UglyMuppet's First Grow Easyrider

[UglyMuppet]

after researching for many months i have taken the plunge and started my first grow.

the strain i am growing is Easyrider (lowrider #5/AK47) that i picked up from attitude.

i built a airoponics/DWC cloner that i modified to start my seedlings. the seeds popped less than 12 hours after germinating them in a moist paper towel folded and placed in Tupperware bowl. i found out that placing them on top of the refrigerator was a nice source of warmth. after they had a 1/4 inch root they were then placed into rockwool cubes sprinkled with hydroton and placed them into 2 inch net cups. i have roots that have dropped down and into the water that is oxygenated with (2) 14 inch air stones.

the seeds were started on 10-01-10 and i am now at day 6 after starting the seeds.

the cloner has about 6 gal of distilled water and 1/2 strength of Clonex cloning solution from Growth Technology. the water here is the worst.... so I'm using distilled water i picked up from Vons.

i have the seedlings under 8 CFL and i have a 4 inch computer fan blowing down on them.
i am building a cabinet to house them. under a 600w in a 4 ft high by 4 ft wide by 3 ft deep space. i will post pictures when it is time to move them. but for now they are in a converted storage cabinet lined with a mylar blanket i picked up from wally world.

so ..... here are the pics... i am concerned with the curling leaves... any input?

i LOVE the vibe on this forum... i only post here as the trolls on the other sites are not wanted. thank you to all that have come before me and posted their experience. i would have never started down this journey with out the path everyone has laid out for the new growers like myself. if i can help others by posting my experience i would gladly do so.....

 

[jusohappy]

Nice looking set up!
Best of luck to ya....Ill be watching and rooting for ya

 

[UglyMuppet]

thanks jusohappy.

some root shots i just took....

i am wondering why they are leaning over like they are.... and the leaves are curled.... they have been like this from day one.... do you think i over did the ferts? i am a total new guy.. i check on them every hour or so... just like a dad with newborns.... i added about a gal of just water.... if they don't recover I'm draining and adding just water to flush it and start the ferts over but more diluted...unless some one has an idea of what's going on... i going to do more research..... thanks for you input.

 

[Growheart]

Hey good to see another first timer let's help each other out! I think if the leafs are curling down like that, it could be temperature related. What is the average temperature and high-low at day/night ? I got a $15 temp / hygrometer that gives you highs & lows, pretty handy. Your 4" fan appears to be blowing down on them from right above / in between all the CFL's, what is the temp of the air that it's blowing ? Typically you want a circulation fan to be blowing from below / beside the plants, blowing up through the canopy to get the freshest air as opposed to hot air from above. For above you should have an exhaust fan blowing out of the box, not down.

Cheers, and glad to have you here, you have another follower

 

[UglyMuppet]

i moved the fan up a few inches just now. the cabinet is open to the room air that is controlled by a wall ac unit set at 67 deg with a room fan blowing cool air into the cabinet. the hi low temp can be seen in the pic. the unit i have display the high/low temps. it got a lil warm when i left the door open to the outside... it hit 88 at the highest and 72 at the low. i think the res temp might be a little high. I'm going to toss some water bottles into the freezer right now and toss them in the res for tonight when i close the cabinet.

 

[Growheart]

i moved the fan up a few inches just now. the cabinet is open to the room air that is controlled by a wall ac unit set at 67 deg with a room fan blowing cool air into the cabinet. the hi low temp can be seen in the pic. the unit i have display the high/low temps. it got a lil warm when i left the door open to the outside... it hit 88 at the highest and 72 at the low. i think the res temp might be a little high. I'm going to toss some water bottles into the freezer right now and toss them in the res for tonight when i close the cabinet.

Yeah I don't know anything about hydro just using soil for my first grow but that would make sense. Couldn't tell if it was a temp guage in the one photo. Hopefully a hydro grower can answer that.

 

[UglyMuppet]

just added a dripper set up to feed the top of the plants. I don't think the water was getting to the upper root structure. I had a small pump and a dripper manifold sitting on a shelf. I ran some 1/4 in tubes to the plants and adjusted the flow to have a slow flow. maybe this will help with the curling. but now having two pumps, I'm wondering how this will affect the rez temps. I'll keep an eye on it tonight.

oh , i forgot to mention that I am running the pumps, fan and lights 24/7 until they are ready for the 600w.

 

[UglyMuppet]

now two of my plants are laying on their sides!!!! the leaves are coming back but the stems are not strong enough to hold themselves up. what should i do? should i find something to help support them upright?

 

[Growheart]

now two of my plants are laying on their sides!!!! the leaves are coming back but the stems are not strong enough to hold themselves up. what should i do? should i find something to help support them upright?

Hmm, weird, they look healthy enough, perhaps the fan is blowing too hard on them and pushing them down? Id say some toothpics or small sticks would help them at this point... Fan is good for building stem strengh, but maybe at this stage its blowing on them too hard.

 

[UglyMuppet]

I agree... i moved the fan and now i am using some zip ties as support. the tops are growing like crazy but the stems are not strong enough to support the tops. time will tell.

 

[Growheart]

Hey I found this link you might find useful.

Marijuana Health Problems

Based on this link sounds like it could be a Copper, or Potassium deficiency , or just over fertilizing.

 

[UglyMuppet]

Hey I found this link you might find useful.

Marijuana Health Problems

Based on this link sounds like it could be a Copper, or Potassium deficiency , or just over fertilizing.

awesome!!!! thanks for the link!!! yea i think you are right... i started with the nuts too early. i'm going to drain the res and add just water.

 

[UglyMuppet]

well i am in to day 12
the plants are growing like weeds!!! ha ha i crack myself up... anyways..... a couple of the babys looks a little sick. the leaves are getting spots on them and drying out. WTF?!?!?

i added some more 6500k CFL's so now i am up to 13 now. still running 24hrs/day. i moved the fan that was blowing down onto them and switched to a small 12v fan i had in my truck. it was cheep! (as in i already had it) the other 4 inch computer fan i had is now venting the cabinet. i have both of them being powered by a 12v power supply that i used to power a R/C battery charger. works great and is able to produce over 8 amps of 12v power. i think it could even run one more computer fan if the needs arise.

i changed the water in the tank yesterday with distilled water and lowered the amount of clonex solution. i will be moving the girls to the large airoponics/DWC unit in my newly built grow cabinet next weekend then i will be switching to foxfarms stuff and the 600w gets turned on.

well... on with the pictures... look them over and give me your opinion on why they are looking so wrong....

 

[UglyMuppet]

 

[j4s2u0]

Looking good,I like the last pic...

 

[Growheart]

How close are those lights? If I didn't know any better, based on the leaf sides / tips curling up, drooping leaves would say that it looks like heat stress. Yes they are only CFL's but in the early veg stages, 13 in that close proximity could definitely be considered overkill. I have seen many journals with people who veg with 2-4 CFL's up to 6-8 plants at a time with the proper reflectors.

Just my .02 c

Check out the Plant Abuse guide thats where you'll find all the goods. (link also in my sig its that good)

 

[Growheart]

Also 24 hrs a day is great during seedling stage, but I noticed better growth when I switched to 18/6. Also quicker recovery from stress such as heat stress.

 

[UglyMuppet]

thanks growheart..that make sense. I'm going out to make some light adjustments right now.....

 

[UglyMuppet]

so i took growheart's suggestion and repositioned the light structure higher and lowered the number of lights. i rebuilt my light structure with a bulb count from 13 down to 6. i moved them up a little bit, then i installed a timer so the lights are on a 20/4 schedule. just dropping the amount of lights did bring the temp of the cabinet down 4 deg. now I'll give it a couple of days to recover......

 

[j4s2u0]

Looking nice...they look a little better but I but u will be able to tell more in a couple days,and when I had seedlings I had them going 24 hours a days,after 4 days I switched...as soon as I switch to a schedual that gets darkness I saw wicked growth compared to constant light,,,so u will probably be able to see that as well,looks good though and best of luck...