1st time CFL

[gotmudatv]

So this is what I am working with...

Seeds: Orange Mango & Kush
Lights Veg: 3 cfls 1 blue, 1 red, 1 soft white 18/6
Flower: I think 6 clfs 1 blue, 4 red, 1 soft white 12/12
Nutes Veg: Fish fert 5-1-1
Nutes Flower: MG 4-12-4
Temp: lights on 78-84F just depends if lid is closed

Plants are 16 days old. When they were in first week i had the light on 24hrs. Now my lights are on for 18/6.

I have a qestion is it true the blue light is going to make thicker stems and the red light will make faster growth? Right now I switch them everytime i water. so they get equal spectrum.

So let me know anything i can do to improve my grow. I will update every week or so.

[melodious fellow]

Hey Gotmud and welcome.

Ditch the tinfoil super fast!

Flat white paint is much more reflective and is cheap. Mylar is cool too, but paint = cheap and easy

Are those 23 watt CFL's I am assuming?

Yea, you are good on spectrums.. higher bue for veg, higher red for flower (or all red for flower)

The one red bulb you have in veg should help stem growth, but can also cause some stretching, while the blue encourages more bushiness.

Keep your CFLs just 2-5 inches from the plants if you can, I cannot tell how far they are on the pic.. but you prolly got it

When you transplant (if you are going to) fill the pot all the way to the brim with soil.. better for airflow, less fungus/mold, more soil for plant...

The gals look great, keep us updated

peace

[gotmudatv]

The suff on the walls is mylar or it is the saftey blanket at walmart. I was going to keep the plants in the same pots due to the space but i can put them in new pots filled to the top if yall think it is best.

[gotmudatv]

yes they are 23 watt cfls

[melodious fellow]

The suff on the walls is mylar or it is the saftey blanket at walmart. I was going to keep the plants in the same pots due to the space but i can put them in new pots filled to the top if yall think it is best.

O cool, sorry I mistook your mylar for tin foil... good stuff

Yea man that should be fine, you are planning on keeping them small and flowering rather early to save space?

I was just saying for next time when you fill up a pot...

They look really good for only 16 days... what kind of soil?

peace

[gotmudatv]

The soil is MG mositure controll and MG potting soil. At the very bottom is orcherd mix, it is a clumpy mix. It is stuff i had sitting around.
And yes i want to flower them when they are about 8 inches to keep them shorter. I am going to try to have one main cola and LST one or two limbs. Right now i am not trying to get a huge yeild but a good quality.
With pruning do i wait untill flower or right before flower?

[hanayama]

you may want to get that mylar a little flatter.
youll get the best reflectivity that way, and avoid hot spots.
use some tape in the corners and pull it tight

other than that nice herbs man
good luck and good growing

[melodious fellow]

you may want to get that mylar a little flatter.
youll get the best reflectivity that way, and avoid hot spots.
use some tape in the corners and pull it tight

other than that nice herbs man
good luck and good growing

He already has it.... I thought it was tin foil too, but it is mylar

[hanayama]

i thought it was mylar...i just said he should flatten it to the walls.
re read my post

[gotmudatv]

The mylar is taped on but moving the light around it made the tape stop sticking. So bam it is fixed now.
Any good tips on buying a PH tester? The one that i have found it is bigger. You put it in the soil and without batteries tells me what the ph is. It is about 20.oo is this one ok or is it going to piss me off?

[melodious fellow]

sorry bro, I read "flatter" as "faster"

stoner forums... hhaha

peace

[wman44]

hey gotmud!
i have one of those ph testers your talking about, i think.
did it come with little white pieces of fabric for rubbing the shaft with?
well if so its the same style as mine and i have no clue how accurate it is, i never really used it as a diagnostic tool just more for shits and giggles. from what i understand ph is less of a problem in soil as opposed to hydro and thats why i never really worried about it. i also have one of those water ph tester kits with tubes and drops and color matching but i never used it either.....
so heres some questions that could help us both!..
if i were to collect some runoff water from my planters after watering and checked the ph with the water tester would that give me an accurate measurement of the soil ph? and will ph up or down effect the soil ph or the water ph...are they directly related?

[hanayama]

yea youll have that melodious....
i dont know how many times ive done that...thank god for the edit button!

[gotmudatv]

So a little update. In the last few days I have added 2 more blue CFLs. The plants look great. I want to LST and prune so i only have 2 to 3 colas per plant, when do i do this? do i LST branches Before flower after flower? When do i prune the braches i dont want, just when they come up?

[gotmudatv]

Pic 1 Kush
Pic 2 Mango
Pic 3 Mango close up

[gotmudatv]

Today I moved plants to 12/12. With that when do i change over and use the flower nutes? From day 1 of flower or wait a week or so?
I will post some pic when my lights come on.

[gotmudatv]

So this is my update with pics pic 1 & 2 are kush. Pic 3 & 4 are orange mango. The plants age's are 34 days 4 days into flower. The kush has a thick stem and it is bushy. The mango has thiner stems.
Pic 5 is what i want to call pruff that the kush is a female but i know it is to early to tell. how long into flower before i should be able to tell? from what i have read they say 2 to 3 weeks but on the forum i have seen people tell after a week.

Does everything look good and healthy?

[hydrocannabis]

I think they look great so far.:thumbsup:

[gotmudatv]

ok i can not tell whats going on this is my orange mango it is showing signs of a female but in pic number 2 it looks like a male what is going on?

[daihashi]

ok i can not tell whats going on this is my orange mango it is showing signs of a female but in pic number 2 it looks like a male what is going on?

Pic 2 looks male to me. Isolate him and wait it out until the balls extend from the stem and are kind of hanging. Then he's a full blown male.

[gotmudatv]

This is my kush plant it has no signs of being a female but it has the same pods as the mango, with the mango showing signs of being a female.


Do i need to wait? Is the mango a hermi? is the kush a male? Am i a rookie that needs to wait a week longer?

[gotmudatv]

I am down and out about them being males..:( . How do I need to clean my growing area to make shure my next batch does not get any pollen that might have fallen. I have read in the grow bible just plane water, i just want to make shure 150%. This was my first grow i have learned a lot. Today I have started to germ 6 seeds this time not just 2. I am giving my current plants a week longer to 200% make shure they are males. And my new seeds will be started in my newer grow box.

[gotmudatv]

So this is whats going on with my grow. I have moved the kush to the phototron untill I can say it is 100% male. The orange mango has been moved to a NEW grow cabnet (I dont know if it is a male/female It has little white hairs all over it but on the lower half it looks like seeds, I just dont know). And I have started 6 new plants 3 kush 3 mango. I figured the more i start the better chance of one being a female. I think the next time I am going to try Feminized seeds, but wife says I have to use these up first.

[gotmudatv]

So this is my update, the first couple of pics are of orange mango i am about 3 weeks into flower. the last pic are of my new group i have them on 24 hours and today i see green in all my cups.

JEA

[gotmudatv]

I just like taking pics....:thumbsup:

[xrustedgaugex]

That plant is comin' out mighty fine. :)

[gotmudatv]

So a week later ......... this is whats she is looking like. Everything looking good?

[darbolah]

shit mate, they lookin real nice. How long has it been since you first planted the seeds ?

[gotmudatv]

They were started Feb 13th ish.

[ultimatefreak48]

How Do i keep the plants short, I have one growing, its about 5 inches right now, about 2 weeks old..... any help would be nice, cant take pics dont have camera..... maybe ill be able to snag my buddies

[gotmudatv]

I put her into flower when she was about 8 inches tall. Right now she is about 18 inches. I am playing around and I have put a new plant into flower and she is about 4 to 5 inches. I am going to keep her with no side branches but one main cola.

[gotmudatv]

This First picture is of my new guard dog.
The second is my mango that is about finnished and a 5 inch kush plant that i put into flower last night.
The third is my other plants I am going to let them veg for a week or two longer.
The fourth pic is my flushing agent.


I have stoped the nutes yesterday and all i am using for the rest of the grow is molasses.With my flushing agent can i flush the last week and be good? ( i have 2 to 3 weeks to go i think)

[juswannaread]

How many days into flowering did it take until you had trichs start to appear on the leaves and buds? I'm in about a month, and I've got tons of the white hairs, but I don't see any trichs. I'm using CLFs and bloom booster from Miracle grow, and that's it. From reading, I thought flowering was only 6-8 weeks, and I'm already 4 weeks in...assumed I'd see them by now.

When can I start to expect to see the trichs?

[gotmudatv]

I started to see mine about 3 weeks in, i think. I do remember when i saw them for the first time it was on the leaves. what seeds are you using?

[gotmudatv]

So anyone on the whole flushing thing?

[juswannaread]

Just using bag seed. Does all marijuana have the trichs on the leaves? Or is it only high-quality strains?

[gotmudatv]

not too shure, but i would think that if the seeds are mid grade or better they should have some trichs. I know that in this forum there is some pics of bag seed grows you might want to check them out.Are you trying bag seed out first then moving on to better seeds?

[juswannaread]

No, all I have are bag seeds. It too risky (in my opinion) to buy seeds and have them shipped to me. I'd rather stick with the few crummy seeds I have.

I'm only on my very first grow right now. I've made some mistakes, and definitely am in no position to try to grow with more expensive seeds. :smokin:

[juswannaread]

By the way, I forgot to say thank you for answering my questions. I appreciate it :yippee:

Good luck with the rest of your grow! I'm keeping an eye on your log, so post some more pictures if there are any updates!

[bijnas]

Awwww, what a cute little puppy!

Plants looking sweet too, sorry you lost one.

[MastaGrowa16]

lookin real good man:thumbsup:
where did u get ur seeds from?

[gotmudatv]

Got them from bc seed king in canada. I bought 15 kush and got 10 free mango.

[gotmudatv]

ok I got myself a 60x-100x hand held micro. I have been looking at the when to harvest pictures and is it me or is that hard to tell for the first time? To me they look milky but...... I dont know, I guess what i am looking for is a tip when using a micro scope, I am not asking what colors but just tips if there are any.

[gotmudatv]

ok new qestion I think i have 2 to 3 days left can i cut all the leaves off now and let all bud get max light the last day or so?

[gotmudatv]

Since I stoped being lazy and looked up the qestion myself I went ahead and pruned it down to the buds. To me it is funny that the sides are closer to finnishing than the top. I flushed my soil with "flora Kleen" yesterday. Most likely I am going to flush it one more time (if that is bad let me know).
Now on to the pictures:
Picture 1 is before she got a trim
Picture 2 is after she got a trim
Picture 3 is me trying to use my camra and microscope (did not come out like i wanted). Tips are appreciated.

[gotmudatv]

Now this is a look at the buds. As you can see the mango has a nice thick cola. The sides have not got to super size but there a few that are nice little buds. Next time I think I am going to have only four side branches and lst them. But yea for a first time grow I think she is coing along nice.

[mushaboom]

looks nice but are you sure you werent a little premature in pruning all those leaves off. it looks to me like theres still a bunch of new pistil growth on there. i think those wouldve fattened up more.

[hudson88]

Looking awesome man, you're really gonna enjoy your harvest ;)

[gotmudatv]

looks nice but are you sure you werent a little premature in pruning all those leaves off. it looks to me like theres still a bunch of new pistil growth on there. i think those wouldve fattened up more.

Well all the talk on the forum is you tell by the trics, so thats what I did. 85% were a milky white and the ones that were not milky they were not getting any light. And with them being that % I would think that in the last week the non milky will be milky and the first milky will be amber. (my theory) In the basic forum they say you should trim leaves off a week before to maxamize light and air movement.
I might be a little early on triming the leaves but thats the fun of being a noob, I get to learn from my mistakes.

[mushaboom]

hey buddy the thing is you really cant just take one thing like that and say oh heres some cloudy tricomes, must be ready. its best to kind of combine all the different methods. its good to look at pistils to determine your general flowering time frame. if the majority of pistils are white and there are still new ones shootng out you are not done flowering. white pistils also mean there hasnt been enough time for them to swell up too. you want to have at least some red hairs/swollen pistils by finish. make sure when you use your pocket microscope that you check out the entire plants because different parts of the plant mature faster than other. the tricomes in the middle could be telling you to harvest while the ones on the cola could be telling you youve got a couple more weeks. i always tell people this but a better way to get a look at those crystal is to put a magnifying glas in front of your digital camera. it will allow you to take super close up shots and see the crystals more clearly. plus, you wont have to hold your hand steady over the plant or disturb any of the buds.
at any rate, early or not, i would love to have some of that mango for myself :) nice job you did a lot better than some of the more experienced people here

[gotmudatv]

Ok, I get what you are saying. Good looking out.

[gotmudatv]

Ok this is my harvest oohhhh ahhhh. Wet weight is about 4 oz. So i am onto drying. So my books have been confuseing me ,do i let it dry for 5 to 7 day then put in jars to cure for 2 to 3 weeks? thats what i got from it but my book makes it sound like you can do ether or so just checking.

[smpaz420]

here is one from the grow faq. it helped me with my questions on this subject.
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-faqs/60954-drying-curing-your-buds.html

[gotmudatv]

Nice :thumbsup:

[gotmudatv]

So this is what I have learned from my first grow.

1. Miracle grow is the BEST for a first timer. Everyone on this forum says MG sucks. It worked for me.What I am saying is dont go out and spend all your money buying one part this one part that. This is your first grow and you need to make sure that this is right for you. Then you can spend the money to improve your soil.

2. Dont take what you read on the forums and beleive them 100% Many people say they know what they are talking about but they dont. So make sure if somone tells you to do somthing look it up, read a book, just do the research.

3.Growing weed should be kept a secret.Dont go out telling your friends what you are doing. I was trying to keep it from my roommate but he found out when he came home early and my door was open and he saw the light. After that I told him he needed to keep it a secret he said sure. Now everyone that he is friends with knows. Its like he tells them so he can sound cool. So now that everone knows i have to slow down and take a break so everyone thinks I have stoped like it was a one time thing. I am getting married in 2 weeks and moving to my own crib where only me and the wife will know whats going on.

4.CFLs do work. Ok they work for the first time grower that is working in tight spots. But I would not recommend for long term. I mean if you buy 5 of the 42 watters that is 55.00 with tax. I bought a bathroom light fixture to put the lights on for 15.00 with tax. A extention cord to cut up was 10.00. So the total is 80.00. And the results were ok but i could of spent 50 bucks more and got a 150 watt hps, and make my grow twice the size.

Thats is some of what I have learned I think I started to ramble so i stoped. So word to your mother.:thumbsup:

[elskeetro]

I just like taking pics....:thumbsup:

And what very nice pics they are!

Photography and growing weed are my 2 favorite hobbies. Take a look at some of my pics: http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-problems/155631-confirm-yellow-leaf-diagnosis-pics.html#post1857359
and http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponics/155124-b-cuzz-b-pk-13-14-a.html#post1856985

They aren't the pride of my photo album as i was trying to show the yellowing and sickness instead of a great photo. i've been thinking about putting together an album of my first grow beginning to end, there's some nice shots in there. i'll let you know if i do.
'
again. nice pics, keep up the good work
Skeet

[Technique2]

Awesome Job!

I especially like your assessment of information that you have come across via this forum and the net. I also like your end result. Even though I plan to let my plants GROW much more than you did, I am impressed with your results never-the-less.:thumbsup:

[gotmudatv]

So it has been a while since I have posted. I have had one grow after this grow and It was even better. But now I am on to new seeds, trainwreck. I have not been able to find to much info on the growing process. So I am just going to post my grow here.I am using CFLs for the veg. I am growing in a rubbermaid box. I am using Fox Farm soil.

Picture 1 is just my plant at 3 weeks
Picture 2 is just my plant looking down in the rubbermaid.

[KingKronic420]

well, welcome back bud!

you said something about getting married and moving to another crib 2 wks from one of the above posts?

seems like youre getting settled in nicely with quality seeds now.

im in to see what you get from those TW's in the rubbermaid.

best of luck with this one.

[gotmudatv]

Well thank you kind sir. I hope to train this wreck.:thumbsup:

After doing some research I dont know if the rubbermaid is going to be big enough to hold the TW. I mean I could make it work but I dont want to change the phenotypes to change to a less potnet plant. I really like what JDSOIL is doing with his plant. He let is plant veg for 8 or 9 weeks, then he used the FIM technique. If I were to do it like his I would have to buld somthing bigger for my closet but no biggie. I have a new light since my last grow, it is the 150 hps light on ebay. I have not tryed it out yet but if i keep the rubbermaid I am going to have high temps and so on. I still not sure what I am going to do. I just have fun thinking about all my options available. Latter tonight I am going to post some pictures about how I think I can make the rubbermaid work out. Just to get some helpfull tips.

[KingKronic420]

well im not sure if you already are.

but going back to your first post, i see you have two identical rubbermaids. have you thought about stacking them for more room? it would help out considerably with the 150w in there for more breathing room. u saw somewhere on one of these sights where someone did a DIY cooltube. now im still a noob so im not sure how much space the cool tubes take up but if i can find the link i will post it up for you, i think it too will help out greatly in your rubbermaid box if it is plausible.

[KingKronic420]

well after a quick search i found this:

DIY Cool Tube *Step by Step* - Grasscity.com Forums (http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/252020-diy-cool-tube-step-step.html)

this is a very good detail/quality picture tutorial on the DIY cool tube.

hope this helps.

[gotmudatv]

Man oh man it has been a few weeks since my last post. The rubbermaid box was just not working with this strain. So I found the older box i used to use in my storage. I had cut cut and paste to help the box fit in my closet but I made it work.
So in picture 1 is just the outside
picture 2 is the door open, when the plant grows i just move the light up
picture 3 is the plant
picture 4 is the plant with me using LST to make the leads move to open light

Yea not much else going on I did buy some dutch master reverse to make sure the Train Wreck does not go hermi

[closetnubie2008]

Sorry to piggy back on your response. But i can't figure out. Or forum will not let me post thread yet. Out of 3 bag seeds i got only one to germinate. So right off the bat i had a 50/50 chance of female plant. Well i started what i hoped would be a Betsy on 10-11-08 24/7 light 6500K. Then went to 3000K 12/12 light on 11-20-08 I wanted to hurry the flowering in case of male 1 week at after about a week starts looking male in 2nd week I could tell Betsy was, a Bob. Question: Is the male worth any thing except the pollen. Like butter, hash, Keefe, etc Plant is about 30" tall Not including the long pollen stalks 24" circumvent. Pretty skunky, for a male. I kept growing hoping it might be a hermafidite. But the small female looking bud. Here and, there. are probably just young male pods. Is it worth growing any longer. Will it get stronger in THC the older it gets. just now started new seeds. Told they are Grandaddy Purple. Any help greatly appreciated.

[BlazedinBA]

nice looking grow man:thumbsup: im def gonna be following this one...trainwreck is my favorite..heard its pretty hard to grow but goodluck!

[gotmudatv]

Question: Is the male worth any thing except the pollen. Like butter, hash, Keefe, etc Plant is about 30" tall Not including the long pollen stalks 24" circumvent. .

"The male cannabis plant is essentially only useful for breeding. The male plant makes very poor marijuana, being mostly leaves without the dense resinous floral clusters of the female the yield is miserable. More importantly, the male of the species has virtually no potency in comparison to that of female cannabis." -Advanced - Breeding Strategies Cannabis.com

It sucks starting off getting only male plants but patience is the key. I have only a place to grow 2 plants so to help my male to female ratio I orderd female seeds. I hope this was helpful.