1st Grow in Water Heater Room

[LighTer]

Grow Space: 21" x 24" x 48"
Lights:
VEG: 4 26w CFL Daylight 5500k, 1 26w 10k CFL
BUD: 4 26w CFL 2700k, 2 CFL Daylight 5500k
Strand: Bagseed
Soil: MG Potting Soil
Pot Size: 5 GAL

Hello guys, this is my first grow. Shout out to Roseman for all the awesome tutorials he has done that makes this a very easy 1st grow with no headache.

These photos are 3 weeks 5 days into VEG stage. 24/0

I have problems with this one, the newest leaves are folded up and is a yellow leaf

 

[LighTer]

Re: *1st Grow in water heater room haha

Update: Put my plants in 30 hours of dark yesterday. (I am on a time crunch, end date for curing has to be May 31) Started them on 12/12 today. Currecntly have them under 6 2700k 23w CFLS and 2 5500k 23w CFLS.

 

[LighTer]

Re: *1st Grow in water heater room haha

Day 2 - Flowering Stage

My plants VEG'd for 4 weeks exact. (28 days)
All 8 lights

Welcome to the water heater room


No real problems yet. will add additional phosporous in about 4 days.

 

[Roseman]

Re: *1st Grow in water heater room haha

I wish I knew something about indoor soil growing. Maybe I can learn from you??

 

[Spike69]

Re: *1st Grow in water heater room haha

plants are looking good,bro

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Thanks guys. And Roseman, hopefully I have something to offer!

Today got back from Austin, fun roadtrip. Came back to see girls have grown quite quickly. Gave them all phosphorous nutes for budding cycle. They look quite Bushy, thanks to FIMMING them on 5th or 6th node.

Day 8 BUDDING cycle

Going to have to raise the lights again soon!!

I believe one is a female, and the other two are too soon to tell, however, one likes like it could become a male. All girls are green and only 1 or 2 leaves max. have fallen off each plant since seedling stage.

 

[Spike69]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

your plants look great bro.

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Thanks! I forgot to mention earlier that, i only topped my plants one time, and that was on the 6th and 7th node. ( i fimmed just above the 5th and 6th nodes) Also, those pics above were taken right before i watered and now they have perked back up.

 

[notrax420]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

beautiful plants. what kind of nutes are you using? and soil?

 

[Roseman]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

I've never watched a soil grow thread. What kind of soil are you using?

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Well, after talking to a fellow grower in person, she told me miracle gro works just perfect and is very cheap. I took her advice rather than buying fox farm nutes and ph testers and everything you DONT need in soil. Firstly, i used regular dirt that i scooped up myself to put the seeds in, after they needed a transplant, i popped them into organic miracle gro potting mix (w/ time release nutes). after they needed one more transplant into 5gal buckets, i put them in miracle gro garden soil (w/ time release nutes) Now, everyone on here seems to diss on the time release nutes that MG has, i on the other hand prefer them, if the only thing i have to do is water them every other day or every 3 days then why not? I mean, after all, they are just weeds. Give them decent soil, water, and light and they will be fine as long as temps and humidity is halfway acceptable. Its not exactly a science with soil grows.

Anyways, I have also been using Miracle gro organic blood meal and feeding them that once every 2 weeks. Also, I used fox farm phosphorous for the flowering cycle they just started. (was given to me by a friend for free)

Anyways, because I am force flowering, i think i caused 2 of my plants to become males. Or at least the logic behind so makes perfect sense to me. I forced flowered and told the plants summer is almost over, they freaked out and started producing seeds because they did not have any other pre-flowers yet. I am going to take this as a lesson because it was my first grow, and will not force flower ever again.

So now that I have two males and only one female, I am kinda upset because as you can tell, they were in damn near perfect health. So, the males go to the trash tonight in the cover of darkness, while the only female gets to soak up all the lights I had for all three, hopefully to become one bad ass first grow plant. Also, I have determined that fimming the 6th node, (the little new leaves just above the 5th node) is the ideal time to do it. Also, fimming is way better than topping because you are only taking off very small leaves instead of larger ones that took up nutrients from the plant to create.

Other than the males, this grow is going perfect. After all, it is only bagseed and maybe I did not cause the males myself, but it makes sense that I could have. Also, my next grow will not happen until August, but it will be with seeds that I will order off the internet with a VISA gift card in a fake name to an address I am not growing at. If anyone knows a Canadian seed company that ships with no return address in an unlabeled box could you please let me know?

Thanks guys for watching my grow, I just wish I had one more female to make it a bit more exciting.

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

So, two ended up being males and left us with only this female. She has always been the bigger of the three so i dont mind so much. I started LST training on her because I saw lil neutrinos amazing plants. It makes sense to maximize efficiency of my light set up as well.

Here she is before

And here she is after

She looks just like a ball now. Hopefully this will spawn new bud sites? I may have waited too late to do LST and reap new bud sites, not sure...
Good thing tho now is that WAYY more light will hit the leaves, especially those leaves under the canopy tucked away in the middle down there. Should see an increase in growth from this, as well as better placed lights only for her now.

 

[Lil Neutrino]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Glad I could influence you...MountainHigh got me to do mine after my paranoia about it from my first grow (three males, one female lol) so in a way he's responsible too! Looking good!

Now, everyone on here seems to diss on the time release nutes that MG has, i on the other hand prefer them, if the only thing i have to do is water them every other day or every 3 days then why not? I mean, after all, they are just weeds. Give them decent soil, water, and light and they will be fine as long as temps and humidity is halfway acceptable. Its not exactly a science with soil grows.

It can be if things don't go right...example, MG with those time-release nutes has caused some bad pH swings for some growers. Now it has become a science because you need to know why your plants have become unhealthy. Some that do not consider the science behind soil grows (there is a science but most people can get by with merely a very basic idea of what is going on) and thus would think that their plant(s) unhealthy symptoms are due to nutrient deficiency...and they are partially right. Now say they add nutes to try and correct the problem but either nothing improves or it gets worse. Perhaps they did not understand the science part that says the soil pH must be within a certain range or nutrient lockout can occur. So no matter how much more fertilizer they use the plant can't take it in. Or the buildup of salts that can occur in the soil...and so on.

I got off on a tangent but my point was the time-release nutes in MG can cause pH swings that can and have caused nute lockout or has burned their smaller plants. Some use it with success, some use it with problems, and some prefer not to chance it if there's something more "neutral" available at a decent price. If you're happy then that's all that matters!

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Good info to have! Did not know some of that, the pH problems with MG in particular. And thanks for looking at my grow...I have a feeling only 2 or 3 people are haha

 

[Lil Neutrino]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Not everyone has that problem so there's only one way to find out...

My first journal took a while to get more than a couple people looking too, don't get discouraged! A lot of people prefer to see the journals with the exotic strains or a a bunch of huge plants...but there are some that simply can't do that or don't need to and also like to check out the smaller grows. I like the grows where people are space-limited, it's crazy to see what kind of ideas people come up with and what kind of yields are possible in such small areas. My first grow I got an ounce (dried) off a 13" tall plant that I only vegged for two weeks and did nothing but let it grow naturally and add some ferts every other watering during flower. Not bad for something that would nearly fit in a shoebox lol...

 

[Lil Neutrino]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Oh, and one more thing that I'm sure you're already aware of...but get something better on those cabinet walls! lol A quart of Kilz flat-white primer is about $6 at Home Depot and a cheap paint brush is only a dollar or two more...just make sure it's fully dried before stuffing your plants back in. Someone also told me that you don't need to paint the floors...but I already had but would have saved me some primer

Also you might want to read the following thread regarding dark/light cycles and what the plant does during both. I'm not trying to tell you that 24/0 lighting is bad or wrong, plenty of evidence on these forums that it can and does work just fine, but if you weren't aware of what it says it is good information to have as well. If you choose to reduce to say a 20/4 cycle, which worked wonders on that first grow I mentioned, make the switch slowly...a few minute a day so you don't freak her out. See the pics of my male plants in my first journal...probably around page 10 iirc, if that page is already in to the flowering stage of that journal go back to an earlier page.

Do Roots REALLY Grow in the Dark?

 

[teiji2]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Great advice Lil Neutrino. LighTer browse around other peoples grow journals and post comments with your journal in the tag. Most noobs like me will mostly browse and post few comments on journals that are not all fancy with wicked cool names. I rather enjoy making up my own name for some mexo I got locally for $30 a half O. Its all a learning experience and if your immediate switch to 12/12 teaches me anything it was well worth the peep into your journal. Made me glad I been cutting the light on by 2 hrs every week till I get to my flower point instead of the immediate 12/12 switch you did. So Im sorry for your loss but glad for my gain in knowledge
Also I look forward to the bud porn from your pretty girl.

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

I would not say the immediate switch to 12/12 was the cause of the males but the forced sexual expression of the plants did. I mean exactly when i forced the plants to 12/12 before any pre-flowers had been shown yet. There is no doubt that increasing the night time by 2 hrs a week is closer to natural than an immediate switch and therefore anyone doing that would have the least amount of problems because it is more natural...

And thanks for the advice Lil N, will be reading up on that.

 

[LighTer]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Alright, I am really pissed off now...wish i had a bowl to smoke. Well, someone hit the timer and turned it to always on instead of timer on...soooooo, they had light on all night last night when the lights were supposed to be off. I am so fkn pissed. Will i see the plant go through some sort of shock from this?

 

[Lil Neutrino]

Re: 1st Grow in water heater room haha

Just make sure that they get their 12 hours of darkness at the next scheduled time and keep your fingers crossed. I don't think it will be too big of a deal this early in the changeover to 12/12...if I'm correct this is day eleven of flowering for you and it can take a couple of weeks for the plant hormones to fully change over to bud production rather than veg production. At least that's what I've gathered from reading a variety of threads, it's not a good thing to have it happen as you know but it's not the end of your crop either!

And while we're on light cycles you should check this one out! 21:36/12 light cycle for the last stage of flowering but requires some slightly fancier timers.