First Grow

Hello everybody. Like many others I am a brand new grower. This first grow I have started with bag seeds I found at the bottom of my stash, I have quite a few! I started then off in styrofoam cups and started them outdoors. One inclement weather day I brought them in and don’t plan on putting them back out. I am in the south and it is dry heat time. Sun already cooked one of my seedlings. So I will be using a 4x2x5 tent, 4in in-line fan and filter off of Amazon, 240w QB LED( with MeanWell driver and Samsung LM301b’s). I will also run two desk fans in the tent for air circulation. I am using Kellogg’s organic soil and when they get transplanted they will be getting Dr Earth Veg blend during Veg and Dr Earth Flower Girl in flower. I collect rain water so I use that for watering. My seedlings are 15 days old and just waiting for equipment to get here to get everything setup. Enjoy and please any advice or constructive criticism is welcome. Anything to help me get better. Enjoy.

They look OK so far. Only thing I would suggest is patience. I barely look at mine for first few weeks I know you want check on them and see them grow and they will. Keep it simple and learn what they need

After reading a ton I think I’m gonna transfer these into 2.5gal pots. Do you think they will big enough?

curious618 said:

After reading a ton I think I’m gonna transfer these into 2.5gal pots. Do you think they will big enough?

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No, don't do that until they are ready to be transplanted. They are in the very early stages right now and are growing out their roots. If you transplant them now you can very easily damage the roots and stunt them.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

No, don't do that until they are ready to be transplanted. They are in the very early stages right now and are growing out their roots. If you transplant them now you can very easily damage the roots and stunt them.

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Oh no I for sure wasn’t going to transplant them for a while. Rule of thumb I’ve seen is once the leaves real reach the side of the cup and the soil becomes harder. That right?

curious618 said:

Oh no I for sure wasn’t going to transplant them for a while. Rule of thumb I’ve seen is once the leaves real reach the side of the cup and the soil becomes harder. That right?

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Yes, that's correct. If you have the space in your tent then I would recommend going with 5 gal pots as your final container size. I used to go straight from cup to 5 gal pot but the plants will grow better if you do at least one additional transplant between then. The plants I have in veg for this years outdoor grow went from cups to 0.75gal, to 1.5gal, and then into 5gal. When they go outside I'm just going to cut the bottom off the 5 gal pots and put them in raised beds.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

Yes, that's correct. If you have the space in your tent then I would recommend going with 5 gal pots as your final container size. I used to go straight from cup to 5 gal pot but the plants will grow better if you do at least one additional transplant between then. The plants I have in veg for this years outdoor grow went from cups to 0.75gal, to 1.5gal, and then into 5gal. When they go outside I'm just going to cut the bottom off the 5 gal pots and put them in raised beds.

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My tent is 4x2x5 I think 4 5gal pots might be pushing it, I don’t know though. The whole transplant thing makes me super nervous. I don’t wanna mess anything up! I’m going to try and cut the bottom off the styrofoam cups and drop them in. If I chose, would the 2.5G pots be big enough to finish in? And...I have many more seeds I can toy with, they’re all bag seeds.

curious618 said:

My tent is 4x2x5 I think 4 5gal pots might be pushing it, I don’t know though. The whole transplant thing makes me super nervous. I don’t wanna mess anything up! I’m going to try and cut the bottom off the styrofoam cups and drop them in. If I chose, would the 2.5G pots be big enough to finish in? And...I have many more seeds I can toy with, they’re all bag seeds.

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The 2.5gal pots would probably be fine if you flipped them to flower quicker. You could also go with 3gal or 4gal pots. Those both are usually less than 11" wide.

curious618 said:

I’m going to try and cut the bottom off the styrofoam cups and drop them in.

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Don't do this. The whole point of transplanting is to get the roots to spread out horizontally. Just let the soil get pretty dry before you transplant and it will slide right out of the cup. You may have press in gently on the bottom and sides, to get it to loosen up, but then it will slide right out.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

The 2.5gal pots would probably be fine if you flipped them to flower quicker. You could also go with 3gal or 4gal pots. Those both are usually less than 11" wide.

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How soon would you think I’d need to flip. Like I said they’re 15 days now. My original target was 45 days of veg, 45-60 of flower. I have no idea if those are good time frames.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

Don't do this. The whole point of transplanting is to get the roots to spread out horizontally. Just let the soil get pretty dry before you transplant and it will slide right out of the cup. You may have press in gently on the bottom and sides, to get it to loosen up, but then it will slide right out.

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Ok cool will do.

curious618 said:

How soon would you think I’d need to flip. Like I said they’re 15 days now. My original target was 45 days of veg, 45-60 of flower. I have no idea if those are good time frames.

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I consider 4 weeks of veg an early flip. Flower is probably going to be a lot longer than 45-60 days. A lot of strains I've grown seem to not be ready for a minimum of 8-9 weeks in flower and some have gone as long as 11-12 weeks in flower.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

I consider 4 weeks of veg an early flip. Flower is probably going to be a lot longer than 45-60 days. A lot of strains I've grown seem to not be ready for a minimum of 8-9 weeks in flower and some have gone as long as 11-12 weeks in flower.

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I gotcha. Man they are tiny tiny right now at 2 weeks, do you think they’re going to take off in the next 2 and be tall enough to flower?

curious618 said:

I gotcha. Man they are tiny tiny right now at 2 weeks, do you think they’re going to take off in the next 2 and be tall enough to flower?

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They aren't in veg yet, they are still in the seedling stage. So, when I say "4 weeks of veg", I mean 4 weeks from when the first multi-fingered leave are out. I usually start counting veg onse those are out and the next set has just started emerging. Those look like the first set of muti-fingered leaves are emerging now, so I would personally consider mine as starting veg once those leaves are grown out and the next set starts emerging.

This is what mine look after the first week of veg.

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

They aren't in veg yet, they are still in the seedling stage. So, when I say "4 weeks of veg", I mean 4 weeks from when the first multi-fingered leave are out. I usually start counting veg onse those are out and the next set has just started emerging. Those look like the first set of muti-fingered leaves are emerging now, so I would personally consider mine as starting veg once those leaves are grown out and the next set starts emerging.

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Oh ok I gotcha! Learn more everyday. Good so they will start veg right when they new light gets here probably.

This is obviously far down the line but is it beneficial at all to have additional lighting during flower to help boost the yield?

curious618 said:

This is obviously far down the line but is it beneficial at all to have additional lighting during flower to help boost the yield?

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Flowering requires more light than veg. The light you bought looks like it is fine for veg but they only recommend it for flower in a 3x3 tent.

So you think I would probably need another 40-60 watts during flower? Or more?

TreeFarmerCharlie said:

Flowering requires more light than veg. The light you bought looks like it is fine for veg but they only recommend it for flower in a 3x3 tent.

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You know a ton more than I do at this point but the description says veg for 3x4 and flower is 2x4( size of my tent). That a gimmick like the wattage is sometimes?