First grow - FastBuds Stardawg on the cheap

Woo hoo, I'm finally doing this.

I'm a newbie on a budget and I was lucky enough to win some FastBuds Stardawg seeds from @George Seeds at The Vault. Don't have all my equipment yet but I'm doing this.

The circumstances driving my approach: I'm an indoor grower with a relatively low need for discretion (I can legally grow in my jurisdiction with a medical card) and no money. I'm going for as simple a setup as possible that still allows for quality. To that end, here's the plan:

1. Soil grow in Fox Farms Ocean Forest/perlite mix (purchasing this weekend), vessel TBD

2. Going with autos for beginner ease, to avoid city light pollution risk, and because I'm impatient

3. No tent no nothing, I'm sticking my plant near a window, growing under a florescent plant light until the point where that's insufficient, then switching to a 400w HPS (to be purchased). I'll hang some mylar around for reflection.

I put a single seed into some warm water and the little buddy's sitting in front of a warm heater looking happy. After 24 or so it will go into a paper towel.

Wish me luck.

Good Luck! This is a good reference for easy.

keeping an eye on your thread as i would like to see the finished results and your opinion of them, enjoy

Thanks! I'm posting progress here and on autoflower.net (they seem to have more auto-only folks while RIU has a lot of overall expertise).

I have a tap root popping out already so I'll need to transfer to a bit of soil soon.

In the next day or two, I figure I need to buy: FF soil, perlite, bag or pot, and some variety of ph reading method, be it strips or a meter. Amazon had some very cheap universal strips, but any universal paper is imprecise and harder to read. I'm not ready to shell out for a nice meter yet.

Eh, why wait, right? The popped seed, with taproot visible but not out of its casing yet, went into some old recycled potting soil used for an old houseplant in the same small earthenware cup. It's back in front of a space heater on my living room seat.

Seeds have enough nutrients to get a plant going on their own; seems like fortified soil could only do harm.

Beginners, you want a painstaking step by step? Granularity is where I'm at.

Well, I f'd it up already. Impatient to see whether the seedling was about to emerge, I gently disturbed the soil and ended up destroying it. Back to the drawing board.

Fellow newbies, don't be me.

Back in business and using the paper towel method this time. I soaked the seed in water yesterday. The small space heater should keep it warm.

As it happens, I'm right around the corner from a hydro store, which gives me more options without the shipping costs. There's some special soil I might be talked into - still on the fence - and I'll be going with fabric pots when ready.

Try, try again.

Catpotwoman said:

Eh, why wait, right? The popped seed, with taproot visible but not out of its casing yet, went into some old recycled potting soil used for an old houseplant in the same small earthenware cup. It's back in front of a space heater on my living room seat.

Seeds have enough nutrients to get a plant going on their own; seems like fortified soil could only do harm.

Beginners, you want a painstaking step by step? Granularity is where I'm at.

Click to expand...

I gotta be honest I start seeds in the pot I flower them in typically and I always germinate them in A. amended soil and B. the same pot they will flower in. I get decent results to match. Theres a lot of other variables though before you can rule out "fortified soil". Don't be scared of a hiccup or a speed bump, just keep snowballin what you're learning on the way!

DixonButts said:

I gotta be honest I start seeds in the pot I flower them in typically and I always germinate them in A. amended soil and B. the same pot they will flower in. I get decent results to match. Theres a lot of other variables though before you can rule out "fortified soil". Don't be scared of a hiccup or a speed bump, just keep snowballin what you're learning on the way!

Click to expand...

I took your advice. Stardawg is now sitting in a 5 gallon pot and I decided to plant her a friend. Soaked the second seed just a bit before planting it pointy-side-down in the soil.

I went with Nectar #4 soil. It was about five or six dollars more for 1.5 c ft, but my local store talked it up and pays extra to shield the pallet from rain. Anything that reduces the potential for bugs is worth it in the short term imo.

The second seed is a promo from The Vault, Bruce Banner #3 Auto from The Original Sensible Seeds. The two have similar flowering times so I think they'll be good pals.

The pots will go by a sunny window tonight on a heated shelf. Thanks for the feedback, all.

While the seeds haven't emerged yet, I've put them under a Hydrofarm Jump Start florescent seedling light at 24/0 in case it helps them know in which direction to grow.

I already had the light - it was a gift over a decade ago from when I grew culinary herbs and vegetables indoors - so that's a big savings on costs. It works great, slight hum and very cool so you can get it close to the soil. If I hadn't already had it, I might have skipped it and just gone with a small cheap bulb.

I ordered my supplies and 400w MH/HPS system online and they should arrive this weekend. I've been skipping pH adjustment for the germination but that will have to change soon.

Day 4.5 from planting and the Stardawg has emerged. Banner hasn't poked its way out yet.

I'll follow up with a post on the supplies I'm using for the grow and my startup costs for anyone interested in the economy aspect.

My startup supply/equipment info with actual USD costs.

Necessities - about 220 USD

- 1.5 cu ft. Nectar #4 pH 6.4 soil - $24 pre-tax at my local hydro store
- 2 5 gallon fabric pots, 4-something apiece at local hydro store
- Hydroplanet 400w MH/HPS light kit (Chinese from Amazon, $116 plus tax). Kit included:
. . . * 400w digital dimmable ballast, FCC-compliant
. . . * Wing reflector
. . . * One metal halide and one high pressure sodium bulb, their brand
. . . * Adjustable ratcheting hanging cords
. . . * Cheap mechanical timer
- iPower 2 pack HPS bulbs for spares, $18.59 on Amazon
- Pura Vida Bloom 1L organic fertilizer, $27 Amazon
- Weekstar general pocket pH meter, $12.99 on Amazon
- Habor digital hygrometer, $8.99 Amazon

Extras

- General Hydroponics CaliMagic quart, $16 on Amazon
- Dr Meter soil moisture meter, 8.49 Amazon
- Biopharm pH calibration and electrode storage solution kit, $19.99 on Amazon
- General Hydroponics pH +/- solution, $18.52 Amazon

I had an Amazon gift card so that's where I made the bulk of my purchases. I'm having buyer's remorse about the pH +/- kit.

As for the other extras, everyone seems to need CalMag at some point and moisture levels and pH seem to be the two major sources of problems in a grow.

Picture of my consumerist excess:

Bruce Banner is now out, a little more than a week after going into the soil, and Stardawg is stretching taller.

It hasn't been a week yet but the Stardawg is doing well. I've moved the grow light up because it had stretched far enough upward that the tips of its leaves were showing that it had too much heat. I'm watering with just tap water left out overnight to dissipate chlorine.

Bruce Banner is a few days behind and still much smaller. It lost a cotyledon pushing itself out of the soil.

Pics of my happy plants.

It's past the week mark for Stardawg and a couple of days away for Banner. Stardawg is noticably bigger, even accounting for the time difference in sprouting.

I top dressed Stardawg with more soil since the soil had sunk a bit more. I'm watering with pH'd city tap water. The cloth pots and bagged soil dry out much more quickly than expected. I'm glad I skipped the extra perlite.

Both seedlings need to be rotated daily as they start bending toward the window and the bluer bulb. At this point, I'm going to need to do some searching to see when it's appropriate to switch to the metal halide light. I figured out a way to gerry rig it without drilling a hole in my ceiling to hang the reflector.

I've already finding the temp and rh meter useful, something I didn't expect to use much until later in the process. Pics here.

Are you a woman who has a cat and is growing pot? or when arriving at the need for a name you looked around the room and saw three things and combined them for a name?

GreenLivesMatter said:

Are you a woman who has a cat and is growing pot? or when arriving at the need for a name you looked around the room and saw three things and combined them for a name?

Click to expand...

I'm intrigued to know too now lol

Update at 2 weeks for Stardawg, week 1.5 for Banner.

Stardawg is developing nodes and starting to show the beginnings of some branching. For a plant that could start flower at three weeks in, it seems slow to me, but from what I've seen in journals the veg growth accelerates. It looks healthy and is growing well.

Banner is still a bit of a runt. Growth is slower, leaves are tinier, it's tough to see the first node, and its leaves don't have the same rich green as its sibling. It's in the same pot, same soil, and in the same schedule as Stardawg, so whatever I'm doing, Stardawg just seems to like it better.

I ran into some drama already. I discovered that the pots were underwatered and not getting enough moisture in the lower levels of soil. So I increased the amount of water and deceased the frequency. Plants liked it. The next day I had fungus gnats.

I despise these ugly little fuckers with a passion and want to kill them with fire.

I was lucky enough to catch them early. I dusted the soil and the lower stems with diatomaceous earth. After the gnats weren't eradicated the next day, I added a Solo cup trap with some white wine and detergent. The resulting carnage was satisfying. I haven't seen one in the last day and a half.

Pics of happy Stardawg and a less-happy Banner. They're about ready to go under the MH light.

Day 15 for Stardawg, day 11 for Banner.

I moved both plants out from the florescent seedling light and under the 400w ballast and reflector. Temp ranges are in the seventies and the Rh is in the lower twenties, a bit low.

I am using a MH bulb with the ballast dimmed to the 150w setting. It's a lot louder than I thought it would be and sort of annoying, but not more noticeable than a window unit air conditioner. My phone camera has a hard time taking pics under the new light even when the sun is out. The light seems mostly normal to the eye; it's blue and murky in pics.

It's hard to convey with a picture how much bigger Stardawg is. It's about 4" tall or a bit larger, with Banner at 2", and in terms of vegetative growth is easily four times Banner's size. 4" at two weeks still makes me feel like I'm screwing something up, but leaves seem healthy so I guess we'll see.

Light setup and plants with interloper.

GreenLivesMatter said:

Are you a woman who has a cat and is growing pot? or when arriving at the need for a name you looked around the room and saw three things and combined them for a name?

Click to expand...

Ha, it's more the former than the latter but comes down to some very muddled thinking when not completely sober. Sort of, "like Catwoman AND Manbearpig!"

Decided it made no sense the next day, so I'm Manbearpig on a few other forums.