My First Grow - Again.

Ok, I tried this before and the boyfriend couldn't keep his hands off my plants so I just turned that grow over to him. Now I'm trying again and even though my methods make him crazy, he's promised to let me see it all the way through alone without too much hassle.

Seeds:

2 Feminized White Widow
2 Feminized Blue Cheese
8 Mystery bag seeds from some really, really good smoke

Soil Recipe:

3 quarts Miracle Grow Garden Soil
3 quarts Fiber Grow Growing Mix
1 quart Perlite
1/2 cup Blood Meal
1/2 cup Bone Meal
1/2 cup Kelp Meal

Watering with warm, ph tested fish tank water only. NO tap water.

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I planted my 12 seeds in tiny Jiffy pots and put them directly under (2) 20W fluorescent plant lights. I watered them twice a day with warm, hyper-aerated fish tank water and on the 2nd day, all but 2 had sprouted. By day 3, all 12 were growing nicely. woohoo! no duds! (Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking and didn't take any photos.)

I kept them in the cabinet with the flourescents less than an inch from the tops for the first two weeks, watering 1-2 times daily and letting them dry out every other day. By the end of 2 weeks, roots were coming through the Jiffy pots pretty agressively and I dropped them into small grow bags filled with my soil mix posted above.

By this time, I was ready to add more light as well, so I moved them and the plant lights into 3ft wide x 2ft deep x 4ft tall veg box and added (2) 300W TCP compact flourescents I got for $15 a piece at Home Depot. The veg box has in/out ventilation with fans going to the crawl space under the house. Air flow is good, but I also keep a larger fan blowing upwards to give the girls a good breeze.

Side note: These lights are awesome!! They only use 68 watts a piece and put off 8400 lumens combined with very little heat. I'll be ditching the regular plant lights and adding 3 more TCPs this week.

When the plants reached 2 weeks old, I started giving them a basic plant food - just plain old Miracle Grow - mixed at 1/2 the dosage instructions added to the warm fish tank water. I thought they had looked good before the food, but within 2 days they about doubled in size, mostly growing out and not up.

I don't know much about growing, but I think they're beautiful and I love them. The veg box sits directly behind me and since I work from home, I leave the door open a lot and often turn around to talk to them and pet them throughout the day. Looking at them so much makes it hard to see growth, but the photos help a lot.

Photos attached and comments are welcome.

Ok, so we added 2 more 300w CFLs last night. The boyfriend built a nice adjustable light rack from stuff we had laying around that I can raise up a chain as the crazy babies grow. He left room to add another base in the middle for 2 more lights I want to add (hopefully) next week when I have more cash.

The new lights added no more heat which is way cool and the temps still range from 75 to 85.

They seem to be doing well but a couple of them have some light green streaking on the leaves. Not sure what that's about, if it's anything at all, but it bugs me. I did some ph testing on the soil and runoff water and it all looks ok at 6.5 to 6.8. Water with added nutes is neutral at 7.0.

Anyone have any ideas whats up with the streaking? Overall they look ok so I'm not too concerned but maybe it's early signs of something bad or some deficiency? I gave them a little tomato food (18-18-21) yesterday and the streaking seems to be darkening and less than before.

They'll be 3 weeks old on Saturday and I think it will be about time to start the 12/12 cycle. Anyone have an opinion on going straight 12/12 or gradually decreasing light? They've had light 24/7 since starting as seeds.

I'll have to transplant them to 3 gal grow bags for flowering. I'm pretty nervous about that. Things are going well and I don't want to change anything. Heh. I'll be feeding Schultz SuperBloom (10-54-10) then. Yeah, I know. But I'm seriously broke as hell so I'm rollin with what I already got on hand for my flowers and vegetables.

My biggest concern at this point is space. I started 12 plants thinking that by this time I would have lost a couple or at least would have a few that were unhealthy enough that I wouldn't feel bad about yanking them. Looks like at least 4 of them will be given away. Fucking sucks. I need more room.

looks good..glad to see someones doing it walmart style

yeah, ur first mistake was the miracle grow soil , ur 2nd mistake was the m/g ferts. not puttin down ur methods but if thats all u can afford it will do. ive seen good results w/mg products, but i would get some fox farm ocean forest soil & f/f nutes when u transplant , i hear good reviews bout their stuff. i think that m/g nute mite be burnin them some, i would go a/little liter on the nutes bout 1/4 the dose since they're so small then work ur way up from there, but the f/f nutes i hear are top shelf.------Nug-------

Good work Macgyver, keep it up and good luck

I just spent more than half my damn day reading these threads: Advantage Vs Disadvantage CFL's and CFL Proximity to Foliage from start to finish and shot my entire day all to hell, but I learned a helluvalot. I took a break half way through to do some moderate changes to the box after learning a few things. (Thank you, Garden Knowm)

All the tinfoil is gone and replaced with a space blanket, except for the door which will be changed this weekend. The metal shelf is gone and replaced with wire crates so I could put my fan beneath the plants to help better ventilate and keep cool. It was rather warm here today and the temps spiked at 98F for almost an hour before I started the changes.

After it was all put together, I went to hit the power on the powerstrip and had some kind of freaky finger spasm and accidently flipped it on and off real fast twice and blew out 2 of the CFL's. I wanted to cry but I was too shocked when they blew - I couldn't effin believe it. Exchanged them no problem at Home Depot and got back to running all 4 within an hour or so.

Then while sitting back and admiring my redux, I noticed I had accidentally FIM'd one of the girls at some point. The very top is cleanly broken off right at the top base node and it looks like it will probably branch off into four colas, but we'll see. I'm wishin and hoping mostly. I'll try to get a decent pic tomorrow. Tonight, I am beat.

Here's a pic of the box now. Yes, that's a HPS (400w) up top but I can't keep the box cool enough when it's on so it's just hanging around til I find a good use for it or find a way to better ventilate.

And thanks for the comments and input. It's definitely a Macgyver/WalMart setup. Nothing is the best it could be, just working with what I got.

Lookin good from here,bro. w/that 400w hps u got there, its lookin less & less Mcguyverish! did u get it @ htg supply?

Hey Nug - Yeah, the HPS is from HTG. We got it like a year ago but it's basically worthless to us because of the heat problems. The only spot in the house we can grow is also the warmest, sitting right between the water heater and the furnace. We cut ventilation holes and put in/out fans to the crawlspace but it doesn't do enough to keep it cool. The last grow that the boyfriend did basically got cooked to death. We got bud, but it was fluffy, dry and obvious it should have been better.

Today was transplant day - time to move the ladies to bigger bags for flowering. I invested a wee bit o cash in getting some FoxFarm soil to transplant into, for most of them anyway. I left a few growing in MG just so I could compare results, mostly because I didn't have enough cash to buy enough FoxFarm to transplant them all.

Going to bigger bags means less space so I had pick which ones stay and which ones go back to the nursery cabinet. The 2 White Widows and the 2 Blue Cheese definitely made the cut because they're feminized. I picked the 3 healthiest bag seed plants that looked the "most female" to me and put the other 5 back in the nursery cabinet with (3) 20watt wide spectrum fluorescents. That just killed me to do, but hey, I got no damn choice. Hopefully I can find them homes but no luck so far.

Transplant seemed to go ok. Finished that about 6 hours ago and gave them a good drink of plain ph'd fish tank water and they look good with no signs of shock so far. Got a few naked pics of the White Widows below. They moved up to 3gal bags btw. The stalks look really nice - gotta get pics of those fer sure.

Anyone got a link to a really good SCROG and/or LST thread? I've got an idea I'm working out in my head, but I don't know enough about it to know if it will work.

Got some pics of the stalks on the White Widows and set them to go on their first dark cycle (12/12) at midnight tonight. Can't wait to see how they respond over the next few days.

Read a couple of really good threads on scrogs and training...but still not sure of the best way to use the small space I have available with all my plants. Any ideas?

Hey Karma, all u really gotta do is train a desk fan on that hps when its on. u will be amazed how cool that lite stays. it worked 4 me real well, u could'nt even feel the heat on the back of the reflector! those babies really need the extra lumens & spectrum from the hps during flowering. remember, ur Mcguyver, you'll figure sumthin out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -----------Nug---

Got busy the other day and forgot to update.

Day 21: I set the girls on a 12/12 at 21 days and topped one of the White Widows. Four days later and so far so good. I'm starting to think I should top the other before it's too late. Can it be too late? When is too late?

Day 22: Got 4 more CFL's. 75 watters this time (all are 2700K). Heat is becoming a problem and I have to keep an eye on temps. No more room for fans unless I hang one. I don't wanna do that but might have to.

Day 25: After setting to flower they really started to get stanky. The last couple of days the whole house was smelling like weed and something had to be done. I read in a thread somewhere, I've lost it now, about filling a bucket with moisture crystals and soaking them in Febreze and setting a fan on them. I rigged up a box and put it underneath and it ROCKS! (pic below)

I bought a 16 oz bag of Soil Moist and put it in the mini tub with about 4-5 cups of water and 2 tbsp of Febreze and mixed it up real good. Then I cut a whole in the tub lid and duct taped a fan on it, blowing inwards. There's also small holes cut into the top of the tub all the way around for the 'deodorized' air to escape.

I probably didn't need that much Soil Moist (never used it before & had no idea how it would swell up) but the Febreze is diluted enough it isn't too powerful or overwhelming. There's no more weed smell AT ALL. Which kinda sucks, but was definitely necessary.

They all look good, but the White Widows look awesome. Short, fat, hella bushy and green green green. They all got a thorough soaking today with fishy water and a tsp of Blackstrap Molasses and 1/4 tsp of Super Bloom per gallon. Tested the runoff and ph is perfect at 6.8. Now, I'm just ready for some flowery bud action.

lookin good

Not much to report other than a lot of growth. I topped everyone in the box except a Blue Cheese that is still only about 5 inches tall but really wide and bushy.

The box is so crowded I can't wait for them to start showing some sex so I can thro out the boys and the girls can have their light.

The white widows have been moved to the center and elevated so they have a halo of light surrounding them. They're so bushy, there wasn't much getting to the lower branches when they were sitting on the sides. I love them all, but the widows are my babies and they get all the xtra tlc.

looking unreal, cant wait to see how they well they flower.

so how many 2700k bulbs are you running now on 12/12. are you still running some 6400k at the same time.

cheers

Hey Sam - I've got 4 300watt and 4 75watt - they're all 2700K. I never had any 6400's going because when I started I didn't realize there was a difference. Heh. It's worked out though I guess.

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Two of the bag seed plants showed themselves as male this morning. I promptly pulled them because I need the room so bad. It's a relief really. I was stressing over how crowded they were getting so the decision has been made for me. So now I have the 2 White Widows, 2 Blue Cheese (all feminized) and 2 bag seed left. Getting more light has already made a difference and the others grew up into the light today. I've got about 18 to 24 inches left of headroom so lets hope they don't grow too much more. No new pics today. I'm too tired to mess with it.

Not much of an update other than pics. There haven't been any definitive signs of sex with the 2 remaining bag seed plants yet. I'm thinking I'm seeing a few hairs, but it might just be foliage growth. Dunno. I'll have to wait a few more days I guess.

So I just been truckin' along, watering, turning, tucking fan leaves and watching them grow. Still alternating waterings with nutes+molasses once and then plain fishy water the next. It's been pretty warm the last few days and I've had to water them twice in the last 3 days. They look nice, smell nice and hopefully will be flowering very soon. I knew I could grow a nice green & healthy plant - flowering and seeing it through to the end, I'm still not sure about.

Ok, so I was reading the board the other night and ran across a thread on tucking fan leaves. It advised using paper clips to pull the leaves out of the way by anchoring them downwards. Great idea! Right?! NO!!

My PERFECT beautiful green plants now have splotchy rusty leaves where some of them were anchored by paper clips.

DO NOT USE PAPER CLIPS! EVER!!

I don't know who I'm more pissed at - The dumb ass that advised this or me, for taking that advice without further research. It just seems so obviously stupid now. What the fuck was I thinking???

Anyway - here's some video I shot today of my beautiful ladies.

http://auroranorth.com/Day-36.wmv

They're all strongly broadcasting sex as female now. Woot! I'm still watching the two bag seed plants though, in case they go hermie on me.

I'll post pics of the rusty leaves later. I'm in the middle of watering right now and really just wanted to vent. The rusty leaves PISS ME OFF!

Real buds started showing up a couple of days ago...woot! I was worried after the aluminum poisoning that I might have shocked them and I would get nothing but it was never really that bad I guess - I'm just super paranoid. I'm far enough into this grow that I'm worried any little thing will spell disaster and all my work will be for nothing. But it's all good I think.

The girls are drinking a total of 2 gal water daily (with molasses and superbloom every other day) and have grown probably 3 inches in the last week. This is NOT good news but what the hell ya gonna do? A few of the colass have grown up between the lights and I'm going to start bending them over I think. It's a little late for LST but some bread ties should do the trick. I hope. I'm down to the last few inches in my box and have a good 2-4 weeks left in flowering. There is no where else left to go.

Got pics this time...a couple from the damage done by the paper clips. I'm sure that clips covered in rubber would be great but I don't have those and just not in the mind to try it again anyway. I hover over them enough that tucking leaves gives me something to do.

The next to the last pic is the center flower of the Blue Cheese I topped. Some funky leaf patterns coming out of that one.

The last pic shows 1 weeks growth and how crowded the box is. I'm glad I topped or I would be in bigger trouble.

You gots to put up another update. I want to see how these girls are doing. And I'm also interested in that Febreeze tub deal you have. I saw the picture. Is that still working pretty well to hide the odor? Because my grow closet is in the closet of a spare bedroom. When you enter that room, the reefer smell already hits you. And I can faintly smell it on the other side of the door when its closed (although I have a pretty big gap between the door and the floor there, a towel might remedy that.)

But a friend of mine came over yesterday and as he came into the livingroom said "smells like weed in here." I don't smell it in the rest of the house, but I might be used to it. He claims he did smell it, but he may have been sniffing for it because he knew it was there. I DO know that it's only going to get stronger from here, because I'm still vegging and plan to for this next week before I make the switch to 12/12. I just didn't expect to have to worry about this until I had some buds.