First grow, good advice always needed

Today i have started my first grow and i cannot wait to see some leaves!

My setup is in my attic, i have a 4" AC duct tube come directly out of the AC unit so i will be able to cool the room with downstair controls. I've made a room out of empty space and roof supports with wood and 1" thick foam insulation walls.

As of now, i only have 2 100 watt daylight compact cfls and both in large reflective ballasts. I plan to get another ballast and a stronger high output daylight bulb for veging and then find the most powerful warm white cfl for flowering (daylight spectrum contains more blue and warm white has more red).

I used a natural germination technique by putting the seeds appx 1/4 - 1/2" in the soil

I am using Ocean Forrest soil by Fox Farm and will begin using Fox Farm Grow Big for vegetative growth two weeks after the plants have been growing.

Using my beginner judgment and hopefully some help from the growing goorus on this site i plan to transplant 2 times in hope of at least 4 ladies out of the 9 that i planted. 3 of the seeds are seeds ive found in some nice sacks of my own, 1 was given to me i think it was mids, and the other 5 are a mix of crystal seeds and strawberry cough seeds that my greatest ganja buddy gave me. hopefully i get some sort of a decent turn out. The next few months should be fun and a good learning experience, thats all i really want plus a little prize at the end!

Thanks for all the help and i will post pictures as soon as i can!

Cool, good luck, can't wait to see pics.
Isn't foam board fun to work with? It feels like being back in preschool playing with those big carboard blocks that have a brick pattern printed on them!

For a whole mess of seedlings, you need more light. A T12 shop light with 2 'cool white' or 'daylight' bulbs will run you no more than $15 at home depot and is good for a BUNCH of seedlings. It also does not get very hot.

I also hope to save up enough money in the next month to get a Procyon 100, hopefully ill be able to use in for some flowering and get some nice resin production like SnSstealth and doughboy!

Thanks Stinky! yea foam board is pretty fun to work w but with limited space it can find a way of being a pain.

I was worried about not enough light but i shall purchase more asap!

Okay, i went to home depot and got 2 48" indoor garden daylight fluorescents and a ballast. Here goes the setup!

Checked the pots today, no sprouts, soil lookin dry so i gave em a little bit of water. I hope i see some results by tomorrow or else i think im going to send away for some seeds.

Any one have any recommendations plants that harvest well with cfls? i was thinking a heavy yielding plant with low odor.

List out some strains!

I've seen papaya do very well under flouros, and the odor is more sweet n fruity than anything. It's also a very easy and hardy plant.

oohh sounds delicious! do you know of any sites i can get at least 10 seeds off of discretely?

get some pics up dodo!!! we use all FF nutes and soil too...no complaints....AK-47 does amazing for beginners too....but kinda stinky...it can take alot of abuse though.
well good luck on your grow...I'll keep poppin in on ya:thumbsup:
:smokebong:
whiskeytango

The papaya seeds I ran came from seedboutique/nirvana.

Here are some pics of my setup... still working on it though I'm going to go to my hydro store and get some mylar today or tomorrow.

A few more pics, the buds are stinky fruit...ive been told... a buddy of mine has a group of kids that are pretty close to the grower. nice taste, full body high, gets you uppity and going in the beginning but follows with some couch lock and HUNGER. enjoy!

Papaya and Big Bud... thanks for the recommendation on the papaya it sounds yummy. these are the strains im leaning towards if my plethora doesn't work out

Nice Set-Up!!!

Tasty Looking Nug's:jointsmile::jointsmile:

Its been approximately 34 hours since i put the seeds in the soil... no sprouts... gettin bummed out over here thinkin im going to have to send away
wish me luck>blaze on

it takes time!!! have some patience the plant will grow.

i have had beans take 3-4 days dodo.....you got plenty of time....wait it out..get a nail file for the sides of the beans if they look like they are having problems poppin...i have problems with "fresh" seeds sometimes...nail file helps.
:smokebong:
whiskeytango

yeah i know patience pays...these aren't fresh seeds though they're a little on the old side thats my main concern. ill check the pots asap today

my cross I am growing now, the beans are almost 4 yrs old...all in how you keep em.
WT

well i checked them a few minutes ago. nothing showing still... does anyone think i should back the lights off a little? the soil seems to be drying out quickly..

the room temp isnt high at all my estimate is around 77 to 80 degrees but i want it a little cooler. let me know what any of you think

anyone thin k i need to back off the lights?

You can actually TURN OFF the lights until the seedlings pop up. Then put them back on ASAP and monitor soil moisture carefully.

Thanks stinky however i have excellent news, i peeped in very delicately on one of the lesser quality seeds and the taproot is showing!

Just before i left the room i added little bit of water to each pot because they were looking dry, and then there it was haha, my first leaves! theyre barely out of the soil but i have much relief just for the fact that what ive worked hard to put together has worked, it may not look like much but that room, the wood or the foam wasnt there, it was a bit of work.

also, i have some view but minimal responses, please people feel free to post up some thoughts i just feel like an idiot talking to no one

thanks!

traffic will pick up as the plants get older dodo....trust me...lol
:smokebong:
whiskeytango

haha i know ive been onlooking your forum since the get go of it! your thread is gonna be hard to top for sure..

Light cycle is 18/6, i plan to veg the plants for a longer time rather than shorter time, im going to start my patience now that i know the seeds are sprouting

Based upon the care you have put into your grow space, I have no doubt your efforts will be more than rewarded. I look forward to watching your progress. :thumbsup:

Arighty then, day 3 since seeds were put into the ground and i have 3 toddlers so far. This is probably the slowest, yet most exciting process ive ever been a part of lol.

2 of the random seeds have spurted up, and the other plant is either crystal or strawberry cough. lets hope theyre alllll female!!

The first two pics are the first one two show, the 3rd shot is the second to show, both of my random seeds. The 4th shot is either crystal or strawberry cough, and then a group shot.

The temp feels great in the room, however i have noticed that in the ladder part of the day it can get fairly hot up there...and in florida getting hot now is bad because it will only get hotter.. anyone have any low cost ideas?

your fine with temps outdoors here in Fl dodo...if you are talking about your indoor, you want your temps 75-80 day, and 68-72 night...those are my magic numbers at least...some may disagree more FL growers!!...woo-hoo!!!
:smokebong:
whiskeytango

My brother and i went to home depot and got another fan that i can put directly on the lights, then i can use the other fan for its oscillating features.

Yes indeed reppin the FL sns! Those temps sound right around what it feels like in there..dont have a thermometer yet lol i should probably get on that.

But i just got back from a little anti-civilization getaway down the coast and got a few surprises when i checked my room.. 2 more peeking through the soil! i gave them each a little water because the moisture level in the soil looked and felt low.

I went into this grow expecting a low germination rate and the rate has already surpassed what i at least wanted.. now i am hoping for at least 2 out of the 5 that are presently sprouting to be female, hopefully im wrong for the better!

Here are some updated pics, just a couple of hours shows how fast some plants can start off..(something only a person of the stoner type would be amazed by haha)

I saw a few small flea looking buds in the room around the soil this morning and i killed em all and havent seen any since, anyone think cedar chips will at least rid them temporarily? sns i know it worked for your pests but these are different.

No new sprouts yet, the plants that have sprouted are coming along quite well in my eyes.

There is one that just sprouted and has yellowing on one of the leaves as you can see in the 3rd picture...I tried getting a read on the ph levels but i think my ph/water/light meter is a piece of shit, guess thats what you get for 10 bucks lol.

My brother decided to put a seed in a few of the pots that havent sprouted yet, most of his seeds are from better dro than mine are except the crystal and strawberry cough.

They will be a few days behind but im not to worried about it, if it becomes a problem with the other plants when the time to end veg is up ill force the females into flowering if i have to.

Let me know what you think of my progress so far.. thanks!

I bet they will take off shortly.

Mine are a few days ahead of you under much less light.

I also give them much more water than you are. Not saying I am right, just curious to get others opinions.

yeah im lightly watering them until i know their roots have a good area covered, the top looks dry but its fairly moist underneath. The last thing i want to do is drown them so im taking my time with it and trying not to get ahead of myself you know?

Anyways im dying to check on them but my buddy is over and im trying to keep it a secret...update pics tomorrow afternoon peace!

Theyre lookin great! possibility of stretching but i expected it with the cfls.

My brothers 5 seeds all seem to be opening up well the taproots havent really came out yet, ill give them another 10 to 12 hours.

Pics updated this afternoon so check in then for a view.

Also i have been rotating the sprouts because they seem to be getting windblown lol but i have heard that rotating your crop has a positive affect on the yield.

toke on

looking forward to the pics

Here are the pics I promised

they look great dodo...thats not stretching per se....seedlings look like that normally...
WT

I just did a quick check, one group pic this time, im going to go to home depot and get some more lights for sure.

My bro and i made some of that green dragon stuff, damn nice

:thumbsup: Time goes no slower than when we are waiting on our special plants to produce

Plants are looking nice, they certainly keep growing more and more everyday. It looks like a few of the plants are in the early stages of producing new sets of leaves.

I just got back with 2 2600 lumen soft white lights, they are each 42 watts with the equivalent to 150 watts. They are bright as hell, they make it look like my tube cfls are turned off, ill post up some pics of them


I would like some advice for topping, dose anyone think when the time comes i should FIM or just let them grow? I might use one of the mid grade plants to experiment on with topping and LST but ill make up my mind when the time comes.

Thank you for your input!