TheXriddler
Member
Howdy all, and Good Day to my fellow Brits 
I have started a new grow. It's my 'first' (I did grow a plant many years ago, but forgotten more than I remembered). I've started keeping a journal, and I figured it'd be good to keep it here, so others might learn from my trials and tribulations - it'll also be good to go back and see how things developed over time. If anyone spots anything that I don't see (in my pics) feel free to let me know, or have some advise the share, I'll always listen.
So enjoy
Motive:
I'm fed up of paying ridiculous prices for a pkant extract; it's not saffron! And the crap on the street is just bad a times; I've had many batches of treated skunk that have left me with bad chest and breathing problems after smoking - that just aint right. I don't want to be financing the criminal underworld, I just want to enjoy my tipple. I probably get through about 5 pints of beer a month, so I'm not a drinker - and besides, I've never seen a pot head start a fight. One thing that pisses me off apart from the fact it's illegal in the UK, is the 'daily mail' attitude of, if you like a reefer, then your entire life is doomed, and you'll never acheive anything (hark I hear so many fathers of ex-girlfriends shout). I run a successful business, which has taken me around the world - and I've been toking for the past 18 years - I'd hardly say that's a life screwed by dope (in fact smoking dope has opened doors for me in the form of networking - who needs Facebook, when you got a big bag of green
)
Setup Room
Sectioning off a 5ft by 5ft section of a large bedroom using the same boards they use to board up shops and windows. After building a baton frame, screwed boards o frame. The inside is lined with diamond cut sheeting, and after putting a false ceiling on the grow room placed two rolls of 'space blanket' loft insulation (drop ceiling I made from baton and some left over laminate flooring). The insulation is good for heat retention and stopping any pesky light leaks from cracks)
The sheeting is tacked to the walls of the room (tried tape and it 'sucks up' too much light)
The plan is to build a second room in 3 weeks time and kit this out for flowering using the same materials as above.
current concern is the ceiling and floor should be lined with diamond cut sheeting as well
Grow Room built and lined
Lighting
I'm currently using a t5 flourescent grow light (4 bulb) for getting light to the plants - I think a second will be needed (need at least one more anyhow for the flowering room). The light is running 6500K blue light and the unit has a built in reflector. The light hangs from two chains for easy adjustability.
I see the light!
Planting / Feeding System
Medium = Cana CoCo Professional
Pots = 7 litre 10"
'Food' Products: Plantmagicplus coco grow 2 part; Plantmagic root stimulater; plantmagic catalyst. (I had planned on using differnt products but store had stopped stocking them, and these we reccomended as a good replacement.
PH Up and Down
The 'A dam wish I had one of those lists'
pippettes/droppers
calcium evaporated water ready
Strain
Some bottom of bag seed from a batch of street bought grass (not even skunk, the brown 'commerical' crap) and Northen light from 'feminised' seeds (Goldenseed, great service )
Light cycle = 19 on / 5 off
Special Note:
What I have done is start 5 seed in bag plants and grown them to different sizes. I use these plants to test anyhting I want to do to the northern light beforehand, such as feed changes, training or topping. I am only on day 2 of the NL grow, so most of below relates to prep of the seed in bag grass, which I'll be applying to the NL as the test ones have shown good results.
I keep 2 small plants that I find ideal for feed testing, as they show results to any problems early on. I keep one running bear min nutes as the control, and the other as the test for feed increases etc.
5 Plants used for testing ahead of changes to valuable crop
Germing and Early Growth
I used wet tissue and glass technique to get bagseed to start; they took a while to get going, around a week. Once germed I moved them to 1 pint milk bottles cartons and ice cream tubs I had around. One plant ended up with a second seed in it's soil which ended up germing - so one pot has two plants.
During this early period I had no proper light, so used a couple of CFL table lamps on 24hrs. Growth was slow, but steady.
After 2 weeks under the lights I transplanted the pot with 2 seedlings and 1 other into larger pots. Not having coco at this point, I went with John Innes seedling (ph neutral) grow peat - it's low in nutes, perfect for me switching to Cana Coco later as the nutes will be drained.
check the light burn
The seedlings were kept on a diet of tap water that had been left to stand for at least 24 hours, and stirred/agitated often. After moving to bigger pots, growth remained slow as they were not under t5 lighting.
1 week later, light arrives and coco grow 2 part. The light is inserted into a cupborad for a tempoary location and I start the plants on a feed of 1.5ml of each part to 1 litre and balancing PH to 6. Due to space restrictions, light sits 2 feet above plant tops.
After 3 days a noticable change in growth is showing (not as fast as I'd like). I continue to feed at 1.5ml per litre every other feed and ph balanced water the other.
2 weeks later the catalyst and root stim product arrive. Mixing catalyst at 1.5ml per litre I spra all plants. The next day the was a huge spurt in growth; plants continue to enjoy superb growth with a light spraying twice a day.
The light is also movable now and as a result, coupled with the catalyst, there's been a huge increase in vegging
Now the test plants have progressed well, the northen lights is now starting. At this point the journal becomes day 1
Day 1:
Planted NL seeds using peat pockets and PH balanced water
Having just received root stim, all current plants are given a very light watering of water - no nutes
All plants sprayed with catalyst
Day 2:
Plants sprayed 11am
Test plant given a feed of 3/3/1.5 Pltr @ PH6 (coco grow 1/ coco grow 2/ root stim)
No feed for other plants
Will add edit more as time goes by.
Photo album viewable here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/117883446433514370926/GrowJournal?feat=directlink
I have started a new grow. It's my 'first' (I did grow a plant many years ago, but forgotten more than I remembered). I've started keeping a journal, and I figured it'd be good to keep it here, so others might learn from my trials and tribulations
- it'll also be good to go back and see how things developed over time. If anyone spots anything that I don't see (in my pics) feel free to let me know, or have some advise the share, I'll always listen.So enjoy
Motive:
I'm fed up of paying ridiculous prices for a pkant extract; it's not saffron! And the crap on the street is just bad a times; I've had many batches of treated skunk that have left me with bad chest and breathing problems after smoking - that just aint right. I don't want to be financing the criminal underworld, I just want to enjoy my tipple. I probably get through about 5 pints of beer a month, so I'm not a drinker - and besides, I've never seen a pot head start a fight. One thing that pisses me off apart from the fact it's illegal in the UK, is the 'daily mail' attitude of, if you like a reefer, then your entire life is doomed, and you'll never acheive anything (hark I hear so many fathers of ex-girlfriends shout). I run a successful business, which has taken me around the world - and I've been toking for the past 18 years - I'd hardly say that's a life screwed by dope (in fact smoking dope has opened doors for me in the form of networking - who needs Facebook, when you got a big bag of green
)Setup Room
Sectioning off a 5ft by 5ft section of a large bedroom using the same boards they use to board up shops and windows. After building a baton frame, screwed boards o frame. The inside is lined with diamond cut sheeting, and after putting a false ceiling on the grow room placed two rolls of 'space blanket' loft insulation (drop ceiling I made from baton and some left over laminate flooring). The insulation is good for heat retention and stopping any pesky light leaks from cracks)
The sheeting is tacked to the walls of the room (tried tape and it 'sucks up' too much light)
The plan is to build a second room in 3 weeks time and kit this out for flowering using the same materials as above.
current concern is the ceiling and floor should be lined with diamond cut sheeting as well
Grow Room built and lined
Lighting
I'm currently using a t5 flourescent grow light (4 bulb) for getting light to the plants - I think a second will be needed (need at least one more anyhow for the flowering room). The light is running 6500K blue light and the unit has a built in reflector. The light hangs from two chains for easy adjustability.
I see the light!
Planting / Feeding System
Medium = Cana CoCo Professional
Pots = 7 litre 10"
'Food' Products: Plantmagicplus coco grow 2 part; Plantmagic root stimulater; plantmagic catalyst. (I had planned on using differnt products but store had stopped stocking them, and these we reccomended as a good replacement.
PH Up and Down
The 'A dam wish I had one of those lists'
pippettes/droppers
calcium evaporated water ready
Strain
Some bottom of bag seed from a batch of street bought grass (not even skunk, the brown 'commerical' crap) and Northen light from 'feminised' seeds (Goldenseed, great service
)Light cycle = 19 on / 5 off
Special Note:
What I have done is start 5 seed in bag plants and grown them to different sizes. I use these plants to test anyhting I want to do to the northern light beforehand, such as feed changes, training or topping. I am only on day 2 of the NL grow, so most of below relates to prep of the seed in bag grass, which I'll be applying to the NL as the test ones have shown good results.
I keep 2 small plants that I find ideal for feed testing, as they show results to any problems early on. I keep one running bear min nutes as the control, and the other as the test for feed increases etc.
5 Plants used for testing ahead of changes to valuable crop
Germing and Early Growth
I used wet tissue and glass technique to get bagseed to start; they took a while to get going, around a week. Once germed I moved them to 1 pint milk bottles cartons and ice cream tubs I had around. One plant ended up with a second seed in it's soil which ended up germing - so one pot has two plants.
During this early period I had no proper light, so used a couple of CFL table lamps on 24hrs. Growth was slow, but steady.
After 2 weeks under the lights I transplanted the pot with 2 seedlings and 1 other into larger pots. Not having coco at this point, I went with John Innes seedling (ph neutral) grow peat - it's low in nutes, perfect for me switching to Cana Coco later as the nutes will be drained.
check the light burn
The seedlings were kept on a diet of tap water that had been left to stand for at least 24 hours, and stirred/agitated often. After moving to bigger pots, growth remained slow as they were not under t5 lighting.
1 week later, light arrives and coco grow 2 part. The light is inserted into a cupborad for a tempoary location and I start the plants on a feed of 1.5ml of each part to 1 litre and balancing PH to 6. Due to space restrictions, light sits 2 feet above plant tops.
After 3 days a noticable change in growth is showing (not as fast as I'd like). I continue to feed at 1.5ml per litre every other feed and ph balanced water the other.
2 weeks later the catalyst and root stim product arrive. Mixing catalyst at 1.5ml per litre I spra all plants. The next day the was a huge spurt in growth
; plants continue to enjoy superb growth with a light spraying twice a day.The light is also movable now and as a result, coupled with the catalyst, there's been a huge increase in vegging
Now the test plants have progressed well, the northen lights is now starting. At this point the journal becomes day 1
Day 1:
Planted NL seeds using peat pockets and PH balanced water
Having just received root stim, all current plants are given a very light watering of water - no nutes
All plants sprayed with catalyst
Day 2:
Plants sprayed 11am
Test plant given a feed of 3/3/1.5 Pltr @ PH6 (coco grow 1/ coco grow 2/ root stim)
No feed for other plants
Will add edit more as time goes by.
Photo album viewable here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/117883446433514370926/GrowJournal?feat=directlink
