McBudz Journel - First grow

[McBudz]

I am starting my fist grow I have already been on the boards here and there asking my newb questions.

I started this grow on 7/1.

I germinated 18 bag seeds paper towel methed then transplanted them into medium sized potter. It was done in a MG Potting mix picked up at the depot. I actually started 12 on 7/1 and 6 more on 7/7 after finding out about male.female and I might have to get rid of half.

Also made some orders onlone for some strains that sounded nice.



I let them sit on the porch and take in the real sunlight as my lights had not arrived. I often start things before have everything I need as you will see. I will in this case I finished my bag and had no more source for more, so decided to grow my own. here I am. They did well outside probably could have done better since the direct light did not get to then until about 10:30am or so.

Once My sunleaves nova 150w 6500K arived I transplanted all the seedlings into keg cups with drainage holes melted into the bottoms. Thye fit perfectly grouped together under the light and did well for a while. I think now I need a better ph tester and some appropriate nutes the latter is on the way.

I have Age Old 12-6-6 and tiger bloom coming. SHould be here next week.

I am thinking my plants are getting to a point where they need to eat and may becoming root bound in the keg cups. I can see routes at the drain holes on some. I tried to give some 12-4-8 liquad feed from miracle grow but had no idea how much to dilute so I used less than half a cap full in a liter of water. Got scarred the next day and flushed all the plants. Got some help on here and order 12-6-6 liquid food and tiger bloom for now. Also looking for a good ph meter.

Most of my plants are very bushy which I like. One is lanky and reminds of charlie browns christmas tree. Oh well hopefully its male and will get plucked.

Some of the plants touch the light when I was working and caused little burns here and there. Hopefully they will heal and get over it. I have moved the light to about 18inches off the plants as I am also scared they might be getting a little cooked. Until I figure oput what my ph really is and I have a known good nute mix I want to rule out anything else.

I will be transplanting into 3 gallon pots tuesday when they arrive.


As far as my grow room goes am using a 2" x4" x 8" closet with a shelf through the middle giving me 2 - 2" x 4" x 4" areas to work with.

Painted the closet latex matte flat white.

I have included hanging 27W/100W CFLs at 5500K to help spread the light area in the bottom of the closet.

Lights Are on at 24 hours at this point

Also arriving Tuesday will be my 2 x 400W HPS setups with ducted reflectors. I will use these for the flowering and maybe with the vegging as well. Trying to keep the plants below 3 feet. Eventually once I get going I'd like to have clone/veg in top part and flower in the bottom. I will have to devise a way to keep the 2 light proof from each other.

Closet stays at about 80 degrees and 50% humidity right now with any real ventilation system in place. I use a window fan to circulate the air. withthe bedroom ambient air.


I'll try to post some pics as soon as I figure out how.. peace

[FreakNature]

Sounds exciting McBudz; wishing all good things for your little ladies.

[McBudz]

Some pics if I have it figured out..

The bottom floor of the grow closet. lisghts will be replaced by 400W HPS in a month or so for flowering



Pic of plant looking ill. Maybe ph issue?



Babies at 15 days smaller ones at 8 days. 7 day head start for the bigger ones.

[shaggy_420]

looking good man
+reps for good luck

[Panther420]

lookin good. I'll be watching your progress. Best of luck.

[DaMagoMan]

Look good to me, nice setup.

Welcome to the BrotherHood

[4twenty4all]

Nice clean setup you have, keep up the good work, looking good.

[McBudz]

Think I have a over water condition see my posts and pics in thread :

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/ge...-dj-short.html

Please tell me what you think. Will they become compost?

[McBudz]

About 2/3's have wilted away :( I think I over watered and over nut'd with my mg liquafeed. bad idea. Couldn't wait a few days I have 2 that look fine and about 4 that are questionable. Oh well this is how I learn, can be told something a thousand times but until I do it myself....

Good side is I have 6 Hindu Kush sproutes that are unnaffected since they weren't fed anything. I have 1 Maui Waui and 1 NL Big Bud. These guys (hopefully gals) will not suffer the same fate.

However I did have a very hard time germinating these bought seeds. Hindu Kush was 6 for 6 with paper towel and tinfoil method. However NL BB, MW and some freeby skunk somethings went 1 for 5, 1 for 5 and 0 for 5 on the sprouts. HK were ready in 2 days and the other just seemed to barely split open then rotted. Since they were in thr wet papertowel for so long.

Anyone else have more trouble germinating seeds from a seed boutique than with bag seeds? Why 1 strain so much more successful than the others. Is there a better way?

At this point I have transplanted the wounded soldiers into their 3 gallon pots that came in today. I added very little water and will let dry out for 2 days before watering again. However I will feel around the root ball a few times a day and check for signs that they are due for water. I feel like flushing them out to get the nutes out but I feel like overwatering is half the issue here. I will let dry out good then flush and leave for a few days and check progress. I dont expect too much growth over the next week or so on these shocked plants but would like to see some fresh green come from the growth top.

At which point should I clip the wilted leaves if they do not get any firmness back?

The 2 400W HPS lights came in. Holy crap what a light. So much larger than what I had imagined. Serious brightness too. I am only going to need 1 in my setup so I have backup in case of problems or if I expand.

[DaMagoMan]

They may pull out of it,
never know till they're dead.

Bag seed is most of the time fresher, has a higher moisture content
Than seeds from a seed bank.
Therefore they may take longer to germinate.

The wilted leafs will fall off if they die.
If they obstruct light from other tips or bud sites, clip them.

[McBudz]

Some plants flat out wilted away and died. SOme are hangin on and I beleive they will pull through.

When Clipping leaves if they do indeed need clipping do you clip the whole stem coming from the main branch or just at the actual leaf where it connects to the stem? Sorry for stupid questions but I've never grown anything but hair and that seems to show up in the wrong places.

I changed my closet setup around to make 2 rooms and make room for 1 of the 400W HPS lights. Trying to figure out how to vent it out of my closet. I would like to pass it through a filter as well.

I will post some pics and see if anyone has any ideas how I could do this keeping it as discreet as possible and with least distruction to the closet as I do rent. Peace..

[DaMagoMan]

Only stupid question is the One you didn't ask.

whole stem

as for the venting and filtering,
that's tough without being there.

For 30-40$ you can pickup a small room size air cleaner.
if you have space under the door, you can get intake there
and use the heat of the light to exhaust at the top/ceiling of the space.
a passive type thang,
rising warm air pulls in new air thang.

Hope that helps.


Oh yeah, that too,
transplant like BubbaKush says.
If they are sending roots out the drain holes,
It's Time for bigger containers.

[BubbaKush]

i would move them to 1 gal pots

[McBudz]

Why 1 gallon pots at this point. Should they stay or eventually go up to 3 gallon or more. I intead to flower at anywhere between 2-4 feet. Does this help with the soil not staying too moist?

ANyways here are some pics of my renovations to the closet to accomidate the HPS 400W and give me essentially 2 rooms.

See top and bottom "rooms". HPS at the top.

I have some seedlings and cfls up top for now.



Looking up at the HPS. I aded the 3/4 ply wood to the ceiling so I can liberally screw into it and know it it hold what unlike the crappy plaster at this place. Plus I wont have to patch so much up when I move out.



4 Inch vent thrpough top of closet for exhaust




With such a small space from the reflector vent and the wall where the vent is what would be the best bet for a fan?



Space I'm working with... Wires are temp for some cfl's hanging there right now..



6 to 4 reducer to keep it smaller and cheaper. SHould be ok right?

[McBudz]

Maybe I should add they are now in 3 gallon pots and seedlings in keg cups.











Can you tell I tried to FIM this on in the past not sure if it worked right...





Some HK, MW, and NL BB.. under cfl cuz the big plants are taking up the floro. Need to redesign the lighting downstairs to maximize the space.