My very first attempt at growing

[wehongry]

So after lurking around here and trying to read as much as I could I thought I'd share what I've got going in my closet so far.

I got 3 out of my 5 seeds to germinate with a tap root using a paper towel in a cup. Just last night I transferred them over into soil in my box.

I've got 6 13w 6500k CFL's and 3 23w 2700k in there right now and was planing on switching to 6 2700k and 3 65000k when it comes time to flower.

The box is 2 31 gallon totes (not rubbermaid brand) that where on sale at target for $4.99 each. I'm using a computer CPU fan hooked up to an old power supply to help keep things cool/ventilate.

Any ideas, tips, hints, or tricks would be much appreciated.

 

[jordisgarden]

that light will work for about 2 weeks then your gonna need more.. i your gonna spend money to do it. go to home depot and buy a 100 watt hps lamp. itll cost ya 55 bucks and it will be the best thing you could do.....you wont regret it

 

[wehongry]

well only one of the first 2 seeds I had sprouted, but I got a bunch more from a friend. About 2 weeks for all of the little ones and 3 for the big one. I was thinking another 3-4 weeks and they would be ready to flower. But again this is my first time do this so any input is more then welcome. I looked into getting a MH or HPS but its just a little bit out of my budget for right now.

 

[T@ll T33]

well i think you got the room just remember that they triple from the beging of flowering to the end so if you flower at 8 inches your looking at about 2 foot plants

 

[wehongry]

well i think you got the room just remember that they triple from the beging of flowering to the end so if you flower at 8 inches your looking at about 2 foot plants

wow okay thanks I knew they grew still during flowering but I wasn't aware it was that much. I'm Hoping to get some more "growing space" so I can accommodate all these plants. I think my box will be okay for 2-3 plants, I've got 23 right now.

Also any suggestions as to when I should be transplanting to bigger pots? I'm only really concerned about my big one.

 

[skervy]

its double to triple the size during flowering you can control it a bit with some training though. i like transplants sooner then later it seemed easier and didnt really stunt them at all. i abused the hell out of their roots to cause i wanted to clear out all the original dirt i used it was to muddy when watered for my liking (majority yard dirt)

 

[wehongry]

its double to triple the size during flowering you can control it a bit with some training though. i like transplants sooner then later it seemed easier and didnt really stunt them at all. i abused the hell out of their roots to cause i wanted to clear out all the original dirt i used it was to muddy when watered for my liking (majority yard dirt)

thanks. I decided to transplant my big one just now I was really surprised how big the root system was already I may go and do the rest now too. I just don't have enough room in my box for them to all be living in big pots. Think it would be alright for a few of them to share a home until I can sort out the males and females?

 

[skervy]

um if they do it cant be for long or itll be a bitch to seperate em once the roots get goin. but then again im very unfriendly with my transplants so far and they dont seem to mind it

 

[wehongry]

um if they do it cant be for long or itll be a bitch to seperate em once the roots get goin. but then again im very unfriendly with my transplants so far and they dont seem to mind it

thanks, I went and separated all the plants that where doubled up in the keg cups and put them in there own. I also put all the ones I had in yogurt cups into keg cups. I'm gonna need to build another box if even half of these turn out female.

I took a look at your setup skervy and might do something similar to your cab with the Y adapters.

 

[T@ll T33]

naww if you dont op or fimm them you can gt away with a plant 4 inches away from each other use a smaller size pot....

 

[wehongry]

naww if you dont op or fimm them you can gt away with a plant 4 inches away from each other use a smaller size pot....

sweet thanks for the info. I think I'm just gonna have to build another box or get some other setup going I don't wanna have to toss out any plants before I know the sex.

Heres some progress shots, I started trying to do a little bit of training using paperclips the plants I did it on seem to be responding really well.

I also had a nice little shocker when I noticed that all of my plants (except my big one) where starting to go purple underneath. I kind of panicked until I was told this could be from low temps (which I highly doubt) or its just genetics.

Anyway heres some updated pictures and some shots of the purple under the leafs.

 

[skervy]

i dont see purple under the leaves its probably just the light shining through it playing tricks on you they have weird shades. as for the purple stems thats no big deal

 

[wehongry]

heat stress/too much light? is what I think this is due to after doing some searching on here. Also my big plant is doing a lot more "bushing" then vertical growth. Its about 4 weeks old and only 3.5 inches tall.

Advice on that and the spots would be much appreciated.

I have no idea why it keeps fliping my one picture upside down but I've tried to fix it like 3 times.

 

[skervy]

a couple of my plants look like that and their runts not sure what it is. i thought ph or heat stress from what i could find reading but that wouldnt make sense its only like 2 out of 12 plants with the problem and the rest are growing great

 

[wehongry]

So after being a bit freaked out over possible heat stress and whatnot I took my plants out of my box and switched the CFL's in what was going to be my "flowering" setup and wow have they exploded. I don't know if its the 18/6 or what but they are growing crazy fast. Hopefully I'll start flowering next week

 

[wehongry]

so its been a while so figure I'm do for a update. I've switched a lot of stuff up trying to see what the plants like the most. I picked up some foxfarm nutes and the plants are LOVING that. Also I bought a slightly (as in 6-8 month) used 400w switchable ballast and hood from a friend. For only $150 I couldn't say no. I started transplanting my girls into 3 gallon pots last night only to run out of soil I'm going to have to pick up another bag today.

My plan is to let these veg for another week then go to flower under a 400w HPS. (i've got a 400w MH on them now)

I'm planning on trying to flower 8 plants in these 3 gallon pots. weed out the males (hopefully leaving me with 4 good plants)
I've a friend who I'm giving some of my extra plants too.

 

[wehongry]

okay so another update.

I'm trying to debate if these are ready to flower or not. The biggest one on the left is 14 inches and the one right below it is 11. I was "going" for 2-3 foot plants so I think I'm just about ready to switch bublbs.

 

[wehongry]

so I decided they where ready for flower gave them 24 hours of darkness before throwing them into 12/12 under the old 400w HPS. which gave me more then enough time to let my bulb cool down and take it out, anyway heres the pics.

my biggest plant went from 14 to 18 inches the others averaged 3-3.5 inches in the past 48 hours (48 after turning the lights back on so 2 cycles of 12/12)

 

[Yaboii]

Those look fkin great!

 

[wehongry]

Those look fkin great!

Thanks I don't know what to expect really as far as yeild but I'm hoping for at least an oz or two. I've also been having tons of problems cloning so after many failed attempts I orderd some seeds offline they shipped today