First Grow

Well, technically it's not my first grow, I've started two before, one I had to get rid of because of a living situation and the others died from overwatering/overheating (at least that's my guess).

So, this is my first grow that's hopefully gonna go through this time.
I'm kinda new to rollitup, been browsing threads for a while but haven't really made a post.
Any comments or suggestions are much appreciated, I'd like to learn as much as possible on this topic.

Here it goes

(my appologies for the lack of pictures in the beginning, I had gotten kinda discouraged from the last two grows so I didnt take pictures)

5/5/11
I planted the seed on cinco de mayo
It just went strait into the soil, no moving the seed to the soil after the root had appeared or any of that.
I put it in one of those jiffy cylinders and watered it so it was wet but not soaking.

5/12/11
This is the first picture I have of the plant. I think it was the day after I moved the jiffy cylinder into the pot it's in now.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8571/20110512174401.jpg

For soil i'm using this:
http://www.kellogggarden.com/products?brand=kellogg&category=kellogg-soils#12
The guy at home depot said it was great for growing marijuana in, he said he has used it himself.

For water i'm using reverse-osmosis water.
For the first two weeks I didn't add anything to it, and now I add one drop per spray bottle of this:
http://www.superthrive.com/gallon.html
It's more than I'm supposed to add... But I don't really have a spray bottle with a one gallon capacity and one drop is the smallest amount I can do.

5/14/11
Two days later the plant has shown some good signs of growth. I'm not a growth expert but it looks good to me.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/551/20110514120103.jpg

I have a final in 20 minutes... I'll finish this later

Looking good buddy are you using cfl lights it looks like that plant is a lil stretched out. If you could i would get a ufo led grow light from amazon or a 100 watt metal halide your grow will work out so much better trust me. Good luck growing!

Thanks Extorted,
Right now I am using a "plant light" from the home depot (looks like they have everything for growing weed lol). It's plugged into a little construction light clamp. It's like 140-150 watt I believe. I have a picture of the whole set-up below.
I would like to get a metal halide light, I have read about them before. or one of those High intensity lights... but that will be when I'm flowering. Right now I don't have the $ for that and from what I've read online a florescent light is fine for vegetative purposes. (is this true?)

5/18/11
This is four days after the last picture, you can see significant leaf growth. I over-watered here so I made up a little jigg to let the water leak out.
I was having a hard time taking a picture, think I toked a bit too much, at least as far as photography and watering goes.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9351/20110518233939.jpg
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/3857/20110518233947.jpg
http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/86/20110518234014.jpg
and here's my little light
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2986/20110518234020.jpg

5/22/11
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/15/20110522140844.jpg

5/23/11
Here you can see I put in some fertilizer. I think it's too early (maybe? its been 16 days) but the fertilizer is the kind that you are supposed to mix in with the soil, not the liquid, so I think it's going to take a while for me watering the top of it to actually soak down to the roots with the nutrition.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6206/20110523183900.jpg

Thats all I got so far, any comments much appreciated

05/26/11
Pretty happy with the growth at this point. I'm not sure at where it should be for 21 days, but this looks like a legal to drink young adult to me. Also wanted to let everyone know I am legal. This is for myself.




showing my new setup



here it is in action



Peak through shot ( glory hole ).



More shots








Progress good?

05/29/11
I built a new box for my little lady. It's basically paper taped to an empty section of a shelving unit. It's got paper taped to the cardboard for the one wall that didn't already exist. I think the last one was too small and was overheating her, even if it wasn't I didn't like it, looked like shit. Given this one does too, just .. prettier?..shit. You can see the fan at the bottom, it sucks air in from where the cardboard wall is. It's at the very bottom. The air then escapes from the opening at the top.

Also if you notice in the pictures there are some brown/tan spots on leaves. I thought that this might have something to do with the nutrients, from the pictures I've seen in other posts it looks like nutrient burn. I took all the little nutrient rocks out that were on the soil and then watered again. I did that about eight hours ago, and the plant looks better to me, I wish I had pictures from yesterday.

Hopefully the spots stop appearing, but do they go away?




Time 2 Toke

Edit:
By the way the name of this strain is Black Jack. Looking around at everyone else's threads and noticed I didnt say what the strain is lol

Alright.. Today started off pretty good... but when I came home from work I had a few problems.

First off, lets start off with the good news. The plant looks beautiful, she's growing every day it looks like. here are some new shots





Also a friend from another thread said the light might be too far, I moved it closer as you can see in the pics. My hand is at the same depth as the plant, so you can see relatively tall the plant is and how far the light is, in comparison. Normal sized hands.

Alright, now for the bad news.

1. Flies:



2. Mushrooms:



The flies seem more like a cumbersome thing to me than anything else, but I want to get rid of them, and if they might damage the plant then I need to get rid of them. The plant is in my room and I don't want to be sleeping with flies everywhere.

The mushrooms... not too sure. Bad for the plant's health? Bad for my health? I'm planning on not watering until at least 24 hours from now, so I'm hoping that might kill them.

You Have the light WAYYYY too far from the plant, that explains the extremely long stem/
I'd recommend you check out the tutorial on how to re-plant stretched stems

Really? Where it's at right now, if I put my hand at the top of the plant or relatively close to it it's quite warm. If I put my hand where the metal grill is it's actually HOT. Like uncomfortably hot. It's a 120 watt (actual) bulb.
Here is the bulb:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100195838/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Remember I just cut the distance between the plant and the bulb by half. If you check out the pictures from a few days ago and the pictures from today you will see that there is a huge difference on how close the bulb is. I'd say the bulb is anywhere from 1 to 1.5 feet away Now. Before, maybe more like 2 to 3 feet.

If you are sure, I'll move it closer, I'd just hate to see it burn up.

Wow.. spent a lot of money today.



Talked to some people at the co-op I go to, and a guy at the hydroponics store today. I got some new fertiliser. It's the kind you mix in with the water so it absorbs better.



I also got a timer for my light and I moved it a lot closer with the fan pointing right at it. This may overstress the plant but it's the best shot I got at putting some meat on this lady. I found out that the water additive I was using (super thrive) is a vitamin b1 supplement for the plant. Basically it helps the plant absorb it's nutrients and water better. Supposed to be a good "stress-releiver" for the plant, which is why it can be used as rooting hormone or in my case a sudden and sturdy gust of wind for a long period of time.




Goo (Left), Skunk (Right)


Happy smoking everybody!