Raiz' First Grow Log - 3 White Widow Seeds from Nirvana

Grow Setup:
Using a 6 bulb, 4 foot T5 Sun Blaze light for the FULL grow (seed to harvest). This is a closet grow, and my first grow ever. I've installed an inline exhaust fan in the ceiling that vents to the attic through some 6 inch ducting. I forget the exact specs, but I believe it was around 100 CFM and $45.

The closet space is 5ft Wide x 2ft Deep x 8ft High. I'm probably only going to use the bottom 5.5 feet, and leave the upper shelf where it is for storage. I've got a temp/humidity indicator that I picked up at the hydroponics store for $20. Nothing to monitor the pH yet. I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil mixed with about 30% perlite from Home Depot, as well as rockwool for starting the roots.

To germinate the seeds, I put them in a wet paper towel, on a plate, and covered it with a bowl. I placed the setup on my ironing board in the bedroom. In about 30 hours all three seeds had a small white root coming out.



Grow Log:


2010-02-13 Day 1
All three White Widow seeds from Nirvana broke open today. To experiment, I put 1 seed directly into red plastic cup, 1 seed onto rockwool, and then into a plastic party cup, and the final seed into rockwool and into a plastic grow container/dome with lid. The seed with inside the rockwool placed in soil is covered with a plastic bag and rubber banded to retain moisture. The one in pure soil is open air.

I did forget to turn the upper ventilation on when I left for work. When I got home the thermometer read 83 degrees F. Who knows what the temps right under the light wereâ?¦. After opening the window and turning on the vent, the temps are now at 73 F. The room was a bit cool so I closed the window, but left the fan, and ventilation on.
Iâ??m leaving the light on 24 hours a day until time to flower.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/2620/dsc00168pp.jpg http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2558/dsc00175zs.jpg
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/602/dsc00169bz.jpg http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5735/dsc00176c.jpg http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6818/dsc00170jd.jpg
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/5780/dsc00171fk.jpg http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3694/dsc00172lm.jpg http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9654/dsc00173xi.jpg http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3070/dsc00174sa.jpg

2010-02-14 Day 2 (Happy Valentines Day!)

A couple more notes. I'm using regular tapwater for this grow. Nothing fancy. I sprayed the top of the rockwool, and soil today with some water to keep it moist. No little sprouts that I can see. Hope I haven't killed them already. :wtf: Note the 3 degree difference between the temp monitor under the light (82.5) and the one right at the unit (79.5). I even have the fan blowing right at the T5's.

I have some questions maybe someone can help me with.

1. Should I leave the light on until I see sprouts? Why/why not?

2. I've heard about the Fox Farm Trio fertilizers that a lot of people use, Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom. Since I'm using their soil, I'd like to stick with their nutes to keep it simple. Also, they have the entire feeding schedule right here.

2. Who wants to make a prediction right now as to which of the three seedlings comes up strongest/fastest?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by raizla

2010-02-14 Day 2 (Happy Valentines Day!)

A couple more notes. I'm using regular tapwater for this grow. Nothing fancy. I sprayed the top of the rockwool, and soil today with some water to keep it moist. No little sprouts that I can see. Hope I haven't killed them already. :wtf: Note the 3 degree difference between the temp monitor under the light (82.5) and the one right at the unit (79.5). I even have the fan blowing right at the T5's.

I have some questions maybe someone can help me with.

1. Should I leave the light on until I see sprouts? Why/why not?

2. I've heard about the Fox Farm Trio fertilizers that a lot of people use, Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom. Since I'm using their soil, I'd like to stick with their nutes to keep it simple. Also, they have the entire feeding schedule right here.

2. Who wants to make a prediction right now as to which of the three seedlings comes up strongest/fastest?

---

i leave the light off tell you see them just to help keep it moist and not burn light for nuthin. im not sure about fox farms nutes, i use humbolt nutes but trust me they will chime in. i love there soil. as soon as the pop get them onthe light schedule. I would have picked a plant that stay short, might want to look into SCROG method. that might do pretty well but you still might need more light to flower good. i know guys that veg under the tubes but to flower most are using cfl's. looks like a good start keep it up

Ok, thanks for the info maro69camaro. I haven't read anything negative about the Fox Farm nutes, so that's what I'm going for.
Also, scrog is definitely an option. I was just reading up on it lastnight, and it might be a good idea since I'm using T5's.

So, because you first to reply to my thread, and because I own a 1968 Camaro RS/SS, I'm going to name the first plant that sprouted today Camara (it has to be a female name of course!). This was the seed that was dropped about 1/4 inch into the dirt and covered up. The easiest way to do it by far.

Plant #3 has also sprouted and I'm calling it Scarlet. I play a lot of Modern Warfare 2 (hit me up with your gamertag if you play too), and my favorite weapon is the Scar-H. Gotta make it a female name, so Scarlet it is.

Plant #2 hasn't sprouted yet, and I don't want to name a dead baby, so we'll leave it up nature, and possibly my girlfriend, to decide on a name tomorrow if she sprouts.

Here are some pictures of the three in order of 1, 2, 3.

1. I had to perform some minor surgery on Camara this morning to remove the leftover seedpod that was sticking to her.
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/1183/dsc00179dh.jpg

Using a corkscrew shaped mini-screwdriver from my swiss army knife, I went between the leaves and lifted the seed pod off.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4880/dsc00180h.jpg

Immediately the leaves popped apart and unfolded. I think Camaro is much happier now.
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7717/dsc00181sa.jpg

And here she is at the end of the day, already starting her second set of leaves!
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9656/dsc00185ar.jpg


2. On to Plant #2 - "The Unsprouted One"
This is the widow that started in a piece of rockwool placed into soil. It may be difficult to tell, but if you look in the middle of that rockwool, you can see a small stem curled over.
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9549/dsc00189qo.jpg


3. And finally on to Plant #3 - Scarlet
She started in rockwool placed inside the plastic grow dome seen in post 1 of this thread. She's doing well, but her first two leaves are hanging down, rather than out to the side, and the tips are slightly yellowed. Could it be the rockwool was too wet? Too dry? No clue. If you look closely, you can see the rockwool mostly buried in the dirt as I just transplanted her 20 minutes ago.
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3963/dsc00184hg.jpg

As always, tips and suggestions are welcome as this is my first grow. It's more of a hobby for me than anything, and I'm having lots of fun so far!

You might want to watch out with that seedling that decided to j. I had one do that on me and it is smaller and more frail looking than the others... It is still healthy just a runt compared to the others...

looks like it going well. i love the names:jointsmile:. modern warfare 2 ya i play alot to. gamer tag CK LScaMAro420 im on all the time, hit me up.:thumbsup:

Hey maro, I'll add ya after I make this post.

t3hn00b137, I'm not really familiar with the lingo, what does "to j" mean?

Ok, so it's the 4th day since the cracked seeds were sprouted, 2nd day since they've broken ground. I didn't see a whole lot of growth today... at least, not as much as I wanted. Maybe you guys can tell me if I'm crazy and staring at them too much, or if I've messed something up.

One dumb thing I did was turned the heat on in the morning before work while I was getting ready because it gets cool in my place overnight. Well I forgot to turn it back off when I left for work, at the girls were probably cooking in the 90's all day. :wtf3: I'm sure I have a lot of messing up to do!

Here are the pics.
First Camara:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/1929/dsc00195c.jpg

Next, the unnamed one:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4756/dsc00196s.jpg

and finally, Scarlet:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7/dsc00197sc.jpg

How was your experience with Nirvana? I ordered some WW seeds weeks ago and haven't seen em yet. I think customs may have got em.

Actually it was great. It took me about 12 days to get the seeds, which I figure is about as fast as you can get them here from the Netherlands. I ordered 5 feminized White Widow seeds, and they all arrived in good shape plus they threw in 10 additional "free seeds." They didn't tell me what the free seeds were though, so if you plant them with your main order, make sure you weed out the males.

I decided to try to germinate 3 of the feminized WW seeds in a damp paper towel. In about 30 hours all three had cracked open and a small root had emerged.

If the final plants turn out good, which I'm sure they will unless I screw them up somehow, then I'd definitely order from them again.

When you plant a seed upside-down you get what is called a "j-root" which means it has to grow over its own shell to find darkness and soil. From the look of the one pic (the one that is attached) it "j-rooted". I had one do that (I apparently didn't know it's head from it's ass) and she has always been the runt of the pack.

I hope that cleared it up.

TehNooblet:pimp:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by maro69camaro

looks like it going well. i love the names:jointsmile:. modern warfare 2 ya i play alot to. gamer tag CK LScaMAro420 im on all the time, hit me up.:thumbsup:

---

Don't mean to go off topic.

I will. I will indeed.

TehNooblet:pimp:

Ahhhhh J root. That makes sense. More terminology to learn.

Lastnight before the pictures I gave all three a water. Only Camara was ready for it, but I wanted to get them all on the same watering schedule. When should the next watering be? I've been doing it every other day, trying to feel when the cup gets lighter and I can stick my finger in without getting moist.

On other thing I noticed. The perlite is a bit brown on top. Is it getting cooked by the light? Is the soil, or the water doing it?

Anyways, here are the pics.

Camara - she grew the most today. So far she's leader of the pack.
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/374/dsc00200j.jpg

The Unnamed One - this is getting a bit depressing. She needs a name!
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/3126/dsc00199a.jpg

and Scarlet
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9959/dsc00198j.jpg

All three showed growth today. This makes me a happy grower. :cool:

Looks great man. Keep it up!

You could just name the "unnamed one" Mary Jane. :D lawl


TehNooblet:pimp:

Another day, more pictures. :)

Camara is definitely the fastest grower. I think being started in plain ol' soil helped her get the best start. From now on, I'll be starting all my seeds in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. No rockwool for me.

Mary Jane... hrmm, naming your cannabis Mary Jane seems kinda plain... like naming your dog Spot. Maybe we can go a little farther with it. I do like Spiderman, and Peter Parker's girlfriend is named Mary Jane Watson, so I think I'll name her Watson. Not very feminine, but hey, girls are using guy names all time now.

I'm going to try a bit larger picture size. Let me know if this is good for anyone readin or if I should go bigger/smaller.

Camara
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/570/dsc00201r.jpg

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/2807/dsc00204k.jpg

Watson
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6039/dsc00202fs.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2259/dsc00205z.jpg

Scarlet
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9844/dsc00203u.jpg

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/710/dsc00206lm.jpg

I didn't water today.... wondering if I should. I think I'll water tomorrow morning instead and let them dry out a little more. :wtf:

If you have to debate, wait another day> my rule of thumb:D

That's what I recommend. If you have to debate, wait! Do you have a fan on them?

Yeah, I have a fan blowing full time at the light. You can see it in my first post. I just watered them a couple minutes ago. I really want these girls to grow faster. Am I doing anything wrong? I mean, there is new growth every day, and they're green as can be with no sign of burnt leaves. Do they just take this long? I'm not that patient I guess.

Also, the stems don't seem very strong. When I pour the water in there, it almost knocks them over. What do you guys use to water these little girls?

Camara
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5616/dsc00210hg.jpg

Watson
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3006/dsc00209zj.jpg

Scarlet
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/8114/dsc00208a.jpg

So I'm starting to think more dirt in the cup might have been a good idea. Camara is already right next to the edge, and soon the others will be too. LoL if only they'd stretch more! (I bet few people say that!) I wonder if it has anything to do with the superbright T5 light right on top of them.

Camara
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1714/dsc00212gq.jpg

Watson
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5967/dsc00213dx.jpg

Scarlet
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7024/dsc00214y.jpg

The girls
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/144/dsc00211vs.jpg

I was still only misting the soil at this point. I don't know if that is the correct thing to do, but it seemed to work fine... This part seems to take the longest though... The first 2 or 3 weeks take forever.

They look great!

TehNooblet:pimp:

It's that time of the day again. I think the growth is accelerating a bit. It's tough to tell when I'm always checkin on em. Gunna try a bit larger res picture. Let me know if these pictures are too big guys, I can always tone it down.

I think the soil has finally stopped receding. I took your advice t3hn00b137 and instead of the normal watering, I misted them until water came out the bottom of the cup. I'm wondering if my tap water is ok. In these higher res pics, you can see some white spots on the leaves. I'm pretty sure that's residue from drying water. What do you guys think?

I may have to rethink my stance on rockwool. Even though it took longest for the germinated seeds to sprout through the rockwool, it provides a good base for the roots. When I'm watering Camara (the seed planted directly into the soil) the soil will sometimes shift a bit and she'll be leaning to the side by the time I'm done watering.

On to the pics!

Camara
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/4466/dsc00218pk.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5418/dsc00219cn.jpg

Watson
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/91/dsc00217s.jpg

Scarlet
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7511/dsc00216l.jpg

No watering today. I adjusted the fan a bit so that it wasn't blowing on the cups so much. I want the air circulated, but not a windstorm.

Lastnight I installed a temporary stem adjuster on Camara. She's been leaning to the side since my first watering knocked her down, so with a little help, she's straight now. It's just a garbage tie bent around the stem and the edge of the cup. I moved it a bit, and after just 1 day, Camara seems to be staying in her new position. I'll leave it a few more days though, just to keep her steady.

I think I've made the decision to go scrog. With three plants growing under a T5 fluorescent light, it seems the best way to get light to all the buds. Also, reading smoove's threads (on another forum), I was pretty convinced.

Camara
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7521/dsc00220n.jpg

Watson
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4545/dsc00221q.jpg

Scarlet
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/9886/dsc00222c.jpg

How many lumens are those bulbs? How many inches away do you keep the lights? If the lights are within acouple inches you should see growth pretty rapidly. They look great for 10 days my guess in the next few days you should start seeing some nice growth. When I began giving my girls 24/0 I saw growth every 8 hours. Its good to get the bulbs real close that way the nodes are nice and tight! Stretching was rough on me when i was using cfl's but you got some nice space. Be patient and the end results will be better...I did some pretty sweet LST'ing, a SCROG would be sweeeet with your setup!:)


I'm sticken around for this one:jointsmile:

Yeah jtsik330, a scrog is definitely the way to go on this one. The T5's are 5000 lumens each, so 6 of em gives me a total of 30,000 lumens over the grow area. The cups are so small I'm sure they're not getting 1/8 of that light to the plants at this small stage. The lights are about 3 inches above the plants. The leaves are coming in right on top of one another currently so they must be getting good light. These are White Widow though, so I expect they'll start to take off soon.

My only worry is flowering with the T5, but since this is my first grow, I'm just going to risk it. I plan on changing either 3 or 4 of the 6 bulbs to 3000k when flowering starts.

Oh, and the plants aren't actually 10 days old. I just started counting when I started the grow log, which was before sprouting, so I guess the plants are 7 day old sprouts.

if you would love to see those girls explode hit em with 6500k bulbs during veg. I was sent 5000k bulbs by mistake and I could drastically see the difference in growth.2700k has proven to be the best during flower for me.

Hrmm I suppose I didn't make it too clear, but the lights are actually 6500k lights with 5000 lumens of output each.... and yeah, it looks like 2700k is the sweet spot for flowering. :thumbsup:

So, I'm not going to water today. The first set of leaves was a tiny bit droopy yesterday, so we'll see how they look by tomorrow night. :wtf:

I went to the store today and bought some Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom (the Fox Farm Trio!), as well as a basic General Hydroponics pH control kit. I plan on using a high quality pH meter eventually, but until I find a great deal, this kit will do for now.

A couple interesting observations:

1. The leaves all have very very tiny white dots on them if you look closely. At first I thought it was the water I was giving them leaving residue on the plant, but I haven't watered for a couple days, and even the new growth has these little dots on the leaves, so it must not be the water. Any clues anyone?

2. The first set of leaves have an extra crease in them besides the one going down the middle of the leaf. Is it this way for all cannabis plants, or something unique to WW or even unique to this strain of WW?

Questions I don't have answers to... :i feel stupid:

Camara
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5953/dsc00223f.jpg

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2995/dsc00224g.jpg

Watson
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/857/dsc00225d.jpg

Scarlet
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1294/dsc00226rb.jpg

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6425/dsc00227y.jpg

The goop!
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1622/dsc00228u.jpg

So I tested the tap water I've been giving them. The pH is between 7 and 8! :( I'm glad I found this out now before I started giving them nutrients. Before tomorrows watering I'm going to adjust to 6.3. I noticed a bit of yellowing on Watson's leaves... it's hard to see in the pictures. I wonder if it's because he's thirsty, full, or needs a pH adjustment.

Oh and I also added a drop of acid to see if it would change the color. BAM! Immediate drop to ~4.0. The water turned bright red. At least I know the stuff works. :D

I am not positive, but you may want to check your roots. I started noticing droopiness, off colored leaves, and leaves that started twisting at about the height that yours are at.


TehNooblet:pimp:

Really? They're only about 9 days old now. Could it be time to transplant?

So tonight was the first pH adjusted watering. First I tested the water than I had sitting in the spray bottle for a couple of days. This tap water had a pH between 7 and 8 somewhere. Time to lower it.

I added pH down solution, about 6 drops. This got spray bottle to a pH between 6 and 6.5. Good enough to water all three cups with.

Next I tested the runoff from the first plant, Watson. The runoff pH was about 7.0, so it wouldn't do me any harm to lower the pH a bit more for the next watering. I went ahead and got a gallon of water ready sitting at a pH of about 6.2.

The plants were looking a bit droopy after 3 days without water. I wanted to wait until they perked up a bit before snapping some pics, but it's a slower process than I thought, so y'all get some droopyish leaves tonight.

Oh, and these plants do NOT seem to be getting taller. They're just throwing out leaves on top of leaves on top of leaves while staying short and stubby. Is there such a thing as too much light? Maybe a 6 lamp T5 2 inches away is too much?

Camara
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5304/dsc00231yi.jpg

Watson
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/371/dsc00232pc.jpg

Scarlet
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5130/dsc00233ox.jpg

My plants were pretty short and stubby at first also so I raised the lights and got a ton of un-needed height. Keep your lights close man. The stalk will stretch later...

They look good!

TehNooblet:pimp:

I suppose I'll take your advice. I did notice some growth today. Patience patience patience. :stoned:

Also, the plants did seem to perk up today after yesterday's watering. It'll be easier to tell if they're thirsty now that I've seen what they do. I was expecting the leaves to perk up right after the watering like my bamboo does, but cannabis seems to take several hours to recover.

Camara
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9762/dsc00236yy.jpg

Watson
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6207/dsc00235ff.jpg

Scarlet
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/8237/dsc00234e.jpg

After looking at the plants for a little while (I tend to do that) I'm noticing that the tips are curling up a little bit. Any ideas what it could be?

I think I'm going to transplant into 1 gallon pots tomorrow.

Edit: After doing some reading, it may be that the plant is trying to shed moisture (I just watered yesterday), or possible the light is too close.

Since I can't do much about the moisture, I'm moving the light up about 3/4 inch. We'll see if it helped at all in the morning.

They look pretty good. A little stressed, but otherwise seem to be doing great!
This part is a drag (pun?), but give it a week or two and you won't be able to keep up!
I love watching these beautiful ladies stretch their legs. I love bud-porn! lol


TehNooblet:pimp:

They looks great! You can only hope the nodes are that tight! I'm using MH now and when I used cfl's I can keep them so close to the plant during veg that i feel like it was better then my MH? Girls look good can't wait till they really start taking off.

looking good:thumbsup: i burnt my Casey Jones up pretty bad and it looks like your have now passed me up. Lets see if i can make a come back:D

t3hn00b137
Thanks man. I'm hoping as soon as I transplant that they'll just take off! Today I think the growth rate is increasing. Who knows what I'll think tomorrow. ;)

jtsik330
Yeah, everyone raves about the HPS and MH. I think I've been convinced that HPS will give a better flower than CFL or fluoro, but I haven't seen any conclusive evidence showing MH does better than CFL or fluoro for veggin.

maro69camaro
Yesterday was fun. We need kick some ass again soon.
It's good to have someone to compare to throughout the grow. I rather hope you do pass me up!

No water today. Nothing done to the plants.

And on to the pics..

Camara
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6020/dsc00239sj.jpg

Watson
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/4533/dsc00240hu.jpg

Scarlet
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/818/dsc00241o.jpg

Well today I repotted. You guys were right, it was time. I think the twisting leaves is the first sign of a repot needed. I moved them up from the plastic cups to 1 gallon pots. When it's time again, I'll move up to 3 gallon pots.

I kinda smashed to top of Camara when I was taking her out of the cup. Hopefully she isn't too damaged, but only time will tell. Also, I'm definitely noticing a smell coming out of Camara. She's been the leader all along, so it would make sense she'd start to stink the place up first.

Camara
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4130/dsc00242tc.jpg

Watson
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2828/dsc00243h.jpg

Scarlet
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6007/dsc00244te.jpg

and there is a new addition to the family. A pepper plant! If you guys want, I can include periodic updates on the pepper as time goes on.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1817/dsc00245it.jpg

i like your setup:thumbsup: im running a grow similar to yours only the 4 bulb 2' from hydro farms t5along with 6 cfl's your plants are looking like mine did! super short and bushy. i put mine into bud already but im interested to see what your system puts out. goodluck man!:jointsmile:

Those look amazing. How did the roots look when you popped them out of their cups? The leaves look a ton better even after just that little bit in the new pots. Kudos!

TehNooblet:pimp: