First Time Grower, G13 Feminized

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my first post here. this page is mostly for my own personal reference, but all help/comments/criticisms/ideas/suggestions are welcome!

first off, wow, this is exceedingly hard on a cellphone which is all i have right now. is there a text-only version? secondly i don't have plans to post any pics for philosophical reasons; i think the more u photograph something, the more u drain it of its potential energy. maybe once in a blue moon i will post, once my plant is robust enough to definitely move forward. right now it's a 5 day old baby.

this post is longish, as i describe my first 5 days. if i forget stuff i'll fill it in later.

basic info: received 3 G13 seeds from dr.gt w/ instructions. following instructions "by the book" so far. so far so good. buy 2 get 1 free. i am doing one at a time. two seeds are stored double-airtight in my fridge. seed #1 initialized on 5/17/2001 @ 8:30pm est, in a paper towel on a heat mat in the dark, soaked w/ about 120ppm jacks classic grow nutes, around 90-100 fahrenheit. taproot showed up in about 18 hrs. at 30 hours i placed it in a...jiffy pot? i'm not big on terminology. small cardboard cup w/ hole on bottom i got at lowes. filled with miracle gro seed starter potting mix (no urea) and appx 500ppm jacks classic grow nutes @ appx ph5.6, appx 95-105 degrees. buried about 3/4" down, 24 hour light from a ufo illuminator 5-band tri-spectrum 90w led light. it seemed too deep & i had to gently dig around it to make it shallower. still on heat mat, in a hydro-farm mini greenhouse w/ 6 inch dome. tons of condensation inside.

late on day 2 or early on day 3 it broke ground. it shed its shell. some residual tissue was stuck on the cotyledon's longer half & i removed it w/ tweezers. day 4, above-soil xylem height appx 2 inches. cotyledon split wide open, turning from white to green. 2 leaves barely visible perpendicular to split cotyledon. day 5, i decided the soil was too soggy so i haven't added much new water, but a little. i could see roughly six "sawtooth" leaf points on each side of the horn-like mini leaves. day 6 (today) i can see at least 8 points, going on 9. no major activity visible between leaves, where the primary bud will come out. the first 2 leaves turned from diagonal to mostly horizontal, starting to photosynthesize i assume. leaves are now officially longer than the cotyledon pieces. the overall xylem height has slowed and is appx 2 - 2 1/2 inches tall.

tonight i plan to start a 18hr on / 6hr off light cycle & make sure i don't overwater. all other specs the same: appx 500ppm jacks grow (have jacks bloom for later), tapwater 45ppm and ph7.69 but down to mid 5's with nutrition dissolved in it. removed heat mat, temp still in the low 90s w/ the warmth from the ufo, soil turning less soggy & mildly moist. the cotyledon is almost plastic looking, very smooth, grainy, stealth-green-plastic looking. the leaves are a deep green w/ rough looking texture & good curvature for now. xylem is starting to have downward-facing hairs.

i plan to move this to a bathtub and lower it to room temp, making the front and top "walls" out of either saran wrap pr aluminum foil or both, and maybe throw in a 2 foot by 3 foot mirror i have, for added light intensity. i have micro gnats and greyish micro flies sometimes in the house. they haven't had a chance to eat anything because it's been covered in the mini greenhouse all this time, but they worry me...

any advice is really appreciated! thanks.

 

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additional info. i haven't decided if i want to grow in soil, or in a hydroponic setup so please give me advantages and disadvantages. i lost a seed (cheapo local seed, not dr.gt's) to root rot early on. i do have a 10-pound bag of expanded clay pebbles, a 2.83gpm air pump w/ 4 outlets, air line, 2 one-inch blue airstones and a five-inch grey airstone, 3" netpots, 8" netpots, & lowes 5-gallon buckets. my main concern is about drowning the roots if i can't generate enough air, which is why i am considering a regular soil grow, but i can't decide...

 

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also i haven't been able to get a visual on root progress, since i don't want to disturb things by digging around in the soil. if the xylem is appx 2 inches and the jiffy pot is appx 4 inches, how quickly will the roots run out of space? thanks.

 

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also dr. greenthumb if you ever come around here, i want to thank you for helping me on the phone. the thing is, although i don't know if i will ever get to partake of this beautiful plant since i am a very inexperienced first timer, just the fact that i was able to bring new life into the world, and that it is apparently quite healthy so far, is very exciting. even if the plant ultimately fails, i still consider myself a winner for helping the thing beat the odds

 

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when the time is right, i plan to nip the bud using a "FIM" technique i found in an online diagram, to see if i can get 4 tops instead of 1

 

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miscellaneous
technaflora phup & phdown, 1 liter each. haven't needed 'em coz the jacks classic is right on the $
hanna primo ec/tds/ppm checker calibrated to 1382ppm
hanna checker 98103 pH checker calibrated with 7.0 reference solution & 4.01 solution
freebie "clonex" pouch of "3 indole butyric acid" solution for forcing root growth on clones
jacks classic dynamic duo, which is 10 lbs grow nute & 10 lbs bloom nute. i assume i save the bloom until it's time to flower?

if things go well, i am interested in cloning and a sex change. cloning - to maximize yield by making new plants, but i have zero experience in this. sex change - to make seeds so that i won't have to buy any more, again zero experience though. i heard something about a silver nitrate or nitrite or something, spray solution, which supposedly makes a female into a male but have not researched this at all

 

[Dr Gruber]

Subbed. I will follow along and you can take a look at my g13 grow thread if you wish and i will answer any questions you have if i can. Mine are in soil and i use jacks classic nutes...mostly the 20-20-20.

 

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thanks i've been following your progress for a month or two. i just joined here today. pretty exciting to be a "dad". this is the first time i've grown any plant.

 

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how potent is the G13 smell now that it's blooming? my grow is in a small building about 15 feet by 30 feet, with similar wall quality to a mobile home, and there's a ceiling fan. do you think one plant like yours would smell outdoors when it's blooming?

 

[Dr Gruber]

how potent is the G13 smell now that it's blooming? my grow is in a small building about 15 feet by 30 feet, with similar wall quality to a mobile home, and there's a ceiling fan. do you think one plant like yours would smell outdoors when it's blooming?

Its a pretty low smell plant. Im not running my carbon filter on it yet but its starting to smell more and i may have to use it for the final weeks. You might get away with it the way you are but its hard to say for sure.

 

[Dr Gruber]

thanks i've been following your progress for a month or two. i just joined here today. pretty exciting to be a "dad". this is the first time i've grown any plant.

For a first time grower you sure had balls to buy the G13. Its not cheap and its easy for a first timer to kill them.
Give me a short list of the things you will be using....Soil brand, nute brand,etc,etc.
How much room do you have to work with....what lights are you using????

If you are going for four colas i wouldnt FIM...try reading this instead....https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/151706-uncle-bens-topping-technique-get.html

Uncle Ben is the man and anything he says, I listen.

remember to keep it as simple as possible on the first run, ask for help form others, and you should be fine.

Cloneing is easy and i can walk you through it.

 

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For a first time grower you sure had balls to buy the G13. Its not cheap and its easy for a first timer to kill them.
Give me a short list of the things you will be using....Soil brand, nute brand,etc,etc.
How much room do you have to work with....what lights are you using????

is a 2.83gpm air pump enough for this strain? if yes, then i can do hydroponics with expanded clay pebbles, jacks classic all purpose 10-30-20 and 20-20-20 and a ufo 90watt light which is the only grow light i currently have. if 2.83gpm is too low, then i could scrap the hydroponic idea and use miracle grow or whatever best match i can find for cannabis, same nutes, same grow light. the more opinions the better.

i figure if you're gonna go, go all out, which is why i went w/ G13 since i hear nothing but great things about dr.gt's genetics. if this works out, i may go with "The Dope" next time which is regular price

 

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How much room do you have to work with....

the plan is to use a bathtub with a main area of 3 ft deep, 5 ft wide, 5 ft tall. only 2 walls need to be built, front and top, for a complete enclosure, and the plan is to build the walls with aluminum foil because i want it really simple, cheap, and reflective. if that foil turns out too flimsy i can reinforce it with some long styrofoam sheets i have.

 

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bathtub lined w/ aluminum foil for reflectivity. ufo light is freakin blindingly bright in there. best 90 watts i ever bought. moving to 18 hr light / 6 hr dark, lowering to about room temp. still in a small jiffy pot with miracle gro seed starter potting soil, moistened w/ 500ppm jacks classic 20-20-20, pH5.6. got a day#6 pic yesterday but can't attach it (android / crappy web browser). if i'm heading into day 7, when should i be looking to move into a bigger pot?

 

[Dr Gruber]

bathtub lined w/ aluminum foil for reflectivity. ufo light is freakin blindingly bright in there. best 90 watts i ever bought. moving to 18 hr light / 6 hr dark, lowering to about room temp. still in a small jiffy pot with miracle gro seed starter potting soil, moistened w/ 500ppm jacks classic 20-20-20, pH5.6. got a day#6 pic yesterday but can't attach it (android / crappy web browser). if i'm heading into day 7, when should i be looking to move into a bigger pot?

I dont know about that soil but you probably dont need to add any nutes for awhile or you will burn those babies up. Not sure how big that pot is that you have them in but as a guess i would say give them a week or so in that pot before you transplant. If you start to notice any leaves that are burning flush right away and get those PPM's down. tinfoil is not a very reflective material.....flat white paint is better and mylar is even better then that. HTG supply has cheap equipment and they sell a panda film which is just thick plastic with one white side and one black side. the white is a good reflector.

 

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day 7 begins tonight at 8:30pm. i can see the third and fourth leaves coming to life. for now the aluminum is ok since the plant surface area is so small. 6 hour off cycle was between midnight & 6am. overnight temp fell to 22C/71F and is now 28-ish/82-ish. does it make a difference what time of day you turn off the lights?

 

[Dr Gruber]

day 7 begins tonight at 8:30pm. i can see the third and fourth leaves coming to life. for now the aluminum is ok since the plant surface area is so small. 6 hour off cycle was between midnight & 6am. overnight temp fell to 22C/71F and is now 28-ish/82-ish. does it make a difference what time of day you turn off the lights?

As long as you have a light tight room its all up to you time of day. Certain times of day are cheaper then others for electric use.

 

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no more water added since day 5. soil still plenty moist. leaves making big progress. first leaves are now twice the size they were yesterday. i have 2 plants growing side by side: the G13, and a local seed not from drgt. the local one has had major growth in the last 24hrs. almost couldn't see its leaves yesterday and now they almost rival the G13's leaves. current temp about 86F. good humidity. the local one eventually will be segregated away if i determine that it's male and i won't be posting much about it because i didn't even expect it to grow; it's the same low-quality strain as the seed i lost to root rot a few wks ago. to reiterate, G13 looks nice and robust so far. got another pic but my phone can't do message attachments on vbulletin. more later.

 

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dr gruber i don't want to waste a lot of your time, but since i can't read your whole thread, could you please give me a quickie rundown of how you ended up with so many flowers blooming? is it thanks to Uncle Ben, or should i expect similar yield if i do nothing? thanks for your help always

 

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i like the way Uncle Ben explains it. i will probably use his technique. just an FYI the original technique i was gonna use was by a guy named Dierwolf. it looks really similar if not identical, except Dierwolf seems to be doing it earlier in the plant's life. 4-step process:
http://i13.tinypic.com/2d1sjgg.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/40psbd0.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/4ic57h2.jpg
http://i14.tinypic.com/451g2ah.jpg