PotPie's First Grow - Quest for Indoor Gardening Nollij

[LiveTour]

Very cool thread, I wish I would have thought of soil when I slapped together my grow-room and started some seedlings in MG. Anywho very nice I read of a 400watt hps that will be cool to see I'll be watching!! LMFAO about your dog

[PotPie]

Week 7

Diligent readers will ask themselves, " What the hell happened to week 6?"

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the grow last week. Basically, the girls got bigger. I still don't have my cabinet done and I am lacking a place to put the ladies into flower until that is complete. So they just keep vegging and growing. However I do have some news this week. Some of the plants are starting to show signs of pre-flower and as of now I have one confirmed girl out of the 12.
She is one of the tallest plants I have. Once again I'm concerned that I haven't gotten them into flower soon enough because she is about 28" tall. she is sitting on top of 10" of soil. That being said I only have about 24" above her to grow in the cabinet. that lead me to a couple of questions about what to do next (aside from finishing the damn cabinet. )
Is it too late to top? How much can I top if this is still an option? Is LST a better suggestion or it too late for this too? Supercropping maybe? Supercropping doesn't really help me with the existing height but it will slow them down. I think I am going to need until next weekend to get the cab finished so I'm probably looking at 30-32" before they go into flower if I can't do something with them.

If anyone has some workable ideas I am definitely in need of them. This is still a bag seed grow that I did as an experiment so If it doesn't work out, so be it. I gained a lot of experience and that was my main purpose. Obviously, I would like to harvest some meds too.

I am thinking of LST ing one or two that haven't shown sex yet and cropping one or two also. I realize I'm late to the game. I am going to leave the confirmed female alone for now until I get a better handle on this. Worst case scenario, I can harvest the main cola early if it starts bumping into the lights and let the lower buds finish.

Here's some pics of week 7 since the seeds first got wet.

Lights out

I can't tell if this is balls forming or just some more leaves which seem to be sprouting from everywhere.


Thanks for looking.

[l8tnightskunk]

looking good! and i really cant tell

[obxgardener]

Plants look happy to me! Great job I'd give you reps again if I could!

I don't know if it's too late to top them - I had some luck just bending the plant over with wire at this stage. You are definitely facing headroom issues.

[Ms.Fox]

I can't really tell yet either. Just keep an eye on that one. ;-) Here's a thread that has pics of both sex's preflowers.

What are preflowers?

[pan4gold49]

Looking good PotPie.

Your plants are great.
Good job man.

+rep

Pan4

[Vexer]

Dang potpie lookin good, I hope my plants look like that at week 7 lol.

[PotPie]

Hey everyone, Thanks for checking in on me last week.

Week 8 of Veg / Week 1 of Flower

I finally started hustling (a little) and got my cabinet finished. Well, not really finished as much as ready to accept plants on the flowering side. I'll try to update the cabinet build thread tomorrow. The link is in my sig.

As I mentioned last week, I have one confirmed girl. I only feel confident enough to raise that number to two this week.

I put 6 of the plants into flower and another 6 are still in veg. My plan right now is to top the 6 in veg tomorrow. As I find males in the flowering cabinet. I'll toss them and throw another plant into flower. I hope to get 4 decent girls out of this. I would like to follow McBudz advice and keep four in the cabinet to the finish. As big as these plants are now I might have trouble with even that few.

Originally Posted by obxgardener

I don't know if it's too late to top them - I had some luck just bending the plant over with wire at this stage. You are definitely facing headroom issues.

I tied all of the plant except for one or two of the shorties down last week. Tonight I bent them a little more. Thanks for the tip, it seems to be helping. I also watered, trimmed a few brown leaves and sprayed some neem oil. The damn gnats are starting to come on strong again. Might be time for the Pyrethrum.

BTW, I was reading an "Ask Ed" article and he wrote that he tops about two weeks before inducing flowering. That might work for me as I have to compost males in the cabinet. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Ms.Fox

I can't really tell yet either. Just keep an eye on that one. ;-) Here's a thread that has pics of both sex's preflowers.

What are preflowers?

Thanks Ms. Fox. I'm still having a little trouble figuring out who's who but I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

Originally Posted by pan4gold49

Looking good PotPie.

Your plants are great.
Good job man.

+rep

Pan4

Welcome Pan4 and many thanks for the reps!

Originally Posted by Vexer

Dang potpie lookin good, I hope my plants look like that at week 7 lol.

Here's a quick snap of the girls in their new home. Day 2 of Flower.
I haven't figured out the settings on my camera yet. I got some weird strobing trying to shoot the HPS.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to offer up any suggestions. The more I do this the more I realize that I need all the help I can get.lol

[l8tnightskunk]

Looking like a jungle!

[pan4gold49]

Nice jungle PotPie.

Doing very well.

Pan4

[HazeSeeker]

nice job
++reps

[fineas]

I get some weird shoots in the HPS but with only one camera.. Magnetic thing I guess. There is alot around us that we just cannot see..
Your gals are growing nice..

[PotPie]

Hey everyone! We're on week 9 of veg and entering week 2 of flower for the girls in the cabinet.

Thanks l8night, pan and fineas!

Originally Posted by HazeSeeker

nice job
++reps

Welcome HazeSeeker and many thanks for the reps. Croatia in the house!

Originally Posted by fineas

I get some weird shoots in the HPS but with only one camera.. Magnetic thing I guess. There is alot around us that we just cannot see.

Yeah, I'm not sure if it is some sort of interference from the ballast or more likely some thing to do with having AC and DC lights in the room and some funkiness in the refresh rate (Hz). I may try a different camera tomorrow and see what I get.

Well lots of good news and a little bad news this week. The bad news is I have 2 boys so far. I tossed them in the garage and I'll probably mulch them tomorrow. I also had some heat problems in the last week. The first full day in the cabinet got up to about 96F. Unfortunately, The only room I can put the cabinet in is also the hottest room in the house, aside from the garage. I also had some problems getting my ventilation set up correctly. The weather has since cooled off a bit and I got my ventilation working a lot better after that first disasterous day. Then my temps usually stay below 84. I know that still a little too hot but its about all I can do right now. A few days ago I had several full seemingly healthy fan leaves just fall off of several plants. I think this was caused by me letting them get too dry. They are drinking a lot more water than when they were in veg. I was watering every 5 or 6 days. Now I am watering every 2 or 3 days. I know the heat is contributing significantly to the falling leaves and the increased water consumption. I am keeping a much closer eye on them and trying to keep the grow room cooler. The ambient temp in the room is running around 80 during the day. The cabinet maxes out at 84 most days. I may have to get a portable AC unit to supplement the central air but I really don't to spend that money if I don't have to.

The good news - 4 girls so far! Again, I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.
By throwing out the 2 boys, I made room for two more of the veg plants to go in there. I think I will have to whittle this down to 4 plants in the long run because I let them get too damn big before I put them into flower. Live and learn.

[l8tnightskunk]

Hey PotPie! sorry to hear about the males and i would agree mulch them. wow 96 degrees hope your babies did alright! and if you have to man then the ac unit would be the best thing but i would try to add more ventilation to it to see if it works first you know add a couple fans and such then see how it goes. and ive hear of people use ice to keep their temps down never tried it myself but heard it works. And i wouldnt worry about the watering as much because i know that when i started to flower with mine they were drinking water down like no other but somtimes it is due to the heat, just like one gets dehydrated. Very nice! congrats on the girls! and i agree 4 girls not bad! they are gonna be huge!

[fineas]

Hi Potpie!
Oh No the heat factor!!! Today its 96 outside! I have an extra unit just for the flower room and when the ac died (used to be a winecellar in a previous life) even with doors open, a central aircon, vornado fans, it was still hot as 'hades' in there. Those Lights do put out some heat, had to finish that grow with CFL and stop the HPS due to the heat.
Everything outdoors needs watering every 2 days now & I expect it will need daily soon... I composted 2 beautiful males recently. damn they were purty cept for the little balls..LOL ANd just like you, when I removed the boys the rest of the girls just took over the room. I think they will take as much space as you give them.. ANd I DO think they will grow more productivley with room to grow.
Good luck on your grow. o<