A Pure Power Plant Grow

HI, I've been working on growing Pure Power Plant in my 2'x10' closet. It's a soil grow for now but I've got a hydroponic system I can use when the plants are ready. I've started the plants off with a 42 watt cfl and I recently bought a ballast and 600 watt mh bulb. This is my second grow in the past 2 months. I usually get good picture records of my grows, as in usually a picture after each day's progress. I have a total of 6 growing right now, however the 2 oldest are now 13 days old. The other four, are about the same age and only about 3 days old. Because size matters I'm going to focus on the two bigger ones for a while unless other plants have problems I need help with.
If I get these girls to harvest time it'll be my first sucessful grow. I tried growing once in 2007, once in spring 2008. I recently ordered a pack of 20 PPP seeds, I germinated 8 and put them in my hydro system, I didn't get a timer for the pump yet and since i use lava rocks I thought the roots were too short to survive on the water that would probebly soon evaporate from the top layer, so i left it on almost all the time. This was probebly what killed 6 of my plants, also the ph was off in the water a little, at maybe 4.5-5. This is what I call my X-Factor. A slight error I make when replicating nature kills my plants. The only surviving plant from this grow (which ended about 2 weeks ago) had just started to pick up speed growing when I got back from vacation, I put it under my cfl and tried to get it as close to the bulb as i could without burning it, I don't think I took into account how much it would grow, and it burned to death.

Any comments or recommendations are greatly appreciated. Soon I'll post pictures I've already taken.

I'm considering returning my 600w MH bulb and getting an HPS but before I do I wanna find some answers to some questions. The 600w HPS bulb i'm looking at puts out about 95,000 lumens compared to my MH's 72,000. I know MH is supposed to be great for vegging growth and I should switch to HPS later for flowering, but when the HPS is so much brighter, can't the brighter light make up for the poor spectrum? Also, which light heats up a room faster, a 600w MH or 600w HPS, or are they almost the same? If you had the choice of growing with a 1000w HPS or a 600w MH which would you choose?

PICTURES! - to save space and because there isn't much to see while they're seedlings, i'm just going to post a few pictures from the grow so far. To see the day to day growth in an album you can go HERE FOR PLANT A and HERE FOR PLANT B.

Day 1


Day 4

Day 9
(by this time I transplanted them to separate pots with fresh soil, so the first pictures are the tallest one I'll call Plant A, and the second pictures are the shorter one that I'll call Plant B)
On the 7th day I put the plants under my 600 watt MH and they started to fry, luckily I was checking them frequently enough that the plant was able to continue growing but I later cut off part of one leaf on Plant A because it was completely brown after a point, (Plant B had almost no damage as it was shorter and further from the light). I switched them back under the 42 watt CFL figuring I didn't need the MH yet because of how small they were and the electricity could be better used later.
I also planted 4 other germinated seeds this day and they started growing a day or 2 after.

Day 11

Day 13

More Light
The 2 biggest plants that got burned have added enough leaves to grow at a more normal speed for their size. I also added another 42 watt CFL so now I have 2 but more importantly I've checked the amount of light the plants are getting from their position and it seems almost as much as sunlight. My light reader is either in foot candles or lux (lost the directions), it goes up to 2500 and in sunlight it maxes out, where the plants are now they probebly get about 2500 or a little more, compared to the 1750 they got before it might be the reason for the faster growth. Thats about the same brightness as my meter reads when it's 12-16 inches from my 600 watt MH.

Superthrive
I've also been experimenting with a mixture of plant hormones called Superthrive, it says it can help plants recover from stress and increase yields in general. I'm adding a nutrient solution overdosed with Superthrive to one plant and I'll soon know how much it helps. I added the Superthrive to Plant B early in the morning on Day 16. When I added it, it seemed that Plant B was already growing a little faster, but it did experience less of a heat burn than Plant A, so to confirm anything about Superthrive I'm going to be looking for an obvious difference in the plants over the next week. I used it once before on a tomato plant and I carelessly let a drop fall on part of the stem, and didn't think anything of it. The next day it looked like the plant was starting to grow a tumor where the drop fell, later the plant died. For this reason i'm trying to be careful with Superthrive. I like to think of it as steroids for plants though.

More Plants
Meanwhile I have 3 other PPP plants growing now, the bigger plants get first priority on placement under the light for now until other plants seem stronger and more worth the light.
One Down
I had 4 a couple days ago but one died when it's stem broke underneath it, (probebly was my fault). That plant was sharing a pot with another plant and I noticed the plant that survived had a very red stem, I remembered it was sometimes a sign of a nurient deficiency, although it was growing in natural soil from down here in Florida (more like sand) so a nutrient deficiency seemed unlikely but it hadn't grown much so i fed it a little more than I had 2 days before. I should also mention these Pure Power Plants supposedly turn purple in flowering more likely than other plants, but I think it's a somewhat rare gene.

Watering
I'm watering with an all purpose Miracle Grow concentrated plant food I originally bought for my hydro system. I was prety shocked it didn't have magnesium in it, I'm counting on MG potting soil for some of the micro nutrients. I usually water with a syringe so i can measure how much i give, right now I give 20 ml to the small plants every 2 days and 40-60 ml to Plants A and B every 3 days.

Where Are The Seeds From And How Much They Cost
I forgot to mention I ordered my seeds from a mail order site called buycheapseeds, mainly just cuz i wasn't interested in spending a lot of money on some plants i would end up killing, i got 20 seeds for 50 USD, it's a better deal if u pay in euros though, i think it was like 25 euros which was like 35 USD when I bought the seeds, but i couldn't find a currency exchange nearby. They always seem to send me 1 or 2 extra seeds, i think they send 11 for every ten, but it might have been a mistake the past couple times (they only say 10 seeds, no freebies) I think they sent me 22 this time and I tried to germinate 19 and all but 2 or 3 germinated with the paper towel method, the ones that didn't seemed like the shell wouldn't open. This is consistent with what usually happens when I order from them.

Pictures - for some reason my album for plant A is now Plant B too so i guess u can ignore those links at the top until i figure out why that happenned and get them cought up.

UPDATE
The plants have grown quite a bit. I'm starting to run into some leaf discolorations due to ph or nutrient deficiencies, but I need to transplant soon anyway so I'll wait for the soil to dry in the cups then move them to bigger containers before I transplant Plants A and B. Two of my other plants are growing at respectable or fast rates. The last plant I started growing in a pot of florida dirt which is really sand (just to experiment), and it's growing very slowly even though I give it the same nutrient water, I'll transplant it into some soil, but clearly the soil down here in florida sucks where I live.
Superthrive
Because I'm going to transplant I'm going to be messing up the experiment I started on superthrive, I can try it later in the grow when growth is more consistent though. So now both of the 2 older plants will get a solution of 4 times the recommended concentration of superthrive. I did notice some changes in the leaves after I added too much superthrive one day, in 2 or 3 spots the leaves had messed up serations, instead of the repeatting jagged edge on the leaf, it looked like 10 jagge edges had been scrunched up, in a very small spot the leaf looked like it was bubbling. Its not anything that would slow growth though.
LIGHT GREEN LEAF
One eaf on top is a light green color inbetween the veins, i think it's getting better, the new leaves coming in look fine. I included a picture.
FOLDING LEAVES
On one of my plants the leaves have been folding up into v shapes. I thought it may have been underwatering so I rubbed some nutrient water on the leaves and today they were fine. The next set of leaves did it too and I rubbed water on them and i'll see if they're ok tomorrow.

I'm just a little worried about plant B now. I also decided I'm going to return my 600 watt MH bulb for an HPS bulb. I'll probebly be using it in about a week depending on how transplanting goes. I wanna keep the older two plants under the 2 CFLs until they grow another 2 or 3 inches. Plant A might be ready to go under the HPS sooner. Right now the plants are starting to smell really sweet up close, I think I might have smoked this strain before. I was touching the leaves and now my fingers smell.

Feel Free To Leave Comments,
and if you have any idea what nutrient disorder Plant B could have had, then please comment, I've looked through disorder pictures and can't pinpoint which one it is with my newbie skills.

UPDATE for Day 21 in veg

Day 22-Day 51 in Veg

Not much happenned, I think there's a nitrogen deficiency in Plant C because one of the lower fan leaves is yellowing.

The yellowing has spread to 2 or 3 other fan leaves and I'm going to flush the soil tonight to make sure it isn't nute burn. I've read this is normal for flowering, but i don't think it should be happenning so early, I'm not exactly packing on buds yet.
I'm tieing the plant down so it starts to grow sideways like a scrog, I did that on day 55 i think. The plant seemed to recover in a day and started growing up towards the light again. The middle side branches now get a lot more light and they seem to be flowering more than the middle stem. The flowers just consist of a few hairs at each internode.
The plant now has 16 internodes. The first 7 internodes on the main stem aren't flowering, further up the branches they are but not where a main cola would form which kinda sucks cuz of course i was dreaming of a huge main cola. I tried to give the plant a lot of extra dark hours thinking i could let it build up enough hormones to force flowering at those internodes but there aren't any pistils there. I must have given it 24 or 36 hours of dark. I've been on a 13-11 day-night cycle because I can take the extra time to flower and let them get a little bigger. If this plant at least doubles in height I'll have a plant between 5 and 7. My estimate for the yield of Plant C is between 3 and 4 ounces. I think Plant A will yield about 1.5-2 ounces. I started flowering Plant A at 19" but Plant A is the one that was topped at 11" because of a heat burn, now it's a big bush thats shaped like an upside down cone.
I think the yellowing on plant C is nitrogen lockup because of bad Ph or over fertilizing.
Plant C is now about 40" tall if I measure the stem that grows like a ScrOG plant. 35" vertical. I started flowering it at about 31".
Plant A seriously smells like a skunk. Plant C smells like pine tree sap. I have my fan sucking air from inside the grow room, through the cool tube, over the bulb, through 10 feet of ducting, through the fan and out of a negative ion air purifier so I don't have any issues with smell anymore. The 400 watt hps also heats my room up a few degrees. I have to say something about the smell of these plants after they go through the air purifier makes me fall asleep so easily at night, it's like an intoxicating smell that doesn't smell that much like weed but it makes u feel tired, content, at peace and relaxed. I might start cloning these plants soon for my next crop. Idk where I'll keep them vegging while the HPS is used for flowering but I'll figure it out.
I might get a 600 watt HPS soon but I'll have to upgrade the ventilation before I do that. I'll probebly have to make another cool tube.
In case anyone wants to make a DIY cool tube but can't find a hurricane lamp or a pyrex tube: go to lowes and get a plastic panel that they use for windows and then put it in the oven on low heat until it gets flexible, then just bend it into a cyllinder and find a way to keep the crack sealed. I used nuts and bolt to hold my bulb in place. I put the bolts through the plastic at points where they would be held close enough for the bulb to sit inbetween on a metal plate. All that can be gotten at lowes for under 15$

When I put plant A into flowering at 30" it turned out to be a male so i chopped it and was left with just plants B and C. I have a smaller plant D that I put into flowering just to check the sex and it turned out to be a male.
I was also really tired when I posted the last update and I said Plant A but I meant Plant B.

updated pics of popcorn buds

The trichome forecast for today is mostly cloudy. I think it'll be a at least a few days before the bud has the right trichome balance. I'm shooting for 40-50% amber trichomes.

I tested some last night and it was pretty heady, but I hadn't smoked in quite a while so it may be my pallatte isn't as fresh. So I'm gonna try smoking a little of the test bud I dried yesterday, it's the same bud in the pics of trichomes (just to check my judgement), I had to use a microscope to get those pics of the trichomes.

I started 2 new plants in the the flowering room to check the sex and they're both confirmed female. and now they're about 5 weeks old. They were acidents really.... I had a dead male plant in the room and it let out a little pollen, but I was actually glad to have it happen cuz I needed some seeds for the next crop, but i only got a couple of seeds out of it so it didn't ruin the crop. The seed pods are really obvious if u look for them.

Here are the pics from harvesting the plant, you'll notice the buds look like they were trying to grow a lot of leaves, this is probably because the plant lost most of it's fan leaves and had to grow more leaves to keep up with growth (just my theory), it could also be because I continued using superthrive throughout the flowering, at a higher concentration of 5 ml per gallon, this is supposed to make the plant resistant to stress, I'm betting flowering realeases a lot of stress hormones in the plant and superthrive started to counteract this.

I still haven't cut down the top branch wihich has the biggest bud on it, I'm going to let this one mature a little more because it was a little behind the rest of the plant. I'll post a few pics of that last one in a couple days. In the first day of drying the total weight has dropped from 54 grams to 43 grams. I'm pretty sure almost all of the water weight is gone within 3 days, but I've never dried the buds from this strain and so I'm probably off by at least a little.

LOL, wow dude, you used super thrive through out your 12/12? Why would you do that? I like your theroy on how the plant realases stress hormones when in flower and super thrive will correct that. LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry buddy but that is some funny shit. Super Thrive, has alot of N in it, which promotes rapid leaf growth. Another thing, did you have any light leaks or did you screw around with the light timings? Because you (plant) looks like it's in re-veg state, with those dark green shinny little leafs.
Mostly ppl just use super thrive for seedlings and some do through out their whole veg period, but that's all. Just a little food for thought, read up on what nutes to use and when, like the n-p-k levels.
Good luck on your next one, everyone starts out as a noobe, so don't worry

Yeah sorry man but ur buds look tiny and weak. I agree with hardroc, looks like a light leak. The buds are really small. better luck next time

Yea your nute/ph skill is lacking and you should invest in some hydro equipment and some chicken wire to stop plants overgrowing and burning themselves.

Hydro is easyier to get good results with than soil imo have a look at what other people are doing with nutes and ph.

Iv managed zero plant problems without a ec meter and using coloured ph tester so its not hard, but you obviously have a flaw in your soil system.

First of all tidy up your grow room / finish it then either mix up some pro soil or go hydro.

And not much point using expensive flamable mylar if its all crinkly and shit.


Not a bad first attempt at least you didnt kill them and got some shitty bud.

Pretty damn good for your first go round bro. notch it in the belt and enjoy your next grow, Good job on your log too.