Soil, Cabinet, CFL, Supercrop, FIM 1st Grow

[Ugwad]

Hello and welcome to my Natural, stealthy, cabinet grow. Much credit to all those who've kept a journal. It really takes some balls to potentially flop on your face in front of everyone. Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes and my successes.

My Grow first ever grow.....

Seeds - Big Bud (BB) & Bubblegum (BG)
Soil - Fox Farms Ocean Forrest with ~20% perlite
Containers - Germinating in 1 gallon pots. Transplanting to 4 gallon pots.
Cabinet - Sterilite Cabinet 25-3/4" L x 19" W x 69-1/2" H
Lights - 200 Watt CFL (1 x 6500 & 1 x 2700).
Hood - One of those cheapo Wing things
Nutrients - Would like to go natural with blackstap molasses, bat shit, kelp...
Water - Distilled, Reverse osmosis, maybe filtered and all pH adjusted.
Air flow - The plan is PC fans blowing out with passive intake. A small fan to blow on the lights.
Odor Control - I have plans for a simple Ona crystal deodorizing box the exhaust fans will blow through. Details when the time comes.
Other details will come as I go

I only have room to grow 1 or 2 plants. I tried to germinate one seed each of Big bud, Bubblegum, Northern Lights and Pure Afgani. Only the Big bug and Bubblegum made it, the latter two were sill born.

Germination - I soaked the seeds for about 22 hours. Longer than I intended not sure if that caused the still births. I doubt it.

I planted in the 1 gal pots on 1/25 and covered with plastic wrap. 36 hours later the BB sprouted and 48 hours the BG followed.

Here are some pics of the babies on day 2 after sprouting. They are temporarily in a closet. My cabinet will be arriving shortly. Is this considered kiddie bud porn???

Here's the Big Bud Baby

Here's the Bubblegum Baby

Here's the Temp Veg Closet

My cabinet has not arrived yet, but I wanted to get things moving and start the veg while I waited for delivery. I'm confident my modifications and alterations will be a total bitch and take me 10 times longer than need be, but I'm sure it will be ready to rock well before I need to transplant.

Looking forward to your expertise and guidance. I've learned much from all you brave souls who've made journals & commented on journals. I'm ready to learn all about patience!

 

[Ugwad]

A question for those wiser than myself. I had originally intended to use one of the 200 Watt CFL's for vegging and the other for flowering. But I'm thinking that I should use both the 2700 & 6500 CFL together for both vegging and flowering.

That would give me a not too shabby 400 Watts of CFL light for my 1 or 2 plants. I just have to jury rig a new reflector for those big boys. These CFL's are about 15" long.

I figure I'll just rotate the pots every day. Is this an OK thing to do?

 

[Ugwad]

There was a terrible tragedy today! I was all excited to upload my day 10 pics. The babies were thirsty so I watered them before the photo shoot. I left them to drain and turned my back on them for about 5 mins. When I got up I saw my beautiful Big Bud, who was the biggest of the two, lying in the hallway. No the baby didn't decide to take a stroll. :-( My fucking cat decided to uproot her and give her a good chewing. I'm still not talking to my fucking cat. It was like that little shit head plunged a giant kitty claw through my heart!

Well, I tried replanting the my mangled Big Bud baby. Hoping it'll over come the trauma and perhaps respond like it was just a mad kitty topping at 10 days :-( I decided to cover the pot with plastic wrap, treating like a clone. She's was pretty wilted and the injured leaves were drying out. So I think covering it, makes sense.

I have the feeling this might be a grow journal read only by me. But if anyone does happen to stop by and has some advice regarding rehabilitation of a 10 day old baby after a brutal kitty mauling, I'd be very appreciative.

An update on my cabinet. Things are coming along nicely. I've pretty much answered my own question regarding using both veg and flower lights together. Seems several people approve of this. Because of this the winged reflector fixture I bought is of no use and I've started building my own DIY double bulb fixture. I will update with pictures shortly.

As I expected the cabinet and DIY fixture have been a lot more work than I anticipated! But I think in the end I will have an interesting cabinet with some neat features.

I probably should germinate some more seeds seeing as I was risking it having just 2 plants that may both be boys. Alas, now that my poor Big Bud may have suffered mortal injuries and I'm really gambling several weeks of tender loving care on what might be a boy.

 

[luxx]

pics of the injured? any breaks in the stem? makes me kinda glad my cats only like eating the leaves. sorry about your baby tho. did u get the new cab yet?

 

[Ugwad]

Hey Luxx, it's nice to know I'm not alone here! I've been working on the cabinet all day and now I'm too tired for pics. However, to my surprise my Big Bud has begun to stand up after only about 5 hours under the plastic wrap tent I made for 'em.

I'm not too sure when to take the tent off. I wonder if the plant is really coming back to life or it's just plumped up with moisture. Regardless, it seems to be the right thing a the moment.

The main stem was not damaged, but the main leaves were hit pretty hard. It was hard to see through the condensation on the plastic wrap, but the leaf that was drying up, looks like it's dying. I think I might have to amputate.

I'll have to read a tutorial on topping, because I don't think I remember the proper way to remove leaves. I guess it's not really topping, it's probably too small to do that any way. But I'm sure there's a right and wrong way to remove a leaf. Poor thing :-(

I'll post some pics on Sunday.

 

[Ugwad]

Here's my Day 11 update, including gore shots of the evil kitty massacre. For those with weak stomachs you might not want to look.

Here's my unscathed Bubblegum.

Both plants have these wrinkled leaves. What is that from?

The ICU recuperation tent...

Ouch! But standing up today

Looks a lot worse in person...

Big Bud is closer to the ground because I planted half the stem in the soil hoping to get more roots going.

If anyone knows what the crinckly wrinkly leaves are about please let me know. If anything, I'm under-watering. The temp runs 74-81. Humidity is very low where I live. Runs about 25-30%. Have no humidifier right now. Won't fit in the cabinet either.

Thanks!

 

[luxx]

looks to me like a ph problem, try testing the ph from the water after it has run through the soil. might need to adjust your pre-water ph to offset the difference.

i want to assume that you didnt give them nute yet due to their age, so you can rule out a nute problem.

as for the injured one, she looks to be alive, so dont give up on her yet. mj plants are more resilient than u think.

not sure about the humidity tent at this time, might not be needed or even good for it. plants need air flow too right?

 

[Ugwad]

Hey Luxx, thanks for the advice. I'm using distilled water and I double checked with my meter and the pH is ~7.0.

You're right, I didn't plan on nutes until at least 3 weeks. With the fan going and the low humidity I think they're drying out pretty fast. But my understanding is that under-watering causes wilting lifeless leaves and over watering causes firm curled leaves. It it's the water than mine are more like over watered. Dunno, I doubt I'm over watering. I've only even had a fair amount of run off once.

You're probably right about the tent. I don't want any mold. I felt the leaves on the injured one and they seemed very dry to me, but the Bubblegum's leaves felt exactly the same.

What do you think about those injured leaves? Should I just leave them alone? That's my inclination.

 

[luxx]

Its pretty obvious when a over watering and a underwater occur in my experience, since a few times i would wait till i seen signs of under watering to let me know its time to water, which i know is wrong now, each time the plant wilts or becomes unhealthy, it isn't growing at the potential rate it could be at. i wait for the soil to become almost dry, then i water with 1/3 or 1/2 the container size.


As for the leaves, what i do, if its brown, i cut it off, allows the plant to concentrate growth on the green parts. Also when the plants are bigger, it allows light to get to a lower node that might have been under the dead leaf, soaking up all the good light.

 

[Ugwad]

I calibrated my pH meter and checked the distilled water and the run off. The distilled water was roughly 6.9 and the run off was 6.7. The meter was driving me a bit crazy. But those numbers were fairly consistent.

Dunno about the injured plant. I've had the tent off for 5 hours or so and it's not looking so good. It's upright, but all the leaves are wilting badly and the stem is looking a thinner. I'll leave it off until the morning and if it's the same or worse I'll go back to the tent. I think I better germ some more seeds! ;-)

 

[Ugwad]

I put the Big Bud back in the ICU tent. Even if she makes it, I think the delay in growth will put her a week or two behind. I've already got some seeds in water. I was really excited to see how the Big Bud would come out. It took off so fast.

Still stumped on the crinkly wrinkly leaves. One thought is that the temporary veg closet is an actual closet and while there's a fan in there, I don't have any ventilation. It's not an air tight closet by any means, but there's little flow of fresh air. I didn't think those little plants would need it, as the closet is very large in comparison to them. Still I've opened one side - sliding doors - about 5 inches. I'll let ya know if that makes a difference.

 

[Lou Weed]

Hey man, I know how you feel about the cat situ. I've had the same problem with every grow I've had... oddly enough, it was a different cat every time. Now, I grow a Catnip plant to keep the cat's attention away from the babies. If she ever gets into the room, the Catnip gets mangled, and not the precious pot.

As for the crinkly wrinkly leaves, I've seen that before, and it wasn't really a problem. I think it is poor drainage/over-watering. I'd say, cut back on the water for a few days, see if that helps.

I'll be watching to see what the the problem really is, and how well you do.

Think happy thoughts

 

[Ugwad]

Hey Lou Weed! I had for real LOL when I read your name. I'm guessing that's not your real name ;-) I never thought I'd be posting on this site when I signed up, so I didn't make an appropriate nick. Ugwad is an old nick from a different sort of thing that I'll refrain from mentioning. But I like your nick a lot! Going with the rock-star theme, how about Robert Potplant? Damn, there's no way to change my nick without re-registering. No one steel that! ;-)

That's a good idea about growing catnip. I've heard they like wheat grass too. Not that I think it will stop that bastard from eating unattended potplants, but he seems to be hungry from some greens. I wanted to have a lot of house plants in my place and I bought a bunch of nice ones. The veg eating kitty munched them all to death! All except for those green vine like office plants that are impossible to kill. Those he won't touch.

Ya know I really don't think I'm over watering. I've had two occasions where the soil was definitely too dry and they were just as wrinkly. I do mist the plants with water from a spray bottle several times a day. Not sure if the crinkly look was there before or after I started doing that. I can't imagine that would be a problem. Rain water is distilled water and well I think rain is something plants like.

But I'll definitely take your advice regarding not worrying too much about it and thinking happy thoughts. ;-)

I was reading one of OldSkoool's grow journals and he used Miracle grow soil and tap water and had a beautiful crop. I guess some people just have a green thumb.

 

[NobleWeed]

Commendable for first grow +rep

 

[Ugwad]

Thanks NobleWeed! I'll take that as a sympathy rep for the kitty mauling.

I think you guys will like my grow box, I just wanted to wait until it's finished before posting pics. I'm waiting on a 12 V 1 Amp AC to DC power charger to run my PC fans. When that comes I can finish things up.

Hey GrowBot thanks for the tip. I think I have let my pots dry out at least a couple of times, but I'm willing to try it until the point of a little wilting to see if the wrinkles disappear. Though, my Bubblegum is looking a little less crinkly today. I doubt letting more air in the closet could have helped so quickly, but who knows.

I was intending to post pics every 7 to 10 days, but I'll make an exception for educational purposes today

 

[Ugwad]

OK, I hope this isn't redundant or exceedingly dull. It's only a day later...

The Bubblegum. Looks less crinkly with the flash. But I'm wrong, it's no better today.

An upskirt shot. Sexy!!!

The injured BigBud :-( It's perked up again after being in the tent. New seeds soaking in the bull pen...

Here you can see how stunted the Big Bud is in comparison... it was once the bigger thicker more robust plant.

 

[luxx]

check this out,
Help Please. Seedlings Leaves Are Starting To Twist See Pics!

think you ph meters are calibrated?
u should go get some ph up or ph down, and test them to see if your meters are close.
every other forum ive read about it has mentioned either nute burn, sudden change of light (ex. going from cfl to hps) and ph being whacked.

these forums are packed with people having the same problems, check it out.

 

[LeenieBean]

Hey I'm new to this place too, doin my first grow ever right now (got a journal started too). Sorry to see your poor BB took the beats from kitty! Looks like you're doin a good job bringing her back to life. I'd lock my kitty in a closet if he ever pulled that shit around here!

Good luck kids lookin good even with the setback P BAD KITTY!

 

[Ugwad]

Hey Leeniebean, thanks for stopping by! Ya know the kitty would love to get locked in the closet, that's where the weed babies lives. I think he's a little jealous of the attention I give them too. Will check out your journal after I post this.

Regarding my wrinkling leaves. I was just reading that 420 LED competition journal and the plants had very similar wrinkling. Someone commented that this is caused by having the lights too close and that backing off will correct the problem.

That's very possible in my case. I have a pretty strong 200 Watt CFL. Initially I don't think the light was too close, but I didn't have a fan either - the temps were running in the mid to upper 80's. Then I got a fan and brought the lights down pretty close ~ 3-4 inches.

I raised them up now and we shall see...

 

[PhishyPhil]

im in buddy, best of luck on your first go, and especially with the ICU patient. any new growth on her is a good sign