My First Attempt (help, suggestions much appreciated!) (pics)

JLStiffy

Well-Known Member
Yup drop pH to 6.5 VEG and when you switch over to flower drop pH to 6.1 with 12/12 hour light. If this plant is a male, I would germinate 3seed next time and plant them to increase your odds of a female.. Remeber any stress to the see may cause it to become a male.
When testing water pH, test your water and make sure its desierable before you water. You do not want to be adjusting pH by reading soil pH levels. Ideal to know soil pH levels during flower stage, because of the advance ablility for nut lockup. Other then that, your light is a great choice for what you have going for you.. It plugs into a 15amp curcit. Now, I would go out and buy a small computer fan, or a VERY small osscolating fan to encourage air curculation.
If i were you, I would apply a bucket of water in your room to increase the humdidy to 60% if you can.... You will notice when you water the humidity increase. I try to veg at 60% RH, and flower at 40%, it balance out at 40% but when water goes to 60% When it rains outside my fresh air in, brings in humidity so sometimes it goes to 65% MAX. remeber i use open dry out basement, with temp at 19Degrees with no lghts on.. eveything I have is controlled by Air in and out. Works for me..
BTW, I think it looks great, keep it up, and your light will be enough for veg!
 

markj

Well-Known Member
Thank you JLStiffy.

I have a bucket of water with which I water the plant, and I leave the water in it for a couple of days before watering, in order for the chlorine to evaporate. This water had a 7.5 pH. So, today I bought a pH-minus and I dropped it to 6.5. I'm going to water with this tomorrow. Is there a time during the 18/6 cycle that it's best for watering??

I also unplugged a small fan from an old pc and with an old phone charger that I found, works great. So I got rid of the big fan I was using until now, and it's much better this way!

I'm gonna take some photos of the box I made, both from the outside and the inside and I'll post them as soon as possible so you can all see how it' going.

Cheers...
 

JLStiffy

Well-Known Member
swweet cant wait 2 see what u come up with. I went back and looked thoughout the thread and notice you also transplanted. Great!!!!, Mabye give plants some water for a couple feeds then use nut. I brake the rules generally because I can and it works for me lol. I use hydroponic feed through out my whole veg... Then Before I interduce into flower I use strait water for a couple feeeds, then introuduce a week flower feed such as 800ppm and in 4 weeks its up to 1000ppm and when in week 5 it jumps to around 1200ppm then I flush for 2 weeks.. Simple, I dont even use final flush or final phase, just straight water. When in last week, I cut most of fan leaves off, and tidy up a little.. I wish i could post some picks of my most recent croped clean up a bit to help give u a idea but I dont have a camra on me anymore.. Ill post some pics of what i have going right now tho, (untrimed)
So when it comes to a time when to water, most people will tell you that you will need to water soon as lights go on. Well i go to school fulltime and have lots of responsiblilitys I most often water when i want.. Lighs go on at 10am and off at 10pm. Ill water at 11am, or usually 2pm, when its a break inbetween classes. OR ill water at 8pm at night..
In soil the trick is to let your plant dry out to a certain degree so that it can ride of CO2 and allow the soil to airrate. Also there are roots that require more air then others, and roots that are also known as deep water roots.. keep in mind to let soil dry out to a certain extent, and remeber its not always good for plants to only draw on soil moister. Im sure its ok under your light, but not when running 1000Watts HPS on overlap etc lol.
 

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markj

Well-Known Member
Hi,

I've been away for a couple of days, so now that I'm back, here are some new pics.

JLStiff, your pics are really great!!! I just hope that my plant will make it to be something like yours... lol

About the watering, I dipped my finger in the soil, and it was moist. But I added some water, and now I understand that I shouldn't. JLStiffy, you said in your last post that I should let the soil dry out to a certain extent. That means that when I dip my finger in it, I should feel it dry, and then water it?? I'm also thinking if I should add some more soil to the pot.

The first pic, is the box I made! I know it isn't anything special but I think it'll be alright for this one plant.

At the third pic you can see at the top that one of the two lower leaves is yellow enough. But, from I what I understand this is not something that I should be worried about.

I took the pics from the side and the top of the plant, so you can have an idea of how it's going up till now. Do you think it looks healthy???

In the next days I'm gonna borrow a camera from a friend and post some high resolution photos, because all of these are from my cell phone.

Cheers everybody and we'll be in touch soon....
 

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ismokalotaganja

Active Member
lookin nice buddy... how old are they mine look bout the same age and size and i got a cfl setup too....looks like thats wat you got
 

markj

Well-Known Member
lookin nice buddy... how old are they mine look bout the same age and size and i got a cfl setup too....looks like thats wat you got
thanks ismokalotaganja! yours is looking nice as well. And from your pic, it seems that they're both the same age, give or take a few days. Mine is about 3 weeks at the moment.
I'm also using cfl, 275W.

I hope we can watch them together, grow big and strong, and then get some nice fat buds.!!
 

ismokalotaganja

Active Member
hell ya man good luck man ill be watchin yours ill be post mine too the temp and humidiy are fucked but there growing damn nice look nice ive read the humidity isnt a huge deal but it mine needs to be up a bit and the temp down a bit one day it got up to 105 but those fuckers grow the fuck up really surprised me.. the temp is really only down when the lights are off
 

markj

Well-Known Member
hell ya man good luck man ill be watchin yours ill be post mine too the temp and humidiy are fucked but there growing damn nice look nice ive read the humidity isnt a huge deal but it mine needs to be up a bit and the temp down a bit one day it got up to 105 but those fuckers grow the fuck up really surprised me.. the temp is really only down when the lights are off
Don't you have a fan in your setup? I think, that a fan should be enough for dropping the temp.
I have a small computer fan that runs the whole day, and bigger one that I leave on about an hour or two per day.
 

ismokalotaganja

Active Member
i got a big fan up top ive moved it around to c where would be the best place for cooling the room down the top was it and i have a small fan blowing out my cracked door
 

markj

Well-Known Member
i got a big fan up top ive moved it around to c where would be the best place for cooling the room down the top was it and i have a small fan blowing out my cracked door
If the plants have no problem growing while the temp is that high, then temp shouldn't be an issue. Right?

I mean from what I see in the pics, they all look pretty, green and healthy!!!

To be honest I don't know what's the temperature in my box, but as long as it looks healthy I'm not worrying!!!!
 

JLStiffy

Well-Known Member
Hi, yea when I water, I am custom to know what works for my set up (pot size, humidity/temp, how intense my light is etc) but I dooo know when to water lol.. So If I were u, get another plant, and test it out. Then u will know when to water exacly. one thing for sure, U will know when to water, is when the WHOLE pot is dry and moister is pritty much gone.. No worries though you will not let it get that far because of your concern for watering. At that point is should need water or it wil wilt by the next day. You do not wont it to get to that stage. U wil learn only when u should water, and theres no worries at ALL because as long as the plnts not wilting its fine, u just wanna make sure it does not get tooo close to that point..
I didnt not the yellow, is it on tips, and if so prob damage root from seed or transplant, if yellow leaf, your pH could very well correct that issue allowing better avil uptake!
BTW great grow box lol, better then mine whne i tried. looks good. all of it.
 

markj

Well-Known Member
thank you JLStiffy for your compliment on the box lol... and for all your comments!! they've been really helpful.

So, here are some new pics.
I was worried a bit the last couple of days, because most of the upper leaves were wilting. I guess I watered more than I should have. From what I understand this is a common rookie mistake. Anyway, I haven't watered since, and today they seem a lot better.
Now I guess I have to wait till the soil is dry and then water again. But, I need to ask something:
When I water the next time (or any other time for that matter) should I water until there is water running from the bottom of the pot??? Or just a little water on top?

More to come soon....
Cheers!!
 

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markj

Well-Known Member
I'm uploading some new pics of my plant not from my phone this time, but from a camera.
I'm doing that cause I really need your help!!!!!

Today I noticed to holes in one of the leaves and I got worried. Also the new leaves on top, seem to me a little weird. But, it's my first time growing so I need your opinions and suggestions.

Anyway, I'm posting some pics including zoomed pics in the area with the holes.

I searched under the leaves but I didn't see anything unusual. There's also a pic from underneath the leaves.

Please!!! Let me know if I should do anything!!!!

Cheers...
 

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Hubert

Well-Known Member
Huh...that's a pickle. Your plants seem pretty healthy otherwise, that new growth makes me think something's changed recently...what are your temps like? Do you use insecticides of any kind? Do you have a PH meter? What have you fed them?

It's hard to tell because other than the newest growth your plant looks perfectly fine. I don't think those holes are much to worry about, although they are suspicious if you havent noticed any insect activity than theres not much you can do about them.
 

markj

Well-Known Member
Huh...that's a pickle. Your plants seem pretty healthy otherwise, that new growth makes me think something's changed recently...what are your temps like? Do you use insecticides of any kind? Do you have a PH meter? What have you fed them?

It's hard to tell because other than the newest growth your plant looks perfectly fine. I don't think those holes are much to worry about, although they are suspicious if you havent noticed any insect activity than theres not much you can do about them.
Thank you Hubert for you quick response!

It's been already a week since I transplanted into this pot. The temps I think they'll alright. I haven't measured, but I use cfl light which doesn't produce much heat, plus there's a small computer fan that runs all day long, and a bigger ventilator that runs at least three hours a day.

I don't use insecticides. Should I?

Last time I fed them was 5 days ago and the nutes I used have an NPK ratio of 12-4-8. 3 days ago I watered them a bit, but then I realized I didn't have to because the leaves started to wilt. So now I'm waiting for the soil to get dry and then I'll water again.
A quick question about watering. When the soil is dry, and it's time to water, should I water till there's water coming out of the bottom of the pot or not??

For the PH I've bought drops to test it from my local pet store, and I test the water. I try to keep it around 6.5.

Except the newest growth I agree that it looks pretty healthy. I'll be posting pics so you can see how this newest growth will be developing.
 

markj

Well-Known Member
I haven't watered at all the last 4 days, because the leaves were wilting, and I read that one of the common rookie mistakes is overwatering.
Now the soil is still a bit wet on top.

Next time I water, should I water till there's water coming out of the bottom of the pot or just a little water would be ok?
 

Fengie

Active Member
a good way to know if you need to water is just stick a straw on the side of the pot and halfway down if the dirt is dry water a 1/2 cup
 

markj

Well-Known Member
a good way to know if you need to water is just stick a straw on the side of the pot and halfway down if the dirt is dry water a 1/2 cup
but isn't that going to wet only the upper parts of the soil?

So, I don't have to wait till I see water from the bottom of the pot? Just 1/2 cup of water and that's it?

(Sorry if I'm worrying too much, but it's my first grow!!! Hopefully I'll do better with the clones...lol)

Cheers
 

JLStiffy

Well-Known Member
Hey, thats not a bug unless u have catapillars crawling around your house!!! but I doubt that lol. Looks like physical damage 2 me and NOTHING to worrie at all about..
 

KingWyrm420

Well-Known Member
could u tell me how u wired the computer fan wit the phone charger?
i stick the tip of my pinky into the soil about 2 in and if its dry then i water it til a littl bit of water comes out the bottom and i will por a lil bit and let it drain through and if it dont come outt the bottom i pour a lil bit more.
ur plant looks really good just keep wat ur doing.
heres my plant at 2 weeks
 

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