G13 X Skunk #1 Soil/CFL's 1st Timer

[canabinerd]

Strain: Seedsman G13 X Skunk #1 regular seeds (5 seed freebie ) "mostly indica".

Soil: FFOF ammended with 20% perlite.

Water: From the tap, TDS is in the 220-260 ppm range and pH seems to be in the high 6's (using aquarium strips so this is ballpark).

Light: Hydrofarm 125 watt CFL daylight spectrum and homemade 4 light CFL (23 watt warm whites) fixture (217 total watts)

Nutrients: General Hydroponics FloroDuo and superthrive.

Grower: Newbie. Did a little gardening as a teenager with little to no success due to security at the time otherwise no cannabis growing experience. Do have a major in Biology and minor in Chemistry, hope that will help.

Goal: Learn how to grow my own. If possible, would like to end up with a couple ounces of good smoke when all is said and done. Quality over quantity for me. I am fortunate to live in a state where the cultivation of 6 plants (only three mature flowering females) is legal. I'm shooting for one or two good females making it to bloom.

So germinated the 5 freebie seeds on 11/31/2012 by placing in wet paper towel inside an unsealed Ziploc, this technique was left over from my above described experience as a teenager. Fortunately, this technique still works, 100% germination. All seeds placed in RapidRooter cubes soaked in water with 1 drop of of Superthrive on 12/01/2012. RapidRooters were then placed in a humidity dome and misted 1-2 times daily with trace amount of FloroDuo bloom nutrients in a spray bottle and a cheap 20 watt T8 WalMart special laying on top of the humidity dome for 24/0. Got a seedling heat mat from Home Depot and Some Mylar. Got a cheap plastic cabinet from WalMart and a bathroom exhaust fan from Lowe's. Bought a 125 CFL from a local HydroShop and some FFOF and perlite.

All 5 seeds managed to make it through emergence just fine and were transplanted to Solo Cups on 12/11/2012. I had my homemade grow cabinet mostly assembled and began putting them under the 125 watt CFL. The main obstacle since then has been controlling heat. I think the hottest I've ever let it get in the cabinet so far was upper 80's to low 90's and that was only for very short periods of time (less than 1 hr). By and large, temperatures have been maintained in the 68-82 degree range.

Anyway, in spite of the heat problems, plants seemed to get through pre-veg just fine and I transplanted Hydrofarm 6X6 square pots on 12/22 and quit using the heat mat at that point (which helped a little with temps). Which brings me to my first picture.

 

[canabinerd]

 

[canabinerd]

Above picture was taken on 1/4/13, day 35 from germination. Recieving straight tapwater up to this point. It's been a bit tricky nailing down my watering thus far. Some people say to water until you get 20% drainage. That has seemed like to much to me, these plants seem to like it if I water fairly slowly, but stop once any drainage starts coming out the bottom and at this stage, they seem to like to be watered only every 4-5 days. This is somewhat surprising to me as my RH has been in the 16-25% range except for the first 6-8 hours after watering and for 1-2 hours after misting. On those occasions I get up into the 40-60% range.

 

[canabinerd]

Also on 01/04/2013, I decided it was about time I gave some LST a try. I'm starting to think about hopefully being able to cut a few clones off each of these plants and start flowering in the next several weeks. My growth space is pretty limited and I want to get things slimmed down to the best one or two females in the batch and their clones as soon as possible. Hopefully a little LST will get some of those lower shoots going so I can give cloning a try.

 

[canabinerd]

So to bring you up to date. In spite of my ignorance, thing seem to be growing well and all five of them seem to be really exploding with veg right now. However, in the last week I've noticed some little yellow spots between the veins on a few leaves. Doesn't seem to bad and it's mostly on one plant that has been kind of a freak to begin with. This tends to throw occasional scimitar shaped leaves where the half of the leaf toward the inside of the curve is a bit lighter in color.

 

[canabinerd]

So heres the freak plant with some signs of what I suppose is either a micronutrient defieciency or a pH problem.

So I've started giving them some 1/8 strength nutrients and put about 1 tsp white vinegar in as a pH buffer. The floroduo has a full spectrum of micronutrients so hopefully that will do it.

Anyway, they seem to be doing fine with the LST and they are all turning back up to the light and the side growth seems to be popping up very quickly.

 

[canabinerd]

So heres some pictures of my home made cabinet.

In retrospect, If I had to do it all over again I would just buy a 250-400 watt HPS and a small grow tent and a 4" can fan with a carbon filter. From what Ive seen, I could probably put that together for 350 bucks which would probably only be 100-150 more than I already have invested in this. But, I may end up doing that and just keeping this as my clone and veg cabinet. We'll see, I better produce some bud before I buy more equipment.

 

[canabinerd]

Well that pretty much gets everyone caught up on the progress so far. Today is day 39 from germination, any advice is welcome. Especially diagnosing the possibly pH/deficiency problem. Also, I've read somewhat conflicting information on preflowering. Can I predictably expect preflowers to appear at some point or is this variable from strain to strain? Also, it seems people give the plants age by week or day of veg. Is this counted from germination when grown from seed, or do you subtract a certain number of days for pre-vegatative/seedling phase. I suspect the latter as people who grow from clones seem to use the same system and they obviously do not have to wait for emergence and pre-veg.

 

[canabinerd]

By the way, they need to add Colorado Ammendment 64 to the Disclaimer on the site.

 

[JB42]

Easy Canabinerd,
Welcome to 420! Some good people on here happy to help each other if help is needed, or just look at some sticky bud porn!
I wouldnt worry about them spots for now as the plants look fine, just keep what you doing and work up the nutes slowly and only water when the pots are light.

As for pH concerns, if you pick up some dolomite lime and sprinkle a Tbsp under the top 2inch of soil and water in, you should have no probs with pH as the lime will keep it relatively neutral.

Apart from that, I love a bit of soil growing , im in.........

 

[canabinerd]

Thanks JBC, Can I still do that with the Dolomite lime? Wouldn't I disturb the roots digging up the top 2" of soil?

 

[JB42]

No they'l be fine, i always siv my fingers through the top of the soil anyway to let air in. Your girls are looking good though.

 

[canabinerd]

So, plans are to obtain some dolomitic lime over the weekend, possibly obtain some innoculant to "cook" some soil in for my next transplant into 3 gal smart pots. And hopefully get good results out of my LST so I can cut some clones and start flowering these girls/boys. Heres what they look like tonight.

 

[canabinerd]

Two of them are starting to live up to thier skunk heritage and getting a little odiferous. Of course one of the smelly ones is the freak plant.

 

[JB42]

Everything looking Good!

 

[canabinerd]

Well, today is day 42. Six weeks from germination. Pots are light and when I put my finger as deep as I can along the side of the pot, feels dry. They've put on a lot of veg in the last 2-3 days and the LST has resulted in each of them having 4-5 shoots that are at canopy level now. All that veg must be making them thirsty. In the interest of not overwatering, I'm gonna wait till morning to give them a drink. They don't look droopy or wilted and it's only been three days since their last watering. Will bump up the nutes to 1/4 strength, mixed it up tonight TDS of tapwater was 220ppm after adding nutes 780ppm. Total of 540ppm of equal parts GH Floroduo A & B.

Starting to get a little inpatient. No signs of preflowers yet. My grow space is only 16"x24"X48" and the way these things are growing, it's gonna get tight fast. I'd really like to flower sooner rather than later. I think if I don't get any preflowers in the next week, I'm gonna just take some cuts and sex the cuts. Hopefully by that time the side growth will be big enough that I can get another cut off the females after sexing and switch em' to 12/12.

Do you think I'll have to wait another week of veg if I take 2 cuts per plant? 8 weeks seems like a long time from germination to switch them. That would put me at 16-18 weeks from germ to harvest. Is that a fairly normal cycle?

 

[JB42]

You want to aim for 3 month really for speed growing, 1 month veg, 2 month flower. Or there abouts. But this is also from clone not seed. Mine from seed usually take around 14 week maybe. I think taking a cutting just to sex them seems loooong, they will come soon just be patient. Patience is what this game is made out of! You will have better success with more patience.

 

[canabinerd]

Well, I was wrong on the water thing. Just checked and two of them were drooping. Gave em the water.

You can see the two on the left are drooping. Should'nt stress them too much. They couldn't have been drooping for more than an hour or two.

 

[canabinerd]

It's a girl!

It's amazing how things pop up overnight on these babies! Kinda odd that a girl is the first one to show sex, I guess she just can't wait for the prom. Ironically, it's the freak plant that throws the funky curved leaves. After doing some reading, and comparing the phenos, I think I've got one more female. The other three are all taller and tend to have 5 or 7 leaflets on a fan whereas the freak plant and one other are shorter, bushier and tend to have 7-9 leaflets on a fan. But, I've got one girl and that's enough for the amount of space I have. Hopefully, the rest of them will show sex by the end of the week so I can start taking some bud porn shots soon!

 

[canabinerd]

by the way, can't find any dolomitic lime, would Home Depot carry it? My local hydro store is out and will call me when they get some in.