Hi all.
Welcome to the show. Come in, have a seat and offer advice, thoughts and/or comments freely.
I am starting my first actual grow. I will need all the help I can get along the way so that these girls grow into proper productive Ladies.
With that said…
Nice start to your grow story @MindlessCorpse . You might want to crop your seeds in the package out of your first pic though. Forum rules - not supposed to show packaging. Welcome to ILGM lots of good peeps here to help if you need it.
@MindlessCorpse welcome to the right place if you could please let us know what kind of lights you plan on using what kind of LEDs or T5 H PS etc. doing soil Hydro aqua you can say the flavor of what you’re growing thank you for cropping out your package if you need any help just put the symbol in front of the person’s name @ feel free to ask any question anytime you’ve been here awhile you know how we be
Hi Hogmaster,
Right now they are under two different lights, one is a 24" led grow light, red and blue only and one 24" 7800k fluorescent light. My main light above is a dual chips 1000 watt full spectrum led (no name)
I also have 3 x 10" dome reflectors, but I am not sure what kelvin to run. I wonder if I will need two different sets of cfl’s for the dome reflectors? one kelvin for veg? and a different kelvin for bloom?
anyhow… This will be a soil grow. I have two 40 pound bags of FFOF on hand. I ordered 5 x 5 gallon air pots, but when they got here they seemed small so I sent them back and ordered 5 x 10 gallon size. (apparently gallons are smaller when measuring dirt???)
I have this in a 38"x38"x60" tent with 1 x 8-inch exhaust fan controlled by a digital temp switch. 2x10 inch fans for circulation and a larger one on hand in case I need it.
The girls are WW/f. I actually intended to raise one at a time because of tent size, but dropped two seeds in water in case one was lazy. I am curious about the roots that sprouted, one is white, one is green?
so… with all that out there, I do have a ph meter and ph up/down. My tap water is near unusable (8.2) but Dasani water checks pretty good. Also, Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula: Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom, although I have no idea if or when to use these. Also a couple of spray bottles.
The room has its own air conditioner and when cooler weather comes I have a couple oil filled radiant heaters I can use. A few other odds and ends that I thought I might need but thought different later are still on hand taking up space, who knows…
so, there it is… thanks for reading, I know this went a bit long.
Mindless
@MindlessCorpse Welcome to ILGM Forum. Good to see you here! You gave us most of the information but one thing I noticed was that you did not address how you are controlling the pH of your water. I have learned one thing through the grows I have had here in the last several years, pH IS VERY IMPORTANT. Having a good pH meter, pH Up and pH Down chemicals to control the pH of the water and nutes (Nutrients) you put in. They are all available on Amazon and are not that expensive but vital for getting a good harvest.
As far as your nutrients, Fox Farms is a good brand to use. With FFOF soil, you really do not need any nutrients until just before the flowering stage. I know that they have the Grow in FF nutes but for a first time grower, it might be better to let your plant veg by just the soil and pH’d water. FFOF is more than sufficient to get your grow to flowering in most cases. There is much less chance of burning the plants in the early veg stages. Then as you get ready to switch to flowering, you can start adding nutes at 1/4 of the strength on the label and work the doses up slowly.
You most certainly can start the grow nutes as soon as you get 4-6 nodes (sets of leaves) on the plants but the major thing about starting growing cannabis is getting the confidence to let them grow and seeing that you can do it. Most of the new growers are amazed at how well that your plants will come out and the high quality of the cannabis. Usually better than you can buy locally on the street. Fox Farms has a growing chart for their nutes on their website that helps a lot.
My first grow I tried to do everything all at once with no experience and ended up burning the plants with too much nutrients. After a few grows, things start falling into place and the grows get a little easier. Even though I did nutrient burn my first plants, the smoke was better than anything I can buy here on the street (TX is still not legal!!)
Anyway, hope you have a great time growing and enjoy the benefits of growing your own cannabis. Good luck on your grow. Starting a journal will help in many ways. A lot of times the veteran growers will notice something you are doing that might not help you and will put in a note. I found that very valuable when I started.
Tag me and I will watch your grow. I love to watch new growers succeed on their first grow. Keep 'em green till 'ya harvest.
@TxGrowman thanks for the input. Sounds like a good bit of advice.
You might have overlooked it in the above post, I do have a ph meter on hand along with ph up/down. I am trying to keep my water around 6.0 give or take a bit. Does this sound about right? If not let me know.
I feel your pain on the Tx not being legal yet. What with the nation having it legal in about half the states, those remaining ones need to get up with the times.
Sorry, missed the pH meter and chemicals in the write up. STONED AGAIN !
6.0 is a little low for soil. pH range for soil should be 6.3 - 6.8 and the sweet spot (aiming point) is about 6.5. If you can keep your pH at around 6.5 you should have few problems. The runoff after watering should read in the same area. The runoff after you water is the pH that the roots are sitting in. That is the important thing.
If you are running soil-less mixture, your pH should be 5.5 - 6.5 with 5.8 being the sweet spot.
well, I think this first round may just work out to be a learning what not to do thing.
First thing I have learned is my my Jedi Mind Powers are not strong, staring at the cup does not speed up the process.
Second thing, I think I burnt one of the feeder leaves on the survivor. (the seed with the green root did not sprout) I had the 24" fluorescent tube and 24"LED tube (red and blue only) just a few inches above the sprout and it now has a burnt feeder leaf. (I am guessing at this, so if wrong, please offer correction?)
a very purple stem…
So, a purple stem. What does this mean? This is a WW/Fem plant. Some threads here say it is normal for a WW to have Purple stem, some say it is a stressed plant. I guess overwatered?
Better pic of the stem,
The bottom half of the cup is FFOF and the top half is a mix of half and half, FFOF and Ferry Morse Organic Seedling Starter Mix.
On 6/29 I switched off the two 24"lights and started the main LED on a 18 on 6 off schedule.
I might have had the light too close though because it sort of looks like bleaching started
@Niala I now have the LED at 36" above the petals, should I go higher. I do not completely have trust in this light because it was so inexpensive, $69.99 for a 1000W Dual Chips 380-730nm Full Light Spectrum LED Plant Growth Lamp ?
The light itself came with very little paperwork, no spec sheet and is a unlabeled light (no-name or specs sticker) it does look exactly like some of the Name Brands I see advertised, including Housing, circuit board, packaging and instruction sheet, just no label so who knows what it is…
Anyhow, on 6/28 I dropped one more seed into water. After a 31 hour soak the pod would not completely open. It tried to open but what looks like a “Seam” held it mostly shut across the middle. Removed it from water and dropped it into the same soil mix as above. In a couple of days either it will sprout or not.
Learning the hard way,
MC
36in should be sufficient, just watch out for stretching. If it starts just lower light a couple of inches at a time closely observing the leaves,if they start to taco up then back it off a lil.
Hope I’ve been helpful @MindlessCorpse
@Nug-bug@yoshi@Hogmaster@Oldstoner@TxGrowman@Niala@DissidentPriest
36 inches above seems ok. Not burning the leaves, and plant not stretching, maybe raise the light another 6 or 8 inches. I would like to find where stretching starts then bring it a bit closer.
Now, is everyone’s tent this messy looking at the top?
Two small (8 inch) fans for air circulation a humidifier set on low fan speed and at 50%, 3-10 inch dome reflectors with 100 watt 6700k spiral cfl’s and 1-1000 watt LED grow light.
The timer in the top controls all the lights, set for 18 on 6 off.
Two solo cups with sprouts, one has the first set of leaves out and the second set showing, both set’s are 3 leaves, including three feeder leaves??? The other is one week older and suffered from a bit of light burn from the two 24 inch grow lights I started it under but seems to be doing ok, looking better and growing. (wonder if she will be stunted?)
The girls are ILGM WW/f
I have been misting the soil at the edges of the cups a couple squirts per day with tap water ph’d to 6.5.
The tent is in a closet straight across the room from a window unit AC. so far the temps are bouncing between 70 to 74 and humidity from 45% to 55%.
Now, been thinking on it and have not decided yet but since the tent is only 38"x38"x60" I wonder if it is going to be big enough for two plants. I could ditch the tent and just use the entire closet. My intention for later is to cut a 6 inch hole in the ceiling of the closet for exhaust ventilation. I could remove the door that is on the closet now and build another one that I can cut a fresh air intake with filter into. (dont want to destroy the door that is there now as it’s sort of old and matches the rest of the house…) The closet itself has wood floor and the walls are already painted white. It measures about 44 inches deep by 10 feet wide with an 8 foot high ceiling. Would probably make a pretty nice grow room for a few plants. Undecided on this yet.
So, there it is, second update.
I would say that the tent will be your best option for now. Your Temps and humidity is spot on . But do see the advantages of the larger closet.
Maybe after a couple runs , you can accumulate the equipment you need then go big😎
That might be best for now, and like you mentioned, I will need to change the equip up a bit. I am already considering a different light but am trying to think of different options. My biggest obstacle will be the expense of lights. I intend to stay with LED’s, I think they offer more precise light spectrum use and are much cheaper to run. The one I have now already has one burnt out emitter and because of the price, I do not have a lot of faith in its longevity just hoping it lasts through this first run. I am nearly decided on one though, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NTBZKDE/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1J3W8A3A31ZAK&colid=1QZT8LT5G4NVC
but at its output I think it may be good for two plants at a time only…
My main priority this round is to get enough bud to hold me over til the next round cures. It is for personal use, but I do have quite an appetite for the stuff. Shit, I would like to find a way to marinade sirloin steak in it…
