My 1st steps to success... (HOPEFULLY)

Well, I've finally decided to keep a grow log for a few reasons.
1. It gives me a record of what I did so I can see where I went wrong (or right).
2. It acts as a backup for my notebook grow-log. (I often misplace it whilst milling around looking at my babies.)
3. It gives me something else to do other than constantly looking at my plants trying to see progress every 10 minutes.
4. Perhaps someone else can benifit from my efforts and go on to grow the 2020 Cannibis Cup winner and during the acceptance speech mention how they learned all their coolest techniques from Rastaman Vibrations @ Cannabis.com. :jointsmile: (wishful thinking)
Ok so to get a little background; I have grown outdoors from time to time with a pretty good success rate, even though I never really took it too serious. I recently got fed up with the selection, prices, and attitude of the dealers around here and decided to take matters into my own hands. I'll grow my own!!! So on October 30, 2007, I embarked upon a journey of intellect, amazement, and patience. I'll begin by taking you back in time to when it all began. I started out with some bagseed that I found in a drawer. I figured if I saved it, it was pretty good. Without any germination, I slammed 16 pills into peat pellets from the stray seeds. I dropped 8 more from some fairly decent bud I was smoking and I was off to the races. I popped them bad boys under a 4ft shoplight with Aquarium and Plant floros on a styrofoam plate. I was planning a real gangsta setup at first, but as always, I over obsess. But you'll see that later. Pics to come as soon as I can find where to add them.

By Nov 3, 2007 a few of the seeds from the bud I was smoking started showing growth. 2 of them were about 1 inch, 2 more had just completed germination and were breaking soil, while another was about 1/2 inch. The 16 seeds I found were showing no signs of life so for shits and giggles, I started 5 more seeds to germinating just the night before from another bag I was smoking (from a different dealer). By the 4th I had a 5 for 5 germination success rate.:D So I slam those 5 into peat pellets and I'm rockin'. With all the success, I started flingin seeds everywhere. The excitement built up and I was hooked. My shyt is poppin now and I'm stoked. I hop online and snatch up the schematics on a 11 pot ebb & flow system. I'll post links to the schematics if anyone wants it. (If it's cool with the mods.) I complete construction and it's all under $20 I had white spray paint and black prime from some Xbox mods so I saved on that, and the soda bottles were collected quickly due to the mass Pepsi consumption in my household. I over-payed for my pump because I went to Petland instead of being patient and buyng online. Now the obsession starts. By Nov. 5th I notice the taproot coming thru on 5 of the 7 1st born which I named The Magnificent 7. The Strays never made it so they were removed. I moved The Magnificent 7 to a 70/30 Vermiculite/Perlite mix in 16oz Solo cups. Meanwhile I'm slowly coming to the realization that these babies will need a crib. So I commendere a nice size acbinet and get things together. I painted inside a flat ceiling white and slammed 3 shoplights with 3 6000 lumen office lights and 3 6500 natural sunshine bulbs in an alternating pattern. I switched from the Plant/Aquarium because 1 bulb crapped out on me.:wtf: I slipped whatever was in my office in there and found out the next morning that they liked that one better. They all started looking towards that bulb instead of the P/A bulbs so, out you go. Besides, they look like they're better for flowering with that reddish hue to it. At this point I still haven't been using any nutes as I read it wasn't good for them until they've got their 2nd set of "true leaves". (Something I learned from cruzing this site:thumbsup:) The 5 pre-germinated seeds are all looking good and by the 9th, they were put into Solo cups and named The Echo 5 (that name comes from an old rap group we formed back in da day). BTW, the Solo cups have been drilled with numerous holes prior to use in order to allow water to run through quickly.
Here's a link to my Pics for reference. Rastaman Vibrations Gallery - Cannabis Photo Gallery
More to come...

It seems as if no one cares. It's ok though. How do I add pics to this post? Maybe that may spice some things up.

Hey Rastaman

Sounds like a good plan so far were you at the 20th Cannabis Cup?

Can't figure out which is the gallery specific to your grow. If thats right your only on 24 posts you probably won't be able to add images direct as thumbnails. If you have a gallery for your grow you can add them direct though. In the quick & advanced form there is a graphic like a mountain with a sun to the right. Thats the insert image icon. If you don't have it you can use the following bit of code.

]IMG]http://this is where your image is stored[/IMG[

I have just reversed the outside brackets so that you can see the code.

HtH & Good luck for 2020 maybe I'll be ticking the box with your strain in it.

Thanks for the quick response. I have a few pics in my album but I'll have to get more organized. As far as 2020, I hope to see you there.

So much has happened in this grow and it kinda sucks having to talk about what was done already as opposed to what I'm doing now. So with that, I'll try to get this post up to speed as quickly as possible.
By Nov 10, 2007 The Magnificent Seven have begun to show their second set of true leaves and so on that note, so begins the feeding. Seeing how this is bagseed and it's more-so for experimental purposes, I decided to go with good ole Miracle Gro. Now, I know many say that it's no good for weed and others say it's no good for hydro, but what the hell right? I wanna keep this thing going, but I don't wanna wait for nutes to be delivered seeing how the local florists really don't endorse hydroponics. This one guy is actually trying to accomidate me though by adding new products to his shelves. Kudos to the "Mom & Pop" businesses that cater to the little guy. Anyway, I digress. I throw the Magnificent 7 and the Echo 5 (well 4 of em) into my 11 pont ebb & flow system that I threw together with plans from another site. The link to the parts list is available if anyone's interested. Using 1/4 strength of suggested usage I set everone off to go. Things look great for now.

These are pics of the peat pellets loaded with random bagseed. The tops have been covered with a little perlite/vermiculite mix to protect the potential root growth.

Here's a few pics of the earlier stages of growth. After the taproot started showing through the peat pellets, I moved them into 16oz solo cups with a perlite/vermiculite mix with a 30/70 mix. At this point I watered them individually like you would with standard potted plants since I didn't have any automation going as yet. At this point, I was only using a Miracle Gro mix of plant and tomato both at 1/4 recommended strength. (I think...):stoned:

As usual, I misplaced my log book again, but here's another pic as an update.

Hey Rastaman, cool setup you got going there. I came really close to building that for my first one, but ended up getting offered a good deal on an Emily's Garden, so decided to go with that instead. Do you like how it's working for you so far? I guess you don't have a lot of hydro experiences to compare it too, but how do you like it as opposed to growing outdoors?

You know, yesterday I bought those exact fluoros you decided to get rid of. Should I take them back and get a different bulb? I think they had 4 kinds, but all the others said the color was 4100K, which isn't too great for plant growth. The aquarium and plant bulbs said that they were full spectrum (or was it wide spectrum), so I figured they would be best for plants. Now I don't know though. Could you elaborate a little more before I take them back or decide to try them?

PS. Merry Christmas in 5 minutes.

Opie, thanks for checkin my grow and merry Christmas and happy New Year as well. I can say that I really like the way this setup is working for me. It's very simple to use and it's showing great results so far. Considering I dropped my un-germinated seeds on the night of Oct. 30, and today they stand at 28" from the soil surface, I'd say it's working. :thumbsup: As far as those lights, they look kinda reddish so I'm assuming they'd be good for flowering. In fact, I intend to try them again then. But my lil ones seemed to like the others better. They had a very noticable lean towards the daylight lights. I do have a DWC setup going as well, but it's kinda bootlegged. It's not nearly showing as much growth as this system and it requires far more attention to detail. I highly recommend this setup to anyone who wants ease of opperation. The one adjustment I recommend is to add a bit more space between plant sites. My center plant is getting over-run by the outsiders. Perhaps it will be better with all the same strain or a more controlled set of clones or something. When I think of it, I'm not training this plant by topping it or anything. I really want to see what it'll do undisturbed. The only trimming I've done thus far is to try to clear up the middle plant. Once they're sexed, removal of the boys should give me some grow room. :rastasmoke: Here's a view of how they look now.

Damn!!! 28" before flower. Your going to have some monsters there. This is going to be fun to watch!!
Loooking very healthy KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

Looks great, you look to have a lot of healthy plants in a very nice grow. Look forward to reading of your success and also keep the pics coming.

i like the look of ur set man very interesting :thumbsup:



:smokin:

that was meant 2 b setup



:smokin:ss

Yeah, and his set ain't bad either.

Thanks for the input. As in typical pothead fashion, I misplaced my log book. That's a part of the reason I chose to document this grow online. I want to hurry up and get things up to date so I can just post straight on the site with the associated pics. Now that I think of it, I know where it is. I bet it's on the dehumidifier in my flower room. Hmmm. gotta wait until tomorrow to go get it. I don't wanna disturb the Snowberry.;)

I know I abandoned my grow log, but here's a few pics of the over all finish.

Congratulations. That looks real nice. Love the purple and the frosting.

Is that slight nute burn or just normal budding yellowing? Either way that still looks scrumptious. What a nice little present for 4/20.

I hope we get an overall yeild and smoke report.