1st time grower progress coverage

Hello all. Just joined the forum. New to the hobby. I am going to be sharing my first grow with you all in the hopes of getting some advice and support throughout the process. From what I've read on the other threads, you guys are amazing and knowledgeable, so I put myself in your hands.

I've got just regular seeds I suppose from a local buddy. Germination already done. Started the seedlings in a soil from my backyard, ended that really quick. The dirt was too heavy, didn't drain well. So I got rid of that. Picked up so MG organic choice. Did some research, saw that MG potting mix is not that favored around here, but the organic choice was ok. The seeds did sprout in the dirt from my back yard pretty well, but transferred them to the organic choice with 1/3 perilite. It's only at day 5 since germination. I will post some pics this evening.

I have 1 cfl over the plants right now. There are 6 plants right now, 2 are still not sprouting enough to see yet. I Plan on having around 4-6 cfl 42Ws during the veg. Need advice on continuing cfls during the flower or another light source.

Also with the organic MG, I not feeding for the first month or less since MG has its nutes already on board

Hey welcome to the forum, I cant comment on MG but I believe if your growing 6 plants then CFLs isnt the best idea - you'll constantly have to move them around during flowering cause they must be close but not too close or will burn the leaves...nightmare. Also not sure if 6cfls is enough. One or two plants would be perfect I think for cfls but not 6. In your case I recommend LED if possible, otherwise hps

most people hate mg and say it is too hot, well they say bio bizz all mix is too hot and my sweet tooth says different, all i grow with is cfls, atm your doing ok, but the more the better really, just remember to gwt cfls as close as possible, and use the sides of the bulbs 2-3 inches, you want ur mj as healthy as possible so you may want more cfls, keep in veg for 5-6 weeks, then do the 12/12 flip and flower for 9-10 weeks, as for lights go for hps,t5s,hid,or led, as stated i use cfls, because they are cheap, but im upgrading soon, if you want to stick with cfl's then make sure to get 2700k bulbs with as much lumen as possible, go for bulbs between 20-30 watts, and ignore the equivilent, also stay away from bulbs the size of your head, and the main thing to watch for is the sex, if you see any males, destroy them immedietly, you will know coz there will be balls, and there wont be any white hairs coming out, hope this helps and any further questions i will do my best to help.

I mostly agree except for your comments on MiracleGro Potting Mix. I use it for all my dirt grows for the reason you mentioned, the soil is pre-nuted for up to 3 months. No chance of underfed scrawny plants. Only thing with MG PM is that it has some fairly large chunks of organic matter. That is the pre-digested nutes, eh? And twice in 10 years I have lost new seedlings because there was a piece of organic material, maybe a pineneedle?, that prevented the seedling from reaching through the dirt to get to the light. So watch for chunks in any dirt you spread over the new seedlings. In fact, I hand sift the dirt I use when a seedling first goes into dirt. Also, I fill a mixing bowl with MG PM and nuke it in the microwave for 30 seconds. I use that warmed up dirt in which to put the seedling. Not hot mind you, just get it warmer than room temp. Good luck, BigSteve.

Zaycor said:

Hey welcome to the forum, I cant comment on MG but I believe if your growing 6 plants then CFLs isnt the best idea - you'll constantly have to move them around during flowering cause they must be close but not too close or will burn the leaves...nightmare. Also not sure if 6cfls is enough. One or two plants would be perfect I think for cfls but not 6. In your case I recommend LED if possible, otherwise hps

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So right now there are 6 plants, but only until I find out which are females. Hoping to have 2-3 females. I would be fine with just 2 females out of the 6 plants. Would that be ok with 6 cfls?

maybe i said it wrong, my argument was that soils which some say are too hot can still be ok for seedlings eg. bio bizz allmix, meant to be way to hot for seedlings but my sweet tooth is loving it, maybe it is strain dependant tho.

no definetly not 6 cfls, i run auto strains and i use 12 red 2700k and 5 6500k, you need a hell of a lot of cfls, save yourself the time and effort and most likely money and get a t5, and get 6500k and 2700k tubes, you will have bettwr resaults, i am going to buy one soon.

furious248 said:

no definetly not 6 cfls, i run auto strains and i use 12 red 2700k and 5 6500k, you need a hell of a lot of cfls, save yourself the time and effort and most likely money and get a t5, and get 6500k and 2700k tubes, you will have bettwr resaults, i am going to buy one soon.

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Thanks, very much appreciated

ciresitter said:

Thanks, very much appreciated

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If you have the cash LED is better, hps is certainly good but so is LED without all the hassle & cheaper elec bill. With hps you need a ballast & a cooling system to dissipate all the heat. Personally I don't feel comfortable with hps for personal home grows, the heat & power would just worry me & the cost to run compared to LED simply doesn't make it worthwhile anymore. In any case there's plenty of info on the forum for you to browse & soak up. Good luck mate

Question: since this is my first grow, I would rather aim for a smaller yield, more of a hobby kinda yield, not full potential yield. How long should I allow for the veg and moving into the flowering stage?

Here are the pictures of my first grow at day 5

Just want to make sure I have the concept of the CFLs to use and when to use them.

First pic is the CFLs I am using for the veg stage. My local Walmart only had up to 5000k cool 26 watts (actual) and 1600 lumens. Couldn't find the 6500k

Second pic is the 2700k warm 26/23 watts CFL 1600 lumens, using for flower stage

ciresitter said:

Question: since this is my first grow, I would rather aim for a smaller yield, more of a hobby kinda yield, not full potential yield. How long should I allow for the veg and moving into the flowering stage?

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hey cires, its up to when to flower really - just remember that depending on the strain they can grow up to twice the size from veg. So for example if you start to flower when plant is 1ft in the end it can go up to 3ft. So depends on how long your prepared to veg for & how much space you have. Don't know much about cfl's so won't comment. I will say though if your just messing around with growing just now don't spend money on hps, wait until you get enough for a good LED.

In your last picture you can truly see how far away your light source is from the seedlings and one on the right hand side is leaning in towards it stretching for light, I'd highly suggest either getting more lights in there or getting that one much closer. CFL's need to be real close 1-2" When I do seedlings I have 1 CFL per seedling so close to the plant I'm surprised I've never burnt one to death yet. A little over 1/4", but the CFL's I have for that are 13w and cooled with a fan.

Zawx said:

In your last picture you can truly see how far away your light source is from the seedlings and one on the right hand side is leaning in towards it stretching for light, I'd highly suggest either getting more lights in there or getting that one much closer. CFL's need to be real close 1-2" When I do seedlings I have 1 CFL per seedling so close to the plant I'm surprised I've never burnt one to death yet. A little over 1/4", but the CFL's I have for that are 13w and cooled with a fan.

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Ok great advice. I thought 1 should be ok so far since they were so small, but will turn a couple more lights on

So this is day 11, they are growing pretty strong. Got them in bigger pots, all 6 with their own lights

KushDreams87 said:

whats up man looking good I also grow with MG and I haven't had any problems just make sure you keep track of how much an often you water

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I'm not sure why I've seen so many people put down MG so much. Maybe they just over feed while using MG. I'm not having any problems with it. Started with just the organic choice when they were just seeds germinating. Now I transferred them to bigger pots with the regular MG potting mix and they are doing great. Looking forward to find out how many females I get out of the 6 that are growing right now.

ciresitter said:

I'm not sure why I've seen so many people put down MG so much. Maybe they just over feed while using MG. I'm not having any problems with it. Started with just the organic choice when they were just seeds germinating. Now I transferred them to bigger pots with the regular MG potting mix and they are doing great. Looking forward to find out how many females I get out of the 6 that are growing right now.

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right on man I was the same way that's why I went with it lol I have four purple diesels 2 have already showed sex both female

Ok so we are at day 17, will post pictures this evening, when can I expect to start looking for sex of the plant?