My first grow: Lights, Fertilizers? [weekly updates]

So after I failed on my first seedling due to either bad seed or bad lightning (didn't even grow the second sets of leaves), my new seedling of bag seed just sprouted on 26'th and so far is looking healthy. I am growing on soil, and have a 65 Watt /CFL /6400k staying at 1or 1.5 inch away from its leaves.

Do you think that the CFL is enough for now? My soil already contains foods needed for sometime, however I was wondering after I transplant it in a bigger pot, it will again get introduced to new soil with foods in it, so will I actually need to add fertilizer mixed with water after a while, since i am guessing it should use up all the soil nutrition after sometime?

This is my new seedling.



In addition I will keep you guys informed and weekly update this thread with updates, so that I can get suggestions from you guys!

Peaceee

Ima beginner as well but I have grown from seed twice. What I have experienced once your 2nd true set leaves have shown you should be good to feed her. Not at the recommended strength but a very light feeding like 1/4 of what's recommended. The soil has nutes but the plant needs more. Yes when you transplant they receive new nutes but it won't be enough. This is all just my opinion and what I have done. Some people do straight water for the first month also. Just watch for signs of the plant, each strain can be different so it's all about how the plants respond to what you decide to do. and for the lights I have no clue but from what I've read and heard cfls can be close as possible as long as it's not burning the leaves. if 1-1.5 is keeping them green and no burns leave it. This is all my opinion I'm sure someone can dispute everything I've said so good luck and just keep an eye out to catch problems

Sounds healthy so far. What's your soil mix? Looks a little muddy. How is the drainage?
Don't keep your light too close. I think 3-4" is perfect. Always give some distance to grow.

Are you sure the CFL is 65w actual watts or equivalent. I always have to ask that because many times people say equivalent watts. But if its 65 actual watts its fine for now as a seedling, but your going to need more CFLs shortly if thats the route you are going. Ive used CFLs only for my grows and it can be done. Let me know if you have anymore lighting questions.

By your soil containing nutes already are you using miracle grow?

Hi Comsci,

I am a pure hydro guy so my responses to your questions may not be pro tips, but I have heard a lot from others growing in soil on this site.

Why your first seed did not make it: it had nothing to do with your lighting. seeds can sprout with no lighting at all, and need very little in the first coulple of days of growth. If you had a 65 watt cfl that was plenty enough. I start mine out on a small 30 watt cfl.

How long will your 65 watt CFL be enough for this plant? Even if it's 65 true watts coming out of the outlet this will NOT even be close to enough. It will last you a week and half before you will need to start adding more. As stated above, you can go the cfl route but you will need a lot of them. My advice is to get a 300 watt full spectrum heavier in red LED(actual wattage is 180 watts usually but varies greatly by manufacturer) or a 400 watt HID digital ballast system. The 400 watt HID will be overkill depending on what you plan to do, but will allow you to grow into it more. Warning with the hid: cooling will be a factor.

Is your cfl too close at 1 to 1.5 inches? Like one poster said, if it's not burning or hurting the plant, no problem. However, as your plant grows your light distribution won't be good if you keep it that close. Later you will want to give a little more space if you don't get additional lighting. Also keep an eye on canopy temps with lights that close if you decide to get additional lighting and especially if you decide to go HID.

Will your soul need additional nutes? Right now it doesn't but later you will need to feed them on a nute water water schedule. I would go with a well known nute line and follow instructions starting at 1/4 strength and working your way up to 3/4 strength. I never use full strength as I noticed I get the same if not better results from 3/4 strength (again I am a hydro guy so this may be different when using soil). I wouldn't begin feeding additional nutes until your plant is well established at around 2 weeks + or - a few days.

Hope this helps!

-Grim

I agree with pretty much everything said here. I have not grown from seed but when I clone I use 2 15 real watt cfls and they do fine so I think you will be good for a bit. I keep the lights about 18 inches off of the plants when cloning but much closer when flowering with cfl. If you are going to flower with cfl you will need at least 300 real watts to do it right, this is assuming you are doing it in a closet like most people do. It would help if we knew what size your enclosure will be. When you transplant I would get away from the soil with nutes already in it, I read post after post on here with people using that stuff and they almost alway either burn their plant or it is lacking in some way. I use black gold it's cheap and has nothing but some worm castings. Just my opinion I'm sure people do really well with it. I use Flora nova bloom for flowering in soil sucks you can't use it in hydro cause I think it's good stuff. It is also really easy to use its a one part system star out at about 2 ml per gallon then go up to a max of 8 ml per gallon. I agree with the guy who said 3/4 power for hydro that's about what I stick to in my hydro but in soil I push more the plants seem to be able to take it more in soil. Someone is going to freak out after I say this but I also use super thrive it's cheap and works well use 1 ml per gallon. I have done grows with just nova super thrive dirt and cfl and got really good results. If you go the cfl way check out a guy on YouTube call green ninja I bassed my cfl light off of his and it kicks ass, he is a bit of a wing nut but he makes some bad ass lights for almost no money. Or shoot me a pm and I'll give you a parts list and explain how to build one. If you go hid buy used most hydro stores have a ton of used shit for sale for like half off you should be able to get a 400 watt set up for under 100 bucks. Hope this helped.

@White Water Thanks for all the suggestions man. I guess I will do something like you suggested, I will wait a little bit and see for signs as well, meanwhile I'll start feeding with little portions. As for the CFL's that is what I've been hearing too that you can keep them really close!

@grimzuchini My first seedling died cuz I had a different CFL, plus I think it was just a bad seed, cuz it only had cotyledon leaves, nothing more. I also think my initial soil was not raelly good, it had low PH around 5!! So that might have been the issue. I think I am going to continue with CFL with this grow and see how it turns out, im still amateur so will see how this will make me happy. I think in the future i might continue with LED's because using HID might run into heat problems due to my cabinet size.

@Nummingtons I grow on a cabinet I made especially for this, see the link here where I have the cabinet specs: https://www.rollitup.org/t/my-grow-cabinet-opinions.872055/ . Unfortunately I live in Europe, and I don't have all those fancy soils, I just try to find the best one available. My current soil mixture has really good drainage, PH from 6-7, and all the NPK's necessary for couple weeks as stated in the soil bag. I mean the seedling seem to do fine so far. I am already checking out that green ninja dude, looks like im gonna get some nice tips from him!

As for as for watering I have been basically just spraying it on the top twice a day, that is what i read, just to keep it moist. As soon as it feels dry I do it again. So I don't really put too much water in it. Or maybe you guys have any suggestions for watering aswell!

Thanks to all of you, you are really helping me out.

As for watering I do the same, just spray it to keep it moist. But from what I seen of the plant you might be able to water a little not just spray (a heavy spray could work too I guess so water gets deep.) also I seen you might switch to LEDs, that's what I run and I think they are great imo.
These are mine I'm 2-3 weeks away from harvesting and they were grown under dormgrow G8 900 LED. My temps get in the high 80s if it's hot as hell outside and I forget to open a port I my tent but other then that it's 78-82. My electric bill barely rises any it's like running another PS4 in my house.

@White Water Thanks for the input man, I guess I'll continue with spraying and keeping it moist at the top, maybe once in a while a little more heavier spray. As i said I will see what i get with CFL's initially then im open to changes so LEDs are my next option.

those are 2 nice looking plants man! I am jealous, I hope i will get similar results! What strain is that? How much do you think that will yield?

So here's an update on my plant, it is on its fifth day (26th May sprouted). The second set of true leaves just started to grow. I think it is lookin' healthy, what do you guys think~?

They are sour tangie, and I have no idea I've looked around to see what's the best way to guesstimate but nothing. All strains are different so they can still swell and get big these last few weeks so I could think one thing and hey can swell up and I get more. Someone told me only a QP but I don't see how the hell that will be possible if you seen these up close there's no way but who am I to say I new to this as well. One thing to remember is space to grow. These sour tangies grow tall so I topped, lst'd and keep my lights close to prevent crazy stretching. So if your in a small space keep that in mind. You might need to top, lst, keep lights close whatever you can so the plant doesn't out grow your set up. And they look good to me you already lost one not to rub it in, but your gonna do everything to keep this one going just don't over do it. Take care of it but don't get crazy and take things to far. Keep it simple and keep notes on everything so you have a good re fence for next time.

Looks good so far! Im on my first grow as well super lemon haze And an auto mazar, i have two 65 actual watt huge cfl for veg but yea your seedling looks great make sure not to overwater

Your new little babies look practically identical to mine in my first grow (check my journal). I found that as long as you're using a high nitrogen soil mixed with 25% perlite, 25% vermiculite (this helps to hold the natural nutrients in the natural soil for much longer) and in my personal opinion cuts down on the amount of messing about with nutes and fertilisers. It was all the plants needed to be healthy. I made the mistake of adding nutrients (only a small recommended dosage), but ended up with what appeared to be slight chemical burns which proved to me there was plenty of goodness in the soil. So in answer to your question, and my own experiences, depending on the yield you are hoping for, cfl may well be fine for now. If you want bigger yield, more light. That simple. I'd urge you to take a look at my grow journal (certainly read from the latest comments back) as it may convince you that cfl is fine. I grew 2 plants with 1 200W envirolite and I think people were surprised with the results. I certainly was! Also, I transplanted mine into new pots along the way, always with the same mix of perlite and vermiculite and no additional nutes or fertilisers.... hope this helps.

19180918 said:

Looks good so far! Im on my first grow as well super lemon haze And an auto mazar, i have two 65 actual watt huge cfl for veg but yea your seedling looks great make sure not to overwater

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@shiva I just checked your journals, and I think I learned lots of things from it. So I am as excited and caring as you were back then, freaking 10 years ago almost lol!! As i saw, your plant was pretty small, was that because you wanted to switch in flowering stage before. I read that your plant can get taller and bigger as long as you keep it in vegetative stage?? I want to make my plant bigger, so does the size of the pot plays a role?

Thanks

Hey, glad it was educational! To be honest, I had limited grow space so kept them relatively small and started flowering when they were about 12" high, they still finished much larger as they almost double in height during flowering stage so bear that in mind. They continue to grow in flowering stage too, not just vegetative. Yeah I've done a few grows since but only just revisited roll it up. I need new seeds and have a grow area twice the size now, so starting a grow real soon and probably a new journal. Not going to change too much I don't think other than more light. The size of the pot will play a role as it gives the roots space to grow to feed the plant and make it bigger so yeah, you can transplant to a bigger pot during vegetative but I personally wouldn't do it during flowering.