The Daily Grow w/ Bud Fullotrichs

Ok, so i am new to the forum, and also new to the grow scene. I came across a 400w deep well MH lamp (cieling type) about 4 weeks back and decided i would put it to some use. I germ. about 10 seeds and 4 of them sprouted. I placed them in some soil until they got to be about 3-4 inches tall. Over that 2 week period of seedling time i gathered up supplies and built myself an ebb n flow table. I transplanted the soil plants into the ebb n flow and they seem to love it. Nice lush green, except for a little light burn, as i had them within 12" of the light the first few days, now raised up to 20" and doing good. Yesterday i topped 2 of the 4 plants and have seen very little, if any growth today. I have my res. mixed to half strenght nutes except for B1 Red i have mixed at full strenght. Pump kicks on for 15 mins. every 4 hours; takes 5 mins to drain, so a total of 20 mins. 6 times a day. (too much?) My plants have been vegging for about 14 days and have spent 4 days in e&f. I have multiple questions, so please bare with me here.

1. When should i expect growth to pick back up from the transplant and the topping, all being done within a 4 day period?

2. I'm using Technaflora brand nutes, should i just follow their grow chart for nute mixes, or should i go with half of what their grow chart recommends?

3. I have no EC meter, how important is this to have? I do have a pH test kit, pH seems to be around 6-6.5 constantly, good or not?

4. I'm 2 weeks into total veg. and plants are about 4" tall and about 10" in diameter (sorry no pics, maybe sometime soon) how long should i wait to sex them? 8"-12" seems like the norm for everyone in this forum.

5. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME WITH MY FIRST GROW IF I DON'T HAVE PICS TO PROVIDE? I need to be someones uderstudy as i don't want to completely f*ck my first real grow up.

I am willing to do any and everything to get this right, except for shelling out a whole shitload of cash right now as i am currently laid off for part of the winter. I have no C02, no exhaust, only circulating fan in room with door open. have 4'x2' e&f. how many plants can i take on with this set up and still bring me about 4-5 oz. a month. Just need to supply my wife and i between each grow, no selling for me, so i want the best that my wife and i can grow with this set up. The seeds were supposedly "cali bud" per my gangster wanna be little pot shuffling cousin. I do know they are very dom. indicas b/c the fan leaves are very big. PLEASE HELP!!!! i will provide pics in the next few weeks.

4-5 oz. every 2 months i mean. not every month

Ya know, I thought since we were all into the same thing, I might get a little bit of help, guess I just need to do trial and error and risk losing my first crop. Thanks to all you viewers who "thought" about helping me.

Finally, got some up, any suggestions, i know i need a cover for my tray, getting that tonight.<a href="http://www.cannabis.com/"><img src="http://www.cannabis.com/files/photos/eefc9e10ebdc4a2L.jpg" border="0" width="2048" alt="New fella needs help" /></a>

If you are doing hydro, you REALLY should get a PPM meter. I got a cheap one on eBay and it makes a helluva difference. It was like driving at night without headlights, then I bought the meter and the headlights came on...

MVP, thanks for the reply, i will try to invest in one, i may not be able to do it this grow, but we'll see how the funds are in a few weeks or so. is there anyway you can help me upload these pics, can't seem to figure it out for some reason

This is the one I bought. HANNA Primo TDS Meter, PPM Tester, Conductivity - eBay (item 300188785269 end time Jan-18-08 00:25:36 PST) It was worth every penny of the 20 bucks I spent. If it were me I would skip lunch a couple of days to save the cash to buy it, that is how important it is to have in hydro.

As far as uploading pics, start your post/message in Advanced Mode, click on the paperclip thingee in the toolbar/menu, and then attach the pics from your PC. Click upload, wait til it says upload completed, then shut the window.

Good luck, would like to see the pics....

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guess i still can't seem to figure it out, OH WELL, i give up! but, there's a pic

Is this the one?

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At least I got to see it thru the link above...

I am not skilled in Ebb/Flow, but you might be feeding them a bit too much for their age. I would go for 1/2 strength nute and 4x daily feeding until I got to see consistent growth and made sure I wasn't pushing them too much.

The key is to know the PPM so you can dial it back slightly when needed, rather than just mixing to the directions on the package. One size does NOT fit all due to strain/nute uptake differences. Get that cheapie PPM meter and your plants will thank you for it in 60-90 days...

ok, i am already feeding them half strenghth nutes, but i am feeding them 6x a day. that is one plant, there is another link up there where you can see all of them. i believe i put all of them through too much shock by transplanting them, but i would have guessed that the growth would have picked up considerably by now. i guess i will get that ppm meter when i can. thanks for helping me, please stay tuned, i will keep updated, also, i am going to turn my timer so that they only get fed 4x a day like you said.

i believe that 4x a day feeding sched. has already had an effect for the better on my plants, they already seemed to be a little more perky, leaves don't look like they're drowning within themselves now, so i'm pretty happy about that. thx for the good advice MVP, glad to know i have someone here when i have questions.

No prob amigo. Just be gentle with them until they start filling out. You don't wanna drown them in affection (or nutes :D).

Also play around with the Posting Pictures thing until you get it figured out. Read the site and search on posting pics using the google method. You'll get a lot better input from the knowledgable folks here when you provide photos to examine.

MVP :jointsmile:

I am not a hydro grower but I see you have a 4'x2' space, you should be able to get 4 to 6 good sized females in there producing 2 min 4 max ozs. per plant.
I suggest reading up on cloning so to cut out growing males and get the max out of your space.

i already have 7 clones going in the cloner. been there for about 12 days now and only have 3 of them just starting to root. not sure of strain. the only reason i am growing these seeds out is b/c i have been told they are "cali orange". so instead of having to fork the money over to buy seeds, just figure i would grow these out and see what i come up with. i do know that the bud was pretty descent from these seeds, so i have my fingers crossed. btw, thanks for the reply Jerry G, i am definately going to keep updated, probably do a week by week pic update once i figure this forum out.

I am not a hydro grower but I see you have a 4'x2' space, you should be able to get 4 to 6 good sized females in there producing 2 min 4 max ozs. per plant.
I suggest reading up on cloning so to cut out growing males and get the max out of your space.

ok, just a quick update. so lastnight i set my timer for my light from 24/0 to 18/6 and it seems that it was the miracle drug for my plants. after the past 2 days of absolutley no growth, i wake up this morning to find an explosive undergrowth from all 4 plants. I moved some fan leaves around lastnight to expose all the undergrowth, and it seems that this did the trick. i will update my pics in a couple of days when things really start to fill out.

Sorry for the doulble post don't even know how I even did it. BB sounds like you are figureing things out, it is a lot of trial and error during your first grow that is the reason for a grow log so others can see what you are doing and aid when needed or compliment good work. Then when emergancy's happen or you have general questions place posts in the appropriate folders for a quicker response. Like your picture question put that in the feedback folder, that is where the site techs hang out. There is also a hydroponics subfolder for general questions, And a Plant Problems folder also. These are the main places I use.

new pics, not sure how to post them still......computer illiterate!Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Marijuana Doctors, Menus, Card, Reviews :: Photo :: anygood?

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[IMG]<a href="http://www.cannabis.com/"><img src="http://www.cannabis.com/files/photos/df7f28ac89ca37bL.jpg" border="0" width="2048" alt="anygood?" /></a>[/IMG]

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there we go, i finally figured this damn thing out...thanks to MVP...although my smoked out brain couldn't process the information

new pics18 days old! how do they look? any suggestions?[attachment=o175309]

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more pics
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and even more pics
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Looks good. Best suggestions I can give you are:

1. Patience
2. Don't Overfeed them
3. Slow and Steady
4. More Patience
5. Repeat steps 1-4 as needed.

If you encounter any issues, posting pics and a full decsription of your grow environment will get you the best answers and advice.

Refer to steps 1-5 above frequently and you'll do just fine :D

i have been feeding them about every 6 hours, or 4x a day. thought about cutting back to 3 times just to see how they would respond, but i think 4x seems to be optimal right now. pH is constantly at a 5.8-6.0, temp. stays about 72-75 throughout the day. patients has been the easy thing for me b/c i really don't know how to get too technical into it, about the only thing i keep a close watch of is my resevoir level, ph, temps, and small things like that. I am amazed more and more everyday at the difference in hydro and soil. Definately more of a hydro guy now, though i still have some things to learn. Still need to invest in a ppm meter.

day 21 of veg. going 12/12 on the first of February i hope [attachment=o175629][attachment=o175630]
[attachment=o175631][attachment=o175632].

2 of them have major catching up to do. will not effect when i put them into flower though, no matter what, they get until feb. 1st before flowering. quick question, i'm running through veg. with a 400w MH, how much would it decrease yield if i were to stay with the MH through flowering? just don't have $110 to spend on an HPS at the moment. i do have a friend that is contemplating letting me use his 360w HPS, but i would have to put off flowering for another 4 weeks, or until he finishes flowering. any suggestions?

I'm not sure how much, but it WILL affect the yield. I would suggest that you use Low Stress Training (LST) to tie down the tops of the taller plants and keep the canopy height even.

have already started with lst. i'm guessing that's why i'm getting more horizontal growth rather than vertical growth. thanks MVP for all of your responses, seems that i may be able to get that HPS afterall, well i do some more updates when i see changes and as i feel the need to......PLEASE STAY TUNED!

i'll post new pics of them lst'd tomorrow, they are looking nice, can't wait to flower. not that i'm in such a hurry to get bud, just want to see what these plants will do for me, or if i need to order seeds with good genetics.

It's definitely easy to get excited about them, as long as you don't put them on YOUR schedule you should do fine.

Remember steps 1-5 above.

MVP :jointsmile:

not exactly sure what it means to put them on MY schedule, but i think i get the "just" of it. i do get excited, i am already wanting to set up a dual flower room, but i will wait until i complete my noob grow. i want set up 2 trays for flower, weeks 1-4 in one tray, weeks 5-harvest in another tray. need to find a prominent strain that will fit in that schedule. i'm sure i'll get deeper into it after this first grow.

I know what ya mean amigo. However it is easier to learn starting slow and small, cuz when things go haywire (which they will at some point) you will be able to respond better. Putting them on YOUR schedule means rushing them into something they are not ready for yet. But of course you know better and will not do that, right? :D

absolutely will not do that! i am going on your guys' schedule, haha! i'm sure you all will let me know when it's go time for these bitches (hopeful bitches anyways) to flower. i will follow this forum throughout my whole grow so i have you all to set my ass straight when i'm putting them in harms way or prematurely doing this or that to them.

quick pic update, thing's are really starting to fill out nicely!
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holy cow thouse look beautiful.

so what kind of ferts R U useing on em. Cuz I need some good hydro ferts for mine.

well keep up the great work.