Help me with my first grow

Hey guys, I've started my first grow with bagseed. Very excited!

I set up a modified mini-fridge in my garage. I'm using florescent bulbs for now, got everything at the right temp, and well ventilated.

I planted my germinated seeds about a week ago. They appear to be doing very well and are basically doubling in size/leaves almost daily. They are a nice color too. Maybe I will put pics up after work tomorrow.

I just have a couple of questions at this stage:

I'm growing in soil and I planted my seedlings in those red plastic beer cups (the kind you have at house parties) with little slits in them at the bottom for drainage. I have two plants I'm growing in their own cups.
I want to know when I should think about transplanting them to their larger containers? Around two weeks?

Also, the fridge gives me about 3' in height to work with. With my lighting taking up about 6 inches of that, when should I consider flowering and cutting the lights to 12/12?
I've heard that they can triple in size from when you switched to flower and I don't want my plants to outgrow the space I'm limited to, but I also don't want to screw up and hurt the plant by acting prematurely.

Any suggestions to help me grow in this limited space are much appreciated. I'll keep you guys updated with my grow on this thread.

You can leave the plants in those red cups a while, two weeks might be a little early, you want to make sure you have a good root ball to transplant with, it makes it easier, and the plant will be able to handle the transplant better. As for your height I would say switch to flowering when they are around a foot, but it depends on what light you will be using to flower. Will the flourescent be your light the whole time or will you be using HPS to flower? The flourescent will not make your plant triple in size the same way an HPS might.

Sounds like your off to a good start. flipping to 12/12 depends on your method. You can check my grow if you want, I recommend LST, it will increase your yield if you happen to get a female or 2.
I vegged for a month and switched and they took off on me. The LST is short and wide and manageable, the others are really really tall and hard to light from above in my setup.


I expect you can keep them in the beer cups for a long time since they have had competitions where people grow them all the way to harvest in those containers. I wouldnt worry about upsizing until at least a month or more.

Happy Growing!!

i've had some plants in the beer cups for 2 months now, there was ph problems in the begining, still may be a little to low but they are still growing.

Thanks for the responses. Based on the advice I will keep them in the cups for longer than a couple weeks. I'm at about one week since they sprouted right now.

And I'm going to have to keep using florescent bulbs for now, Im on a tight budget for this grow, but I did get both the 6000k and 2700k bulbs so that they are getting the right color spectrum during the phases.

So you guys think with the fact that I'm growing in soil, using florescents for my lighting, and have around 3' of height to work with, that I can start flowering at around a month from when they sprouted? I'm going to look at doing LST, but Im a little cautious based on this being my first time around.

And do you think I should transplant them to bigger containers before I attempt to flower?

Also, when did you guys start adding nutes? I have a local garden store where I bought the organic soil that sells plenty of nutes, but I don't know what I need and it's difficult to ask them for help when I can't tell them what I'm growing....

I will post pics in a couple hours when I get home from work.

put 'em in 1gal pots. do a month long veg, and tie the branches down if they start getting too tall. just glue some hooks to the side of the pot, use some twine or hemp....

and use something to prop up the plants so they are 1-3 inches away from the light, if not they'll stretch.......

You should be able to begin flowering in a month, maybe even sooner if height is that big an issue. I had to pinch, and I mean pinch the heck outta my main stem to bend the top cola down to get some extra time cause my 1 plant reached the roof of my growing area way too quick~

Best bet is to keep your lights right on them especially if your using flourescents, cause they hardly get too hot. Preventing stretching early on is a good thing! Once it's stretched theres not much you can do about it.

What kind of soil are you using that's going to make a lot of difference. Some like miracle grow have slow realased fertilzer in them and will feed for up to like 3 months. I would say that when your soil is a little dryed out tip it upside down and many times it will just slide right out especially if the roots are well developed and thats the easiest way to transplant...I just got done transplanting from one of these and I started about 2 weeks ago. I was using seed starting mix though which is very light and doesn't have a lot of nutes. I would also suggest low stress traing and or chopping you want to keep them as short as possible with flouros. Your using the standard flouros like 4' or something? In would suggest getting at the very least some of the compact flouros it's the same thing but much more compact..hence the name. I guess the pics are needed for more info really.

Okay, here is my mini fridge


I have a little fan/space heater blowing air through the fridge at the top, there's also a vent near the bottom


Here's how it's set up inside. I've got power strips with three compact florescents on each, above the plants .
I've also got a temp and humidity gauge not shown, they are inside the door.


Here's the first sprout, this is like two days after I planted the germinated seed


Now it's been about a week, and both sprouts have grown tremendously, almost doubling in size daily it seems. However, the second plant is growing faster.
The first plant also has a little brown/yellow on two tips. I'm thinking this could be due to over watering, but I'm not sure.

Plant A today:


Plant B


The soil I'm using now is Hoffman Seed Starter. I also bought a bigger bag of Miracle Grow organic potting soil, which I had planned on using to fill the larger containers when it's time for transplant.

I look forward to all the feedback I can get and will continue to update my progress. Like I said earlier, I don't plan on using anything but florescent bulbs for this grow, but I'm definitely open to suggestions on when to start nutes, what to use, and how much, etc

This community is awesome, I've learned so much already and everyday I watch these suckers grow, I get more excited to see the finish product because it's something I grew

moorex said:

I'm trying to post some pics, but Flickr only wants to link the page and not the pic, so let's see if this works... ??

Click to expand...

Hurry! I wanna see pics

Mister.Sinister said:

Hurry! I wanna see pics

Click to expand...

They're up!

If "Organic" means no nutes then disregard this first part. I would watch out for the miracle grow, it can work just fine but its hard to know when the time release nutes will release. If you are going to use nutes I wouldn't use MG. You can talk to the people at the grow store they know their shit and just don't be too specific. My grow store is fully aware that most peole that go in there are growing ganja. Get a micro, grow, and bloom nute, all you really need, could probably do without the micro too. I am using general hydroponics flora nova, and they have done great, really concentrated too so a little goes a long way. You should be good flowering with those CFL's, just keep em close they won't get enough to burn your bud. You're gonna mos def wanna transplant before you flower, I'd wanna let them veg into their new pots for a lil before you flower too, but it will depend on their size.