Documenting First Grow!!

Hey I'm growing my first set of plants, I thought I'd share the experience in the forums, as well as welcome any advice that anyone has along the way. So once I decided to start growing, I did a ton of research and after a few trial and errors, and about a dozen dead seedlings, I think I finally figured it out! I JUST did the first feeding of fertilizer, diluted it to about 50% of recommended solution. Plus I didn't even give them that much of the diluted stuff.
2 plants are JUST sprouting the 3rd set of leaves. I am wondering about one of my plants though, because it grew it's first leaves (being the one on each side from the seedling leaves) and it's next set of leaves are already at 3 on each side. Wondering how normal that is...

Set Up (Currently) - I will be adding one more light to the mix

- 4 Bagseed seeds, 3 of them are almost at 3 weeks, and the 4th is at 3 days
- 3 CFL's, all 6500K Temp, and 2 are 1150 lumens each, the 3rd is 1600 Lumens. Each plant has their own light. Currently 24/0
- Foxfarm Soil, All Purpose
- Miracle Grow fertilizer (going cheap for the veg state, then moving to something more high quality in the flowering stage)
- 1 fan for ventilation
- My watering schedule is every 3 to 4 days

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No real normal state for how leaves grow in each strain. I have a strain that only ever produces leaves with 3 tips. Very strange but its an amazing finished smoke tested at 17% THC .71% CBD and 2.06% CBN with great taste and smell. Can't judge a plant by it's leaves.

On another note I know that veg seems less important then flower when it comes to ferts but it is actually very important to create a good soil environment in veg so that you go into flower from a good starting point. It will effect the final outcome.

An inexpensive and so far for me successful and simple feeding solution is starting off with Happy Frog All Purpose Organic Fertilizer[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][/FONT] 5-5-5 mixed into the soil then adding a little Sea Kelp and Molasses with watering to build a strong healthy microbial environment. I personally still run Cutting Edge at a diluted rate but I'm trying to maximize my growth rate.

Thats a good harvest in the future if u keep an eye out

I hope they are in the pots you want them to finish in. It would be a bitch to transplant out of those trash cans you're using.

Watering schedule should be a factor of pot size compared to plant size. You can probably get by OK watering twice a week now
that the seedlings are so small compared to their pots. But when they start growing an inch a day it is time to speed that schedule
up. I water my flowering plants every day and twice a day when it is hot. Flowering plants especially suck up the water.

Odd-shaped leaves are not uncommon at that stage. Considering you are using bagseed they look good.

BigSteve.

not enough light to really get a lotta growth. don't feed yet.

They are in the pots I plan to flower them in, there is a warehouse called Midwest Supplies that I got some of my equipment from, i.e the pots, ferts, bulbs. I'm not sure I want them to get more than 1.5 feet tall. I was thinking about getting the FoxFarm fert for veg, ca't remember what it's called, just got loaned the Miracle Grow fert. May think on going back and grabbing the good stuff. I am planning on getting one more light for the 4th plant, it's struggling to make it on my temporary fix, but was a lil too hot to make that errand today...maybe once I cool off, I'll head back out into the world, haha. When is a good indication on when to feed? I let the soil get dry on top before I water again. On my trials before, I found that watering often left them with some root rot...And lastly, plant #4 is a seed I got from a bag of some potent green, but I'm guessing that doesn't necessarily mean good genetics.

and by 4th plant, I mean #3...it has a lack of light right now, I moved the good light over to the new seedling. As well, I'm also keeping the lights about 1 - 2 inches from the top of the plants, just moved them to get a better view of the entire area.

So now I'm looking for a little advice...I think one of my plants got burned by the nutes, I noticed it this morning, and this evening, i watered it with just straight water, maybe help flush some of the nutes out of the soil? I'm hoping it's still saveable...But I added a few more pics to update the rest of the plants!

Here is #2, the one that I'm diagnosing with nute burn...

Here is #4, the newest member! 4 days old.

#1, took to the nutes quite well!

#3, I need to get this one her own light, hopefully tomorrow. She's sharing...

Flush the nute burned one, then let it dry out..Like..if you see the top layer of soil is lookin a little dusty, dry, wait one more day, then perhaps water. Keep going with that, and maybe cut back on nutes...You should wait til they're a little bigger collectively to use nutes, and even at that point, start out at 1/4 strength of recommended, then build your way up to 1/2 strength, then full. You'll know if your burned plant is surviving if you see new shoots come out (if green). Also on a side note, once there has been damage to leaf tissue, it will stay that way. The leaf wont get repaired our be as lush and green again, but that doesn't matter considering those leafs you have now you'll likely end up trimming off later on.


Good luck!

Also...Look at #1. You see how the leaf edges are curved upwards? That's usually a sign of heat stress...Meaning add more air movement so heat doesn't build up under your lights.

I was JUST going to ask about the curved leaves, I noticed them today. I got a fan to put behind them so they have 2 fans blowing on them in opposite directions. I also pulled the light a few cm's away for now. As far as the nute burn, I read somewhere to clip what won't survive as to allow the plant to focus on growing healthy and not focus on trying to repair what can't be fixed. Since I'm still learning and what not, I'm ok with losing that plant in lieu of gaining that experience. Plus I have 2 plants that can replace the nute burned one if it doesn't make it, I told a friend I'd sprout them for him, but he hasn't gotten his set up ready yet. Thanks so much for the input too guys, I REALLY appreciate it. I'm having a blast with my babies!!!

Just thought I'd throw up some more pics. When does a plant start showing their sex?

#1 doing healthy as I can tell.


#2 still struggling, but looks like it's growing it's next.


#3 seems healthy, just slow growing.


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Looking good so far. Soil grow tend to be a bit slow in respect to growers growing hydro. After you nail this grow and go again, look into Hydroponics. You'll grow 2x as fast and get a bigger yield with that. Since they're in those small containers i'd water every day or so which will help the rate of growth. And you can't tell sex until you decide to flower (12/12 light cycle). Once you put it into 12/12, the sex should be revealed in about 10-14 days. If you don't know what to look for in sex, look around this forum or google will have your answer. One technique you could use to figure out sex before flowering is; cover a lower branch with a black bag, (tie it over the branch, loosely so there is air flow) and simulate the 12/12 cycle on just that lower branch and again in about 10-14 days that part of the plant will reveal sex, which is the same throughout the entire plant. Another way you can tell is the look of your plant. If its looking pretty..good chance its a female. Male plants dont look too pretty or that well put together.


Hope this helps

and what's funny...I'm on my first grow too haha. I've just read wayyyy too much before i started..kinda why I know a lot for a first timer I guess. I've got 4 plants growing...Under a conglomerate of lights. 150w HPS, 2 26w 6700k CFL, and 1 23w 2400k CFL. I have 2 babies that look like #4, and the other 2 are 3x the size of #1.

Happy growing bro, i'll stay tuned into this for ya and help along the way as much as i can.

I lied. Re looked at those pics, my babies look like #3. I believe they're on their 3rd or 4th node now.

I've been logged into these forums for the past 2 weeks straight just reading forums, tricks, fix's, nute deficiencies, lol. I'm also doing my research, I'm using this thread as a document of my mistakes and reference for things I don't seem to find in the forums. Thanks for the insight too, I'd like to try hydro, but I don't have the room yet. Once this grow goes well, I'm going to turn the closet, (huge and awesome area for growing!), I'm using into a better grow area. Gonna stick with soil to I'm fucking perfect at it before hydro, lol.

So I went back through some pictures to find the exact age of my plants, and they're actually younger than I thought. June 24 is the day #1, #2, and #3 sprouted out of the dirt, and #4 was June 29. I have as of today 2 CFL's (6500K) directed on #1, just had a spare bulb and fixture, figured a little extra light might help it along, I just have to watch the heat. I am curious as to why #1 and #2 seem to be affected by the heat a little, even with 2 fans blowing on them. So as of today, first 3 plants are 2 weeks and a day into veg, the 4th is only 1 week and 3 days...#1 and #3 are already getting nutes at 1/4 strength.

One note too, #2 is my experimental that I trimmed because of nute burn (my first eager newbie mistake), but it looks like its coming back.

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One more thing I'm wondering about...I've read yes and no to this, but I'm running one 26W 6500K, 1600 lumen bulbs on each plant. Besides the extra light I added today. Enough?

Along with the above question, I am leaving on a 5 day cabin trip up north. Leaving Sunday night and coming back Friday. My big ones are watering ever other day, any suggestions to keep them watered or should I not even worry about the extra few days of not being watered? I think I will be putting them in a plastic container with gravel and water, as a friend suggested. I also noticed slime in my water reservoir...wtf?!? I dumped and washed it out and refilled, but that shit was nasty. Here's some pics of progression over the past 4 days. These mothers grow like weeds!

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So, here is a sad update. I just watered them from being up at the cabin for the last 5 days, but they were basically unattended for those 5 days. #1 was pretty much dried up, #2 was almost on it's way out but I think I can bring it back. Sadly I think #1 is a gonner, but I trimmed her bad leaves and watered her, gonna try bringing her back but I doubt she'll make it. One thought i had was to clip her at the top and use a rooting hormone to try to start her over again, any thoughts?
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