Need advice! First ever grow!

newbiegrow12

New Member
Hey everyone so this is my first ever grow, I am posting this about a month into the grow and I have run into a couple of issues along the way. Currently I have two plants one is White Widow the other is Blue Mystic. The White Widow is at 4 weeks and the Blue Mystic is about a week and a half. I am using a tent that I got from amazon along with a single vent fan and 3 60W 5500K lumen "daylight" CFL's. I am growing with organic miracle grow soil with no other additives. I have been using a week nutrient solution and I am not sure how to do it correctly because the directions on the bottle are very vague. I haven't used the nutrients on the Blue Mystic because she is still a baby but have been adding them to the water for White Widow every water for the past 2 weeks. The first problem I ran into was leaving the plants unattended for a couple days before I got my tent and was on vacation. When I arrived home the White Widow was turning yellow and starting to die, she has since recovered and is doing extremely well (I think). One of the questions that I am currently having is whether or not I should cut off the bottom leaves that are half dead, they are not growing at all and have brown on about 1/3 of them. Also since this is my first grow I don't know what is going to happen with the leaves that are growing as a second set out of each internode. These leaves started to grow about 3 days ago and have been growing fast. I have never seen what happens with these leaves so was wondering if these new branches will produce bud or not? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Setup below
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White Widow below
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Blue Mystic below
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Markob

Well-Known Member
The bottom plant looks like ur over feeding and have gave it but burned you'll need to came down with the mutes.
 

hydroMD

Well-Known Member
You should also alternate between nutrients and fresh water every watering, letting the medium get dry enough the pot feels light.

As far as trimming your plant, it all depends on how you want it to grow. You can have a tall plant with 4-8 colas by topping periodically or you could have a bushy plant with a nice canopy. To do this you want to too about the 5th node. All the little branches down the main stalk will catch up with the two tops. With a little training and bending your two main tops outwards, everything gets good light and you'll have 10 nice tops.

You can also superscript by doing what I mentioned above, only once everything has started to reach the same height, you top everything again and you will have 20+ main colas.


Each strain responds differently though, and space and environment usually depicts what u should go with.


If you have too many bud site, or if you leave the lower shoots on each branch through flower, l they will produce small leafy popcorn buds... Still good just a pain to trim and time consuming.
 

hydroMD

Well-Known Member
The new growth looks good so keep doing what you'v been doing the last week or two as far as dosage, but alternate. If the plant begins to yellow over 3 feeding up the nutes slightly.

I'd suggest getting an ec/ppm meter so you know exactly what your giving your girls.
 

hydroMD

Well-Known Member
Those lower leaves often yellow an die off. I'd cut the two yellow ones. Fungus and pests can get at those faster then healthy foliage.


Leave those little leaves, they will stretch out and produce a lot of energy for your plant. If you want one huge cola, trim everything a couple weeks before you start flower.


Hope these help
 

newbiegrow12

New Member
Thanks for the advice thats extremely helpful! The tent is 6' and I only plan on having the two for now. I want to turn the White Widow into a momma plant hopefully around 3.5-4 feet. Ive read a lot about LTS and topping but I'm apprehensive to do either with the first plant as I just want her to grow tall. I will probably try topping with the Blue Mystic when she's big enough. Definitely will start alternating with the nutrients and fresh water though.

Another thing I was curious about is whether 16.5k lumens is enough to support a 3-4 foot plant or do I need more light for that? Also when trimming the yellowed leaves should I cut at the base of the stem or right below the leaf probably a dumb question but want to be sure.

Another thing is Ive been doing straight 24 hr light, I've seen that most people use a dark period but wasn't sure if it was needed. Based on all my readings plants can grow with constant light as long as they have the right nutrients and the environment stays consistent. I was wondering if anyone has tried 24 light during veg and if it has any beneficial/negative effects?
 

Squidbilly

Well-Known Member
Hey not to shaby for a low budget first grow! Those lower leaves are nothing to worry about. I would remove them though as they are more prone to disease or pests. Always look at your new growth to evaluate how your doing. The lower growth that is already damaged won't fix itself, but as long as the new growth is green and looks good, then your doing alright. I do not think your overfeeding. If you were over feeding then your new growth would be yellowing at the tips. A lot of people mistake this for nute burn, but it is not. I would say the damage on the lower leaves was from a ph issue early on but your plants look like they are doing fine now. Keep doing what your doing.

As far as removing leaves in the future, you really shouldn't untill they get pretty bad. They might be unsightly to look at but as long as they are attached to the plant they are producing energy. I wait until it gets pretty bad and the risks of keeping it on(disease/pests) outweighs any benefit(the little energy it may be producing).
 

newbiegrow12

New Member
Thanks guys, I just bought a light timer to start doing a dark period, I was thinking of doing 24 light 7 dark I read somewhere that it gives great results as you don't reduce the amount veg time but still give them a break for a couple hours, if not that then I'd do 18/6 any thoughts?
 

newbiegrow12

New Member
Alright so its bee about a week since my original post and I thought I would give everyone a little update. I decided to FIM the White Widow and she looks fully healed just not 100% sure I did it correctly, I don't really know what it should look like at this phase. I took a shit ton of photos not sure if they will be any help at all identifying whether I did it correctly or how many colas will come from it because of shitty quality and my not so great camera skills. But any way gonna post them all and see what you guys think. Also I started to give them a dark period and directly after starting that I noticed the White Widow's bottom fan leaves are a little more droopy. Not sure if the dark period has anything to do with it or possibly the the different watering cycles (started alternating between nutes and fresh). She has grown to 11 inches so about an inch in height over a week, including her healing time from the FIM. Im wondering if this is about the time most people start to flower their plants. I want her overall height to be about 4 feet so not sure if she will stretch that much during flower, anyone know?

The Blue Mysitc on the other hand is doing great she has started to really kick into gear with veg growth. She is much shorter than the White Widow was at her age but she is looking great so no worries with her. Her 3rd node is coming out nicely and the 4th is starting to poke its head. I think with her I'm going to try topping instead of FIM and see what the difference is. As far as feeding she is now on the same cycle as the Widow and hasn't shown any signs of over feeding.

Anyway here are the pictures. Hope you guys enjoy the progress and thanks for everyones awesome advice!

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newbiegrow12

New Member
Might be a dumb question but I was wondering if I super crop the branches coming off of the meristem will those branches act like main colas or just produce larger bud sites?
 

newbiegrow12

New Member
Hey everyone I have not been flowering my plants for a week. I upgraded my lights to a 600W HPS right before I started to flower and have been having issues with it. I can't seem to get the proper ventilation in the tent. I have a 6 in inlet fan blowing air-conditioned air into the tent along with a 6 in outlet fan attached to the back end of the reflector. I also just added another vent attached to the air conditioner no fan though. At the highest my temp got to 104 and the lowest it went to 55 so I have quite a range. The vast majority of the time it ranges from 68-81 and the humidity fluctuates between 25-45% with a 1.5 gallon humidifier. I was wondering what a good target temp and humidity should be for flowering. Also the light can be dimmed and I am only growing 2 plants so I was wondering if I should try dimming the lights or will that reduce my yield?
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
 
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