First grow, bagseed, 400hps, growbox - PICS!!

lol mared, too true...

By waiting until the last seedling has a few nodes then flowering straight away, by the time the plants decide to show sex they would have vegged for longer..this is a proof of concept grow. The missus wants to know i can pull it off, and the weed is good quality...if i get the mark of approval I can rebuild much better.

Remember guys im growing in a 1m x 1m x 1.5m high box here...thats like 3ft x 3ft x 5ft high i think lol. So im after very short bushy plants this run. Bud density and quantity dont matter a whole lot, although obviously the more the better....but my main goal is have the plants survive round 1. Then ill work on quantity..this box is pretty sloppy...next one will have ventilation etc built in from day 1.

Missy is doing great now, her lower growth is getting growth lol...once this lower growth has a few nodes i will take a few cuttings, as i need to at least do a test run of cloning.

Trippy is like halfway through her second set of leaves...also triploid (some plants revert to normal, so far trippy is staying triploid).

Ella which is the seedling thats a dayolder than trippy is still small and yellowing...not sure why because that one has had the same treatment as trippy...but ella was bag seed, and olllld seed so it may just be ruined..

The other seedlings are doing fine so far...lookin forward to having growth to eport on each one lol but right now thats pointless.

Undecided if i wll start geming a northern lights this rond or wait for next run...

I need some more pots so I guess ill be going on a trip to the gardening store today....

Hey man, I'm rootin for ya with the missus LOL. I'll do everything I can to help. If you're aiming to impress her I would start the NL straight away. More variety is better to me. I've been disapointed by some strains and pleasantly surprised by others. You never know what you're gonna get until you grow it out no matter what other people tell you, especially with genetic variablility of phenotypes and such. Maybe the DG turns out great but the NL turns out unbelievable. You never know. I've not had KC Brains NL but the other "NLs" I've smoked have all been great.

So I got up today and trippy is pretty droopy...I may have been overwatering her i think...Ive adopted a new style of watering that nobody on here will agree with but is absolutely kicking ass with missy.

Im watering a quarter of the pots contents twice a day.
The guy at my hydro shop, who gives me great advice always says stuff like:
if you are growing your little strawberry patch under that 400w use "x amount of this etc"...if you were to compare that to growing weed for instance, you would do this.

cuz i told him i wanted my setup for strawberries lol..hes cool.

Anyways he said with a 50% perlite and 50% soil mix (i took a sample of my mix in) in that sized pot he would water no more than 250ml 2x a day.

I said i wait till the top layer of soil goes hard, as this is what ive researched and he said that will promote root growth for sure..but at the expense of stressed growth. The plant is growing the roots because it needs water and whie it will have an astronomical root system, it can still only grow at a certain rate and it wont absorb any more than it needs through the roots anyways. Now, keep in mind, this is my soil mix...with 50% soil 50% perlite, and i dont know the constituents of my soil other than its organic and contains no nutes. I can pour 5 ml of water in and get a few drops runoff, its very free soil...

So anyways i have been watering the potted plants 250 ml at lights on, 250 ml halfway thru the light cycle.
Missy LOVED this.
Trippy didnt. lol

Now heres why. Missy was ready for a bigger pot..found little roots coming ou the bottom..so went to the store and got a pot 2 sizes up. (got a few lol)
This is her final pot. So when i transplanted using my transplant method (moisten soil, wait a few hours lightly LIGHTLY compress top layer so it doesnt flake off and tip upside down. Even with my 50% perlite the damp soil held together and i had a perfect root mass in there, clearly see roots on the outide perimeter and base. But not all packed in.

Gently filled in the pot around her and DONT WATER. Theres enough moisture in the mix already for the roots to seek.

Anyways missy had rooths throughout the pot to absorb the moisture etc.
Note the guy at th store said NO MORE than 1/4 contents of pot 2 times a day...trippys main root mass is still the jiffy pot she was planted in. This holds water so much more than my mix so i was starving trippy of oxygen.

Im adapting my method ththe following:

Germ seeds.
Jiffy pot till roots come out the bottom.
Smallest pot. Water 50-100ml 2x day till theres no runoff from this then increase to 100-250ml till roots are out the bottom.
Next sized pot. 300 - 400 ml till no runoff then find the right amount to produce a little runoff each day. That ensures the plant doesnt seek water with new root mass. (it wil stll fatten its roots up though.) It also flushes salts etc out. Nutes are given (if scheduled) in morning feeding, then water + additives phed given at second.

Theres a point in your first grow when you realise "im not baking a cake, im helping another being live". I can read thousands of journals where plants needed x amount of this etc...but each plant is unique, even clones grow different. genetically alike, but their unique living conditions make them all look different..leave move etc..

Anyways, from now on im letting my plants teach me how to grow them rather than following step by step directions...

lol...

Prot3us1 said:

Theres a point in your first grow when you realise "im not baking a cake, im helping another being live". I can read thousands of journals where plants needed x amount of this etc...but each plant is unique, even clones grow different. genetically alike, but their unique living conditions make them all look different..leave move etc..

Anyways, from now on im letting my plants teach me how to grow them rather than following step by step directions...

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WELL PUT! Damn well put protastic. I've learned the same thing, I watched a "how to" grow video on youtube. VERY informative, I put some of his principles into practice and my plants began to die! There's no better way of phrasing it, let the plant tell you what it needs, it always will.

+rep!!
kiss-ass

I think thats key shackle...learn the techniques from others, maybe adapt them a lil to suit ourselves, then apply those techniques at the pace our plants set..
+rep back at ya...if i deserve it so do you seeing as we both came to the same conclusion lol...
--damn i need to spread love lol, i havent been doing the rounds the last few days as its the weekend, and im shrooming for the first time (hunting for them).

Ill be doing the rounds now of everyones journal hehe.

if you guys are ever looking to kill some time click the "live chat" button up next to where you access your "my rollitup" page etc. Im usually in there, sometimes not at my computer...but its cool to talk in real time sometimes....its not without its little chatroom drama kings and queens, but you get that lol...and theres always pm's.

Whatever works for you I guess. The guy at your hydro store seems to have the exact opposite view on watering as I do. Haven't seen his plants but I know mine like how I water. I flood them completely. There isn't such a thing as too much water in my book. As long as you let them dry out ENOUGH before the next watering. I'm not saying let them get bone dry to the point of stress but just so you aren't drowning them every time you flood the pots. Roots uptake nutes and the byproduct is salts. If you are just barely wetting your soil these salts will build up over time. So do what works best for you but if it starts to not work so well just remember my method.

mared juwan said:

Whatever works for you I guess. The guy at your hydro store seems to have the exact opposite view on watering as I do. Haven't seen his plants but I know mine like how I water. I flood them completely. There isn't such a thing as too much water in my book. As long as you let them dry out ENOUGH before the next watering. I'm not saying let them get bone dry to the point of stress but just so you aren't drowning them every time you flood the pots. Roots uptake nutes and the byproduct is salts. If you are just barely wetting your soil these salts will build up over time. So do what works best for you but if it starts to not work so well just remember my method.

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yea i have always heard soak them thougherly, and let them dry out befor next water.

well the pots im using are like .9 l. 50% of that is perlite so .45l is soil or roots...assuming the roots are taking up any of that soil space there will be less soil that that..so watering with one quarter of the pots volume theres more than enough water to soak the soil and roots with nutes.

The second watering is plain water, so the plants been absorbing nutes and depositing salts for half its light cycle, now this water rehydates the soil/roots, and flushes the salts away. I know it sounds like a quarter of the volume isnt much, but in all reality i put in 250 ml and about 50-100 of that comes back out.

Im a bit dubious about this watering technique so far, but i remembered a few things. First i remembered the 1000's of threads asking a question and getting 900 different answers...ranging from ph problems to not enough light...the poor ops of these threads dont know what to do. I sometimes forget forum members arent all experts and the dude at the hydro shop answers questions so fast, barely needs to think..you can tell he has hands on experience.

So yea, i guess we will soon know if hes talking out his ass or telling the truth hey lol...

This is my biggest problem...deciding what advice to take lol...once you find the technique that works its fine..but how do i know who to listen to to prevent problems..

Trippys looking droopy stil, but is putting out a 3rd node...are some plants naturally droopy?

Bro, you saw my journal, right? I have PLENTY of hands-on experience. Don't let the title fool you, I am no newb. Maybe I was when I started the journal... over a year ago. I've been running my garden perpetual the entire time. Let me do a special update just for you right now to show my latest stunners. Hydro store dudes are notorious for either trying to sell you shit or being fronts for the po-po. I wouldn't be wasting my time giving you advice if I wasn't sure it was going to help you. Helping people grow is something I not only enjoy doing but it also helps the cultivation hobby as a whole. The more competent and successful growers there are the harder it is for LEO to stop us. But enough of that, just check out my journal a little more thoroughly. It should be all the proof you need.

mared. Shit dude you got me there. I do want plants like yours man...I havent seen this guys plants..and his watering schedule does have me using a lot more nutes and supplements. And trippy has been shitty at me since i changed lol...poor kid liked her old feeding schedule

Yea I am not going to steer you wrong man I promise. I am not an expert nor do I claim to be but I can show you how to at least get as good as results as I do. There's a lot of things about growing I DON'T know and I think that's where other people trying to help go wrong. They will post their best guess about the problem or tell you something which they have heard from someone else as if it is fact. I don't do that. If I don't know the answer I will tell you. If I am taking an educated guess I will tell you. The only things I will tell you as absolute fact are things I have done and seen for myself. And about this watering thing I can tell you without a doubt that it is healthier for the plants to be flooded and then allowed to dry rather than given small amounts of water all the time. You might be able to get away with it while they are in their peat plugs because those things are pretty much like a sponge and the roots aren't yet processing a lot of nutes but in an actual pot with soil and nutes it won't work. You will either end up of with parts of your medium never being fully saturated or massive salt buildup or both. And nobody said you have to treat all the plants the same. Try out different things on different ones and see for yourself what really works.

ok guys, Ive been a bit preoccupied with shrooming (I like to go looking and taking pics of different shrooms, never actually tried any lol)...This morning i decided to do a 100% full check of the room, equipment and plants...

Temps: - during the day kept at 25C at night no lower than 20C
Missy: Looking good, shes growing heaps...I think the leaves shes already grown are just fattening up...looking good either way.
Trippy: Was still droopy even though i didnt water for a few days, so it wasnt overwatering. After searching for droopy leaves and reading like 10 posts...once again being diagnosed as everything from overheating, too cold, ph, over watering, under watering, too close to the light, salt buildup..this is what i mean from my other post you know...Its great having riu hre but frustrating getting all these different diagnoses for the same problem.

We need a badge. Like the awards you already have here but this one is a cultivator badge or something. This is awarded to people who demonstrate actual knowledge and helping others, but most importantly correct diagnoses of problems. That way we know who we should listen to.

So Trippy had roots coming out the bottom holes of her pot. I transplanted her into her bigger pot. I watered her in with 50% of the pots volume of water @ 6.5ph.
I always aim for this ph. There was a LOT of runoff, I wont water her now until she asks for it.
I also put some seedlings into their first pots, and planted some other plants (tomatos and a few flowering plants.) This way I have a legitimate use for the grow room. I would like to have the tomatos growing on mesh up the side of the room. The flowers will go outside once they are established.

Oh, northern lights seed cracked and is now in a jiffy.

lol, i think it is so funny how u say "50% of volume" no offence bro but your the only person i have ever heard say that...the fact is you save yourself alot of headache and get better plants by listening to mared and just flooding and drying....but you really should try your boys method on a couple plants and try the right way on some other ones

lol I know, I mix my nutes each day, that way they are fresh each day and i dont waste too much. So to do that i need to know how much to mix. I dont measure it to the ml or anything just know that the pots will need 25% of their volume to wet the soil and still have enough runoff to flush through salts. Also the method i switched to did soak the soil each time...the soil was being soaked completely twice a day, with runoff each time...Im using very small pots here, my biggest ones are probably smaller than a lot of peoples small ones.

Trippy just wont perk up...shes a beautiful green color, not had any nutes or anything if i dont water her for days she doesnt perk up, if i water her more she doesnt perk up...she doesnt droop any moe either though...do you think maybe its just how she is? Shes still showing growth..well i may have shocked her when i transplanted, but i was pretty careful...a little of her soil crumbled as i hadnt watered her for 3 days. This will shock her im sure, hope she recovers nicely though.

I put the plants outside today...it was a beautiful day. Nice and sunny no clouds...So while the plants were out i shut the room down and gave it a wipe with some bleach, cant hurt to fend off fungus...left the exhaust fan running all day to clear out fumes....

Trippy is still not looking great....could it be that the fan is blowing the hot air from the lights over her leaves and shes losing too much water from transpiration?

A new pic would definitely help but the watering frequency is probably the issue. Whether it has been too much or too little is impossible for me to tell but have you been lifting up the pot every day? There will be a dramatic weight difference between a wet pot and a dryish pot. You can let the pots get to the point of virtual weightlesness before the plants will start to droop I promise just try it. Then flood very well and lift every day until it feels empty again. At the seedling stage it may take a week for it to dry out. From everything you have said I would lean towards it being overwatering at this point.

Prot3us1 said:

just like to look...I guess its the whole pride/new hobby thing...It will wear off

Prot

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lol, it still hasnt for me. still catch myself zoning into the canopy every now and then.

Hehe...Well my plans worked out great so far guys...The new seedlings are all looking soooo good lol...trippy and missy get all my attention..i sort of ignore the rest, just watering them as they need etc lol.
The ones i ignore are doing great...that said missy and trippy are going along just fine too...

Ive now got all the plants i am going to have for my first harvest planted. Northern lights and one of my freebie seeds both sprouted and both are in their jiffy pots. Things are going great.

Also planted a bean and some varous other plants...petunias were first...and they are now coming up..Beans got an awesome stem on it now too...

Generally the gardens going great. When space becomes an issue the normal plants will move outside. MJ gets preference on space lol.

prot

OK so update time then lol. I took pics but im charging the camera battery, and the pics are on the internal memory so i cant get them off till its charged. Nobody will believe how bushy missy is. Trippys is on her 3rd node but not growing fast any more...she only seems to grow roots...shes already in her final pot and i can already see her roots at the holes in the pot. Not anywhere near bound yet but i wish she was as vigorous with foliage as she is with roots.

The other seedlings that sit in the back row are the only ones growing "correct".

When i see pics of other peoples plants i see the bottom leaves fatten up as they grow the second leaves. Missy and trippy never did this. They grew little lower leaves, then started working on more little leaves, then later on they fatten up the small ones.

Anyways guys pic update will come, lol maybe tomorrow

Hey there, I've been following your grow as my box will be very similar to yours, 400 watt hps and dimensions are roughly the same. For now my plan is to do 12 plants, only 1 intake and one outtake for ventilation that will both be computer fans. Do you think that would be enough, or does the 400 create a ton of heat? Also, should I set something up like, let's say, the bulb is behind glass that has it's own vent that is completely sealed away from the plants for smell, and just so heat stays out good. Or is it fine just hanging it up there?