (Huge Seeds)
0/5 Tai Stick

The BB seeds are seriously three to four times the size of the NL. I hope the tiny ones don't give me any troubles.

-focus-

 

[skatterman420]

Man, You Got Some Nice Strains

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

Thanks! I've been most excited for Northern Lights, but they haven't cracked open or anything yet!

5/5 Bubble Gum
0/5 Northern Lights
5/7 Big Bud
1/5 Tai Stick

The TS and NL seeds are so tiny! If they don't show tap root in the next day and a half I think I'm going to try the cup method with a drop of SuperThrive. I've read that some seeds need a higher temperature to germinated at. I purchased one of them two dollar "magnetic" strip looking thermometers that go on the outside of a fish tank and it was topped out at 86F even when the heating pad was placed on low. So, I put a few pencils between the bottom plate and pad to cool things down to about 76-80. The ones that have tap root are going in soil this evening so I should have some sprout pics comming over the weekend!

-focus-

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

I musta been smoking too much because I just noticed now that I had replied twice to the same things lol

 

[420inmyapt]

Nice man, no digital camera? some pictures would really pull it all together. But still nice setup, I'm subscribed

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

Some pics for ya! One NL did crack and was planted too. The plastic wrap has plenty of holes punched in the tops and I'll remove the plastic when they sprout. I wanted to place these guys(gals) under two 4' tubes, but I could only get one side working. I took apart the whole thing and everything is connected so some electrical component must be broke. Oh well, was a free-bee. Lights are 6 inches away.

-focus-

 

[420inmyapt]

Nice man thanks for the pictures.

You should be goon on light for now, but I think you already know, your gonna need much more if all those sprout. I have eight 42 watt CFL's on my lady and she is growing out of control, I have to move the lights up daily (I keep them pretty close as well). Its all about keep those CFL's as close as you can without burning them.

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

Oh man! I been meaning to do this post all day, but I've been trainWRECKED!

This is some of the best stuff I've smoked.

Bubbler

Then it all gets smoked and it is almost gone and then it goes Thank god for friends who share

Okay...back to the grow.

This was in the morning.

It started with only two being popped from the soil, but with every hour to come for the rest of the day another pokes on up. The first ones up are the Bubble Gum and they didn't have any more tap root then the BB or TS.
I randomly planted it, but the first one was BG1 followed by BG2

BB1 shows first

I have a dozen of these now and it is amazing to watch them grow so fast thanks to a digital camera!

So the current results are:
5/5 BG
2/5 TS
5/7 BB
2/5 NL

I switched to the cup method for a night with distilled water and that is where NL2 came from, but no others have tap roots worthy of being ready. I'll probably just put them in soil tomorrow anyway.

-totally blazed-

 

[PceNluV]

looking good bro hopefully they all sprout for ya...i wasn't planning on all of my bagseeds sprouting but damn they sure did. can't wait to see some of those beautiful strains grow up into some massive trees...how tall u plan on lettin them get? lemme know peace

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

And the fun begins! The Bubble Gum and Big Bud are doing good and the Thai Stick is alright. I've dug a little bit into the cups to check and I have one Northern Light almost ready to poke up. I'm only at a 50% sprout rate which is a little disappointing, but all I need is one female of each I moved the cups without any sprouts away from the light because I'm sure it's drying out the soil a little bit. I thought it was a good idea at first to keep the soil warm. I'm just using a spray bottle mists about three times a day for watering with still a drop of super thrive. I'm really curious to see how long they'll last in a soil-less medium!

I'm going to be growing in a closet or small room so there aren't going to be many constraints. I'm sure I'll still have to do some ducting with a 600W lamp and I'm going build a Carbon Scrubber for exhaust.

Anyone got any advice towards how soon I should transplant into Ocean Forrest and when will they be ready for the HPS?

-focus-

 

[PceNluV]

looking good bro keep it up...im a newb but i would recommend to wait until you start flowering to use the hps but if you don't have a mh bulb then u might wanna use the hps the whole grow??idk for sure but thats my two cents i would rather use a hps then cfls for the veg but thats just me..hopefully i helped you out bro wait until they take off i can't wait to see those beautiful strains grow up into mad powerhouses...peace bro

 

[skatterman420]

looking good, and that trainwreck looks much better then the train we've had around here in the past ^^ lucky guy


you'll be my hero if you cross Thai Stick x Big Bud hehe

 

[PceNluV]

updates brosive...lol need plant porn asap...

 

[focus.on.the.grow]

Haha! Well I got all kinds of pics. They are working on their second set of leaves. I had just been misting them heavily like 3-5 times a day, but they each got about 12oz ran through them last night. Light warrior really did a good job and I don't think it left many dry spots. I had a bag seed plant that when I pulled out of the pot because it was so small and the roots had gone to the bottom of the cup. I was kind of thinking that I may be tricking their roots to go more upwards, but all I think I may have done is slow them done! I've looked at a lot of other peoples pics and some of their's are at the stage of mine in half the time. I am still pretty happy with them and I don't think it is much to complain about, but I am curious.

I know I'll be adding more lights soon. I don't know If I should build another power strip light setup with 6 23ws...or 1 dual 4' tube setup and then add another set down the road. I think it is best that I wait for some of them to catch up before unleashing the 600W HPS. I still have 1 for NL and 1 more TS that are working their ways up towards the surface.

Some quick questions...

My seeds where very small.. does this mean that they don't have much energy stored in them? I know you don't nute seedlings normally, but will 1/16 of a dose help? I've been using a few drops of Super Thrive still, but maybe I'll try upping a dose on one of them, and removing it from another..and then leave one as is for BG and BB.

I've been doing a lot of research into 18/6 vs 24/0 a starting at about the 2nd week. They'll soon be on the HPS so do you really think they need time off? If it is the same I may just want to keep them on constantly.

Anyway! Here are my plants!

Oldest from sprouting out of the soil is 9 days and some young as 5-6 days.

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18

1-5) BG
6-7) NL
8-11) BG
12-15)
16) Had lots of rain and high humidity the past 5 days..this is about as dry as it gets
17) stem shot - keeping the fan always on them so they bouncing around
1 added one 23w soft spectrum and one mini compact cfl I "borrowed" from a lamp.

I'm a little right now so I might have mis matched a few strains in the pics, but so far the plants with the bigger seeds are fairing better.

 

[cheetah2007]

nice journal man! i want some of your seedlings too cheers !!!