First Time Grow - Walk In Closet

[Yeezus420]

Hello I'm a first time grower just looking for any advice or knowledge I can get to try and make my end result better. So here is the current situation.

I tossed some bag seeds in a house plant (never expecting them to sprout). Sure enough not one but two plants sprouted up and about 2 weeks later two more sprouted. Now they were just infront of a window getting natural sunlight for about 3 weeks or so but this week I went out and purchased a 4 ft T8 double tube fixture and got the 6500k bulbs because I read that was better for veg. They have been under the lights for a week now and seem to be growing much faster. Currently have them on the 18/6 cycle.

So my main questions now are. Should I get more light? When and what type of nutrients should I give them? How long should they veg? Like I said this is my first time so any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Yeezus420]

Hello everyone I'm now a full week into this experience so i thought I'd share my thoughts. Everything seems to be going good and the plants are showing quite a bit of new growth since they began there 18/6 cycle 7 days ago. But I am going to go out today and purchase more CFL lights a PH tester among some other things. Going to redo the whole setup when I get home.

I could use some help posting pictures on here so I can show you guys what I'm looking at though. I've been trying to figure it out for awhile with no luck. Any advice?

 

[STIHL LOGGER]

Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

^^^ Link to uploading photos.

Heya Yeezus, Welcome to the grow room man! This place is chock full o' information and knowledge my friend. Congrats on takin the plunge! And for getting some "unsuspecting beans" to sprout for ya. thats cool when that happens. Any questions, feel free to ask away.

 

[Yeezus420]

thanks man I appreciate it! Im startin to figure it out. If it works then attached is a picture of One of my bigger 2 plants. I'll try and get pictures of the rest of my setup when I get home.

 

[Yeezus420]

So these are the other three babies! Didn't get a chance to set up the new equipment tonight should have pictures of all of that tomorrow.

 

[Yeezus420]

First signs of trouble!!! Just got home from work and went in to check on the babies. They looked all fine but as I got closer I noticed little things crawling on the leaves! can anybody give me advice on what these are or how to get rid of them? Plants are only about 4 or 5 inches tall so I imagine they would be sensitive to any sort of pesticide.

 

[Bigbudsgood]

If you can find one for a reasonable price a Nutrient Truncheon would be a great addition (also a humidity/temp gauge) - everything you need just depends on your budget
So much to choose from as far as nutes etc go
Is that 50/50 Coco/perlite you are using ?

Got a Pic of your pests ? I use a botanical insecticide - not cheap but appears to work very well

 

[Stinky Snid]

Lucky you, I should try your germ method next time just kidding. I bet that was a surprise and then the other ones popped what a fine deal there.

For the bugs a regular food grade pesticide will be good to kill them. You could also use yellow sticky strips on the soil and hanging in the grow space. Get them taken care of before they take over. Good luck on your eradication mission.

KiG

 

[Yeezus420]

Update! Still haven't decided what to do about the pests but I did get a bunch of new supplies today. I got a ph tester, a temp/humidity gauge, 4 more 23 W cfls, and a digital timer. I also got a couple things that I have some questions about.

First I got a 1000 w HPS bulb with the fixture and everything but I was thinking that would be too much light? At least at this stage in veg as I only have 4 plants and the tallest one is only 5.5" tall.

I also got a couple different kinds of nutes. I got ionic grow, and ionic pk booster. I also got a 4 different kinds of botanicare nutes. The botanicare KIND base, grow, and bloom. Also the botanicare sweet grape? Anybody with any reviews or experience using these in soil?

Bigbudz actually that's just miracle grow potting soil right now. I was thinking about switching soils when I transplant them to the final pot.



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[Bigbudsgood]

So do your bugs look like little black flies - a couple of mm long ?
Is your digital timer 15 amp ?

 

[Stinky Snid]

I would say use your cfls until you see preflowers and then crank up that hps using your dimmable ballast to ease her into the best flowering light possible. Or you could do it sooner but keep the light further away. Your high Kelvin bulbs will do fine for vegetative stage of they're kept close enough. Essentially you could do your hps at anytime, but I would wait till preflower, imo... Saves money and easier to control environment.

Nice pick up on the Ph kit and temp/hygrometers they'll be a staple for your grow.

KiG cheers

 

[Yeezus420]

Yupp like blackish brown flies. I haven't seen them fly tho. This morning there was a lady bug in there need to get On top of this problem.

Also should my lights all be above the plants? Right now I just have the t8 above them and the rest kind of around the sides of all the plants. But they are kind of growing funny and the leaves seem to be turning toward which side the light is not staying flat. I do rotate them about twice a day but idk if they would grow more uniform if all the lights were above?


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[Yeezus420]

Could I use a no pest strip if I made sure the closet was well sealed?


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[Stinky Snid]

Yes use the yellow sticky strips... They attract flies!,
Attack, attack, attack!!

KiGcheers

 

[Yeezus420]

Just got home and checked up on the babies and was pleased to find no visible pests on the leaves or anywhere in the room. Still going to take preventive measures asap. Can you see what I mean by the leaves leaning kind of? Is that because the lights aren't setup ideally?

Going to start using ionic grow nutes the next time I water which will probably be tomorrow morning as soon as I get battery's for my ph tester. I was thinking I should start out using maybe 50% of what the bottle says?

Overall it's going pretty good I'm seeing good growth everyday on every plant. Hopefully the nutes kick it up another notch and I get rid of these pests!

 

[Bigbudsgood]

Does not sound like you had Fungus Gnats as i suspected

They are flying most of the time - lay eggs in the top of medium, larvae eat decaying matter,roots and turn into flies so they take over pretty quickly if you don't do something.Plants are just growing towards strongest light source. I would get all your babies under the T8 in a line and move the top right CFL in pic down to left of temp gauge. Light just needs to be setup a little better to make use of what you have.Are your lights height adjustable at all - if not you can always put something stable under pots to get the right distance from lights. Easy with the nutes - maybe even a quarter of what ionic grow bottle says for a start - remember "little is more" when it comes to nutes - you can always add more but you can't take it out.Don't overwater.Are you going to test runoff water for PH etc.Runoff should be about 20 % of total watered.So you don't distrub your plants sit them in a bucket and water like that - then you can test the runoff in bucket when drained from pot - 5 minutes or so.Checking PH /EC/PPM of runoff gives great idea of how things are going. Keeping a grow diary is also a good idea if you encounter problems.Got anything to check nute strength ?

 

[Noob4x4grow]

I would definitely get something to set your pots on besides your carpet. I laid down a painters cloth (plastic) and stapled it to my wall. From experience, you will spill something on the floor, your pots will leak, or something. Just looking out for you. Good luck on your pest problem. I though lady bugs were good for your garden though.

 

[Bigbudsgood]

Noob - I believe lady bugs with 4 spots or less are good - ones with lots are not

 

[Yeezus420]

How much should I be watering them? The pots they are in aren't that big at the moment maybe like a quart or 2. I've never watered them to the point where there's runoff. Which is i assume when it soaks completely through and runs out the bottom? If so I've been watering all wrong.

 

[Noob4x4grow]

I water until there is some runoff.