DutchDude's First Grow - 05/2011 - Jiffy - Hempy - SCROG - 250W MH - 4 Strains

[DutchDude]

Hi fellow growers!

I finally took the plunge and started a simple grow. Well, I will try to keep it simple. I think that I need to see the entire process first before I will try some of the more advanced techniques, improve yield, etc. Since I have been out of the toking scene since college, I will also be trying to see which strains I like best. I have acquired some seeds, and providing they will root,

I will start with:

1 Arjan Strawberry haze
1 Jock Horror
1 Emerald Jack
1 Grapefruit Krush

Hopefully I can keep track of these, and will get a good idea of what does what. As you can see, I am trying to keep within the sativa side since I am looking for a cerebral effect.

For now I have started/planned/purchased the following:
- Start 4 different strains with jiffy cubes in the window sill
- Move starters into 1 gallon pots with some sort of potting soil / perlite mix and put it under a 6700k, 250W halide on an electronic ballast with reflector. Might as well do 24 hours a day
- When plants are 18-24 inches, change bulb to 2000k Plantmax HPS conversion bulb, and start 12/12

Planning a little area under the stairs in the basement, which I can lock up. I will probably start working on that this weekend, hanging light, hanging some of that reflective bubble stuff from HD, modifying one or two bathroom fans to hold charcoal and worrying about air and light tightness.

Planning on a lot of pictures, so that I can get all the advise that I am going to obviously need

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

(05/12/2011) After soaking the seeds overnight in water with a few drops of bleach I raised the jiffy cubes by soaking them with warm water until 2 inches tall. I barely put the seeds under a tiny bit of the mulch (1/8" deep?) and placed the jiffy container on a heating pad (which keeps on turning off !) and stored this in a darker place under my desk.

 

[TenaciousKiM]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Nice strains!
Good to see a new grower.. You will def have alot of help on this website...I would offer advise myself but am still in the learning process

Can't wait to see more pic's
subed.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Just passed the 48 hour mark, and nothing is showing yet. I did change the heating pad to a laptop which now stays on all the time. The jiffies are still very wet, and the dome is foggy.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 4 - We have lift-off (besides the space shuttle)

Looks like the Emerald Jack (EJ) is the first to show it's face.

Btw - I am seriously considering continuing this as a hempy grow. The more I read about it, the easier it sounds with great results. Just mix the nutes in water and you cannot over water ... Now, if I can only remember the name of that $40 starter nute kit that had everything from beginning to end.

 

[Muggles13]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 4 - We have lift-off (besides the space shuttle)

Looks like the Emerald Jack (EJ) is the first to show it's face.

Btw - I am seriously considering continuing this as a hempy grow. The more I read about it, the easier it sounds with great results. Just mix the nutes in water and you cannot over water ... Now, if I can only remember the name of that $40 starter nute kit that had everything from beginning to end.

Welcome Glen, you might want to take a look at the Osmocote Plus thread.
OC+ and Cal-Mag do a pretty good job in soil and hempy.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Thanks for the suggestion Muggles - I have read some posts about Osmocote plus, but I was wondering how you would flush the remaining pellets out in the last week?

What do you think of either the 8ml/gallon Flora Nova Bloom for the entire grow (Lucas Formula)? Seems super simple, and you can flush in the end?

We are almost at day 5 and I see three out of four so far. So I will remove the dome, and put it on the windowsill until they grow some leaves. The grow area is not quite finished yet.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 7 - Moved the last baby girl in with the others on the window sill. The three others seem to the happy, perky and after I took off the seed shells, the leaves unfolded nicely.

I do have a question for the last one though: could it be upside down? The other three pushed their seed shell out of the ground, and this one just seems to have a root? growing out of the ground??

I had the three jiffies already on the window sill, just in the open, and they seem to dry out very fast. So now I put all four are in a 100 cd case, with a lid that has a few holes in it. Hoping to avoid rot, but also trying to cut down on evaporation.

Let me know what you think please...?

 

[Muggles13]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Thanks for the suggestion Muggles - I have read some posts about Osmocote plus, but I was wondering how you would flush the remaining pellets out in the last week?

What do you think of either the 8ml/gallon Flora Nova Bloom for the entire grow (Lucas Formula)? Seems super simple, and you can flush in the end?

We are almost at day 5 and I see three out of four so far. So I will remove the dome, and put it on the windowsill until they grow some leaves. The grow area is not quite finished yet.

According to DocBud, you don't have to flush OC+. But it never hurts to do it anyway, Doc says to use cold water 62-65 degrees to slow the release of nutes from the prills. If you don't go overboard applying the OC+ it isn't a problem. I only used 1 Tbsp per gallon of pot size, some use double that, but I figured start lighter and can always add a little more later, but I haven't had to. I didn't start using it until I switched to 12/12. My plants were feeding from the natural nutes in the soil. They were starting to look a pale green by then, but after 10 days and a couple watering with the OC+ in the soil they turned back to a healthy green and busted out in new growth and flowers.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Muggle - I think that I am going with Useless' formula for GH 3 part. I would give me a bit more of control if/when things go wrong. And I quote:

"Here is the nutrient regimen I use and how I control PH with little or no ph up or down...

So OK - feeding schedule week by week. This is the GH weekly feeding program, slightly tweaked. I will only call out the volume of each part per gallon of water in the following manner: grow, micro, bloom, ppm range. Example - 5-2.5-2.5-400/800 would mean 5 ml grow, 2.5 ml micro, 2.5 ml bloom and a ppm of 400-880. Remember it's per gallon. You Euro's can easily convert to liters. 4 liters is just a little bit over 1 gallon. It should also be noted that I use the hardwater micro due to my tapwater. I suggest using the hardwater micro in place of the regular micro if your tap water is over 200 ppm total or you have over 70 ppm Ca. RO water users should use the regular micro.
Veg -
week 1 5-2.5-2.5-400/600
week 2 10-5-3- 600/800
week 3 12-6-3 800/1000 (continue week 3 formula if additional veg time is required.)

Bloom
week 1 6-6-10- 800/1200
week 2 3-7-12 - 1000/1400
week 3 3-8-14 - 1000/1400
week 4 3-8-16 - 1000/1400
week 5 (discussed in detail below*)
week 6 0-7-20 - 1000/1400
week 7 0-6-20 (see bleow**)
* During week 5 if not using a booster like Superbud, Bushmaster Kabloom etc. run 2.5-7-18. I use MOAB (Mother of All Blooms) or BushMaster at 50% of recommended strength, and use 1.25-3.5-9 for the fert base.
**If running an 8 week strain you should only run the ferts during week 7 for a maximum of 3-4 days. This gives you 10 days for flushing. I should note that if I use ferts for a few days in week 7, I take the lants over the 8 week mark. Personally I flush for a min of 14 days. But 10 is bare minimum imo/ime.

The ppms work out almost exactly. I tend to lean toward the lower side of the range, unless I have a really heavy feeder that I know can handle it. "

What do you think? Only three ingredients, seems pretty easy to follow, and supposedly gives great results?

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Did I just score the "perfect" hempy pot? It is advertised at Family Dollar as a 10" water planter. It looks pretty sturdy, the media can't clog the drain, and I can see the water level from the outside of the pot through that little lip on the right hand side (sorry, should have turned it a bit more). Anything wrong with this?

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 8 - The little ones seem to be doing alright, and even the ASH seems to be coming around after I replanted the seed with the pointy white (apparently root) down. No idea why it decided to come out of the ground that way, but it is fixed now. I probably should have taken this following picture with the light on . . .

For tonight they are freshly soaked in water, and on a plate under a 96W power compact light from an old aquarium. And, for the first time they will be spending the night under the stairs with 24 hour light. Since I noticed a root sticking out of the jiffy cube (lower left), perhaps a trip to the store is in order tomorrow to find a bit coarser perlite and GH3 nutes. I have decided to definitely go hempy so I will transplant them into 20 ounce cups.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Gave three out of the four girls a new home today - a 20 ounce hempy cup with ReadyGro Aeration Formula. "Coir fiber, perlite, pumice stone, earthworm castings, agrimineral 76 silica clay, sea weed meal, sea weed concentrate, leonardite ore(natural humates), organic compost, trichoderma fungi, mycorrhizae fungi, and organic root innoculants (beneficial microorganisms.)" Basically 75% perlite with 25% coir. Hopefully it will work

So far just pH'ed water, but I did hook up the 250W 6500k HID light - wow, that sucker is BRIGHT!! I also put a 4" fan right in front of the bulb, blowing over the bulb, so hopefully that will keep the temp under that little hood down. I figured that I would not put it right on the plants yet, but to give them a bit of space so I don't burn them. I hope that they will like the 24 hours of daylight.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Just stopped in this morning to see the girls before work, long enough to give them some water. I put in 1/4 tsp of GH micro, bloom and grow in a gallon container, so we will see how they react to that. The threesome are growing their leaves a little, but not gaining that much height. The little runt of the family is gaining a bit of height (waiting for 2 inches length before transplanting to hempy cup) and has the same four leaves now as the others do. Probably a pic tonight.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 10 - Alright, here is today's pic of the latest growth:

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Glen's First Grow (05/2011): jiffy, soil, 250W, 4 strains

Day 14 - Picture update. Things seem to be going pretty well. I lowered the light to about 8" about the greenery and nothing is burning yet. The light has a 5" fan right in front of the bulb which blows away most of the heat. I also finally put the little runt (ASH) into it's first hempy house. I have no way to tell if the root found the lake at the bottom yet, but apparently this is associated with a growth spurt. I did start using 1/4 tsp each of GH micro, bloom and grow in a gallon of RO water for the last three days to get them used to nutrients?

Still muddling along myself, since there is apparently no feedback necessary

 

[DutchDude]

Re: DutchDude's First Grow (05/2011): Jiffy, Soil, 250W, 4 Strains

Day 16 - My first little problem... As you can see on the picture below, the bottom leaves are curling upwards on the sides. I am thinking that the light might be too close?? Some help would be appreciated. Meanwhile I raised the light about 4 inches just to be sure. The temperature in the space is a constant 70 degrees, and the humidity is a constant 38. The pH of the water is 7.0, which is a bit high, but I was waiting to see what the nutes did. Nutes, 3 part GH, 1/4 tsp of each in 1 gallon.

Any advise would be much appreciated.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: DutchDude's First Grow (05/2011): Jiffy, Soil, 250W, 4 Strains

This situation is not getting any better today... Nobody has any ideas? While reading forums I think that I found a similar problem in a soil grow which was over-watered. I didn't think that you could over-water a hempy cup, but perhaps you can. So, I guess I will let it get completely dry, and see what that does.

Again, any advise would be appreciated!

 

[DutchDude]

Re: DutchDude's First Grow (05/2011): Jiffy, Soil, 250W, 4 Strains

Is everybody on vacation - or am I just too boring? Leaves are still curling, nothing has changed for the better

 

[DutchDude]

Re: DutchDude's First Grow (05/2011): Jiffy, Soil, 250W, 4 Strains

Day 23 / Day 1 vegecided that I'd call today the first day of veg since I potted them into their largest pots and changed the nutes to 5ml/2.5ml/2.5ml.

Three out of the starting four left, the Strawberry Haze was late to crack, developed very slowly and never quite got started. When I threw it away yesterday it was half an inch high, still green, with no roots... (?) Anyway, moving forward with the three that do seem to grow alright.

When I took them out of the 20 oz cups, they seemed to have a pretty good root system, probably close to being root bound(?) but they won't have to worry about that in their new home. At least they look very nicely white.

Family shot, as you can see in the background, I got the humidity up from 28 to 39 with that humidifier in the background (Walmart $26). I do not know if this is going to be enough though. Temperature is a steady 72 after I took away the fan under the light hood, and the rotating fan from the upper right hand side of the space. I have read that the curling might be wind burn, where they loose too much moisture from their leaves and they are trying to protect themselves. We will see I guess:

Jock Horror (has the densest leaves):

Emerald Jack (much more open leave structure from what I can tell so far):

Grapefruit Krush (has the broadest leaves):