Hi, this is both my first post in here and my first grow, tho I´ve been following this forum for a couple of months, been founding a lot of useful information around.
The idea here is to post a journal and pictures of my first grow so I can get some feedback, so, PLEASE COMMENT WITH ANY ADVICE ABOUT THE PLANTS AND SET UP, I will greatly appreciate it.
If you are following this journal please keep in mind 3 things: First, I live in a country where premium common growing products (Nutrients, equipment, grow mediums, etc both for soils and hydroponic systems) are very hard to get, so I get what I can from sites like amazon (Limited use of dollars on this country also) and the rest I just make do with what I find.
Second, this is my first grow (had 3 awhile ago that lasted 1 week before my cat ate them :S) so please be patient and try to be constructive when posting suggestions/criticism, and feel free to ask any questions.
Third, English is not my first language, so if you read a word that doesnt exist in any language known to humanity . My bad.
THE SETUP.
So far what I have ready and using right now is this:
I also have that I am not using yet: 400w HPS lamp, a 400w Metal Halide Lamp (either the ballast, ignitor or bulb are damaged, need to get them check), 2 20w fluorescent light (50cm long kind), one of them is daylight the other is cool-light, just in case my other lamp brakes. Coming soon (a month or so): Growing station with humidity dome and heating mat, Clonex rooting Gel. Planning to get one or two more 400w HPS lamps.
Ill be trying to grow using a Sea of Green method, doing around 20 plants per square meter on the flowering stage. The plants that are gonna be flowered all gonna come from clones (except the seedlings that look weaker, just gonna flower those instead of throwing them away).
Also, I keep a day-to-day journal and pictures of everything that happens in my grow tent, will post those also.
THE SEEDS
Bought 5 fem White Widow seeds from Ministry of Cannabis that right now are stored. For the moment I am growing 3 different unknown strains that might or might not be the same. Strain 1 and Strain 2 are from some buds I bought a couple of months ago. The SS are two seeds my dealer gave me that he bought some time ago, however he didnt remember the strain. The reason for using these seeds instead of the White Widows right away is to make all the mistakes I can make from the first ones (like having a cat eat the plants) and then proceed with the higher quality seeds.
The first 3 plants I germinated one week before the others, these are from Strain 1. All seed will be germinated using the paper towel method.
DAY 1 (01-10-2011):
2 of the seeds from "Strain 1" have sprouted. The oasis cubes have been soaked for a couple of hours with Ph 5.4 water. This is the Ph that I will use for watering the oasis cubes. Temp: 26°C. Humidity: 63%. Under fluroescent lamps 25cm from the top of the plants. The little white cup has tap water on it, the idea is taht the water evaporetes and raises the humidity a bit. Ignore the dates on the pictures for the first few days, camera wasnt set right.
DAY 2 (02-10-2011):
The last seed from "Strain 1" has germinated and have been put under light. Note on the Oasis Cubes: A dry oasis cubes weight 1gram, saturated it will weight around 30-40g. I will water the cubes once their weight drops below 10g. Once they dry after the seed have been planted they will not take as much water, so I just water the cube until it weights around 15g (Ive read that the root system actually benefits a bit from a dryish medium for a while). At this point im watering once a day.
DAY 3 (03-10-2011):
The cubes have been wrapped in thin foil to protect the sides of the cubes from light. Added a small fan inside the grow tent.
DAY 4 (04-10-2011):
Germinating 7 seeds from "Strain 2" and 2 seeds from "SS". The "Strain 1" plants seem to be doing fine. Temp and Humidity havent changed much.
DAY 5 (05-10-2011):
On one of the plants (the oldest) the second set of real leaves is starting to show. Temperature is 29°C (A little high) and Humidity is 56% (A little low).
DAY 6 (06-10-2011):
All plants are showind the second set of real leaves. No roots are showing from the bottom of the cubes yet. One of the "Strain 2" seeds germinated.
DAY 7 (07-10-2011):
Two of the plants are starting to show little roots from the bottom of the cubes. The oldest plant is showing small yellow/brown spots on the first set of real leaves, I suspect is either from letting the Oasis Cube dry too much or the plant its telling me that its starting to need some nutrients, time will tell (Input is most welcome on this). Watering the 2 oldest cubes twice a day now.
NOTE: The last image shows the spots on the leaves.
DAY 8 (08-10-2011):
Dropped the light to 10cm from the top of the plants and labeled them, they one labeled "Strain 1 - A" still have the same spots. They are now sitting on the Hydroton suspended hydroponic system, but its not connected yet.
The idea here is to post a journal and pictures of my first grow so I can get some feedback, so, PLEASE COMMENT WITH ANY ADVICE ABOUT THE PLANTS AND SET UP, I will greatly appreciate it.
If you are following this journal please keep in mind 3 things: First, I live in a country where premium common growing products (Nutrients, equipment, grow mediums, etc both for soils and hydroponic systems) are very hard to get, so I get what I can from sites like amazon (Limited use of dollars on this country also) and the rest I just make do with what I find.
Second, this is my first grow (had 3 awhile ago that lasted 1 week before my cat ate them :S) so please be patient and try to be constructive when posting suggestions/criticism, and feel free to ask any questions.
Third, English is not my first language, so if you read a word that doesnt exist in any language known to humanity . My bad.
THE SETUP.
So far what I have ready and using right now is this:
- Ph meter.
- Ph up/ Ph down solutions.
- Temp./Humidity meter.
- PPM meter (should be here in a week).
- Vegetative nutrients (water soluble) 35-5-15.
- Flowering nutrients (water soluble) 10-30-20.
- Home-made Hydroponic System for 10 plants with air pump and water pump.
- Oasis cubes for germinating (I have no direct access to rockwool or other mediums. I should be getting some rockwool cubes in a month or so).
- Hydroton, this will be my grow medium.
- Home-made grow tent (50cm deep, 70cm long, 50cm tall). Covered with black heavy fabric, and on the inside silver wrapping paper.
- Dual circular fluorescent lamps (32w + 20w)
Ill be trying to grow using a Sea of Green method, doing around 20 plants per square meter on the flowering stage. The plants that are gonna be flowered all gonna come from clones (except the seedlings that look weaker, just gonna flower those instead of throwing them away).
Also, I keep a day-to-day journal and pictures of everything that happens in my grow tent, will post those also.
THE SEEDS
Bought 5 fem White Widow seeds from Ministry of Cannabis that right now are stored. For the moment I am growing 3 different unknown strains that might or might not be the same. Strain 1 and Strain 2 are from some buds I bought a couple of months ago. The SS are two seeds my dealer gave me that he bought some time ago, however he didnt remember the strain. The reason for using these seeds instead of the White Widows right away is to make all the mistakes I can make from the first ones (like having a cat eat the plants) and then proceed with the higher quality seeds.
The first 3 plants I germinated one week before the others, these are from Strain 1. All seed will be germinated using the paper towel method.
DAY 1 (01-10-2011):
2 of the seeds from "Strain 1" have sprouted. The oasis cubes have been soaked for a couple of hours with Ph 5.4 water. This is the Ph that I will use for watering the oasis cubes. Temp: 26°C. Humidity: 63%. Under fluroescent lamps 25cm from the top of the plants. The little white cup has tap water on it, the idea is taht the water evaporetes and raises the humidity a bit. Ignore the dates on the pictures for the first few days, camera wasnt set right.
DAY 2 (02-10-2011):
The last seed from "Strain 1" has germinated and have been put under light. Note on the Oasis Cubes: A dry oasis cubes weight 1gram, saturated it will weight around 30-40g. I will water the cubes once their weight drops below 10g. Once they dry after the seed have been planted they will not take as much water, so I just water the cube until it weights around 15g (Ive read that the root system actually benefits a bit from a dryish medium for a while). At this point im watering once a day.
DAY 3 (03-10-2011):
The cubes have been wrapped in thin foil to protect the sides of the cubes from light. Added a small fan inside the grow tent.
DAY 4 (04-10-2011):
Germinating 7 seeds from "Strain 2" and 2 seeds from "SS". The "Strain 1" plants seem to be doing fine. Temp and Humidity havent changed much.
DAY 5 (05-10-2011):
On one of the plants (the oldest) the second set of real leaves is starting to show. Temperature is 29°C (A little high) and Humidity is 56% (A little low).
DAY 6 (06-10-2011):
All plants are showind the second set of real leaves. No roots are showing from the bottom of the cubes yet. One of the "Strain 2" seeds germinated.
DAY 7 (07-10-2011):
Two of the plants are starting to show little roots from the bottom of the cubes. The oldest plant is showing small yellow/brown spots on the first set of real leaves, I suspect is either from letting the Oasis Cube dry too much or the plant its telling me that its starting to need some nutrients, time will tell (Input is most welcome on this). Watering the 2 oldest cubes twice a day now.
NOTE: The last image shows the spots on the leaves.
DAY 8 (08-10-2011):
Dropped the light to 10cm from the top of the plants and labeled them, they one labeled "Strain 1 - A" still have the same spots. They are now sitting on the Hydroton suspended hydroponic system, but its not connected yet.
). Two seedlings ("Strain 2-F" and "WW 1 - A) have bent stems, also noticed a reddish/purple hue on the seedlings stems. Might be nothing, but there is a very soft red tint on the oasis cubes.
