Exweedament! My First Grow!

[RB2316]

Okay so I could definitely use a wide range of advice. Everything would be greatly appreciated I've seen more complications than was intended, I'll list sum. First let me describe my ambition!!!
I've never grown a plant in my life! I love Mary J till the end! so im in a position were I cant smoke her sweet sweet smoke. I was sitting with some friends and decided to try there seeds, I started with 10 reggie. With a 4/10 sprout rate I wanted to try something different so I went and got 31 more reggie seeds. With so many possible plants I decided to move everything out of my living room for space, security, lighting, and tempeture reasons. My first set up was horrible I just set them on a stand and suffered right there with them as I watched them wilt away! With a vison top keep everything as basic, cheap, organic, and efficient as possible here it is!

That's what im looking like now.

Here are my original 4 plants;

Conditions they suffered improper lighting, cold, wilting, yellowing, burnt from the lights, lots of akward bending due to lamp position, I planted two seeds in a handful of dirt I scooped up from outside and planted in 2 each in 2 1.5" tall cut of water bottles. Ignorant I know. Well that soil I had to pluck worms and weeds from all the time and I forgot to put drain holes on the bottoms so it was always either a mud pit or extremely dry. As of yesterday I transplanted all 4 plants, in the process I may have damaged atleast one of the plants roots. all plants are potted in stacked solo cups(temporary), stacked 6L buckets from work, and a 4L pot. All have Fermi-Lome Seed&Cutting for soil base. drain holes, and are heated by a 60wat house light and a CFL Soft White 900 Lumens 13 Watt bulb hanging directly above plants. Closest space is 26"x26"x36", Digital timer 12/12 light schedule 7 days a week. on period 5:30 pm off at 5:30 am. I also used aluminum foil as reflectors, and a beach towel to kind of insulate the bottoms.

Here are pics of my 31 others;

I soaked 10/31 seeds in warm water for 24hrs then paper toweled, I paper towled the rest. Did everything like everybody was saying for up to 5 days with some. With a 31/31 failure rate I planted all of the non rooted seeds straight into the ferilome. Its been about 7 or 8 days and not a single sprout??? I actually had 2 more that I scaraficed in the name of curiosity, I cracked the soil on those after about 4 days and what do you know nothing! just a seed hanging out? Don't know whats wrong there. Im giving the un sprouted one till the end of next week and if nothing I got to make room for my White Rhinos that are on the way!!!

This is my first grow, some opinons, critism, advice whatever man, please HELP!!! I don't want to mess up my 12 rhinos.... Thanks.

 

[RB2316]

 

[Dresney]

Hello, RB2316. Welcome to

31 seeds! Your enthusiam is awesome, but 31 plants is a ton of work even grown in optimal conditions. Here is what ~30 plants looks like in flower.

That came from Dyold's journal, which is a great read.

A grow that size is a huge investment in time and money. Proper lighting alone for 30 flowering plants would probably be in the thousands-range unless you could get a great deal on some used equipment. I would suggest starting small and perfecting your techniques. That way you're not spending a lot of money on lights, soil, nutrients, etc. without getting something back for your investment.

But all that is a moot point if we can't get some germination going. Could you give more information about your methods? What is the temperature of the water you're soaking in? Also, what temps are the paper towels staying? 70-85 degrees is a good target range for germination. How wet are the paper towels? You want them pretty damp, but not dripping, soaking wet. Are you using tap/distilled/RO water to germ?

What condition are your seeds? Are they very old? Do you know how have they been stored? Before my first serious growing attempt I tried germing old bagseed and had no luck. I tried 3 different batches of 10 seeds each and all of them failed. I bought new seeds and used the same methods and had great success.

Once you have a sproutling, you want to make sure you have well-draining soil with holes in the bottom of the container. I'm not familiar with your soil, but MJ likes to get pretty dry between waterings, so it's important not to overwater. Also, you don't really want to use clear containers. Light will 'prune' your roots, stunting growth. You could wrap tape or something around those cups to fix that though.

Also, you don't want to have more than one plant in a container. The roots will get tangled and they will basically have a 'root war' in there. You'll end up with one dominant plant and one puny runt.

As far as lighting, if you want to begin with something cheap and easily accessible you could use CFLs similar to your 13 watt bulb, but you'll want to add cool white bulbs (6500K), the higher the watts the better. You can get a two-pack of 26 watt 6500K CFLs for around $7 from most stores that sell any type of bulbs (my local grocery store has them). The incandescent bulb isn't really doing anything for your plants at all. The spectrum of incandescents is too small to be useful, and they also put out a lot of heat for how little benefit (pretty much none) they have. CFLs are good to veg with, but many people prefer to change to a more intense light when flowering because CFLs will give you light, airy buds. Many people use them through the entire grow with satisfactory results though. Just depends on how much money you want to put into your grow and what kind of end-result you are looking for. In the case that you want to flower with CFLs later down the road, you'd be looking for 2700K spectrum bulbs.

Also, you want to keep CFLs pretty close to your plants or you'll get stretching (the leggy appearance). CFLs put off very little heat, so keeping them just a few inches away from the leaves is fine. If you got burn from your lights it was probably from the incandescent bulb. I'd just get rid of that thing altogether. You'll definitely want to add some more light, as 13 watts isn't much even for just one plant. I don't remember the recommended minimum watts/square foot off the top of my head.

Also, for lighting schedules, I think the most common for vegging is 18/6. Some people use others, but I honestly don't know enough about the pros/cons of those schedules to speak about them. 12/12 is typically used for flowering.

Optimal temperature range is 70-90F, with supplemental CO2 being added at the higher end of that range.

Another thing to consider is ventilation. There are several benefits to having good air flow. A light breeze on your plants will strengthen stems, prevent mold/mildew buildup and help keep your temperatures in range if they're getting too warm.

There is ton of great information at this link How to Grow Marijuana - Everything You Need to Know!

Again, welcome to 420! It's a really welcoming place full of friendly, top-notch growers.

Congratulations on your first growing endeavors!

 

[RB2316]

Thanks for the reply. So as far as you can tell the 4 that made it still have potential and look alright for 3weeks? I know what your saying about the light that damn house light had them 4 looking stretchy I was using my floor lamp and a shelf to light them babies but the light was underneath the containers instead if above. I like the CFLs because for each one you only pay 2-5 a year depending on wattage and living in a compact area utility's can get high. If I switched my lights to a 6500k being that my grow space is 26in x 26in it wouldn't be a fire risk would it? Also I'm trying to find 2 computer fans as cheap as possible and a heating pad to put in the center of my towel. The soil is fertilome which has no npk no real nutrients. Id like to find out all of the best cheapest soil/nutes and boosters for my soon to be here WHITE RHINO seeds.
The germination process came off another site. I soaked 10/31 in room temp water in a cabinet above the fridge for around 24+ hrs then I soaked two coffee filters and put them in zip locks with a little extra water to ensure moisture. I put them under my sink in the back away from light. 5-6 days nu thin. The seeds were primarily mature/ young but I figured even a cracked seed has potential so I tried all of them thinking 1-3 would sprout. Since the 16th nu thin not a grumlin. I like the 12/12 from seed routine on a automatic timer because i live where security is an issue so 12wks isn't bad. I think this is a good hobby I enjoy doing it and this set is a learning experience for when I do 3 rhinos at a time and start doing varities of other strains. I'll be keeping 420 mag up to date also I was reading about ppl using urine for a nitrogen sup. Is that a good or bad idea? I haven't feed them anything yet I have to find something suitable. Again thank you

 

[Richard Richardson]

Hi RB2316

Urine, diluted 10 to 1 with water is a good N sup.

Do you know the pH of your water?

 

[RB2316]

Not yet Im waiting on my ph meter to be shipped. I just put about a 1/2 inch to a .9floz water bottle then poured out the foam and watered the plants

 

[RB2316]

 

[CronicHempHog]

cool welcome to the 420 journal making thingy man
I would suggest starting your plants in separate cups
the 2 you have in one cup when you want to transplant you might give it more shock than normal trying to untangle the roots from each other
just a thought
Happy Skunkday man

 

[tokersmokeg]

i started alot like you if youre in a med state get some clones!!Or buy some good seeds.i grew out hundreds of seeds inside and outside every reggie seed ive grown out hermied late in flower.This is still an illegal hobby get a hid light and some quality seeds or clones and some way to exchange heat and air.get serious and read.With the determination you seem to have you can have a decent harvest of grade a for a small investment.much luck to you and i will be watching your progress stop by my setup...

 

[CronicHempHog]

hey tokersmokeg
might be good to put a link in your sig so we can all enjoy your grow
Rb would be good if you did that too so when you go to peoples journals they can check it out

 

[tokersmokeg]

Reveg Clone SOG Grow!

i will be doing some updates today with pics of the new clones.hopefully someone will stop in on my thread and throw around some comments!!we can all help eachother out

 

[RB2316]

I did transplant one of the two in the 6L bucket but really I was just sacrificing the one so I just pulled it. but I planted it into another bucket watched it die for about 30 minutes fed it sum fertilome 5-1-1 mixed with .9fl oz water and as of yesterday she was looking good again. ill post some new pics today

 

[RB2316]

tokersmokeg,

Thanks for the advice. Ill take a look at your setup. I read a lot about growing and set ups problem is my state dosent smile upon our stoned souls. so equipment I basicly either put together myself or find in different areas. for a 26x26'' its not looking to bad right? my plants are growing quickly now that I got some nutes for them. thanks for the advice!

 

[tokersmokeg]

thanks i will be following the progress

 

[RB2316]

yup thanx. Here are those pics of the uprooted plant as of yesterday. Still got my hopes up!

 

[profesor x]

hey there mate!

1.- first of all, you should keep your CFL's close enough to your seedlings canopy (about 8" from your plants)

2.- you should get the correct ammount of light for your grow room, otherwise your plants will stretch, grow clumsy and weak.
if you are going to use CFL's i recommend you buy 6500k (cold white) for veg period, and 2700k (warm white) for flowering. (this is the spectrum of light you need for veg and then flower)

3.- how many watts do you need? here is the formula to find out:
Square footage of your room (length × width) × 50 (wattage) = The watts needed

4.- you need to monitor temperatures in your grow area, the best temp range is 70 °F - 80 °F

5.- you also need to monitor humidity levels in your grow area, the best RH (Room Humidity) levels are=
for sprouting= 70% - 85% of RH
for veg= 60% - 80% of RH
for flowering= 40% - 60% of RH

6.-you need to ventilate your grow area with at least 1 fan (keep it ON always).

7.- try to always check pH on your runoff's after watering, that way you will make sure that your plants are taking all the nutrients you give them.

your plants can't eat some very necessary nutes if your medium is not in the correct pH, the optimum pH for soil mediums is 6.5 pH and should not fluctuate much. try to maintain that pH rage as close as possible to prevent nutrient lockout (i talk from experience, you can have really bad nutrient deficiencies if you don't put attention to pH when you water your plants) :

here is a nute avaliability chart:

cheers mate!

 

[profesor x]

almost forgot to tell you, that you should not feed with nutes your young seedlings until they are at least two weeks old (day 1 is the day they sprout) or they are at least 5 inches tall and have 5 nodes of growth.

i have just started a journal recently, i have almost 100% germination rate of seedlings, maybe you can stop by, im growing a chronic strain, here is my grow journal:Profesor X Soil Chronic Grow Journal - 2013

 

[tokersmokeg]

they are looking better!!

 

[RB2316]

thanks for the advice professorx ill look at it when I get home, 5:30 is the high light of my days when the lights kick on and it looks like heavens gates when I finally open up the door!

 

[profesor x]

thanks for the advice professorx ill look at it when I get home, 5:30 is the high light of my days when the lights kick on and it looks like heavens gates when I finally open up the door!

i know what you mean brother, i can't wait to light up a joint in a few hours, feel the same