My First Grow

Alright guys...I've been reading stuff on this site with about every non-study hour I've had since i put the seed in the ground...I'm gonna try to give as many details as possible and pictures...YEAH I know the picture quality sucks but you can see it gets SLIGHTLY better as I'm goin...anyway...

Day Zero:

Planted a seed with a root poppin out about 1/4 inch in length (maybe a little less)...bag seed, who wants to waste extra money on something they are probably gonna fuck up the first time?...

Lighting: 1 60 watt output/10-15 watts energy used 18" fluorescent plant/aquarium light - 502 Lumens 24/0

6" pot, Miracle-Gro potting mix, and I also bought some MG Bloom Booster flower food (High Phosphorus for roots and shoots) I spray some of this around the soil but didn't put any in when I first watered

Day 1:

I have a pot filled with dirt in my closet. Awesome

Day 2:

Approx. 42 hrs after planting the germinated seed, I come back from class to find the embryo leaves above the surface. WOO! Now I have a pot of dirt with a plant smaller than a Chinese pecker in my closet.

Lighting: I added another of the same 18" lights with the factory fluorescent bulb in it, put them facing eachother with the plant in between. GRAND TOTAL: 20-30 watts energy used/120 watts output/1004 Lumens 24/0

Nutes: I continue occasionally lightly spraying some of the Phosphorus mix over the pot. Done along with the regular water so the dose of Phosphorus is very low.

Day 3:

Morning: The first foliage leaves pop out, woo fuckin hoo. Plants about an inch or so tall.

Lights: Same

Nutes: Watered the plant again. Used 3 parts regular water 2 parts Phosphorus Mix. Still spraying water over the top of the plant as needed, sparingly spraying Phosphorus around the plant.

Day 4:

She's about 1.5 in. tall now, I noticed that one of the foliage leaves is split from the outside edge to the middle vein near the lateral part, kinda weird but it still has good color and everything so I think it's okay, if anybody knows why give me a shout.

Lighting: Same setup, switched to 20/4

Nutes: Same

Added a thermometer, temp is between 80 and 90 but I was flushing some heat and humidity in there...

Day 5:

About 2 in., foliage leaves noticeably bigger and distinctly serrated (I was amazed how deep the grooves are in the leaves, it looks sweet IMO)

Nutes: Since I'm in Veg stage now, bought some MG All Purpose Plant Food for the High Nitrogen and Potassium. It' very low in Phosphorus, so i mixed in a very small amount (about 1/6 the All purpose) of the Blooming mix into the All Purpose Mix. Sprayed a small amount of that on/around the plant along with water (I always spray much more water on the plant after the nutes to make sure they are as diluted as possible)...getting ready to water now...

Lights: Added two-26 watt energy used/100w output 1700 Lumen CFLs...grand totals so far 3504 Lumens, 72-82 watts energy used, 320 watts output...still gonna do 20/4

Here is a zoomed out pic of the current set up. Yes, I know i should have gone flat white instead of aluminum foil and i know that all my bulbs suck blah blah blah dont need the hate, but CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM more than welcomed!!! I'm doing what I can here...

IMO Your jumping the gun, you should try to stay away from MG potting mix, you also should avoid spraying the leaves as this will increase burning from lights, you mightt be overwatering a bit, but for certain DEF stop the nutes

Cool (filler)

Im curious to see what happens next .

Arent We All?

my advice is flip the box so the long side is up/down. then set your light high and stack magazines or books or bricks or whatever to evelate the pot. adjust as necessary. as it is it looks like you are going to run out of vertical room in a few weeks.also it looks like you dont have a fan in there. get one. even a small one if just to move air around the bulbs.

and just use water for the first two weeks.

tinyTURTLE said:

my advice is flip the box so the long side is up/down. then set your light high and stack magazines or books or bricks or whatever to evelate the pot. adjust as necessary. as it is it looks like you are going to run out of vertical room in a few weeks.also it looks like you dont have a fan in there. get one. even a small one if just to move air around the bulbs.

Click to expand...

thanks for the feedback...yeah i cut the top off the box...so im not quite sure what u mean about adjustin that...maybe clarify...lol yeah i didnt have a fan, i just grabbed one today to put in there...just finished cleanin it actually...so do u think the lumens are alright at least for now? i wasted like 20 bucks on those tubes when i coulda got like 10 cfls for that...i am just testin things out this time so whatever, but i will have a better set up next time as i may get some funding

All the specs the same...two really small foliage leaves have popped out adjacent to the old big ones...they are small but they have the form n everything just look like minis of the others haha...probably cant see them in the picture but its the best i got now...and fan is in and the temp is right about where it needs to be...ya im layin off the nutes but it shot up pretty quick with them! gotta give me that lol...

at seven days the first foliage leaves are about an inch long, the second pair of fliage leaves are about a half inch and have grown a lot today...i piled a little soil up the main stem because it was too skinny and starting to lean, dont know if this is okay somebody suggested it...anyway its more stable now...

day 8...goin back to 24-0

alright...yesterday i removed one of the 18inch fluoros, today i removed the other one but added another 26 watt CFL, but its only warm white or something, 2700k, but it increased the total lumens/watts...that makes 3 CFLs on the plant, a 5300k on each side and the 2700k hanging over the top of the plant. all of the lights are within two inches of the plants and there are about 8 noticeable leaves (First 2 foliage, second two foliage, four smaller growing out from the second two, see pics) it seems to be growing pretty well *knock on wood* and i am going to keep it on the 24/0 for most of the remaining veg i think...the leaves are growing pretty tight without much space in between, which i think is because of the closeness of the lights to the plant...total lumens is now 5150...i dont know what pace this is going compared to other plants but if ur like me and curious when ur baby is startin her life u can use this to guage how far along you are...hopefully pics are gettin better as i have a lil more to take pics of haha...

*EDIT* also added a homemade CO2 thing...props to the guy who posted how to... https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/1362-home-made-co2-tutorial.html

This is the second thread i have posted this today is that foil???

ya unfortunately...i shoulda just used flat white paint or something but i did it right off the back and u know thats a common misonception that its good...so idunno live n learn i just didnt feel like going and changin it cuz i really dont wanna paint nething white

I was the same way but i was told that it would be better to not have anything up than foil...It started to burn my plant and i think that's why it may have died the first time...

Go buy emergency blankets its pretty close to mylar and its cheap 1-2 bucks for a huge fuckin thing of it...

alright i'll have to do that...yeah i flipped these to the dull side cuz i heard the horror stories...but whatever...thanks for the blanket tip i'll give ya some rep for it

right on...

replaced the 3 bulbs with 23 watt 6500k bulbs...