First Grow - Need Advice - Images Included

Maphyr said:

Figured out what caused those brown/rust looking spots. Burn from my CFL's. So dumb. I've gotta make a new light fixture. Such a rookie mistake. I was trying to make an adjustable height fixture so I used zip ties attached to some pvc. But it's not working out to good, all the bulbs are at different heights and yeah, I didn't realize it but the first couple days after I installed the new top, my plants were being burned the whole damn time.

Is the first set of leaves supposed to die off? Not the very small ones that you first get from sprouting, I mean the ones that grow after that, the bigger ones - not fan leaves. Thats the leaves that are turning yellow on the very bottom.

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Hi Map. Nice to see despite your regular panic attacks things are progressing pretty smoothly.

About the CFL burns. If you are not getting CFL burns on your leaves from time to time you are not using them correctly. CFL's should be positioned close to bud sites/tops. When the plant is stretching it is normal to get burns. Snip off the brown area of the leaf. No need to take the whole leaf if it is just a small burn.

About those first leaves. I would remove them and any others down there that are small and not getting any light. Look up the term 'Lollipoping.'

Glad to see you enjoying your new hobby. I was the same on my first grow.

Thanks for the input guys. I put it on 12/12 today so hopefully, I'll have some really good news in a few days.

Does the stretching of my 2 new tops look OK? They are stretched like crazy it looks like to me, but I really don't know.



See how streched those 2 new growths are? Is this OK?

SunnyJim said:

Am I right in thinking that's a 6400k (daylight) bulb? It'll do for vegging, but I use two of those during veg and two of the 2700k during flower for my single plant, although admittedly I don't have a reflector (just a ghetto one I built myself).

The plant looks ok. You can pull the dead leaves off as they're no use to the plant any more. I count a good few tops on her, so with the right lighting, you could get a decent yield for your first grow. Keep it up, dude.

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I don't think it comes with the bulb, but yeah I'll defintly grab a 6400k and 2700k, but I'm curious would just that 1 massive CFL be ok, instead of having 6 in my box? Or maybe a combination of both, using the smaller CFL's for side lightning?

I watered today and noticed those 2 tops are just getting super stretched out. Lights were damn near right on top of em, got a little burn on my fan leaves so moved light about 1 inch away. Hoping that stretching aint a big deal. The whole top of the plant is much taller than the rest of the canopy.

You are on 12-12, they are going to stretch big time and quickly! It is the hardest time to use CFLs. I am luckly in that I work from home. There are times when I have raised the lights 3x in a single day during early flower so that I can keep them close. Plant will at least double in the first few weeks of flower.

GrowinDad said:

You are on 12-12, they are going to stretch big time and quickly! It is the hardest time to use CFLs. I am luckly in that I work from home. There are times when I have raised the lights 3x in a single day during early flower so that I can keep them close. Plant will at least double in the first few weeks of flower.

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I think I screwed up after topping and had the lights to far away, because they are stretched before I went 12/12. It's like a whole new stalk, it's so long. But yeah, I'm having trouble with keeping the lights close due to the top of the plant being so much taller than the rest of the canopy. Thinking about pulling those tops down to even the canopy out.

Look up supercropping. It helped me out. The problem I had trying tiw down is that they get so much taller, that to tie them down requires lifting lights so the tops still fit under the hood (mine is the standard that angles down on the sides).

Burnt a top with a CFL today while I was at work. Bummer, it was one of the 2 main tops from when I topped the plant. Was so burnt it just crumbled to the touch, was all brown/white. I took off all the burnt stuff and I guess I'll see what happens, hopefully it'll grow back? Either way, it sucks. Real disappointed with that.

I noticed today there are 2 orange hairs at every internode, strange I can't find anything about it when I look it up. I still can't tell if it's male or female and it's been on 12/12 for a week now.

Here's some pics for anyone still interested, from yesterday or the day before, I can't remember. I tied down the tops that were getting so stretched with some copper wire. It looks like it worked good besides the burning I got today.

View attachment 2682829View attachment 2682830View attachment 2682831

And here's some pics from today when I found the burns.
View attachment 2682838

I had the same thing happen to my plant after I topped it, it grew real long cuz my lights were too far away. But just make sure you tie the branches down and you'll be ok. My plant looks lanky and I accidentally split it a tiny bit in the middle right where I topped.

OopsCake said:

I had the same thing happen to my plant after I topped it, it grew real long cuz my lights were too far away. But just make sure you tie the branches down and you'll be ok. My plant looks lanky and I accidentally split it a tiny bit in the middle right where I topped.

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Yeah man, I went ahead and pulled them down. Worked pretty good as far as evening the canopy out. Just blows I burnt one of the tops, I'm thinking now though that will split into 2 new tops? I'm not really sure.

Well, I've got good news! It's a girl! Yay. Got white pistils growing.

Also bad news, burned another top! Noo.

Tired of messing with this rubbermaid box, it's a huge pain in the ass to check the plant, have to re-duct tape the seam every time I want to check the plant and I cant really get a good look at how far the plant is from the lights. So I'm going to drop some money on a Secret Jardin 60 or a Grow Lab 60, not decided yet, but definitely going to get one asap. Thinking about going with a 150w HPS also so I don't have to worry about keeping the damn lights so close to the plant - I'm sick of opening my box and seeing burnt leaves.

Growing in really tight spaces is a total pain in the ass; the constant niggly maintenance can suck the fun out of the growing process.

I don't have an HPS setup, so I'm not in any position to comment, but 150w seems a little low. If you're going to invest in HPS, why not go 250, or even 400w? I'm not sure the heat output will be significantly higher, but the results will be significantly better I'm sure.

SunnyJim said:

Growing in really tight spaces is a total pain in the ass; the constant niggly maintenance can suck the fun out of the growing process.

I don't have an HPS setup, so I'm not in any position to comment, but 150w seems a little low. If you're going to invest in HPS, why not go 250, or even 400w? I'm not sure the heat output will be significantly higher, but the results will be significantly better I'm sure.

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I was thinking about 150w because I've seen grows using the same 2x2x5 tent I plan on buying with 150w HPS do fine with 2 plants. I was thinking about trying to do 2 plants at once next time. That and $$, the 150w systems are cheaper.

Now you got me thinking though.

I think I'm going to go with a 400w HPS. Use a MH bulb for veg and a HPS bulb for flower or get a CFL setup for veg and switch to the HPS for flower. Still researching it all.

I had a bunch of yellow fan leaves on the underside, so I just plucked them off.

1 thing that has me thinking now is my 2 main fan leaves, the biggest ones on the plant - have turned yellow and even started to brown in some spots. I read it's normal for your lower leaves to yellow off during flowering but I might have an issue with the 2 bigger ones.

Any advice for that? Should I cut em off? Here's some pics. It's actually 4 fan leaves, all the main big ones in the middle. Some are more yellow than others, but all are showing signs of yellow. All have a slight brown color in their stems connecting to the main stalk.

We're on Day 14 of flower in the following pics.



Here's a few shots of where I burnt 2 tops, it looks like it's growing new stuff where they got burnt off. I don't know why I can't get my camera to focus on things I want it to.. the burnt areas are all blurry but you can get the idea I think.

I think a MH/HPS setup is the way forward, assuming you have sufficient space and cooling to accommodate it.

It isn't abnormal for fan leaves (especially the lower ones when growing with CFL) to slowly die off. However, if it isn't just the lower leaves dying, that might be symptomatic of other plant issues you're having.

Can you post pics?

SunnyJim said:

I think a MH/HPS setup is the way forward, assuming you have sufficient space and cooling to accommodate it.

It isn't abnormal for fan leaves (especially the lower ones when growing with CFL) to slowly die off. However, if it isn't just the lower leaves dying, that might be symptomatic of other plant issues you're having.

Can you post pics?

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I think after doing alot of reading yesterday, that I'm going to get a 400w HPS setup with a 2x2x5 tent. I'm going to use a Hortilux bulb, some super HPS bulb that does both spectrum and can be used in veg and flower - just 1 single bulb. I'll get a 4" inline fan, a real fan not a duct booster. Only thing I'm still up in the air about really at this point (unless someone can offer some better advice) is the reflector. Not sure if I should get a cool tube or not... leaning towards yes since 400w in a 2x2 space I'd imagine would get pretty heated.

http://www.amazon.com/Hortilux-HX66620-400-Watt-Enhanced-Spectrum/dp/B00598GSVS/ref=sr_1_2?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1370700016&sr=1-2 That right there is the bulb I'm looking at.

Still shopping around for a reflector and a 400w ballast. It'll take a couple weeks for me to afford all of this, so I've got time to research and look around.

Check out my previous post for pics - I edited it to include pictures of the yellowing issues.

Here's some pictures after discovering the macro function on my camera.

Looking great man ! I think I'm as excited as you about your first grow!! As I just started mine....

Day 16 Flower