Back on Track

Back on Track.. Of course we all heard the sad news that I had to kill my seedling, well I got 5 seeds cracked, 1 beginnin to sprout.. I got 5 styrofoam cups wit soil ready for them.. I'm gettin the supplies together tomorrow, officially, as i had them scattered from one friend's crib to another, i'll be officially constructing my stealth grow bin, just in time for these babies to hatch!

good luck man! yea its definetly worth getting prepared now before you have to rush.

Glad to here you were not discouraged. I would get a mother so you dont have to worry about seeds of that variety any more. Best of luck to you and yours.
One love
c

I should be getting some female clones on the way anyhow!! This grow is gonna be experimental..

i'ma try the blueberry idea.. i'ma put blue berries in the soil, lil blueberry juice in the water when i water it (just a little bit.. not gonna o'd..) might even grow a blueberry plant next them..

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But back to the grow at hand.. I checked today and all 5 seeds showed root.. So I got 5 styrofoam cups and filled them with soil, and put the seeds on in!

I made my grow bin as well..

18in x 16in x 25in

with 2 15w CFL tubes (full spectrum) aligned on an angle, each to a different side so it looks like a X from a profile's view.. they're aligned on the outer area, not in the middle.. I placed the cups in there in a neat lign..

I took a couple sheets of cardboard to lay across the top of the bin, and put 2 holes in them for 2 25wCFL fullspectrum bulbs..

I figured I would get an electric blanket to layer the floor, and generate heat... however...

I realized that the heat from the bulbs were good enough, causin the cups' water to evaporate from the soil and into the area of the bin... thus creating a tropical climate warming the plant's environment :)

so at this point, i'm going cover the cups with plastic wrap to retain the water from the soil... this way i wont have to keep watering..

but MY question is the (2)15w + (2) 25w good for 5 sprouts? seedlings??
How far in till I have to be concerned with upping the wattage??

So its day 2 of 18/6, after putting the seeds into soil.. I hadn't seen anything.. so wat i did was this...

1) i worked on the bin, set up a metal hanger-wire frame ballast to support the bulbs, they were folding the cardboard, and resting on the cups, practically... so that issue is of no concern anymore..

Experiment #1
3 cups i ran a copper wire through the soil, leading to one end of a battery.. the other end ran a wire to an aluminum foil which is placed above the soil.. I'm trying to use static electricity to help power the plant.. Someone did something pretty similar to this with solar panels and grew some illness... So i'm trying that idea out..

As well I dug through the soil to check the status on the seeds, turned out that each time i watered or so, the seeds sank further into the soil.. but I found them and the cotyledons are forming, and the stem is forming as well!

so I gave them a little surface and covered the cup with plastic wrap to keep the moisture.. the 3 plants with the static have the plastic wraps.. the other 2 dont.. Those are the control.

Finally got some pics of my grow.. mid-Day 2, 18/6 80w total.. styrfoam cup wit soil, and static therapy.. tell me wat yall think..

whoops.. here they are..

Pic 1 - the primary set up..
Pic 2 - generic ballast (serves its purpose)
Pic 3 - primary set up right before i close
Pic 4 - control plant 1
pic 5 - experimental plant 3

any takers?? yea? no?

When you transplant try getting promix or farfred (1800peatmoss) or mix 80% peat in the soil.

One love
c

not going to transplant.. i'm going to go hydro.. cutting the bottom of the cups off and letting the roots dangle onto a net and spray them out..

the two 15w fl tubes i got dish out 610 lumens.. 1220 lumens right there, the two full spectrum 25w bulbs I got dish out 1750 lumens.. Thats a total of 4720 lumens given off in my bin at a total of 80w, for 4 plants.. however I also hear that reading the lumens given off by a cfl is invalid and inaccurate info.. wats the deal with it?? I'm lookin into buyin a few HID MHs... I wanna sspeed up the growth and make sure i get some good stuff.. ideas? questions? comments?

and another question.. I have liquid nutrients for root stimulation.. I'm on day 5.. would putting a little bit of this be dangerous? my babies are on a good start, i wanna make sure they start as strong as possible.. I was thinkin of adding a little bit, and waiting til day 14 to sweep through with my veg nutes, or a combination of both..

Pics from Day 4..


1st pic is overview.. 5th plan hasn't come up, idk.. i'm gettin another to take its place..

2nd pic is experimental plant 1.. 1st one, closest to the camera in the 1st pic.. it's got that rigid fold at the middle of the stem because the aluminum foil was touching it, baby girl started to gro around it.. u can also see it start to arch, its in a more awkward location than the others.. =\

3rd pic is experimental plant 2..

4th pic is control plant 1.. notice the size, compared to a duchmaster..

good? bad? questions? comments? ideas??

any answers on the previous questions??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sheist

..a few HID MHs... I wanna sspeed up the growth and make sure i get some good stuff.. ideas? questions? comments?

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First I'd like to say the grow's going great, bro. And you have enough lumens right now to keep the plants going for at least a month in veg, albeit a slow one [ until you decide to up the power with a HID ]. Now, you may be hearing / reading a lot of great shit about MH, but I personally prefer HPS for the fact it's a bit more efficient, lumens per watt wise. People will say, "Well, the MH have better CRI and PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) Watts." You can make up for the 2100k, 21 CRI HPS power with a couple, maybe even just one, 10.0 UVB Reptisun CFL. They're designed to give out good, healthy amounts of radiation to your reptile pets; the bulbs usually emit somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% UVB radiation and 30% UVA radiation. What will they do for your plants? In relatively recent tests, UVB radiation was found to increase the quality of the THC in many cannabis strains. When used in unison with a HPS, it'll produce tight buds that you'd expect from the HPS light coupled with the quality of bud you'd expect from an MH without needing both an HPS and MH light.

Yeah, I wanna check out a few 75w HPS floodlights.. and a few CFL flood lights.. I'm gettin rid of 2-3, i'ma see what i can do with my two :) I also read about that, but i haven't found enough info for more detail.. where can i get a uvb cfl?

with the deal i'm gettin for the HID MHs, I'm gettin 6 50w for 35.. its more cost effecient.. but I'm gonna be lookin into the flood lamps..

If I get the 65w CFL floods, I'll have 18,300 lumens at 210w..

say hello to the new recriuts...

A second set of true leaves are beginning to grow in at this point, its day 5. I rearranged some of the lighting in the bin, got the bulbs closer and made it easier for me to manage the plants. I'm going to be getting some new bulbs soon, can't wait to show u guys, I wanna keep it a secret..

I also pissed on them.. I did readin on it, and I kno you guys shun the idea of pissin on a plant.. But I didn't necessarily do that, to be honest. I dilluted it to 2/3 parts water. Check this out:

"Urine has applications in gardening and agriculture as a fertiliser. Gardeners often recommend a dilution of 10-15 parts water to one of urine for application to pot plants and flower beds during the growing season; pure urine can chemically burn the roots of some species. Urine typically contains more than 50% of the nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium content of whole sewage, and is widely considered as good as or better than commercially-available chemical fertilisers or stabilised sludge from sewage plants. Urine is also used in composting to increase the nitrogen content of the mulch, accelerating the composting process and increasing its final nutrient values."

so I gave a little bit of increments, just to get my babies started on the way.. I gotta pick up my nutes, I plan to start them day 7..
The 2 seed-shooters are comin along just fine, already have reached a quarter inch length.. I'm going to plant them tomorrow, I got the soil warmin up for them..

Ok now, I set up a timer, I'm testing to see if it works.. Its also day 7, so I put my babies on a slight nutrient schedule, just something to get them goin.. I'm not putting alot, because I kno they're still babies.. The 2nd set of tru eaves are coming out..

20 fl oz nutrient mix:

.19 fl oz 3% Peroxide
1 drop of Liquid Earth Vigor
1 drop of Liquid Earth Organic Activator
4 fl oz Dilated Urine
16 fl oz distilled water with added electrolytes
-- I'll also be adding mineral water when I get it.


I also added a 65w Full-Spectrum Neonydium Light to the mix. That should boost things a little.

I noticed Control plant 1 started turning a little pale, yellow, and the leave started to curl.. I'm to assume that I overwatered, Not supposed to be watering every other day under CFL lighting.. So I cut the bottom off the styrofoam cup and am about to chnge my settup.. Turns out the roots reached the bottom of the cup..

I'll be setting up a homemade soil-net system, so i can let my roots dangle (and i can spray them)

Experimental plant 2, the shortest one, is beginning to curl at the tip of the leaf.. does anyone know why this is happening? Both plant 2 and control plant 1 (the above post) are beginning to curl.. I'm assuming the yellowish tint in control 1 is because of overwatering (not touchin the water for a while)..

I added aluminum foil to the top of the grow bin to improve illumination.. can anyone be of help?:confused:

dose som one wantto tell me how 2 hangers r a ballast id liek more info o n this

A ballast is something the provides stability. In this case, Its' providing stability and distance regulation for my lights.. In terms of a flourescent-hps, lighting system, ballasts are used for starting and regulating fluorescent and discharge lamps. Its not jsut the hangers.. The carboard frame arond the lights are the other part to it.. the hangers provide a frame structure..

I no longer use this though, as I have leared to place the cardboard frame, wedging it nicely behind one of the fl tubes.. The bulbs rest right above the tubes, horizontally above the plants at appx 4in"

I found this quote in Mister Source's thread, inside Cabinet Growing..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by karmaxul

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.

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This explains the situation that my plants were in, as they started to curl and lose the green freshness it had before.. What I did as a counter measure was cut off the bottoms of the cups and pushed into the center of the soil.. what it does is create an imploding archin the cup, and gravity will cause the water to pull down along the implode.. i put a screen under the cups to catch any falling soil.. the roots will hang between the screen holes (they're big enough, deginitely) and hold up on a nother screen bowl I have prepared (this way I wont over water, I'll be tending to the roots daily)

so yeah, i rearranged the bin, one of the plants stopped curling.. i just gotta wait it out, i'm also seeing tan/cream spots on the leaves-- does anyone kno wat this is caused by? I'm to assume its another symptom of the overwaterin.. I added more soil to the cups, covering up more of the stem, it should turn to become part of the root structure.. One of the seeds are comin out of the soil.. pretty much standing up, I see 2 leaves as well, but the seed's shell is still on the plant lol.. the other one still has to come up..

Its Day 13, one of my plants, which was barely affected by the nute poisonint, grew to its 3rd node, coming on its 4th! The other plants are coming out of shock and are back on schedule, growing their nodes quickly I might say.. The new seeds dug in, one sprouted, has two leaves workin on its 2nd node.. the other one hasn't moved since.. so i'm scrappin it, got 2 more on the way instead.. Pics will come soon..

Your screen set up will the roots stay with the screen forever or will you be able to remove them with out damaging them

Day 14, I added 2 babies.. I planted them in the same pot.. I ALREADY KNO! I'm just doin a lil experiment.. And I was lazy n didn't have enough space for 2, so I compensated.. I dont mind..

And the roots will be fine.. the holes for the screens are big enough for a lot of them.. there will be another screen instealled later under to catch the roots from touchnig the bottom, where the waste is..

sheist -- the spotting could be localized burning from splashing nute-laden water on the leaves. I get that occasionally if I water too enthusiastically. Got some now in fact. It's unsightly, but generally harmless to the plant. If it's really ugly, trim out the affected leaves.

Pics from Day 10.. titles are in the filenames..

Pics of today, Day 16 for the soldiers, Day 8 for New Breed 1.. Check out the new shoots coming out from the nodes of the 1st plant, 2nd to last pic.. Are those the preflowers?? Are they coming early?? What should I be expecting?

P.s. Here's another view of Exp-3 from the side, and a look on the twins.. They're on Day 2 today.. What do you guys think??? check out each plant..