BenDover's first grow

[BenDover]

I started with some bagseed from an outdoor home grow that a friend did this past summer. This strain was a pretty good smoke, so I am pretty confident that these plants will produce some good buds.

I built a box that is about 3' high by 4' wide by 3.5' deep. I have 5 42w CFL's and Mylar around the inside.

I started by planting eight seeds in a starter soil from HD on 12-7. Within a week or so, I had seven sprouts.

On 12-19 I transplanted all seedlings to some FoxFarm soil in 6" pots with some extra perlite added for drainage.

Here are some pics of the sprouts on 12-20...

 

[benamucc]

hey, good luck. just wanted to ask if those are straws in the pic, and if yes, are the plants growing from inside the straw?

 

[Dubbaman]

:aok: man sounds good so far MOJO for them babies man :bong2:

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

I see some babies. Here's some GREEN MOJO to give them babies a boost. :aok:

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Good Luck Ben.....let me do the Female dance 4 u...:banana:

 

[BenDover]

hey, good luck. just wanted to ask if those are straws in the pic, and if yes, are the plants growing from inside the straw?

Yeah, they are straws. I slit them down the sides and cut them into about 2" pieces. They are supporting the little sprouts. (one of the many little things that I have learned here on the GM forum.)

 

[BenDover]

Here are some updated pics from last night. They are looking pretty good.

I was previously running the lights 24hrs, but I switched it to 18/6 today. We'll see if I get any improvement on size.

They seem kinda small to me for being over 3 weeks old. I'm not sure what size I should be expecting right now, but the bigger sprouts are about 3.5"-4" tall. Is this pretty normal sizing?

 

[Dubbaman]

IMO they should be a bit bigger, could be strain related (slow grower) or the 24/0 lights. give them some time to get used to the switch and youll prolly see a difference. Roots grow more in the dark times and without a dark time the roots havent been able to grow very fast.

 

[Growdude]

IMO they should be a bit bigger, could be strain related (slow grower) or the 24/0 lights. give them some time to get used to the switch and youll prolly see a difference. Roots grow more in the dark times and without a dark time the roots havent been able to grow very fast.

Im not sure if there is any truth to this, I think its a myth
24/0 has never done me wrong.

 

[Dubbaman]

Im not sure if there is any truth to this, I think its a myth24/0 has never done me wrong.

its more for the difference in plant hormone in dark times you plant produces more hormone that stimulates root growth and uses more of the stored foods that it has already produced. IMO a dark period will benefit your plant, think of it as what it is a living organism, dont you feel run down and drained when you havent had a good 8 hours of sleep?? i know i do and i have noticed that my plants do go limp when the lights are off not from being dry but just from not standing at attention to collect light but then again thats MO :bong2:

 

[Midnight Toker]

haha mine droop after 19 hours of light...i give them 7 hours of dark and there perky as new!!

 

[BenDover]

Today's pictures...

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

just a comment here... I've had mine going on a 17/7 schedule for vegging, and I'm liking how my stuff is looking. hey... 1 less hour of having the lights on is money in my pocket, and they r looking just fine to me....

 

[BenDover]

Newest update...

I lost two of the plants, due to a screw up. I let the lights fall on top of the pots and it squished the plants. I don't know how long it sat on them. Oh well, it's a part of my learning process.

I picked up some GH nutrients, Flora Series, from the local grow store, yesterday. I started out by using a 1/4 tsp per gallon of distilled water. I am running my drip system twice a day for 20 minutes for each cycle. I can't wait to see the improvements that the nutes make. :bong2:

Today's pictures.

I am wondering if you can tell if they are maturing enough to be able to tell the sex, yet?

Also, I was thinking of LST'ing one of these. Should I let them grow a bit more before I start?

 

[BenDover]

Also, about the age of these guys. When do you guys count the age from, the day the seed is planted, or the day the seed sprouts?

These sprouted on 12-14. So, if I count from that date, my plants are just under 3 weeks old, right?


Time for a bong hit. :bong:

 

[That crazy vancouver guy]

count from sprout. I can't comment on lst'ing as I don't do it.

 

[medicore]

good job there mister dover.

 

[BenDover]

So, it has been one week since my last update.

I took some new pictures today, and I have a few questions. But, I will explain some of my updates since last post.

I transplanted one into a bigger bucket (made out of a 2.5 gallon water jug). And then I started LST on "it". I think it has been training for four days. It looks pretty good so far.

One of the plants grew into the light one night and burnt a few leaves, but it's not too bad.

[Edit]Oops, I forgot to mention that I started adding GH 3-part nutes. For the last week I have been adding 1/4 tsp per gallon of each, and today I increased it to 1/2 tsp today.[/Edit]

These plants are right about 4 weeks old. I am making plans on cloning and flowering soon. And, I have a 400w HPS being shipped to me as I type.

How does everything look? Any info for me on what to look for as far as sex?

 

[tom-tom]

they are starting to look a little better im kind of confused as to what the problem was in the begining ,i read u are useing fox farm soil ,,well fox farm is some of the best soil made it drains great with out any thing added ,so in your next grow to avoid the problems uve had in the begining i would just plant them in the fox farm like i did in my grows and then for a copple weeks give them plain water and your plants will be a foot tall our more at the one month mark ,and ive had the same results with 4 different strains of bagseed by just puting them in the fox farm and watering them ph balanced water with no nutes untill the plant is big enoff to be able to take the nutes with out bothering it at all because they grow great with out any nutes when they are real small,i seen some one said that the slow growth might be strain related ,,in my opnion i dont think any strains grow that slow unless somethin is not right ,so id have to say that u either messed up the soil when u added the perlite to it ,our your water u are watering with has a major ph issue ,our a over nute issue thoes are all i can think of since u are useing a grade a soil .i do no what ever the problem is is not quite fixed yet cause when u get it fixed them brown stems will turn back to a nice green color so im wonderin if u put somethin in the soil with nutes ,if not i think its the ph ,,but like i said they are lookin way better i hope u get it all figured out ,also id klet them babys veg at least another month if not more,,,,,,also how much are u watering and how many times a week???

 

[BenDover]

Do you think that they are stressed still?

For about a five day stretch over New Years, I had to move them because we hosted a New Years party and they got a weird light and water schedule. I really did stress them out. But, I think that the environment that they are in right now is pretty good.

When I transplanted the one into the jug, it had roots all the way to the bottom of the pot. I re-attached the pictures of this plant with a before transplant and post transplant. Is it improved?
Before:

After:

What do the pre-flowers look like?