Introduction and questions

Hi, So I'm here for the first time. I downloaded I Grow Chronic 3 months ago and was hooked with the idea of growing my own from that day on.

My request for advice is pretty general. I'll describe my motives, situation, and post up some pictures tomorrow(the ladies/unknowns are asleep right now.)

So, I used to drink a ton and it was killing my Pancreas. So now I smoke more and pretty much don't drink too much unless I'm out of smoke. But my connection moved out of town before I could get him to introduce me to his hook-up.

So timing of downloading that torrent was perfect. I had seeds left over from my old hookup and I started trying to sow them. Took me a while to realize that about 5 out of 6 seeds out of a bag of pot is crap... Eventually I came up with a procedure.

a) examine seed to ensure the shell is still sealed and mostly brown or black.
b) try to crush seed between the meaty part of my thumb and finger. discard if it can't take the pressure.
c) soak in water with a few drops of bleach for a day
d) put the seeds in a wet paper towel placed in a zip loc bag. left the bag slightly open and placed it on two plates stacked on a heating blanket that was on a 18/6 hour timing cycle.
e) when the stem pokes through about 1/4"-1/2" I'd gently press it into a wet rockwool cube and throw it under cool fluorescents.

Anyhow, figuring that procedure out took me a lot of seeds. But I've finally got a ton of seedlings and mature plants in the vegetative room.

I've got two plants that are full size and I've pulled clones off of them. I grew two because that's what they did in the video I Grow Chronic. But my two plants are both of the same strain. I took a sample clone from the first plant and threw it in the flowering room and pretty sure it's female. I did the same for the second plant and it may be a female.

So my first question is that if you had 2 full-sized mothers and clones from both of them, would you take one mother and throw her in the flowering room to get some bud sooner? My flowering room has a 430w HPS blue spectrum bulb and an ebb and flow system. My idea is to flower the one mother and get some experience harvesting her colas while the clones from the mothers mature in the vegetative room for the next 6-8 weeks.

I realize it's a bit of a waste to be running nutrients and lights for just one plant but with me not having a connection, I'm willing to lose some money if it would produce a bit of bud. Not sure how much I'd get out of one plant especially since I don't know what strain it came from.

Another question is, was my old hook-up selling me sensimillia? I don't think so, since it had seeds in it, right?

I've got more questions, but I thought I'd start with this.

Well it sounds like your on the right track.

Ill start off with the most urgent question. "Put one in the flowering room if they are girls." This is a tricky question without a little more info. So I guess I will give a few options.

1. They are big; 2 ft or taller. They will probably out grow your space. So what you want to do is take about 12-14 clones each about 8". Grow them up to 10" and they should have at least 4-6 sets of leafs. Some may do beter some may die so when you get to this stage you need to pick 9 of them, to bud, that are similar in height and density. Keep the best for your new mother if it was decent weed. Your 430 should get you a good yeild just remember to keep the plants in a 3'x3' area under the light for maximum lighting. Also keep it as close as posible, without burning them, to keep the plants short and stout.

2. They arnt that big, or I think my space can hanlde it. I would put it all in if they are just bag seed. Get some good seeds and do your second crop as described in #1. This will be a good learning experiance and a chance to get used to watering feeding and general trouble shooting.

As for your seeds like I said get your self some good seeds from the web or where ever, the cost of running an indoor grow requires a high grade finnished product.

Here are some of the pics I promised

Also, I appreciate the advice. That is why I tried the bagweed. Good thing too as I've destroyed a crapton of seeds and plants while I learned some skills. I do actually have some California Orange and Khalawi Gold(sp?) seeds. So once I get this stuff figured out, I'll move to the better stuff.

OK well looks like you are on the right track. Those are some big plants to not have bloomed yet though. If they are both females I say take a few clones from the tops and put them into bloom together. This will free up some realestate in you growth room.

The only problem I see in your plants is the srtinginess<--{Thats a word right?). Your gonna want to keep your lights as close as possible to your seedlings in order to keep them short.

As for your light setup. Daylight-6,500Kelvin is for your growth, Warm-2,100Kelvin like your HPS is for Bloom. Having a combo of both for growth is OK but in my opinion a waste of power when you could run another of the right spectrum, like I said my opinion. Anyways back on topic if you dont mind spending a few bucks you can get your self a MetalHalide, thats a hood balast packege 250W for $200 without light, or you can get it all seprate on that site and save a little in a econo hood and balast. If not 3 or 4 more Daylight CFLs with your tubes will veg you enough clones to fill your 430W HPS and keep them from straining for light.

P.S. the stringiness could be frome the bagweed strain =(

That's awesome news. I don't know about the right plant yet. It's taking longer for it's clone to show it's sex. But the left one is definitely female. I'll snag some more clones from that bad dog's top and then move her to the flowering room.

I chose the fluorescents just from the DVD recommendations. When I say "warm" fluorescents, I bought some $10 40w plant & aquarium 48" bulbs at Home Depot. I found an analysis of them at Philips Plant & Aquarium - Growing under Lights Forum - GardenWeb . Most of the people agree with you that they're no good for plants but I wasn't sure, so I went ahead and threw them in.

For now, I'll swap out those "warm" FLs with some regular 40w CFLs. I'll consider the Metal Hallide in the future. Do you have to watch foliar spraying or temperature control with those?

Also, is there anything I can use those warm bulbs for? Perhaps put up some fluorescent hoods vertically in the flower room? Or would that just get in the way of the HPS and the mylar working?

And thanks for the heads up on being able to drop the CFLs down closer to the plants. That's what a local guy and a few websites had said but that dude in the video, I Grow Chronic, kept saying 12" so I was keeping them pretty high. I'll move them closer to the plants.

In order I think

Concidering your room size and given that you are useing a heater heat shouldnt be a problem. Expecialy if you just use a 250W MH. May need a fan on the hood or across the tops of the plants but that should about do it.

Warm bulbs, they will make excelent side lighting for your flowering room. Put them in standing on end like this --> || <--

Also I see you have a table under your tray, is it 3'X3'? If so I see some holes in the cornners that you could put posts into and wrap wiht mylar =). That would be optimum use of the mylar. If you do leave it a little long on top so it forms a cone, maby use sone wire hangers in there somewhere.

Stoned may have missed something.

I haven't installed the warm FLs yet, but I did the cloning off of the mother. You can check it out at the grow log:

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/3808-420penguins-grow.html#post28934

Now it's time to start waiting patiently.

So how should I handle the new clones? I think they're ready to move to rockwool bigger cubes. Does that sound right?