First Grow: A 600W story

firsttimeARE said:

My friend who grows linked me to that as a beginner thing. He said he just uses the paper litmus or w/e it is. He said a PH meter wasn't necessary when I told him I was going to get one.

I was going to get a hannah, but he said it wasn't worth the price. I mean he grows, but his buds are always popcorny and I know he cuts corners...Maybe popcorn buds are a result?

But i'd definitely take your advice over his. Does EC matter much in soil?

Click to expand...

no ec isnt inportant in soil, also popcorn buds is not what you want! you want mainly big fat buds and only a small amount of popcorn, as for ph ive got the drops to check its not 100% acurate but gives you a good idea, never had ph problems going off the drops

UPDATE: Got 3 out of the 8 orange kush to germ. Gave up on the other 5 and the 2 purple haze and 1 power africa.

Got about 40 bag seeds germing

And I will have a 10 pack of Seedsman Seeds: Power Africa
And a 7 pack of World of Seeds Legends: Chronic Haze
These are two of my favorite strains my buddy grew and cannot wait to get them in soil...Assuming they do not get found by customs.

The first of the orange kush is about 3 inches already running 24's. Has it's first set of leaves and the start of some more leaves on top it looks like. 4 days old

Another sprouted last night and is about 1 inch if that but already has its first set of leaves. 3 days old

And I just planted another today. It's root was out like an inch as I didn't get a chance to check them yesterday.

The tent conditions are 75 at night and 80 during the day with a 65% relative humidity. Its been very hot out these past few days and humid. I'm going to need to get a dehumidifier if that doesn't lower by flowering time.

The reflector works great at keeping the bulb cool. I might even need a heater for winter.

You should definitely bring your humidity down. You want it between 40-50 I believe. Later in flowering it will get worse. I suggest taking care of that monster now. A good dehumidifier can be a little over 150 bucks for a 2000 sqft room.

Already got one, still trying to find those clip-on fans that you have. Tent was 78 today and 66% humidity. The guy at my local hydro store said 50% for veg, 30% flowering was fine. I think once I get those fans and move the air around more other than out the exhaust it'll be less humid. The weather outside will be dry 50-60's soon so I think i'll be fine.

Main problem right now is sound.

I did put 8 new seeds in. Just bag. Still waiting on my order to come. All three orange kush seeds look healthy. One has sparkles on it already it looks like. The one I planted yesterday is about an inch and is just about opening up it's first set of leaves.

How soon shall I need to put in nutes? Oldest plant is 5 days.

i normally start off giveing them maxi crop seaweed extract when they have rooted and went into there first pot! (from clone) they shouldnt need nutes for the first 2 weeks then just start off at quarter strengh and work your way up to full.

I notice with this nute chart im following http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf says i'll need a couple different kinds going at the same time. Can they just be mixed together?

i dont use fox farms but i always add them together.

^thanks

Just got my seeds in the mail today...Pretty fast delivery ordered monday night. Shipped tuesday morning. Arrived Saturday afternoon.

I'm storing them for next grow as I don't want to waste money if I mess up

All 3 kush's look very healthy, the best has 3 sets of leaves and the worst has 2 not counting the starting leaves.

Put the 3 freebies in soil today.

And 2 of the bag seeds broke soil and have the start of their leaves coming in over their starting leaves.

I'll have pics by this weekend of them, hopefully theyre bigger.

I haven't started nutes yet, I heard a week to 2 weeks cause of nutes already in the soil....So nutes at a half dose on monday aside from the 3 I planted today.

Tent conditions improved with the addition of a oscillating fan, Humidity is at 55% right now and temp hits 75 at night and 79 during the day. The highest the humidity got was at 60% over the last 48 hours.

Pics needed for shizzle. Sounds smooth.

Definitely...I'll post some soon. Checked them out again last night and noticed bugs in the tent loving the soil. They were tiny like fruit fly tiny they crawled and could fly, but it seemed they preferred to crawl. Not spider mites, but are their any other kinds of insects not good for plants?

The conditions yesterday were 75 degrees and 50% humidity. So far I got 4 of the bag seeds sprouted outta soil and the 3 kush's. Waiting on the freebies to break soil. Hopefully they have today.

I think they're fungus gnats from what others have described.

I'm going to get those yellow fly traps at home depot and get some potato slices and lay them over the top of the soil.

I watered them last night so they should be good for a bit(i notice im having to water like everyday, which is maybe how those gnats got there to begin with I hear) the circulating fans i got going turn the top of the soil this really light brown color and looks very dry. Its probably just surface dryness.

But is watering everyday bad?

I water about every three days in early veg. and then about every other day in flower. Feed feed water per week. Usually want the pots to be on the light side before you water. Don't keep them super wet because you will run into problems and the plant wont take up the nutrients like it should. Let the roots stretch out a little. Thats what I do and it works good. Hope this helps you a little bit.

Thanks mate ^ When you say feed feed water per week u mean nutes?

I got pictuuurrreessss.

Orange Kush #1


Orange Kush #2



Orange Kush #3



3 Bag seed up front and 3 Orange Kush in back



Leaf mutation on bag seed



Babies



Thermostat Readings(Min/Max/Current)



Humidity(Min)



My Workbench and Bug Killers

Finally got my dual outlet timer. Going to start them on an 18/6 today and see if those fungus gnats are gone or were just inside the soil as its time for some watering. Be perfect for when I plan to nute them on tuesday.

And clip fans came in. Yay floorspace again!

Looks like those fungus gnats are back...Used some of that Doktor Doom Spider Mite Knockout spray and it said avoid getting your foliage visibly wet, but I found that unavoidable and now the leaves are all wilted and shriveled.

I'm reading and its probably the soil. The soil i'm using has a lot of complaints of fungus gnats. I may make my own with this recipe I found:

4 parts organic potting soil (no nutes added)
3 parts sphagnum moss (no nutes added)
2 parts worm castings
1 or more parts perlite (no nutes added)
1 or more parts clean sand

I just feel like their could be bugs in that also

You can get soil drenches for the gnats in the soil to kill the eggs. You have to kill the eggs as well as keep the adults from laying more eggs in there. If you are using any kind of soil, you will run into these kind of problems. Don't stress on it, just take care of it. Don't do too many things at once either.

you should be putting 2-3 times the amount of water through the plant as the container size. You can reuse the water that drains. The reason you do this, is because you don't want dry pockets in the soil. Dry pockets will cause channels in your soil and without fulling water like I said you won't get rid of them. The more dry pockets the less room for roots to grow. If your mix has sufficient drainage you won't run into problems. You can over water by water too often. As long as the plants are left to drain the soil can only hold so much water. You are water to make sure you aren't getting dry pockets. Also, when you are flushing you should be doing so until the pH/ EC/ ppm/ stops changing. If you don't have a meter, you can tell because the water will come out clear instead of yellow/ green or whatever is not clear.