newb grow part II

Well my last seed got stunted and started dying so I'm going to start another log here. I have two sprouts, same bagseeds. These came from a peat greenhouse dome thingy. I put it on my computer tower that's in a tower drawer. Held 85 degrees F.

Ok so now I'm using StaGreen soil ''for fruits, vegetables and herbs.'' Seemed fitting. :) Soil ferts are 0.05-0.04-0.03, very mild and I flushed it prior to planting. I'm running about 3:1 soil to perlite for drainage with a little more on top for reflection purposes.

I have 9600 lumens in 6 6500K CFL's, about 2.5 square foot area. The notorious Rubbermaid box setup. So my lighting is ok. I'm leaving these sprouts about 1 foot under the lights until they get a little bigger, then it's going to be a couple inches from the lights. I have a supply of distilled water. A pH tester is coming soon.

I see a potential 2nd node on that plant already! One thing that never happend on my 1st. The other plant's embryonic leaves still haven't broken out of it's shell yet but close. So anyway, this is my new log... we'll see what happens. :rastasmoke:

Actually I'll correct something and say the lights are more like 6 inches from the tops of the sprouts, not a foot. :error:

drop it down to 2 to 4 inch with cfls

Even as a sprout like this? I've read conflicting info on this, that's why I ask. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boiStone

Even as a sprout like this? I've read conflicting info on this, that's why I ask. :)

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Yes, you want it as close as possible to limit stretch and provide maximum light for growth.

For sure i would keep lights low unless u see any signs of heat stress, if u see heat stress back it up a lil.

Secondly, BoiStone u must use Ph adjust water on ur plants.. its VERY IMPORTANT. U can get a ph kit at a pet store for fish tanks for like 15$, pick one up. When u continue to mess with the Ph of the soil the plant is in and Ph of the water u feed her is off. This causes lock out and will stop ur plants growth. Setting tap water out is to get rid of chlorine, no to steady the Ph.

Go buy one of those cheap kits and feed ur plant with 6.3-6.5 Ph adjusted water and watch ur sprouts grow.... thats all, its that simple. Just wait until u get a plant to start flowering... now that will drive a man to madness. lol

Good luck my friend, and if u have any problems with that Ph kit (that u r going to get ASAP) just ask:thumbsup:

So I watered my sprout yesterday so I could get good pH readings. Got the kit today.

The soil is sitting at 6.6. The runoff is 6.8. Tap water is 6.9 and the distilled bottled water is 7.0.

So what should I add to the water to get the pH 6.3-6.5? My kit is saying add either iron or aluminum sulfate to acidify the soil. Which one should I use to mix in the water?

Looks like I'm gonna have to hold off on the watering for quite some time, though. The first leaves are curled down a little. Good news is it's growing before my eyes. The 2nd node is developing and there is a little dot in there that holds the future 3rd node. :smokin:

Bad news is my 2nd sprout died. The embryonic leaves just couldn't bust open the seed, so it fell over.

Figured out how to pH the water. So I got the distilled jug now sitting at 6.3. Today is day 7 and the 3rd node is forming. :) Last time I said it was drooping, but it was from overwatering. The soil drains better than I thought. It's drooping again because I haven't watered for 3 full days. Looks like it needs water every 2 1/2.

So anyway I'm testing the soil pH and notice it's starting to get slightly more acidic. On top the pH is 6.5 but towards the bottom of the pot it's 6.0. Should I just switch back and forth from distilled (pH=7.0) and the pH 6.3 water? When should I flush?

Pix to come in a couple days once I get a new pack of batteries......

Two weeks since the sprout popped out of the dirt.

Now we're talking!!! Note that I just watered it and let the soil drain before taking these pix.

This is taking off, getting bushy now! It has 4 complete nodes now and a 5th is on its way. Almost to veg stage, huh? I'd like to LST but the stem seems like it's getting thick fast.

I got 3 other sprouts now that are between day 3 and 7, which I'll show later.

I just watered these a few hours ago so they are looking a little droopy. I'm using a tiny bit of this food dissolived in water, every other watering, and they seem to REALLY perk up and stretch out the next 2 days afterwards:

Colorstar Fertilizer Product is developed by Nelson Plant Food Corp.

This food in filtered tap water gives it a reliable pH of about 6.2 every time.

Attached here, picture #90:
The oldest is on day 25 and the one next to it is day 18. Started LST on the oldest one a few days ago and there are now about 6 "tops" emerging (plus the original top). Will be starting LST on the other one today.

Picture #89:
Both are on day 13. These had leaves curled up like they were praying for a little while but foliar feeding with epsom salt & water has done the trick. I've actually been doing it to all the plants every day for the past 4 days and they seem to be taking to it well.

Gonna transplant the oldest one soon as it will outgrow its pot soon. Gonna probably get the youngest ones to day 30 and start the 12/12 with the soft white CFLs. RIght now it's still on 24/0 with these blue-white lights.

I think this is going fairly well for a first grow! :rastasmoke:

Check out this thread. That guy uses a pretty cool portable scrog technique in his rubbermaid with good results.

Loads of useful info in there for rubbermaid growers.

edit: pics of the scrog are on page three.

That scrog is pretty intricate. And badass. I think i'm gonna have to try that the next time, after I get a feel for this first grow. Thanks for the link! :thumbsup:

So it's day 38 for the oldest one in the upper right corner. The days-old go like this as they stand in the box:

31 38
fan 26 26

Also, this is the 4th day it has been on 12/12. I'm running out of room in the 'maid, er.. sterlite so I flipped the switch. (This is a 30-something gallon.) The lights are now running 7 x 23W + 1 x 42W CFL's @ 2700K for an advertised total of 14,000 lumens.

I've done LST on all of them except for the lower left one... leaving that to grow straight up just to see what happens. That is the only one with a female hair. The rest are developing tiny little growths - how long do I need to wait to see what sex they are? 2 weeks?

I also laid off the nutes for a week, but the new growth is telling me they're needing a shot of N again. So I might hit it with the N one more time before switching to the P.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

dammmm sun. they look great.

whats UR lights like?

Lights are just like Bodom's rubbermaid setup. El cheapo bathroom fixtures. I have a couple Y connectors in there. I bought a 6 pk of 23w soft white CFLs, then added another 23w and a 42w that I had already laying around the house. I could probably add a few more in there if I wanted to. We'll see.

Two of the plants are female already. The largest one and the one I didn't do LST on. The one in the upper left corner is most likely male. The jury is still out on the lower right one. That one is scrawnier than the rest, too. Since this is bag seed, maybe it pulled more sativa genes from the mix it came from.

Now this is day 6 of flower. In about 1 week I'll probably know something for sure, then switch over to the P ferts. I have Schultz 10-60-10 I'm going to start with 1/4 strength and work from there.

Day 20 of flower.

The two largest plants were male. One of them sprouted 2 female pistils, then a few days later a bunch of testicles showed up. The two females were the smallest/youngest, veg for 4 weeks. One is scrawny -some sativa, one mostly indica. Unfortunately I mixed the bag seeds together, so hard to tell next time.

The sativa's main stem got creased during LST because of my dumb ass, so I let the string loose... then the circulation fan sucked in the string, which creased it again. Didn't break the stem though, didn't stunt growth. Patched it with tape and tied it to a dowl. This has been flowering slowly since I started 12/12. Looks healthy, so I'll keep it going.

The indica is getting phat. No LST. Bumped up to 1/3rd strength bloom fert. Had a pH problem (runoff=5.5), so I flushed with 1.5 gal distilled water. Added fert & then spread 6 tsp organic garden lime (with Cal and Mag) over the soil. Watered today, and runoff=6.5, so we're back in range. This is getting tall, only a few inches from the top of the tank. Gonna have to be creative if this gets much taller!

I have the first 9 inches of the top pictured here. The side shoots from the lower area are budding nicely as well. Sweet smell, not to strong either.

Next time I don't think I'll LST and do some type of SOG... more plants in there, cut back on veg time... Oh yeah, and mix the lime into the soil before starting. :)

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Originally Posted by boiStone

Next time I don't think I'll LST and do some type of SOG... more plants in there, cut back on veg time

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If you want to get a SOG grow going, think about finding a few good mother plants and fill up your growing area with clones. Then you won't have to fret over having to remove a bunch of males later. You can pack more clones into tighter spaces if you use taller/narrower containers. Those tall, slim growbags are great for this setup. That's a lot more efficient, in my opinion, than trying to start a SOG from seeds.

Take care. :jointsmile:

Day 26 of flower.

Over the past 3 days I've had to remove 1 male ball each day on a few lower stems on the indica. Balls were still closed as I gently tweezer'd them off. The main stem is doing fine as far as I can see. Tall growth has pretty much stopped and the buds are swelling up. On the LST'd sativa, it is still all female. The buds have a little bit of purple/red and it is still going slow as shit. But still healthy. Switched both to alternating 1/3 to 1/2 strength ferts. Lime is keeping soil pH runoff at a steady 6.25 or so.

No I don't have bugs. I have a sneaky little dog who likes to munch on the leaves while things are out and I'm not looking. After week 2, he became very interested in the closet. And any sack you leave out will be gone in a heartbeat.

:420thought: <== my dog