My first attempt to indoor closet grow.

[tgap1616]

So, I'm planting 3 plants in a small space in my closet from random bagseeds. Never done any kind of gardening or anything so I need uhhh, a lot of help. lol I've read PLENTY of stuff for help but it's still pretty confusing. I think where I'm gonna need help is from after planting the rooted seeds, haha. I've got 3 - 4" pots, a small aluminum foil lined area for growing, Miracle Gro moisture control soil, 2 - 75watt cfl's with 1200 lumen a piece, timer to control lights, and some superthrive & bloom booster as nutrients. Will this be enough for at least a noob, experimental first grow or am I going to need a lot more? Any help is much appreciated. :)

[bluntar]

i just started flowering my first grow and i found that as i went thru the veg stage i was allways needing something elce. the more i researched and learned, the more i wanted to go buy new things so dont expect to make a one time buy. i use CFL's and have no problems. i thinkk they are great, low heat, cheap, low electric costs...wahts not to like. also they can stay only a few inches from the plant. u want 6,500 kelvin (blue/white) for veg and 2,700 kelvin (red) for flowering (u can see in the pix on my profile)

with the foil i have ben reading more and more that is almost counterproductive. it reflects more heat than valuable lumes however if you are in a cold enviroment that that might be a good thing. flat white laytex pant might be better. if you are in a closet it might already be flat white.

Not watering is important when you are new..Do water your plants just not to often. this is important to research in depth. when i water i clean the shit out of my kitchen, bleach spray, alow it to dry then a VERRY light mist of lysol, alow that to dry COMPLETLY and then i have a clean steral eviroment to water. i do this so i can inspect my plants thoroughly, meashure, P.H. run off. chean the part of the pot that catches the runoff and dry it. as this is hard to do in a closet. i have ben useing a britta water filter that ataches to the water faucet which filters the chemicals that i dont wat. dont know if this is actualy helpgull but all is well so far. Keep a log, schedule, chart so you can keep track of all numbers.

ease them on nutes. 1/4 dose every other watering 2 times, then 1/2 dose every other watering and 1/4 dose in betwene. THIS IS HOW I DO IT AND IS PROBABLY WRONG but it has worked for me. After a while the salts builf up effecting the P.H. DO NOT USE ONE OF THOES CRAPPY P.H. PINS you stab in to the dirt ripping the roots. thaty suck, do not work and damage the roots. check the P.H. of run off water.

lime will help with P.H. problems. hydrated lime is best, i have ben useing the dolomite type simply because i did not know better when i got the stuff and it seems to be working (2 weeks later).

you will make mistakes but the best think is that these girls ARE plants and you have time to make corrections. keep it simple, use your head and all should go well. any questions you have there is allways someone on here that is willing to help. this is an awsome community and i dont know what i would have donw w/o them.

happy growing my friend!!:thumbsup:

[tgap1616]

Thanks for all the info, I'm gonna take the foil down then because it is painted white(good guess lol). So besides being sterile, careful, and giving the right nutes and watering, my plants should grow fine in the environment and soil I have?

[bluntar]

well no one can guarentee anythhing, just some things i found along the way. i am just one week in to the flowering stage so i have not even fin my 1st grow. you have a similar set up so i thought id tell you the things i found most important but what i listed is not ALL you need to know and do, i dont know if its even recomended...thats just how I do MINE, i am a noob

its a learning process, but let me tell you my girls are starting to flower and its exciteing. these forums are the best. if you do your homework and ask questions u will be ok

ps try to get some pix..n e thing is good, use your phone and email it to you is the easiest if you dont have camera and stuff

[bluntar]

what do u have now, just seeds?, seedlings? are you germinateing? whats the average temp? humidity? do you have a way to test the P.H.? do you have a fan?

[tgap1616]

Well, I germinated the seeds and got almost all 10 to get a tip poking out, even though I plan on only growing 3, I wasnt sure in my ability to "wet towel" germinate them yet. So I grabbed the 3 best looking seeds with roots and put them about seed depth in the MG soil that was already watered, buried them and sprayed the top soil to moisten that too. Still on second day really and nothings coming up, I'm not worried the least cause I know it takes time. I think I'm most worried about over watering, do I need to worry about that before it actually breaks soil and does it need light before it sprouts as well? As for you're other questions, I haven't got anything to measure temp, humidity, or P.H. If it's just a small, 3 plant grow, I should be alright with those factors (well, besides P.H.) right? And I'm going out to buy like a mini fan tomorrow. Along with some pictures hopefully, even though I'm a bit sketchy on the comments my grow spot may have... lol. I'm glad I have a somewhat other new person to this helping me too, makes me feel not alone haha.

[bluntar]

Well, I germinated the seeds and got almost all 10 to get a tip poking out, even though I plan on only growing 3, I wasnt sure in my ability to "wet towel" germinate them yet. So I grabbed the 3 best looking seeds with roots and put them about seed depth in the MG soil that was already watered, buried them and sprayed the top soil to moisten that too. Still on second day really and nothings coming up, I'm not worried the least cause I know it takes time. I think I'm most worried about over watering, do I need to worry about that before it actually breaks soil and does it need light before it sprouts as well? As for you're other questions, I haven't got anything to measure temp, humidity, or P.H. If it's just a small, 3 plant grow, I should be alright with those factors (well, besides P.H.) right? And I'm going out to buy like a mini fan tomorrow. Along with some pictures hopefully, even though I'm a bit sketchy on the comments my grow spot may have... lol. I'm glad I have a somewhat other new person to this helping me too, makes me feel not alone haha.



dont let the soil stay wet for to long, thats how you get mold. i got mold around week 2, a small dry spell and transplant took care of that. a dry spell every once and a while is not a bad thing, it makes the roots grow deeper searching for water resulting in a stronger plant.

you need pots that drain well. water untill you see a little run off and make a note of how much it took. wait untill the top in. or so on the soil is dry, not damp but dry. give them just a little less water than you noted before. i water mine every 3 days. as they grow they will require more weater so if you decide to flush note the amount of water untill run off and make adjustments.

i put my buckets of hope dirt under the florida sun untill i saw sprouts. they then went under a full spectrum plant fluro i got at walmart for 12 bucks untill i got the CFL's i now have. i dont know if the light is needed before sprouts tho. the light kelvin temp matters tho, not just any light will do. do you know the kelvin temp of yout lights? you want 6,500 k (blue/white) for veg and 2,700 k (red) for flowering

not knowing the temp is not going to hurt but if it gets to hot or to cold you could get in to trouble. i keep my house around 72F - 75F all day and the CFL's dont produce much heat so my closet is around 80F max. the thermometer i got was like 5 bucks but i dont realy use it so just watch for drastic temps.

here are some pix form every week or so.


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[tgap1616]

Damnn, lookin pretty. I hope mine grow and look that good haha. So how far along are those from seed?

[neceros]

Bluntar you need to get any males out there ASAP! If your females get pollinated your bud is ruined.

[tgap1616]

Uhh, although it's not a big deal, I just woke up to find my first sprout. :D Not exciting to most, but for my first grow, of anything, ever, it's like I made a baby lmao.

[bluntar]

im haveing trouble being able to tell which are males. there are a few showing female but the rest just look like they haven't started flowering yet, to be honest i wnat to pluck a few, i did not plan on all of em growing. i wish i could tell you exactly how far along they are. i think its 7 weeks now. 4 weeks of 24/0 starting with 2 6.500 k CFL's ans ending up with 8. then 2 weeks with 20/4, and now 1.5 weeks at 12/12 with (4) 6,500 and (4) 2,700. to night i will go get 4 more 2,700 k.

Congradulations on your sprouts dude!! its not nothing , its your baby!! get thoes lights close. i was also wondering if you had any reflector over the light?

[tgap1616]

I have no reflector over the light. I just have 2 - 75 watt cfls. This should be sufficient for the three little plants until they at least grow up a little right? I'm planning on getting a big hanging lamp with three y-sockets to put up 4 of the same watt cfls. Will this be enough light for the 3 little plants? I dont plan on growing them too large, just kind of a micro grow. Only slightly larger than the average micro grow cause I have a little extra space haha. All the advice is realy helpful, thanks a bunch. :)

[bluntar]

I have no reflector over the light. I just have 2 - 75 watt cfls. This should be sufficient for the three little plants until they at least grow up a little right? I'm planning on getting a big hanging lamp with three y-sockets to put up 4 of the same watt cfls. Will this be enough light for the 3 little plants? I dont plan on growing them too large, just kind of a micro grow. Only slightly larger than the average micro grow cause I have a little extra space haha. All the advice is realy helpful, thanks a bunch. :)

depends on what kind of cfl, wahts the color temp? that matters. 2 is ok for now if you plan on adding more in the future. the more light the faster the groth. a reflector would be wise but not crucial, consiter it an extra bulb.

dryer duct at home depot 3$
lamp cables 6$
socket 3$
y splitter 1.50$

there is a video on youtube that shows how

[hcmake]

I recently started growing aswell... most common mistake i made many many many many times was overwatering .. so my veggie stage took 3 months :D but i got 1 big big big bud girl still alive and almost ripe. (only 3 feet tall tought) Watering is trial and error. just stick your finger in the grow medium if you are using small herb grow "pots". Let it dry so that theres no water left but the growth medium is moist then wait a day and water it and measure the freshly watered pot. Measure it again when its completely dry to get an good pointer for "when to water".

[tgap1616]

Okay so I've got all three up and sprouted and the one that came first is growing faast. But I noticed yesterday there are almost microscopic white little spiders on the pots. I assume these are spidermites and I plan on getting some pest strips. I was wondering how well these work, are they dangerous to put near the plants, and will the spidermites harm my plants if they are or have been on the pots for a while?

[bluntar]

dont know bout the pest strips but i just had a run in with some small white,(not quite microscopic) bugs. dont know what they were but they were in the soil, not on the plant or leafs so after reading i found that my best option was pyrethrin. made a trip to the convenient grow store and picked some up for 15$ (a bit pricy). mixed 1 tbsp with 1.5 gallons of H20 ( later found that this is a verry potent mix) and sence it was time to flush anyways i poured about .75 gallons of h20 thru the soil, then waterd the normal amount with the pyrethrin mix. no bugs and the girls are looking better than ever. if you cant get your hands on any thing made for your problem there are other options like the soap+h20 spray mix with oils or peroxide but i have no experience with them. also i dont know about soap in the soil, prob not good. can you order suplies online in your situation?

i know the key to an infestation is to stop the cycle of life for at leat one life cycle. i.e. if your bugs like moisture then find a way to remove as much moisture as possible, lets say they need the moisture to lay the eggs, if you remove the moisture then they cant lay eggs, grow old and die w/o ever laying eggs, then you just have to keep this enviroment untill all the buggies die w/o laying eggs.

neem oil works good, i know fox farms makes something dont bug me that is suposed to work pretty well. there are plenty of solutions so dont fret, just do something soon becaude thoes fuckers mutiply fast

sry for the late reply and all the typos...im tired

good luck

[tgap1616]

I know it's been a while, but I decided to take 2 plants out so it's just one and it's growing wonderfully! Everyday it gets bigger and I still only have the 2 fluorescent bulbs and haven't used ands nutrients yet. I'm planning on flowering soon to at least see if it's female and make clones and just smoke the small amount I get. I'll upload a picture of it currently to be sure it's big enough, which I think it is. And is it okay to use Bloom Booster in the flowering stage? Does this make the results better or just grow faster?

[bluntar]

dont think you want to flower after 19 days. well see in the pic tho. get rid of the bugs? i wouldent recomend the MG bloom buster. this is a plant you plan on consuming. look at what is in that stuff. if it is all you can get than it will have to do but you are way better off with something that is specifically made for that plant. im excited to see pics

[tgap1616]

Not a gooood camera so shitty pictures, but loook, it's a pretty plant! haha
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[bluntar]

nicely done..is that a milk jug, roots dont like light. that might be a problem later on..also it might hold water pockets leading to root rot or mold..heads up!!

otherwise lookin good!

[bigsby]

Most insect invaders need a moist surface to lay their eggs. These are flying insect which lay their eggs in the top soil level. So if you put something on the top of your medium that dries quickly you will stop the insects from laying eggs. I use hydroton clay balls but you can also use perlite or even paper. I liky hydroton because it is breathable, and it doesn't float when I water.

[mikee306]

289275289276289277289278289279am growing bag seed lowriders on 12/12 from seed.. check it out

[32yrslater]

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