First Time Grow....Looking for Advice

hello all.
I'm growning 10 big bud plants. I have done quite a bit of research and have spent the last month putting together a grow room and the plants were started 23 days ago.

I am trying to do a strictly organic grow. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am using the following:
1 400 w MH for veg
1 400 w hps for flowering
240 cfm intake
240 cfm exhuast ducted through light reflector.
soil mix is 75% organic mix w/ 25% worm castings.

I had an initial issue w/ heat on plants at about 1wk in. the mh was about 18 inches away and burned/curled the leaves. i raised the light to about 24 inches now and they seem to be fine.

Temp is about 75 deg. and hum is about 30

I have one plant that seems to be missing a chromosome....it keeps producing deformed leaves...check out the pics.

i'm getting ready to repot the plants this weekend....at this time i am going to check the ph. currently havn't been checking the ph of the water or the soil.

check out the pics of the setup and plants and any advice would help.

i'll be adding pics soon

pics of set up and plants at day 20.

doing an organic grow. have been having problems w/ temperature fluctuations as of late. going to add an air conditioner. I'm getting ready to transplant to 3 gallon containers. I purchased 10 Big Bud seeds (non fem). I found this to be my first mistake. should have got fems to start. if anyone has grown this strain or has some insight on soil growning/organic drop me a message and let me know what you think.
thanks

cloning is the best way to save money , you can buy femenised seeds then you only need to plant two and you can at least 6 clones outta each

Plants look great and the setup is super clean! Good job! Looks like one of them is kind of deformed, I have never seen one grow like that, with the leaves so messed up, it might be genetic or something. Keep posting pics!

ok. here are some more pics. these are from day 26.

alright.... things seem to be running smooth w/ this grow.

all 10 plants were transplanted today to bigger pots. used a mix of 30% potting soil, 30% compost, 30% worm castings, and 10% perlite. one 400w mh is running 24/0 for the rest of the veg cycle. watering every 3/4 days. started adding worm castings in w/ the water to make a tea. added a air conditioner unit this weekend. currently have the temp stable at 79% and humidity of 40%.

any advice and or comments would be appreciated. i'm trying to do this organic. the next grow i'm going to build an aero system.

this is big bud strain..... getting excited about trying some other strains. want to try some mazaar and other strains....trying to find some that are high thc + good yield.

Hey there, first of all, very nice growroom, it looks like you did your research and didn't spare trouble or expense to set up that space.

So, if i'm reading this right, you are running lights 24/7 with no darkness? I wouldn't advice that. I was just surfing on the net looking for photosynthesis behaviour, why do plants need darkness. I didn't come across a clear answer since some plants do their chemical reactions in all light while others do it in light and darkness. But i trust mother nature to be specific on having night and day cycles, i bet if you would compare your plants with the same plants that have dark and light cycles, that the second bunch would grow better, simple as that, nevertheless they look healthy and i'm just speculating.

If i can give you ONE good pointer, it's that (in my experience) checking and balancing your water/soil ph makes a world of difference. I don't use a ph meter but i know by observing my plants that my ph is off by even a milliliter (0.0003 gallons) of ph-adjuster too much or not enough on 5 liters (1.3gallons) of water (leaves start hanging droopy after watering if it's off), and the rate of growth, for veg as well as for bloom, is seriously affected by this. So try to keep an eye on that asap

Make sure you have a window open somewhere to supply fresh air constantly for this will allso seriously affect plant growth if not available, but like i said before, they look healthy so for all i know that's already been taken care of

I will keep my eye on this grow, i have a grow that i just started witht he same lighting at day 11 from seed.

hey cbgreen,

thanks for the insight..... i appreciate it!

i will look into the lighting....and i definitely need to check on my water/soil ph.

I have included a active intake fan to draw in clean air from the outside.

i think that i am going to build a veg chamber within the grow room space. have it completely sealed so there will be no light pollution to the flowing plants. and using cfls for veg to keep the heat down. we'll see how it turns out.

hey that's a great idea, i've been thinking the exact same thing for the last couple of days, i would like to keep a motherplant to prevent having to buy or looking for seed every time. Saves time as well.

hey cb green.....

yea.... i worked on a design today. that seems to be the way to go. i'll post some pictures once i get it built.

i can't wait to see them cuz i'm curious how you're gonna fix the airflow and keep it light tight at the same time

hey cbgreen.....

yea.... i'm concerned w/ the light Pollution aspect. I'll get something figured out. i'll let you know what idea i come up w/ and eventually photos.

day 32 pics. let me know what you think....

Looking good, and hey, i've been reading up on lighting 24/7, appearantly in veg stage it does make your plants grow faster.

So I noticed how the one little one is, kinda deformed. Well I planted 6 grandaddy seeds, and one of them did the same thing... or even more deformed. After about the 3rd set of nodes it started growing normal, but still have the crazy leaves. Whats this caused by? Just stress... or bad germination?? Anyways, your room looks nice! Should be some bomb!!! Good luck!

Also, on the 24/7 lighting, I did alot of research as well before I started growing. I started them on 24/7 but after reading alot into it, basically this is what I got outta it. Leaving your lights on 24/7 will make the plant grow bigger, but makes for weak roots. It needs down time to put the energy it has in it to grow to its maximum potential. Alot of people said they do 18/6, others said just an hour of lights off. I decided to go 20/4 and it seemd to make my plants stronger, and now even bigger. But this is just one mans thoughts. haha Cant wait to see the finished product!

cb and suicide.....

yea.... i've heard both sides of the lighting issue....not sure what is the best route. I'm going to stick w/ the 24/0 for the rest of the veg cycle on this batch, but maybe tweek it a bit on the next grow to see how they react.

i don't think the "mutant" plant w/ odd number of leaves was due to poor germination or stress.? not sure though. I guess i thought it was just a genentic issue. i guess the only way to check that would be to clone the plant and see how it turns out. But then again....i don't want to waste resouces on a defect.

thanks again for your guys coments.....

btw, no early signs of sexing yet? around this time you should be able to see something with some plants.