balcony on the equater, getting started

[iksrazal]

From the advice in this thread I decided to use one big (about 5 gallon) planter per plant.

I'm planning on starting them out in standard 12 ounce plastic cups, inside, for about 2 weeks. The seeds I ordered are feminized so I'm hoping there won't be any males (or hermies). AFAIK I need to start them out with 18 hours of light per day, but since I have year round 12/12 , I'll need at least 6 hours of artificial lite. I'm still trying to figure out if normal incandescent house lites would work - maybe 100 watt bulbs?

During the vegetation stage on my balcony, I'm thinking I'll also need to add some artificial lite so I can control when they start to flower. I do have a lite built into the roof of the balcony that's right over where the plants will be - nothing special so I wonder if that will be enough.

[energyefficient]

if you have room a 4 or 6 lamp T5 fixture would be more than enough.

[GetThisOrDie]

The regular house bulbs will work but put out a whole lot of heat. CFLs are another option that put out much less heat and are very cheap.

[iksrazal]

Hi all,

Well I've made some progress, hit a few bumps in the road and I need some advice on stuff I can't figure out googling.

I had my first 3 plants die within 2 weeks due to I believe insufficient light - it had all the symptoms. My next three are doing much better after two weeks, now using 1400w 6500K CFL's during the nite hours, moving them in the morning to be on the inside of some of the balconies sliding glass doors. Getting around 18-20 hours total of lite.

One decision I made was to use slightly bigger starter planters, I'd say about 36 fluid ounces. The idea is that way I'll only have to transplant once, after 5 weeks of veg, and more two weeks of 12 / 12 for 7 weeks total.

Two things I need help on:

1) One of my plants has different soil. I found a new, better informed plant place and I showed them both types of soil I bought somewhere else. Turns out the soil I´m using for one plant is for humidity control of some sort - feels dusty - and doesn't have any starter nutrients. I got some organic soil, looks good. Should I try transplanting it into the better soil now or should I wait?

2) I'm in Brazil and basically my options are very limited on most things, including fertilizer. I got what I could get, 10-10-10 for veg and 4-14-8 for flowering. It came in like a small rock form though, and when I asked how to dilute it, I was told to put it in the soil. Told me a tablespoon for a 5 gallon size container is about right. I was planing on diluting it and using it on every other watering. Not sure what to do now, any advice?

[iksrazal]

Rephrasing #2 to be clearer:

2) I'm in Brazil and basically my options are very limited on most things, including fertilizer. I got what I could get, 10-10-10 for veg and 4-14-8 for flowering. It came in like a small rock form though, and when I asked how to dilute it, I was told to put it directly in the soil, no dilution needed. Told me a tablespoon for a 5 gallon size planter is about right, need less obviously for my 36oz starter planters. I was planing on diluting it and using it on every other watering, but now I have no idea of what ratio to dilute. Not sure what to do now, any advice?

[iksrazal]

So at this point my plants have some yellow leaves on the bottom. I'm using about a teaspoon of 10-10-10 pebbles in a gallon of water, letting it sit for a day before using. The symptoms from googling tells me it could be too much or too little nitrogen, I'm just not sure. Here's a pic of a super lemon haze plant at 6 weeks, still in vegetation and 8 inches tall. I've got the plants under CFL's for around 8 hours a day, moving the plants to the balcony windows for about 10 hours, having about 18 hours of light total. Plan on moving this plant out to the balcony and 12/12 in 3 weeks. Thoughts?