First Grow - Poor Man's Grow

[Deathtrap]

Hello! I've been visiting this site for quite awhile now and I've found much of information here to be very useful. I am currently growing about 7 plants. I'm using bagseed because I didn't want to waste perfectly good seed on my first attempt, I figured I would start out with some bag seed until I get a hang of it and then move on to the better stuff when I feel confident. This community seems very helpful and supportive so I figured this would be the best place to come to about my first grow. I started about 5 days ago so I already have quite a few pics, it took the seeds about 2 days to germinate so they are on their third day since being planted. I don't have very much money right now so the setup I have is pretty rigged but I plan on improving it soon. Anywho, here are some pictures of how things are going so far:

Day 2 - Germination

Day 3 - Planted seeds and kept them in the germination box.

Later on in the day

Day 4 - More seedlings have broken the surface.

Day 5 - About 1:00 AM

Day 5 - 12:53 PM - I just took this one a few minutes ago. Moved the light out of the way to take this picture, it's usually right over them.

Right now I have them under a 75watt fluorescent grow light with a tiny fan blowing on them. Once they get a bit bigger I plan on transferring them to hydroponic bubblers. I don't mind constructive criticism, any information that can help my plants is appreciated.

 

[BassPlayer]

to

Heres a couple of links might help you on your way
Welcome New Members - Please Read Before Posting
How to Make a Grow Journal

Looks like you are off to a good start, remember, the more info you can provide, then the more help you will likely receive

 

[SMOKE 1]

Looking good so far!

 

[Deathtrap]

Thanks
It surprised me how fast they grow, I can't wait to see how they grow when I get them into the bubblers. For now though I found some plant food and I didn't want to use it before asking someone more experienced if they thought it would be any good for my plants. It's Miracle-Gro: Shake'n Feed Continuous Release All Purpose Plant Food. On the container it says that it feeds up to 3 months. On the back it reads

Total Nitrogen.......................... 10.0%
10.0% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P2O5)......... 10.0%
Soluble Potash (K2O).................. 10.0%
Sulfur (S)................................. 20.0%
4.0% Combined Sulfur (S)
16.0% Free Sulfur (S)

If it's no good then it's not a big deal because I was planning on ordering some DynaGro anyways. But meanwhile I was wondering if I should use this.

 

[Deathtrap]

I think my plants are stretching. I don't really know, it may just be my first timer paranoia. I had my 75watt Fluorescent tube about 4 inches above them and then I noticed that they looked like they were stretching so I lowered it to about 2 inches above them. Here are some pics, lemme know what you guys think. Does it look like stretching to you, or am I just over-analyzing everything?

 

[HempRocket]

You're right, they are stretching a bit. They probably just need some more light.

 

[KannabisKid]

I would also take that plastic cover off to expose the bulb. Even though it's nearly clear transparent, it still refracts the light straight from the bulb, thus not getting the full intensity of the light to plants. That might help a little.

 

[Deathtrap]

Thanks! I took the cover off and tomorrow I'm going to go get another light as-well.

 

[HempRocket]

Consider getting high wattage CFL's (42W, 45W) <---real watts or a HO T5.

 

[Deathtrap]

@HempRocket: I will definitely look into that.

For now though I just picked up another 75watt Fluorescent tube and also hung up a 40watt CFL that I had laying around. I also transferred four of the plants into bigger pots. I will need to get more soil before I can transfer the rest but for now here is the setup:

Day 9 (4:30 AM)

 

[KannabisKid]

Looking good

 

[Deathtrap]

Day 14

I call this plant "Retard Plant" because the first true leaves that grew were deformed. Well.. are deformed.. but the new ones look nice and normal.

 

[Deathtrap]

So today I get a call at like 8 in the morning from my friend. He's telling me how he moved my plants and how someone ended up squishing them... 3 of them are now dead the rest are basically in intensive care, using coat hanger and string tied to the stems to keep them from slumping over. Hoping they are going to be okay, gonna have to keep my eye on them over the next few days.. if not then I have 35 more seeds anyways and I'll have to start over. =/

 

[HempRocket]

How did that happen?

 

[Cooper480]

Looks like your off to a good start!

 

[KoalaSmoke]

Hey there fellow first timer! Awesome job of germing your bagseed! Love your cutout sprout cups! Those are awesome. I was pretty tight on a budget too, so I had to get creative with three pieces of scrap wood to build my microcab =).

Sorry to hear about three of the girls... =( How are the other three doing? Swing by sometime, we can trade first timer stories, lol.!.!

 

[Deathtrap]

Well right now I have 6 left, 3 of them aren't looking too well but the other three are fine.
I'm not sure what happened because I wasn't there at the time but they moved them and someone ended up squishing them somehow. Needless to say I was pretty mad, they had no reason to move them. One plant is out performing the others right now, here is a picture I took of that plant earlier today:

I've germinated some more seeds to make up for the casualties and planted them yesterday, they have already sprouted and look to be doing great. I'll try to minimize the stretching on the new ones.

 

[HempRocket]

That one looks really nice.

 

[Mr. Krip]

DT, looks like you're off to a good start.

Just a quick constructive comment...if you're gonna transfer those girls to hydroponic bubblers, you'll need to make sure you thoroughly clean the roots first of all that peat material, and you should look at some hydroponic nutrients. You don't need to spend a lot of money, but having nutes made for use in hydroponic systems will be a good idea and they probably won't even need nutes until you transfer them.

I'm sub'd for the rest of the way!

 

[MadMardo]

Looking real nice