First Grow

[whatsthatsmell]

Ok, so here is my first grow and my first log all in one shot. I have spent alot of hours reading certain peoples post and i have learned alot. I have seen that there are a few people on here that know their shiz so any advice/suggestions that anyone has please feel free to post.

For simplicity, i have a location where i have one room for starting/veggin, and another room just for flowering. These rooms have their own windows and i am able to control the temp/hum better. For now i have these (will post pics) in a location where i have placed them under a 400w MH that is 24inches from the tops. I have pictures from the day that i received and then i have taken a couple pictures today so that you can see what and how they are doing. The temperature of the room that they are in ranges from 72-83 degrees with 40 - 52% humidity. I have a fan that is blowing lightly to give them all some stem movement. When i was given these plants i was told that they were in a SOG and this mother was the only one out of the bunch that was light colored. I was also told that these plants have never been in a room with a male. I have only been feeding the new one pure water and they are on 24/7 light

[whatsthatsmell]

First Arrived:
http://gallery.cannabis.com/showphoto.php/photo/16276/size/big/cat//ppuser/81162

[whatsthatsmell]

Well i will post the images when i figure out how.

[whatsthatsmell]

Arrival Day - Cannabis Photo Gallery (http://gallery.cannabis.com/showphoto.php/photo/16278)

[whatsthatsmell]

Amy
http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/Amy1.JPG

Caroline
http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/Caroline.JPG

Janet
http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/Janet.JPG

Jessica
http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/Jessica.JPG

[canupuffit]

sssaaaweeeet:thumbsup:

[ProGroWannabe]

'Bout how tall they now? And how old?

[whatsthatsmell]

These plants are 15 days old. I took a pic before i transplanted them into a size 5 container. They are about 3 - 4 inches tall.

http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/Jessica_Side.JPG

[ProGroWannabe]

So, from what you've written above is it safe to say that you haven't been giving them any nutes yet? The reason I ask is some of the veins seem very dark but the surrounding tissue looks so light.

Not a criticism in any way, just hoping you don't have an issue that needs diagnosed.

[whatsthatsmell]

when i transplanted into the size 5 pots, i use 1/4 fert solution per gallon of water. Very little fert has been introduced, is it too early for that?

[forcus master]

Theres definitely something wrong. Maybe the nutes or ph-level.

[whatsthatsmell]

i just did my first of 2 pH tests on the soil and here are the results:

Caroline - 6.9
Jessica - 7.2
Janet - 7.2
Amy - 7.4

I will be testing for nutes and another pH test on the soil, i have 2 different ways of testing the soil, i will keep you posted.

Thanks for the help/advice

[stinkyattic]

Hey, what's up.
Just got your note.
Well the first thing you're going to want to do is lower your soil pH.
The way to get an accurate reading is run some tap water through your pots and test the runoff. You need to know the pH of the tap water going IN and the water coming OUT.
Let's for a minute assume your tap water is approximately pH neutral with little hardness to buffer acid.
You're high coming out, @ ~7.2, and you want to bring that down to 6.5-6.8. So you're going to make up your next feeding solution with a pH right around 6.5.

You can also start feeding a stronger nute solution. It looks like those clones have taken hold and are growing vertically.

I'm a little concerned that they weren't in great shape in those early pics- did you take them yourself, or get them from someone else? I've seen that pattern before and it looks like they were done in an areo system with a pH problem.

Anyway good luck!

[whatsthatsmell]

Stinky, thank you for taking a peek.....

I got these from someone else, who had made the cuttings, they are in the red cups (see pic) http://gallery.cannabis.com/data/675/medium/All_Four.jpg

I have started to flush, and either its me or i dont have the right mix (which i maybe changing to a manuare/humus and vert 2:1, more on that later) but it seems to be draining really really slow. I have noticed that there seems to be a more general green coming over the top of the plants today compared to yesterday.

I tested the tap water and that is 7.1, i will test the drain water after i have hit the 6th gallon on the one that i am doing now and test to make sure that it is around 6.5.

Would it hurt to change the soil from the MG premix to the manuare/vert now, keeping in mind that they are only 16 days old?

[whatsthatsmell]

Changed the soil to a manure, humus, peat (i know not the best, but agway was out of the manure/humus only mix so i had to go with the one that had peat mixed in) and perilite mix that consists of 2:1. I have already seen a difference in how the plants are doing. The pH of the water at first going IN was 7.1 - 7.2 and the water coming out was around 7.4. I have now with the new soil of the water coming out of 6.1 - 6.5. The growth spurt that i have seen since doing this change is amazing.

I want to take this time to personally thank those that have given me advice on this grow since it is my first time (Stinkyattic - as usual your advice helped me *bow*)

My next question is about lighting, i have seen the post where there was a compare to the 24/7 that had about 27cm of growth in i think 24 hours and the 18/6 had a growth of 39cm (this was root growth and i cant remem if that was a hydro or not). Does the amount of light have a direct effect on the development of roots and stress on the plants? Would this also make it easier for getting into a situation like i was before where i was in lockout?

any advice is greatly appreciated thank you in advance.

[Ryno]

WTS your last pic didnt look too good mate :S

Erm dunno what tos ay about em realyl bout they jus dont look too good.

Im glad youve got all your pH and stuff sorted upload a few new pics so we can all see how to help :)

Check out my first grow aswell its in my signature:)

Good luck mate

Ryno

[stinkyattic]

That low pH coming out is from the peat in the mix. You'll want to bump it up a bit.
As for the light schedule, I've never bothered messing with 18/6, only 24/0, so I can't really make a comparison, but many posters on here say that the dark time is helpful to root growth. I've never been disappointed in the way my roots grow, so ... ?

[ProGroWannabe]

24/0 Here as well.

[whatsthatsmell]

quick update:
I have sprayed the plants for some foliage feeding and have started to see that the leaf's are getting darker. I have also placed a time-lapse camera to take a picture every 15mins for 12 hours. I will continue to keep this running and when this is grow is complete i will try and find a place where i can post the complete grow. a video of a grow from 2 week old plants to harvest should be pretty interesting and hopefully others can learn as much as i have in the past week as well.

[weedmaster]

now you got your ph right and lighting hopefully everything will be all good from now on, best of luck with your grow bro, a video of the grow would be great, i'll be keeping tabs with this log:thumbsup:

[whatsthatsmell]

Lighting isnt the issue, 600w MH for veg, and a 1000w HPS for flowering..... that lockout was scary tho and with the help of everyone here, especially stinky, they are getting back on track.... i got these four on aug 22nd, so they are about 20 days old, i wont flower until they are about 6-8 weeks old. Since i have a 10 foot ceiling for flowering, i should have plenty of space (the entire second floor of the house is my grow room(s).

[whatsthatsmell]

ok, so i have taken a couple pictures so that you can see what i am referring too, here is the latest on how the plants are responding the to foliar feeding that was done less than 24 hours ago....

[ProGroWannabe]

What are your maximum and minimum temps running? I had an issue like that when I switched from cfl's to 1200 watts of HPS. My older plants were fine, but my little ones were showing heat stress. The symptom was similar to yours with a distinct yellowing near the leaf stem. I also showed the darker veins. Once I started to get the temperature differential smaller from lights on to lights out, they started to improve pretty quickly.

Don't take my advice as know-it-all advice. I've got all the basics down, but I'm learning the finer points of environmental control now. I don't know if you have temp issues or not. It's just that the last pic you posted looks somewhat similar to the way my stressed plants looked, so I thought I'd ask ya.

[whatsthatsmell]

my temps range from 75-80 degrees with humidity 40-50%. I thought the samething as you, but i opened another discussion in plant problems called "not sure" and with the help of Stinky and a couple of others its under control. Did a flush to lower the pH in the soil and then have started to do a nute foliage feeding. This was a lockout that i was in and is correcting itself.

[whatsthatsmell]

So itâ??s been a couple of days since I have updated so let me get you caught up. As you can see in the previous pictures my plants were going thru a lockout. I had to change the medium from a MG premix to a manuare/humus and perlite mix with a ratio of 2:1. When I completed the medium changed I then did a flush with pH adjusted water and the plants are now snapping back nicely. I have attached some pictures where you can see that the main veins and some space between are starting to darken nicely.

After doing some more research I found that since the plants that I have, have some really nice branches coming out I thought it would be a good idea to take two and start LST on them. Each plant that I have started this training have between 5-7 branches started. With the plants leaning over , they are reaching the side of the pot, so the next couple of days I will be tieing the plant around the outside of the pot in hopes to get more branches and train this plant well. The other two that I did not start the LST I will top and see how they do and I can do a side by side compare grow. I know this is my first grow and these are some advanced techâ??s of growing but I figure with the help of people on this forum that it should go pretty well. I have been thinking about the LST plants and I think when they get to a point where I need to support them I will go to the garden store and get some of those racks that help climbing plants and then weave the new branches off the main stem between them making it easy to see the colaâ??s and also easier at harvest time to just clip and go ( Any thoughts/suggestions to make this easier would be greatly appreciated also). Once I see the tops of the plants that have started the LST pointing to the light I will take some pictures and post them. This shouldnâ??t take too long for them to respond, I have been getting almost an inch of growth a day.
What I used to tie down the plants: What I did was looking around the house and found some paper clips, so I straightened them out and then took two needle nose pliers and simply made a hook on the end that was twice the size of the main stem, drilled a hole in the top of the pot that the plant is planted in, then I threaded some string thru the hole and tied one end of the string to a couple of washers that were laying around the house and the other end to one hook of the paper clip. I then found a nicely spaced spot on the stem and gently pulled the plant to the side exposing all the side branches to the light.
I have also created an excel spreadsheet that has the days of the week across the top, with dates in the main box. Each day I take notes and anything that was done to the plant I have put into the spread sheet. On the far right hand side, I put the different stages that I believe the plant is in and each grow has its own column. I currently have two going at the moment. There are 6 additional plants that are currently in the rooting stage. They have only been there for about 4 days so not much to say on them but they are looking very healthy with little to no wilt. I will post pics of those later when I go to transplant. I donâ??t want to disrupt the rooting process for a couple of weeks since these are clones.

Well thatâ??s about all for now, comments/suggestions are always welcome.

[whatsthatsmell]

Well, its been 4.5 hours and i just checked the plants that i have started LST'n and the top of the plant has already straightened out and moving up, and all the branches that were there have started to perk up alot, so i think i am in the clear for now, unless someone with more experience can shed some more light on what to expect/do further.....

[ProGroWannabe]

Glad to hear ya got 'em back on track! Fortunately a lockout condition is usually cheaper to fix than bringing temps down. It's still a shaky ordeal when you don't know whats wrong huh?

[whatsthatsmell]

Yeah, it sure does take alot off your mind when things are on track, but to be honest, if it wasnt for the people here, i dont know what my plants would look like...

[ProGroWannabe]

Yeah, lots a good peeps for sure!

[weedmaster]

goodnews:thumbsup:

[whatsthatsmell]

OK, so its been about 36 hours since i started LST'n a couple of the plants and i did a mini-flush to get a read on the pH of the soil and then a nice water with full nutes this morning. I have been foliage feeding to get some N into the leaves that needed, but i think i am out of the woods, so i am not going to do that anymore (unless some people think i should continue) I have taken some photos and i will let you take a look so you can see where i am in the grow. Just to keep things straight, i have 2 plants that i have started LST'n laying straight down and working on making them a circle (the inside branches that become tall while making this circle will become clones for the next grow), and 2 plants that i am letting grow straight up with no clippings taken from it (i may trim some for clones at the bottom later but we will see).

I hope you enjoy the pics...

as always, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

[ProGroWannabe]

They're definitely looking better. Personally, I'd keep up the foliar feed until they recover about 90%. I'd only stop the foliar feed when almost all the green is back in the upper 3rd of the plant.

Otherwise...good job of bringing them back from the brink!

[whatsthatsmell]

thanks pro, i was thinking that also after looking at the pics a little closer, seems there is still some yellow in the leaves and that should be addressed. The good part is that i am not in a hurry to flower these, so a couple weeks like this and everything will be back to normal again and they will be all filled out and ready to go....

[Chronisseur]

One positive thing I'd like to point out is the amount of burn on your tips. The idea is to bring them to about an eighth of an inch worth of burn(on new leaves of course), and then back up just a hair on the nutes. That way you know your babies are getting just enough nutrition and the world can resume to its regularly scheduled program:D

Keep them girls healthy though, they look nice:thumbsup:

[whatsthatsmell]

Not sure how many people are following this grow, but here is an update. Plants are growing on an average of 1 inch per day, getting nice branches.

Recently have acquired the following nutes:

1) Botonicare - Cal-Mag Plus
2) Bontonicare - Pure Blend Pro Grow
These will be added to the 30-10-10 fert gradually

3) Bontonicare - Sweet
4) Bontonicare - Pure Blend Pro Bloom
These will be added to a bloom fert that i have yet to get.

For those that are reading this and have seen others talk about this, i have taken some photos so you can see exactly what i have purchased and if you are looking to use this also, you can find it easier. Not really sure that many people are reading, but thats cool....

[ProGroWannabe]

You might be surprised at just how many people watch and don't post! I lurked in these forums for a good while before I felt I had anything valuable to add. Reading threads/logs like yours helped me get through my first harvest successfully.

Pics of the fert bottles is a good idea too!

Chron....good advice there bro, for sure! Thanks for sharin.

[whatsthatsmell]

The girls are doing much better and i have been doing some foliage feeding for the past 4 days. Here is an update on the progression, the first photo was taken on 9/15 and the second of the same plant was taken 9/18 so you can see the difference. I have slowly started the addition of the Botonicare mix. Using a diluted solution of Botonicare Pure Blend Pro Grow, Cal-Mag+, Molasses, a fert of 30-10-10 with a water pH of 6.7. These plants have a couple weeks before i will put them into flower, this is the reason for the additional nutes.

[ProGroWannabe]

Good job bro! Their very close to being right back on track, aren't they? I'm truly happy for ya. The good in this, I guess, is that you learned a hell of a lot nursing them back to health.

[whatsthatsmell]

Yeah, i have learn ALOT in the past month of doing this. Mostly in part due to the people on here teaching me and reading their posts. I cant tell ya how many posts i read, either in grow logs, plant problems, etc. One interesting thing is that they all seem to be right along the same problems over and over again. Either the pH is out of whack, over nute, under nute, root bound, and getting the medium down correctly.

So i was reading in Progrowannabe/GDS grow log and thankfully i was able to learn alot about a DWC system and how GDS put one together pretty cheaply. So after a "little" (i say little as a joke, it really was many hours learning how to set them up and what to expect, what nutes, what ppm's you should be using during different stages, etc, etc) research, i have put together a simple and complete DWC system together for under $50.00. Everything i needed (except for the medium) i was able to get at wally's world. I choose not to with the hydroton because i heard/read about the whole pH thing and to be honest it scared me. I went to a local hydro shop and they had the stone there for somewhere around $25 (higromite (sp?)). I took one plant and CAREFULLY and i mean extremely carefully, got all the dirt off of the roots, did a nice little soak in pH adjusted water to remove the dirt that i didnt/couldnt get off with my hand without hurting the roots, so i basically dissolved all the dirt in the roots, place the plant in the DWC and now i am doing a side by side compare with clones off of the same mother to DWC and Soil. I will be watering the plants in soil with the same mixture that i am using in the hydro. Currently i am 900ppm's and will work my way up to 1500ppm's. You can see the nutes that i am using in a previous post. There are no pics to show at this time, but i will take some in a couple of days since i have stressed them enough doing this.

As always, questions, comments, suggestions are always welcome and as you can see, this log has change alot since i have started.

[ProGroWannabe]

Your a living success story now, whatsthatsmell! And yeah, I think GDS is gonna kick @ss with his DWC. You'll prolly like it. I've never grown that way, but it is a very popular growing technique. Good luck with it.

[Cannabis476]

They look good to me, nice work!

[whatsthatsmell]

Thanks Pro, but i have to admit, it hasnt been an easy road. People may read the boards and think that its easy to grow, and in a way, yes and no. There is an investment of time and money into this project and people should really study and learn as much as they can before doing anything with this type of plant. I started out with growing something like a tomato plant indoors, nice acid plant that is similar to this and gave me some practice. The one thing that doesnt come into play when your researching is the potential for problems, like alot of new people they want to take extra care of the plant and that will kill it quicker than anything else especially with nutes. I think alot of that comes from people hearing that it needs alot of nutes and grows really fast so it needs more. This is not always the case, just cause it grows fast doesnt always mean it needs more nutes.

Thanks Cannabis but the plants are still recovering, i will post a pic later and you can see the difference, they are coming back and looking good, but there still about a week or so away from flowering. I have seen the mother of these plants and the people that are growing that have just started to us sweet and the buds are HUGE. They arent using anything else, so we will see what their final product is compared to mine using CalMag+, Sweet, Molassas, and Pure Blend Pro Bloom and on top of that i can compare them to both soil and hydro.

On the plant that is in the new DWC, i thought that it would take a couple of days for the plant to respond, but to my suprise, amazement it has taken to it like crazy. I am still at 900ppm and a pH of 5.9 but everything is going fantasic. The water level hasnt dropped all the much, but has been only about 14 hours since i have put it in there. The lockout that the plant was in is just about over now and the the ones in the soil are recovering nicely as well. I did some light trimming to help these plants and they took the trimming extremely well. From the trimming i was able to get about 20 clones and they are now sitting in my prop tray which is sitting on a warmer. I think when the clones take root and are ready to be planted i will do a SOG style grow in a DWC, i am in the middle of making it now with parts from wally's world and i am trying to keep the SOG DWC platform to less that $15, since i already have the medium this shouldnt be a problem. Out of those 20 clones, if i get 10-12 to take i will be more than happy. The clones where clipped and dipped into Vita Grow rooting compound and then put into Rapid Rooters. The water mix right now is Bcuzz rooting (cant remember the exact name of it but thats close) and water. I am trying something different on the advice of some more experienced growers and instead of misting the plant itself, i am misting the dome and replacing it. I was able to find a dome that has a couple of vents that i can turn and release of heat, moisture if it gets to be too much. I will take some pics when they have perked up more so you can see what i am talking about and since this was done yesterday there really isnt much to see especially since they are all looking kinda droopy at the moment.

I will post some pics of the mothers of these clones so you can see how they are doing.

[whatsthatsmell]

Ok, so i promised some pics, and here you go, i did have some N burn on the plants in soil, but that has been fixed and they are recovering... You will see the difference already between the plants in the soil and the one that has been in the DWC for less than 24 hours... enjoy...

[Cannabis476]

Wow, I cant wait till my little girls get that big! lol they have a long way...

They deff look better though!

[ProGroWannabe]

WTS...you hit the nail on the head with the above post. So many people think that growing weed is a no-brainer--just like you said---and NO it's not. You also made a great point about their complete lack of research BEFORE the grow.

It's too bad we can't add an aspect to the boards so that a noob had to read a certain number of posts before they could access the grow forums. Lots of reasons why that wouldn't work, but mandatory reading ----somehow---would be nice. How many times have you read, "HELP, my plants are sick"--just to see in their pics that they burned the shit out of them with some 50-10-10 shit, fed twice a week?

I'm rambling again...sorry. Your girls are lookin good though!

[texas grass]

everything is lookin pretty, and thanks for the help

[whatsthatsmell]

Well, its been a few days since i have posted anything and i figured i would bring everyone up to speed. On my last update i had only one plant in a home-made DWC that got from GDSStonerboy (i cant take credit for this setup, i learned from his post and pics). So my DWC setup is pretty simple, and i have posted the setup earlier, but i was able to get started on hydro for less than 20.00, i have taken out the medium cause that can be reused. When i was looking thru the stuff in the pet section i thought to myself, "Why cant i use the stones for a fish tank, they are suppose to neutral"?. If anyone has any thoughts on that it would be greatly appreciated on the feedback (would be a heck alot cheaper but i dont know if there is anything in those rocks that would hurt or harm the plants).

Ok, so i now have 2 plants in a DWC setup, One is going to go straight into flowering and the other i have severally LST'd and have taken ALOT of clones from hoping to get the plant to fill out a little better. So right now the two that i have trimmed are still in recovery, but they are doing nicely. The plants that are in the DWC are now at the following nutes: plant 1: 1550ppm/5.8pH plant 2: 1500ppm/5.7pH. I have already subtracted the ppm from the tap in the measurement, i have straight from the tap 148ppm with nothing added.

The plants that are still in soil are getting the same nutes as those in the DWC so they are getting watered with a 5.8-5.9pH and a 1400-1500ppm nute mix. The plants that i will start to flower this week are the ones that i have not LST'd or done anything to. One of them is in DWC and the other is in soil. So here are the pics of the ones that will be going into flower this week.

[whatsthatsmell]

well its been a few days since my last update and some eye candy, so i thought i would drop some here for you. I havent put any into flower yet because i want to have the one in soil and one in DWC to flower side by side. This will allow me to see which one is best for this plant. Should be either next week or sometime close since they initial shock from soil to hydro is over and the plant is growing nicely. I did have some nute burn before i put it into hydro but that has been taking care of and the plant is doing nicely now. I have the dwc plant up to 1600ppm and the one in the soil is around 1400ppm and working its way up to the 1600ppm as long as the plant will take it and not show nute burn. I think there is some nute def but as i up the calmag the plants are taking in like crazy. So here are they are. Let me know what you think.