My First Grow, super noob!

[bijnas]

Okay, I got a lot of my information off of this forum. Funny enough I had the tub idea before I even started looking. This grow is going to be just bagseed for my first try because I dont want to ruin some exspensive shit. I've got some good seeds on the way for my next batch, provided this one goes well. I'm at about day 5, from when I started germinating the seeds. I chose a method which I learned at the cannabis college in amsterdam to germinate. Just put the seeds into a cup of water and look everyday for the little root things. So I did that and put my seeds into some miracle grow dirt with perlite and peat moss in it as well as some kind of fertilizer. It says it will grow plants twice as big.. we'll see. For the first pot I used these thing called peat pots which are supposed to stimulate root growth and can be planted directly into the next pot. As for the light, I've got a GE 50 watt plant light, which I guess is supposed to have more blues. It's in one of those shop light holders from inside the tub. On day five, in one of my pots I've got sprouts that are about 3 to 4 inches high with their first leaves coming in. I was running a light schedule of 20/4 but I think I'm going to be switching it to 24/0 today based on some stuff I read last night. Anybody know when I should switch to the 18/6? I'm going to be doing LST to maximize my yield in my space. Right now I'm just using one tub so that I can have the lights closer, but once they get high I'm going to stack two tub on top of each other and add more lights. I built my scrubber a little while ago and it went well. Instead of using the activated carbon I used Premium Fresh Step Crystals Cat Litter, which supposedly locks in odor up to 5X longer. We'll see.. I still haven't gotten a fan, because I live in a major american city, have no car and home depot and lowes are a little far from me. So I've been getting all my supplies from a small Ace Hardware store. Right now I'm running into a problem with a lot of condensation in my box, I guess due to the lack of ventilation. I was thinking about using the computer fans like I've seen a lot of people doing. But I wasn't really sure where or which I should get, maybe someone has a suggestion? Also, I know there's a tutorial for hooking those fans up to a regular wall plug, but I can't find it so if someone could also shoot me a link to that, it'd be cool.

Well that's about all I've got for now, any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated, since I don't really want to tell anyone else I know about this, you guys are my only real source of advice!

Thanks, Jeff

Oh and here's an explnation of the pictures attached, incase anyone doesnt know.
1. germinating the seeds in a cup of water
2. the kitty litter crystals
3. my cute little seedlings!
4. my box thus far
5. my scrubber, based off of someone else's I found on here

bijnas Reviewed by bijnas on 03-28-2008. My First Grow, super noob! Okay, I got a lot of my information off of this forum. Funny enough I had the tub idea before I even started looking. This grow is going to be just bagseed for my first try because I dont want to ruin some exspensive shit. I've got some good seeds on the way for my next batch, provided this one goes well. I'm at about day 5, from when I started germinating the seeds. I chose a method which I learned at the cannabis college in amsterdam to germinate. Just put the seeds into a cup of water and Rating: 5

[bijnas]

I almost forgot a question I had:
I bought a new bulb today because I heard a lot of people were using these on here. Its a GE Outdoor lucalox 35 High Pressure Sodium with 2250 lumens. It says on the box: Do not use in incandescent light bulb sockets. For use with s76 ballast only.

Is this true? Or can I just replace my plant light with this and be safe?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

Here are some more pictures too.
1. Picture of the box of the bulb
2. a peek into my box
3. the scrubber being built (more of a bitch than I expected)

[michaelpeg]

im definitly no pro but i recommend you keep reading through this site if you want to get a decent yield and check out stinkys grow guide: http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...e-harvest.html

[bijnas]

Thanks, but that link didn't work: 404 error

[jackforest]

Unfortunately, The HPS bulb you've acquired needs a ballast. If you are going with the rubbermaid idea, check out some examples around the forum. I'd recommend using CFL's in the space you have, especially if you don't have a fan to reduce heat. CFL's are cheap and perfect for what your trying to achieve. Get a couple 100watt equivalent bulbs.

Start off by starting over from scratch. You have 5+ seedlings in one small pot (Save yourself a ton of trouble down the road and trash em). Place one germinated seed into a small dixie cup to start. Transplant 3 times. Once from dixie cup to larger 18oz party cup and the third time into it's final resting place - a 3-4 gallon pot.

Your plants will not survive long without proper ventilation so check out how to use a fan for an exhaust and create a passive intake.

I am no expert. But this is a little information I'm tossing over to you before I crash into bed. Maybe enough to get you started... I'd like to see you around and I wish you luck on your first grow.

[bijnas]

Sucks about the HPS since it was $20, glad I didn't splurge on the 75 watt one. The bulb I'm using now is a plant light made by GE, it's got like light blue paint on it or something and its in the shape of a mini floodlight. It doesn't seem to produce a lot of heat. Does the "plant light" moniker really mean anything? Cause I wanted to go with CFLs but they didn't have any "plant light" ones. I plan on making a ventilation system, (hence the scrubber) but the small hardware store by my house didn't have an inline fan. I'm going to a different one tomorrow to see if I can find one. I just let the lid open a bit right now because it was getting so humid in the box that there was a puddle of water sitting on the bottom, so I can see that I need a proper ventilation system sooner than I thought.

I put that many seeds in the pot to wait for the sex and then just keep the biggest, most healthy female. Is there a problem letting them grow in the same pot for awhile and then killing off all but one? Or, is it still earl enough that I could transplant them to different pots? I don't have any more bagseed, and I don't want my first grow to be the good shit I ordered.

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind. Let me know what you think about the seedlings now that you know my plan.

[jackforest]

Cannabis plants need room to grow. It's most likely been accomplished growing 2 in one pot. However, myself and many others would advise not to. If anything, attempt at seperating them. Personally, it seems to me that bagseeds are not very hard to come by and you'd be better off starting over now rather than trying to transplant fragile seedlings.

As for CFL's - check out the sticky in the indoor lighting forum.

[JeffersonBud]

go to a commercial light store with the bulb and see if you can trade for a ballasted 100w which is equal to 1000w of 6500k light used for the veg stage. You might have to pay 40 more bucks, they are $60 at home depot but they are sweet. they also have 85, 65, 45. I think they are all 120 volt.

Get ready to know a shit-load about lights.

[JeffersonBud]

Its a 100 watt CFL ballasted Light

[bijnas]

Alright, well I took the advice and separated the seedlings into their own pots today. I know bagseed isn't usually worth saving, but its not often that the weed I smoke has any seeds. I had 13 between the two pots and picked the six healthiest and very very carefully transplanted them. The wet peat pots made it easy to break up the soil and then I used a fork to pull away some of the dirt. In most cases the root ball was completely intact with dirt still around them, so hopefully they weren't too disturbed.

I also upgraded my lighting system with four more CFLs, 24 watts each 1750 lumens so thats 7000 lumens plus the plant light which is 50 watts, but didn't have a lumen rating on it.

I went to a used computer store and got the most powerful motherboard fan they had and hooked that bitch up to my box and made a passive intake so my plants can breathe. Which consequently solved my humidity problem. So now I'm just going to be hoping my seedlings make it for now.

Thanks for all the tips, but I don't think I'll be able to get the HPS ballast for now. It's hard to find anything like home depot or a light store in the south side of Chicago. I went to a different hardware store though, and almost bought this big 500 watt halogen thing, but I'm soooo glad I didn't. I was all excited about it cause it was only like 10 bucks. Thankfully I pulled up this message board on my iphone and found out real quick. I never thought I would be learning so much about lights. lol, I'm a political science major not a lightchemist or something or the other.

I do have a question, about my peat pots. Has anyone else tried them? It says I can transplant them with the pot and all when I'm ready. True?

Here are some updated pics too!
1. nice little view of the seedlings
2. separated seedlings
3. passive air intake demonstration
4. new light set up
5. the whole shebang