My first real grow and journal .

New pictures 1st week and grow box designs

very very similar to mine, and i did 11 veging where your doing 9- so you will have no probs,

I am now flowering 6 in that room, with 2 mothers in a seperate room, i got 8 females out of 11! hope you get as good a ratio or better!

I will definitely be on here when you find out, scribed! Good Luck, cant wait to see more...

Thanks Obie got some ideas from yours [hope ya dont mind] ill be following yours closely as well.

Today i looked at the roots coming out of the hemp cups that i planted my seven in and they are looking great. My 2nd leaf sets are growing out already just after 12hours [ i love how fast these things grow ] .

I will be tranplanting this thursday into bigger square pots. My question is should i be looking for the biggest pot i can fit or would a medium size pot be good?

i wouldnt go so far as to say the biggest... I my self did that because i didnt know...

But I will tell you from my experience and from what i have heard bigger has some advantages... It is much harder to overfeed, they wont go rootbound, less likely to get root rot, etc... Negatives: heavy as hell, more space-maybe need more light..., more area for bugs. Positives outweigh the negatives...

I have also heard you need a gallon for every vertical foot, or a maximum of 4 gallons. So if your gonna do some SOGing or LSTing than you know you can get away with smaller containers. But otherwise go ahead and get like a 4 gallon or bigger pot, thats what i have and i am glad.

A couple recommendations though:

If you can buy square pots, they fit together much better- and free up space when it is available.

And Make new and good dirt- I dont know what you have, but invest in a cheap mixture such as the one I recommed and you will be happy.

Both of these suggestions I hadnt been given and failed to do, and wish i had, especially the later, a good soil mix is critical when you have to flush your plants- that requires running lots of water through your plants before harvest to remove impurities- and if your soil is not easy to drain its a muddy mess that is dangerous for your plant- which is what i may be faced with...

So in telling you that I will give you a soil recipe i have collected and plan to use for my next grow... Its cheap and available-

I cant remember who I got this from- but Its not mine and I found it online- not trying to plagiarize if this is someone reading this lol...
"To all my fellow growers. Never use anthing but your own soil mix. Wal-mart sells Super Soil (basic soil) they also sell perlite (white balls for spacing). I went to my local pet supply store and got bat guano (10-3-5) then i got earth worm castings (12-6-3) for a 100% soil mix you need a mixture of 50-60% super soil, 15-25% perlite, 15% worm casting mixed with bat guano, then i got 10% sand (also sold at pet shop) you could use concret mix, but sand is prefured, and oh yeah! dont use beach sand, it contains salts....always spray your roots with nutes when you transpot your stuff.
Just a thought, G'luck
P.S. I also had like less than 5% pre-mix (found this at Wal-mart, but then i couldn't find it anywhere but Pet Stop)
And if the (%) thing throws you off, den start off with cups (out of ten = 100%)"

Sorry for the length, but I wish someone would have told me, hope it helps.
OB

Thanks OB i will be going to walmart today probaly to the pots and soil ingredents . Right now im using Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil . Do U recommend a nute mix to go with the soil recipe? Im not sure on nutes never used them before .

Nice journal! Keep up the good work.

I cant seem to find worm castings or bat guano anywhere in town for sell so i was thinking about using blood meal if i can find it.

that will be fine, as i said no mater what you do- that will be better than mine, i just have dirt basically... And if your looking for stuff like that, your gonna have to find a hydroponix store, they sell soil there too! and most bigger cities have them somewhere, just google hypdroponic stores and find a zip code locater.

As far as the nutes go, ditch the miricale grow, i wish i could give you a good reason, but the only one i have is nearly everyone on this site will tell you to do so, as they told me and others....

I bought bloom terra- a powdered mix for 10 dollars made in BC canada... but anything high in K- potash and P- potassium will be great for flowering... There are plenty of nutes to find at the hydro store, and the guy there will help a lot, but dont buy the most expensive thing they try to sell you on...

Hope that helps...

Went to walmart and got potting soil : 21 n - 7 p - 14k 40lb bag
blood meal : 12 n - 0 - 0
perlite
peat moss
All products bought at WalMart.
I want to mix the whole 40lb bag so what should my mixture be ? I dont want to put to much nitrogen in the soil . I will be transplanting them when they are two weeks old . I will be planting them in 10 inch round pots because i cant seem to find square ones anywhere [ go figure ] .

yeah, i didnt find the round ones either... but you will be just fine.

As far as the mixture, what weight of everything else do you have, you have 40 lbs of potting soil let that be 50%-60%mix. but how much bloodmeal- I'd go with 7-15% tops... that would be 3-6 lbs, or less to be safe.
and 15-25% peat moss that would be 6-10lbs.
and 25% perlite that would be 10 lbs
and to top it all of I would add about 10% sandbox sand about 2lbs... it will make it impossible for bugs, easy to guage watering, drain evenly, hold moisture, and reflects more light to the lower leaves (very limited stretch there lol, but point is it has more advantaes)

Hope that helps, thats my next soil mixture for sure, not so sure bout the bloodmeal as the soil and nutes have plenty of everything, and i'd rather regulate it myself, I may even mix in some coco instead of actual dirt because it has like a 0-0-0 and then you can control it with waterings but idk... You have a very good first time mix, will be difficult to mess it up in the soil- it should be safe and of course effective...

Hope that helps cant wait to see the results

Props on a great start
OB



hope

That helps greatly plan on picking up some bone meal to 6-12-0 . I only bought 1lb of perlite and 2lb of peat moss { wasnt sure on how much to get } but I will be going back to get the pots anyways so I can get the rest . I will post when i get them tranplanted on sunday. Again thanks alot.

Ok heres a update. Last nite i went to walmart and bought the following:
40 lb potting mix, I used MG potting mix .21 - .07 - .14
3.5 lb Blood meal : 12- 0- 0
3 lb Perlite
18 lb of Peatmoss { the says 2lb but i weighed it and it weighs 6 lb }
Then i went to the local farm and garden store and bought:
60 lb sand { thats all they sell it in but its only like $7.00 }
5 lb Bulb Tone Organic Fertilzer 4 - 10 - 6

I got the biggest thing i could find around my house which happens to be my beer keg bucket , a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half . The soil mixture will come out at about 77 pounds enough to fill ten five gallon buckets give or take a little.

I started by washing out the barrel with some bleach water then added the 40 lb pounds of soil to the barrel. I then added the perlite and the peat moss one bag at a time switching back and forth and mixing them in very well in between bags . I put three bags of perlite and three bags of peat moss in the barrel and after i had it mixed in well i added seven pounds of play sand and mixed it in very well . The soil came out the perfect texture that clumbs when you squeeze it but easyly falls apart when you touch it so the roots should have no problem getting threw the mixture. After that I added the blood meal all 3.5 pounds and mixed it in well . I mixed in the bulb tone next using the whole bag . Using this mixture gives you a ratio of this :
52% potting mix
23% peat moss
5% perlite
10% sand
5% blood meal
5% bulb tone fertilizer
------------------------------
100% organic mix
I planted the plants in there 8 inch pots last nite after the mix sat for about four hours. After filling the pots and putting the plants in I put four 16oz cups of water in them . Any questions or comments are welcome . Sorry its so long.lol

Pictures of tranplant.

lol i forgot to describe with the sand, its good to mix in, but also but an inch or so of loose sand on top to filter the water going down to the plant, and also to make it so bugs cant habitate on the soil, its also whiter, so will reflect more light... sounds like a great soil mix, should be off to great results...

Yeah I added the sand to the top after smokin a blunt and doin some readin lol .

wurd... thats what i meant originally but didnt spell it out...

it wont hurt to have it mixed as well tho- just better drainage, which is key!

Its been 36 hours since I transplanted the plants into 8 inch pots and they seem to be doin fine . Number 7 and 6 have a couple brown spots on one leaf but nothing to worry about I think its the plants getting used to the nutes I put in the soil . About an hour ago I noticed new growth coming from the frist nodes that I hadnt noticed before so I think the plants will like the mixture.

sure they will, keep it up! You've got like 3-5 weeks of boredom here where they veg and there isnt a lot of excitement, vertical growth but no buds.

Ok here is a update. I put a layer of sand on the plants to keep the bugs away . I didnt have a bug problem but there was some nats flying around here and there so we added some anyways. I watered yesterday for the first time since transplanting them on thursday . The seemed to hold moisture for the five days so thats good. When I waterd yesterday the soil drained perfectly without any buildup.
The plants are taking to the soil nicely after five days only a few of them showed minor signs of burns on the leaves .
Last nite I topped four of my plants numbers 1,4,6,7 the others I plan on leaving alone and letting them grow naturally . When I cut my plants i pushed back the fourth set of fan leaves and clipped off the fifth bud down by the fourth joint. I know it will take a few days for the new tops to start growing but im anxious and want to see these babies grow lol.
In other plant news , we will be getting another 48inch dual light fixture with the plant bulbs . Ok heres a question , When buying the bulbs i buy the plant bulbs b/c it says it has the right spectrum for plants but I hear of guys using the t-5 bulbs instead . Couid anybody tell me why they use the t-5 's instead of the plant bulbs? Does the t-5 have a higher lumens rating? A little help on this would be appreciated since we will be getting the light and bulbs friday.
Below are pics that i took today , all the plants in the center row have been topped , as well as the rest in the tan pots. The biggest one in the box was topped two weeks ago and is bushing out very nicely. Im kinda wandering about number 2 though it is as old as the rest of them but has stopped growing , it only has about four days worth of growth on it I loosened the soil in the jiffy cup a few days ago thinking the roots might be root bound but it hasnt showed any signs of growing yet. It is still nice and green so I know its alive , maybe it is a slow grower
Thanks for takingh a look and please leave thoughts and comments I like to hear what other people think about my grow. Thanks Blueberry