Some advice please.

Hi everyone, new to RollItUp. Hopefully I'm posting in an appropriate place.

I'm growing my first plant in a closet. I rent a room off of a cop's son, so I'm pretty bad-ass.

I didn't plan my grow very well, I germinated a seed, and planted it in a cup, and used a 40w florescent desk lap. In about 3 days, I looked at the bottom of the clear cup (I know I could have ruined the roots exposing it to light), and the roots were trying to find more room, and were covering the bottom. So I found a 8" diameter garden pot, and transplanted it in there. I had a bag of top-soil in my garage, so I used that. It didn't go smooth, the soil crumbled, and I was left holding a seedling with the roots dangling in the air. But, I got it in there, and the plant started growing well (it's day 8, and it has 2 equal sized sets of leaves). I am now using, a 65w CFL work light. It says it's equivelent to a 300w incandescent bulb, and produces 2700k bright white output. I plan on adding some lighting later on.

But, after doing a lot of reading on these forums, I'm afraid that top-soil won't be able to feed the plant into maturity (I sprayed about a half cup of water mixed with a teaspoon of Schultz 10-15-10 [I know, not the ideal fertilizer to use, but I'm tight on cash, so it's better than nothing, am I wrong?] so that is really the only food that has been added.). So, I am planning on transplanting into a larger pot, with Miracle Grow potting soil. Is it too late to be switching soils? And, the soil doesn't stay together easily, it crumbles apart, so I'm afraid of having a set of dangling roots in my hand again.

What do you people think I should do, or change? Should I leave it, or transplant to a better medium? It's my first time, and I would just like some advice from a knowledgeable grower. Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

does the top/potting soil your using come with nutrients already added?

have pictures?

1st thing is your light spectrum is the wrong color and it will either take forever to grow or it will stretch out, both are bad. You need a 6500k spectrum for vegging then when you flower u can use the light u got now it will be great for that. Miracle gro soil is great and will help if you havent damaged the roots to bad, Just make sure the soil is wet be4 u transplant and it will hold together.

Well the soil doesn't sound too bad really as it sounds to be fairly airy which is good for the plant. You don't want a soil that compacts too much or holds too much water/fertilizer either. If your not sure of your soil though, it might be best to get new soil as it is fairly cheap for a real small bag. Try to buy soil that isn't full of time released nutrients, as its always better to add your own which is easier to control. You know your fertilizer isn't the right type but keep it for flowering as it will work. You probably know that you want a fertilizer with a hight N for vegging. Also the light your using is the wrong type. Try and get CFL's in the "Daylight" spectrum or the 5000-6500K range as that is much better for vegging. The 2700K bulb your using now is good for flowering but doesn't have enough of the blue spectrum for vegging. Good luck!

potsmokinbasturd said:

1st thing is your light spectrum is the wrong color and it will either take forever to grow or it will stretch out, both are bad. You need a 6500k spectrum for vegging then when you flower u can use the light u got now it will be great for that. Miracle gro soil is great and will help if you havent damaged the roots to bad, Just make sure the soil is wet be4 u transplant and it will hold together.

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he is using the wrong spectrum but it really doesnt matter imo.(alot of hps using growers will do both veg and flower under the same light for example) i do all my vegging with almost all 2700k(8 42w 2700k and 4 42w 6500k is what i have at the moment for my 4 vegging plants) and it gets me dense short bushy plants just as well as if i use only blue spectrum for veg. it doesnt make the growth slower at all. miracle grow is very disliked here, it tends to nute burn cannabis plants just from what comes in the soil.

No offense but your grow is a failure in the making.

1. Growing in a house thats owned by a cops son.
2. Using inadequate light, and light of the wrong spectrum
3 Growing in a clear cup and exposing the roots to light.
4. Using MG potting soil. OMG don't you dare use that devils dirt!

Half assed attempts have half assed results. If you are serious about growing some herb man you need to correct the issues above. If not you probably will have a very unhealthy plant that won't produce much bud if any. Or what you do get will be hermied and full of seeds. Just what I would what to get caught growing and doing time for. BUNK WEED! Well good luck anyways. Hope it works out.

Thanks for the responses. No offense taken, I wanted honest opinions.

The guy I rent the room off has burned with me before, it just happens his father is a police officer. Besides that, my room has a lock and key, so nobody goes in while I'm not home.

I wasn't planning on growing a plant. I had some pretty good weed, and I found a single seed in a half-ounce. I put it in some damp paper towel just to see if it would pop, it did, so I decided to give it a chance at life. I put it in a cup, and within 3 days it needed to be moved, so I grabbed soil and a pot. I did zero planning, everything I'm using was found in the garage.

I don't have the money to buy a Metal Halide/High-Pressure Sodium setup (would they not be dangerous in a confined space like a closet?) at the moment.

So, my best option at the moment would be to build a better CFL setup. I'm thinking of buying a daytime light bulb for my current 65w CFL (that way I have daytime and bright white bulbs that I can switch during growth stages for proper spectrum), and building a reflector that will have 3 y-sockets for a total of 6 bulbs. I will position the 65w work light at the side of the plant(and rotate the plant daily), and hang the 6-bulb reflector overhead. Will this kind of setup be capable of producing some nice buds?

I'll take your advice and stay away from Miracle Gro. What soil do you personally recommend? But, do you think I should transplant, or keep it in a 2L pot?

Also, just tonight, I came home and found my little guy tipped over, completely on it's side. But, it turned it's stem 90 degrees so that the leaves were pointing at the light. So i stood it up and stuck a flosser in the soil so it has support to stand up straight, but the leaves are pointing to the side now. Should I even bother with this thing, or toss it out, get some good seeds and proper lighting and take it from there?

Thanks again guys.

I am thinking about buying 3 of these for the flowering stages. They're 65w CFL 5500K - day light full-spectrum.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-65-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent-Full-Spectrum-Photo-Bul_W0QQitemZ230397443213QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a4c1fc8d

And, using my 65w work light and two 20-30w spiral CFL's for vegetative stage.

What do you guys think?

65w fluoros make alotta heat I hear. 23 or 26w fluoros are perfect get 6500K daylight spec 23w at like $1.50 each or so... 10 of them = 4 of those and probably same heat, but splitters cost like a .70 or 1.00 each so maybe its more like 7 in reality, assuming you have a clamp lamp already. remove the reflector and stick a bunch of socket y-splitters into one another I think 4 per lamp is good because then you aren't overburning any 1 socket.

another thing you'll see is a power strip with plug sockets in them that is a good strategy for side lighting, but vertically I think it risky. Those plug sockets are available at hardware stores by the y splitters and just convert the base into a wall plug for a cordless approach to bulbage.

Will this kind of setup be capable of producing some nice buds?

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yes

I'll take your advice and stay away from Miracle Gro. What soil do you personally recommend? But, do you think I should transplant, or keep it in a 2L pot?

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fox farm ocean forest. black gold. anything with perlite, dolomite lime, castings, guano, vermiculite, compost, etc. organic = win with bud.

Also, just tonight, I came home and found my little guy tipped over, completely on it's side. But, it turned it's stem 90 degrees so that the leaves were pointing at the light. So i stood it up and stuck a flosser in the soil so it has support to stand up straight, but the leaves are pointing to the side now. Should I even bother with this thing, or toss it out, get some good seeds and proper lighting and take it from there?

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ummm you need cfl lights. it will recover, why toss it? just put a few cfls like 2 inches from the top that way it won't stretch all tall and fall over. don't give up on it, no reason, use paper clips or popsicle sticks, but don't wrap anything around it cuz then its useless.



later on you'll need 2700k CFLs for flowering. The guy below is right, you should do ratios like his with 2:1 6500:2700 for veg and 2-3:1 2700:6500 for flower.

5500k for flower wrong spectrum.

First is i read some of the replys so if i say anthing they said sry. but this is what i did wheni grew in my closet, i cant help with flowerin b/c long story short mom had a big mouth so i choped it.

but this what i used for the first stage.


Soil i use was MG with 10-15-10 plant food. I had 3 75watt compact flurescent bulbs, fo the first few days i had 1 75w on top of the cup till it started to leaf then just kept pull the light up, then put the other 2 lights on the sides and it grew fuckin sweet. it was not a grade A seed but it worked. After like 2 weeks i put a box fan in the conor and it work great.

But this is just a ROOKIE ass way of growin it worked for me

Thanks for your reply dbo.

I'm going to take your advice and go with the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.

If I understand you correctly, you recommend using two 6500k bulbs, and one 2700k bulb for vegetative growth. And, two or three 2700k bulbs, and one 6500k bulb for flowering? I've found these for the 6500k, but they're 26w.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/3/HouseHome/Lighting/CompactFluorescentBulbs/PRDOVR~0525350P/GE+26W+Daylight+Compact+Fluorescent+Bulbs%2C+2-Pk.jsp

And, for 2700k, what kind of wattage should I be looking for? I have a 3-pack of 15w 2700k, but I'm sure they're too weak. What about 42w?

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=945573&Ntt=945573&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber

I don't have any clamp lamps at the moment, but I am planning on making a reflector out of duct tubing, that has three sections that way I can adjust the angle of the two side sockets so light will get to the sides of the plant.

Thanks again for your help.

have fans on it?

darkdestruction420 said:

have fans on it?

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Yes, I have an osculating fan on low on it when the lights are turned on since day one. It's in a walk-in type closet with no door, so it's not stuffy. I turn it off when the lights go off though.

I was just looking at it, just below the surface of the soil the stem has a little bulge, I think that's where the roots start. Maybe I have planted it too shallow? I added about a centimeter of soil to the stem base. The stem and leaves are a bright green, so I think it's a healthy plant. It started growing four more leaves today. I'll post a pic of it.

Here's some pics. It's already straightened it's stem out for the most part since falling over, but it's leaves are still bent down, they haven't perked up yet. Does he look healthy to you guys?

I showed measurements for the pot. Is it big enough, or is a transplant in order?

how often and how much are you watering?

darkdestruction420 said:

how often and how much are you watering?

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When I started, I was spraying the seedling, and the soil daily with about a 1/4 cup of water mixed with a tiny bit of Shultz 10-15-10. But after reading some of these threads, I have started giving it a cup of water every other day, with no added nutrients. And, I am no longer spraying it, I'm just pouring it in a circle around the plant. In those pics, the soil is a little moist, because I sprayed the water to dampen the surface so I could push more soil around the stem to help it stand up.

ESkinny said:

Here's some pics. It's already straightened it's stem out for the most part since falling over, but it's leaves are still bent down, they haven't perked up yet. Does he look healthy to you guys?

I showed measurements for the pot. Is it big enough, or is a transplant in order?

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It looks good man. Full spectrum that light should be enough until it is about 2 inches high then I would advise you pick up 4 6500k daylight cfl and 4 2700k warm light cfl and 3 socket splitters and a clamp lamp and put 4 cfls on it. Something like 3 6500 and 1 2700 for veg and then 3 2700 and 1 6500 for flower. the ratios I put up earlier are just like if you have 27 lights there should be like 18 2700 and 9 6500 for flower or if you have 28, 21 should be 2700 and 7 should be 6500. for veg it should be the other way with more 6500s than 2700s.

full spectrums are always good though.


I would stick with 23-26w bulbs, splitters, and clamps so you can run 4 of them on one socket. if you try to run four 42 watt lamps you are gonna be risking heat problems on the socket. plus 4 lamps = better spread.

your watering too often, wait till you can stick your finger 2 inches into the soil and it feels dry at least. mj likes wet/dry cycles,