Thy Bud is Thy Friend: My first grow

Hey all, want to give a shout out to anyone who's readin and helpin me out, thanks a bunch. K so here we go.

I planted my seed about 3 weeks ago today. I found it in some bud i bought and usually i just keep the seeds and stems for some oil but i liked this particular strand cause it not only got me high, it put me in orbit. So i began my first grow.

Like i said, it's been about 3 weeks, and it poked it's head out about 4-5 days after i germinated. It's been growing since and it's some tough weed, going through lots of changes and new adaptations.

I started it in a 4'' pot w/ some miracle grow and a generic "plant" light bulb from GE. That's when i began to heavily read up on how to grow pot the right way. Since then, i've switched to a pretty big pot and have gone through over-watering it twice and having to cut both of the first leaves off.

It's now in a somewhat stable state, and i have it growing in some new miracle grow (changed soil due to over-watering) and a 50watt HPS bulb. (all i could afford) It's starting to grow a lot of new leaves and i just want to check if some 'experts' know if i'm doin this right. I recently (2 days ago) ran into an aphid problem, or.. well it's not really a problem, there's like 4 or 5 running down the stem and i was thinkin of gettin a lady bug to help me out. I noticed that the aphids don't really go on my big leaves, they stay on the two little ones that were the first to come out when the plant broke out of the soil.

Now, i just want to know, when i might get to see it's gender. Obviously i'm not expecting much since it is my first grow and it's been in such horrible conditions. Can i maybe get some suggestions? I want it to be a semi small plant, just enough for a good supply of bud (to smoke not sell) how to i achieve this? My plant looks a little elongated, and the stem looks sorta weak, what can i do to fix this? Any help will be greatly appreciated, Thanks alot.

ad805

ps, why are my new leaves hanging like that?

Thats the only one you got? Try not to stress the little on to much in hope of getting a female. Keep those lights close and try to ventilate as well as you can. Also try to keep whatever light cycle its on consistent 12/12 or 18/6 or 24. Oh yeah allow that soil to dry out well in between waterings

Its stretching a little bit already though its not looking too bad by any means, just get ur little a little closer

Whats up dude? anyway here we go on what I have expirenced with Miracle Grow dirt, for me......it sucked ! I had big time lock up of nutes withthat stuff. I switched to totally organic time released nutes with bat shit. Whoa.... all my problems were solved.... no chems, no ph prob.... o mixing this and that..... just water once a week. Your lights. well if you went to Home depot and bought 4 each 48" flouro fixtures with cool white bulbs @ 40 watts, thats what you need for the first 6 to 8 weeks of there life, then you put them under HPS 400watt min if you want great buds, so so buds if you use flouro through the flowering stage as well Good Luck dude! Wood in the dirt is NO GOOD ! it steals nitrogen

You should see sex identifier's by the 4th or 5th internode that's when they pre sex, you should have your lights on 24 hours at the first 8 weeks at least, and around 3 inches from the top of the plant if it's under a FLOURO , over all it looks good and healthy, keep your eyes peeled for purple stems, that ussually means under nourished with nitrogen. I should just shut up now. Good luck dude

Appears to be over watered....... let it dry for 7 days, if your room is fairly warm, them water again but dont water log it. The leaves curl under like that when it's water logged. The very bottom of the pot stay moist, and you have to let them dry out and stay like that for a few days. Damn hard not to give them water huh?

yeah man, i hate not watering them. I feel like it's gonna die out.

Well thanks a lot again, this really helps.
With the purp branches, should i just go and add a nitrogen fert, cause those branches are really purp.
Should i switch to the flouro at this point and time or should i stay with the HPS.
How did you guys get around buying:
-HPS 400w Bulb (23-30$)
-Fixture to hold bulb (50-100$)
-400-600w ballast to power bulb (50-100$)

Is there some miracle light fixture i can buy that will be low-cost, and exclude the purchase of a ballast, i can get the bulb no prob (uncle has spare bulbs for some reason)

Thanks for the help

hey it looks like you have a math paper with your name on it in the back ground i would change that but hey thats just me..

No offense crazyhorse, but you need to do a LOT more reading and growing before handing out advice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazyhorse

Appears to be over watered.... The leaves curl under like that when it's water logged. ?

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That plant is NOT over watered.
It is stretched for light.
Get your lights closer.
Also, why did you remove a set of leaves already? Even if they look shitty, leave them on so we can help you figure out what the problem is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crazyhorse

You should see sex identifier's by the 4th or 5th internode that's when they pre sex,

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No, again you are wrong.
They do not pre sex that young.
The 5th node signals the end of the seedling stage and the start of the true vegetative growth period, during which time the plant will be approaching sexual maturity.
When it is sexually mature, it will switch from opposite node placement to alternate nodes and the new growth of the stem will take on a bit of a zigzag look.

Just a hint, terra cotta pots are tough for growing the shrek because you will need to transplant at some point and it's easier to slide a plant out of a plstic pot without damaging the roots.

On the other hand, it's tough to overwater a plant in terra cotta! :D

Your new leaves may be totally fine, or they may be hanging because the soil has a crap pH, but it's hard to tell since you removed the first leaves already.
Just watch them and see if they get any weird yellowing or blotches or whatever.