TeeAychSee's First Grow ~ Soil ~ Organic ~ From Seed

Hi everyone I'm new to the site and I wasn't going to before out of laziness but I've decided to put up a grow journal and show everyone what I have going on. I'm currently using 8 42 Watt CFL's 6500K with 4 bulbs on a light fixture I built and then I have 2 reflectors with 2 bulbs in each. I have 17 plants right now, 8 are seedlings from dro seeds that sprouted 2 days ago in plastic cups, and the rest are 1-2 weeks old and are from good mids. I'm using a Lighthouse Hydro grow tent I got off eBay. The tent is 20" x 36" x 60". How many plants could I flower in this thing If I flower them at about 3 weeks old or about 5 inches? I try to keep my temps between 70-80 with lights on 24/7. I try to keep humidity above 40% but I can't get it any higher than 45% even with a humidifier up full blast because of the fan. Is it possible to have circulation but also maintain humidity? Anyways, I appreciate any helpful advice and I'll try to update every few days or so. Bare with me, it's my first grow.

I've noticed that plants in soil seem to grow at an alarming rate, faster than in my book called Marijuana Buds for less Grow 8 oz. of bud for less than $100 by SeeMoreBuds. I got the light fixture plans from that book. I am growing in Roots Organics soil. I've also noticed that the seeds I start in rockwool have more trouble and are more stunted than those that I start in soil which just thrive. It seems like the rockwool dries out quickly and i need to water daily at first. All the plants started in rockwool were under a homemade humidity dome at one point.

~ Pic 1) A little yellow on the plant on the right; only on one little spot, was orange when growing in, does anyone know what this might be? These plants were both started in rockwool
~ Pic 2) Beautiful plant started in soil
~ Pic 3) My gorgeous asymmetrical plant which has strangely always had one side's leaves larger than the other. Started in rockwool and it sprouted on 1/6
~ Pic 4) Larger plant about 10 days old the small seedling about 3. Growth seems stunted when compared to just soil. Is it okay for the rockwool to get dry and crispy?
~ Pic 5) Another rockwool plant doing nice because it's under a reflector with 2 42 watt CFL's, but the tips of it's big leaves are darker and strange-shaped, kind of firm to the touch. What could this be? I rotate all the pots around because only two pots can have the really bright light at once until I get more reflectors
~ Pic 6) My 2 biggest beauties. These sisters have very similar genetics and were born the same day 1/8. I planted 5 good mids seeds in soil in one pot and only these 2 came up. They are kind of like twins. The one on the left I attempted to FIM yesterday and took a pair of scissors to the new growth. I hope I didn't hurt her too bad. Does anyone know if I did this right at all judging by the pictures and how it might affect new growth?
~ Pic 7) close-up of the FIM job
~ Pic 8 ) Homemade light setup. Need to get some kind of reflectors. Ideas anyone? Also getting one more clamp light for the back middle of the tent.
~ Pics 9 & 10) Setup open and closed. Need to keep it slightly open with fan running to maintain temps in the 70s. Sometimes I even need to blow cold air into the room from outside with temps getting into the 90s in there!
~ Pics 11 & 12) Moisture/light/soil ph meter I got off eBay. It says my soil ph is 7 - 7.5 depending on the pot. I read that ideal ph is 6.2 - 6.3 in the book I have so I watered the small seedlings with 6.0 ph water today and the first bit of runoff was 6.3. Am I doing this right? Does ph even matter with organics and to what extent? Does the soil ph meter I have even look reliable?

All pictures were just taken a few hours ago

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Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this and anyone that may be able to answer some of my questions. I appreciate it and whoever wants to see this grow subscribe; I'm doing all organics looking for the best quality above quantity and I'm going all out, may have to expand my grow op if I don't have room to flower what do ya'll think? Will be ordering a carbon filter with fan. Just ordered some air pots yesterday can't wait to try them out. I'll also be starting some Seedsman white widow and Nirvana northern lights both feminized to get some good mothers and take clones. Looking forward to the feedback. Stay tuned...

looks good bro.. im sure u no this but im gunna state it just in case... the lights u got wont flower you girls and when flowering u need to put ur light cycle on 12/12 keep up the good work

Thanks brotha and yeaah I know I'm gonna be ordering some 2700K bulbs soon do you think 12 42 watts will give me a decent yield?

hell yeah they should.. the only problem with cfls is that they dont penitrate good so u will probably have to put some on the side and the top but it can be done.. ppl on here told me i could get bud out of 1 55 watt cfl and 3 26 watt cfls, i just harvested an ounce out of my mini fridge and now im thinkin they were all just haters.. keep it up

didnt the moderator Garden Knowm write that book? don't quote me but i think i saw a thread with him taking credit to it. at least helping

Nice operation , as for that lil spot in pic 1..., Hell that young dont worry bout a little spot, It could have been caused by about anything, no need to worry unless it gets bigger, or spreads on itself or others.., I think it all looks great... subed be watchin u

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/40884-buds-less-cfl-book.html found it. sorry it was bothering me i didnt wanna give false info

I started seeing these little black gnats flying around my soil about 3 days ago. After a little reading I learned they are most likely fungus gnats. I read that someone else using Roots Organics soil has had the same problem. I'm going to try to eliminate these before I have little flies stuck to my buds. I also read that their larvae eat the plant's roots. Yikes!

An easy way to get rid of those is to simply top your pots with sand

Yeah SS I also heard perlite works too I'm gonna try that cuz I grew outdoors in sandy soil and my plants ended up dying

TeeAychSee said:

Yeah SS I also heard perlite works too I'm gonna try that cuz I grew outdoors in sandy soil and my plants ended up dying

Click to expand...

Ya Sandy soil is too well drained I'm sure. Havent heard bout perlite but Top dressing with either sand or perhaps even diatomacious earth about 1/2" deep on the top will definately work. Good Luck. Looking good.

Hey bro ! Welcome . A quick note on your light placement , CFL's work best when they are placed with the long side of the bulb facing the plant . When they are vertical facing the plant valuable lumens are lost . They should be around 2-3 in proximity to the plant also . The usable light doesn,t travel far . For this reason it's also pointless to use a reflector with small CFL's , it will make it "look" brighter but actually does little to nothing for your plants. I just use clamp on fixtures , they allow you to place lights right where you want them.

Overall your plants are doing well . Yes any soil that you buy that has been stored outside will come with fungus gnats . You have to find a supplier that gets it from the factory and stores it inside away from insects . As already suggested a layer of sand works ,diatomacious earth works by killing the larve . Neem and horticultural oil work too . Set traps to catch the adults b4 they lay eggs and apply one of the suggested methods and you will break there breeding cycle . Watering too often lets them breed faster allow your top soil to dry some between waterings. Subbed +rep

I use roots and had a small prob at the start but after a couple waterings with some endo/myco's that killed everything off there is a oganism called Bacillus thuringienis that kill pest larva in the soil and turn the little fucks into plant food

Hey kingofqueen. You're saying reflectors won't do anything for my plants? Because it seems like they would greatly increase lumens going to the plant I don't understand how having reflective walls will increase the light but having reflectors right above the light bulbs is useless doesn't seem to make sense. Does having reflectors on CFLs with the long side facing the plant help and it's just vertical bulb's reflectors that are useless? Thanks for the help man I did spray my plants with a little Dyna Gro Neem Oil and Pro Tekt mixture and with my traps I haven't seen any gnats lately. I'll be posting an update on my girls real soon...

Because light from cfls reflects in a whole different way than hid . The large cfls 150+ watts work in a hood because they have enough lumens to reflect . Do some research and you will see some of what I,m saying .

Not saying don't do it , just that in terms of reflecting light off small low lumen CFL's is pointless ,flourscent light reflects differently than hid ,not to mention proximity . I keep them within 2 in of foilage , by the time I try to fit some sort of reflector air flow to plants would be blocked , it would cause heat build up and actually just make the situation worse and for little to no cause . I suppose if you have them mounted on a even plane and put a reflector above that ,would be the best scenario , but then you just lost your 2in proximity to all the foilage limiting just the top canopy to usable light .Follow me on any of that?

Read here >>>>https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/41024-cfl-proximity-foliage.html

Yeah, I see man. Thanks for explaining I might not even get reflectors now if it doesn't make much of a difference. Amazing grow by the way you gave me a lot of good ideas

Right on man just trying to help out .Hate to see someone do somthing I've already reasearched and debunked . I looked but just couldn't find the article that explains the science of flourscent light rays and reflection . If you looked at my veg area u can see I just use clamp on sockets with 2 way splitters . A quick note too while i was looking for that article I found a read that stated 23-26 w cfls put out the highest lumen to watt ratio . All mine are 23-26 watt . I will be getting rid of them soon though ,looking to upgrade to a T5 fixture for vegging .

What's up everybody it's been a few days since my last update and my plants have made a shitload of progress I am proud. Everyone on here's been big a help so far. Hope ya'll enjoy the pics...

Pic 1: My two ladies sharing a pot. Will be separating them as soon as my air pots arrive in the mail. I noticed the one on the left has a very strange first set of leaves they are like lobster claws.
Pic 2: Beautiful stout, short plant, the one with one side's leaves always bigger than the other.
Pic 3: This plant is gorgeous I have always kept it in the back right corner of the tent under a reflector with 2 42 watt CFLs. I believe from what I've seen the plants under the reflectors always grow the fastest. This plant alone may prove that or it could just be good genetics.
Pic 4: This plant seems to quickly be outgrowing its little pot.
Pic 5: One of the twins, the plant I attempted to FIM. I realize I didn't cut far down enough on the node to FIM it properly. This plant has just been topped Uncle Ben style to achieve 4 main colas I'll take some pics soon to show my next update. I'm really hoping for a female here.
Pic 6: The two twin sisters side by side. A little droopy from transplant stress as I transplanted one from the pot they both shared into another pot about 3 days ago. They seem to be recovering fine.
Pic 7: Both of the two sisters have these only near the top of the plant. Can anybody tell me what this is/means?
Pics 8, 9, & 10: The other plants that share a pot. Here's where it gets a little weird. The last plant that I started in rockwool was right after I got my ph meter. I soaked the cube in 5.5 ph water and put a germinated seed in then placed in humidity dome. The seed that sprouted and is shown closely in Pics 9 & 10. This is by far the strangest of any of the mutations my plants have had. This plant has only 1 leaf on its first true set of leaves and 4 COTYLEDONS! Yes I repeat 4 cotyledons! Or at least that's what it looks like. Has anyone ever seen this before? I don't know what's going on but it sure will be interesting to see how this thing grows. It seems like only the plants I start in rockwool develop genetic deformities that are quite odd. Positioned a branch on the big plant with an incense stick so the little one could get some light.
Pic 11: Group shot
Pic 12: Some of the dro plants...


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I hope you guys like what you see I'm off to smoke a bowl of some purp and pass out. Here's some pics of some shit I picked up tonight first one is what my dealer called afghan it is some of the smoothest and best weed I've ever had the high is great got a g for $20. The second pic is a bud of some purp I got a g of this for $10 haven't tried it yet I'm about to now. Peace ya'll