1st grow ever, experimenting.

Okay so here it is. I am planning on using my closet, which is 4' 6" x 2' 1", Miracle grow moisture control, and CFL lights, and bagseeds I have collected. I only want to grow 1, maybe 2 plants. I was germinating the seeds, and they took to it a lot faster than I suspected. I dont have enough extension cord to reach the closet, and I havent been able to get the right fixture for the CFL yet, so I had to improvise. Remember this is actually an experiment in how well I can grow using minimal resources. Thus, for the time being I am calling this Operation GhettoGrow. I made a growbox out of cardboard boxes and duct tape, and I am using a extra table lamp suspended upside down in it until I can get another cord to set the thing up proper in the closet.

The thing is, yesterday I had one seedling doing very well, and the other was about level with the soil. But today the one that was smaller is now bigger, and the other one has sorta turned yellow at the tip with a brownish colered spot at the very tip. its only the second day of being in soil, so niether have leaves yet. The seed casing hasnt even fallen off of them. I dunno if you can really see anything from the pics, but here they are anyway. The 4th pic is of the yellowing seedling, the 5th is of the one that is doing better than yesterday.

I started germinating on the 2nd, I didnt expect it to be this far along yet. BTW, this is just a very temporary setup.

Have you used any nutrients for this stage ?

No extra, but the miracle gro comes with some already in it. 0.21 nitrogen, 0.07 phosphate and 0.14 potash. the rest is made up of peat, perlite, and coconut fiber mainly, I believe anyway. its just the tip of the seedling that has any color loss, other than that its green and healthy looking.

oh yeah, its all supposed to be slow release too

brock, your avatar is gay as fuck...

My avatar is a picture of the character Brock Samson. From the television show Venture Bros. There is nothing gay about Brock Samson. He'll kill you with a roll of quarters. Dont ask me how, but he'll figure it out.

Brock Samson is cool - don't let anyone tell you different.

One suggestion I have is not to use MG soil for seedlings. I find it is too hot for them. Good old Promix is my favorite, but any will do that has no nutrients added. Hope this helps and good luck!

TGT

Yeah, I know not to use any nutes during the first few weeks, but it looks like the one I was worrying about is pulling out of it. I hope these come out well, but I am just experimenting to see how well I can do on as little as possible. Thats why I went with the MG. It was 3 bucks and had nutes in it already. So far i have spent something like $7 altogether. And I dont expect to spend much more for a few weeks at least. I plan on taking pictures every day, so I will keep you all updated.

how many cfls do you have all together man? you should invest in some flouro lighting as well as cfls for veg and get a mh or hps for flowering... good luck with your grow man

a 'first grow' is no time to be 'experimenting' ... you want to READ this Forum thoroughly, and follow the instructions to the letter ... find a growers report in here that has photos of their grow, so you know you're getting experienced advice ... (there are a few non-growers in here that are well-meaning, but inexperienced, or just plain WRONG) ... good luck ... :smokin:

Right now I am only using 1 CFL. I might add more, but we'll see. As for the guides, I have read so many guides that they all seem to be the same to me. I know exactly what to do and how to do it, I just want to see what I CAN do, given a minimal amount of supplies. I come from a long line of gardeners, and landscapers. I want a real challenge. Growing MJ inside, with the bare minimum basics. I dont expect it to be real potent or anything. It was bagseeds from stuff that was just decent.

anywho new pics:

wow...those are the wrong pics. These are the ones I wanted

Dude lookin good so far. Make a reflector for the light. It's like getting free light, b/c otherwise it would mostly hit the ceiling. peace, venture bros rocks.

looks like a bit of stretching, bust open that lamp and hang the cord from something, get it about 1" from your plants or until it doesnt burn the back of your hand. im a nongrower, but this is what any grower would tell you

your gonna need some more light in theyre man 1 cfl isnt gonna cut it.. i would be aiming at at least 4 cfls and a flouro light on top of them..

Okay, so an update. I am currently adding reflective material to the inside of the box. I want to get as much as I can out of this one light. Here are some pics. How do they look to you guys? Its day 6 in the soil. I started germing them on the 2nd. The little guys seed husk stuck togeter and stunted its growth the first few days, so its a bit quite a bit smaller. I dont know how big they are supposed to be at this stage, so I am afraid they're stretching too much. What do you guys think? I would add more lights and actually move them into the closet, but right after I started these I lost my job, so no funds for any new material yet. And I dont wanna ditch them. Anyway, here are the pics.

Nobody has an answer?

Is it normal to be that tall and have such a small stem? im just afraid its going to end up too weak.

how close is your light to your plants? They look a little stretched, that's why I asked. With CFLs, get them as close as possible without burning your plants. For instance, I reccomend you check out Garden Knowns "What should a healthy 2 week old plan look like?" or something along the lines of that. He grew in Miracle Grow, with only CFLs ,and grew an amazing plant.

By the way, how many watts is your CFL? At Wal-Mart, you can get a 3 pack of 100 watt CFLs for $7.

its only a 60 watt cfl. I know thats way too small, and I plan on getting better ones asap. But thats all wally world had at the time. I am probably gonna get some new ones from http://www.1000bulbs.com, they seem to have pretty good prices on bulbs, plus they actually have all the info on each bulb. Hopefully tomorrow I can get something better. I busted open the lamp I was using s I could get them closer. Turns out, the light was almost 2 1/2" away from them. Now its about a half to three-quarter inches away. Hopefully that will help slow the stretching. I know I am totally going opposite of all the rules, but its what I can afford at the moment.

Yeah, 1000bulbs.com does have a good selection of CFLs. If you are only going to use one CFL, I'd reccomend getting the 200 watt one. It's actually 200 watts, not just equal to 200 watts, like some CFLs advertise what they are equal to, not what they actually are.

You're last update, (and the included pics), you had said you did not know what they should look like, at 6 days. Well, other than being stretched, it looks pretty healthy, although I can't really tell, from the picture quality, how far along your second set of leaves is, if they are even there. They should be a little larger, but then again, you're only using a 60 watt CFL, so that could be it.

Could you post some more pictures?

This is Garden Knowm's thread: http://boards.cannabis.com/showthrea...t=garden+knowm

To get you to click on the link, I'll give you a rundown on what happened, it will make you want to see pictures and learn what to do.:

He grew 3 plants, (from start to finish) with only 8 CFLs (150 watt output, 42 watts used). His soil was miracle grow, and he didn't feed the plants anything else (other than water). He didn't pH the water to the correct pH, in fact, for the majority of the grow, he used pH 8 water, when the ideal pH is around 6-7.

The purpose of the grow, was to show beginers how easy it is, and also as an experiment for his own enjoyment. It shows that one can have a successful grow using only CFLs, and even Miracle Grow.

I learned alot from that thread, as have alot of people. It's truly an inspiration, so you should check it out...

Peace,
horror business :rasta:

BTW, what is your plants light cycle?

Thanks for the link. I have them on 24/7 light cycle right now, and I plan on switching it to 12/12 cycle when they get to be about 8\" - 12\"

I\'ll have more pictures later on today.

okay here they are at one week. The big one is leaning because it was further from the light, so I have the light right over it to get it to go up straight.

Aside from being stretched, (which it seems you have fixed the problem by lowering the light) they look pretty good. The first picture, your plant looks pretty good for one week only under one CFL. Pretty soon your plant will explode and start growing pretty fast. Right now, your plants are just developing their roots.

Once they develope their 5th node, I'd transplant them into at least a 1 gallon pot. Pick up some Shultz Rooting Hormone. This will come in handy for two things:

Transplanting and Cloning. We'll get into cloning some other time, but to transplant, fill up the new bucket with fresh soil and keep filling it up, until you can set your cup down in there, and the top of the cup will be level with the top of the soil. Then, fill in the sides, etc... Now, in the new pot, you will have a perfect shaped "hole" for transplanting.

When it's time to transplant, remove the cup, and you will see the hole in the new pot. Spray the inside of the hole with water (from a spray bottle, etc...) so that it is moist, but not moist enough to destroy the hole. Dust some rooting hormone on the inside of the hole.

Now, here's the part that is kind of tricky... getting your plant out of the cup, without disturbing the roots, and with the soil staying in the shape of the pepsi cup... Water until it drains out of the holes that I assume you poked at the bottom of your pepsi cup. Pack the soil down, around your plants stem, and hold your cup upside down, and hit your hand on the bottom of the cup, and await for it to come out of the cup. It's pretty fragile. You should do this with the least amount of light as well, because roots don't like being exposed to light. Put your plant in the perfectly formed hole in the larger pot, and pack all the soil around it, just so it's in there firmly. Water the whole pot. The rooting hormone that you dusted, will minimize transplant shock, and encourage the roots to grow into the new soil.

Day 8 useless update:

third set of leaves is popping up. I dont know if you can see it. the gimp is starting to do very well, but not nearly as well as biggy.

Okay, so I may have a problem. The big ones leaves are kinda curling. You'll see in the pics. I dont know what could be causing it. Any ideas? The little one is looking pretty healthy.