First Grow! Help from Pro's would be appreciated

Hey everyone!

This is my first grow and I'm very excited to get this going. With the help of everyone here I know i can be successful.

My plants are already growing. They started from seed. The strains are Liberty Haze, Sour Diesel (X3), Headband, Super Automatic, Kabrales, and a mystery seed I found after a smoke session. They went into soil (red Solo cup - Light warrior seed started soil) on the Friday February 8, 2013 and they sprouted transfered into bigger pots (3 Gallons - Fox Farm Ocean Forest) on February 19. February 26, they received their first dose of nutrients (Technaflora Plant Products Inc, Vegetation Recipe, Recipe for Success Starter Kit) at 1/4 the recommended strength.

Now for the tools that I am using.
I have a 125 Watt Flourescent bulb and reflective hood. There is a fan Blowing on them at low speed to move air around. the grow box is about 42 inches across and 23 inches deep and 69 inches tall. I plan on using this as my Flowering box once I get some clones established and have a separate vegetation section. I have a HPS 400 Watt light waiting to get switched in when they need to start to flower. I haven't acquired a filter or a main fan yet but I will soon.

The plants are all under the light for a 18/6 Photoperiod. They are rotated every two days and moved to a new location to get different amounts of light. The lights are approximately 3 inches from the tops of the tallest plants. I moved the taller ones to the outsides and the inside ones are the smaller ones. as of today they are now about 18 days old.

Any tips or advice to a beginner in need of help? I've read up as much as I can in the past 4 months and finally decided to start. Hopefully I learned enough from this site to have a successful grow. Thanks to everyone and Pictures are coming soon. Hopefully by tomorrow or Thursday.

keep doing what your doing, and read more! seems like u got good enough knowledge to get some things done; but hey im no pro! just my two cents

Sounds like youre on the right track. One thing I would watch for is dont let them get too big before switching to 12/12. It is common for newer growers to do that and end up with overcrowding and canopy issues.If I counted right you have 8 plants to flower under a 400,so they dont need to be large. You can veg with that hps too for faster more vigorous growth. Good luck

Thanks! I guess I can switch out the CLF's Bulbs now since they are done with the Seedlings stage. I am not veg growing them too big. Just about a foot and a half or maybe two. Since I don't want to over crowd and then certain plants won't get light.

So I took your advice and switched in my HPS 400w light in. And I also took Pictures of them.
This is a picture of my current setup. I have the reflective material just need to acquire a staple gun to set it up. The light was raised to show the full cabinet. It has been lowered and set so that it is about 15 inches from the tops. Used my hand until the light felt comfortable.
This is the First Plant and it is Headband. There is some browning to the leaf but I don't think it will be of much concern. Maybe?
Plant Number 2 - Liberty Haze
Plant Number 3 - Super Automatic
Plant Number 4 - Sour Diesel
Plant Number 5 - Mystery Seed
Plant Number 6 - Kabrales
Plant Number 7 - Sour Diesel
Plant Number 8 - Sour Diesel

I hope they pass your guys judgement! They seem very healthy, minus the brown spot. They are three weeks old now. and they don't match up to other three week old's so I'm a bit worried. Other than that this has been so much fun.

Looking good! Idk if you are gonna want to wait till their a foot and a half to two feet tall before the flip to 12/12 they will just about double in size during the first couple of weeks and imo you would get better results with smaller plants since your only running a 400w. I had a 400w on 4 plants and I think that was pushing the limits now im running 9 plants under 1200w two of them are 12/12 from seed and I flowered at about 18 inches and they've gotten huge. I just think if you have that many plans some are gonna really stretch to get to the light. Just my 2¢ I am by no means a pro haha good luck I'm excited to seewhat you can do!

I agree with big cat . First time I did 1 plant , and with all the questions that come up wit the first time doing multi plants would have been very tedious . Then to throw multi strains into it . Wish you the best of luck , and I shall stick around

I was thinking that I did take on a challenge, but now it'll be an interesting experiment. I've done research on the genetics of my plants so I know what to expect from certain ones. If anything ill see how this grow goes, take ones from the best plants and focus all my attention to those the second time. I can do a foot of veg then. I don't mind small yields. I want to eventually do real research but for now this is a new adventure. Thanks for the input. And thanks for sticking around. I know I'll be asking questions a lot, wish I could change the header to veteran growers rather than pros haha

Majyk said:

I was thinking that I did take on a challenge, but now it'll be an interesting experiment. I've done research on the genetics of my plants so I know what to expect from certain ones. If anything ill see how this grow goes, take ones from the best plants and focus all my attention to those the second time. I can do a foot of veg then. I don't mind small yields. I want to eventually do real research but for now this is a new adventure. Thanks for the input. And thanks for sticking around. I know I'll be asking questions a lot, wish I could change the header to veteran growers rather than pros haha

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Best advice I can give is learn to listen to your plants they will tell you when they need something! You can read all you want but nothing beats first hand experience (trust me I do alot of reading) I'm not saying reading is bad, just some things that work for me might not work for you ya know?

I understand, I try to spend as much time with the plants as I do reading up. I won't gain the experience or knowledge right away from a thread but I'll gain it from actually growing.

Exactl. If you want check out my grow links in my sig. I only got a few grows under my belt but I'm always learning new things and trust me my current grow has had its obstacles haha

No doubt, man. I'm passionate for this. If I can have a successful season, I think I found my calling haha

Checked them before the lights went out and they're already looking better with the combination of HPS, 1/4 dose of nutes, and heat.

When you repot em be sure and get a quality soiless mix...Something airy w/ lots of perlite in it, Sunshine mix #4 for eg. A lot on newbies make the mistake of getting whatevers cheap and convenient ...also dont forget to add dolomite lime, a great ph buffer...lookin great so far!

I should still transfer them one more time even though I'm not planning to grow them that tall?
I will look up some good mix then, I didn't cheap out then why start? haha

I use roots organics soil and love it before that I used ffof

I might start a hydro system after this grow instead. Soil is nice but hydro looks so organized. 71big, I saw that you used the same plastic pot for your old grows. Do you think it was the pot that made the plant so small or was it the genes?

Re using a pot should make no difference

I'm not talking reusing a pot. I'm saw your diesel plant from your and saw that it was a small plant. I was wondering if it was the size of the pot that made the plant smaller. I was wondering if I would need to transfer to a bigger pot if I wasn't going to grow them too big.

Just reread from the beginning, transplanted into three gallon from solo cups....perfect, no need to transplant as its a small area...are they regs or fem beans? Do you have a vent fan? Very important, youre gonna wanna vent it out if not...complete air transfer every five minutes ...temps, 78 degrees plus or minus a few degrees with light on is perfect....would hold off on the hydro for now, get a few soil grows under your belt first..kiss...

Majyk said:

I'm not talking reusing a pot. I'm saw your diesel plant from your and saw that it was a small plant. I was wondering if it was the size of the pot that made the plant smaller. I was wondering if I would need to transfer to a bigger pot if I wasn't going to grow them too big.

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Oh gotcha I didn't really understand what you were asking. I got the blueberry diesel as a clone from a local club and I flowered it super small