First time grow! Need advice...

Hey guys and gals,
This is my first grow, don't wanna spend a lot of money, but i definitely wanna be smart, and not cheap by any means.
Seed spent 5 days in dark drawer, inside a plastic baggie, wrapped in a wet paper towel.
After 5 days i put the budding seed an inch and a half deep in a solo cup, and yesterday, the 10th day after planting, i put it in the big pot. The seed took 2 days to pop out of the soil is that bad?

Here's my setup:
soil: first 10 days in a solo cup with a mix of miracle gro organic and miracle gro moisture control. Yesterday i put it in the pot with a mix of the miracle gro organic and some real good organic top soil.
lights: two 150 watt fluorescent bulbs with reflective cones. (should I get more as the plant grows?)
light cycle: first 7 days i used 20/4 but i went on vacation and didnt invest in a timer so it spent the last 4 days on 24 hours a day (should i go back to the 20/4? Or is it ok to do 24 hours a day?)
Watering: I've given it 1/2 cup water every other day (need advice on how much that should increase now that its in a bigger pot and as it grows!)
Fertilizer: Alaska fish emulsion 5-1-1 i did 1/8 tsp in 1/2 cup water on day 6 (Need advice on when to fertilize again and what to use in the next stages of growth!)

Does it look healthy? Any advice is appreciated!

24/7 is fine, in fact they will grow a bit faster. More light is always good. Color looks light but that could be strain or photo or... looks good so far. I add feed and fert to every watering in my soil grow. SuperThrive is good stuff with any fert. I water by run-off. I try to keep around 15-25% run-off. meaning 1 quart in and about 1 cup should drip out. adjust as the plant drinks more or less. Most people advise water every 3 days. I'm just starting to try that myself and have some nice plants on 2 days schedule. Check the FAQ area of this site for TONS of basic info.

i am not trying to call you a liar by any means, just wanted to make that clear. but you say you're using (2) 150watt fluorescent bulbs.. can you please go and re-read the box that these bulbs came in very carefully? the pic of the young plant want to tell me that your bulbs are the "equivalent" of 150 watts each, and not the "actual" wattage. i could be wrong, but i think its worth a check.
good luck!

As long as it poped out of the soil its good .... you may find a plant will sometimes slow foliage growth while the roots grow.
Inch .5 may be a litlle deep.For future ref.
Some people .. no alot of people dont like mirical grow
More lights yes but cfl can get a little hotter than tubes . get a few thermometers and put them around to keep up w/temps.

I didnt get anymore out of 24 vs. 18/6 .Plants grow and drink nutes with lights off the natural way , Go with 18/6 veg 12/12 flower
You should have at least one control pot/cup... fill a cup with medium exactly the way u did so far only no plant ... water it the exact same way u water the plants .this way you can stick your finger in it or whaever and not hurt any plants .In a perfect world .. use clear solocups... 2 ,one inside the other , the outer one cover w/foil tape and grow in the inner one . U can even put the sprout along the side of the cup instead of the center so you can see root progress.

mcinnc said:

i am not trying to call you a liar by any means, just wanted to make that clear. but you say you're using (2) 150watt fluorescent bulbs.. can you please go and re-read the box that these bulbs came in very carefully? the pic of the young plant want to tell me that your bulbs are the "equivalent" of 150 watts each, and not the "actual" wattage. i could be wrong, but i think its worth a check.
good luck!

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Here are pictures of my light set up... I already threw away the packaging, I could look at the base to see but that takes a lot of effort

I add feed and fert to every watering in my soil grow.

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The bottle of alaska says only fertilize ever 3 weeks, I thought I was being dangerous by dropping that to every 2. Are you sure its safe to use a 5-1-1 every 3 days? Or should I just like super dilute it?

Put a thermometer in your control pot to keep up w/root temps .
also newbs ALWAYS know the ph of YOUR MEDIUM before you start.
o a dryrun of your grow enviroment before starting (temps,humidity ,light )

King'G' said:

Here are pictures of my light set up... I already threw away the packaging, I could look at the base to see but that takes a lot of effort



The bottle of alaska says only fertilize ever 3 weeks, I thought I was being dangerous by dropping that to every 2. Are you sure its safe to use a 5-1-1 every 3 days? Or should I just like super dilute it?

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Ive never done a soil grow but i would definitely watch out using nutes with MG, From what i understand if you overwater too many nutes will get released and you could get burn, esp on a young plant.

romano said:

Put a thermometer in your control pot to keep up w/root temps .
also newbs ALWAYS know the ph of YOUR MEDIUM before you start.
o a dryrun of your grow enviroment before starting (temps,humidity ,light )

Click to expand...

Got a pH tester for 12 bucks at the MAYO down the street from my apt, the pH of the solo cup was 6.2 and the pH now is like 6.3 in the big pot.

Will buy a thermometer today... where should I keep it? 70-75 degrees? And what if I discover its too hot? What can I do that will lower the temp around the plant? I mean the temp in my apartment is set at 68...

You shouldn't have to give it any fert at all for at least another 2 weeks. Actually, you shouldn't have gave it any fert yet, because that soil has plenty to sustain them til around week 3, buy itself. I hope you don't get any fert burn. The temp for veg can get up as high as 85* without any problems, but 75-78* is about optimum. For bloom, try to keep it a little lower, like in the 73* range. The lights look to be plenty powerful enough, and like that other member mentioned, i doubt that they are actually 150 watts each. That would be overkill for a tiny plant like that, and might even hurt it being that close. Look on the base of the bulb and it should tell you the exact wattage.

You will be transplanting in the next two weeks, so you won't have to feed them for awhile. Aftyer the transplant, that'll buy you another 2 weeks, so you might not have to feed them at all(veg fert) if you are going to be putting them on 12/12 at that time. My main suggestion, is to add some perlite to the soil when you do the next transplant, because then you don't have to worry as much about overwatering. I use about 20% and it works great.

jawbrodt said:

You will be transplanting in the next two weeks, so you won't have to feed them for awhile. Aftyer the transplant, that'll buy you another 2 weeks, so you might not have to feed them at all(veg fert) if you are going to be putting them on 12/12 at that time. My main suggestion, is to add some perlite to the soil when you do the next transplant, because then you don't have to worry as much about overwatering. I use about 20% and it works great.

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I already transplanted the seedling from the solo cup to the larger pot... I thought I didn't have to worry about changing soil again until I was like 2 months in?
I wanna be as organic as possible in my grow... no perlite

70-75 would be good, and a small fan bowing over them and the lights would be good to strengthen stems and keep it cool too! if you wanna see what it looks like when you dont have a fan look in my sig lol

King'G' said:

I already transplanted the seedling from the solo cup to the larger pot... I thought I didn't have to worry about changing soil again until I was like 2 months in?
I wanna be as organic as possible in my grow... no perlite

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Ahhh, I thought it was still in the cup. Yeah, you won't have to worry about transplanting for awhile, maybe not at all if the pot is 2 gallons or bigger. Hmm...no perlite? Okay, I can respect the 100% organic option. So, my next suggestion is to add some gravel or something similar, instead of the perlite. Drainage is quite important, so I'd definitely consider it. Just make sure you use something that is 'PH neutral' because i used marble stone chips(PH over 8.0) one time and almost killed everything.LOL


EDIT: If you can't find anything to replace the perlite, use some of those rocks that people use for hydro. They sell them at any hydro shop, and will be much better than nothing at all.

jawbrodt said:

Ahhh, I thought it was still in the cup. Yeah, you won't have to worry about transplanting for awhile, maybe not at all if the pot is 2 gallons or bigger. Hmm...no perlite? Okay, I can respect the 100% organic option. So, my next suggestion is to add some gravel or something similar, instead of the perlite. Drainage is quite important, so I'd definitely consider it. Just make sure you use something that is 'PH neutral' because i used marble stone chips(PH over 8.0) one time and almost killed everything.LOL


EDIT: If you can't find anything to replace the perlite, use some of those rocks that people use for hydro. They sell them at any hydro shop, and will be much better than nothing at all.

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Thanks for the advice on drainage, but does the random sticks and stuff in the topsoil count?

Sticks and stuff are high acid .

King'G' said:

Thanks for the advice on drainage, but does the random sticks and stuff in the topsoil count?

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Yes, they help, but they are nowhere near the eqivalent of adding 15%+ perlite or some other drainage material. Some people go as high as 50%, which is overkill, but provides some awesome drainage.LOL

jawbrodt said:

Yes, they help, but they are nowhere near the eqivalent of adding 15%+ perlite or some other drainage material. Some people go as high as 50%, which is overkill, but provides some awesome drainage.LOL

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So if I go up to 20% gravel, how will that affect my watering and fertilizing routine?

yeah for future referance i would stay away from the miracle grow organic. My first couple grows used the regular miracle grow and that was okay but last time i tried some of that organic stuff and i got fert burn bad plants were stunted for like 2 weeks. You might not need to fert for even longer than 3 weeks check the bag and and see how long it will last approximately.

advice grow a couple more unless your using female seeds nothin worse than wasting all that time for a big male. Get a hps or a metal halide u can get them pretty cheap for a small one

let your tap water sit in an open container for 24 hours before watering thouroughly like people have said and than wait for the soil to dry out before watering (usually takes 2-3 days)

read the faqs