First Grow

[Ataraxia]

I've been interested in plants and gardening for a while, and over the past four years or so also became interested in MJ.......one day they just came together.

I had one bagseed from an ounce of really good stuff. I was hoping there'd maybe be a few seeds, but only one in the whole zip. It was small, and I doubted whether it'd even germinate, but it did. I germed three other seeds with it, these were from some lesser bags, just random seeds. Due to some bad planning, the the seedlings sprouted and ran out of water. (I was away for a few days and my waterer forgot to do it ) When I came back and opened my enclosure, I saw three dead wilted sprouts, and one robust healthy looking seedling. Which one lived? You guessed it, the dank bagseed! I thanked my lucky stars and kicked myself for letting the others dry out.

Plants: I have one two week old seedling I've been calling Sylvia (I'm already optimistic about it's sex) She's about an inch and a half tall and has 3 sets of "true leaves" or at least I think so. It appears healthy and is growing faster and faster by the day. This plant is currently residing in a clay pot with a perlite/peat moss mixture. I want to transfer it to my DWC setup, but I'm scared that in removing it, washing off the roots, placing into the hydroton I'll stress the hell out of it or kill it. Anybody have any thoughts on this? I was thinking that maybe I'll just grow it in soil, which might be a better choice anyways based on my experience level, or lack thereof. I could raise it organically in soil until sexing and then, hopefully put her clones into the DWC setup. Anyone have success with transplanting from non hydro into hydro? Next to sylvia are two rockwool cubes with germed seeds in them, ready to sprout up anyday now.

My grow area is a closed off area of a closet approximately 2'x2'x5' WxLxH
I lined it with tinfoil, I know it's not the best, but this setup is temporary. Eventually I want to have a dresser/amoire setup and will paint the inside white.

Lighting: Currently 5870 lumens from 3 27W 6500k cfl's and one 15w 18"T8 "Sunshine" bulb: CRI 90, 5000k. It's puny I know, but I already had the fixture for a blacklight, so I thought I might as well use what I have. Soon I'll be adding more cfl's I'd like to get up to around 15,000+ lumens by adding more cfl's.

Nutrients: I planned on doing the whole organic thing. I figure I want to know exactly what's feeding the plant that I'll later be consuming. The more natural the better in my mind. I picked up some organic potting soil which is 0.06-0.09-0.06 which I'll use if I keep Sylvia in soil. I also have a 5-1-1 bottle of Alaskan fish ferts, which smells like something awful, but I'm gonna use it for Sylvia's soil. For the DWC setup I have Botanicare Pro Blend Grow 3-1.5-4 for veg and I'm still looking for a bloom nute, I was thinking maybe Iguana juice, but it's pretty spendy. Anybody know of a middle of the price range good organic bloom nute? The last nutrient I have is Olivia's Cloning Solution which I haven't used yet, as I haven't taken any cuttings, but could this be used in very dilute form to water the rockwool cubes containing germed seeds? The cloning solution is 0.06-.13-.07 and is said to "promote vigorous growth and rapid root development"

Now comes my favorite part, picture time

Pic1 my inclosure, lined with tinfoil, I know it's not the best, but it's what I have

Pic2 my intake fan, ghetto rigged I know, there's a 9'' outlet fan at the top of the enclosure

Pic3 Humble beginnings, this may be the first day I saw the seedling above ground

Pic4 First true leaves? Already looks like MJ

Pic5 The nutes I described

Pic6 feeding a young plant=bad, now I know

Pic7 a lil more nute burn, with heavy watering it cleared up in a few days

Pic8 My DWC setup, a 12qt garbage can, lid, 6'' net pot, hydroton, air pump, and airstones, total cost, less than 20 bucks. When I put two gallons of water in it, the level is almost to the bottom of the net pot. Will this container be big enough to grow a 3-4' plant? I've seen pics of hydro roots and know they can get pretty intense.

Any comments, suggestions, questions are all greatly appreciated

 

[Ataraxia]

These are some pics of Sylvia at about a week and a half, and then two weeks. I was messing around with the digital macro settings on my camera and got some pretty cool water droplet shots. Is this what a happy healthy plant is supposed to look like?

Pic1 probably about a week/week and a half in this pic

Pic2 took this pic this morning, most recent, looks happy to me, and it's 100% george washinton approved!

Pic 3,4,5 just watered them, cool droplets on the leaves, these pics are from maybe 3-4 days ago

 

[Sticky_Budz]

hey bro everything looks great man. i will be keeping a close eye on this one good luck peace

 

[Ataraxia]

Pics of my girly this morning

 

[55DAYZNCOUNTIN]

Looking good, How often and how much do you water and what is the ph of your water? Peace and grow big, 55

 

[theyorker]

I would suggest getting your lights as close to the plants as possible. If you are using flourescents you can get the light to within 1" of the plant. The closer the plant is to the bulb the more light it will get.

 

[Ataraxia]

I water manually twice a day, or more. I usually check the soil and see if it's moist, I also have a soil moisture meter probe, but I don't usually use that. My water is pH unknown, but it's not outta the tap, store bought distilled water, so I assume pH ~7.0?

I've moved the lights closer. An inch? Seems really close, but as long as no leaf curling or burning, ok with me. I'd like to use the inverse square law to my favor, especially seeing as I'm using CFL's. I've moved them a lot closer and am looking forward to seeing positive results.

At what age can you foliar feed a plant?


Can I start feeding this plant (about 2-2.5 weeks old) with a dilute fert?

 

[newgreenthumb]

Looking good there. As far as nutes go you can probably start some nutes but start out with 1/8 strength and work your way up as the plants require. I strongly advise using a ph meter or tester of sort. MJ grows best with slightly acidic mediums. :Farm: Good Luck!

 

[55DAYZNCOUNTIN]

I asked about the watering because they did look wet in every pic. You should only water every other day or so when the bottom of the cup is dry, the girls like to dry up a little in between watering your pot will feel real light when it is time to water. I let my plants go till I can see it in the leaves that they need water.And I would'nt assume your waters ph I would look into some liquid drops I dunno search it you can get kits for like 10$ I think? Or if your in it long term go ahead and get a ph pen.
Just a few thoughts! 55

 

[theyorker]

I water manually twice a day, or more. I usually check the soil and see if it's moist, I also have a soil moisture meter probe, but I don't usually use that. My water is pH unknown, but it's not outta the tap, store bought distilled water, so I assume pH ~7.0?

I've moved the lights closer. An inch? Seems really close, but as long as no leaf curling or burning, ok with me. I'd like to use the inverse square law to my favor, especially seeing as I'm using CFL's. I've moved them a lot closer and am looking forward to seeing positive results.

At what age can you foliar feed a plant?


Can I start feeding this plant (about 2-2.5 weeks old) with a dilute fert?

Hey Ataraxia your plants are looking great. When you say you water twice a day I'm guessing you are sort of just misting them to keep everything moist and that is a great way to water them for the first 10 days or so, but at some point you want to start root watering them and then letting the dirt dry out before watering again. From weeks 2 - 6 I watered them on average every 4 days. You want to let your soil get almost dry at the bottom of the pot. I wouldn't use nutes until your first set of leaves start to turn yellow. Look at the bottom leaves on the picture and you can see the coytolode (I butchered that spelling) leaves are turning yellow. This happened to mine at 14 days and this is when I started them on nutes (1/3 strength starting out, every other watering) Also I wouldn't suggest foliar feeding for nutes. You are better off feeding the soil and letting the roots take in the nutes. You can spray them with water if you want to foliar feed. Other then that keep em close to the lights and start planning on how you are going to flower them.

 

[Ataraxia]

Thanks to everybody for their input. I'm eager to put into action any suggestions I get.

The method in which I was watering my plant was misting out of a spray bottle. I would only spray it around the very rim of the pot, twice a day. I did it once in morning and once at night, just enough to get about a 1/4" thick ring of moist soil around the outside of the pot. My theory behind this was if I put the water on the very outside of the pot, the roots would have to reach for it and therefore propagate more quickly. I dunno if there's any weight to this theory, but it seems to be working alright, I guess I'll see what the roots look like when I transplant. The reason the plant looks wet in most pics is because I took them right after watering. I thought beads of water looked cool in the pics and didn't take away from the overall value. I 'm going to cut back to watering every other day, and see how it reacts.

I added two more cfl's today bringing the total lumens up to 8620 and it's all concentrated on one plant. On a partly sunny day, do you think it'd be better to leave the plant under the artificial lights, or put it in my windowsill? I have been letting it get some natural light for at least 5-6 hours a day from about 10am-4pm. Is this better than the cfl light?

Also, I've read up on spectrum lighting, and I know warm light, or orangish red, or ~2700k is better for flowering and blue light, or ~6500k is better for veg state. Right now I have all 6500k bulbs. Is this okay, or does it need some warm light also?

My cotyledons (hope I spelled it right) are slightly yellowish (pics below) does this mean the plant is ready to receive nutes? I mixed up a dilute batch of the pure blend pro and might start using it tomorrow.

Does anyone think that it'd be a terrible idea to still transfer this to hydro? I really want to, as I have the whole setup for a single DWC bucket, but if theres a high chance that it will kill or stress the plant I won't. Anybody thinks it might still be an option lemme know how would be the best way to do it. If not, soil is fine for me for right now. If it turns out to be female I'll put the clones in hydro I guess.

I purchased a TDS meter on ebay, and I'll be looking into a ph meter soon. MJ likes 6-6.5 pH?

Also, theyorker mentioned planning on how to flower them. I would like to use HPS to flower, but I'm stuck between 400w or 250w. I'd like to get the 250 simply because of less heat, power, and it's a lil cheaper, but I know I don't wanna cheap out on anything that I don't have to, especially lights. I plan on flowering in an enclosed space, like a dresser or amoire or something. I think a 400w might be too much heat for me to get rid of. Can a 250watt hps plus a bunch of cfl's to an alright job to flower at most 4 plants?

Until next time, thanks everybody and I look forward to more advice.

pic1: yelowish cotyledon
pic2: other side of plant cotyledon
pic3: birdseye view, healthy, indica dom?

 

[Ataraxia]

oh, and yorker, you said those plants in the pic are 14 days old? That's good, cuz I was starting to think my plant is quite small for more than two weeks old after I've seen pics in other's grow journals. Go figure, plant envy! hahaha

 

[Dizoelio]

Thanks to everybody for their input. I'm eager to put into action any suggestions I get.

The method in which I was watering my plant was misting out of a spray bottle. I would only spray it around the very rim of the pot, twice a day. I did it once in morning and once at night, just enough to get about a 1/4" thick ring of moist soil around the outside of the pot. My theory behind this was if I put the water on the very outside of the pot, the roots would have to reach for it and therefore propagate more quickly. I dunno if there's any weight to this theory, but it seems to be working alright, I guess I'll see what the roots look like when I transplant. The reason the plant looks wet in most pics is because I took them right after watering. I thought beads of water looked cool in the pics and didn't take away from the overall value. I 'm going to cut back to watering every other day, and see how it reacts.

I added two more cfl's today bringing the total lumens up to 8620 and it's all concentrated on one plant. On a partly sunny day, do you think it'd be better to leave the plant under the artificial lights, or put it in my windowsill? I have been letting it get some natural light for at least 5-6 hours a day from about 10am-4pm. Is this better than the cfl light?

Also, I've read up on spectrum lighting, and I know warm light, or orangish red, or ~2700k is better for flowering and blue light, or ~6500k is better for veg state. Right now I have all 6500k bulbs. Is this okay, or does it need some warm light also?

My cotyledons (hope I spelled it right) are slightly yellowish (pics below) does this mean the plant is ready to receive nutes? I mixed up a dilute batch of the pure blend pro and might start using it tomorrow.

Does anyone think that it'd be a terrible idea to still transfer this to hydro? I really want to, as I have the whole setup for a single DWC bucket, but if theres a high chance that it will kill or stress the plant I won't. Anybody thinks it might still be an option lemme know how would be the best way to do it. If not, soil is fine for me for right now. If it turns out to be female I'll put the clones in hydro I guess.

I purchased a TDS meter on ebay, and I'll be looking into a ph meter soon. MJ likes 6-6.5 pH?

Also, theyorker mentioned planning on how to flower them. I would like to use HPS to flower, but I'm stuck between 400w or 250w. I'd like to get the 250 simply because of less heat, power, and it's a lil cheaper, but I know I don't wanna cheap out on anything that I don't have to, especially lights. I plan on flowering in an enclosed space, like a dresser or amoire or something. I think a 400w might be too much heat for me to get rid of. Can a 250watt hps plus a bunch of cfl's to an alright job to flower at most 4 plants?

Until next time, thanks everybody and I look forward to more advice.

pic1: yelowish cotyledon
pic2: other side of plant cotyledon
pic3: birdseye view, healthy, indica dom?

HI! Good grow man, I am using a 250 and my babies grew great, it's the MY FOUR BABIES thread in the grow journal... and how I have like 15 plants under it right now lol but I am supplementing with CFL's... and I have to weed out some males just planted ten lowryders.

Anyhow 250 is great I am using a sunleaves pulsar with swithable bulbs.

Peace G!

 

[Ataraxia]

I decided to move my plant from the peat/pearlite mix into hyrdo. I realize that this is a pretty big risk, and my plant may die, but I've accepted it. I was sick of staring at my DWC setup that wasn't getting used. I held off on watering for two days, and the pot felt really light, instead of watering, I emptied out all the loose soil I could, and then flooded the remainin soil and roots and as gently as I could liberated the roots from their substrate. I then washed the roots with water. I didn't see any roots that broke off, and I got them pretty clean, so I'm optimistic. I moved Sylvia into the 3 gallon garbage can DWC setup I made. I have her in a six inch net pot with hydroton. The pebble size was a bit large, so I sorted out all the smallest ones and put those near the roots to give it the most support possible. I added a 16oz bottle of regualrly mixed ferts to the already two gallons of water. I figure that's dilute enough, when my TDS meter comes, I'll check it and readjust. I gave her a place to set down some roots, some water and reconfigured my light setup to be more effiicient. There's 8,000 lumens of 6500k light pretty much 360 degrees around her. My fingers are crossed, hopefully she pulls through. Pics below.

Pic1: Top view of my enclosure, yes that's soil spilled all over the floor

Pic2: I moved the top light for picture clarity purposes, this shows sylvia in her new home, and the two cfl's on each side

Pic3: Closeup, it looks smaller for some reason. It was wilting a little bit, but I'll see what it looks like tomorrow. The white plastic is a little collar I fashioned to keep light from getting to the hydroton and nutes and creating algae

Pic4: Better closeup from top view

Pic5: Pre-transfer pic from a few days ago for size/shape/health comparison


What does everybody think? Is this the dumbest thing I've done yet, or might it still live?

 

[Ataraxia]

Here's some more pictures from about 12 hours post-transplant. Sylvia looks pretty healthy, besides two of her leaves, they have a dark brown part on them. I think it may just be from dirt getting on the leaves when I was washing the roots, but maybe it's something else. The lights are all about 2 inches away from the plant, but they're cfl's and not very hot. I did the back of the hand test, and my hand wasn't uncomfortably hot at all. Does anybody know what's causing this?

 

[MJ20]

Maybe a transplant shock as they say..

 

[Ataraxia]

Yeah, that might be part of it, but wouldn't transplant shock be expressed throughout the entire plant, not just two leaves?

 

[noodles]

Is it ok to mist the leaves of a 2 month old plant and when would be the best time?

 

[Ataraxia]

Is it ok to mist the leaves of a 2 month old plant and when would be the best time?

I don't know the answer to your question, but a grow journal isn't the proper place to be asking a question like that. You'd be much better off if you looked in the general indoor section, and would recieve much more specific help. Try posting there.

 

[Ataraxia]

I added another CFL to my light regimen, this one in the warm color spectrum to give it a more balanced color. It's a 2700K 42watt CFL giving off 2700 lumens. This brings my light total up to 11200 lumens on a 2'x2' area. My plant isn't doing so great. I learned that when I transferred to hydro I should have put it into just plain water, no nutes. Stoney Bud informed me of my mistake and I have since corrected it and I'm hoping to see a positive reaction from the plant soon. What I have now is a wicked case of nute burn. I'll include some pics and you'll clearly see that my plant isn't happy.

The first pic is the most recent and shows very curled under leaves and yellow leaves towards the bottom of the plant.

The second pic is from three days ago, the initial response from nute burn.

One good thing is if I bring my nose within a few inches of the new growth on the top of the plant and inhale deeply there is a mild sweet fruit smell. Signs of better smells to come? I'd like to think so.