My first grow.

[bombneverland]

:jointsmile:

Well its my first attempt at growing, i currently have 3 afghan kush seedlings going started feeding 2 miracle gro houseplant food for the past 3 days or so. I started them outside in my garden where they started to get eaten by animals. one lost some of its leaves :(, thats when i decided to turn an old PC tower i had laying around into a growbox, bought 3 50 watt CFLS, cleaned out the tower, put in some refrigeration fans and now i have them going in there. They've been going for about a week now in the growbox. here's some kinda shitty quality pictures from my webcam, i plan on getting a digi cam soon so i'll have some better pictures later on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture5-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture6-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture8.jpg

[headshake]

you want to cover the clear pots with tape or black construction paper or something similar. the light is bad for your roots and can cause other nasties to invade your soil.

also, you shouldn't be feeding your plants until they have 4 nodes. and then you should start with 1/2 strenght or so and move your way up.


-shake

[bombneverland]

Yeah i was planning on putting some black tape over them tonight, i started with 1/8 the strength, going to work my way up very slowly.

[headshake]

you shouldn't be feeding/watering everyday. you should probably check out all of the stickies in the grow section.


-shake

[stinkybudz]

shake have you ever heard of the dr bud method? he uses pop bottles and never covers them, the only "nasties" he has is some webs, but thats his mychorrizeal or w/e, he feeds homemade teas and all organic stuff

[headshake]

no i haven't stinky. but i'll check him out. and mychorizzal is a fungus so if that fungus can grow in your soil so can other non-beneficial fungae and bacteria can also grow in the same conditions. that's not saying that it will happen, just that it can.

man, i thought i liked you and then all you do is come behind me and correct me. thanks. j/k. lol. i do appreciate being told when i'm wrong.


-shake

[bombneverland]

i wasnt feeding/water them everyday :P, i plan on keeping them in the small containers as im going to start LST training them today. I've been told that if you use small containers that the plants will not grow as large. Is this true and if so is there a special way to do it? i also plan on putting them on 12/12 once they've reached their 5th or 6'th node they're growing their 5th node now, well ones growing dual 5th nodes because its been topped. I'm not looking for crazy yield here, this is basically just an experiment to grow tiny weed plants shit i'd be happy with 5 grams :P Any advice or tips on growing dwarf plants will be much appreciated. I may start doing the bonsai method soon, i have a lot of bonsai tree's im quite good at it.

[headshake]

:jointsmile:

Well its my first attempt at growing, i currently have 3 afghan kush seedlings going started feeding 2 miracle gro houseplant food for the past 3 days or so.


okay, you shouldn't be feeding 3 days in a row. miracle grow is time released. and even then you should be using 1/4 to 1/2 strength. and you shouldn't be giving nutes til at least 4 nodes. i know you say you have the 5th node starting.

if you plan on LSTing you need to stop two weeks prior to switching to 12/12.

as far as keeping them small, you can LST and make them more bushy than tall. but if you don't do any root trimming i'm pretty sure that you are gonna get rootbound which will cause all sorts of problems with you ladies, depending on what size they get.

you have a lot of reading to do.


-shake

[bombneverland]

by past 3 days i meant i gave them their first dose of nutes 3 days ago, and not trimming i mean space, like it no longer has room to create roots i've seen pictures of people growing in nyquil cups and such to keep the plants small. and by bonsai method i ment mostly just skillful topping and a bit of lst.

Bonsai weed plant- http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/images/halloween_2007/halloween_2007_ulf_Cannabis_sativa.jpg


Root space limitations- http://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/638P4240005.JPG Here's a link about it http://blackblogwatch.com/v1/index.cfm?method=blog_aggregate_read&entry_id=35419&lr_token=99831499




Root Zone

First of all, to grow plants at that small scale you have to control the size of the root zone. And, if you look at the pictures you'll notice the size of the plants in relation to the container or root zone area. Notice the image on the left in relation to the hydrogen peroxide bottle in the background. While it's small, it's still bigger compared to the image on the right. If you ever see grow operation busts in the news, you'll see the plants grown in buckets, usually five gallons. They're upwards of six feet in height. Grow a marijuana plant outdoors with the right climate, you can't easily get plants at nine feet and I've seen images of a tw0-story tall marijuana tree.

wondering if the whole root zone thing is true or if it'll just kill my plants and be a huge waste of time, i've been trying to read up on as many micro plant techniques as i can.

[headshake]

bonasi = Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species which produces true branches and remains small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning.

so yes, it can be done, but you have to trim the roots. and that doesn't mean that it will necessarily be easy. i don't know as i have no experience with it myself. there is a post around here where i was told that this guy grew i think around a 4' plant in a 4" pot. it's not recommended, but can be done.

as far as the nyquil cup, did you read anything about that one? it could have been a cutting that was put into there. it could have been from seed. why don't you try it out and see what happens. it's kinda silly IMHO.


Conclusion

In the first pair of images, the plants are kept small simply by controlling the root zone. Other problems can arise from this technique such as root bounding which may cause the plant to stop growing. It will require you to learn root pruning. But, there are other techniques that can help you keep the plant within the confines of the space you provide. It may seem difficult or overwhelming, but you can get the hang of it quickly.

this came from the third link that you gave me.


-shake

[bombneverland]

Sorry its been a while since i checked in, been busy lately. anyway thanks a lot for the advice shake, All my plants except for one afghan kush were male. So now i have one amazing girl making clones for me. I've made a flowering room, its 4x4 (Small but we've been doing the SOG technique) It has 1 10.0 UVB flouro, and a 400 watt HPS. I'm a refrigeration repair man so i rigged up a small 1/2 horse compressor to the grow box and it never exceeds 70 degree's in it. It also has a C02 tank hooked up with a timer which turns off the fans and fills the box with c02 once a day for 15 minutes. (was wondering if i should do this more often?) The clones are put in a flood/drain hydro setup filled with orchid rocks. we've started by feeding our first batch 1/3 strength hydro nutes for the first few weeks or so. The mom stays near me in my PC grow box i've taken about 4 clones from her and topped her twice here's some pictures of her

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture19.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture23.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/bombneverland/Picture24-1.jpg


sorry for the shitty quality, i'll be taking some pictures next week or so of my clones in my grow box with a much better camera.