Newbie's First Grow! / SuperTightBudgetLikeWTF

My very first grow attempt! I'm on a super tight budget. I've basically spent about 15 dollars so far. I'm not exactly sure when i started these seeds, it was around the end of February.

I had a really detailed post when i started this, but my thread seems to have vanished with that SQL attack? Anyways, i'll make a short re-post and updates so far.

I'm open to any recommendations or suggestions. My first grow so anything will be helpful!

Soil: "Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix"
Food: "Miracle-Gro Watering Can Singles" 24-8-16
Lights: CFL's. 24/0. Started with 2, now up to 4! Random, regular household CFL's, one at 2700k and the rest unknown.
Seeds: Random Bagseed. Someone who grew some outdoors gave me a couple ounces, and in the buds was some ripe seeds.

I started by placing a TON of seeds in a single container. I really had no idea how many of them would sprout, but nearly all of them did (like 20 or so!) After they sprouted i split them up and put 2 in each pot. 4 pots. A few days later i planted a few more in some Jiffy Cups that i transplanted into the other plant's pots. Probably overcrowding them... but i had no idea how many would survive.

From there, they struggled on my Bathroom Counter under 2 CFL's for a couple of weeks.

3-4-2012 - STREEEEETCH!

I had no idea this was abnormal until i noticed other people's first nodes were less then an inch from the soil! Obvious lighting issues at this stage. I added a second lamp this day.



3-8-2012 - Growth Spurts!

A couple of them really took off (ish). Note that i'm using Qtip straws to hold them up. Their stems were too weak to even support the seedlings. So sad. They remained like this for quite a while and at this point i thought i might have to toss all but two of them because of how poorly they were doing. I kept them all though!

You can see the neut burns on the leaves where i, like a noob, poured neut water on their foliage as i watered them. I thought this would help deliver neuts directly to the leaves. Turns out, that's exactly what it did. I posted about these burns in the Help section and someone mentioned it looked like the beginning of Spider Mites (EEK!) But thankfully the spotting was just neut burn. I've accidentally dripped some on a couple other leaves since then, which confirmed this.




3-18-2012 - Light Bondage In A Box!

I cant tell if they're male or female at all. Still stretchy at this point, but they were starting to really grow. I started experimenting with LST'ing a couple of them. These shots i was trying to get close ups of the nodes to see if someone could sex them. I dont think thats gonna happen.

The Box is 14x25 inches, and 28 inches tall. taped up all the edges trying to seal it. I put a black garbage bag on the outside to prevent moisture from the floor, and another garbage bag on the inside to help against spills. I lined it with Aluminum Foil, glossy side facing the plants. I figured it diffused the light better then the other side.



3-20-2012 - Its Never Enough!

Added a third CFL. The growth rate has really taken off since i put them in the box. Its really incredible the difference of reflective material and an enclosed space made.
I also started 'supercropping' a little bit on one of them, and since started doing it on most of them. I screwed up once as you can see in my second post, but it is still alive and doing great.


2-30-2012 - Zing!

Added a FOURTH CFL on the 23rd. I found an unused hanging 'can' fixture to stick it in! They're seriously starting to take off now. I added a computer case fan (blowing upwards, sucking from below. You can also see the shape of my box... My 'Green' House ^_^

I moved around some of the lights to try and get better coverage. I also rotate a couple of them each day. It seems to be helping

Distance between nodes is down to about an inch on the newer growth. The fattest plant from the first pics has a stem the size of a thumb now, and is still the largest. I have LST'd it (her hopefully!). I used thin hemp rope to tie her main stem down, and sewing thread to pull large fan leaves down so they aren't blocking other growth

The last image shows the LST'ing i'm doing on the fan leaves to move them out of the way. I figure its better then just cutting them off like i've seen some people do. Can anyone tell the sex of any of these yet? I'm not sure if i can

Some Notes/Observations

Neut Burns: I noticed the Miracle Gro food can burn the whole plant if too strong (even at box-recommended dosages), and will definitely burn any leaves it drips on. This is a 'test burn' i did, by dropping a large bit of neut water onto the leaf only in one spot. Some other total-leaf damage was done by spraying them with neut water.

Pouring neut water on the foliage can at first appear to be the beginnings of 'Spider Mites' as someone suggested. A few days later after the diagnosis picture, it became obvious it was a burning issue and not spider mites. The burning seemed to start between the "V" veins of each leaf and appeared to be damage on the top and not the bottom of the leaf. A few days later most of the leaf died, and a couple weeks later they were brown and crispy and 'practically' fell off on their own. All the new growth was fine though.

Some of the fan leaves that have gotten little light due to being against the side of the box seem to be dark green and kinda wrinkly. Its all doing very well though, i'm surprising myself! There is hope for these babies yet! A couple of the leaves are 'cupping' upwards and feel dry. I'm not sure why because the rest of the plant they're on is doing great. Just a fan leaf so im not worried. A couple others have the sides only curling up and looks like some neut burn caused by strong neut feeding.

Jiffy Cups are strange! I never thought a root would grow out of them, let alone several. Apparently this is normal and you can plant the whole Jiffy cup into the soil, but i tore mine apart because i didn't want to risk mold. I damaged some of the roots slightly in the process, but it didn't seem to effect the plants.

Supercropping: Dangerous game! I started out lightly squeezing the branches just untill i could feel them cracking a little on the inside. I noticed it really bulks up the stem but i'm not really sure what its doing to my new growth. They're still growing great though! I screwed up on one supercropping attempt on a branch i had also LST'd already. Seems the internal breakage combined with the LST somewhat 'kinked' the stem at an angle. The stem still felt/looked like it was a 'tube' so i just loosened up the LST and let it heal. Its still odd-shaped but its healed and feels sturdy again. (Blurry pic warning! but you can kinda see the shape of the kink)


Topping: I've noticed that 'topping' doesnt really create any new growth. It simply stops the main branch from growing, and lets the other branches that would have grown anyways shoot out and become the new tops. LST seems to do the exact same thing, minus the damage.
Advantage: Keeps the plant kind of 'thin', so you can get more plants per square foot
Disadvantage: Damages the plant and slows growth for a few days/week.

LST: Seems to basically do what Topping does, except for all the branches along its main stem. It also doesnt stunt the growth.
Advantage: Theres no damage and doesnt slow growth down at all. You also end up with MANY new tops instead of just the two.
Disadvantage: Increases the footprint of the plant greatly. Requires 2 or 3x more floor space for the plant.

Watering: It seems that its really easy to drown your plants, but really hard to starve them. So i like to err on the side of caution and let it dry. Someone in this forum told me that he suspected i'd be guilty of over-watering my plants. I think he was right at the beginning. Since then, I've been letting the soil get really dry between waterings, and when i do water there is very little, if any, runoff. It seems to have improved growth.

Subd. Awesome so far man. Hope you dont mind, but I'd suggest slowing down with supercropping and topping. You dont want to stress the plant too.much being very young. Just my opinion. They look great though man!

thats cool dude, how old are they so far ? it seems most of ur bulbs r 2700k coz they look yellowish