Newbie's First Grow Journal

[UltraNewb]

They all perked right back up, went in this morning to check on them and they are all standing proud loving their new homes. A couple of the original bottom 3 leaf branches don't look too healthy and are dieing off. I expected that based on other grow's I've read in these forums. Temp is 72F and RH is 61% this morning.

I have the light about 16" above the plants so that they all will get some light.. Wondering if that is too far? Is it time to turn on the other light and move half the kids over to it?

 

[UltraNewb]

My kids enjoying their new home.. When I transplanted, it was in the same soil mix as was in the cups, they kept growing as if nothing happened..

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hey Ultra,
Good job on the transplant! Theyre lookin happy now after the water too My girl was lookin the same yesterday morn, i gave her a drink and few hours later was all perky again.
Hope they all grow well for you and give some nice buds
Smokem..

 

[BigIrishDoode]

18 inches is just fine,young plants dont really need a ton of bright powerful light to thrive, i use cfl & t5 for the entire veg period, i used a 400watt mh for a while but i switched back after a month and a half issues with heat and i like the growth from fluros much better and its cheaper to run has better coverage over a larger area, i find they stay healthier bushier tighter internodes and much less in the way of dried out/yellow leaves, i recently got one of those big t5 fixtures with 6 52 watt bulbs 4 footer and im totally impressed with it if i had known how great they worked i would have gotten one long ago i have seen tube vids where dudes flowered with them and the results are amazing especially in a scrog setup the trick is keeping them within 6 inches of the canopy oh and a well managed canopy too im gonna do a scrog with my t5 here real quick as soon as the babies are tall enough to start it, all this is just my opinion the road to success has many paths and the path is half the fun!
the babies are looking good buddy keep up the good work

 

[UltraNewb]

I'm half tempted to get a 4 foot T5 with 8 bulbs off amazon now! Trying to talk myself into it as a backup like for vegging while I have flowering going on..

The kids are doing fine this morning.. even the little babies in the cups are growing fast now! Amazing growth every day..

Still trying to work out my timer issues. I went back to the mechanical timer but got up too late this morning to see if the lights were off.. On the side of the timer that are 2 icons, one looks like an "I" and one looks like a round timer. The instructions that came with it doesn't say ANYTHING about that switch and which position is should be in for timer vs On. Last night I have the switch up covering the timer icon.. I have another one so will experiment tonight to see what is what.

 

[UltraNewb]

Damn! These kids are growing fast! Checkout the growth since the last picture 2 days ago! This weekend I will put half these kids over on the other side of the tent and turn on that light for them.. They are starting to crowd each other for light.

 

[BigIrishDoode]

oh ho ho hoooo nuuuuuiiiicce!!! me likey,!! love ur plants long time!! meesa so likey! lol they are looking real good tight structure green even a lil leaf shine,shows they are very healthy and happy, they have a good daddy!

 

[UltraNewb]

Here is some good morning pictures.. I split them equally on both side of the tent now with their own lights.. Tonight I'll transplant the 2 in the old coffee cups.. The one blue cup has the auto-blueberry starting to grow. I'm going to use CS to make my own fem seeds per bigirishdoode tutorial..

When should I think about topping these? or should I just let'em grow?

 

[GreeenFingers]

I read somewhere ( that i can't remember where ha ha ) that the plant is strong enough for a topping at its 7th node

It seems like you have a nice amount of grow space, if it was me I would top them and let them bush out but its up to you

 

[UltraNewb]

Well, I topped them all.. except for the 2 younger ones.. Those 2 got new digs as well.. Funny thing happenned.. I over watered 2 plants one evening, the next morning I topped them all when the lights came on. When I got home, one plant went completely limp and the next morning a second went limp! I was depressed, thought I killed them when I topped.. But turned out it was due to over watering.. They have perked back up now..

 

[UltraNewb]

Started getting a nice smell in my tent today.. Smelled it yesterday and the day before but very faint.. Seems to be getting stronger each day.. and they aren't even in flowering yet! Is this normal or am I smelling things?

This weekend, I'll trim off some of the lower fan leaves.. Can those be turned into clones?

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hey buddy,
Yeah theyre looking good! Very compact, how long do you intend to veg for?
In answer to ur question about cloning fan leaves, no mate, leaves cant be turned into clones.. If you trim some smaller shoots off her when some branches are a bit bigger, you can put them in root-ex or whateva.. But yeah, not leaves bro..
In regard to the smell, well as you have a few plants they will produce a smell, my girl only really smells once i touch her.. Then you can smell that strong leaf smell It will get stronger as they get bigger, i was just able to mask 1 plants smell at flower so a few will definately put out some nice fruity smells
Keep up the good work, be good to see how they turn out in a few weeks.
Later buddy, Smokem.

 

[GreeenFingers]

One of my AK47s called Ms.Tropical stank the whole way through veg and she actually smelled like really tasty bud

She was the only one to stink though, I'm assuming its normal but I haven't heard of anybody talking about that happening to them ha ha

Why are you going to trim the fan leaves this soon into veg, you should really try to hold on to them for as long as possible. The plants get their energy from using their leaves to photosynthesise, especially the fan leaves, they are like the plants powerhouses ha ha if you start cutting them off you are only going to slow down the growth of your plants.

You have lots of room, so they should not be a concern. Your plants will suck all the energy from them and drop them when they are ready or if they are not getting adequate light.

They suck all the energy from the leaf and direct it elsewhere before it falls off, so if you cut them off, the plants will not be able to utilise that energy

Hope this helped somewhat.

 

[UltraNewb]

Thanks guys! I thought you were suppose to trim the fan leaves so that energy can be directed elsewhere? I'll leave them be then.. I have 2 Jack Herer's and they are growing shoots like mad.. Will make a good mother plant! Though I am too new to this and probably won't turn her into a mother but will take some clones. The Skywalker is my only surviving one from 12 seeds so it will get cloned!

In the blue cup is the auto-blueberry, I'll be setting up a closet for her so she doesn't get 12/12 light when that period starts.. Going to do the CS thing so I have fem seeds. She is doing great so far!

As for veg'ing.. figured I'd go another 4 weeks or till they reach the 2ft mark (or so).. I have an 8 feet ceiling in the tent so these kids can stretch..

 

[Alaskan1]

Looking good!
Just a heads up...............since I battle mites on a regular basis lol let me give you a tip. Keep the cat OUT of the grow room at all costs. Cats and dogs pick up all kinds of bugs including spider mites. They carry them into the house and then into the grow room. Even if the cat never goes outside it could pick up a spider mite from somewhere else in the house and then onto your plants and then you'll have issues. Just don't want to see anyone go through the crap I have had to ta get rid of the lil bastards.

 

[UltraNewb]

My cat is a house cat and not allowed in the basement..

 

[UltraNewb]

I'll be leaving tomorrow for a week vacation.. Got a good friend who also grows to come over and look after my kids while I am away.. I'll post some new pic's tomorrow but the next batch will be after Sep. 3rd..

 

[UltraNewb]

Back from vacation.. Kids are looking great! Very healthy and bushy.. When is the normal height to let them get before flowering with an 8 ft ceiling?

Left side of tent

Right side

Long view of tent

 

[4smokazonly]

brilliant job mate! looking beautiful! it depends on how you want them i guess, when you flower them they'll almost double in height!
how tall are they atm? keep up with the beautiful work

 

[BigIrishDoode]

been a min since i popped in bro ladies look spot on! depending on strain they can and will go from 10% to 400% bigger ,little trick i use to cut the stretch a bit is to run GLR superior light schedule (its 12/12 but you have the lights come on for 1 hour during the dark time) for 2 weeks before the flip also if you leave the MH going instead of switching to hps it will greatly reduce the amount of stretch, they stretch because they are looking or the kind of light they are getting in veg after they have started showing flowers go to the hps or just add it to the mh so you have both, there is no uvb from a hps but a little from mh, uvb will increase resin and thc something i recently learned, so im going to add a reptile cfl light to my flower tent very soon! by doing these things i just mentioned i have been able to get a strain i grow to go from 300% to 75-100% stretch so i can grow them bigger and get a bigger harvest.
hope this helps and gives you some ideas to chew on.