First Time, Small Scale, Super Secret!

[obelisk]

Welcome to my first grow!

Comments, Advice, encouraged.

Why am I doing this?
My Ultimate Goal: Grow enough bud for personal use. I'm a pretty light smoker, so a few ounces will last me a long time.

How am I doing this?

I just read SeeMoreBuds' excellent book, "Marijuana BUDS For Less." It's an excellent intro to growing that holds the hand of a first timer. I had always thought that growing bud required a really elaborate setup, but SeeMoreBuds' book revealed that one can grow a decent amount of weed without breaking the bank.

What am I doing?

A friend gave me a small pile of seeds he's collected, so I have no idea what I'm growing or whether it's male or female. I'm going to sprout one, grow it up until I can tell if it's a lady or a dude, and if it's a dude, I'll get rid of it and start over.

The story so far:
WHO AM I:
I'm a young married man, studying to become a healthcare professional. Because weed is illegal, and could be damaging to my career, I've always hated buying from people, transporting it, etc. I'm hoping that this is a safer alternative. I'm also hoping my wife will agree. She's pretty open minded, and occasionally smokes. We'll see what happens!

WHAT DO I HAVE:
I have about 30 seeds in a tin.

I just bought:
Miracle Grow Potting Mix
Perlite
peat seed starter thingies
a disc, you add water and it expands into a short column of peat for germinating
pH testing paper

6x2x4 pine wood
3 x 40W CFLs
3 x keyless bulb socket bases
3 x ceiling mounts
4 x cheap extension cords
Assorted wood screws
4 x eye hooks
2 x nail plates
A light timer

Altogether spent about 70 bucks. If I can germinate, successfully grow, and harvest just half of the seeds, assuming I get an ounce or two from each plant, I should recoup my 70 bucks (+electricity) pretty damn fast.

I'm not planning to sell what I grow, however, I just mean that I won't end up buying weed for a long time.

SeeMoreBuds - if you'd rather not be referenced, I'll gladly edit my post.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:
I'm a first time grower, looking forward to a little adventure. Any and all comments and advice are welcomed. Please no flaming, though. There's enough negativity in this world!

 

[marijaneindeed]

Wow.

interesting.

Yea, that sounds good, look up the lighting, flowering, and if you want bonsai, good luck! +rep for all tha info!

 

[iwir3d]

Would love to see pics of your setup when you get it built.

 

[marijaneindeed]

yo, you been a member of this site since 07 of april, wow thats 2 years ago and you only have 270 post, haha.

do you get on often?

 

[obelisk]

Thanks for the reps and encouragement! I got the setup, pics shortly.

Quick question, I'm not using full spec cfls, will this be a problem?

 

[obelisk]

Here's what I done did:
1. Rig
Spent a couple of hours puttin' together the rig, then hanging it. Made me feel a little like a sailor, or a messed-up boy scout. If people are interested I could put together a little step by step.

2. Pot
I took a 3 gallon plastic pot and put a couple of sheets of newspaper at the bottom to cover the drain holes. I added about 1/2 inch of perlite at the bottom.

3. Soil
To get an 80/20 mix of miracle grow to perlite, I put in 4 handfuls of MG followed by 1 handful of perlite until the pot was full (8/2 = 4/1 yay maths).

4. Pete Seed Starter
I soaked my little disc of pete in water until it expanded. Imagine the tip of a nylon stocking full of dirt. Seems kinda kinky, no?

5. Pete goes down the hole
I made a little hole in my miracle grow/perlite mix and shoved the dirty stocking in.

6. Seed goes in the Pete

I pushed a seed about 1/4inch down into the stocking and yelled at it to be a girl.

7. Everyone gets wet
In case it thought I was kidding, I poured 1/2 gallon of water on top of it while singing "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story.

A coupla shots of the rig:

Sorry it's sideways...maybe I'll fix that later...

Questions/Comments:
* When I watered the seed, everything turned into mud and I don't know where it went, so hopefully it's still in the pete!

* My one CFL is about 3 inches away from the surface. Is good?

I'm glad to see a little traffic already, the comments are really nice to see.

 

[growman3666]

looks good man if you got any questions feel free to ask away brotha,

wow i though obelisk was dead bro, i used to read those books in german classes lol

 

[iwir3d]

Pretty nice. When your CFL's are on do they have a red or blue glow? You are wanting a blue glow for vegging and red for flowering. If you see no glow it will still work just not as good.

Also, looks a bit messing hanging the strings, will you be able to easily move the lights higher as the plant grow?

Make sure your lights are close but not to close to the plants. If you can touch the lights while they are on without it being to warm then its okay to have them right next to the plant almost. I would say give yourself 1-2" above the plants for air and grow space.

Also make sure they are 23w pr 26w bulbs. They are the ones equiv to 100w. Should output something around 1,600 lumens each. And your 2 lights on the side won't be of much help right now because they aren't very close.

yo, you been a member of this site since 07 of april, wow thats 2 years ago and you only have 270 post, haha.

do you get on often?

Actually, my parents busted my first grow back in 2007 so I kinda faded away. I do, however, still get on and read stuff. I am currently working on a grow journal. Feel free to check it out. Link is in my signature it will be the [2].

I am working with a soil and hydroponic system now.

 

[obelisk]

The rigging does look pretty messy, I admit, but it's not hard to adjust as the plant grows higher, and I'll be able to position the lights easily and not worry about them falling over. There's two sets of strings, the taut ones hold the rig in place, the loose ones are backups in case it falls, to keep it from hittin the floor.

Yeah, I'd heard about the red vs green dealy, but I thought it applied more to HID lights. Dunno. A friend of mine told me that any decent light will sprout the seed, and get it started, but I should get full spectrum when I want to start flowering.

Game plan:
1. Let the plant get to about day 16 post-germination (praying for a lady...)
2. tie down the top so it's nearly horizontal
3. switch to 12/12 lighting

 

[iwir3d]

Why wait 16 days? You can flower from seed on some strains and ive hears just about any actually.

The lights, any light will sprout it. But if you get the right light it will grow much faster. Are your lights on a timer? If yo9u'r growing indoor its best to do that. I also like to interrupt 1hr of my night cycle with an hour of light. I heard it helps produce females. (not sure tho).

Anyways I gotta go tho. Later.

 

[growman3666]

Why wait 16 days? You can flower from seed on some strains and ive hears just about any actually.

The lights, any light will sprout it. But if you get the right light it will grow much faster. Are your lights on a timer? If yo9u'r growing indoor its best to do that. I also like to interrupt 1hr of my night cycle with an hour of light. I heard it helps produce females. (not sure tho).

Anyways I gotta go tho. Later.

ok ok,
first of all having the right spectrum light will prevent the plant from streching, Plants reach for the lights whenever they dont have sufficient enough for proper growth,

Interrupting a plants night cycle is probably one of the biggest no-nos there is,
it will stress the plant, badly
that is how you get yourself a hermaphrodite

no means of shutting you down man just stating the facts

 

[HERBAL ADDICT]

alreet m8 u aint guna get any where near a ounce per plant with so little light,
cfls spectrums,,,, 6400k for veg 2700k for bud,, 6400= coolwhite 2700k= wharmwhite
mg,,,, dont use nutriants until your plant shows signs that it needs them,,mg will feed for months
mg perlite also full of nutes
make sure soil is only loosely covering the seed and soil aint to compact
dont keep watering loads just keep the soil moist /never dry for seedlings
try maintain humidity around seedlings
also start with a 1ltr pot and move up size as u go /let your roots fill 1 pot before u upsize
starting seedlings in big pots can only lead to hassle later on / moisture stress

 

[obelisk]

looks good man if you got any questions feel free to ask away brotha,

wow i though obelisk was dead bro, i used to read those books in german classes lol

Lol, yeah, I haven't actually read those asterix and obelix comics since french class. Did they ever show you Muzzy?

It was a video series for teaching languages, but get this, Muzzy's a giant fuzzy green monster with bloodshot eyes who eats...clocks. The animators must have been smokin some sweet sweet dope!

Question:

While germinating, should I have the light on 24 hrs or 18/6 or something else?

Thanks everyone! This thread is off to a great start! With all of your help, my little seed will soon grow up into a big fuzzy monster. I think I'll name it Muzzy...

 

[obelisk]

alreet m8 u aint guna get any where near a ounce per plant with so little light,
cfls spectrums,,,, 6400k for veg 2700k for bud,, 6400= coolwhite 2700k= wharmwhite
mg,,,, dont use nutriants until your plant shows signs that it needs them,,mg will feed for months
mg perlite also full of nutes
make sure soil is only loosely covering the seed and soil aint to compact
dont keep watering loads just keep the soil moist /never dry for seedlings
try maintain humidity around seedlings
also start with a 1ltr pot and move up size as u go /let your roots fill 1 pot before u upsize
starting seedlings in big pots can only lead to hassle later on / moisture stress

Thx for all the advice!
1 I do plan on plugging in the other two cfls once the seed sprouts and gets a little bigger

2 I'll look for those spectrums of cfl, but the home depot and lowes seem a little limited, and I don't really feel like ordering online (lazy, don't wanna pay shipping)

3 I definitely won't be using nutes. I think I heard that MG potting soil feeds about 3 months, and I've got a gigunda bag of the stuff, so when this grow is done I'll prob just throw whatever's been used up outside.

4 My soil's about as loose as can be, so I'm glad I at least got that part right!

5 I put 1/2 gal 7.4pH water on to get the ball rolling. For the next few days I'm only gonna put about a tbsp over the seed

6 The little closet its in is almost uncomfortably humid...I should get a thermometer up there, too, it might get too hot

7 I wish I had known about the 1 liter pot start-off, especially because I have some 1 liter pots I could use! Oh well, I'll know for next grow.

 

[obelisk]

ok ok,
first of all having the right spectrum light will prevent the plant from streching, Plants reach for the lights whenever they dont have sufficient enough for proper growth,

Interrupting a plants night cycle is probably one of the biggest no-nos there is,
it will stress the plant, badly
that is how you get yourself a hermaphrodite

no means of shutting you down man just stating the facts

Cute dog! Is he/she a pitbull? I've got a rescued beagle/lab mix. She's a sweetheart, as long as she doesn't get into my grow room and start digging (grr).

 

[HERBAL ADDICT]

IT AINT TO LATE TO RE POT,
U MIGHT NEED SOME NUTES TOWARDS THE END LIKE SUM PK 13/14 TO PROMOTE BIGGER BETTER BUDS MG WILL NOT PROVIDE THAT AS THE SOIL IS WELL USED BY THE TIME U FLOWER
I USED MG ON MY FIRST 2 GROWS AND HAD TO USE A BLOOM STIMULATER DURING THE WHOLE 12/12 PERIOD BECAUSE THE SOIL WAS LOW ON NUTES BY THAT TIME
MG FEEDS NORMAL SLOW GROWING PLANTS FOR 3 MONTHS IT FEEDS WEED FOR 2ish
MG NUTES ARE RELEASED EVERY WATERING, THE MORE U WATER THE MORE IT RELEASES SO IF U GET A BIT OF NUTE BURN OF MG THEN WATER IT LESS OFTEN
I WATERD MG SOIL EVERY 4to6 DAYS AND NEVER LOST A LEAF AND NEVER GOT NUTE BURN,
I DONT THINK U WILL GET A HEAT PROBLEM AND HUMIDITY WILL PROB BE SWEET
GOOD LOOK M8, KEEP POSTED

 

[HERBAL ADDICT]

2700k and 6400k are common cfls it prob says on the box u got em in

 

[obelisk]

IT AINT TO LATE TO RE POT,
U MIGHT NEED SOME NUTES TOWARDS THE END LIKE SUM PK 13/14 TO PROMOTE BIGGER BETTER BUDS MG WILL NOT PROVIDE THAT AS THE SOIL IS WELL USED BY THE TIME U FLOWER
I USED MG ON MY FIRST 2 GROWS AND HAD TO USE A BLOOM STIMULATER DURING THE WHOLE 12/12 PERIOD BECAUSE THE SOIL WAS LOW ON NUTES BY THAT TIME
MG FEEDS NORMAL SLOW GROWING PLANTS FOR 3 MONTHS IT FEEDS WEED FOR 2ish
MG NUTES ARE RELEASED EVERY WATERING, THE MORE U WATER THE MORE IT RELEASES SO IF U GET A BIT OF NUTE BURN OF MG THEN WATER IT LESS OFTEN
I WATERD MG SOIL EVERY 4to6 DAYS AND NEVER LOST A LEAF AND NEVER GOT NUTE BURN,
I DONT THINK U WILL GET A HEAT PROBLEM AND HUMIDITY WILL PROB BE SWEET
GOOD LOOK M8, KEEP POSTED

Meh, I have so many seeds, I'm just gonna leave it in there and see what happens. Didn't know that about MG, the watering/2months dealy. Thanks!

I just smoked some awful weed from 4 years ago. Found it in an old bag, thought it looked like leaves and twigs. It smoked like leaves and twigs. WEAK On the upside, it got me high enough to tolerate "Monkeybone". Perhaps Chris Kattan's greatest performance ever.

 

[HERBAL ADDICT]

no weed is as good as weed u can grow yourself , good look , keep postin, ill follow your grow

 

[obelisk]

Nothing new or picture worthy. Still just a pot of warm, well-lit soil.

CFL QUESTIONS ANSWERED!
I've been trying to figure out if my cfl spectrums are OK. I have 2700K (warm white) cfls, which I picked mostly because they were cheap.

The answer to my question can be found on Dr. Chronic's excellent CFL thread

Dr. Chronic says:
"For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K "

From what I've read, you can germinate with any light at all, so I'll keep what I've got for now. Once I sprout, though, I'm switching to 5000K-6500K.

HERBALADDICT - good luck on your quest for molasses, and check out my useless comment on your forum!