CFL/HPS Bagseed Grow [one more for the books] :)

[stinkyattic]

Expert Gardener. It's pre-fertilized. Yay, fine secletion of quality soils at wally world... :wtf:

[Schmarmpit]

Some pics of the 3 old ladies. Bertha, Kelly, Tonya. All looking lovely if not a little over-watered. The three other seeds I plan on growing are about to crack and will be planted tomorrow. This will put them about 3 weeks behind. I should be able to make up for the difference during veg and flower them all at the same time. LST is the key!

[Schmarmpit]

I began LST on 2 of the 3 plants yesterday, as Bertha may still be too small. I was away from my place for about 4 days and I thought that they were wet enough to last. Not really. Some of the lower leaves dried to death. The plants are really taking off now so that was not a big deal for them. I ordered the Fox Farm trio of nutes and will be feeding these hungry bitches by the end of the week.

I have decided to wait another couple of weeks to start new seeds. I want to get the timing down so that I will be harvesting in equal increments. My next trip will be over Christmas and I will be gone for 5 days. Does anyone have any experience with the water globes? I'm thinking that may be my option.

Pictures will be updated tomorrow.

[Schmarmpit]

They were transplanted into their final pots yesterday. Bertha had a tragic accident and fell to the ground during the process. She'll be fine though, I'm sure of it. LST has already showed signs of internodal bushing after only a couple of days.

I also added the 150W HPS to the mix. When flower time comes in a couple of weeks I'll switch out the 6500K CFL's for 2700K ones. Yes I know, the HPS isn't providing maximum lumens with my setup but it works good enough and I have peace of mind knowing that if the bulb explodes or the light falls, that glass surround will be good fire prevention.

You can see the dry/dead spots on some of the lower leaves from the lack of water over my recent break. Bertha seems to have slowed down now compared to the others. The nutes should be arriving in the next couple of days and then things can really begin.

[Kronika]

Firstime/longtime I guess. Was a member here long ago but my old username doesn't seem to work anymore so I started a new account. Anyway, I'm familiar with your situation - and I've recently had trouble with the MG seed starter soil. Which may be different I guess from your deal because your trouble is with the Walmart stuff, but I've tried this stuff in the past with terrible problems. The MG starter though works good at first, I put emphasis on first, like the first few weeks, but then I've really noticed a problem with it after that, like yellowing and slow growth. Too much peat and ferts I think. Got to get those seedlings out of it, transplant it to something like the organic MG mix with a lot of perlite, and there is a major difference in health and speed of growth. Just my experience though lately.

Also, big difference to get the little ones under an MH light if you can. For some reason I haven't had great success with the HPS's with young plants, but I've always used low-powered street-light type of deals, like 70 or 150w, not the 430w lux lamps with an added blue spectrum. The 23w daylight CFLs do a pretty good job though with young plants.

[Schmarmpit]

Thanks for checking it out Kronika. A couple of things to note: The MG seedling starter is mostly sphagnum peat moss with a fertilizer analysis of .05 - .01 - .05. I mixed in 50% perlite and it seems to be a fine base soil. I could see how plants after the first few weeks would begin to show signs of underfeeding as the MGSS does not supply much at all. I have Fox Farms ferts coming in today and will be using them throughout the rest of the grow.

The trouble I was having with the Walmart soil also crept up in the MGSS. The bags I bought were wet and had mold/fungus growing in them. This eventually led to mushrooms in the soil and stunted growth in the seedlings. Now I make sure to test the weight of the bags before I buy. There is often a noticeable difference between a good, light bag and a bad one.

The seedlings were lit with only 5500-6500K CFL's. Now that they are in vegetative growth, I added the HPS and the growth rate has increased. So far, the 3 plants left are thriving. Hopefully one will be female and I can get a couple ounces out of her.

[Schmarmpit]

Here are some quick updates because pictures are fun. I spotted some alternating nodes and I think I'll put them into 12/12 at the next weekly checkpoint (12-10-08).

They are looking pretty damn bushy now. The growth is so dense that I worry about keeping them too compact. It's hard to get light to the secondary growth without trimming the big fan leaves, but I guess they'll eventually grow beyond that point. Any thoughts on that? :detective1: