About my first grow

[SmokeyTheBear]

Hows it going everyone? As you can see this is my first post. I found this just by searching the web and thank god I found this site, it has helped me out a ton. This is the best site I have found so far. About my grow so far. Am useing a home made drip system with all the parts from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and at hydroponics.net. I was trying to spend as lillte money as possible so for what i spent and what i have so for, I think i did good. I found 3 gallan trash cans at Wal-Mart for 2 bucks each. My air pump and water pump came from Wal-Mart as well of 30 bucks for the two of them. My lights are 2-40watt indoor growing lights I got at Home Depot 10 bucks each and the unit that holds the light 15 bucks at Home Pepot as well. The rockwool and nutrients I got from hyronponics.net for about 100 bucks with shiping. About my grow. This is my first indoor grow and am dooing vary well, at least I think I am. Am growing 3 plants in the rockwool/trip system. Am in my 6th week and all three plants doing well. The tallest plant is 9'' tall and the other two about 4'' tall. For the first 4 weeks I was lighting them 18hrs on and 5hrs off. At week 5 I started 12/12. My watering I was doing 15 mins of watering every 2 hours and try to keep my ph at 5.6 "try am lazy". But i do check the ph about every three days. About the 5th week my leafs on two of my plants where turning yellow at the tips. I dident know why, but I read on here that it might be caused by over watering and changing ph. So I changed my watering to 15mins every 3 hours. Nothing has happen yet cus it has only been a day sence I changed the timeing. Am going to keep a closer eye on the ph better off that I do that. I bought a 400watt HPS switchable MH light from hydroponics.net for 271 with shipping should be here Saturday so that should help things out as well. I would post some pics, but i dont have a digital camera at the moment but in a week or so I will that light was a chunk of change but what I have read so for going to be WELL worth it. Hope you all like. Ill post pack if I can figer out how to repost back here.

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Welcome to MP. Sounds like you did your reading and are off to a good start. If you have problems loading pics just give a yell.

 

[MJ20]

Welcome You seem to be on the right track

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Well I got my 400watt HPS today and dammmnn is it bright. I could light up the whole city lol. But i set it up this afternoon and only used it for 8 hours. But in that 8 hours I could see a little difference in the color of the leafs. The yellow is still there but hope it will go away in the next few days. I set the light about 3 feet above the plants. Is that ok? I have a temp reading next to the plants and after a few hours it got to 103 in the direct light. So i went a bought a bigger fan to help move the air around. I know I need in take and out take fans, but ill be moving in about 8 weeks of going to try to hold off on that if I can. Going to be fun :rant:moving all this stuff to new house, but I have to do it. I really would like to put some pics up but bills, "damn them" so in about a week or so I should have some pics up. Am really happy I bought that light its going to make a world of difference.

 

[moho456]

Don't forget to change the water out every 2 weeks or so. If you don't there will be a nutrient imbalance as the plant will use up certain nutrients, and not others. This will affect the pH too.

Just a heads up, and good luck I hope it turns out okay.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

So today I was getting concerned about the heat in the room. Even with the bigger fan that I bought, was still around 105 with the light being on for around 5 hours. So I went to Home Depot and got some venting duck tubeing so I could get some cold air in the room from my AC. I was just going to draw air from outside but where I live it gets over a 100F every day. So that was not an option :hairpull: , AC only was my only choice. Got everything for 25 bucks. Could of got it for cheeper on-line, but had to get it now before it was to late :doh: . Withen 30 min with hooking up the AC to the room it droped 12 degrees and within 2 hours it droped to 85:woohoo: . From reeding I know that is a huge drop in temp so fast and could be real bad. But it has been about 5 hours now sence AC was added and temp still at 85. Could that huge temp drop sp fast kill my babys?

I also changed my water in the system. It was about three weeks the last time I changed it so that will help everything out also. The light am loving:headbang2: . Little over 24 hours sence I have hooked it up and the groth rate is about 50% faster then the lights I had before. About the yellow on the leafs, I thought it was going away but is not. Hope in a few days it will go away cus it looks bad, real bad .

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Well the yellow in the bottom has still has not gone away sence my last post. But it is now turning brown as if they are dieing. Its only on the two bottom tears of leafs four total. The other leafs are not getting the yellow in them . But the ph goes down SO much everyday, almost 3.0 every two days. PH upper is not cheap what I have to use 400 drops every 3 days to keep my ph at 5.6. Would any one know why the ph drops so much every day? Could it be from the new 400watt HPS light that I got?

The heat problem I was having is done and over with. For two days now it sits at 85F :hubba:. With this HPS light that I have the groth is wonderful, sence I got the light I get a full tear of leafs everyday and the smell is so wonderful I like to just sit in the to just smell the smell One other thing

I just remembered tonight that this is not the 7th week of grow its my 5th week. I had a few plants going two weeks before these three I started. But with my crazy 70 hours a week of work I got lazy and they all died , so I started a new grow and these three are what I have now. Growing good and strong :headbang:

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Whats up mang. Your plants should be fine with those temps. We cool our room down the same way with an AC. As far as your PH goes i'm not sure as we don't grow hydro but i will send someone your way. I wouldn't worry about your bottom leaves much as they are the first to die off.

 

[Growdude]

Do you have a PPM meter to mix your nutes?
A high PPM will cause your Ph to fall, this also could be causeing the leaf tips to brown.

Changing out the nute solution more regular will help keep your PH stable.

 

[Stoney Bud]

What brand and type of nutrients are you using? What is the suggested mixing strength? How are you measuring?

Your light can be 18 inches from the plant canopy.

Make sure your temps don't climb again.

Are more leafs turning yellow, or is it just the same leafs dying?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Well I just spent like 25min on this post and I clicked on allow pop ups so I could add these stuiped smilie faces and it refreshed the screen and eraced everything I just typed :hairpull: so here it is once again.

About the ppm, I have no clue what ppm is or what it stands for. I have tryed to read up on what ppm was. But I had no luck. I couldent find a forum on ppm so I just gave up. My ladies well hope to be ladies are doing just fine. But to make them super womens, I do need to read up on ppm. I was going to get this ph/ppm/temp meter on hydroponics.net for like 150 bucks, but atm I have a a few bills and I am moving in four weeks. So would like to have some extra cash for the new house just in case something happens un planed. When moving **** always happens.

The nutes that I am useing are General Hydroponics FloraGro, FloraMicro, and FloraBloom. I found a nutes chart on hydroponics.net about the three and the amounts to use them. It is for clones but I still used the chart. My system is 8.5gl so here is what it told me to use so here is what I used. I did change the Gro and Bloom for week 4 and 5 a little.

Week 1- 42.5ml FloraGro, 21.25ml FloraMicro, 16.25ml FloraBloom
Week 2- 85ml Gro, 21.25ml Micro, 16.25ml Bloom
Week 3- 102ml Gro, 42.50ml Micro, 20.50ml Bloom
Week 4- 110ml Gro, 51ml Micro, 20.50ml Bloom
Week 5- 120ml Gro, 51ml Micro, 20.50ml Bloom

It said for week 4 to use 51ml Gro and 80ml Bloom and for week 5 it says to use 25.50ml Gro and 92ml Bloom. But sence the nutes chart is for clones and which mine are not clones. So I kept the Gro up and the Bloom down. Am I doing ok? or should I be doing this a different way. Am running low on Gro, have enough for about 3 weeks. Would it be to late to lower the Gro so I dont have to buy some more?

The yellow/brown bottom two sets of leafs are just about dead. One good this it is not spreading to any other leafs thank God. My mid size plant is doing well but the newer leafs that are comming in seem to be curling in. I dont know why but it looks odd.

The light I can move closer? But it gets fricking hot and I dont want to burn my babes. Ill try to move it closer without burning them up. One other thing, would it be to late to get a MH bulb or should I just stick with the HPS buld I have and does it really make that huge of difference?

Thank you for the help so for far everyone

 

[j99jm]

PPM stands for parts per million. It's also referred to as a TDS meter which I'm pretty sure is total dissolved solids. It pretty much means as is, how many parts of nutrients per million parts of the total water/nutrient solution there is. It is VERY important that you have one of these!! There are places you can find basic charts to go by PPM for your grow, none of which I know off hand. Do yourself a favor and get one of these, they're like $20-50 on eBay. Start off low, about 500-700 until the plants are healthy then step it up until the leaves edges slightly turn yellow.

Hope this helps!

 

[j99jm]

I just stumbled upon this:

www .marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15427

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Nothing much going on. My ladys are still looking fine and sweet. I have read up on my ppm and it seams like it sucks. My ladys seem to be doing fime with out a ppm meter so maybe one day ill get one but into then ph is all I can do. There are a few on ebay for a 100 bucks with shiping. But I have never bought anything off ebay before and am not shure am willing to take the chance of spending a 100 bucks on a temp/ph/ppm meter and not get it. I really want to buy a digital camera so I can post some pics of the ladies.

Ohhh yea as I was think about them am starting to get some crazy leafs. The tall lady, all her leafs have been five leafed intill the four new leafs came in. She is getting six leafs now and the middle lady is getting four leafs instead of five. See this is way I need a camera so bad!! to show you all my crazy but sweet plants.

 

[Growdude]

If you can already check your PH, here is a TDS pen that will work and is 40.00 and not on e-bay.

http://www.hydroharrys.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/12/products_id/1519?osCsid=24303c6645cfd6f24decdd809e865987

Ive bought from hydro harry and there is never a problem.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Whats up everyone? Its been ten days sence my last post. I was gone for a week on a skydiving trip through three states. Couldent bet the price so I had to go no thinking about it. Coolest thing I have ever done

But any way when I got back home I could sex two of my three plants. The biggest one turned out to be a lady :hubba: thank god and the second tallest ended up becomeing a male. Sucks but it will be ok. The third one is getting there in hight but is not as many leafs I cant think of the word right now for a lot of leafs. So I took out the male so hopefuly it will fill in a lot more.

About nutes. Can I start the flowering cycle for my lady if the other plat has not showed it sex? Will this be bad? and what should I do with my lighting should I up it to 14/10 to get more buds or should I just keep it at 12/12?

The smell is getting real bad and I cant figer out how to make a cheap carbon filter system. Need to make or buy one ASAP but dont really want to buy one money money money. Dident really think it was going to cost this much at first, but will make up for that if I dont keep it all for myself. But I might have to do that if it turns out like I see in some other peoples forums in here yummm yummm.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Nother question about the Nirvana seeds link on this page. Is it ok to buy from there or is it hot? and could they ship them to the US? and I really dont under stand the prices they are saying 15 comma 00 is the 15 US dollers or 1500 US dollers or mean like 3000 US dollers dont know the exstange rate always though it was 2 euro to 1 doller. Never mind just found out what it is it 1 Euro=1.14 USD. But that comma so is that 15 Euros? Have never left the states besides going to Canada a few times

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I keep the lighting the same sence my last posts but I dont know what to do with the lighting? More light or less light some one please help me out and is Nirvana Seeds link is ok to deal with? I would like to get some good seeds because the seeds that am growing are good but they are just from some regs from around my city and I know the seeds to matter.

I thought I sexed two of my plants but, after looking closer me big one I still cant tell and the other one is for sure a male. Hope to see if my last two become ladys .

 

[SmokinMom]

Got any pics?

 

[Cook_]

Whats up everyone? Its been ten days sence my last post. I was gone for a week on a skydiving trip through three states. Couldent bet the price so I had to go no thinking about it. Coolest thing I have ever done

But any way when I got back home I could sex two of my three plants. The biggest one turned out to be a lady :hubba: thank god and the second tallest ended up becomeing a male. Sucks but it will be ok. The third one is getting there in hight but is not as many leafs I cant think of the word right now for a lot of leafs. So I took out the male so hopefuly it will fill in a lot more.

About nutes. Can I start the flowering cycle for my lady if the other plat has not showed it sex? Will this be bad? and what should I do with my lighting should I up it to 14/10 to get more buds or should I just keep it at 12/12?

The smell is getting real bad and I cant figer out how to make a cheap carbon filter system. Need to make or buy one ASAP but dont really want to buy one money money money. Dident really think it was going to cost this much at first, but will make up for that if I dont keep it all for myself. But I might have to do that if it turns out like I see in some other peoples forums in here yummm yummm.

As long as the other plant has alternating nodes its ok to switch 2 12/12 if not it needs to stay veg longer for your smell question. Go to any groccery store and go 2 the isle that has like the plug in scent things and try 2 find the glad ones that dont plug in that have like a fan on the top should work for a few weeks or so if not i dont know what to tell u other then u gotta research something else man:confused2: