From Novice To Expert, a Journey through the Green

This will be my first grow, started a log before but my camera wasn't working so really didint have much to show. I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me in my various posts while planning out my grow room. This is going to be a learning experiance so hopefully all of you can help me keep my girls alive. I'm going to be growing White widow, hindu kush, Kalichakra and Satori. The first two are from cannabisseeds.com, which I've heard bad things about, so we'll see how they come out. Other two are from mandala of course, and the seeds looked amazing, couldn't have asked for a better looking package of seeds.

Germinated some white widow and hindu kush a few weeks ago. Just got the mandala seeds today, and sowed them in some Fox farms light warrior earlier today. Have 2 WW and 7 HK seedlings atm. Plan to grow these weed, out the males, and turn my strongest/favorite phenotypes into mothers.

Veg lighting will be a 600w mh over a 4' x 4', and a 250w mh over mothers. Flowering is two 600w hps w/ ac hoods in a 5' by 5' area.

Few pictures I took a couple days ago of my oldest plant. It was originally in some pretty compacted soil I started with, leave tips started turning a bit yellow so I transplanted it into some Ocean Forest. Looking great now, Ill try to get some updated pictures tonight.

Took a few more pics, few of the older ones were overwatered a bit, but they've bounced back great, all of the little leaves on the larger HK formed overnight.

First pics of a seedling that had a little trouble throwing off the seed hull. One of the cotyledons has been yellowish brown since it popped out, and it barely grew for half a week. Seems to be making a come back now, so I've decided to keep it going and see how it does. The seconds my oldest HK seedling, and the last two are pics of one of my newer HK seedlings. This one has been growing at an amazing rate, its only 4 days old at this point.

First pics is of the satori seeds. Second pic is of a day old WW seedling.(Wouldnt let me post it said the file was too large, Ill try to resize later). Finally a pic of my germinating mandala seeds. Plan to post a bunch of pics once every week or two(depending on growth and updates) so stay tuned!

Also I think I've got my watering under control, once every 2-3 days for the little party cups and once every 3-4 days for the ones in 6" pots. To be safe I was thinking of buying a moisture meter to help me out for the first couple of grows, are these pretty acurate?, and does anyone recommend a certain meter/brand? Thanks for the help!

Just a short update, rapid rooters finally came so I sowed some more seeds. 2 Hindu Kush 2 Kalichakra 2 Satori 1 WW(my last)and 3 of the Safari mix i got free with my mandala purchase.

Cool, it will be neat to see how this turns out. I have grown all but the Safari Mix before and the Mandala ones will get quite large, just FYI. But they yield well. My favorite of those is the Hindu Kush. It is SO freaking easy to grow, and tastes SO good, but watch out because you will end up raiding the neighbor's fridge in a munchiefeedingfrenzy within minutes of taking the first hit! My friend's daughter used it to put on some much needed weight before undergoing a surgery that required her jaw to be wired shut for 6 weeks. She packed on 15 pounds in a month! It was GREAT!

Yeah I can't wait to finally try some good named strains. Lived in northern maine for the last 19 years, and you really can't find any named strains. Only ones I've tried so far are Northern Lights and Kali Mist. Kinda rediculous considering the prices were around 200 for a seeded oz.

Looking foward to trying the hindu kush now :jointsmile: but hopefully I can avoid the munchie thing as much as possible! Hows the kalichakra and satori smoke? I've heard pretty good things. Also anyone have experiance with moisture meters? Think I'm doing a pretty good job with the watering but if they are reliable I'd like to get one to help me out for the first grow.

The two bigger plants are about 1.5-2 weeks old, but they are in Ocean Forest. Should I give them a small(1/4) dose of the veg ferts or give them a couple more weeks? My tent should be here friday, so going to set that up with the 600w mh and use it for vegging. Plants are looking great, I'll get some pics in a few days.

If they have 4-5 set of serrated leaves, you can start feeding.
Moisture meters are not necessary. Jsut lift the pot and if it feels light, give some water.
Kalichakra and Satori are both true gigglytwig strains. You will be happy!

ihave a satori that is at about 5 weeks, looks amazing, started out a little funky, but i expect a nice yeilder (shes a bush) and yeah the smoke is supposed to be great, i have a speed queen from mandala thatll be done in about 2 weeks, she smells so good, kinda like some indian inscense, kinda floral, earthy, but shes next to a cheese that really kinda owns the room, smell-wise. id lst the satori if you have space limitations, cuz i know she'd be getting too tall if i hadnt.

Bunch of plants sprouted today. I highly suggest rapid rooters for germinating. Just wet them, put the seeds in covered with a bit of he rapid rooter I tore off of the side, and already 5/10 have sprouted within 2-3 days. When planting directly in the light warrior it was taking from 5-7 days so I'm fairly impressed. Ill get some pics tomorrow.

Plants are doing great. The one with the yellowed cotyledon bounced right back and is doing great now. Have a few seedlings with three cotyledons which surprised me a little. haven't had a chance to research it much, but I'll be interested to see how they turn out. I'll get some pictures later/tomorrow morning, camera is charging.

Just got a couple of pictures before my camera battery died again. First two are of the 3 cotyledon seedling. Next two are some 1.5-2 week old HK. Last is just of a few seedlings.

Got my tent set up today. Absolutely hate flex ducting at this point, but got it all set up. Definitely going to replace it with some solid ductwork as soon as I can.

Noticed some yellow spots on the lower leaves of my oldest plant the other day. Pretty sure if was a magnesium deficiency so started with 1/4 dose of veg nutes(including micronutes) and haven't noticed any new spotting.

Set up my 600w mh in the grow tent and moved my older more established plants into that. Seedlings needed the closet room anyways. Going to run 18/6 light schedule on the MH for now. Might go back to 24/7 but giving my younger plants a chance to catch up some, plus savings on electricity wont hurt :thumbsup:

I'll get some pics tomorrow, had to work all day, and spent the last 3 hours setting up my room/watering/transplanting or id have some now.

I've noticed the HK seedlings tend to droop quite a bit for the first week or so. Is this normal? Id blame over or under watering but all the other seedlings of the four other strains look fine. My older HK did the same thing when they were starting and ended up just fine.

Noticed a bit of yellow spotting on the fan leaves of my upper plant. Fan leaves were also starting to curl up slightly. Think my water pH may have been high so flushed with some plain water pHed to 6.3-6.5. Few pictures of the spotting below. They are pretty faint right now, but just starting to appear.

Any ideas, or does a high ph seem like the culprit? Have only been watering with plain water so far, except one watering where I added a magnesium supplement(about a week ago). Anyone have a recommendation for a good digital pH meter?

Heres a pic of the spotting. Had a better one but was too big to upload, hopefully you can see it on this one.

Few pics. First is of a WW seedling, second is a side shot of one of my oldest plants. I took a bunch more but they were too big. Have to turn down the quality on my camera I guess and take a few more.

Just a quick question. Havnt been able to find much information on it, but are light leaks during veg something to worry about if your running an 18/6 light schedule. Haven't been closing the vents in my tent during the dark period, should I? Been easier to keep it cool with the exhaust fan running all of the time with the vents open.

Leaves on one of my older plants are starting to curl up. Just the top two sets of leaves. Canopy temps are 78-83 degrees. Checked runoff ph and it was in the 6.3-6.7 range(only have the color test atm, digital meter otw). I'll post some pics in a few minutes. Any ideas? Most of the things I've ready point to heat stress, but its a good 2 inches shorter them my tallest plant who is showing no signs of this.

First pic is of the leaf curling. Also noticed a few yellowing veins on this and a few other plants. Is this normal? Think my tap water may be low on mag and cal, anyone have experience using MagiCal from techniflora instead of Calmag+ as a supplement? Few other pics of my older plants, and finally replaced my flex ducting with sheet metal ducts. Plan to just attack a short piece of flex ducting so I can raise and lower the light as needed. Any comments, concerns? Have some more pics I'll be posting in a few minutes had to resize.

Few more pics, first is of the sick plant. Then another of my oldest plant, and a few of the Mandala Seedlings. Last is of the three leaf seedlings(pic was taken a few days ago.

My older plants have definitly been overwatered a bit since I put them into the tent, trying to get that under control now. Could that cause the curling?

Also one of my seedlings is starting to develop some yellow tips. Time to start feeding? Or could this be caused by something else. Ill post a picture in a minute.

And a few pictures of the seedling with yellow tips.

On another note, the plant with the curled leaves has been slightly mutant from birth. It is the one with the deformed cotyledon and has grown strangely the entire time. Lots of four leaf sets/non serrated leaf edges ect.

mine did the curling thing too when i over watered.. also did it before i needed to transplant. so maybe it could be one of those two things.

Plan on letting all of them dry out for a few days and see how they're doing. Just transplanted the biggest one today and it was almost root bound, so that may be something to watch as well.

Plant with curled leaves is already looking better. Pretty sure It was over watering, although it is going to need a transplant soon. Any ideas on the yellow tips? Plant should need water tomorrow night/Tuesday morning so I think I'm going to try a 1/4 dose of my veg nutes.

My veg nutes call for 4 tsp/gallon of the MagiCal(magnesium/calcium/iron supplement) for each feeding. I'm considering adding a bit to all of my water since I'm pretty sure my tap water is lacking sufficient cal and mag. Any idea how much I should add? Was thinking a tsp per gallon, and slightly raise it if I notice any more deficiency's. Could this cause any problems? Should I consider adding it for every other watering?

Sorry about all the questions I've been having. I've learned so much from this site already and just don't want to screw anything up by doing something stupid! I'm definitely loving this hobby though. I started out just wanting to be able to save some money/hassle, and would have never thought it could be this fun and exciting. Thanks for all of the help you guys, and girls have given me:thumbsup:

Smaller is better, you can always add more nutes, you cant subtract them so easily.

Looking good there young ninja.

Lovin the older plants :stoned:

Hey man is you have a water softner running either dissconnect it or filter your water. Plants get bad fast if there is too much salt. The stem will start to become red, probably not the problem now but something to watch out for in the future.

Thanks who!

Oli- Don't have a water softener atm. Haven't had a problem with red stems, but I'll definitely watch for it in the future. I did have a few reddish stems on my seedlings, but only on certain strains so I'm pretty sure its just genetics. Read that red stems on seedlings of certain strains are pretty common. All of the older ones grew out of it within a week and a half.

The week old satori seedlings already are starting to smell! Kind of a floral/incense type odor, buts its very spicy at the same time if that makes any sense. It sort of stings the nostrils, but In a good way. All of the older plants that I've show pictures of are Hindu Kush, which are now starting to smell a bit. Not strong, have to put your nose really close to a leaf to smell it, but its very similar to the satori, without the spicy aspect.

For anyone that has grown these strains how strong are the odors during flowering? Any that especially stink or aren't too strong? Plan to pick up some carbon filters before I start flowering but still don't want anyone picking up on a certain delightful odor. No really close neighbors and a fenced in yard, but doesn't hurt being careful.

Got my digital pH meter today and very glad I did. The pH of my tap water is around 8.5, and my pH adjusted water was only at 7.2.

The leaves of the one are starting to uncurl nicely, and I dont really notice any major problems on any of the others. Should I do a flush on my older plants with correctly pHed water, or just leave them alone and water them with water in the correct ph range from now on?

tips of some of my seedlings started to yellow today. Gave them a light flush, and runoff was around 7.3. Should I give them a full flush, or will it work it self out within the next few waterings?

The seedlings are in 8oz party cups, and I flushed with around 8-10oz of water. Hoping everything will recover . Plan to give my older plants a pretty decent flush when they are ready for watering.

Plants are looking great now. No yellow tips on the seedlings new growth, and all of the older plants are looking fantastic.

Took my best looking plant out today to water and check for yellow spots/mites/anything. Set it on the counter for a second while I checked the ph of my water and it slipped off. Fell about a foot and a half right on its side, and came most of the way out of the pot :mad:. This is what happens when you dont get to smoke for over a month. Picked it up put it back into its pot and replaced the soil that had fallen out. Gave it a good watering, made sure all of the dirt was off of the leaves/stems and put it back under the lights. Hopefully I didn't damage the roots too much, would hate to lose my best plant.

Other then that everythings looking great! I'll have some pictures tomorrow.

Woke up this morning to find alot of my seedlings are developing brown spots :(. Did a runoff pH test on a few of them, and it came out at 7.4 using 6.5 pH water. Runoff was a yellowish color. Flushed them all with about 5 times their volume in water and could only get the runoff down to about 6.8. Runoff at the end was clear though. Hopeing they can bounce back. Any advice?

They should be OK, just let them chill out for a bit after the big flush, ....maybe ( carfeully ) poke some holes in your soil with a bamboo stake or something to help get air to the roots.

but I stress the word 'carefully' dont want to f'k up and roots .

They needed to be watered anyways, and are only in 8oz party cups at this point so they should dry out pretty fast.

Tent has been getting up to the 87degrees(at the canopy) during the hotter parts of the day, so going to install my other inline fan tomorrow which will hopefully help keep it safely under 85. Ambient temp in the tent during the hotter times has only been around 83-84, so I'm not overly concerned with it.

Bought an ez clone 60(was on sale for the price of the 30!), and it finally came today. They forgot to include the misters though :mad: so itll be another week before I can practice some cloning. Plan to eventually cut 2 clones of all of the plants(3 of the better looking ones as room allows) and flower the mature plants. This way I'll be able to choose my mother based on flowering time/finished product/taste/smell and whatnot.

So all in all its been a pretty bad day, but hopefully things can just go uphill from here :thumbsup: I'll post some pics in a few minutes.

Few pics of the seedlings that are looking the worst. Then a pic of the 3 cotyledon seedling and a shot of my new cloner.

Some pics of whats in the tent so far, 2 little ones just got moved into today. One of them has had a problem with yellow tips for over a week, but no brown spots yet. Flushed it as soon as I noticed the yellow tips. One on the far left of the group shot is the runt thats always been a bit deformed, but making a comeback :thumbsup:.

Atleast for my next grow I'll be able to prevent pH problems :)

Annnnd a pic of all my seedlings. Sorry for the bad pictures I'm just starting to get used to this camera.

Transplanted the seedlings that hadn't been flushed into some 4" pots. All of the seedlings haven't show any yellowing/spots so hopefully the new soil, and correctly pH'ed water will keep these ones healthy.

Temps when the lights on during the day have been hitting the 87-89ish range, so going to pick up a window ac unit for the room tomorrow. Will a 5000 Btu window unit be enough in a 10' by 11' room with 2 600w and a few fluorescents running(3 t12 shop lights now, plan to switch to 3 4 bulb T5s when I have the money)? Don't need an extreme drop in temp but would like to keep them more in the 80ish range, 85 at most.

The seedlings I flushed have no sign of problems on their newer growth so I'm hoping I corrected the problem. One or two of them are still doing poorly(especially the only one that was germinated in rockwool), but it wouldn't be too bad if I only lost a couple.

On a side note! Dropped a roll of duct tape on one of my older plants. Only hit one fan leaf which broke off, but I'm not too concerned. <<< what happens when you don't smoke for months!

I'll get some updated pics soon.

Havnt had a chance to post been busy for the last few weeks. Most of the seedlings seem to be doing great now. Look more light 2 week old plants then 3-4 weeks, but that is expected with the problems they have had. I put my older plants into flowering about 2 days ago. Was going to take some clones, but they were already around 2 feet tall and I was afraid they will outgrow my tent during flowering if I waited any longer. Got my cloner weeks ago but was missing a few parts(finally got them today). Preflowers just starting to appear but too early to tell what they are. Going to set up my second light tomorrow and reroute my old ducting(is running to the vent at the bottom of the tent and going to run it to the one at the top to give the plants some more room. I'll get some pics after I get the ducting all set up. Older plants are looking great, a bit root bound atm but have some 5 gallon pots ready when they dry out a bit. The smaller plants in flowering are only in 1 gallons atm, and will be moved to 3 gallons when they are ready.

Ordered two 4 bulb t5's. Going to be using these for the vegging plants. Not sure exactly which light I'm going to use for mothers yet.

I think I'm going to be ordering a 23 w t5 for my cloner. BGH has one for around 40 dollars. Anyone have any experiance with this. Sound like a good light for a 60 site ez clone?

Sorry for the looong wait between updates. Been busy planning my transition to hydro. The "seedlings" are doing great now, all around 8-12". Took a few weeks to really begin growing again, but finally look healthy. Would have killed them off awhile ago and started over, but mandala isnt offering new seeds till January so stuck with them.

As for the flowering plants 2/5 ended up being female, and they are doing great. Waited waaaaaaaay to long to put them into flowering so they're huge now. Ones around 56" and just starting to stop growing, the others more in the 40" range(was quite a bit smaller when flowering started). Big ones in a 5 gallon, smaller ones in a 3 gallon. Had some light leaks the first week of flowering(my darkroom was defective, was full of light leaks on the seams). Took that down and exchanged it. Havn't set the new one up, as theres no way the large plant would fit in it under the light now. Unfortunately since the tents down, I have to move them into a closet during the dark cycle. Been a major pain moving the big plant twice a day, but I've been extremely careful and no signs of stress yet. Check the plants over daily for nanners and none have started to form yet, so think I'm in the clear on the light leak issue. I've been extremely busy lately but I'll try to get some updated pics.

As for my transition to hydro! Going to be keeping my moms in dirt, but everything else will be hydroponic from now on. Have a 4' by 4' table for my veg and flowering areas. Plan to root about 40 clones in the Ezclone, choose my 25 healthiest and sink them in six inch net pots full of hydroton in my veg table. I'll allow them to veg for a week(two at the most strain Dependant), and move them to a bed of hydroton in my flowering table. Following the K.I.S.S rule for my first few runs, and only using the lucas formula with AN micro and bloom along with RO water and calmag. Probably use some molassas as well.