1st Grow--Purple Kush clones, with WW and Mr. Freeze seedlings joining the partay...

Whoops, this was supposed to be the start of the thread.., but the show must go on, eh? ;)

Heya all... This is my first actual grow, tho I have been fortunate to have seen one or two others in my time (;)). I am currently working on eight Purple Kush clones, with some mystery seeds that I know are either Widow or a sticky strain we call Mr. Freeze locally. There are four seedlings rapidly catching the clones, and might just be able to get 'em all in together, if I can get 'em to hurry up a bit (without stressing 'em).

I am LST'ing all plants as they spring up. The Purple Kush seems to respond quite well to it, and the seedlings aren't complaining, either.

I wish that I had started this log about four weeks ago when I really started setting up, but I had other things to do (like live!)... will try to post things in a somewhat chronological order, even tho I'm around 28-30 days in :)

Both seedlings and clones were initially on the top shelf of my closet, next to one 200w equiv/45w actual CFL, whilst I built the /real/ closet nearby. The one that was designed to hold the 600w MH (veg) then 660w HPS (flowering), being driven by a Lumatek switchable digital ballast :)

The /proper/ closet has two chambers, an 'outer' and 'inner', both 4'x4x'8'3" (floor to ceiling). The innermost is my current 'grow everything' chamber, but will be dedicated to flowering once I am in 'full bloom'. The outer chamber will be a permanent 'veg' and cloning/seedling room. I am still torn as to whether or not to try to set up a separate space for any males that I might want to keep (tho the clones are all fem, of course, the seedlings might be either, but even if they're male I wanna find a way to keep 'em, because I /know/ what lineage they have, and really really really wanna see / taste what WW x with Purple Kush could do... (just a 'muah hah hah' kind of thought!)...

Nutrients are Dutch Nutrient Formula (just the veg for now, of course), with a very minor addition of Bio-Vert organic cleanser as a wetting agent. I've also had to start the ladies on a regimen of Vectobac to work on a thrips problem that has presented itself in four of my clones (I think they came from the shitty potting soil that my clones came in... :/ )

Sooo... lemme find some pix, and please, comment away! I know that I'm new to this, but I really want (have!) to get this right the first time :)

CC
:chainsaw:

[Gonna see if I can find some pix of the early days now :) ]

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The pots are 1ga. ice cream buckets I'd been saving {mmmm... ice cream.... arharhgahgahehghaghgrgh}, the soil is Pro-Mix Premiere from Premiere Horticulture, with Perlite on the bottom. The trays are cheapie aluminum ones that were 10 fer a buck-fitty-nine, and the light above is a Sunmaster Cool Deluxe 600w MH being driven by a 600w Lumatek digital ballast. Note the air intake (unfinished) at the right. The exhaust is in the opposing corner up top, angled to suck the correct way to induce a vortex, and pull hot air thru a 4" vent from the top of the room. The bulb is almost exactly 16" from the tops of the plants in this picture.

At this point, the seedlings are still in the /other/ closet... :)

Heya all... just trying to get caught up on the log I should'a been keeping from day one, but hey, life intrudes, eh? {thank gH0d for camphones}

So, for the first week to ten days not much seemed to be happening. I was watering once every 3(-4) days, at the advice of someone who's been growing for as long as I've been alive, but he didn't realize that I wasn't yet in 3-5ga pots like he starts 'em in. And, my temps were averaging a little on the high side (85ish).

I was really worried about over-watering my little babies. I paid nearly four times the going rate for 'em (though they /are/ a killa strain), and I didn't wanna lose any of 'em. After checking the soil and finding it nearly bone-dry, I started to water every second day (with nutes every other watering), Brita water or ozonated distilled water, PH'd to 5.8-6.2 (or as close as I could get it with my shitty li'l test kit. BOY did they respond immediately.

They were being /under/watered. And wilting because of it. As soon as I corrected this, they turned almost a dark forest green, and perked right back up. The only exception to this was the plant that I would later label as Number 7, which showed signs of yellowing leaves (some leaves ½ yellow), and seemed to be 'stuck' while its sistern were getting over their transplant stress and starting to thrive.

And now for some pix :)

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A nice overview. Note the two 4100k 45w CFL fixtures in the middle. To those who say that CFLs are useless for enhancing the spectrum of something 'bigger' (like, f'r instance, the 600w MH right above 'em), I say "pshaw!" My plants (seedlings in the middle especially) noticed the difference immediately, and began bushing up nicely. I wanted to keep these lights here, but had to move 'em to what would become my seedcloneling closet.


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Here's my beautiful Numba1 Plant. It just seems soooo eager :)


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Number 7 Plant... note the slightly yellowing leaves, and the do-it-yourself sticky trap (made from DuctTape) around the trunk.


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A nice side view of The Garden. Note the intake at right, now shrouded with pandafilm. What you can't see inside the intake is the 120mm 12v computer-style PanaFlo muffin fan, pulling 100+cfm of fresh air thru some filters into the garden. Above is the SunMaster CoolDeluxe 600w MH. Below, 2x Globe 200w equiv/45w actual 4100k CFLs. Number 12 plant (the runt of the seedlings) is perched up above, with its humidity dome off).

Comments most appreciated!
(c)C:chainsaw:

you don't want light hitting your roots for one and for seeds look at my top link for a few tips on gettin the girls to the party:thumbsup:

Heyas...

It is now nearly the fourth week-ish into my hobby project, though these pictures are from about ten days ago as the little girls are starting to respond nicely. I /gotta/ get caught up on my logging...

Had a bad reaction when I saw something moving on my soil for the first time. Upon closer inspection, I found a few BUGS on my Number 4 plant, and a couple on Number 7. AAAARGH! WHERE DID YOU LITTLE F*#KERS COME FROM ?!?!? I have been really careful about not entering my grow area until I've had a shower and am either in fresh, clean clothes, or no clothes at all.

After a bit of research, I figured out that I had bloody thrips, with what looked like one fruitfly. My next stop was down to the fine people at Grown Hydro, with Jeremy recommending a solution called Vectobac. This is supposed to be a targeted bacterium thingy that not only hurts the wiggling ones, but also is the only thing that kills the eggs in the soil. It does take a bit of time to get 'em all (or nearly all--kinda hard to fully eradicate 'em), but, in the immortal woids o' Bugs Bunny, "Of course you realize, /this/ means /war/..."

With my budget running low, 35 bux for a bottle of this is a bit pricey, but if I don't do something, these little vermin might kill off alla my lovely ladies. So, Vectobac it is! Mixed a full-strength batch and gave the girls a full soak watering, to completely saturate the soil with the li'l microbies. Good thing I went and got the stuph, because by the time I got back home, I noticed bugz in Numbers 5 and 6, tho no sign of em in 1-3 and 8.

bugs. Bugs. BUGS.
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Vectobac to the rescue

I took the precaution of soaking /all/ of the plants with this, as an inoculant, and it seemed to help. The bottle cautions about overuse (/and/ has to be kept in the fridge after opening!), so I have to be careful about the dosage, but I am now using it in every watering, or every second watering at minimum, if the bugz' numbers seem to be down.

I also placed duct tape across the tops of the affected plants' pots, the better to corral the little devils. At first I thought that this wasn't working, because every now and then, some persistent little prick would find a way to crawl up from underneath, despite the stickiness. Later, I found that for every one bug that might'a made it thru, there were like dozens that were stuck to the undersides. Muah hah hah.

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Overview; quarantine on the left, some terracing and LST on the right

Good ole duct tape came to the rescue again, when I n0obishly learned (from many sources, tho stra8 was kind enow to posteth ;)) that roots don't like light, so I used a liberal amount to create darkness up to the soil line. It is kinda nice using translucent pots, though, because you can /see/ the root development, or lack thereof. Root development in Numba1 was already looking good by this time, with Numba2 close behind.

The plants were feeling much better with the addition of the extra cooling fans. Total fans in the cabinet at this point: 6" 12v intake, 108cfm; 6" 12v first-stage output (top of room), 120cfm; 6" 120v exhaust (bottom of vent in second room), 135cfm; and a single 4" 12v 20cfm on the light fixture, moving air across my MH bulb. Average 'day' temp inside was now 77 to 83ish, with 'night' temp down to 68-72.

I also re-set my photoperiod (still 18/6 of course) so the lights went on at 8pm, and off at 2pm in the afternoon. Moving to these hours also helped a lot because my lights were now off at the hottest part of my day. I am hoping to avoid buying an air-conditioner, but we'll see how hot this summer gets.

I also began Light Stress Training on some of the plants (just Numba1 and 2) at this time, including the now-hopefully-mature-enough Seedlings 9, 10 and 11. Seedling 12 was still taking a hella long time to catch up, and so got a lotta babying and eventually went back into SeedCloneLing land for a bit, to huddle under a huge reflector all by itself. 9, 10 and 11 still needed their domes intermittently, but were doing ok, and though I worried about starting LST on 'em, they responded quite nicely.

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It was just /begging/ to be tied down... /really/

Nice thing about 'em being this size is that not only was it easy to start training them, I could easily put 'em on their sides and rotate them around many times per day, to get light into as many budding sites as possible. I found that I would rotate them so that they were 'looking down' and as sideways to the MH as possible, only to find that about 3-4 hours later, they were finding 'up' again, and moving towards it at a ferocious speed. My how the little ladies (I hope!) love to dance... ;) The larger plants could still be tilted to either angle them straight to the light, or away, to get light in more 'sideways'.

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Not sure if I should do this... WHOOPS, did I do that?.. Am I stoned..?


Number 7 was still holding in there, but just didn't seem to get going like the others. Some yellowing, but it responded well to being misted quite frequently.

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Aww, poor li'l thang...

Watering shedule at this point is every two days, with DNF Gro every other watering, at 2.5ml per litre (about 10ml/ga) concentration. Ph is consistently 5.5-6.1 ish, with (I believe) the average just around 5.8-5.9.

Any comments would be much appreciated. Any /compliments/, well...
(flattery will getcha everywhere) :D

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Clockwise, from front left: Number 6, Number 4, Number 7, Number 5, Numba1 (semi-hidden), Number Nine?.. up top on Numba2, which is perched up on Number 3, foreground, and Number 8 (hidden), with Number 10 foreground middle, tilted left and towards the camera (similar but not as extreme question mark shape as N9, pointing 'down'), and Number 11* background middle, pot centred under bulb, plant bent over to rim at sharp 90 degree angle... what the **** was I thinking? I musta been st0n3d...

http://boards.cannabis.com/members/c...-i-just-do.jpg

(c)C :chainsaw:

* "...but this one goes to /eleven/...

right on...good job:thumbsup:

here is a good solution for a weekly foliar that will more than keep critters off your fine plants...neem oil and Dutch Master Penetrator...i use the DMP at 1/3 strength and mix 7ml in a liter spray bottle....that and a HOT SHOT NO PEST STRIP! they are the shit for keeping critters away period...the only critter i have found was a black widow spider and i gave her the black flag spray of death....but nothing in the plants with the NPS :thumbsup:

MUCHO thanks, stra8!!! I will pick up somma that as soon as the shop opens tomorrow! I've been using good ole Vapona strips hanging 'round the airflow, but they're old, and prone to cracking. I have some pain-in-the-ass sticky traps round the front edges, and on the four sides of the Yellow Pot (yellow duct tape) holding Number 6 in front, but I'm going to add the Hot Shots tomorry.

I also found a spider on my birthday, in my bathroom, which normally would have met the Fate of My Slipper... but it looked like the right type, about 1.2cm across (½"), and we had a little chat about me giving it a job. I dumped it in the back of my Garden, and it has not shown signs of wanting to leave, yet, like five days later :)

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I hope that it's /well/fed/... Muah hah hah...
:vader1:
:abduct:

I wonder if I should name it 'Basil'..?

IPM. For free. Thank you, Gh0d! :)
(c)C :chainsaw:

...though catching up on my logging late as usual* ;)

Basically, at this point, I'm just trying to be patient, and wake the little girls up. They're showing some signs of new rooting, but are still kinda getting over initial transplant shock, tho they're freaking greeeeen. Nicely freaking greeeeeeeee. n. Had to take some cuttings (just lower growth at this point), but without the benefit of rooting gel. Just hoped for the best, and got 'em in some rockwool under a BBQ chicken take-out container from the grocery store I shop at.

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First cuttings...


Number 12 Seedling is still growing slowly, but really really likes being close to the two 45w 4100k CFLs that are right underneath a huge Stainless Steel mixing bowl (SSmb hereafter). The plant is practically leaping out of its container, and its fan leaves are sticking up at a 45-60 degree angle... kinda like it's seeing the 'sun' from 'everywhere or something... ;)

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Lookit' the angle o' those /blades/...


Number 13 Seedlet was stretching a bit, and showing a nice little rootlet on the outside of its' rockwool cube, so it got replanted into a dual 500ml container just like its siblings 9-12.

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Mmmm... where did this nice dirt come from..?


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The reason for the leaping...


Still using DNFgroA/B at 2.5ml/l, as well as VB at same concentration. Bugs seem to be under control, tho the 'quarantined' ones seem to still be generating 'em. Not sure if the VB is doing anything to the fruit flies, but my MH light sure is ;)

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Mmmm, I love the nightlife... I like to boogie...


I'm enjoying variations on LST training here, both with using common household items (shoelaces, conference tag 'straps', string, duct tape) to do tiedowns/training, as well as the simple expedient of re-orienting the plant in a non-vertical manner, and rotating it constantly throughout the day, so that the 'sun' just gets /in/ there to whatever angle I need.

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LST for kiddies...;)


Muah. Hah. Hah. Happy little plants, even though they may be a bit 'confused' as to which way is 'up' :) :weedpoke:

The little seedlinglets (9, 10, 11) still in the round pots get radical re-orientations every day. The larger sisteren can be tilted about 15-20degrees off vertical with the pots they're in and the aluminum pie plates they're resting on. Plants with bugz are basically getting the 'best' orientation I can give 'em, and without, the most 'radical' placement I can get away with...

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It's getting away!!!

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Howdy!


1-8 are drinking about ½ga every other day, but I basically water when I see they need it. They will usually tell me with a 'WHOOSH' growth spurt right as they drain their soil... 9-11 are getting misted as needed, with the occasional 'soak' watering. 12 is still in SeedCloneLing Land, but hanging in there and doing well... (see above pic)

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There're just sooo many fun configurations!
[fixed that pesky temp problem, too!]


Comments and constructive criticism always appreciated!
(c)C :chainsaw:



*("I was going to log my grow, but then I got high...
was GOING to write it all down, but then I got high...
forgot to log into the forums, an' I don' know why...
and then I got high, then I got high, then I got hiIIiigh..."

...sigh :D)

...If'n I don' get caught up soon, I might just finish the dang thang before I do...

This is just a fast photo-montage of some progress, mainly because I'm too lazy to do a more in-depth thingy, and because I have actual gardening to do, with some cleanup...

So, some pics circa March 28...

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Number 7 still not feeling totally well

I'm not sure at this point why Number 7 is not feeling well. I suspect problems with the Bugz, but the yellowing leaves are a caution. Still, most of the plant seems ok, and the internode density is good.


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Methinks the goils protesteth too much

Ahh, how they love to be tickled and tricked. And it seems that no matter which way I set 'em, they spin 'round and re-orient like nothin'. Was initially worried about the 90 degree bend in Number 11, but the plant seems not to notice now.


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A tender moment

Here we see Number 9 leaning on Numba1, which is also leaning to get light sideways into that MASSIVE canopy it's building. A very touching and tender moment.


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Time to transplant

In the back, you can see Numba3, and Numba2, from back to front. The empty tray right in front is for Numba1 in its new GrowBag (still being transplanted).

Let's jump ahead another day or so.


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Aww, isn't it cute that it wants coffee in with the nutes...

Number 10 is just looking sooo thirsty for a good espresso. Note the !ntel conference strap thingy for LST purposes...


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It looks tiny /now/...

I don't know why, but I seem to have put a lot more dirt into the transplanting of Numba8. This is not necessarily a Bad Thing.


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Numba3 looking shiny

This plant was always kind of spread-out, but took to LST like a duck to water, and seemed to like the cover I chose to keep the dirt moist...


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Number 12 getting stronger

Number 12's stalk seemed a bit understimulated, so placing it from time to time right in the air stream gave it a bit of a workout, as well as a bunch of fresh air.


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Number 7 in its new digs

After deciding that this poor lil' girl needed a bit of extra help, I decided to try the cheapest ebb and flow system that I could muster. With exclusively discarded or un-needed materials, and a little elbow grease, I transplanted her into nearly pure Perlite in the top bucket. While doing this, I kind of discovered the reason for the stunting/yellowing--the darlin' was ROOTBOUND. The bottom bucket serves as resevoir, with the top being dunked into it 2-3 times per day.

She seemed to like the new idea, and greened up a bit...


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9, 10, and 11 in the middle

Plants 9, 10, and 11 looked like they were about to outgrow their little 500ml containers, so I transplanted them into the 1ga Ice Cream buckets I had lying around from the previous transplants. I made one major change, though, in deciding to use the buckets double-stacked, with shoelace-sized wicks coming up halfway into the top buckets, and the bottoms acting as resevoirs.

You can still see 4, 5, and 6 awaiting transplant in the left-background.

Moving right along....

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Number 7 getting better...

Things seem to be looking up for Number 7. Her colour is better, and there is new growth coming up.


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Number 9. What can I say?

Even though the fan leaves say 'annoyed', the plant is thriving beyond any expectations. I'm hoping that this is the Widow...


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Counter-clockwise from front right: 1, 2, 3, 8, 4, 5, 7, 6; inner circle from front right 11, 9, 10, with a space for 12 awaiting.

MMmm.. A nice, tidy garden. Very peaceful.


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Number 6, in its new Bug-trapping HyperWick pot

Number 6 looks tiny atop its new perch, but seems happy. The top pot contains soil, with a bunch of aeration holes in the bottom. The second-to-top pot has a large-ish hole in the middle to allow the wicks from the top to dip into the third pot, the resevoir. Two of the thinner wicks come up to about 2/3 soil height, two of them to 1/3 soil height, and a large wick in the middle comes up to 1/4 of soil height in the top pot. The bottom pot is the backup resevoir, but is mostly there to provide stickytraps and yellow duct-tape to attract the bugz.


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Looks like someone needs a haircut...

Numba1 just looks great here. It's not that I want to remove the undergrowth, it's just that I /have/ to... lesse if'n I can git some of these useless fan leaves to sprout...


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Inside close-up: clockwise from upper left, 10, 9, 11

Good thing these 1ga buckets are squareish... Now, I just need to get Number 12 in there.

Let's fast-forward a bit more now.


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A nice side view of HobbitHydro, Mark(s) I, III, and II

Number 12 is now in its new home--my first 'active' hydro setup. HobbitHydro Mark III is one of the aforementioned 1ga ice cream buckets, with two 6" airstones in it, being driven by a 3.5gpm aquarium airpump.


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Above view of HH-I, HH-III, and HH-II

I just love the interplay of the Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow in amidst the garden.


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Garden zoomed out, showing light

A view showing my 600w MH, and a tidy garden underneath. I've added some Vapona No-Pest strips (very old-school) to try to deal with the flying bugz.

I was going to include another pic from the same album, but apparently I'm at the 20-limit. Oh well...

Things seem to be progressing, though it is just a game of 'tend-the-garden' crossed with 'hurry-up-and-wait'...

Comments much appreciated!

(c)C :chainsaw:

...of linking images from another site...

(c)C :chainsaw:

http://imgur.com/eKsIp.jpg

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WOOT! It worked! (still gotta figg'r out the thumbnails now)
:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CovertCarpenter

WOOT! It worked! (still gotta figg'r out the thumbnails now)
:D

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If you want different size thumbnails when using imgur use the "More Sizes" dropdown menu in the top right hand corner. This updates the image codes on the left hand side.