Oh great, apparently we're growing now!

[Buggy]

Hi all! I'm a total newbie at this whole thing. And, I'm not even going to be using! We're looking into the details of getting my husband a medical use licence in our state, and while on vacation out of state he tried pot to see if it worked for his pain. It was GREAT. His pain is usually 8/9/10 but the pot brought it to nearly NOTHING! WOOT! Nothing we've tried from the pharmacy worked even a third as well! BTW, he's had pain from scoliosis and then a spinal fusion surgery 20 years ago, but 18 months ago he sneezed and threw out his back. It's been getting worse and worse and worse and worse ever since. We still have about 12K in medical debts to pay while the insurance has paid close to 1/2 MILLION for everything we've been doing to try to help him plus the ER visits for falling down the stairs and various treatments and scans that have helped nearly none...

So we got a 1/4 ounce from a relative's connection while we were gone... and apparently we got 28 seeds in it.

Yes, you read that right. TWENTY. EIGHT. SEEDS. And this isn't crap weed, it's good quality (not *best*, but pretty darn good according to my husband who used a LOT 20 years ago! He only has had better a COUPLE times, and he smoked pot a TON over 10 years all throughout western NY and surrounding areas). He's never grown before either, so we're just figuring this out.

He "borrowed" one of my nursery flats I use in springtime, and put in a bunch of jiffy 7 seed starters. *sigh* We now have 24 seedlings (would have been 25, but one's stem snapped cleanly in half when he dropped the flat while bringing it out to show me! Oops). We potted them up since a few had the taproot already showing through the mesh. They are now in 3" jiffy squares (four in 4" plastic pots as I only had 20 3" pots). Nearly all have their first set of true leaves (only 2 or 3 don't), and 2 are showing a second set of trues about to grow! They are about 1 3/4" at most right now, mostly because they were in the dark until this afternoon, but a few hours of evening light (not direct) allowed them to go from lime green to a nice medium green that should darken tomorrow I'd think. And of course, he didn't tell me until a few hours ago about this or they'd have had good growing light from the START. (you should see my GARDEN right now! )

So... They are currently out in our greenhouse/shed (LOCKED) right at the windows so they'll have light during the day. Soon I'll have it set up in our basement for them to be under a fluorecent 4' fixture (sometime tomorrow or Saturday) for 18-24 hours/day. Next payday (5 days away) we'll get the lights we need to set up the plants in our closet.

I'll get pics in the morning. From the looks of things, some are at least 3-4 days after cracking shell and a couple are only within a day.

Guessing that these are going to be mostly male from the stress of being DROPPED, no light, and repotting (though with the J7s it may not be an issue)... How soon should we set them at 12/12 to check gender on maybe half of them? Or more, as we don't have a TON of space to get these to "full" size. I've read you can switch any time but I'm thinking after we pinch the 4th node, let them have another 3-4 leaf nodes before the switch. Thoughts?

If we switch light for gender, how long does it take to usually show the sex, and how bad is that stress to check gender then put back into veg state? How likely is that to make any females herm out? If we did the light switch in, say, 3-4 weeks, how big would these plants likely get on average (for average street-sold pot strains, whatever that means)? How long do you suggest we let them grow before we make them flower? How likely is this an auto type? How could we tell if it's auto or not?

Also, how many CFLs do you think we'll need, as well as how much space???? :wtf: Serriously, I NEVER thought I'd have ANYWHERE near this number of plants to deal with of this sort. I jokingly told my husband that I could just claim it's another of my flowering plants I can put in my garden... I LOVE flowers.... (They'd blend quite well in with the dahlias until they start their flowering phase!)

Now to figure out how to get 24 plants inside my closet... *sigh* I'll also have to get some good 6" or 8" pots now... either that or plant all my rosebushes already, even though I didn't want to do that until next spring since they are so young and thin still. At least I'd have enough large pots for about 14 plants in our closet then (and I MAY be able to fit them well in there... maybe. It's 2.5' deep but at least 10' long if I want to use ALL that space...)

Sorry for rambling, but it's a start to this odd journey. At least we have a decent chance to help my hubby be out of pain! :dance:

(Note: next time, dear husband, we shall only plant a FEW at a time, k? Heck, even 10 are managible! But 28 seeds at once on your FIRST TRY???? REALLY????)


Note to self - Start half in 3" jiffies and half in 7s next time to compare. Heck, use 10 in each to compare how well they do to get to the point of needing to be upped to 6/7/8" pots to see if there is a difference. Also, try making a mixture for them for seedlings and up (hum/verm and hum/verm/comp/man mixes

Another note to self - find correct separate NPK ingredients FINALLY to make the mixes we need for the specific plants. BETTER GROWTH ON ALL PLANTS THIS WAY, DUMMY.

Buggy Reviewed by Buggy on 07-26-2013. Oh great, apparently we're growing now! Hi all! I'm a total newbie at this whole thing. And, I'm not even going to be using! We're looking into the details of getting my husband a medical use licence in our state, and while on vacation out of state he tried pot to see if it worked for his pain. It was GREAT. His pain is usually 8/9/10 but the pot brought it to nearly NOTHING! WOOT! Nothing we've tried from the pharmacy worked even a third as well! :D BTW, he's had pain from scoliosis and then a spinal fusion surgery 20 years ago, but Rating: 5

[Shovelhandle]

welcome, Buggy
I like to 'pop' lots of seed and pick the best to grow. Of course when I buy seed from the vendors I really can't afford that, only with 'free' seeds.
You can grow 16 or more plants in a square meter space or you can just grow a half dozen. This depends on the pot size and how long you're going to veg them. Basically, you'll want to fill the footprint with pots. I use 3 gallon bags for sea of green and 5 gallon pails for larger plants. You can use larger or smaller.
A 10 foot x 2.5 foot space will require a lot of lighting and ventilation. Use reflective panels or tent to corral the light.

Check out some grow logs that feature similar methods to yours. here's one of my recent grows. And another

Good luck~

[Esteban1]

You are asking a bunch of ?'s that are relevant but most can wait at this point. Take your time to do it correctly. If there is limited space just do 12-20 seedlings this way all will come to fruition. Sounds like ya also understand plant structure & growth so it should be fairly simple. Stick with the basics visa vie proper soil mix, lighting & nutrients. You do have time with nutes so get the soil/lighting correct & yea 24/7 lights would works just fine! Hope ur hubby feels better. Peace


:thumbsup:

[Buggy]

Update.

So, two plants so far barely growing - unsure why, but I bet while moving them the seed casings might have loosened so the plant didn't have to struggle to grow. One of the two for sure has baby leaves just starting to grow at least, while the other has the nodes for them but hasn't done anything. One other babe had a bruised stem, so I had to use rooting powder yesterday to try saving it and mounded dirt around the stem nearly up to the leaves. It's now doing much better and seems perky - I think it will live. If we lose it, not a huge deal as we have SO MANY.

About 3/4 have their second set of true leaves already, and a few have visible stem above the cotyledons... The two smallest just barely have their first leaves, but all are getting nice a big!

My husband also thinks they are getting a smell to them already. Great, just great... So we'll have to get some GOOD carbon filters for the house!

Luckily, I "get" plants fairly well. I also do have a variety of fertilizers and fert components already, so I may be able to skip getting special ones. Happy plants for now. Can hardly wait to see how well they start springing up.

Looking for your opinions on this: Considering how MANY plants we have, how long would you let them veg before moving them to 12/12 lighting? We would like to have about twice as much as my hubby needs as supply between the end of this grow and the end of the next - 5-6 months?. So guessing/estimating we have 6 girls (considering the stress they've had plus they are just plain bag seed plants), how big would they need to each be to give 1/2 ounce plus each? And would you suggest making them show gender then return to veg state so we can weed out the boys, or leave as is? With what I've read, you can set them to flower from day 1... But we do want a decent crop too!

Am I correct in my research that the plants will double or more in height during "flower" stage?

Oh, and since we're gonna pinch them likely at node 3 or 4, do you consider with these the 3rd true leaves to be 3, or the 2nd set of true leaves to be 3? Thanks! (I do this with other plants normally in my garden yearly, too)

Shovel, why do you aerate your "teas"? How does that effect the "brew" for the plants? Asking especially since I have a few plants I have to give teas to in my reg garden, and I'm wondering the difference. I think I've learned a lot looking through everything here, really. Looking forward to the next few weeks!

Pics from 4 days ago in the evening - 3.5 days before the next set.
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To look how much the babies have grown!
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Showing some of how they are developing in this stage
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Runt with the first set of leaves growing. Cracked seed ~7/25?
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The poor babe that cracked it's stem (thanks to Hubby dropping it during transplant we think). Was pretty bad yesterday, but looks happy now. Shows the mounding of dirt around the stem to help it re-root with the rooting powder.
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Fingers crossed for low boy numbers. :vader1:

[Shovelhandle]

no need for carbon filters yet. try some Glade plugin air fresheners or equal. some smell shitty so don't buy a bunch until you find a flavor you like.

[Buggy]

Today is the day for lights! Still deciding between two choices. Also will need to get a sheet of drywall to put up the closet to divide the space in half. Whole thing is about 17' from one side to the other with two sets of doors and about 4' in the middle (approximate numbers - have not measured). About 2.5' or so deep, and 10' high. As we WANT to be able to use the closet as a closet too, we'll be using half to grow and ~half for normal closet use. Our tarantulas live in the closet as well and I doubt they'd like the high light conditions!

Pics up later. All but three are growing beautifully. The snapped-stem baby is still recovering nicely. I think once it's rerooted properly it will explode like the others are. The two that had their casings taken off (one for sure by hubby, one likely when dug out of the dirt since it was too far down - confirmed by husband as well) are both struggling. One has baby real leaves that are SLOWLY growing, and the other's cotys are all dried up but have teeny tiny regular leaves. Fairly sure that one will die, but we're hopeful. I'm considering putting in a bit of growth fert in with that one to help it out since the feeder leaves are gone. I'll let you know my results.

Because of not wanting to keep buying from elsewhere longer than we have to (REALLY great price IMO, but still), we're thinking about switching them to 12/12 shortly after the recover from being topped. We'll top them once after they get their 4th set of leaves (we can see the baby set of #3 on some!), and once they are recovered and growing a bit they will be put onto 12/12. For now they are on regular outside light but will be moved to between 18/6 and 20/4 tonight. Even with the switch, we should have enough medicine from the smaller plants to last until the next harvest.

[Buggy]

Update. It's been awhile, but they are all looking GREAT. Down to 19 for whatever reason (weak stems we think), and one of the minis is still with us. It even is growing another set of leaves!!! :wtf: The 19 don't include the runt as it would NOT be growing in the same rate as the others. S/he will be placed outside soon for the rest of the local growing season to see what happens I think.

All others have started on their 4th sets of leaves, so all were topped at that level. They are recovering quickly - colas are all showing and working on growth after only a day (some have been 4 days now). Very very VERY happy with the results.

We ended up with tube F.L.s at 6500K but lowish lumens. I'm waiting until my next payday (10 days away) to get other lights and fixtures so as they can have side lighting as well and be switched to 12/12. Using SOG method to start. Because I'm a noob at this plant, I'm just going with miracle grow bloom for the bloom phase for now. If I have time/energy to do so this next weekend, I'll see if we can get a more specific alternative... But for now, it should be a good start. Again, we're only growing for my husband's medical use, no sharing or selling (although I might share on occasion if/when needed for pain or migraine issues of my own! better than the scripts I've had in the past!)... Thus, the number of plants we have even if most are boys, we should still have WAY more than enough for him for quite awhile. And if we still have to get it our usual way for a little bit in between crops, I think we'll be OK.

Only thing is, these kids are really starting to smell. It's not aweful as if someone smoked it inside the house, but it's like someone has an open bag inside a drawer that is cracked open. Instead they are in a closet, but there are cracks around it... *sigh* Just what we need. Stinky baby plants cluttering up my closet space! LOL!

Pics later. They are GORGEOUS! Growing fast and healthy - in miracle grow soil, btw. The started in Jiffy 7s, but transplanted into 3" fiber pots with MG flower potting mix. Will use the same later in the next upgrade (next weekend likely) into either my 1 gal pots currently containing roses outside that need planting as well as the old pots sitting around, OR be put into milk jugs - all of course steralized before hand.

[Buggy]

So it's been awhile.

After about a month of growth, all have been repotted to 2 gallon or 4 gallon pots (5 in the 4g). Happy, healthy, 19 young growing smelly plants.

They stink up my bedroom BADLY. With payday 2 days away, we'll be getting smell under control as well as better ventilation and light control. Currently we're at about 18 hours light per day, but the closet leaks light BADLY. That will be corrected Thursday so we can switch them to 12/12.

Preflowers are showing on ALL plants, and I have great hope that most are females from the looks of it. At least half LOOK like they have the little hairs coming out, although I'm reserved over whether they may be the calyx only - we'll see. As I've not dealt with this type of plant before, I'm trying to be patient. BUT, I see so many with positive "female" signs! Looking at other pics online, I THINK I'll be good with figuring out who's male and female as long as I keep up with it.

Currently 1 plant outside and 18 inside under two 4' FL lamps currently - lights are 6500K in color, this week we'll be switching to 2700 and CFLs. We'll be taking power strips, plugging in 3 adapters in each for plug-to-socket and use high wattage CFLs at 2700 color. As many as I can fit in the area we'll looking at. We'll likely keep the 6500 strip lights for now until we find out who's male so we can cut down on closet space usage. Males will be put outside within the middle of a ton of plants so they can grow a decent amount of pollen (my husband's plan) so we can fert one bud site for seeds to grow later.

I'm quite happy with the results. I was VERY cautious with my first pinching, and I didn't pinch enough for them to split. In the past 2 days I've done a proper pinching (I THINK), and it looks like they will be growing well.

We're still on Miracle Grow soil, which I'm fine with. As a beginner, we're also going to use MG Bloom Booster when it's needed. So far, quite happy with the plants, and the plants seem to be happy with our growth for them.

BTW, They REEK. Whenever we walk into our room, it's like a LARGE bag of good quality smokables was left open! I'm wondering if it's an auto-flower type as well as the preflowers are growing. I do know we had a couple days with lower light levels (one of our light's ballast broke so we needed to replace, plus light was on for about 15 hours only a couple days in a row), so that may have lead to such, but... Dunno. We'll see. 12/12 will be cheaper for sure with lighting, but I'm not too worried.

Buggy

[Buggy]

Hi all. 1 week into flowering now. Still at 19 total, but should be "weeding" out the boys soon. Don't want to take anything out too soon before making SURE they are boys, but...

Still on same lighting - 6500K tube fluros for now, but within a day or two we're switching to 2700K CFLS - plenty to let a blind man see for sure in there! Just wanted to give them a chance for as must regular growth before they started really flowering.

Using Miracle Gro for tomatos at first, but just switched with the water last night to M.G. bloom booster (15/30/15). Next grow (whenever that is) will likely have a different nute mix. Don't know, but I'm happy with what we've got. Lots of great growth!

New batch of fungal gnats just hatched yesterday, so put more neem oil on everything. Overwatered and the bottom 1/2" of the trays they are sitting in (not enough to let the pots soak it up on all but 1 tray) has water with a high load of neem oil concentrate in it to help kill them. Those are full of dead flyers, but still working on the last few (might still be hatching?). Fly strip next, then beer trap... until they are gone.

LOTS of pics in next post. I've numbered the plants to keep track of them so I know who to pull when. I have my suspicions for male/female on a few plants, will be keeping my eye on them daily to check for more signs to make sure.

[Buggy]

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