First Grow - Germinated Seeds - Questions

[Joemontana]

Hello, This is my first grow and it is ambious I know.

Setup: 4x4 Grow Tent - Currently 14 seedlings Bubblegum & White Widow Max (Holland Genetics).

Seedlings are in 16 oz Plastic Cups (trimed down) (4 seedlings are in the cone style tray) Got caught off guard, Seeds were over germinated at exactly 3 days (72 hours). Seeds went into Sunshine mix on Monday night.

Soil is Sunshine Number 4 with additional Perlite.

Currently - Tent Humidity is 60% (stays between 50 - 60 %) - Temp is 75. T5 (4x2 4 bulbs) light is 15" off plants (out of dome). Fan circulating air and humidifier providing the humidity. Lights are on 24 hours. Dome heating pad and the heater I had running in the room (not the tent) are now off. Rooms cools off at night and has gotton down to 67/68. Will move plants to sealed grow room with 600w MH lights for Veg. How long do I wait?

Seedlings look great - won't water again till they look dry.

Questions: Anything wrong here? Should I have left the heating pad under the cups? When do I add nutrients? (using Fox farm) Light at proper height? We will PH the water tomorrow night. 70 gallon Water tank started leaking replacing tomorrow.

Thank you for your help.....I will need all I can get.

JM

[bigsby]

I think you're doing a good job. Sounds like you've done your homework and that you have your stuff pretty well dialed in.

Once your seedlings hit their third node they are no longer seedlings and you can put them into the tent. Bring that T5 down a 5" / day until it is 5" - 8" off the plants. That will get them ready for the MH juice. When they go into veg keep that light has high up as you can and move down a foot / day so that they aren't shocked by the sudden increase in photons.

Some people swear by the heating pad under their seedlings. From what I've read you want to keep the temps down below 68 and you need to keep a close eye on the water as they dry out quickly. Said to promote root growth.

Nutes can go on 1/4 strength every 3rd watering after the 3rd node. Note, do not start under the MH light and Nutes at the same time. Let them adjust to the nutes or light for a few days before starting the other. Bring you nutes up to 1/2 strength after 2 weeks. Careful not to over water.

Think about your re-potting schedule. Once before they go to veg or just after and once before they go to flower or just after. Again, do not coincide re-potting with additional nutes or move to new lighting or lighting schedule.

Post up some piccies. We'll be watching.

[bigsby]

Hey I misspoke about when your seedlings are no longer seedlings. They are no longer seedlings once they have their first set of real leaves which I believe constitutes their first node. Not the pre-emergent leaves but the first set of recognizable leaves.

Nutes can start at this point as can your shift in lighting. Check out out this sticky for more in depth info. (http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/127522-simple-noob-instructions-growin-da-dankness-2.html)

[Joemontana]

Did I remove from the dome to quickly?

No dome (no heating pad). Just in the tent on a table I made to keep off the floor. Just checked on them: 71 degrees and 60% humidity.

The temp goes up as I lower the light - What temp do I want to avoid?

Thank you everyone

[bigsby]

With the dome you want to take care to "harden" the plants, that is, let them adjust to no dome over time. Give them 3 hours no doom for 2 days. Then up to 6 hours for a day or two and then they should be ready for 24 hours no dome.

Humidity and temp are fine although you don't want the humidity much higher as it creates conditions for mold to develop. Ideal temp range is 75 - 85. Higher temperatures mean more expiration so you plants may need watering more often. That said, most failures occur due to over watering rather than under watering.

Again, give that sticky a read. It details a lot of this stuff.

[Joemontana]

Well, they have been out of the dome of over 24 hours. I lowered the light, added a second fan for cooling:

Temp=71 humidity = 55% Temp will increase thru the day as it gets warmer.

[Joemontana]

PH tested our (well) water = 7.4 I was pleased as I had no idea what to expect.

Second set of leaves visable on all plants.

[bigsby]

But you realize the PH is too high, right?

[Joemontana]

Yes. If I remember right should be about 6 - 6.5 correct?

[Joemontana]

My PC is in the shop and it has my camera software on it. I should have it back today. I will take pics. I ph'ed the water at 5.7. is that to low? I did a flush thru my soil mix just to check the PH and it bumped up .1 - .2 . Am I shooting for 5.8 - 6.2?

I also transplanted the WWM plants that were in the little starter cones. I hope I did not kill them. I will do it a little differently next time.

Again thank you all for your help. I will post pics tonight (assuming I get my PC back today). I'm working on my laptop which is not setup for the camera. I will also include pics of the sealed grow room.

[bigsby]

pH of water going in should be between 6.2 - 6.9. For simplicity consider making your own soil. Stinky's tutorial on "growing da dankness" provides a fool proof recipe. Note that with a soil grow you need to re-pot through out the grow to replenish soil that is depleted around the roots. In other words, don't plant in a 3 or 5 gallon pot at the start and think you are done. Much better to plant in small pots and repot often.

Some measure pH coming out of the bottom but the composition will change as it flows through the soil so I don't put too much stock in that number. Some people swear by it though so decide for yourself.

[Joemontana]

Sorry for the wait, but here are some photo's.

The White Widow Max is on the right, Bubblegum to the left. I will take more pics today without the flash.

[Joemontana]

Wow, have I learned alot since I posted the pic. I was trying to ensure I did not over water and ended up underwatering. I have also stepped up the humidifier to ensure it's more consistantly near 60%. I was afraid I was drying the plants due to excessive air movement.I have two fans running in there.

In the pics you can see where I burned one plant a little when I got water on the leaf from a spray bottle (pre Big Bloom).

The pics show the girls before I watered w/ Big bloom (1/4 tablespoon / Gallon). They responded immediately (perked up).

Next Friday makes it 3 weeks. Does anyone here have any tips about growing in Sunshine #4 w/ added perlite in regards to watering. I alternate between 6.3 PH'ed water and the Bigbloom'ed water.

We will more the girls to the sealed grow room next weekend, transplanted into 3 gallon buckets. Any hints when doing that. What height should I start my 600w lights at? Shoule I bump up the Big bloom to full strength (2 teaspoons per gallon?)Now I will be more consistant with this log. The look good this morning.

[Joemontana]

Had to flush my plants yesterday. I was burning them with the nukes. It was also the first time I completely saturated the plants and they look doog today. I suspect I may have been under watering the whole time. Not sure. Iwill take more pics tomorrow.

Thanks

[Joemontana]

Well, plants were transplanted on Sunday and moved to the sealed grow room. WWM handled the stress better than the BG did. They look good now. I discovered that the reason I had to flush my plants as stated in a previous post, like an idiot I accidentally gave them nukes instead of food.

Sealed grow room = 14 x 6.5 x 8â?? tall

(1) Sentinel CHHC+ Environmental Controller
(2) Radiant ac 6â?� hoods - 600w lights (18" from plants)
(2) Ballasts are located outside of the room (to cut heat in grow room)
(1) 16â?� oscillating fan (waiting on wall mount fan coming this week)
(1) 50 lb CO2 tank - feed tube mounted on back of fan for distribution.
(1) 50 pint dehumidifier (not on controller and additional source of heat)
(1) Air Scrubber - Active carbon can filter with a 6â?� duct fan mounted on top on timer
Venting â?? closed loop. Air comes from outside room , thru lights, back out of room to outside. Fan located outside of grow room in duct work (pulls the heat).
All ducting is insulated including metal hoods (best we could).

Current environmental settings:

Temp = 85
Humidity = 60 â?? 65%
Co2 = 1400 ppm
Lights = 24/7
Water = PH 6.0 - 6.5

Any advice appreciated.

[ForgetClassC]

Man........that's an intense first grow........

Looks like your all set, what you have for flowering?

-C

[Joemontana]

We will swap the bulbs to HPS when we flower and change the timer to 12/12. We plan on running the lights at night for heat reasons during the flowering. We have made a few mistakes, but survived them all so far. I wish we had covered the lower portion of the wall with reflective material. I think we will do it within the next few days. I wanted to ensure that the plants did not deal with any other stress for a while. Our goal is high quality with yield. I wish I had two rooms like this. We started the seedlings in a grow tent. Currently White Widow Max and BubbleGum for this grow. This setup is fairly automated (which I appreciate after the grow tent). Heat will be our challenge. We will get mothers out of this group so we can start cloning these strains. When the cooling fan kicks in I have the CO2 off but not necessary as far as I can tell, drops very little and just one person breathing in the room drives up the CO2 quickly. I have left the room more than once due to driving the CO2 levels to high. Anyone can buy good equipment, but it does not replace experience. I listed our environment specs because I was hoping for some feed back for anyone who has used the sealed room method. Thank you to anyone who watches our posts and offers advice.

[Joemontana]

I would also appreciate any advice on the light distance from the plants. Again thank you!

[GetThisOrDie]

The good ol back of the hand method.

If the back of your hand is comfortable at a given distance under the light then your plants should be as well. Seedlings and young plants need extra distance.

Great looking first grow... it looks like you did your homework for sure! I dont use a sealed room so I cant offer any advice.

[Joemontana]

Is this burn from the light being to low? I have raised the light over these plants. I believe it is about 18". I also lowered the temp from 85 to 83 with a deadband of 2. I felt 85 with a deadband of 3 was allowing to high of a temp on the high side of the band.

The yellow leaf on the plant that is in the background is a result of a mis feed earilar in life. We're learning......

Thanks for your help.

[GetThisOrDie]

Looks like nute burn or PH issues to me. Whats your ph of the water going in?

If you know you put too much nutes in before then thats probably the problem. 85-88f is hot but not too hot. As long as you have a fan blowing over the tops of them they should be ok in those temps.

[Joemontana]

Ph issue for sure! Piss me off too. We ph our water always. We took the plant in the pic and flushed it 5.4 - What the hell causes that to happen? we worked late into the night fixing this issue. I took the sunshine #4 and ran water thru it and ph'ed the run off, actually raised the ph alittle. so what the hell makes it go south. How does one prevent it?

Thank you to everyone who offered advice.