First time grower: W Widow, Original Haze, Big Bud - comments welcome!

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
First time grower here, and I'm looking for the wisdom of your experience here. My setup is as follows:

250w MH/HPS
porta-growroom (hydrohut) 2'x2'x4'
175 cfm in-line, with carbon filter, and my speedster control is on its way.
I'm doing a soil grow (ocean farm from Fox Farms).

strains: White Widow, Original Haze and Big Bud, all from a reputable euro-source, and all are feminized strains.

I germinated almost two weeks ago, and have been in styro coffee cups ever since.

I've been foliar fertilizing my girls, and I think that they got a touch burned when the temp hit 32 degrees (92 f) one day, which I think explains the brown spots. I tried to photograph the grow space, but it didn't work, so I took out the best and worst looking examples to give you a flavor of my work.

In any case, here some pics of my girls (there are six in total):
 

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Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
Thanks for the note - your girls look great!

After today's veg period, it's 24 hours of darkness, followed by 12/12. I've had some heat issues related to where I put my box, but those problems have (knock on wood) been solved, so we'll see how the girls do in flowering.

If any experts do wander through here, I'm really curious about the danger of hermie-ing. Like any noob, I'm worried about the "dude looks like a lady" issue, as I dropped nice coin on my seeds, which were feminized. I'm particularly concerned about hermi-fication as I've had a few temp spikes to 32-33 degrees C (high 80's F I think), though most of time my girls have been basking in 24-26 degree comfort during 18 hours of light, dropping to about 19 degrees at "night".

I'll post "we're done with veg" pix tonight.
 

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
So I'm almost a week into flowering and the girls are having a growth spurt. I still have all six, and they are looking pretty reasonable.

Some of the lower leaves from when there was a lack of nutrients / heat burned are still a touch spotted, but the newest leaves are coming in robust and deep deep green.
 

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
Here's two views of a typical plant. I have a total of six, and thanks to a complete bonehead move on my part (I transplanted the ladies but not the ID tags), the best I can say is that this is either original haze, white widow or big bud.

sigh. . .
 

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Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
And I've only fertilized once, with 1/16 strength fox farms nutes (my girls are in fox farms' Ocean Forest). I did that with my last watering, and the chicas seemed to like it. Next time I'll do straight water (distilled, bought my local hypermart). Judging by the moisture meter, that next watering will be either Saturday or Sunday (I've been letting 'em get dry, but not bone dry).
 

polypterus

Well-Known Member
Nice! Looking good. What do you have on top of your soil, little rocks? What is the reason for using plain distilled water? As opposed to tap, spring, etc..
 

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
Nice! Looking good. What do you have on top of your soil, little rocks? What is the reason for using plain distilled water? As opposed to tap, spring, etc..

I do have little stones on top of the soil - it helps to retain moisture. Also, watering disturbs the soil, and plants can't root as well in disturbed soil. So using small stones on top allows the roots to come up a bit higher in the pot, which are quite small given my small grow space. I have 4 8"x8" pots that are 6" high and 2 6"x6" pots that are 8" high.

I can't believe how many times I typed "pot", "high" and "stoned" in that last paragraph, and none of the references were to being baked! Must be subliminal. . .


As far as the tap water issue goes, I won't say much other than that I won't drink the tap water where I live, and wouldn't ask my girls to either! And they've been drinking a gallon or so a week, so three of those 2.5 gallon water jugs will last a long time for me.
 

polypterus

Well-Known Member
Thats such a cool idea I would not have thought of putting stones over the dirt. I hate how when i water it disturbs the soil a lot, i guess that fixs the issue pretty well? and keeps the soil damp as well! cool! i guess fishtank stones would be good to use, as they are inert? is that what you are using?
 

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
Hey ropefish, thanks for the q, but you can get garden stones for the top layer on your soil grow at your local garden or hardware store. Mine are standard plant stones.
 

Ali Haji Sheik

Active Member
Ok, I know I have the deadest grow journal ever, but, well, I've been busy. Anyway, I do have a question about stench.

My haze girl just reeks. I have an exhaust fan with a carbon filter at the end going 24/7, but there is still the perceptible odour of pot. If I shut the fan off, the whole house gets so weedy smelling that the dogs get a contact high.

Advice?

Oh, and grow update, I had two likely hermies, so they got trimmed. Now I'm down to 4, and they're doing well.
 
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