Czar's poor man's bagseed grow

[caesar537]

# of Seeds: 10
Type of grow: Indoor/Outdoor
Medium: Plastic beer cups, 1/2 potting soil, 1/2 site soil
Lighting: 1x15W CFL, 1x25W desk lamp
Other Notes: 8L distilled water, 4L of premixed water with miracle grow all-purpose (24/8/16)


So to get you up to speed, I have a total of 10 bagseeds and so far have just been reading up on this site to figure out different ways of germination. Seems the best method I've used so far has been the cermaic plate and bowl with paper towels. I currently have 1 seedling from a seed planted on 04/25, and I've planted another 2 tonight after their root tips showed about 1/4". I have 2 more seeds in a cup of distilled water inside the cupboard with one showing root tips a little, 3 behind the fridge in a plastic container and paper towels, and 1 more small seed in the ceramic plate/bowl.

As you can see, everything is in a cellar basically inside of a box in which i put white britsol board on the inside and made reflectors using the dull side of tin foil around some paper plates. I also sniped a miniature thermometer and humidex from the place I bought my nutes and shit, they were only worth $3 each but what a great addition for free! lol

The relative temperature inside the growbox is 20-24ºC or 72-80ºF and the humidity ranges from 45-51%. Is this a good range to shoot from as far as temperature and humidity go? Also, what do you guys think about the lighting situation? I'll be moving these babies outdoors about 2-3 weeks in.

 

[caesar537]

Bump* for feedback! I'll post more pics today when I check my babies out, I used my phone for the first pics but I'll take some digi pics today. Also, a side note the light is a CF not CFL.

 

[Legalize09]

is that desk light incandescent??

 

[caesar537]

not sure, it's one of those energy saving bulbs that spiral. Is that incandescent? I'll have to check it. That's what i wanted to know, should i just say fuck it and take that light out? is it going to adversely affect my plants? You can see the difference, if I keep the CF on but turn the other off you can tell the other produces more of the red spectrum. But will the one light be enough for that space or do i need to get another?

 

[Legalize09]

well so let me see. That long light is a tube flouredcent? Is the "spiral" one clear or white? It almost sounds like your describing a cfl. If it's not u should just go buy a cheap one n stick it n there

 

[paynefreak2]

The spiral light is a cfl. I would keep both lights in there because the more light the better. Just make sure you have some kind of ventilation in there so it doesn't get to hot. I also wouldn't give them nutes untill they are about 2 weeks old and I would recommend you start them out using 1/4 strength or less because miracle grow is strong stuff.

 

[caesar537]

Thanks a lot for your input payne and legal, yes the long tube is a compact fluorescent and I actually just went to the aluminum place to return the bags of cans i had for some extra dough, i only made about $10 but i went and sniped a 40watt spiral cfl for my other light. I still need 2 bags of potting soil to mix at my grow site. I'm not sure if the light was a cfl before because it was pretty red looking or in other words, it seemed to me like it was using more of the red light spectrum. If i put a few holes in the box would it be enough for ventillation? Or should I buy a small fan and use that? As far as the nutes go, i mixed 1tbsp of miracle grow into a 4L distilled jug. Should I water with half of my nute water and half regular distilled just to dilute it more? let me know! I'll be updating hopefully daily.

 

[Legalize09]

Flos don't get too hot but a small fan would be great nonetheless. Also be careful with that miracle grow bc my plants got messedup from that strong stuff.

 

[Vexer]

Lookin good dude. Yea I would say thats good for temps and humidity. I would say to wait like 2 weeks before starting nutes.

 

[paynefreak2]

You don't need a fan as long as the temps don't go above like 85, but it's good to have a fan sometimes bcz it keeps everything cooler and makes the stems of the plant stronger. As far as nutes go, when you 1st start adding nutes I would probably do half water, half nute/water mix to start em off and then slowly start giving more and more water/nute mix. This way you won't get the chance of nute burn. I'm only using a a 30watt t8 grow tube light and if you look at my grow journal you can see that they are doing fine with just that(the plants inside that is). I started them in a good potting mix and they are just aboout ready for nutes.

 

[caesar537]

Thank for stopping by Vexer! Yeah i was thinking about waiting til about the second or third leaf sets come in before i start my nutes simply because I'll be putting them outdoors about a week or two from today. Would it be beneficial to my babies to wait for my nutes until i plant them outside? or should i feed them before to make sure they're good and stong?

 

[paynefreak2]

I would wait and give them nutes indoors a couple times before moving them outside. My plants inside are going to get nutes before I move them outside. I just need to get some money 1st.

 

[caesar537]

will do payne, thanks for the tips! I'm gonna start them off with 1/2 nute mix 1/2 water every 2 waterings in about a week if they look big enough that they can handle it, i also just bought 2 bags of topsoil for my site so I'm gonna go set that up right now and I'll post pics as soon as I can, more pics to come later tonight as well!!!

Also, I just realized I forgot to mention that my lighting schedule is currently 24/7. Should I keep it on 24/7 schedule until I bring them outside? Or should I lower it to like 18/6? I've checked the hours of light my plants will get starting if i planted them next week, and I'm looking around 14h30m of light and going upwards from there. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[LiveTour]

I would drop them down to 18/6 mainly becuase studies have shown 24/0 doesn't promote quicker growth. So you'll just save that much more on your electricity bill IMO. Good Luck

 

[Vexer]

Its a personal choice really. Some growers go with 24/0 and others go with 18/6 or something like that. Just play around with it and see what you like.

 

[caesar537]

Thanks for stoppin by guys n thanks for the input! I had to switch out my long tube CL cuz it wasn't putting out enough light so i jimmy-rigged an old lamp with a new CFL bulb and hopefully that'll fix the stretching. I also got a little over-excited with watering i think cuz the leaves are showing hints of droopiness and the lights aren't that close so I'm assuming it's the fact that I may have watered a little too much. The soil's still a bit moist so I'll probably end up watering the other babies tomorrow. I also have another 6 seeds which I put into the plate/bowl mixture, so we'll see how those work out. Pics will be up later today so you guys can see what's up.

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

good usually those tubes only use about ten percent of their energy to light up so they become inefficient! if you see droppiness and feel like you have been overwatering then stop! just wait it out. Use the picking up the pot method usually light when needs water and heavy when already is good with water!

 

[caesar537]

Thanks for the advice l8, I'm just gonna chill on the watering I figure tomorrow I'll check her (hopefully) out and if it's not quite dried out yet I'll wait a day to water, hopefully tomorrow I'll have a little surprise and my other 2 germinated seeds will pop up!

Anyways, here's some recent pics:

6 seeds here being germinated with ceramic plate/bowl

my only baby so far close-up

little one from the side, as you can see looks a bit droopy

the overall new setup with the new lamp installed

The humidity inside the box when I checked earlier was 80%! The temperature was also around 85, so I cut those two holes in the box and left it for a while, and when i came back the temperature was a solid 78 and humidity was already down to 60% so everything's looking good so far!

The waiting is the worst part, I want those other 2 seedlings to pop!!!

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

the seedlings are looking good!

 

[caesar537]

*bump for feedback!