1st grow, indoor HPS...going well.

Ok so I read just about everything on this site about indoor growing, and for all of those who are considering growing, I suggest you do the same. In 7 days I went from picture A to picture B (below). I could have probably sat and watched this puppy grow. It is currently 12 inches and growing about 1 inch per day. The whole project is about 3 weeks along. The plant is starting to smell pretty sweet. Because of hight limitations I think I am going to have to force flowering early. The plant can grow about 4 feet tall before I run out of space/light. I could maybe get 5 feet out of the box, but that would really limit the amount of light getting to the lower branches. I am thinking of switching to 12/12 in about 7-10 days.

A


B

Fair play. lookin healthy man.

100 watt HPS, not a special light, just hardware store HPS. I want to get some experience under my belt before I invest hundreds in lighting. I keep the light about 12" away at this point. The fan leaves absorb a lot of heat if it is any closer.

Not to much nutes, one feeding of MG 18.18.21. Once I start flowering I am going to switch to a bloom mix. Soil is MG organic, neutral PH. About 1.5 inches of 1 inch rock under the soil and drainage holes. I picked the soil not because it was organic, but because it was the loosest and closest to 6.8 PH I could find. It seems to be thriving in it. I recommend it. Even after watering, the soil is still lose, it never gets muddy or compact.

After this plant is mature enough (and hopefully female) I plan on cloning it, and starting some more mothers to clone from. At that point I am going hydro.

This is the second plant I've grown in my life. The first was a house plant that died from someone spilling a beer in the pot. This grow is credited to the RIU forums, everyone here rules.

I had a 100w mh about 1 in from my plants, just keep a strong breeze running accross the tops. It will make the stems super strong too, even though they lean (early training!) My temps sat at about 78 or so when that lamp was at 1 in

I've been keeping the light at about 4 inches with a slight breeze. Keeps the top of the plant around 80, and the rest of the box around 75. Yesterday my plant just exploded with growth for some reason. It put on about 3 inches and the fan leaves grew by 20 percent in 24 hours. I think its because a bunch of leaves were close to opening.

is that 80 in direct light or in the shade. I didnt realize until just a couple of days ago that you are supposed to measure from the shade. Wasted alot of time thinking about ways of getting it cooler when it just wasnt necessary

I just turned 12/12 yesterday with the addition of co2. The plant is almost to 20 inches. Thats about 8 inches in 7 days. I've also added a pair of florescent grow lights to the sides. I noticed the light wasn't getting down to the bottom of the plant. If its going to grow 2 or 3 times its current size, that is going to be a problem. The extra lights raised my temps too hot, so I also put in some custom cooling. I also took my clone cuttings, hopefully its female. After this plant is done, I am starting fresh with the clones. I have designed a new room that is going to be much more efficient than the box. My biggest problem is noise, the fan is just too damn loud. Ive got a much better fan, much cooler lighting for my clone mothers, and I am switching to 18/6. I just want to keep the new moms happy, and pumping out copies.

you should plant more seeds/

as many as you can acomidate.

Males are not very useful.

looking good pablo

what is that paper towel roll intake for ?

any new pics ?

nice looking plant, I cant wait to see update shots. If everything goes perfect U might get over 2oz from that plant (assuming its a she or a hermie.)

More pictures when I can tell sex for sure. Right now I am about 85% sure its female. There are two pistils coming out at every node. The plant has also doubled its growing rate. It is at about 2 inches per day. I feed it MG 15-30-15 a few hours before the first 12 hour dark cycle started.

I found a great indoor grow store not to far from my house. They have EVERYTHING in stock and many manufacturers. I started to buy some things for my clones. I decided to go florescent with my next set of mothers. Heat is my main reason for going that way, and second is power. The circuit that feeds my lights is only 20 amps, and right now I am near its limit. I also bought some white/block poly with a fancy zipper. They also had some test equipment. It was expensive, but I learned my soil was a bit dry and acidic. At this point I don't think it will matter much, so I just gave it a half gallon of distilled water, a sort of mini flush. I will wait a few extra days for my next feeding.

I've started to make a aero cloner for my new moms. I have eight, and planning for 2 deaths leaving me with 6 hopefully. If I end up with 8, I will just flower the extra's. After the moms root, they are going right into 5 gallon buckets for the long haul. I am keeping the same soil/rock combo since it has worked well. The clones for the moms will be raised on flow tables under 2000 watts HPS.

Next grow I am going to flower much earlier.

Update. This is day 33, day 8 of flowering. Switched the florescent tubes to CFL's. The pair are 42 watts at 2700 kelvin, 2600 lumen's per. It brings my total lumen's up to about 10,000. They are MUCH cooler to run than the fluorescents. There is no measurable temp change at .5 inches with the fan on.

Anyways, she is about 26 inches now, putting on about 2 inches per day. It seems to be female, I see mini pistils. Two per node and no balls. The stem is huge, and all the leaves have grown very big. Enjoy the photo.

Quick update. I got back on the fence about its sex. Not sure at this point, it has been flowering for about 1 1/2 weeks. I thought I saw some balls. Turned they were just new growth. Now towards the top I think I am starting to see a few white pistils. They look different than the new leaves that appear somewhat white and then turn into leaves. These look like a small white snake at first, coiled up and they they straighten out with a slight curve at the top. From what I can see they look fuzzy, although I have no magnifying glass to confirm yet. They are also different from the leaves because they don't get much bigger towards their base. Tomorrow I am getting a magnifying glass.

The sex is driving me nuts!!! I was patient through veg, mostly because it grew so fast. Now that the novelty has worn off, I want to see if this thing in action. Why didn't this plants designer think about me when coming up with its growing time line.

Cloning 100% success. I just put my cuttings in distilled water under a 5500 K 13 watt CFL with a cover over the water. They started showing roots at day 5. I guess this is fast as most people were saying 2 weeks too show. I think they will be ready to plant in about 7 days at the current rate of growth. I have also noticed some continuation of vegetative growth. However, some of the leaves are yellowing just a bit. If they continue to yellow, I might put them in soil earlier.

Get some molasses.
Get a squirt bottle.
Keep water sitting out in milk jugs so that they can evaporate chlorine.

I use 2 drops of molasses in a 14.5 oz squit bottle.
Shake vigourously (2-3 min) for air to get into water and to mix the molases.

Spray them once a day.

Keep that light at about 6" away so they do not get to hot or too much light.
Keep in an area that is not too hot or cold.
The molases wil stop the yellowing.

Good luck

Thanks for the tip, I will try it.

As for the main grow...I am now 99% sure it is female. I see pistils growing out everywhere today. Lots and lots of white pistils! I have about 10 areas with pistil areas plus the cola which is HUGE. It is almost 3 feet tall and putting on about 2 inches per day. The flowering areas are becoming very dense with growth. New growth is sprouting almost everywhere. I am thinking this thing is going to be very large when done.

45 inches tall. Buds are coming out everywhere. It is going really well. I think about 2 more weeks and it will be ready to go.