1st Grow, Bagseed, CFL's..

[Steve McStoferson]

So i finally got around to starting my first grow.

I started germing 12 seeds yesterday using the paper towel method. I'm going to document everything I do in this journal in hopes you guys can tell me what I'm doing wrong, or where I could make improvements.

To start germing, i folder a piece of paper towel into 4's and wet it with warm water and placed it on the plate. I then laid out 12 seeds, and put another warm folded piece of towel over them, covered them with another paper plate and put them in a dark cabinet. I checked it every few hours and put a fresh piece of warm towel over them. Any recommendations on this method? I haven't seen any sprouts as of now, but I know it can take a while.

Materials:
I constructed a grow box which measures 4'H x 55"W x 30"L.
I am running a shop light with 2 40W cool white bulbs outputting 6400 lumens
I'm also going to run 2 45W CFL's which are soft white and output 5200 lumens
I picked up some potting soil yesterday but haven't really gotten to look at it yet. I got an organic soil without any nutrients.
I have to go back and pick up some 5 gal buckets, but I'm not in a hurry for those as I plan on just using party cups until they're big enough to transplant.

I constructed the box with 1" pvc pipe and will be ordering some mylar to wrap it in. Pics will come when it's completed.

as far as fans go, I plan on picking up a cheap box fan in the next couple of days, along with humidity and ph meters.

The setup is in my basement which gets a little humid, but is mostly just stale air. I will have a more accurate reading when i get the humidity meter. Do you think having a box fan circulating in the room will be sufficient for them? Unfortunately there isn't a window in the room that can be opened.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but ill come back and update the thread with my progress and pictures when I get everything planted.

I think I'm going to just veg and flower with the cfl's, as I wont have enough funds available to pick up a HID lamp until probably early next year. I will stick with a 400-600W MH/HPS combo lamp and continue to use the smaller CFL's for the sides.

I don't plan on growing all 12 plants to maturity as I don't have anywhere as much light as I would need, I'm just hoping for 2 ladies, and the rest is just my cushion. Considering my lack of lighting, do you think 11,600 lumens properly placed would be good to veg these small babies until i can sex them? I'm also not banking on all the seeds successfully sprouting, so that will reduce the number quite a bit also. I know during flowering, the plants need a lot of light, so if I am only flowering 2 ladies, do you think 11,600 lumens is sufficient? Again, I'm not looking for a huge harvest, just something decent to carry me over for a few months until the next harvest.

Anyway, it's been great learning here, I'm really excited to start growing my own, i think I'm more excited to actually grow something from seed than anything

Buckle in and enjoy the ride

7/26/2009 3:30pm
12 seeds of a random bag of mids have started germing

 

[Ms.Fox]

Nice, I'm definitely looking forward to your grow! ;-)

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Thanks for stoppin by Ms Fox!

One thing i noticed after i got the soil home, Its MG organic choice and didn't make mention of any nutes. I did notice on the back that it said it wasn't for containers. Will this cause an issue? I noticed a few journals where people used the same soil.

Any tips on ensuring a good germ rate?

 

[Steve McStoferson]

7/28/2009

3 seeds have cracked open. No sprouts yet, but I'm hoping for some when I get home.

I finished wiring the grow room, I just need to wire the circuit into the main panel and it will be good to go. That's all for now.

 

[420fied]

I'll be honest with you. You'll be able to veg 2 plants with 12k lumens if properly placed but if you flower with CFL's your bud will be fluffy. You simply do not have sufficient light to get any signifigant yield.

If you're going to take the risk why not reward yourself? I'd find a way to get an HPS unit even if I had to borrow from a friend. Not trying to be negative here, it's just that I've grown with CFL's and I know what you can expect.

Best of luck and I'll help in any way that I can.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

I'll be honest with you. You'll be able to veg 2 plants with 12k lumens if properly placed but if you flower with CFL's your bud will be fluffy. You simply do not have sufficient light to get any signifigant yield.

If you're going to take the risk why not reward yourself? I'd find a way to get an HPS unit even if I had to borrow from a friend. Not trying to be negative here, it's just that I've grown with CFL's and I know what you can expect.

Best of luck and I'll help in any way that I can.

Yeah i hear ya, unfortunately though i don't know anybody with HID lamps so I'd have to wait until i can pick one up. This is my first grow, so i want to get the experience under my belt before i go all out and grow some crazy stuff with HID lighting.

I think once I get this grow out of the way, the money i will save from not having to buy greens for a month or so will end up paying for an HPS unit.

I'm not really looking for a significant yield, more so the experience than anything.

What is your opinion on this: The 45W CFL's were only like $10. If i add another 2 of them which will add another 5200 lums, will that help out much as far as $ invested/yield goes, or would i be better off just saving the money?

 

[420fied]

Yeah i hear ya, unfortunately though i don't know anybody with HID lamps so I'd have to wait until i can pick one up. This is my first grow, so i want to get the experience under my belt before i go all out and grow some crazy stuff with HID lighting.

I think once I get this grow out of the way, the money i will save from not having to buy greens for a month or so will end up paying for an HPS unit.

I'm not really looking for a significant yield, more so the experience than anything.

What is your opinion on this: The 45W CFL's were only like $10. If i add another 2 of them which will add another 5200 lums, will that help out much as far as $ invested/yield goes, or would i be better off just saving the money?

Understood. I've grown in soil and with CFL's so I'll be able to shed some light if needed. Sounds like you have a plan to upgrade when possible which is good.

Add all of the light that you can! You can never have enough light. With CFL's I'm sure you know that positioning them is the key. What type of reflector are you using?

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Understood. I've grown in soil and with CFL's so I'll be able to shed some light if needed. Sounds like you have a plan to upgrade when possible which is good.

Add all of the light that you can! You can never have enough light. With CFL's I'm sure you know that positioning them is the key. What type of reflector are you using?

yeah I definitely want to get a better light as soon as i can
the shop light has the standard reflector, and the individual CFL's, i was going to use reflectors i had lying around from my old lizards. Are those good to use, or should i look into something else?

Also, do you think it's worth the extra money getting a digital ballast with the HID?

 

[420fied]

yeah I definitely want to get a better light as soon as i can
the shop light has the standard reflector, and the individual CFL's, i was going to use reflectors i had lying around from my old lizards. Are those good to use, or should i look into something else?

Also, do you think it's worth the extra money getting a digital ballast with the HID?

My ballasts are all dig...so yes, I believe it's worth it.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

awesome, i found a 400W for less than $200, so i think I'm going to save some cash for that, maybe ill be able to pick it up before i send them into flowering.

Thanks for the advice dude

 

[Steve McStoferson]

7/28/2009
Went home last night and checked on the beans. 6 of them had sprouted. I planted all 6 and lined them up directly under the shop light. The top of the cup is about an inch or 2 away from the bulbs, so i don't have any space currently to put the other cfl's on them. Once they break the soil I should have a bit more room to put more lights on them. I'm not going to plant the other 6 seeds i had germing as I don't want to rob the plants of the available light once they start vegging. I figure 6 will be good, hopefully i can get my 2 females out of it.

Still no pics, I haven't taken any, but theres really not much to see as of now. I'll take some once they start growing.

 

[CharlieMopps]

Thats the number of beans most people start when trying to find a female. I also have a few fluroescent grows under my belt. I will say that growing with 4 foot shop lights makes for a very stress free grow. You never have to worry about burning tops or heat. Lets see what your setup looks like bro.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Thats the number of beans most people start when trying to find a female. I also have a few fluroescent grows under my belt. I will say that growing with 4 foot shop lights makes for a very stress free grow. You never have to worry about burning tops or heat. Lets see what your setup looks like bro.

ill try and remember to snap some pics tonight. Thanks for stoppin in bro

 

[420fied]

Yeah we need the visual stimuli.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

You guys are gonna kick my ass for not posting pics pretty soon

Anyway, my lady is going out with some friends tonight, so I should have some time to tend to the crop and snap some pics.

7/30/2009
I checked on my babies when i got home from work and #1,#2,#3,#4,#6 had broken soil and are about 1-2" tall.

7/31/2009 Morning
#5 has broken the soil and is about 1/2" tall.

Most have formed their first 2 leaves and shed the seed casing. I have about an inch before the top of the cup, and the light was about 3-5 inches away from the top of the cups. I moved the light a couple of inches closer since it doesn't get hot at all, I figured anything i can do to reduce stretching will help, especially due to the lack of light.

Tonight i need to head to the store and get the rest of my supplies.

The soil is still pretty damp. How long do you guys normally go before you water them? when i planted them the soil was moist, and i watered them very little.

Pics will come tonight, i promise. The room isn't very pretty as it is in my basement, but it does the job

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Here are some pics i snapped of the babies over the weekend
8/1/2009
#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

As of today, they had all grown a bit bigger, no new leaves or anything. I'm wondering if i have a problem with #1 and #2 since they haven't grown their second set of leaves. The seeds were from 3 different bags, so is it possible it's just a different strain that takes longer to grow?

One question, how long do you think i can veg them in the cups before i need to transplant? I have 5 gal buckets ready for them so i can do it anytime.

More pics of the whole setup once I get the mylar up

 

[420fied]

What kind of soil is that?

 

[Steve McStoferson]

MG organic choice. I wanted to stay away from MG products since they don't have too many followers on here, but it's all i could find without going to a hydro shop. I couldn't find anything on the package that said it had nutes so that's good. I was going to see how they like it up until i re-pot them and then decide if i wanted to go with another type of soil. It's a bit clumpy and i was worrying if it would hold the water too much, but when i first planted them, I didn't have to water for 3 days. I watered Saturday, and yesterday the soil was already fairly dry, so i let it dry out a bit more and then watered it this morning before i left for work. The water runs out very easily though, so I shouldn't have a problem with drainage.

 

[420fied]

MG organic choice. I wanted to stay away from MG products since they don't have too many followers on here, but it's all i could find without going to a hydro shop. I couldn't find anything on the package that said it had nutes so that's good. I was going to see how they like it up until i re-pot them and then decide if i wanted to go with another type of soil. It's a bit clumpy and i was worrying if it would hold the water too much, but when i first planted them, I didn't have to water for 3 days. I watered Saturday, and yesterday the soil was already fairly dry, so i let it dry out a bit more and then watered it this morning before i left for work. The water runs out very easily though, so I shouldn't have a problem with drainage.

Sounds good. When I didn't see any perlite in the mix, drainage immediately entered my mind. However, it sounds as if you know what to look for and you're on top of things. The details make all the difference. Good work.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

how long do you think i can go before i will need to transplant? I might throw in some perlite then just to be on the safe side. It could just be draining easy now because there isnt much soil to weigh itself down. I'd rather be safe than have to start over again