First Real Grow

[Iggmasta]

So I bought 5 Grapefruit x Nevilles Haze seeds from Female Seed co a few month ago and I decided to grow two at my friends house with him. We have them in a closet under a single flourescent light. The plants are at 3 weeks now and they are 4 inches tall. I have kept them under 18 hours light for the past 2 weeks before that it was 24 hours light. The pictures are at 3 weeks into veg, I plan to grow them to 3 feet or so, since this strain is supposed to streach a lot durring flowering I was told to put them into flowering no later then 4 weeks unless I want a huge tree. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.:rastasmoke:

[HiProGlow]

Wow....they need some serious light. At three weeks old they should be a lot bigger. I would suggest that you add more cfl's or an HID then watch those babies get soooo much bigger. Good job and keep growing. Peace!

[Iggmasta]

I have been looking at some CFL's. As of now we are pretty poor but I think we can aford one in a week or so. Untill then would you recomend increasing the hours of light to 20 or even 24 hours?

[HiProGlow]

I would go 24hrs until you can get some more lights on them. Get more lights asap, it's important or else you'll end up with small plants and small yields. Check out my grow log....hipro's first grow log.....and you can compare the difference between our plants. (Mine's 21 days old today)

[Volker]

That's 3 weeks?!?!?! Damn. This was my girl at 3 weeks. She'll be 4 weeks tomorrow, and has 5 tops poking through the screen. You seriously need more light. I also grow using CFTs, and a single 27W CFT in either 6500K (daylight) or 2700K (warm white) per plant will do wonders. Keep it about 1" above the plant.

[hairyboblovesthemob]

The light needs to be closer to them, as in 1 inch away from the tops. I had mine far away and oh boy did they stretch. They have since recovered but I wish I really kept them 1 inch above them from the beginning. I use 8 CFL's and they are looking really good now.

[Iggmasta]

Ok so I am buying a CFL this weekend and untill then it is switched on to 24 hours of light. Should I be using plant food at this stage, I have been doing half strenght for a week and a half 2 weeks, should I switch to full strength or keep it at half.

[Volker]

Should I be using plant food at this stage?I'd say NO! I'm assuming that's potting soil in the pots. That plus the "yolk leaf" remainders should be fine till the leaves develop more. I never start nutes till after the first set of 5-finger leaves is fully developed, usually even later.

DIRT NUTE RULES != HYDRO NUTE RULES!

Check the threads here. You'll see so many babies being killed by people adding ferts to their dirty li'l girls. Think about it, it's like force-feeding a full steak & lobster meal to a newborn human baby. It's gotta "grow teeth" first.

[Volker]

Since you've been using nutes already, there may be a danger of salt lockup* in your soil. What I would do if those plants were plopped on my doorstep:

1) More light. (You're doing that already)

2.a) Let the "weakest" looking one dry out a day or 3. Pop the root ball out of the cup and check development. Should be some threads up against the cup. Could be none. Could be a mass. Put it back into cup and into cycle 2.b

2.b) This is a 1-3 week process. Water the remainder of the plants with clean, fresh water to the point where water is running - not dripping - out drainage holes. Let dry 2-3 days, or until soil at bottom is verging on dry. (I use a wooden chopstick) Repeat.

3) As each plant reaches the point of full 5-finger leaves, transplant into bigger digs. Do the dry 'em out thing for a few days before xfer, makes it real easy to pop the roots out in a mass. Don't overwater when putting in the new pot, just enough to soak the top 2" or so. (It'll sink, and the roots will go down looking for it)

4) When plant is acclimated to larger pot (3-7 days) start whatever nute schedule is planned.

*salt lockup is when chemical nutrients dry out and leave chemical residues on chunks of wood, loam, etc. in your soil. If your roots hit these chunks of salt encrusted stuff, you will get "nute burn"

[Iggmasta]

Thanks a lot Volker that was some really helpfull info. Im hoping to get the kinks worked out this grow, hopefully get some good smoke, then next grow (when I will have a better space, and more time to take care of the plants) I hope to start getting alright at this growing bussiness. I will post more pics when I have done some serious fine tuning with my plants.