Punk Rock Caramelicious - First Grow

[Alkhemist]

loving your lighting set up and space!! one of the great things about being on a budget is you are kinda forced to think more creatively about setups etc- which imho can be far more satisfying when your grow succeeds and you get a good yield
yeah mould issues are inevitable with a smaller grow space and higher temps and humidity- has happened to me a few years back.. after a few weeks in the same place i lifted the pots to see there was a circle of damp mouldy carpet underneath a few of the pots!

good luck!

 

[Outragedpluto]

hey there Rockers. im liking the grow. i as well have a ghetto setup. my lights are suspended with hemp twine and chains lol. the biggest advice i could give you is a harsh one and i apologize but i made the same mistake. those grow lights from Lights of America are shit. i unfortunately bought like 10 of these things and learned that there lumen output was not even close to what cannabis needs. i had 6 lights on one plant and got a meesly 9 grams from a 18 inch plant. only reason my buds were dense was the flowering LED i had helped her along in flowering. the only use for these lights is cloning and seedlings for maybe 2 weeks before they need something more powerful. when i started my second grow i got rid of the flouro and bought me some cfl's. i spent maybe $30 on the new lights and setup for them. all the setup is are 2 power strips with 6 CFL. i have a socket adapter that allows me to plug the light bulb directly into the power strip. but seriousyl if you can somehow return some of those lights i would and get some CFL set up. if your more interested i can help. and i understand your budget!!! my budget is very small so i will make sure its the cheapest and most efficient for you!! with how old those seedlings are they should be alot further along and the CFL will help speed it up.
and other than the lights your setup looks nice! maybe add a fan to your space to get the little girls moving a little. this will help her stem thicken.

Keep it green you 2!!!

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Thanks guys
Sorry I'm just now checking in, I was very busy last week studying and taking one of my cosmetology state board exams and then my in-laws were visiting.

Outragedpluto:
Yeah we're not thrilled with the lights and we're moving towards the tube lights being supplemental and adding more CFLs. It's just taking a while. Thanks so much for your input, we need all the help we can get.

I have some new pics and will get those posted in a minute.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

I'm worried about these...

This one is MUCH smaller than the others...it doesn't really seem to be growing, but it doesn't seem to dying either...I moved it to a spot more directly under a CFL today and it seems to have straightened up a little...

This one is also smaller than the others...both this one and the previous one have been very slow growing for some reason...

This one is just really weird...it has always looked strange, but it is growing, if slowly...don't know what these brown and yellow spots are though, we have only been using water, no nutrients.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

The rest are looking pretty good...they're all at about 5 weeks, give or take...just a few pics of the ones that seem to be doing really well.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Oh,and I'm concerned about this one too...it's directly under a CFL, but for some reason it has twisted further...I moved it before I took this pic...I'm hoping that it will straighten up.

This one looks pretty good but I want to know what this spot is...

 

[Smoke2Js]

light burn, possibility. the plant may be trying to find a comfort zone. the lights might be a little close.

 

[Smoke2Js]

The leaves should be reaching for the light, not running from it.

 

[Outragedpluto]

looking good rockers!! its going to be a slow process to grow with CFL and flouro. im no expert but i bet it takes twice as long to get to the same size if you used HID lights. when i move this summer im possibly going for a HID light system. i just cant deal with excess heat where im growing now. that spot looks like light burn or PH problem in the soil. have you been feeding them? if/when you feed do you use full strength as shown on the bottle??? may be an imbalance in the soil. not to sure though. keep up the good work though they are trying to do there best for ya!!!

Keep it green Rockers!!!

 

[Outragedpluto]

ooo and as for the plant that is all bent over. is there a fan nearby that may be blowing her over?? or perhaps she was a very stretched seedling that hen she started growing true leaves got top heavy and fell over and is now just growing horizontally instead of vertical. not to sure on that one lol!!!

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Hey guys...

The one with the brown spots on it is looking a little better. Although I'm prepared for the fact that it may not make it, it was one of the free seeds and has always been weird. I'm sort of surprised it's made it this far.

I just looked through someone else's caramelicious grow journal and while I know you (OutragedPluto) said they should be bigger, I was shocked at HOW much bigger. WOW. They should probably be about twice as big if I'm gauging it right.

We are definitely planning on getting more lights this weekend after PunkRockGuy gets paid next...but in the meantime, should we just go to 24 hours of lights to try to compensate? It would only be 3 more hours, but I thought it might help a little.

Oh, and OutragedPluto, to answer your last question, there IS a fan in the room but it's up on a dresser, not right on the plants. That one is starting to straighten up little by little since I turned it around. I think it will be alright once the lighting is more even.

 

[Outragedpluto]

I would stick with your lighting as it is. Nature has darkness so you want to give them it as well. I have read that the "best" light schedule for veg is 18/6. But this could be debated for days about. The main point is that when the lights are on you want to think as the plant is just absorbing that energy and storing it in "batteries" in the plant. Then at night is when the magic happens. It's when the plant stretches its roots and uses all that stored energy and builds new cells and builds new leaves. I had a plant that literally grew 3 inches in an 8 hour night time indoors. It was amazing that you could notice every morning a big difference in her size!! Hope all this rambling helps;-) keep it green rockers!!!

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Finally had a chance to check back in. Thanks Outragedpluto...the day I posted last we did decide to go ahead and put the lights on 24 hours and it actually has made a big difference, believe it or not...the plants have started to really shoot up and have tons of new leaves. We are having to raise the lights almost every day now.

The soil seems to dry out faster now too and we've been giving them more water and some nutrients, but I have some concerns about some of the leaves. I will get new pics posted in a few.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Ok...here we go.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Now for the close-ups of trouble spots...

These two look especially bad...

I meant to post this one in the first picture post...

 

[PunkRockGirl]

The two that look especially bad were free seeds...frankly I'm amazed they've made it this far. Still nursing them along til they show their sex, but they are growing far more slowly than the others and I'm wondering if we should just go ahead and toss them.

 

[UrbanGrower]

Hey there PunkRockGirl

Hope you don't mind me joining the ride, everything looks great so far.

Is it okay if I ask you a couple of q's? What is your ph and ppms after mixing nutrients? what quality water are you using? (tap, RO, spring)? and how often are you watering? Your using T5's correct? You should put them real close (max 4" away) with a fan blowing on them.


Sorry for all those questions lol but it'll will help to diagnose the minor issues

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Hey! Sure, join the party.

We don't know what the pH and ppms are, unfortunately. I was going to get a pH meter last week but the only one I could find in a store was over $100. :/ And PunkRockGuy's check was short last week so I couldn't even order a cheap one. It's on my mind a lot though and I hate that we are presently unable to monitor that.
We are using distilled water and watering whenever the soil seems dry enough, although the past several days it has seemed dry almost every day or so. We're not sure how often to use nutrients at this stage, but have been adding them sparingly here and there. Our lights are CFLs and fluorescents. We're keeping them about one inch above them or so (although the free seeds aren't nearly that close because they are so much smaller, I need to boost them) and we have a fan that blows above them so they just get just enough wind. Also using vinegar over eggshells for CO2.

 

[UrbanGrower]

Hey! Sure, join the party.

We don't know what the pH and ppms are, unfortunately. I was going to get a pH meter last week but the only one I could find in a store was over $100. :/ And PunkRockGuy's check was short last week so I couldn't even order a cheap one. It's on my mind a lot though and I hate that we are presently unable to monitor that.
We are using distilled water and watering whenever the soil seems dry enough, although the past several days it has seemed dry almost every day or so. We're not sure how often to use nutrients at this stage, but have been adding them sparingly here and there. Our lights are CFLs and fluorescents. We're keeping them about one inch above them or so (although the free seeds aren't nearly that close because they are so much smaller, I need to boost them) and we have a fan that blows above them so they just get just enough wind. Also using vinegar over eggshells for CO2.

Thanks for the warming welcome PunkRockGirl!


I feel you about the expensive meters...seems like everything in this industry is blazing expensive. I use a cheapo $30 ph meter that my local hydro store swears by, it also reads the temperature of the water. Just to tie you over you can always buy those $6 ph strips that you just dip into water and hold it up to the chart? those things never lie and don't need calibration fluid but can be tricky to pinpoint exact ph. What strength are you adding the nutrients at? I think roots organics is pretty hot and you should be good till week 3-4 so if you've added nutes way before than that could be a contribution. I would put the 2 shorties on blocks/phonebooks to get more light. Cool way for co2 btw!...also, I like to let the pots dry out to the point of almost wilting, it makes the roots more robust because they're searching for water.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Cool, thanks! Where can I get pH strips? I haven't seen those.

We were adding nutrients at the beginning but stopped when we found out we weren't supposed to add them til later. I'm not sure what the strength of the nutrients is, I'll have to get PunkRockGuy to post as he is the one who has been mixing them.

Our plants are about a month and a half old or so, I think we planted them like January 7 or so.