Check out my first grow! Pics finally!

After reading so much info here over the months, and learning so much from the cool peeps on this forum, I finally dove in. I plan to ScrOG once I go to flowering, and will be transplanting to much better soil as well.

This cab is just for veg. Probably will be keeping the mother in there, and try to always have babies going in. I will be getting a much larger cabinet later for the flowering stage. I will post photos of that as I build it, as I am starting that in a few days.

Cabinet - Plastic storage cabinet from Home Depot. I painted the inside with flat white paint, siliconed the seams, and weather stripped the doors. I have a 4 inch passive inlet at the bottom, and an exhaust at the top, powered by a small fan I got from Radio Shack.

Lighting - Just using fluorescent T5 kit from Sun System. I am suprised how well the plants are responding to thos mini tubes. Exact model is "New Wave 24" by Sun System. I bought a single fixture today I will be using for clones. I kinda just shoved it in the corner of the veg box for now, just for a little more light.

Filter - Well, I was going to make a carbon scrubber, but I found that since it's just vegging, it isn't too bad. I just wrapped some furnace filter material around a foam that has activated carbon in it, taped it right over the exhaust fan outlet. It seems to works so far.

Venting - 4 inch inlet at the bottom(passive) / 6 inch exhaust at top powered by small Radio Shack fan. The cabinet is in my closet with sliding doors. I have the intake side cracked open to let in fresh air, and the filtered exhaust goes out the top of the cracked door.

Strain - 5 Master Kush, and 1 Purple Kush. I got them as clones, and they were beat up. I was suprised they pulled through.

Soil - I have Fox Farm ready for when I go to flowering. I plan to transplant, and then move directly to flowering stage.

Nutrients - All I have been using is a little Miracle Grow, and Superthrive. A very diluted amount. I have Fox Farm setup , and just began using them today. They seem to like it.

Watering - I pretty much wait until they dry out, and then flush heavily every 3-4 days. In the morning I mist the leaves with my water/nute mix.

I think I covered most of it?? I probably got a little carried away with pruning, but these babies seem to be fine. Temps have been solid. I leave my window open accordingly, and use the heater when needed at night. I sleep in the room, so they should be getting a good amount of CO2.

The flowering cab will have much better venting, filtering, and a 400w HPS cool tube. I plan to have the filtering all done within the cab, as I want this cab to be free standing, and inconspicuous.

I just wished I had used the right soil/nutes from the beginning. I will try to keep updating photos and progress on the flower cab if any are interested.

Any questions or comments are greatly appreciated!

Look very healthy to me.. what day are they on in that pic?

It's about week 4 since it was placed into the soil.

There was some shock due to transporting a few times. Overall, they have been very hardy. I know I pruned way too much (about 30% was removed before these photos). I think Kush is a pretty easy plant to grow, or I have been very lucky so far.

I want to get them to about 1 foot or so before I go to flowering. I will top them a few times, as to train them for ScrOG.

Wow, I just started misting the leaves with the new nutes. All I can say is WOW. They are responding quite well to the new mixture! I will take some new photos tomorrow to show the difference a day makes.

Look how much happier they look now, with just some foliar feeding. Using a dliuted mixture of Fox Farm/Superthrive mix.

Seemed like my babies were struggling the last couple days.

Temps were good, getting plenty of fresh air, etc... so today I pulled one out of the pot, and it looked like the roots were heading back up because there was no place to go?

I decided to transplant to 5 gallons today. No room in my small cab for these, so they are gonna sit in the tub until tonight. I am going to go get the bigger cab now since I need a place to put these.

comments? pointers? am i doing anything wrong?

be careful with the superthrive. you've done a good job, keep up the good work.

wow they look nice for just using floros!! I will have to try fox farm. Right now I am using Organic Mexican bat guano which is working very nice! Keep growin!!!:thumbsup:

thanks. i was suprised how well the lil t5s worked as well.

I am picking up a 400w hps cool tube for the flowering. Do you think I should leave them under the current lights for the rest of teh veg? Or go ahead and switch over to the HPS?

in fact, teh ballast I am getting is digital/switchable. Should I go to MH for veg?

i'd save the superthrive for transplanting and other stress related times. i use it too but have never heard of using it for foliar feeding and can't find anything on the bottle i have in front of me. it's for the roots, according to the bottle and all else i've heard about it and it may plug pores on the leaves if allowed to dry.

I stepped up today.

Got a digital/switchable ballast, 400mh/400hps, cool tube setup now :)

How far should the MH be from the plants? Seems to not cover all the leaves at the edges as well, when i get it close.

I ran outta money, so I modified a $40 Stanley fan for the exhaust. It is working quite well, and when I get a carbon filter in there, it should be even more quiet.

I have a few layers of activated carbon filter material, installed at the exit grill for now. It works. Of course, I plan to have my complete filtering system in place before I flower.

Going to try to find a way to lay my screen tomorrow, so I can start ScrOG training.

Thanks for the tips and comments. I appreciate them all.

not sure about the MH but i kno u can move the CFL closer to the plant, less heat n more lights always good :thumbsup:

yah, they were about 3 inches from the top most of the time. I kept them up there as they were growing fast.

I topped them yesterday, and going to wait about 1 week or so, and then switch to 12/12. Going to try to finish up the screen tonight.

well, today one of the plants showed some signs of a problem. They all have the same soil, ph'd water, nutes, etc. Just one of the plants have some leaf curl (upwards), and the edges of the same leaves were turning a lighter green than the middle.

I tried researching, and seems like everyone has a different diagnosis. I pulled her out and flushed her with ph'd pure water. It's only a few leaves, but i am worried... hope she gets better.

If anyone KNOWS what it might be, let me know.

Is that plant closest too the light.. than move it further away. Could be too much heat from the lamp.

yeah, i don't think that is it. I moved the light up a little anyways though.

the plant that has the problems is the one furthest from the light. I am thinking I may have topped this one wrong, and caused it to go into shock?

The photo posted below seemed to have captured the bad pretty well. It looks worse in the photo for some reason, but u get the idea.

The photo was taken after I flushed heavily with pure water, and about 8 hours under the light.

the other 5 plants are growing strong, no problems. wonder why this one is having problems. They are clones from the same mother....

The burnt tips tell me the tds is high. The decoloration of the leaves tells me the ph is a problem. Most of the time it is a high tds coupled with a continuously wet bottom of the soil that causes the ph to drop. I do not folair so I am going to tell you not to but dont feel you need to listen to me. The plant may have to many auxins. Auxins are growth hormones found in very high levels in products such as thrive alive and superthrive. The concentration of auxins is found mostly in the shoots. I use no more then two drops a gallon of these products. If you have used more I would discontinue use all together of it. The main yellowing is in your shoot growths so I suspect that the auxins have reached near toxic levels and the low ph due to the high tds and wet bottom soil have added to the stress. If this is the case what I would do is first flush that one gallon with three gallons of water. Next we our going to need her to dry out in under 4 days. Three would be ideal. I would take my finger and in the holes at the bottom of the pot make tunnels forming a cross on the bottom to get some air in there. Transpiration is also going to be a factor. We need as much water and junk she has stored in her viens to pass out through the stoma on the bottom of the leaves. A fan would help pass dry air under the leaves and through the holes on the new tunnel on the bottom of the pot. Since she is going to be quite wet a heating pad such as an electric blanket would help. The soil should not get above 100 degrees through out the soil. I had to do this with a plant once and did not have a electric blanket. I have old iron radiators in my house so I cranked up the heat and put a couple of towels on top of it folded for her to sit on. The heat created a updraft of dry air and helped dry the soil in a little over two days. I did not have an extra fan or holes in my pots as I was using pleated pots which are very rare and hard to come by. No actually it was a one gallon like you have, but a very long story that had to do with tall cylinder bars. Any way she can come back so dont worry. The MH is a more blue spectrum then the HPS which will help produce more cloroplasts made with blue light then break them down from a more yellow light. You look like you are growing in a cabinet and if so it will be humid. Keep them in a dry air you know and raise the temp at the top of the plants to at least 85 degree. I run my grow room at temps upwards of 95 some days and the plants are fine. She is airtight so with CO2 raised slightly it is not that bad. A great way to make CO2 in a cabinet is with a gallon jug, 2 cups of sugar, and a table spoon of active yeast. poke a hole in the cap and shake it twice a day. Hot water works best to dissolve the yeast before it is added to the jug. I hope this is helpfull.

One love
c

omg. u are a champion sir.

thank u very very very much!

The packed water at the bottom makes sense, as well as the superthrive i been adding. I am going to fix the problem now, and flush again.

What PH do u recommend as my target for watering? I hear so many different numbers from people.

The problem is that your tips are burning and your leaves expecially the shoots are yellowing. The shoots are where the main concentration of growth cells and hormones such as auxins are found. Superthrive is a hormone additive and not a fertilizer. If you have been using more then one to two drops per gallon I would stop using it all together as auxins can lock up. Tips burn and leaves curl do to high tds (total dissolved solids) of ions in the medium deposited by the nutes at a level the roots can not keep up in processing. Once they reach a certain level they become toxic to the plant and the plant will not absorb them as starving itself is healthier then uptaking poison. Yellowing of the leaves is usually caused by a low ph due to a high tds and soil that is to wet on the bottom of the pot. If oxygen can not penetrate the soil every 3 to 5 days the micro organisms which play a vital role in the uptake and breakdown of the nutes begin to sufficate. This is why it is best to keep so humid to damp. Ammonium nitrogen for example must be broken down by micro organisms found in the soil zone as well as rhizosphere converting it to nitrate before it is even usable to the plants.

So what to do. I would flush the one gallon with three gallons of water and up the transpiration of the plant to clear the excess junk stored in her viens. Heat of 85 to 90 degrees with dry air will help. The soil would ideally need to dry out in three days. Bone dry about. I would use my finger and make a tunnel in the form of a cross on the bottom of the pots to ad in the drying and make use of a fan.

Added health can be obtained with CO2 use which can be made with a gallon jug 3/4th gallon of water or less, and a table spoon of active yeast found by the cheese in the grocery store mixed with hot water to dissolve it. Poke a hole in the top and shake twice a day.

I would cut the fertilizer level in half aswell.

Hope this helps

One love
c

o shit i thought my first one won lost cuz i didnt sign in o well

PH is best in my opinion between 5.9 and 6.1. If you ad MgSO4 (epsom salt) it chemically combines with N at a ph under 5.8. I add about 50 ppm of ions every two to three days with my watering. If you got to raise it back up baby organic soy formula is amazing. It will raise the ph for 24 hours till bacteria and micro organisms counter and raise it up naturally. They sell it with lipids or without. Lipids which are found in breast milk help retain moisture and slow transpiration so I would recommend no lipids. Iron is good.

One love
c

A 50 ppm of added ions should put you at about a 5.9 so you may only need a bit less as you have ions stored in the plant and soil. K is the easiest for plants to store and is used in the least quanity in regards to NPK. N is used the most but is also tasted the most when smoking. I got a coulpe good facts on my website under resources when you got a minute inregards to fertilizer. www.gorillagrow.org

One love
c

Your welcome anytime I am glad to help. O and a small does of fulvic acid will help reduce stress and break down any lock ups. I like it better then humic acid which has a half life measured in centuries. Fulvic is only 50 years. I acually use some thing called glyceric acid found in blue green algae or spirulina which is wonderfull for human health and plants. I mix it in the soil. The algae dies with out light but leaves behind some goodies. Great for lock ups mixed in the fertilizer. If you drink like a quarter cup of the algae in water you will not believe how it cleans out your intestines. It is high in carotines and is the highest yeilding protien crop per acre. Soy is ten times that of cattle and spirulina is ten times that of soy. And your bodies can absorb tons of this protein. Drink alot and youll find out. It acually increases brain chemicals such as the 11 serotonins and tryptophins which in the plant world make the auxins. Its the same in the animal world but for some reason they are not called auxins. In the human body the highest consentration of this auxin like substance is found in the liver which regenerates through out your life and is second to the lungs which regenerate every seven years. The same chemical is found in reptiles such as frogs and is so elevated that they can regenerate a leg with out the trace of a scar. When we are born the levels are the highest and they decrease with age as all the indolye derivites do found in the brain. A human baby up to the age of six can accually regenerate a lost finger tip do to the elevated level in the body.

One love
c

thanks karma. i love u!

i just finished flushing, and making sure water can get out the bottom.

i moved the plant under CFLs for now, until the top of the soil and leaves are dry. then i will place them back under the MH. I have a fan on her now trying to dry her out.

i'll post pics in 24 hours or so, hopefully she starts coming back.

thanks again.

I love you too, she will be fine

One love
c

O the Grim Reaper just reminded me to tell you that watering with a garden sprayer will help keep the top wetter then the bottom and prevent nutes running down the side of the pots.

One love
c

O ya steroid saponins found in yucca root help with stress too

http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=HOGB400

One love
c

damn you are like a witchdoctor! i really appreciate you taking the time to drop knowledge on me. :)

And I appreciate you being a grower. You want to know what the ancient wichen symbols come from?

One love
c

she looks much better already. i expect to see her perky tomorrow at the rate she is recovering.

thanks again

I just put them on 12/12. Try to get pics up tomorrow, as my camera is acting up.

They have really started growing like crazy! I am actually worried if I will have enough room in there.

The one that was "sick" really bounced back, and looks healthy again.

What do I look for to know that they have successfully gone into the flowering cycle?

karmaxul you basically answered my problem in my thread.. i'm gonna quote this..