First grow for a newby

G'day everyone.

This is my first grow and as it turns out I have put the horse before the cart.
A bit to excited I forgot to check all the info out first, O well you live and learn.

The first pic was my first attempt by using a stove light while I waited to get new better lights. I also left it out int he sun each day thinking that would be fine.

As you can see it begun stretching and became very unstable. Had me stuffed what was going on. After reading plenty of info on this sight and having imput from others, I went out and purchased some proper seedling mix instead of the crap I had them in.

turns out after transplanting them into the new mix they took off, well at least the blue berry did, the chronic died, bugger. The blue berry is finally growing two new leaves as you can see. I also germinated one jack herer and one white widow. The day after dropping them into the new seedling mix, the Jack herer popped its head out with two leaves, I couldn't believe it, man that was fast. The white widow broke through the very day after, Im a happy man for now.

Light

I went and bought a 250 watt CFL from a hydroponic gardening shop. They had some good info. I have the light around 8-10 inches above the plants as it seems to give off a bit of heat.

Watering

I have been giving them around a table spoon of water every couple of days, the surface is quite dry and crusty around that time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Green pot plant is blue berry

third from left is Jack Herer

last on the right is White widow.

welcome to the best place to learn to do it right

plain water? what ph of water any idea and what type of soil is that? 10" with a cfl seems far but i use smaller ones i can run 5 of them 6" (closer maybe, they have a fan on them to exhaust the heat) from same size plant. but maybe just put your hand over the plant see if u feel heat if not move it closer. i started with cfl i know htg u can get a 250 hps for real cheap with a hood adn ballast if you want any return from your plants u need real light and ventilation, is what i learned here.

what is the grow area?

think you should be giving more water also roots cant grow in rock hard dirt and a table spoon every few days is not gonna cut it imo.

if u can answer any of that it will help others give you faster info ;0

Well, the fun begins huh? we water deeply our cannabis, but not until the dirt is dry when you stick your finger into the first knuckle it should be dry. They are nice to let us know when they need water. You want to encourage roots to grow deep, not just what a Tbl spoon of water would do.

Nothing like your first seeds popping.. green mojo

sup buddy WELCOME TO FANTASY ISLAND

... a table spoon of water is way too little I would say 200 ml. the rule is that when you water you want 10% run off

liek NE wguy said jsut get a small fan and you can have your light even closer may b even up to 2 inches. ONLY with proper ventilation. good luck~

After reading so much about over watering and off course much of that was conflicting. I figured I would go on the conservative side. The light does give off a bit of heat so again, I kept it away to the point where its just warm on the back of my hand at the tops of the plants. There isn't any ventilation in the room however however it is quite cool. The door is partially opened. Should I have a fan going all the time?

I also have foil wrapped around the area that plants are in, This will b e changed over to mylar late this week. I totally get the idea of planing before you grow lol. I guess I was so excited when I received my seeds I just couldn't wait. Then again, that I why I germinated two free ones before the hard core stuff went in.

I still need to find a good Ph meter, I bought one of the $9 jobs which again, I find out are a waste of money, man.

white walls are better then foil

defiantly a little fan blowing or ideally pulling the hot light air out as well as a light breeze above plant

ventilation and a hps light keys to success

:yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Hello Stufart, Can i ask what soil you are using ? Many aussie soils have slow release fertilisers in them its very important to begin with 100% organic soils !

Sth east Qld has a tap water ph of around ph8.2 i alway keep aqua one pool tester strips on hand $13 at bunnings to cross check my ph meter and they do work well but can become costly unless you document your feeding schedule and always use the same amounts of water and nutes each time you feed your plants.
Will you continue to grow indoors or are you going to grow outdoors ? I'm curious due to the need of matching your indoor light times to match outdoor light times and prevent your grow from flowering to early when they go outdoors. If you intend to grow indoors then temps will NOT be ideal in 2 months you will certainly require an air conditioner or similiar cooling arrangement in place.

I'll pull up a chair and ride along if you have a spare seat in the house.
Goodluck THC.

Stufart said:

After reading so much about over watering and off course much of that was conflicting. I figured I would go on the conservative side. The light does give off a bit of heat so again, I kept it away to the point where its just warm on the back of my hand at the tops of the plants. There isn't any ventilation in the room however however it is quite cool. The door is partially opened. Should I have a fan going all the time?

I also have foil wrapped around the area that plants are in, This will b e changed over to mylar late this week. I totally get the idea of planing before you grow lol. I guess I was so excited when I received my seeds I just couldn't wait. Then again, that I why I germinated two free ones before the hard core stuff went in.

I still need to find a good Ph meter, I bought one of the $9 jobs which again, I find out are a waste of money, man.

Click to expand...

Greetings Stu, welcome.
I got my PH up and down kit from Ebay. General Hydroponics is a good company, their test kit was under $15 and you only need a couple drops per test so it should last awhile. Hope this helps, I am new to growing as well. Best of luck to you!! Namaste

yep run a fan all the time! i think panda is better then mylar. it will last longer. Im about to pop some beans right now they ll be about the same age as yours yeah!!!

Panda, whats that?

one side is black the other side is white thats the reflector side its only $1 per 10 sqf

Take the foil down. Foil is bad. I like flat white paint. It cleans well and is almost as reflective as panda film and you can get it almost anywhere and you don't have to hang it.

If your soil is getting crusty, it is not good. What is it exactly? You should keep the little plants in little pots until you have good roots growing out the bottom. It is extremely hard to water babies the correct amount in large pots.

IMO, a test kit that uses strips is simply not accurate enough to really do much good. Get a meter. Don't get the one that has probes you stick in the ground. When they are young and not getting nutes yet, pH is not an issue unless it is way high or way low. We need pH within certain parameters to facilitate nutrient uptake, that is basically the only reason that we have to worry about pH. So unless your water is way high or way low, don't worry about the pH yet.

You might want to run purchases of things like lights by the peeps here. I certainly would have preferred to see you get a small HPS or a T5 over the 250 CFL, which probably was not inexpensive if it is an actual 250W. Remember that the people in the grow stores are employed to sell you things. Unfortunately, they do not always have YOUR best interests at heart. So, just be cautious with larger purchases.

You are going to need other things down the road as your plant gets older and we can go over those when your plants does get older. You can read up now on what your plan t is going to need as it gets bigger and plan a space to put it that you can control the environment and lighting.

I have tank water, not sure what the ph would be. I have been a bit confused as to what ph test kit to buy in oz land. I was leaning towards a meter with out the probe. The CFL is massive, Im amazed at just how big this thing is. I dont know if this light is a true 250 watts, but the law here is very tight on dodgy advertising. I will get rid of the tin foil, thought it might help to reflect light back into the plant. They are kicking along Nickey now. I will have to check the seedling mix is, whats in it.

digital ph tester is the way to go!
but if money is a problem ebay has a digital ph reader for water for only$10 I don't know how good they are tho lol at least is from US sellers not over seas. the ones I've had costed me around $80 from a hydro stores.
Why not go organic like many of us? no need to Ph the water. But I do buy purified water I only spend like $1 or 2 a week n i get it in 5 gal when I do my groceries so I dont spend extra gas money. or you can buy a filter for like $100 . as far as soil check out Roots Organic! or for a little less check out happy frog!
you dont have to spend a lot of money just gotta be a careful grower.
check your numbers:
humidity, highs and lows
temperature, highs and lows
ideal air circulation, "cubic feet per minute" CFM
proper water and nutrients PH and PPM EC
check your lights "lummens per square feet.
and make sure you do everything possible to avoid bugs and thieves.
check your numbers Stu and you ll be fine

Not on this site but many others. watched you tube and nearly all that I read or watched had different ideas on watering. Some said that the seedling gets one large watering, then thats it until the roots appear through the bottom the pot.

Strange, how long is the pot your growing in and doesn't seedlings need water to grow??? I guess its like anything really, if you don't know then your open to receiving the wrong info from the get go. I watered them so around 10% cam out the bottom to the pot plants. Funny, they took off growing.

here are some new pics.

Left to right

Blue berry in green pot

White widow

Jack Herer

All are growing quite fast now.

Should I be looking at transferring these plants into 1 gallon or 1 liter containers? Does bigger containers matter in very young plants?

The two smaller plants are in large Coffey cups, around 6 inches tall and maybe 4 inches wide. The larger green pot is maybe 7 inches wide and 6-7 inches deep.

Do you think I should just transplant them into much larger and taller containers now, before they get bigger?
They are coming on strong.
The white widow is growing incredibly fast as to is the Jack Herer. The blue berry is going great guns but I would have to say the white widow is a touch in front.

Stufart

Leave them alone for a while, don't think about transplanting for 3 weeks or so.. They are busy making roots now that they will need forever.

What light are you using again?