NL x Big Bud - First grow

[spuddzrmeandyou]

I am starting this as my own little record of my first grow. Hopefully others will be able to point out any mistakes and help me to get to a succesful harvest! This will probably be a boring grow to most of you pros, but as I am a total newbie I feel its important to note the details to help me figure out what I am doing as I go!

This past Friday I received my first seed shipment from Attitiude. 10 NLxBigBud seeds plus the 5 free g13 power skunk (which I will save for a future grow! Don't know too much about them). I have to give Attitude credit, everything went super smooth, I live in the NW U.S. and it took about 9-10 days to get them. I used their stealth.

I will be starting with 5 of the NLxBB seeds. I just put them in a cup of tepid water covered with saran wrap to pre soak them, and have that sitting on my router in the closet, so temps there are upper 70's, and dark. I figure I will give the seeds 24 hours presoak. I haven't decided what to do from that point though! I would prefer not to go the wet paper towel route, I am paranoid about touching and moving these little critters anymore than I have to! I am inclined to just go ahead and plant each seed after the presoak into moist soil (tip pointing up, about an 1/8" down), and hope for the best.

Will be going to the nursery today and picking up FF Ocean Forest, some perlite. I think I will mix up that a little for the the seeds first home. Maybe 80/20 soil to perlite in a plastic cup with holes in the bottom to drain.

I am hoping to get 2 females, will be growing under a 4 or 600 watt HPS, (which I have to order from HTG) in a grow space that measures about 3' x 4' x 8'. This will be in an outdoor shed. So heating and cooling will be issues but I figure I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[mendo local]

big bud get big, make sure you have plenty of room! Good luck with your grow

 

[FieldsofOH]

If you decide to use the paper towel method...be sure to wash your hands before touching the towel. I have had some recent germenations adventures go south. Made it look like a petri dish. I think I'm staying away from the paper towel method all together. I've just been cracking them in water then to medium. I've cracked them in a small "hempy bucket" also. For future reference...if you have hard to crack seeds...you can soak them in a lite tea mix for 24 hrs and the tea softens the shell.

Good luck looking forward to your progress!

Peace.

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

big bud get big, make sure you have plenty of room! Good luck with your grow

Thanks Mendo. My box should be about 3' x 4' x 8' tall so I hope that will contain them. Worked a little on it today, and hopefully ordering a 600W HPS tomorrow.

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

If you decide to use the paper towel method...be sure to wash your hands before touching the towel. I have had some recent germenations adventures go south. Made it look like a petri dish. I think I'm staying away from the paper towel method all together. I've just been cracking them in water then to medium. I've cracked them in a small "hempy bucket" also. For future reference...if you have hard to crack seeds...you can soak them in a lite tea mix for 24 hrs and the tea softens the shell.

Good luck looking forward to your progress!

Peace.

Thanks Fields, I will take your advive. I washed my hands this morning before handling the seeds and will try and keep that practice going. But I am inclined to agree with you to just get them into the medium after the presoak. Jorge cervantes says "No more than 24 hours in the presoak!" but I have seen other threads where guys leave them in the cups for days. I am picking up some FF OF soil tomorrow and perlite, I hope that will be good to start them in.

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

Well I left the seeds soaking in the cup longer than I intended. I had read (again going by Jorge Cervantes here) no more than 24 hours. Well I was working so wasn't able to get them out at 24 hours, but when I got home (after maybe 30-32 hours soaking) they had all popped and sprouted little roots - yay, 5 for 5 so far!

I picked up some FF Ocean Forest and perlite today at the local nursery and prepared 5 styrofoam cups, with maybe an 80/20 or 90/10 mix of soil/perlite. Soaked this good with slits at the bottom to drain. VERY carefully planted the sprouted seeds about 1/4 inch down. I wasn't too concerned with the "orientation" of the seed, to me it felt more important to just let the seed kinda drop into the shallow hole and MINIMIZE any handling or poking it around. I figure mother nature will sort it all out anyway! Will be covering the cups with saran wrap and trying to keep the cups slightly warm in the dark on a heat mat until they sprout up. So far so good. Just using tap water, we are on a deep well here.

Didn't order my lights like I wanted today. Funds are tight, I may have to wait til Friday. Just hoping I get my lights in by the time they poke out of the ground. I really want to get that 600W digital HPS from HTGsupply, although its a little more than their 400W, I think in the space I am planning the 600W will be more appropriate.

 

[mendo local]

Looking good, Ill be watching. most of the big bug Ive done in 5 gallon pots grew twice as wide as the pot. I guess if you keep em small they might fit. Good luck!

 

[420benny]

Good luck with it. I too will be watching.

 

[andy52]

i put my beans straight into the rapid rooter cubes and keep them moist at all times.i also do my clones in the same.works for me.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

:ciao: my friend..I grow in a shed out back..and you will be glad you got the 600..Green mojo 4U and your new Babies:bolt::bong:

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

:ciao: my friend..I grow in a shed out back..and you will be glad you got the 600..Green mojo 4U and your new Babies:bolt::bong:

Thanks for the mojo 4u2smoke!
On your shed, I gather its an unconditioned space? If so, how do you manage your temps year round, especially the hotter weather? I haven't figured out how to cool the box if you are sucking in outside air that's already warm (like 80-s-90's... and it can get 100 here - OUCH!) Maybe a miniature AC if such a thing exists.

 

[BigTree420]

def go with an ac...look around at walmart or home depot....they have floor models that run some 4 or 6" ducting to the window if you don't have room for a window unit

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

Okay well I wasn't expecting these to pop out of the ground quite this fast but whatever. Just a little over 3 days since I first dropped them into water.
I am thrilled, my first evidence of a plant above ground, amazing. As you can tell, I don't get out much. 3 of the 5 are out of the ground, the other 2 or lagging behind but I think I can just see then starting to poke out.

Anyway, I am now scrambling for lighting for my little plants while I await my HPS from htgsupply. I just have the 5 cups sitting inside a cardboard box (about 3 ft x 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft), with a single incandescent light bulb over the seedlings. I know, this is way inadequatE, but tomorrow I'll be making a run to Home Despot or Lowes to grab some CFL's or a couple of fluoro tubes to use for TEMPORARY vegging (until my HPS comes in). I am on a shoestring here, trying to scramble to get something going and keep it all stealth from the kids... plus my wife has declared that she doesn't want it growing in the house... so I have my "box" hidden away, until this weekend when I will finish my box out in the outbuilding. Kinda exciting to be keeping it secret from the household while it is IN the household!
---
Update, Thur morning 1-15-09, the other 2 seeds are showing above the surface.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

Everything looks like it's going smoothly. Congrats on not gettin caught yet by the family! If you're going to get some CFL's, I'd reccommend getting the highest wattage possible for best growth. I really like the 42 watters. They can grow at least a single plant for about a month, so if you get a couple of those for your seedlings, they'll love it.

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

Here are some pix of my plants on day 6. All 5 seem to be living in spite of my klutziness so far.

I had to really scramble to rig up a box for vegging - this is embarrassing how rinky-dink my setup is, but I am hoping to get a more finished box built this weekend. Its just a carboard box maybe 1.5 x 1.25 x 2.5 ft. Using 5 CFL's, one over each plant. These are some el-cheapo 99 cent lights I found at Lowes. 23 watt, I have no idea of the color temp, but they are called "Daylight - Natural color" so I guess they skew towards the bluer end of the spectrum.

Unfortunately I was not able to get the plants under good light for the first couple of days, so I think they were light-starved a little at first (just had them near a window). But they really seem to be perking up after getting under the CFL's yesterday. I am trying to avoid messing with them too much and overwatering them. The cups still feel heavy to me. I should have weighed them dry before I first watered to get a comparitive weight. May do that with another cup today. I think there is some formula for % weight loss where you say Okay, its time to water?

I am concerned they are reaching too much and turning into these long little stems with just a few leaves at the top! But maybe that's normal?

I am able to mange the temps so far, upper 70's in the box. But my other issue right now is humidity, it is super dry this time of year. Humidity is only 20% so I need to figure out what I have to do to get that better, may buy a little humidifier today. Although my wife just said to mist them once in a while.

 

[Hick]

enjoy your posts spud..
"Light"intensity and fresh air circulation are paramount to strengthening those weak little stems.
Get a fan running on them 'just' strong enough to make them quiver a little bit, and keep your cfl's as close as possible wihout burning.

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

Thanks Hick! I just set up a little PC fan that blows in the box and the plants are quivering a little now. Will also move the CFLs closer...

enjoy your posts spud..
"Light"intensity and fresh air circulation are paramount to strengthening those weak little stems.
Get a fan running on them 'just' strong enough to make them quiver a little bit, and keep your cfl's as close as possible wihout burning.

 

[Trichs]

I look forward to seeing these little ones get big.
I have seen stryofoam cups cook little seedlings. It depends on the ambient temp but if you are switching to big pots soon no biggie.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Thanks for the mojo 4u2smoke!
On your shed, I gather its an unconditioned space? If so, how do you manage your temps year round, especially the hotter weather? I haven't figured out how to cool the box if you are sucking in outside air that's already warm (like 80-s-90's... and it can get 100 here - OUCH!) Maybe a miniature AC if such a thing exists.

:ciao: I only grow in the winter...well i start in the Fall when the kids return to school and the temps start to fall..I live in Seattle..the Temps average 40F I produce way more then enough to get me threw the Summer..been storeing some diffrent ways to see for my self. Stop by my Fall grow in my signature any time..and do as Hick has sugested and KEEP M GREEN Proper Ventilation I can keep temps down and lumes up

 

[spuddzrmeandyou]

I have my grow area framed in with a door. 3' x 4' x 8'. Probably should have made it bigger but oh well, may change that down the road. This will have to do for this grow. I think I will separate a lower area maybe 2 ft high for clones/vegging under cfl/fluro and the upper area for flowering. Still have the seelings in the cardboard box, sitting in the grow room until I can get heating and ventilation figured out. Its a lot easier to make sure my little box stays warm than the entire grow room with temps outside the shed around 20F. I will probably just keep them in there until they run out of room.

The 5 plants seem to be doing okay, I wrapped the foam cups in black elec tape to hopefully prevent any root burn. They are definately growing! I held off watering them until this past Saturday when it was just starting to be obvious to me that they were needing something (the stalks of some was getting a little weak it seemed). After a good watering they really bounced back and now seem pretty happy. I have felt the need to place a little stick or something next to the stalk to help a few of them stand up straight, so not sure if that is normal or not for them to be tend to bend over a little while they are starting out. They are all getting a very gentle breeze from the computer fan, quivering slightly.

Humidity is my greatest challenge right now. I just have a big sponge sitting in the box in a pan of water, and that has brought the humidity to 33-35% which I know is still too low, but until I get an actual humidifier this will have to do.

I am concerned that they a couple are still rather spindly though, the stalks are so delicate. Not sure what norm is there. But it doesn't seem to affect their leaves growing.