Sharing my first grow and seeking advice from gurus

Hey everyone I've been reading the boards for a while and figured I'd post up my grow


Warning: Long drawn out account of where I started and where I am now.

I'm just your average college student who enjoys growing things. I was raised around a garden and for the past few years I've enjoyed managing my 600sqft garden. After seeing the Medical Marijuana movement gain some momentum I decided I would try my hand at growing cannabis(**occasional personal use and parents medical use). I admit I had no idea what I was doing but I figured it couldnt be much different from what I had been doing for the past few years. ** The grow is intended for personal use and parents medical use.

I planted approximately 30 seeds in solo cups a while back and let them sprout and eat up the sun. Of those 30 only 15 were quality specimens. I originally planned this to be an outdoor grow so I transferred them to a swamp approximately 1.5 hours from my house. The weather in my parts is usually pretty forgiving and my garden is often fine on its own. Unfortunately this year the region suffered a massive drought. I was able to water/check on my plants every now and the, but about 1.5 months ago I decide enough was enough. They had hardly grow at all and were almost completely dead. I waited for them to show sex and chose the four best ladies.

I started a small grow indoors just to see how it would go. I was on a budget at first but ive been slowly upgrading. I was first afraid that they wouldn't survive(~8" tall and as thing as a blade of grass). However I've now run into the problem that my 250w HID light might not be enough to see them through flowering when it starts. I'm purchasing an inline fan and carbon filter, sealing the area once I've made surge temps are stable and then going to 12/12

They're not the biggest, but considering where they came from they're a lot healthier. Some pictures I've managed to take along the way.

About a week after I first dug them up in their recovery(pitiful I know)


Little further along


A few more weeks and they really exploded(maybe too much) still in veg


They suffered some heat stress from being in a grow box, I decided to use the entire closet and they're doing much better now


Most recent pic.


All these are from bagseed.

So now I come to you rollitup.org in search of advice. What should I do next? I just had a killer deal on a 400w HPS fall through and im desperately trying to find a semi-low budget deal on something to replace my 250W MH. My grow space is 2'dx5'wx5'h.. I may just run two 250w light since I have an odd dimensioned space.. but heat is a concern.

Thanks for reading, criticism is oh so very welcome

I'm far from guruship but I'm about to begin a grow with 250w hid and supplement with 200w cfl (6500k for veg and 2700 for flower). Might be a cheaper option to another hid. Cfls run cooler too. Since heats an issue I can't imagine another or a stronger hid would help.

Don't want to start a LED vs HID battle and I cant speak from experience but I've read of promising results with people using leds in conjuction with hids - absolutely no additional heat with those. Maybe you could throw some led panels on the walls, give em some side lighting - if anything else it'll make your room look cool. HTGSupply have some they swear by.

i think you will be suprised at what a small 250 watt hps can do.. most people are.. i always read alot of peps saying that you need atleast a 400 watt to get decent sized nugs, and to them i say bs.. i would stick it out with the 250 and the cfl's that you have now and wait till harvest to see if your going to be happy with your results before moving up to a bigger lamp.. you have already said that heat was an issue for you, and although you took them out of their box, you have to remember how bad heat can be for your plants.
oh yeah, one last thing too.. these plants will probably make it to harvest just fine and you will end up with some very smokeable bud at the end of it all, but you have to realize that all of that transplanting and moving them around like you've done has put a ton of stress on them, and they probably won't yeild the way they would have if they would have been in the perfect environment for the entire grow, so take that into account at the end of harvest ..
goodluck with the rest of the grow m8, it looks like you've done a great job getting them to this point after all they have been through, lol..

Thanks for the words man, I'm going to buying an exhaust fan + scrubber, light sealing it, and inducing flowering in the next few days after I get through some mid terms.

If I sense light starvation I guess I could always throw in some more lights for the time being.. For the next grow I have some papaya kush seeds from attitude and I might consider upgrading lighting. Will post more pics soon

How long are you still planing on letting them veg? They look huge already.
250w is something you can def grow with, if money is tight you might just want to wait on upgrading. However, your first harvest will more than make up for the cost of getting a new light...

valuablevariable said:

How long are you still planing on letting them veg? They look huge already.
250w is something you can def grow with, if money is tight you might just want to wait on upgrading. However, your first harvest will more than make up for the cost of getting a new light...

Click to expand...

I'll be flowering in the next few days. I think I've let them veg a bit too long so I'll be looking to add another light once I'm able to make sure my cooling/exhaust is adequate.

Updated: Decided that like most things in life, if its worth doing its worth doing right. So I stopped bullshitting around and made some new purchases.

25' roll of mylar
400w HPS with 6" Cooled hood + 6" ducting
6" inline booster fan
4" inline fan from HTPsupply
Earth Juice bloom
light timer
6mm plastic to seal the closet

I also made my own carbon filter and will be working on a muffler for the inline fan

I'll be installing all my new gear and inducing flowering this weekend

Any ideas as to what type of yield I'll get off my plants? They're 3' tall before flowering x 4 of them.

RobertE said:

Updated: Decided that like most things in life, if its worth doing its worth doing right. So I stopped bullshitting around and made some new purchases.

25' roll of mylar
400w HPS with 6" Cooled hood + 6" ducting
6" inline booster fan
4" inline fan from HTPsupply
Earth Juice bloom
light timer
6mm plastic to seal the closet

I also made my own carbon filter and will be working on a muffler for the inline fan

I'll be installing all my new gear and inducing flowering this weekend

Any ideas as to what type of yield I'll get off my plants? They're 3' tall before flowering x 4 of them.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a great op. I would say probably 1-3 ounces of yield per plant minimum.
Good luck bro!

im in the middle of setting my room up and starting my winter grow. this year i decided to stop jerkin off and do it right. glad to see more people on the bandwagon. sounds like your on the right path.

About a week later this is how my two favorite ladies are looking. Not the best, but not bad for the first time from bagseed.

Equipment should be here monday and flowering should commence then.

Installed my 400W HPS.. so awesome! Its so much more cost effective/smart to use a 400w instead of a 250w. Also set up my exhaust system.. DIY Carbon filter -> DIY Muffler -> Ducting -> Inline fan -> ducting outside of closet. Installed Mylar on 3 of the 4 walls inside teh closet and sealed it with 6mm plastic.. Also have odor absorbing gel outside the closet. Most of the smell is taken care of, my only gripe is how loud the exhaust is. I fed the girls there first dose of EJ Bloom and within the first 2 days of 12/12 they EXPLODED with pistils. I'm highly impressed considering they're bagseed.