first timers grow journal

ok so this is week 1 and i have three 2 inch plants growin in my closet. i am using a hydroponic drip system to water them 3 times during the daily light cycle which runs from 12 am to 6 pm. the light i am currently using puts out 2700 lumens and is a cfl, but i am hopin to upgrade to a 200 watt mh light as soon as i can gather up some cash and ill be postin pictures on here throughout my first grow for u guys to check out. but all in all, as ive already discovered that experience can not be substituted with the internet, if you have any advice or constructive criticism please feel free to comment on this thread.

alright still in week one and my plants arent dead yet so i must be doin somethin right. but anyways last night i added quite a bit more lights to my collection, a 70 watt hps light thats hangin bout a foot above my plants, and 2 more of the cfl lights like the one i already have. (not sure how high the hps light should be above my plants, so if a foot sounds too high or too low please let me know)

how much did that hps cost ya? and where'd ya get it from?

$22 for the bulb, $70 for the lamp and the ballast is built in to that and i saved all the receipts just in case i got the wrong shit. but aside from that, after hookin it up today for some reason it keeps shuttin off automatically after 5 to 6 hours and i have no idea why. it'll cut back on after bout 10 minutes but i dont know what to do as far as makin it stay on.

anyways, heres some pics (day 4)

Maybe the hps is getting too hot and shuting off and it takes around ten minutes for it the cool off before it comes back on?

thanks for the advice man ill try pointin one of my fans at it for tomorras light cycle and see if that does the trick. if it is overheatin though then i think it must be somethin gettin too hot inside the lamp cause even when the lights on it never gets over 80 in my closet.

u know what man, u just fixed my problem and i feel like sucha dumbass now. i plugged it in my pump timer instead of my light timer so its been shuttin off before each drip cycle and then 10 minutes later cuttin back on when the drip cycle's done. thanks alot bro i was just about to take it back too.

N/P LoL.. least you dont have to take it back to the shops now hey tlucas

Also if you have had your light pluged into your pump timer...Then whats been turning the pump on and off..?

the pumps have been doing their job the whole time. see, my timer works 2 different outputs but not at the same time. the pump uses the 1st output and when i plugged my lamp into the 2nd output and set it to my regular light cycle it turned on when it was set to but shut off again as soon as the 1st output was set to turn on. but oh well, im just glad everythings workin like its spose to again.

Sounds good so far man, keep us updated

alright heres some more pics for the end of the first week. (day 7)

this is my light setup


and heres what one of my plants looks like, they actually are bigger now thought cuz i took this pic on day 5


ill post some more pics later to show you what they look like today when my girlfriend gets home wit the camera. take it easy

heres some pics i took yesterday of my plants on the 7th day

ok, so after readin several other peoples grow journals im startin to get a little nervous as to how many females im gonna end up with. im only growin 4 plants right now and i want atleast 2 females. the problem is that i only have enough space for 3 plants to grow so i cant add more plants to increase the chances ill get females. is there anything i can do to "make" them females, or anything thatll atleast increase my odds?

nope dont think so.!! Just down to luck i had 4 plants and have ended up with just one female to show for it, could try cloneing if you do end up with just one or two females or just germ some more as soon as you find out how many males you get if any

alright i think im gonna transplant them into bigger pots in about a week, but i have no idea how to do that so im bout to search the web for tips but if any of u have some advice on transplanting it would be greatly appreciated.

make sure you have the new bigger pot ready to go with soil in it first.!!

for mine all i done was take a knife and pushed it into the side of the pot
then ran it all the way around the pot...be careful though as you dont want to cut the roots just loosen the soil,

next i lent the pot to one side...not upside down like some people may say as i didnt want soil everywhere

then put your hand over the pot and around the stem... then using one of my fingers i pushed slowly into the hole at the bottom of the pot and it should pop out transfer to the bigger pot and put soil around the sides and gave it a good water

i have read its better to transfer when you have dry soil not wet

sounds simple enough, their in vermiculite too so loosenin the medium shouldnt be much of a challenge. right now im usin a drip hydro system for vegging and i know ur not spose to use soil for hydroponic setups, but when i start flowering i wanna use an ebb and flow system with the rock pellet lookin medium. but i dont wanna transplant em twice if i dont have to....i dunno, what do u think?

alright so i havent updated in a while cuz my girls grandma had a heart attack and we've been with her family...but as far as an update on my grow, i havent even seen my babies in a week and i wont get to see them again for another week which is drivin me insane. but anyways, before i left i noticed that one of my plants was lookin really droopy so i switched my pump timer to water them twice a day instead of three times a day (this was a week ago), and my buddy went and checked on em for me today and told me that theyre lookin alot healthier. so thats about all the update i can give u there's 11 leaves on each plant now and ill post some pics as soon as iget back

alright i just got back and checked out my plants and at first everything looked alright, but after a thorough checkin im in desperate need of some help cuz all of the roots have some funky mold or somethin on em ....(day 20)



heres one of em i have no idea why this one is all droopy....



this one looks somewhat healthy.....except for those two leaves wit yellow tips and the funky root mold or whatever it is, also a couple of the leaves are startin to curl inward.....??



this one is probably the healthiest of the bunch but once again funky root mold and several leaves curlin inward....



this one im flat out embarassed of and i think im just gonna toss it, but there it is.....




and theres a couple more pics for you guys, if u have any advice i'd really appreciate it