First Time Closet Grow - July 2009

[dfw-guy]

I think you may be watering them (or at least the droopy one) to much. The reason one is droopy and one isn't is that your soil mixes are different. The one with more perlite in it will have an airy composer and will drain out the water faster than the one with less. Cannabis likes to have wet/dry periods. I water my plants after the top inch of soil is dry and crusty. I usually go 3-5 days between waterings.

 

[mtnbiker2288]

thanks dfw- I try to not water them too much, but I'm using these peat pots and they dry out in like 1 day... the top inch is completely dry and crusty in about a day/day and a half... its confusing me. haha. oh and they both have perlite mixed in with the soil... i just added a little soil on top of the older one because it stretched out and i wanted to keep it standing upright, so thats the reason it looks like theres no perlite in it. sorry for the confusion. maybe i should just let them go for a few days without watering and see what happens? haha

 

[number1]

they look good my friend so dont panic lol. In your first grow you'll learn alot so if they die or you only get a bit of smoke out of it you'll improve for your next batch. Coz you can try something else next time. by the way have you got a note book so you can remember what youve been doing to them

 

[mtnbiker2288]

haha thanks number1. yeah I've already learned so much valuable information I would never have learned if it wasn't for everyone on this site. cant wait to learn more. especially because I just got my seeds for my next grow! I got 10 Pure Power Plant (PPP) seeds, and 5 Mazar x Afghan seeds... Im stoked for my next grow, thats why this one is basically just a learning grow with bagseed. and yes, I have like a little journal thing but I left it up at school, gotta go back to get it soon. =)

 

[number1]

have you moved then with all them seeds (pmsl)??? i looked up the PPP and they are gonna be NICE. Have you been feeding your plants coz i might try and feed a couple of mine? =)

 

[mtnbiker2288]

yea I moved back home from college for a few months... haha I drove home with both my girls and all my lights in my trunk. and yea, i cant wait for the PPP! I'm kinda kickin' myself that I didn't save up and buy feminized, but once again, its all a learning experience.

yea I fed them about a 1/4 strength solution of 18-18-21 Nutes... I only did that once, though, but I have been spraying the leaves and doing some light foliar feeding every once in a while. =) but everyone keeps telling me its not really recommended till later in the veg stage. oh well. if u don't fail then u cant get better =)

 

[mtnbiker2288]

so..... quick little update. no pics though. =(

its been a few days and the ladies have grown a little bit, I almost expected them to be taking off right now, but I think I'm just impatient since its my first grow.

I fed the little ladies with a 1/4 strength nute solution again today and they seemed to like it... I also sprayed the leaves with a very fine mist of the nutes to do some foliage feeding.

I also moved my lights up about an inch or 2 to try and get them to grow a little more UP instead of just OUT.

ummmm. lets see.... the oldest one has one very nice set of 5 leaves... a second set of 5 pretty well along and even the next set started. its also starting to have little growths right along the nodes of the lowest 2 branches!!

the younger one has its first set of 5 leaves growing and the second set coming out.

nothing really else to say, other than the fact that I'm going away to Indianapolis for about a week and dont know what to do with my little girls!!
-any suggestions?!

 

[number1]

take them with you haha

 

[mtnbiker2288]

soo heres the last update for the next week or so. I'm going to Indianapolis for like 5 days and I still don't know what to do with my girls... =( I'm just hoping I can save them if they're not doing so hot when I get back. but ill cross that bridge when it comes.

anyways.. pictures!!

all three baby girls!

the new girl!

the second oldest, she kinda grew awkward over the weekend. oops. haha

and last but not least, the oldest girl!

I still feel like they're just barely crawling along, but I still think I'm just impatient, ha ha.
I gave the girls some nutes last watering, so this watering is just straight tap water I've let sit out for a day or 2. other than that I really don't think there is much else to say for now, ill update in under a week hopefully!

 

[mtnbiker2288]

hey all! sorry about not posting, I was in Indianapolis for the week, and to my surprise, my girls are still alive! I cant believe they lasted that long. well 2 of them lasted that long, I put a plastic baggie of water on the bottom of the peat pots to try and keep the bottom moist while I was away. But, I only did this to 2 out of three of them. Needless to say the one I did not put a reservoir of water died, but that's okay. I specifically left the little one go to see if it would have lasted or not.

my little girls definitely did some growing this week! they look pretty healthy, the only thing wrong is that the first set of leaves on the bottom are very yellow and look like they're dying. I don't know what it is, but I'm assuming its because the soil was EXTREMELY dry after a week of not being watered.

ill post pics soon, I left my camera up at school.

 

[fuuji0019]

Sounding good - When i went away for a weekend while growing i had to get a mate to help out with my babies lol, so glad for that.

You'll be suprised, they can bounce back pretty well sometimes. Looking forward to the pics

 

[mtnbiker2288]

first off, I am extremely sorry that its been so long since my last post and everything.

second, Ive had a little bit of delayed growth since the little girls were soooooo wilted when I came back from indianapolis... =( but they've bounced back quite nicely. I am so impressed with this plants resilience to overcome the odds!

so a few things have happened since I've left off about 2 weeks ago. first of all i topped the oldest girl a few days ago just for sh*ts and giggles. haha (i like to experiment) and i also tried my hand at some LST'ing so the second one actually caught up in growth to the older one. pretty cool if you ask me! haha

anyways. heres some pics of the two girls!

older one on the right, younger on the left =)

the LST'ed one not tied up anymore...

the older one

this is the older one who was topped... i tied down a few of the top branches to get more light to the center tip that i cut because (obviously) i hoping for 2 more more grow tips to come out of this!

some of the new growth on the underside of the older one =)

this is the younger one who was LST'ed a little bit, she looked a little odd but im sure she'll grow out of it as they seem to do.




other than that, I've been blasting them with full nutes of 18-18-21 watering solution every other watering and a foliage feeding of the same for about 2 weeks now and after next week I'm going to flush them to try and avoid nute-lock.

buuuuuut this NEWB is going to bed. =) night

 

[mtnbiker2288]

so not much new other than my topped plant has 2 new grow tips that are doing extremely well and a lot of growth right along the stem! the only weird thing is that 1 of the new grow tips is bigger than the other? haha no idea. anyways. heres a few quick pics!


both my babies

trying my hand at some LST'ing =)

growth tip on LST'ed girl

the older girl!

2 grow tips!! =)

haha thanks for checkin it out!

 

[mtnbiker2288]

PS. I bought a new little 70 watt HPS that's meant for an outside light and rigged it up with a GHETTO reflector and am hanging it using Ethernet cords. haha. The only problem is that it throws quite a bit of heat for such a low wattage. I don't know how you guys do it with those big 400 and 600 watters!


yes it is made with clothes hangers and aluminum foil.... haha I'm poor.

my super powerful 70 watter! haha ;-)

 

[Ms.Fox]

Just to let you know foil can cause you to get hot spots on your plants. Flat white paint would be better. If you can get your hands on some emergency blankets aka space blanket, or first aid blanket for $2-$3 from walmart that would work good for your home made set up. ;-)

 

[dfw-guy]

^Ms. Fox is absolutely right. I'll bet that if you replaced the foil your temps will be lower
It's a nice ghetto system though, very creative w/ the coat hangers.

 

[mtnbiker2288]

thanks Ms. Fox and dfw! ill look into that!

and nice signature dfw- avenged sevenfold is amazing, one of the best bands ive seen live in a long time

 

[LiveTour]

I like the effort you've put into your reflector for sure. IMO if your going to add reflective material it should only be mylar, yet due to the fact of its high cost it might not be an option for you. As the others said the foil is a bad idea, it's retaining too much heat. A for effort though keep researching the "cheap set ups" on here and you'll see what most are running with. Good Luck!

 

[mtnbiker2288]

hey everybody! okay so its been about 6 weeks, and my plants should be ALOT bigger I think, but I've had a few setbacks and i just finally have enough lumens and everything to make the plants actually grow. haha. so they're finally taking off!

I've also repotted both plants into bigger 10 inch pots and they seem to love it. the second one also has started a little more LST'ing to get some of those bottom bud sights up a little higher.

so without further a due, here some pics!

quick pic of the girls

#1 has 2 main colas now!

a little bit of LSTing

and again

I think that's it for now. I'm trying to decide when I should turn them to 12/12 light schedule.... I dunno how big I want them to get, This really is only a practice run until I start my PPP or my Afghan x Mazar. any ideas?

 

[daydrimin]

Hello, mtnbiker I think you are doing a decent job here whatsoever! Good luck. As for reflectors I think if you have a nice vent heat could not be a problem regarding my experience so far (hot spots though I think cant be avoided, but from the other hand I am not sure how serious are they). In my case I am not at my home country so along with the expenses issue I had the prob that I cant really equip a nice workshop and tool set since I had to live behind everything bought here, but constructing something different from foil with something handy stays an alternative!
About the nutes you said that you are using time releasing soil and foliage feeding, and soluble nutes in the watering. Since I had done the same (I am not sure about the soil though - everything is written in japanese ) and I end up with yellowing and spots on the lower leaves! Probably my mistake was also that I did not use the 3/4 or 1/2 of the nutes instructions I have just used the lowest described. Seems that your nutes are not so rich in N which is needed in veg also.

In summary, when I flashed the soil and let a reasonable dry period for the plants they responded with joy!

Keep us posted and good luck!