First Grow - Need Feedback! - LowRyder

[khronika01]

I am well into almost the second month of my closet grow room and I would love to post updates and especially receive feedback since this is my first grow and I'm looking to learn more.

Here's what my set-up looks like:
Closed -

Inside -

I am currently using four 6500K CFL's and a personal fan above the lights in the corner for cooling. I have 2 squirrel fans to create a filter as seen here but there really isn't much of a smell yet so I don't feel like I need to put it in.

I am using this Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food that is added with water every day.

Here's a close up of my three babies.
1 - "Dolla" - Auto-flowering Lowryder#2 - Sex: Female

2 - Greenhouse Bubba Kush - Sex: unknown

3 - some bag seed - Sex: unknown

As you can kinda see, the leaves are starting to turn yellow at the tips and I'm not really sure why. Any ideas?

I'll try to keep this updated but I just don't really know what improvements I should make to my set-up and what my plants need now or next or whatever!

Thanks for looking! Comments are very much needed.



-Khronika

 

[FreakNature]

Bump for grow support. There's a guide on this site that might help you determine why the leaves are yellowing. I don't think you need to fertilize with every watering (every day?), but ironically the soil looks dry. What is that you're growing in? Temps in the grow space?

 

[khronika01]

Well the nutrients I have are safe for every day watering but I backed off using it for a while to flush out the plants and keep it alllll natural and defer from the yellowing leaves.

I just moved the plants to another grow room that I can control a bit more. I'll update pictures soon.

The temperatures usually stay at around 65 degrees F.

 

[Jah7918]

Looks like a good start so far! FreakNature also is right about the soil, is it dry or are we just crazy?

 

[khronika01]

Did a whole new set up because some plants were getting too tall and so on. So here's the new room:

Here's the two females left. The LowRyder:

The "other" one (might even be male, not sure yet since I'm such a newbie):

The ugly males that were taken out of the box:

Now I have some questions:
1. so for light I'm on 12 hr on and 12 off with 6500k cfl's. Should I switch to 2700K for flowering yet? I don't really know when to go into flowering mode since the autoflowering lowryder is already producing buds and I'm still unsure about the other one.
2. Can I clone the LowRyder? I was thinking about cloning into a hydro set up.
3. I bought these nutes

Should I use them for flowering for both plants or just the lowryder or even at all? It's hard to find any good Nutes around this town so it's the best I could find or I could go and buy some online.
4. What should I do with the males? I've read about using them to get more seeds but IDK how or how useful that would be?

Any other comments would be helpful since I feel like I'm getting into a semi-crucial stage of the grow.

Thanks for looking!

 

[FreakNature]

Now I have some questions:
1. so for light I'm on 12 hr on and 12 off with 6500k cfl's. Should I switch to 2700K for flowering yet? I don't really know when to go into flowering mode since the autoflowering lowryder is already producing buds and I'm still unsure about the other one.

The light for lowryders should be on 18/6 from beginning to end according to Joint Doctor. You don't switch to flowering, the plants do, that's why they're called auto-flowering. Those plants are in full bud...how old are they? I think lowryders only go about 60 to 70 days from seed to complete bud. Do you have a pocket microscope to check the trichomes?

I'd use half of each kelvin rating. If you wanted to add more, 4 lights per plant isn't too much, either, as long as it doesn't get too hot. Are those about 35 watt bulbs?

2. Can I clone the LowRyder? I was thinking about cloning into a hydro set up.

You can't clone them, waste of time.

3. I bought these nutes Should I use them for flowering for both plants or just the lowryder or even at all? It's hard to find any good Nutes around this town so it's the best I could find or I could go and buy some online.

The leaf color is good, the buds are thick and dense, the tips of the leaves have a slight burnt look. Don't add any N, P, or K at all. Something like seaweed extract or a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses dissolved in a gallon of water probably wouldn't hurt. Otherwise, just let them finish. If you added nutes now I think you'd see problems. If you got spots on your leaves and they got crispy and you removed them previously it could already have been overfertilized, or they could just have died as the plant nears the end of it's cycle.

4. What should I do with the males? I've read about using them to get more seeds but IDK how or how useful that would be?

You can separate the males and as the pollen sacks open up, tap them into a cup. Or as the pollen sacks open take them off and drop them into a cup. All that yellow powder can be saved in a sealed jar in the freezer. It may be too late for the current girls, but your next crop can be fertilized with the pollen. Once the plant is putting out lots of white hairs (pistils), use a Q-tip or small paint brush to dust the pollen onto the pistils. In a few days the pistils will wither and dry up and you'll know your girl is knocked up. The seeds probably take about 4 weeks to mature, or as long as the bud matures. They'll swell up, turn brown. get loose in their calyxes. Harvest them, let then dry for a couple of weeks, put them in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, and they should have a pretty good germination rate. You might try it now, but it depends how old your girls are.

The bud will still be good to smoke.

You're doing great...

 

[Vanilla Kush]

Youre doing very well.

I agree with Freak, keep that soil nice and moist. Water Will give it that good smoke taste, Miracle Grow will make for very harsh cough up a lung every toke. The water should have everything you need. Blackstrap molasses is a product widely available, just make sure you get unsulphured if you go that route.

You've done your job well, now the plant will take over =)

Its like the styrofoam dinosaurs when we were kids (at least way back then for me), just add water and it'll do the rest!

Keep updated! Thats gonna be nice smoke!
Next time you won't have to buy seeds again either.
Good work with the reflectix, my place is covered with that stuff as well!

eace:

 

[khronika01]

Thanks FreakNature and MMJemulation. Much appreciated.

The LowRyder is definitely more than 70 days. It says 6+ weeks for flowering and 9 weeks from seed for harvest. Should I go ahead and begin harvest? I've been watering with just distilled water now for flushing.

The watts on the lights I have up now are 26 watts.

I'll be using the males for seeds (if that's right?) and probably start my next lowryder soon. I have two more seeds but I wanted to see how this would turn out. Might even try a hydroponic set up but I have to find good enough nutrients for it (my last try was an epic failure because I did not have the right nutrients) Any ideas?

 

[FreakNature]

The best way to tell if they're ready to harvest is if the trichomes are about 50% milky and 50% amber. It's really a personal preference how much amber. Usually the leaves will turn yellow near the end, but you've probably been fertilizing them to the end, huh?

If I were you, I'd stick with soil, but get some Fox Farm Ocean Forest and add 30% perlite, or mix your own from 40% peat moss, 30% earthworm castings, 30% perlite, 1 tablespoon powdered dolomite lime per gallon of soil. For autoflowering plants you may not need to fertilize at all...maybe a little Alaska Morebloom (0-10-10) if they start to show red stems or dark blue on the leaves as they get older, or as a bloom booster when they get into flowering. And the molasses when they're stacking on the pistils and calyxes. Keep it simple. Once you have a few soil grows and can react properly to what the plant wants, maybe do some hydro. Things can turn bad quickly with hydro, and if you don't know what's happening you can lose your hard work. On the other hand, lots of experienced growers here willing to help. It's just that you may get 5 answers / all different.

 

[khronika01]

Here's another update and I took some better pictures of the lowryder with my camera. I think she's about ready to harvest and I've read several threads of how to harvest and dry it out but I wanted to know if you guys had any opinions of what I should do next and how to go about drying the little one out.

There's some smaller buds under the other branches that look like they might still need to keep growing but I'm not sure. How did I do on pruning? Should I clip off some more leaves to allow more light to reach the lower buds? I just hate clipping leaves because there's nice white "hairs" on the leaves that I feel like would be nice when its all dried out and ready to smoke.

Here's the other plant. It's a girl! I'm going to make clones from this one into soil again. I want to do hydro but I'd rather gain more experience with soil before moving on to hydro. How much longer should I wait for her to grow before I make clones or is she ready?

 

[The Butcher]

How did this grow turn out?
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