Please evaluate the progress of a first-time grower.

This is my first attempt at growing plants (of any kind!). I decided to go with a CFL setup based on a thread in this forum.

I am growing five feminized AK-48s in a closet space of about 3 x 4.5 ft.
As the plants are vegging, I have connected two 6500K 26W CFLs to reflectors with Y-adapters. Three plants are sharing two bulbs and the other two are sharing two bulbs. I have a small fan nearby to lower the temperature when desired.



The soil mixture is of 50% Perlite and 50% Miracle-Gro "Seed Starting Potting Mix." To germinate, I used the wet folded paper towels between plates method. I had difficulty with one (the runt?) but it succeeded about a day after its brethren.

This is the best grower on Day 6 (Day 1 being the time I placed them in paper towels to germinate) and Day 8.



Once the plants are of significant height, I intend to add some additional reflectors/lights to the sides of the plants. I will check PH at the end of week 2 and start adding diluted 20-20-20 fertilizer.

Comments, suggestions? Compared to some others on here, I think my plants may be growing a bit slowly.

looks good except for the MG shit other than that it looks good.

jesus of Cannabis said:

looks good except for the MG shit other than that it looks good.

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I thought it would be satisfactory since it is 0.05-0.01-0.05 (although I know the N should be a bit higher). What would you recommend?

Blood meal could be added but I think it takes a month or 2 to mix in well with soil before it starts taking effect, also adding moss peat or sphagnum I can't remember (they might be the same :S) will lower the pH of your soil I don't know if it takes time to take effect or not

Day 11 since the beginning of germination. I still need to get sulfuric acid or PH Down in order to lower the pH; it is a bit high at 7.8.

I transplanted 2 of the seedlings as their roots were extruding from the holes in the bottoms of their cups. I chose a 3-gallon bucket and filled it up halfway with soil. I would have preferred a smaller container but I heard that it is best to transplant fewer times in order to reduce shock to the plant.

When watering the plants in the 3-gallon buckets, is it necessary to saturate all of the soil or is the area around the plant sufficient? The former seems overkill, and I do not want to over-water.

Pictures of the most grown plant, 2 before transplant and 1 after:

Unfortunately, I managed to kill one of the kids -- the one that was, incidentally, the best grower.

Day 12 of the now-largest plant:



Day 14 of same plant:



One of the clamp reflectors fell on another plant and I had to clip a leaf, but I am sure it will recover soon.

jesus of Cannabis said:

looks good except for the MG shit other than that it looks good.

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Lol..I hear you on the MG. I am almost 5 weeks into my first grow and so far so good. I used MG almost as a dare to see if i could get a decent grow with it, especially after all of the stuff I read against it. If I can carry out my current grow to finish and get some nice bud, I will understand that my next grow using whatever grow material has gotten its blessing from the weed grow gods..lol..will be even more spectacular. For now I am part of the MG militia and if you havent seen my grow check it out. When I fail..you can tell me so..

BadSamaritan..keep it up man..It is addicting and fun as hell to have the independence of growing your own. Use what you have stay within your means...Im sure that there is one killer combo out there for grow material. But you can grow yoru plants successfully in MG.

I believe u might need more bulbs during the flowering period.

iTzJT said:

I believe u might need more bulbs during the flowering period.

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Agreed. I think I will double the amount of lights for a total of 4 26Ws (2700K) per plant. I hope this is sufficient.

BadSamaritan said:

Agreed. I think I will double the amount of lights for a total of 4 26Ws (2700K) per plant. I hope this is sufficient.

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you are going to need about 12 26w/100w cfl for the area you discribe 4 26w cfl put out about 9k lumens tops at best you need at least 5x that amount for good budding

LT1RX7 Drifter said:

you are going to need about 12 26w/100w cfl for the area you discribe 4 26w cfl put out about 9k lumens tops at best you need at least 5x that amount for good budding

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Yes, I simply forgot the high light requirement for flowering plants. I double-checked it. If I figure a flowering plant will require 10,000 lumens, then I will position lights to give 5,000 lumens from above and 5,000 lumens from the side to each of the four plants. If I keep the plants close together and place lights between them and on the ends, I will get 45,000 lumens, the number you gave.

Thanks. I think I will position 2 42Ws (2800L) above each plant, with 2 26Ws (1750L) on both sides. This means 12600L per plant.

Out of the original five plants, one died and I decided to kill the weakest today as it had experienced significant pH problems. I felt it was too stunted to be worthwhile and I really could not afford to grow four plants to maturity. (Hooray for lack of foresight.)

However, I am considering also axing what is now the weakest plant of the remaining three. It can be seen in Pictures 4 and 5 below. Picture 1 is my current setup, and Pictures 2 and 3 are of the other two plants.



These have been vegging for 4.5 weeks. Considering that I want to flower these in about a week, should I axe the smallest plant and redirect its assigned lights to the other plants, or should I maintain it? I think I might get more bud by doing this.

I would also appreciate comments on the general appearance of my best plants (Pictures 2 and 3). I trimmed many of the lower branches that were receiving little to no light, but I am not sure I should have.

Id axe it only if its essential you keep the plants to a minimum. If it doesn't yield a lot who cares; its still good practice imo

If you're still having Ph problems, you can just add a few drops of vinegar per litre to lower the Ph. I've been using it on my plant for about 3-4 weeks and haven't ran into any problems so far.

you are right there i did my first med... grow with 10 cfls for 1 flowering plant