K2

This is my second grow attempt, my first one went well until I left my plant for a weekend and the reservoir got low and the plant dried up and died. This time I have Nirvana's K2 seeds and a 250 watt HPS. I have one plant growing in soil right now and I leave it outside on a balcony during the daylight hours, and bring it in under the HPS for night time. Hopefully this will make it grow fast, and save me a bit of money on electricity, afterall, the sun is free. I'm hoping to get a female from the soil plant, and then start it's clones in hydro. I've also have a seed germing in rockwool right now that will be put into a DWC hydro system once it's a seedling.

The pics are taken about three days after the seed popped up from the ground.

One thing that surprised me is the leaves already look like they have tiny little hairs on them. I highly doubt whether any thc is present when the plant is so little but the leaves look like they have a very fine layer of frost on them.

Awww...it's a baby. Beautiful, good luck!

You're gonna love the K2 Ataraxia. Hope you get a girl.

I checked my seed that had been in rockwool for a few days and it finally popped up. It doesn't look too healthy, but hopefully in a day or two it will reach upwards and perk up. My other plant, to be named Alexa, is doing fine, I wish it would grow faster though. I have a couple of pics of her too. To mee it looks like she's stretching, not real bad, but maybe it's due to the HPS light.

Pic1 Birds eye view
Pic2 A bit stretchy?
Pic3 Those cotyledons look sickly
Pic4 Hope it lives

I decided since my germed seed I put into rockwool died, that I should start another seed in soil. Currently I have 2 seedlings. The older one, I'll call Alexa, popped above ground May 26, making her about 1 week old in these pictures, her new sister, Sylvia, is only 2 days old in the pictures and looks to be doing well. Hopefully in a few weeks I"ll have a pair of girls for sure.

Pic1: One week old top view
Pic2: Side shot, she's about 2" tall now
Pic3: 2 days old
Pic4:Sideview of the newborn
Pic5: I decided to start some LST on the week old seedling

What did you soak your rockwool with before you put the seeds in?
What's your soil mix?

I'll be following along, k+

Thanks for lookin in Bubby

I soaked the rockwool for about 24 hours with some distilled water, pH of 7.
I'm using a mix of perlite, MiracleGro Organic choice potting mix (without any time released ferts in it) and some peat moss. The Alexa looks kinda yellow, but I guess maybe that's just her color as I haven't added any nutes and the soil is pretty nuetral.

Get a soil ph test of some sort. The MG Organic is usually low in ph. Add a lil lime to your soil and your yellowing of the leaves will clear up I bet.

I went to home depot and picked up a 30"widex20.5"deepx72"tall cabinet. It's already white on the inside so I might just leave it. Or I might spring for some mylar, I haven't decided yet. I had to take the first one I bought back because a board in the box was broken, and some hardware was missing on the second on I bought. Anyways, I got it put together and mounted my light in it. I'm growing in my rather large walk in closet. There's an attic door in the ceiling. I think I might replace it with a piece of plywood with a 4" hole in it and blow my exhaust air up through that with flexible ducting. This would get rid of a lot of heat and allow me to keep the door closed. The only thing I worry about is smell, soon I'll have to invest in a carbon scrubber to be safe as I'm blowing the exhaust above my neighbor's apartments. Alexa is still mellow yellow, but not real bad, just starting. I don't have any lime, can that be picked up at any gardening store? Here are some updated pics, enjoy...

pic1: Alexa, now 9 days old, taking well to her new LST, the tips look a bit burnt, not sure why, possibly nute burn, I found out the MG soil DOES have nutes in it UGH!
Pic2: The cab, my 250HPS, Alexa and Sylvia, and some sunflower plants too in the front left corner
Pic3: My proposed vent area, I want to run dryer ducting up to a cutout in that board, good idea or bad?
Pic4:Closeup of Alexa, lookin a lil yellow, tips slightly burned, and of course my plants are 100% George Washington approved!
Pic5:Side view to see the LST I've got started
Pic6:Sylvia, shining bright and green after 3 days above ground
Pic7retty reddish-purple stem, already fatter than her older sisters

What's the best exhaust fans to use?
I've looked into inline fans, squirrel cage fans and computer fans. Someone with experience venting a cab or closet, what's the advantages/disadvantages of each type?

Also, should I be worried about the yellow tinge on Alexa?



and as a final note, my plants are 100% urine free

I stopped in at the local Organic/Hydroponic shop, and let me tell you, I was like a kid in a candy store. There were so many things I wanted to try/buy/look at. I settled for a lengthy discussion with the very knowledgeable store owner. The first thing he told me was, "Don't screw around with Hydro, go organic!" I told him that was my intention and he steered me over to the all organic nute section and started talking about every product. Since I already have Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow Organic liquid fertilizer, I told him I didn't need anything until bloom nutes. I ended up purchasing some Sunleaves Soil Sweetner (dolomite lime) as BombBudPuffa suggested, and a large bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil. When I got home I decided that two seedlings was taking too much of a chance given that they could both be males,, but more likely (or wishfully thinking) females ! I put two more seeds into a cup of distilled water and covered them up so no light got in. Less than 24 hours later, I had a nice little quarter inch taproot on each seed and I placed them into my new soil mix. I mixed about 70%FOF 20% Perlite and about 10% Professional Seed Starter Mix (which doesn't say the ingredients, but is light and fluffy and looks like peat moss) I have a digital pH meter coming in the mail along with a roll of 2 mil mylar to coat my grow cab with. I now have four future ladies in soil! The two seedlings are doing well, with not much change since my last post. Alexa is still a little yellow, but I sprinkled some lime on top of the soil and watered it down a little bit, hopefuly that will help. I also moved my light up so it's now about 20" from the tops of the seedlings. It was at about 14" which I think was too close, as the tips of Alexa's yellowish leaves look burned. I think this may help the problems also. I'm still putting them outside during the day and bringing them in under the HPS when I get home from work.

Shopping List:
4" Inline fan (200CFM?)
4" Flexible Ducting
Carbon Scrubber

Can anyone suggest a brand/store/website to get a fan from?

My grow space is 25.6 Cubic Feet, How big of a fan will be enough?

My grow area is 4.27 square feet giving me 6674 Lumens/sq.ft.


pic1: Perlite, Seed Starter Mix, Alaska Fish Fertilizer, BotanicareProGrow, Dolomite Lime, TerraCycle worm fertilizer, 0-3000PPM TDS meter, Superthrive, Ph test strips, FoxFarm Ocean Forest

Pic2: My Homemade light fixture I might use for cloning/mother plant, or if I don't clone for supplemental light in the cab. It has 9 sockets with 4 26W 6500K cool white CFL's and five 5Watt LED's, 4 Red/Blue mix, and 1 Blue Spectrum.

Pic3: The light in action. The LED bulb that's only half lit has some wiring issues, it works if I jiggle the connection, I'll have to rewire it later. This array puts out 6800 Lumens via CFL plus whateve the LED's put out. I think it might make a nice light for cloning or for a permanent veg mother plant.

Pic4: My now fuller grow cab. 2 established seedlings, Alexa is 12 days old, and Sylvia is 5 days old. The other two seeds were germed and planted on 6/7/07. They should be above ground in a day or three.

questions? comments? feedback? All is appreciated


-happy growing

Inline fans are expensive when you can buy a comp fan that has the same cfm rating for around 15 bucks. 25.6 i'd say the 200cfm would be sufficient. I like the cfl/led grow light, thats cool! You look to be on a good start! Good luck.

My 54"x25' roll of mylar came today. It shipped in three days! I was impressed. The 2 mil stuff is pretty easy to work with, it didn't tear at all and looks to have great reflectivity. I covered the walls, doors, ceiling and floor of my grow cab with it. I have one new baby girl, just sprouted up yesterday. The other seed I had germed is just starting to break up from the ground and will probably be standing upright in 24 hours or so. Still shopping around for fans. BBP, I looked into computer fans, and it looks like I can get roughly the same CFM for cheaper, but can I use a comp fan to blow through ducting? That's the main need for the fan, not just to exhaust the cab, but to blow the hot exhaust air up into the attic above my closet. Does anybody reading this know about fans? Inline/Axial/Computer?Squirrel cage?

New Pics!

Pic1:Looking into my newly mylar-coated cab. I keep the doors open and fan on with the closet door open as I haven't added exhaust fans yet
Pic2:Top view of my oldest plant, Alexa, now 15 days old, stunted a little bit due to some burn, not sure what kind of burn but it looks like she's over it
Pic3:Side view of Sylvia, now 8 days old and healthy as ever
Pic4: The newest member of the family, 1 day old Lilah
Pic5: Side view of Alexa showing some LST
Pic6: Top view of my plants in the cab with the 250HPS beaming overhead
Pic7: Top view of Sylvia, only 8 days old!

Still need advice on exhaust options.........

That's the main need for the fan, not just to exhaust the cab, but to blow the hot exhaust air up into the attic above my closet.

Click to expand...

You can connect any fan to your duct for this purpose. I have comp fans and cfms and they both work fine. Good luck.

Nice setup and very well documented :aok:

I returned to my apartment from a weekend home to a most pleasant sight. My jaw dropped as I saw how much my plants have grown. When I left I had one struggling 2 week old plant, Alexa, one week and a half old plant, about two inches tall, two sets of leaves (Sylvia), one newly established seedling just showing it's first true leaves, Lilah, and one germed seed in the ground. I recently repotted Sylvia into foxfarm ocean forest after seeing her older sisters problems with the MG soil. I couldn't believe how well they responded to the FF soil! :lama: I came back to three healthy plants, and one stunted, sickly looking plant screaming for me to get it out of the MG soil. Here's the pics, they speak for themselves. I was gone for 3 days, and they changed sooooo much.

pic1: A little blurry (sorry) pic of Sylvia, the start of the bunch, now 16 day old
pic2: Sylvia's four pointed leaf (Weird?) the opposite side has five points
pic3: Top view of lilah, my how she's grown! Only 8 days old beleive it or not
pic4: Side view of lilah
pic5:Repotted last night, Alexa, mellow yellow, lower leaves dying, hopefully all the foxfarm goodness can save her from that wretched MG Organic soil
pic6: Newest member of the family, Luna, 3 days above ground.
pic7: Can you spot the plants grown in FoxFarm organic soil? (I'll give you a hint, they're big, green, happy and healthy)

I started BombBudPuffas supercropping method on the biggest plant, Sylvia. I only pinched one node so far, and now I'm letting it heal. When I pinched it there was a wonderful aroma wafting up from it's new injury.

Like I said, I began supercropping my biggest plant. Two days later here are the results.

Pic1: nodes 1,2,3 showing impressive growth
Pic2: 2 additional sets of leaves coming off node 1
pic3: the pinched area, clearly injured
pic4: :shocked: There's a hole in my stem!

I just noticed today that when I turned the plant sideways, I could see right through it's stem. I didn't notice breaking the outside of the stem when I pinched it two days ago. Maybe that's just how it heals. It doesn't appear to be negatively effecting it so far. It has slowed the growth above the pinch, and accelerated the growth below as expected. I'll have to wait and see over the next few days if this break heals. Anybody ever seen this happen before? Should I be concerned?

Yo Ataraxia,
Love following along with you and thanks for sharing all the pics. I am just finishing up my growbox and got a good warning from Stoney about reflectivity and the floor, seems the two don't mix very well. I guess from what stoney and others are now explaining to me is that reflected light coming up from underneath will have the effect of causeing your grow to reach up and stretch up real bad, seems that it sees the light as an opportunity for other plants to outgrow it in a negative way. Check it out bro
smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

The hole will heal as the plant ages. The same thing happened to my hashberry. It stayed that way for a few weeks until the hole was replaced with a HUGE knot on the stem. Don't worry, be happy.

I'm very impressed with Sylvia's response to the pinching and twisting. I've decided to do this to two plants, and grow the other two normally to see if it makes any difference in yeild. I gave Sylvia, now 20 days old a very light dose of ferts tonight water pH 6.4 (my new digital meter finally came). The other plants got straight water, pH 6.75. Alexa, the plant that was stunted is greening up nicely and looks to be almost fully recovered from that nasty MG soil. Maybe others have good results with it, but MG soil is not for me. I'll stick with fox farm. I moved my light higher and now it's about 20" above the tallest plant. Is that too close? I noticed a slight discoloration on the edges of some of the leaves. Probably 95% of the leaves are lush green, but some higher leaves have rusty colored tips. The leaves are not curled up at all, and otherwise look healthy, besides rusty tips. I thought maybe this was a heat stress issue, so I moved the light up. Anybody that could offer insight into this problem would be helpful. My water will be pH checked from now on so I can soon rule that out as a possible cause. I took some new pics and I'm delighted to have 7 point leaves on my star of the bunch, 12 day old Lilah.

Pic1: Sylvia, 20 days old, 4" tall, 5 nodes, getting bushy
Pic2: Sylvia, The results of supercropping, exploding undergrowth! (thanks BBP)
Pic3: "Rusty" leaf tip on Sylvia, this is on maybe two or three leaves, mainly near the top
Pic4: More problematic leaft tips, this one on Lilah, the color is a bit off in the picture, it's more of a sandy yellow color and is brittle to the touch
Pic5: Lilah, 12 days old, 3" tall, 4 nodes, 7 pointers on top. I love that lime green new growth color.
Pic6: Lilah with my hand for size comparison, looks very health besides a few leaf spots
Pic7: Alexa resurrected, she recovered nicely once transplanted into FoxFarm soil and given som SuperThrive. New growth has started and she's greened up a lot. New leaves are even coming in where lower ones died.
Pic8: Luna, now 7 days old and off to a bit of a slow start, but I'm sure she'll catch up to her sisters
Pic9: Side view of Luna

I'm a little uneasy about the leaf tips. Does anybody know what's causing this? My plants all look healthy otherwise. I don't want to overanalyze problems, but seeing as this is now on two of my plants I thought I'd ask.

I'm glad to see you like supercropping as much as I do. I've been doing it to all of my plants with good results. Yeah, the MG soil is tricky. It's a hot mix with the peat and chicken manure(especially this) so a ph buffer is a must with that soil. I've heard great things about fox farm soil and i'm glad to see you're liking it. I would say your leaf tips are ph related or overwatering. They are beautiful and I hope they're girls.