Learning the Ropes - First Grow.

Hey, figured I'd start one of these up so that I can, not so much keep a log. But mostly to (hopefully) get a little feedback from people who know what the hell they are doing.

Any how. This whole thing started off rather casually. Germinated a couple of seeds around the beginning of July, and had a couple plants in the sun just seeing what would happen. There were originally 3, and they did decent through July when it was sunny out.

~2 weeks


One plant stood out.



At this point I was pretty relaxed about things. No fancy soil, a little water, sun. The plants grew some more, one died (got really cold one night and I forgot them out), then one started showing balls, and we were down to one.

Then it got cloudy - really cloudy, There was a spare "plant" light around my place that the remaining plant sat under in a closet space for the next couple weeks. This caused it to end up reaching a lot due to the hot light. I finally got her under a cfl set up a week or so later.



The setup at this point at 4 23W 6500k CFL's. This was 2 weeks ago on the 14th. I ran her at a 16/8 light cycle through till the 18th, and then switched to a 24/0.

I then transplanted her to a new soil mix. I used.

50% (by volume) cow manure compost
15% vermeculite
15% perlite
10% sand
10% MG Organic Choice

I cut some holes in the bottom of an old 4 gallon pale and cut it in half and used this as my pot.

The next step I took was a little silly I suppose, but I germ'd 6 more seedlings, all of which I planted on the 19th of Aug. They seem to all be doing fine.

I also decided that I would try to LST the big plant to try to keep the canopy pretty even so the next guys don't stretch like the last one.



In the past day I made two changes as well. Did some calculations and the nutes on my soil are way low, so I added some more of the MG on top of the soil as per the instructions, and will let it (hopefully) leech in with the water.

The second thing I've done is switch 2 of my 6500k lights with 2700k lights. I decided on this after rummaging through my old bio-chem texts, and it seems, at least to me, to reason that the plant can generate more energy when you give it both red and blue spectrum as opposed to just one. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding (it's been a while), I couldn't really find much useful info on this, so we'll see how she handles it.

The lights stand now at 4x23w @ 6500k, 2x23w @ 2700k,

edit: yes, that is dental floss.

Well, I have the day off today - so me being the ADD case I am, I decided to make some more stuff for the set up.

I had an extra lighting fixture sitting around, and decided some side lighting would be useful. Hooked that all up and put in the 2x 6500k (that were taken out of my hood) as well as another 2700k, leaving me with a 2:1 ratio of 6500's and 2700's, 9x23w=207w, and ~16,200 lumens (not counting reflection).

I also had an emergency blanket that a friend had randomly bought me laying around, I don't know why I didn't think to use this as a reflector before.

Here's how things look now.



Next up I need to rig some fans up, as I've noticed the temp inside is really starting to get a little hot with the reflectors and extra lights. I have lots of old electronics/computer parts laying around, so this shouldn't be too hard.

Couldn't find a fan that would move enough air around the closet just laying around, will need to pick something up, as I'm getting a little concerned with air flow around the plants - I believe it how you say, sucks.

Any ways little guys cumming along - this them at the end of their first week, making good progress and just starting to show their 3 set of leaves. Hoping to veg these guys for another 3 weeks ot beef them up a little before I switch my light cycle, which will put the big girl at ~10 weeks veg.

All of the youngins were showing their 3rd set of leaves really well, so I transplanted them into some bigger pots this morning.

1 of them in a 1gal pot, then 3 more in a 3gal pot.

Nice going you will see people flocking in here once you flip to flowering

Agreed those plants are looking nice...good work man, can wait to see you flower those girls i'm subscribed

Hotsause said:

Nice going you will see people flocking in here once you flip to flowering

Click to expand...

J5kidd03 said:

Agreed those plants are looking nice...good work man, can wait to see you flower those girls i'm subscribed

Click to expand...

As long as I can get some people to tell me if/when I'm really making big mistakes I'll be happy. Anything you guys can add please feel free.



Start of a new week, the old girl is showing a few problems but nothing serious I think - some of the fan leaves that were next to the side lights are looking a little bleached, as well as some browning that may have to do with nutrients.

I really need to look into doing some proper soil testing, as I'm kind of guessing right now based on how much lime was in the soil, as well as fert.

Other than that she grows good. I topped her off the other day, and all the side branches have started to grow a bit longer, and they are starting to develop some small nodes as well. This is about week 8, main stem is around 22".



The little guys are still going strong, little nutrient burn from the transfer, but they turned themselves upright, and I started some LST on the larger of them. (these guys are 10 days old now)

Ok, so just a quick update today.

All the little ones are looking fantastic.

The big one just keeps looking downhill, I've had a suspicion for some time it had to do with root development. So I dug her up. No big shock but the soil was wayyy too wet, and the roots were tiny and basically formed a puck shape. So I knocked as much soil free (gently) from the roots and repotted (as well as applying some root stim for a bit extra luck). The soil I moved her too has a much higher mix of sand and perlite than before, as well I made the drainage holes in the pot bigger.

I've had success doing this with other plants, when they got water logged, so hopefully in 3-4 days she's got a little spring to her step again.

Well 2 days since her transplant, and things are looking a hundred times better. I was noticing yesterday a change in color from dark to light green, and this morning even more so. All the top leaves are starting to open up and really stretch again. For now I'm calling this a success, and I've moved her back under the lights, gonna keep a close eye make sure it doesn't get dehydrated now.


Little guys are still thriving away.

Mixed up a little water for everybody yesterday w/ some molasses and some blood meal.

nice first grow!

streets said:

nice first grow!

Click to expand...

Thanks. Trying out the soil this round, maybe something more towards hydro next time, really want to experiment, so this won't be my last!


Well, since I like taking pics... I figured a few more can't hurt right?

Just the youngins'



Comparison. The big one is getting lots of tops starting to shoot up.




And the whole gang.




Approx 2 weeks till I switch to flower. Still need to find a way to 100% light seal my plants over the next week, so that things go perfect (as much as I enjoy learning from messing up).

Ok, so time for another update.

The attempt at trying to get the big plant to not be root bound, pretty much failed... after a week or so new leaf growth was going yellow, definite deficiencies due to bad root system IMO.

Any how, in an attempt to save it (was a quick growing plant when it was doing well) I took trimmings from all over the plant. 12 from the branches - all of which I cut, dipped in rooting powder, and then transferred to humidity domes in peat pellets. I also trimmed up the top, and planted that in a mix of sand, vermiculite , and perlite, and covered it with the bottom of a 2L bottle.

I did 6 of them yesterday morning, when I checked on them this morning, all the leaves have popped themselves upright, looked really healthy actually, did 6 more and the remainder of the main stem today.



The rest of these guys are all on week 3 from seed. The largest already is starting to put out alternating branches and is putting out the 8th node. The other 3 are a little slower, but also developing fairly well.



Next step I hope the clones take well, re-pot and veg for bit, then in a couple weeks flower time baby!

Did a bit of shuffling things about today to make things run smoother.

I still think temp is a big issue - I don't notice it on the leaves, but I don't want them stunting growth to it either... still working on this, as apparently finding a circulating fan in the fall is impossible. Probabaly just end up using some PC ones.

Looks like about 3-4 of my clones have taken roots. Will take some pics for tomorrow,

Bunch of pictures from today:


The clones:





The rest of the gang:

This one is getting nice and bushy, lots of bud sites growing.



The smaller two


Purple branches?



Last but not least.





When I see the clones looking really good, their going in soil for 7-14 days then flower, I cannot wait any longer.

Today is an exciting day for me.

1) Because my plants look amazing and bushy!

2) I prodded at the smallest of my clones today and got it out of the peat pellet.. and, CRAZY ROOTS A BLOOMIN!

I'm not sure if I should put them in soil now, or wait until I can actually see the roots coming out of the peat pellet. Any advice would be good, I'm going to do some reading and see if I can find any thing.

Just waiting on one more clone to take some big roots, then my pots are full.

Things are looking good since I moved my lights up.

Was down at the garden shop today and picked up a soil test kit, as I was curious.

Ran all the tests out, and here were the results.

PH: Pretty much right on color for neutral.
N: Sky high.
P: Registered right about 3/4 of the way up the color scale.
K: Same as P.

So, all I'm still worried about is air circulation, but the plants have been bushing out like crazy lately so I'm not too worried, just having to water 2-3 times a week.

Well, today is day 27 of veg for the young ones, things are looking really, really, really good - it makes me think I'm really getting the hang of this growing thing.

Pretty much all the clones have rooted really well now - the ones from the top of the plant have developed particularly strong roots, which surprises me a bit.

Grabbed myself a bunch more perlite yesterday, along with a bit of top soil and some mushroom compost, so I should be stocked up on soil for a couple grows now.

These two kind of give you a good picture of the results of my LST, not sure if I want to top these plants or not, they don't seem like they are going to get super tall, so I might just leave them.



The whole family.. now up to 13, gonna be giving away the other less rooted clones, as I don't have room any more. This is getting addicting. (note my ghetto CO2 setup)

So, things were getting a little crowded in a single pot, so I moved each of the 4 plants into their own 3 and 5 gallon buckets (to see the difference I have two in 3's two in 5's). The transplant went fairly well, I think I might as exposed the roots a little too much as some nutrient burn showed up on a few of the plants the next day, I flushed the soil with about a gallon of water and they've been looking like they're recovering.

I've also started to experiment with water with a combo of blood meal and molasses every other watering... noting some faster growth, I think.. will give it a bit more for the next week or two just to verify I'm not just imagining it.

These are all 35 days or so from seed.



These two I haven't done much to, just a little bit of training.



These two are more experimental, the top one was heavily LST'd (this was the worst burnt of all the plants.. too bad as it was the nicest looking before I moved em). The bottom plant I topped at just above the 3rd true node, to see if that will grow better in my area.

Still not sure when I want to flower, I keep thinking I'm ready, but want to give my girls the best chance for success I can. As well all this experimenting will carry over well to future grows.