My first grow. California Dream

[Medifreddie]

hey Mes... Just checkin in. Lookin good bro. A couple things if I may:

I may have an answer to your rockwool mystery. Assuming your ph & all that stuff was OK and you didnt over/under water & your lighting was within tolerance in terms of wattage and distance, your problem may have been as simple as making sure to compress the rockwool area surrounding the stem once the seedling sprouts. I suspect this because from your first pics, I can see the rockwool planting holes are not compressed/compacted around the seedling stems.

What happens is the seed shell itself, as it is being pushed towards the surface, can create a void in the rockwool allowing air to enter the now exposed root system(Very common.) Unlike soil, where simple watering will keep the stem area closed & compacted, rockwool cubes have to be gently "kneaded" around the stem. I use the eraser end of a pencil to gently compress/close the hole around the stem, again, once the shell clears the rockwool. The rockwool cubes are pretty bullet proof & easy to work with if you pay attention to 2 primary details. Avoid letting the cubes dry out & keeping the stem area compacted. Somethin for the future.

Your last pics. You may or may not be headed for trouble with your lighting set-up. Your bulbs appear to be 150watt flouros? If the case and it looks like you have 3, that's 450watts of lighting. IMO, that's a lot of light for seedlings. Some will say no problem, me I use 2- 40watt T-5 tube flouros for the first couple of months w/seedlings. These allow me to keep the lites 2-6 inches above the seedlings and control excessive stretching. Too strong of lite the seedling can grow too fast, resulting in a spindly & weak stem and things can quickly get all out of whack. A common problem with over-lighting is the stem & the first leaves get out of balance. Too large of first leaves before the over stretched stem can handle the upper leaf weight. Something to watch for with your set-up.

"Flippin" to an HD in a week or so? I cant imagine throwing a 3-4 inch seedling under an HD so soon. My seedlings dont see the big lights until they reach 6-8 inches (several months) simply because it's just too much light for seedlings to process too soon. Go slow bro. Youll get there...peace n good luck MF

[Medifreddie]

Mes, these plants were "hardened off" from bein beneath 2-40w 4ft flouros apprx 2 weeks ago and put under the 600w. They were kept under the flouros for a month or so. As you can see, they were of good size before they hit "the big lites". Hope this gives ya an idea...peace n good luck...MF


Having trouble postin the pic...workin on it...LOL

[Medifreddie]

I cant get the photo thing done...Must not be holdin my tongue right...LOL For the time bein, go to the photo gallery. Look under MeddieFreddie. I cant seem to get the pic from there to here. I'll stay after it...MF

[mesrone.]

hm, im searching for it and nothing..
but thanks! your right i didnt compress the hole down, a stupid mistake, but it totally makes sense! oh well, the soil is working great!
well, the flouros i have seem to be working GREAT. nice growth goin on right now, and noticeable changes every couple of hours! so i think the flouros are working out fine.
I am worried a little about strethching, BUT i do have good fans set up to strengthen the little ones.
the intake fan (black one0 looks a little janky on the inside, but its sealed up tight with the black poly and gorilla tape around the outside, think theres a picture on the first page. but thats producing a decent breeze on the inside with the white fan.

and as you can see, even from last night with those flouros, they are gettin a little bigger. so i will keep trying with those lights, the plants seem to love them



and thanks for the encouragement Weed! im using a 400w MH conversion bulb to work with my 600w ballast.
and now i just need to figure out the watering. seems like the soil is so dry, i watered yesterday, and it just feels like the soil is already dry. now, should i be putting enough water in to get runoff?

[The Weed]

wait... 400watt mh with a 600 watt ballast? no can do.

[mesrone.]

its a 600w metal halide conversion bulb. ill take a piture of the box.

[The Weed]

Ok you said in your last post 400mh.. cool!

[mesrone.]

yeah im sorry. its a growbright 600w metal halide conversion running 72k lumens

[Medifreddie]

One more try Mes...These were under the T-5s for a month or so before going to the big lites...I use the big 150watt floros like yours for side lighting on my 4 ft plants...Keep up the good work, you are a trooper... peace n good luck pard... MF

[greenblood]

Wow, as someone who hasn't done this yet, I'm really impressed with your first efforts! I also have space issues, as well as privacy concerns, so your particular build has definitely caught my attention and is one of many that gives me inspiration.

[mesrone.]

yeah having side lights seems like it would be a huge help. im gunna keep those flouros going throughout the whole cycle, leave them hangin for added light to the lower parts.
and yeah i see what you are saying about the HID. but i dont want to wait a month to switch them on. from what ive read you can turn the MH on after a couple of weeks right?

what kind of strain is that? they are healthy lookin buggers
and thanks greenblood! i hope it works out as well as im hoping!

[Medifreddie]

Originally Posted by mesrone.

yeah having side lights seems like it would be a huge help. im gunna keep those flouros going throughout the whole cycle, leave them hangin for added light to the lower parts.
and yeah i see what you are saying about the HID. but i dont want to wait a month to switch them on. from what ive read you can turn the MH on after a couple of weeks right?

what kind of strain is that? they are healthy lookin buggers
and thanks greenblood! i hope it works out as well as im hoping!

Hey Mes, what you read may or may not work for you simply because no 2 set ups are the same. Example: A 400w HD might work in my grow box cause it's X amount of feet by X amount of feet but the same lite in your setup could be too large. Along the same line, your strain X might adapt to stronger lighting sooner than my strain XX. A lot of variables. Just some things to keep in mind.

Personally, the biggest reason I dont use the stronger lite so soon because it has to be positioned too far away from the seedlings due to excessive heat which can cause, as I said in earlier post, unwanted & uncontrollable stretching, especially when workin with seedlings. You can air-cool the HD to get it closer but that can mean more air duct work which you may or may not have room for. Ya just gotta find your own groove.

Everyone develops their own regimen based on their individual setup. As you go along youll learn what works for you and what doesnt. The one thing that no one can short cut or find a way around is patience. You can tweek mother nature, you can even fool her but if ya try to cheat her, she will slap ya down... peace n good luck MF

**That particular strain is Grandaddy Purple (Indica)

[dgh420]

Really great growing idea for a cupboard. Well done!

[mesrone.]

well update. they are 5 days old from seed and are doing well! there was a little bit of stretch in a couple of them that was a little more than i would have liked, but i lowered the lights even closer and already noticed broadening of the leafs.
then a one is growing with an odd bend in the stem so have to see if that straightens out at all.
so like i said i have 5 california dream, and 6 randoms, 1 is WAY behind, and is just now breaking out of its shell, so i might say goodbye to it soon if it doesnt pick up. but i am excited to start guessing which strains i have in the randoms. i can already see differences in the leafs and structure in a couple of them.
anyway here are a couple pics.
all of them

the randoms

and california dream

[mesrone.]

well, im gunna start giving them some ferts on their next water. probably tomorrow.
going with bat guano to start. im gunna pick up some fox farms GB/TB/BB in the next week or so, but want to start with organic for a little while.
So im i jsut made up a batch with 1/2tablespoon per gallon for the young ones, gunna let it sit over night and water tomorrow or the next day.