First Timer -- I hope they don't die.

[greenbudhawk]

Well I decided I wanted to grow some pot. So I gathered some bagseeds from some different varieties of grass. Some of them very potent, some of them average. The good thing is most of the ones that sprouted have been from the good weed.

I wrapped em in a wet paper towel and stuck em in a little tupperware and put it on my PC Tower. Then I waited a day or so.

The first one sprouted on Feb 9th. Then the next one was the next day, and then a few days later another one germinated.

I'm growing em in a closet. At first all I had was a incandescent, then a few days later I got a 15" flourescent grow-bulb. I think the incandescent made em stretch a little, so I added some dirt to the pots around the long stem.

FYI, I'm growing em in Miracle Grow potting mix. I've heard some bad things, but it's too late. I guess that's what I'm using... I'm just giving em water. Trying to do it properly... not experienced at all with growing plants.

Here's some pics of em at Day 5, so on the 14th, the last one is plant #1 on day 8, you can see how much he stretched:

greenbudhawk Reviewed by greenbudhawk on 03-01-2006. First Timer -- I hope they don't die. Well I decided I wanted to grow some pot. So I gathered some bagseeds from some different varieties of grass. Some of them very potent, some of them average. The good thing is most of the ones that sprouted have been from the good weed. I wrapped em in a wet paper towel and stuck em in a little tupperware and put it on my PC Tower. Then I waited a day or so. The first one sprouted on Feb 9th. Then the next one was the next day, and then a few days later another one germinated. I'm Rating: 5

[stickygreenlightsabr]

I heard another member say that you should be fine as long as you transplant out of Miraxle Grow before 20 days. I think it was Garden Knowm?

They do look stretched and the problem is your light.

You basically have to buy more light. And then when you flower, again more light. You will be wasting your time with the single light you have now.

Can you afford more light? We can show you the way!

[greenbudhawk]

Here's some more pics. This is day 13.

I decided since I might end up with all males, I germinated a few more seeds. You can see the newest member of the family in the back. He's suckin up light from that flourescent tube. I went out and bought some more lights. These are the best I could find. 42W cfls from Wally World. The were $8.50 each. I kept going back everyday and buying more lights. They helped a lot because the plants started growing more.

Pic #2,#3 -- Plant 1, he started out the strongest, but Plant 2 quickly outgrew him.

Pic #3 -- Plant 2, this is a day or so after he started outgrowing the first one. I don't know why he is growing better.

Pic #4 -- This is third plant. He (she hopefully) was a little deformed at first. You can see his deformed leaf in the pic.

[Kush Over]

Well, they have stretched a bit, but nothing too serious. Incandescent bulbs are bad for plants, any kind of plant. They don't produce the correct color temperature or have the lumen output necessary for good growth. You were right for going out and getting a flourescent tube, but it'd be wise to up the ante a bit and get some good CFLs, or better yet, a HID system. You can convert a HPS flood light from Lowes or Home Depot into a good growlight. But if you can only stay with fluorescents try higher kelvin bulbs for vegging [ 4000k - 7000k ] and lower kelvin bulbs for flowering [ 2700k - 3800k ]. Highest -actual- wattage use and lumen output you can find also helps.

Oh, and Miracle-Gro soil isn't bad. In fact, it'd be wise to also invest in a few different fertilizers/nutrients since Miracle-Gro's soil lacks certain trace elements the plant will deplete from the medium before the three months [ if it's the continuous feed ] are up. Contrary to popular belief.

[stickygreenlightsabr]

Haha yes, more light! More and more!

What color are those lights? For veg, you should use some around 6500K, the whiter natural daylight bulbs. You don't want the yellow 2700K bulbs just yet, save those for flowering.

[greenbudhawk]

stickygreenlightsabr -- Hey I just read your post. Yeah, I did go out and get more lights. I ended up with 6 of those 42W CFLs. So I spent about $50 bucks on lights (not couting two fluoro tubes I don't even use...yet).

Here's another update.. I'm putting a bunch of updates on here so you can see how they grew. I started this on the 9th... so they've been growing for a little while now.

Here's pic's from Day 15.

The first pic is #1, the second is #2, and the 3rd is #3. They all seem to have their own growing style.. I planted another seedling too. So know I have 5 altogether.

The last pic shows the current set-up. It's like opening the door to heaven when you open the closet now. I know I should get an MH or HPS (well I know now from reading other posts), but I'm going to try and do it with these cfl type lights.

I'm going to take one more picture right now and post it... (sorry about bombarding this with pics), I just wanted to show you how they have progressed so far.

[Kush Over]

To be honest, after spending all the money I did on CFLs for my first grow years ago, which came to almost a hundred dollars, I regret not going with a HID system from the beginning. Even if that meant converting a 150w HPS flood light into one, it made that much more a difference at harvest. You can still veg with a HPS, too. Just throw in some daylight spectrum to prevent serious stretching[ they claim it's daylight spectrum, but daylight isn't stark fucking white ], maybe a SCRoG net and some LST, you're good for vegging. Maybe it was just my micro grow space, but it also helped with space for the plants, a lot.

[stickygreenlightsabr]

I agree with Kush. If you can afford it you first time, get an HPS.

Technically if you look at the Sun, which I wouldn't recommend, it will look pretty white because the Sun's surface temp is around 5800K.

[greenbudhawk]

Kush Over, stickygreenlightsabr: Thanks for the advice so far.

Here's a pic I just took of all 5 of my babies.

I just transplanted Plant #2, the other two older ones are going to be transplanted soon. I hope I did that right.... I read a little article on how to do it.

Plant 2 is growing good still, but he does have a little yellow and brown tip on two of his leaves. The rest are fine. This happened about 5 days ago and has been fine since.. I don't know what that was.

You can see the other two I planted... they are growing better I think than the first ones did at that age.

I also added a little fan to the closet, cuz it gets a little warm in there.

So this is them at day 19, posing for the camera:

Let me know what you think so far, and any tips you got.
Thanks for looking at em.

[Kush Over]

Oh, sorry I haven't been making comments on the plants. They look great. CFLs aren't bad, but to get ultraviolet radiation deep into the buds for them to grow tight is important. Or, at least to me. But I'd still like to see a fellow grower get the most out of a plant. With that said, have you considered topping? I know some people may disagree with topping at such a young age, but I've topped at the start of the third node and produced bushier than all hell plants, and they stayed short.