First Grow - Western Winds & Power Skunk

My first grow - I'm starting with a small grow of three plants. I want to find out what can go wrong before planting a more efficient crop. I'm not looking for a huge yield anyway...just a steady good quality supply for my own modest use.

After eight days, so far so good. I've planted 2 Western Winds and 1 power Skunk into Soil Mix. My grow room is in the basement in a Secret Jardin 4 x 4 tent. 400 W of MH light with a convertible ballast (will change to a Hortilux HPS bulb for flowering.)

I've started the seeds in 4 inch pots and plan to move to 3 gallon pots when the roots are through the bottom.

So far my biggest issue has been figuring out temps...I'm located in IL where the temps have been below freezing outside and near 60 in my basement. The tent is great since it warms up with the MH light (on 24 hours). When the temps at the soil went to the high 80s I bought an inline 6" fan and thermostat from Home D....now I can maintain temps at soil level right at 80 degrees.

Other equipment: a remote thermometer and a radio shack thermo/humidity meter. I have not bought nutrients yet...I just gave these babies a little MG to start. I'm still sorting through the nutrient info before I pick one.

I have not done anything with ph yet, either measurement wise or control.

A few photos attached: the first is after 4 days and the last is today, at 8 days.

Any tips, advice or comments are much appreciated.

peace.

Another photo attached at Day#12 (today). Things look good. Since this is my first grow I'm not sure what bad looks like but I do know green is good.

A few more details:

My watering schedule is what I use on any potted plant that likes water: wait until the top of the soil is dry and water thoroughly. So far I've watered three times....about every three days. On the first watering I added Miracle Grow using the suggested dilution for houseplants (1 t per gallon). I eliminated the MG for the last two waterings. I'll bring it back into the water when the plants really start to bush out....probably in another 2 weeks. This is by feel...while I've never grown MJ I have been growing all kinds of things successfully for 25 years. I'll use what I've learned there on my first crop (as well as all the useful stuff on RIU.)

One thing I do need soon is a ph meter. I've read and re-read posts on this topic and am not sure what I should get. Do those $40 or so meters work well enough?

I moved my light away from the plants this morning. Everything is going well except I noticed a bit of leaf curling up on one of the girls. My hunch is too much light, especially given how short the plants are. These are sativas and should be stretching out a little in the long run.

Also I watered with MG again. I really need to get a ph meter ASAP so I know what I'm putting in the soil.

It's Day 14.

I'll post some updated photos later.

Notice the yellow spot and slight leaf curlup here. I'm not worried about the yellow spot...it's been there since the beginning and there is only one on 3 plants.

Leaf curlup is prob cuz of the light, take clones from her, u wont have the prob anymore..

yellow spot, could be if u added some nutes... but as u say nothing to worry about

yea man, lookin good. post some pix in a week again

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm a complete noob on here and its great to get some encouragement.

FWIW, by far RIU is the best forum I've ever been involved in, both in the depth of the coverage on issues and also the helpful attitude of the community. It's a great resource and I appreciate it.

Looking good!

Here are pics at 19 days. Things are looking good though the plants are not completely stress free. A couple days ago the leaf curlup was getting worse and the tips of the leaves on top were a little yellow. My hunch was heat stress so I moved the light up higher. Based on the spacing between nodes I have no worries about too little light so I'll try going higher for a while. Today the plants look a little better than yesterday (see pics).

Also I added a circulating fan yesterday which goes on for two hours every 4 hours or so.

I finally bought a PH and TDS meter. My local grow shop talked me into a better PH meter (the large Hanna) based on their experience with the small meters' electrodes wearing out. I hate the upselling thing but I bit off on the more expensive instrument ($85).

The good news is I got away cheap ($20) on a TDS meter...they just received new inexpensive TDS meters and suggested I try one.

I'm debating between a) growing the 3 seed plants into mothers and then using clones to harvest my first crop or b) letting the 3 mothers go to flower and cloning them to start a perpetual hydro harvest.

In the long run I want a soilless system which produces a modest amount of a variety of bud. Perhaps 4 varieties at a time with average yields of an ounce or two each month. I've decided to go with Stinkbud's system (aero cloner, aero veg unit and NFT flowering system) on a scaled down version. (see Stinkbud thread https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html ).

I'll post pics of my Hydro grow stuff soon.

So far so good

I also changed to a 4 hours off 20 hours on cycle. I think the 24 hour on bit may be a bit much for these babies.

EdsGarden said:

I also changed to a 4 hours off 20 hours on cycle. I think the 24 hour on bit may be a bit much for these babies.

Click to expand...

I personally stick to 18/6 for my seedlings under a 400w MH.

After reading RIU posts for months and now in Day 23 of my first grow, I have hunch about what causes issues with us new growers. It's over tweaking. I'm no different...everyday I want to try something a little different to improve the grow conditions (even if my plants look fine). More water, less water, different nutes, add a fan, add some humidity, change the light cycle, etc. No worries, but it is a funny piece of human behavior.

A couple days ago I went with messycan's suggestion and moved to 18/6 . It makes so much more sense to me to keep the light as natural as possible. The plants DO seem a little less stressed, though leaves are wanting to curl every which way (sometimes a little up, sometimes a little down.)

Also I changed over to HPS from MH. I am using the Son Agro 430W bulb with extra grow spectrum. I'm thinking I am a week or two away from switching to flowering and 12/12.

A also added a small humidifier and a circulating fan to the tent. The humidity dropped to 23% when our outside temps were near 20 below; that needed adjusting. I put the fan and humidifier on a simple timer...they go on for an hour or two 4 times a day. Now the humidity is between 40 and 60% and the plants have a little motion to them when the fan comes on. Good addition I think.

More pics below.

Here is a photo of my flowering unit. It's based on the design by Stinkbud, scaled down to fit in a Secret Jardin DR120 tent. It can hold 8 plants total (right now I have space for 4).

Photo 2 shows the seedlings in soil; I'm waiting another two weeks or so to clone these mothers (hopefully at least 2 females) and I'll plant the rooted/vegged clones in the Hydro system.

I transplanted to larger pots last night. All is going well but I was not overly impressed with the roots systems in the 4 inch pots. Compared to what I see in Hydro grows, these roots were somewhat fine.

Still deciding how to proceed: Do I clone these and keep them vegging as mothers? Or do I flower these and start a perpetual cloning cycle. My goal is to preserve whatever genetics I have (once I determine I like the smoke)...but I also foresee times when I might want to chill from the perpetual grow cycle. I'm leaning toward always keeping a few mothers in soil.

The Western Winds are the plants with the "fatter" leaves. The Super Skunk is a bit lankier with skinny leaves.

These puppies are showing lots of new growth every day. They look great.

Today I noticed what appears to be balls growing on one of the nodes of the Skunk. Since this is my first grow, I'm not too sure about it (pic attached.) I know its early and I'll wait until I am 100% sure but......

I have a feeling I'm going to regret only planting 3 seeds.

So I'm freaking a little about the possibility of males ...and I started 4 more seeds, just in case. 2 Western Winds, 1 Power Skunk and 1 Feminized Diesel (G13 Labs). The Power Skunk and Fem Diesel were freebies from Attitude Seed Bank. I like those folks.

Oh....and Mandala Seeds sent me an email saying they received my cash. I ordered Kalichakra , Mandala #1 and Eight Miles High from them. They are a cash only seed bank and I felt it was 50/50 whether they would actually received the green sent via US Mail. So far so good; now let's see if I get the seeds.

ohh man diesel is one of my favourtie strains. so nice, such a good clear headed happy high.

plants are looking great now man.
how's the new seedlings??