1st Grow C'99 200W CFL setup grow journal

Hello everybody,
last days been diving in this wonderful forum and absorbing people experience and advises so I decided to make my own journal.
My aim is not to make a nice picture and share it with you, but to start thread from the very first day and in case I will go wrong with growing, you could kick me back into the proper way of growing her.
Some prehistory:
My 0th grow was Auto Silver Haze. I do not count it as 1st, because while growing it I made few mistakes like: seeds I got had 1/5 star reviews where users said that they yielded 4g from whole plant. Another thing I started with 2700K cfl lamp, temperature was ~16-19C(60-66F) degrees, I also managed to do topping to the main bud and from the love I felt to my precious I made her drink. drink a lot(a lot of 8ph water). Well only few mistakes, but I guess no need to mention that those were destroying the fundamentus of my success so in the end I yielded like 2g and she's still hanging in my cupboard. ant basically looks like this:


Ok so this time I am way more confident about everything and I'm willing to put all of my efforts to be a father she would be proud of.
Now about the seeds. Since I am a fan of sativa of trippy and giggly high I was googling a lot until I was considering between Hawaiian Snow from Green House and Cinderella 99(C'99) from female seeds. And since C'99 yields a "holy grail" in 8weeks of flowering, grows smaller and more suitable for limited space, it got me.
Now some parameters about soil, ferts and grow room.
my grow room is L: 1m x W: 1m x H: 0.65m-1.15m(height goes diagonally because it is under roof). I made pics of soil and ferts since I don't really know what facts about it I should provide as for the grow room as well. I have a mini heater to keep a room at 24-27C(75-80F) a PC case fan for messing around with the air and emergency blanket attached to wall to reflect light. As for now I am vegging it with one 25W(~100W) 6500K CFL and 18W 6500K LED "disco ball" which also according to ebay specs should give about 100-150W of heat bulb wattage. Still haven't think of how to make reflector for it. So here are some pics of equipment:


That being said I can start talking about my new girl Alice. Hopefully she will take me to wonderland... ))

I germinated her while dropping the seed into glass of water for 24hours, after the shell broke, I put her into paper towel, as expected, after 48hours in total I was already planting her. Because the root was curly I made a mistake putting her in a way so root tip would be facing downwards, as later I read people were saying that the seed tip not the root tip I should be orienting to. So I replanted and after another 48 hours of dark I got yellow leaves, next morning they were already green.
Here is this week progress:


For now I got most of the things set up, just waiting from ebay for my magnifying glass so I could enjoy the exploration of micro grow and development.
Oh, I am also keeping Alice in 18/6 light cycle, I am not in a hurry so I don't wont the growing to become a work for her and I also heard that sativa strains prefer 13/11 or 14/10 light cycles, but I am not sure about those. I am also keeping water ph at about 6 and doing some regular spraying on her leaves. Now I got some questions which I hope somebody from viewers could answer for me.
Does the spraying do any good/bad in veg? cause I read that they love it but then in some other journal a person was suggesting to quit spraying because water drops works as a lens and might burn the leaves...
Anyone knows if the heater is not bad for growing indoors? I believe that while heating it should be burning the air and drying it, I still need to get humidity meter so measure that out, but till I get that maybe anyone knows already the answer?
Training. That is a big one, so many info out there in internet, so many different ways etc. So far I liked LST or Supercrop + FIM, maybe supercrop even more, but I would like somebody could tell me if I can supercrop my plant, or should I bend it instead, since i got this kind of room I feel that sativa can overgrow it:

by the way, the actual room size is way bigger in length, like 3 meters, just I don't want to expand it more than a meter in length. can a single plant consume all the co2 from this room?
another thing, I saw people saying that they do training, and posting pictures of big plants, but I failed on finding example which would say when I should do that for the first time. Of course it differs per plant, but I would appreciate your personal experience.
Ferts. When do you really start giving your plant nutes? Do not want to do it too early, however I don't want to speed limit her from the process as well.

So that's the beginning of my story.
First week done, another 12-14 to go...
Thanks for staying with me

Dear diary...
w/e lol

ok so yesterday was 9 days. Grow started to kick in, second set of leaves started to spread a bit and show in total 3 fingers per leave, or at least plans on making those fingers, and the new growth above appeared, feeling happy, plant is about 70milimeters a bit less than 2 inch. Distance from Light is about 2inch as well. I put some dish with water around it so the air would be a bit more humid, I also lightly spray foliage 3-4 times per day, so far plant seems to like it, I spray not only plant but the soil as well, since it stays on top and gives more humid around while drying quickly. I still do not have a hygrometer, but maybe some day. The funny thing is that once I put those tiny cups of water, every 12 hours now I see some bugs swimming and drowning in there. I am not sure where they came from soil or under roof. It's a bit annoying, although they seem not to harm a plant. I made a picture of one. Since its pretty small its quite hard to make camera focus on it. This morning I found 4 of them. But as long they love drowning in water cups more than harming my plant I am not really concerned ))

on 9th day I started to wonder about the edges of leaves. They were curling up. In one of threads I found someone saying that it's usually due to the light or humidity, since humidity doesn't feel that bad in there, I thought that it might be the light, cfl 24W bulb was around 2" away. I read tat a lot of people keep that at about same distance. I did not want her to grow tall that's why I was trying to heel her as close as possible, but at 2 inch she started showing heat stress, once I put her to like 5 inch distance next day she was wayyy happier, you can see that yesterday (11th day) leave edges are getting back to normal comparing to 9th day pics.

18th day
this pic is taken on 14th day. In a day or two gonna be making another one.



As a person who's looking to save as much space as possible I made a mistake. I should have put a seed like 4-5 inches below the top level of my bucket, so as the plant grows I could add some soil to cover the stem. In that case I can keep it lower, besides stem covered with soil after some time start to root. I watered it 4 days ago so today I am going to take that plant, remove some soil and put it back, hopefully there will not be any root damage and plant will not suffer from stress.

The only thing that bothers me, since the plant been already 18 days, I am thinking to start feeding light nutes, however I don't know if it is ok to do it because of the transplant operation.
Can a plant get harmed by 1/4 dose of nutes because of the stress while being transplanted?

Would be very grateful if someone could answer me that.

As planned, few hours ago I buried her deeper. Really weird that people on internet said that it is better to wait until soil will dry up and only then transplant it(in order not to damage the roots) however dry soil is way more loose than wet, and I kind of think that I would have achieved better results after one day of watering than on the 4th. Anyway job is done, looks funny how half of the stem disappeared and the plant itself went 3 inches down. I also added some light nutes (1/3 of recommended). Hopefully She will not be stunned from stress and after few days will show some progress..

Dude what happen to this plant?

Well boogums, thanks for advice about the fan, my plant seem to really love it. Still I kind of think that for a 3 weeks old plant this size is too little. I took a picture yesterday it was the end of 21st day.


A pair of small leaves on top is 4th node, in the center 5th one starting expand and between tiny 5th node leaves are micro development of 6th node... color looks bright green, leaves are healthy, stem became thicker. As a sativa strain it stays so far really short. Does not grow in height at all. Today I am going to put something behind the plant like a lighter and make another pic so you could visualize her size.
My tap water pH is 8.5, after adding some vinegar I was keeping water at 5.8-6. Now gonna be aiming to keep water pH at 6.5
I finally got myself a hygrometer so now I am able to measure actual humidity, but the thing is that just as expected it's kind of low. 40-44%. I spray a lot of water around it on the soil and on foliage.
Can anyone tell me how bad is 40% for a 3 weeks plant?
I was expecting at 3 weeks already start supercropping her, but I see that I will need to wait at least a week or two more.
I keep lights at 18/6, maybe that also causes slower growth?
Also since I am growing only one plant, I placed a seed into final pot, because I did not want to keep on transplanting her, and now when I water, I do not fully water whole bucket, but rather I water like 0.33-0.5liter (11-16 fl oz?!?) around the plant. Should I soak whole bucket since now my plant roots are like 2-3 inches deep and whole bucket is like 1 foot in depth.

Would be very happy is somebody could give me opinion on this. Thanks

hehe a picture to compare


This pic was taken yesterday. Dunno about US lighters, but this one is 3" long whereas plant is 2.5".
On sunday I gave some more biogrow nutes and this morning it started showing some signs of faster growth. Spacing between fan leaves, signs of upcoming branches appeared between stem and fan leaves And the top improved quite a lot since yesterday. Not to over flood the journal with pictures, I am going to take next picture on thursday.

Would be really nice is someone could give any comments about things I do wrong or right (e.g. watering) so I would know that I am heading right direction..

So your only using the 18W and the 25W bulbs?

Yeah.. well in flower I am going to use 3x30W and one 25W 2700K cfl, but for now, the plant is really small (3"), and the light couple of inches away from light source, so It does not really feel that it needs more. Stem is short, getting thicker everyday, 4th node leaves started to show her character haha not just flat leave blades anymore, difficult to describe it, I will make a pic tomorrow, I noticed that the main growth takes part 48hours after I water, then the growth slows down. I keep her thirsty for another 48hours and then the process repeats. well not thirsty, the soil is still somewhat humid, but not wet. One thing that bothers me now, should I soak all bucket with water and wait for it to become light again, or continue watering every 3-4 days only around the stem with small quantities...
ipee do you think those two lights are not enough? Would it be okay e.g. to mix those two 6400K lamps with one 30W 2700k and keep the plant in veg? I'm afraid that plant might want to switch to flower because of the light color..
Thanks

Water her when the pot is light, let her tell you when she needs to be watered, specially at this stage. The light color won't throw her into flowering stage, that it dependent on how much light she gets versus the dark. Once she starts getting 12/12 lighting, it will trigger her hormones to start the flowering process. And for the veg state, stick with 6500K color bulbs. Your lights are probably fine for now since she is small yet, but you defenitely want to up the wattage once she starts getting bigger. I keep 5 lights on mine.

So e.g. If I would add one or two more 30W 2700K would be ok right? maybe not that good as 4x 6400K lights, but assuming that I am going to switch her into flower after 3-4weeks, I kind of saving the money.
Pot. well the pot is always heavy lol, since its like one foot in diameter and one foot of height, so its is difficult to say, do you think I should I soak the pot and let it dry or should I keep on watering only under the plant?
Thanks

Your not going to get much veg with 2700k bulbs, go for the 6500K. Water on top of the soil.

I googled a bit about growing plant from seed and pot sizes and I realized that I have made another mistake... I thought it will be better for the plant to start growing in a big pot therefore no need of transplanting it later and no additional stress to handle. However a lot of people claim that when roots are growing in small pot, first they expand in wide, and when they are root bound, they start going downwards, then you transplant and procedure repeats, they expand and grow downwards, but if you start from big pot in the end you have a plant with small roots and probably small yield.. I wonder in percentage or some other scale how much worse it is.

So today's the 25th day.

I just compared my plant with others and I see that it is falling way behind of other forum users... it's already 3.5 weeks and still only 3 inches (plus 2" I buried into ground a week or so ago) . Still spaces between nodes are incredibly small. betwen 1st and 5th node there's only 1"... unbelievable, plant is still my lighters height... I am really at a complete loss... The only thing leaves are looking healthy and enjoying the light, and on top even if slowly plant is keep on developing new foliage. So maybe I am overreacting? erchhhh...
here are some todays pics
View attachment 2403298View attachment 2403299View attachment 2403300

Yesterday was 29th day since Alice sprouted from seed. two days Ago I watered her after 5 days brake and yesterday I was experiencing really nice growth both on side branches and the top, another thing I realized that it's about time I should start LST'ing her cause later the stem will be to tough, so after I made her suffer from my torture and I thought that I should not have done it. The leaves were showing stress at the moment I started bending her.
29th day:


However this morning I was pleasantly surprised. Alice did some "fan leaves rearrangement" and started to push side branches even more. I adjusted the lights as close as possible and can't wait to see what will happen next

30th day:

It has been a while since I posted anything about my lady. But from 30th day till 58th I was LSTing her and it was quite a mess. When I added more lights miracles started to happen. Growth went crazy. After bending and tieing her down, as expected side branches went crazy. Although I noticed one thing. Twice a day I was helping those side branches grow through fan leaves etc. However every touch gives plant stress and better to do that as little as possible. I left her for 5 days untouched and to my surprise she did all by herself what she needed to do without a help of mine. Well of course some basic LSTing is still necessary however too much love is also harmful. Today at day 60 I switched her to 12/12 period. At this time she has about 18-22 shoots. It's really difficult to count them all )) So in about 8weeks she will be ready. Will be adding two more 25w 2700K cfl. so now in total there will be 5cfl and one led.
here are some pictures.

Day 106... Only 5-7 days left to final day. I am so excited. comparing to my first harvest, this is really big improvement. What I could tell about my flowering period. First month or so she starts growing. Grows like crazy. Two times I left for a week and let my friends take care of her, I came back and both times I could not recognize, it doubled and doubled in size. Then later on when buds started to appear, growing stopped, every morning I was hoping for some visual progress but unsuccessfully, until today I went through my journal and I realized, even if plants height was not changing or density of branches, buds during that time did change quite a lot I would say... Now its few days to cutting her down and I can't stand in my shoes anymore... That smell.. As I read in reviews, people were telling that it has tropical fruit smell. I thought yeah right, opinion of those posh pro's who are like wine tasters, see something additionally as me mortal does not.. I was wrong, I can't believe, it actually is some pineapple/tropical fruit smell which does not even look similar to the smell of weed... as buds are nearly finished, those sugary tops of plant.. mmmm... In the beginning when I started growing it was like I will put a seed in soil, light it with one 25W cfl and will harvest in few months. I cannot believe how wrong I was it is a science and all the knowledge and help I got from this forum is just invaluable This is far from best results our forum people achieve, but with this limited light and space I could say that I manage to achieve quite something... Thanks for everybody who helped me on this. Here are some pictures of Alice, her final week.



Will upload some manicured and dried buds, when they will be ready, but this journal is almost finished.
Happy growing!

Outstanding for your equipment. You will love c99

hehe thanks Those sugary buds omg.. Those buds are sinking in THC.. )) every morning I get into room - that fresh fruity smell fills my lungs...