Ghosteh's first time. Comments and tips welcome!

Hello everyone. I'm a newcomer to RIU and have started my first grow recently. It's currently in a temporary setup under the counter and a new veg box is being made with a nice, large flowering room planned out for when we need it. Here's the current setup:

Soil
#1 Miracle Gro
#2 Miracle Gro Organic

Seeds
Random mids bag seed

Lights
4x26w 6500k CFL
1x42w 2700k CFL

Air
1x10" Box fan (circulation)
There's also a larger box fan (like a window fan) that is not shown in pictures but runs as an exhaust.

I have a camera phone so there aren't many great pictures yet, however, I'll post the ones I have and try to keep them updated. Here's what I do have:


12/03 - #1 (4 days old)

make sure you have drain holes on the bottom of those cups...get those lights closer, about 3'' from the plant. for flower Id reccomend a 150W HPS at least.

12/12 - #1 (13 days) and #2 (9 days)


#1






#2


Comments are welcome! I feel like #2 is coming along nicely. #1 now has it's first new node with a nice solid, thick green stalk coming out of it and now I just hope it perks back up. This is my first time so I hope the mistakes aren't too bad and that everything turns out alright! Thanks in advance and I hope everyone enjoys!

SmokeyMcSmokester said:

make sure you have drain holes on the bottom of those cups...get those lights closer, about 3'' from the plant. for flower Id reccomend a 150W HPS at least.

Click to expand...

There's drain holes in the bottom and sides of the cup in some places. I did have the lights closer but the 1x42w 2700k bulb seems to dry out the soil and be a little too much for the plants right there so we moved it back. I've been thinking of replacing it with 2x26w 6500k bulbs and moving them closer again since those don't dry things out. You think I should?

you wanna use the 6500K daylight bulbs for veg...use the 2700 for flower

here is a link to a cheap 150w HPS

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EFamily.asp

look under vapor tights

SmokeyMcSmokester said:

here is a link to a cheap 150w HPS

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EFamily.asp

look under vapor tights

Click to expand...

Thanks man. I've seen that one before and might check into it. I've thought of using one of those for vegging if I could find a 6500k bulb for it since my new veg box will be 4' tall x 2' deep x 3' wide and have good ventilation to it. For vegging, I'm planning on eventually having 2x600w HPS and am looking at a deal on a 400w right now.

And I appreciate the posts.

well shit go big baby!!! Im getting a 600 as soon as santa gets his fat ass here

For sure. I'm planning on running a perpetual SOG (possibly) or just letting them grow nice due to having space. The flower room is approximately 7' wide x 2.5' deep x 8' tall and I'm planning to have 2x600w HPS in there (one for each 3.5'x2.5' square) but definitely won't need them here.

I did just change the lights from 4x26w 6500k and 1x42w 2700k to 6x26w 6500k and lowered the lights a little. Is the light change going to stress them any?

I also decided that even though I"m in the country (on well water) that I'd take a big pot full of tap water and sit it out under the cabinet the plants are in so it can settle and be used for easier watering.

yup let that water sit...you wanna adjust the pH to about 6.5.

I need a PPM and PH meter badly. Going to try and pick those up soon, possibly before I build the veg box.

12/13 (#1 14 days and #2 10 days)



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#1



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#2





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This morning we found that #2 grew two new fingers and looks bigger than it did last night. #1 looks like it has a few nodes already. The plants are still really short but I feel like they'll spring up in due time. As long as they are making new growth and more leaves or stalk then I'm cool, but my brother seems to think the lights are too close and they should be taller.

Opinions?

12/15 (#1 16 days and #2 12 days)



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#1









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#2





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The bottom set of leaves on #1 started showing some yellow on their tips yesterday. I think it was possibly due to overwatering. So we are altering the watering back to once a day to overflow and if it doesn't spring back up in a few days then I'm going to trim those bottom leaves so the energy goes to creating new growth.

#2 is continuing to impress me.

12/17 (#1 18 days and #2 14 days)





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#1





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#2





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It's definitely time to build a new grow box! I transplanted into 3 gallon pots today and that space is absolutely cramped. The new soil mixture is approximately 37.5% MG Organic Potting Soil / 40% Organic Mushroom Compost / 10% Spaghnum Peat Moss / 12.5% Perlite and I'm excited. It better work well since all the soil I bought today (to last me for a while) cost me close to 35-40$ altogether!

#1 is looking nice. It's at five nodes now and has nice five fingered leaves. I removed the very bottom set of leaves and milk leaves since they were yellowing and I wanted the plant to focus more on growth than maintaining dead leaves.

#2 is bushy and has nice fat leaves. It's growing strong and I expect it to start exploding soon.

Any questions? Comments? Please post them!

You are off to a great start Ghosteh. Keep on growing.

Here's a couple of pictures. There's been few updates lately, but the plants are starting to blow up and are on growth spurts. #2 (the baby) has surpassed #1 by far and in the past three days I've needed to move my lights up twice and am now needing to move them somewhere more spacious. I'll update with a digital camera later:

12/26 (#1 27 days and #2 23 days)




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#2

looking good Ghosteh
nice and green, decent node spacing
how long ya rekon till you start 12/12?

Gonna be taking a cutting or two off the larger (but younger) one soon and going 12/12 straight from root to sex it.

They are growing right up there.

Hope Santa got you some more lights.
.

Earl said:

They are growing right up there.

Hope Santa got you some more lights.
.

Click to expand...

He didn't. But I'm working on it! This first grow is on a bit of a budget for lights and vegging since I'm going to be spending the light fund on HPS for flowering once I clone. I do have some extra CFL lights laying around but didn't have space under the cabinet. It's being moved to a 3.5x3.5x6.5 shower though so I'll be able to add some extra CFL lights on the sides. Probably will be something like 2x26w 6500k and 2x42w 2700k being added for a total of... 292w. It's only going to be right at 30w/sq. foot but that'll improve eventually. Clones won't be spending much time in veg, so mainly the lights are for the mothers.