First Time Grow & Journal - 250W HPS - Closet - ScrOG - Random Bag Seed

[donmayn]

Hello everyone. Hope you all take the time to follow my journey and help me along the way seen as im a total rookie in this. A friend of mine had these two things just sitting on top of his cupboards doing nothing. Had a little room I could convert so thought why not try save one of the little things. No previous history in growing, Long time lurker, full time blazer, saw the opportunity and thought I'd give it a go.
Strain - Random bag seed

Previous History - 3-4 months under natural light/household kitchen CFLS ( No strict lighting schedule ) basically being brought outdoors during the day and just sat in the kitchen whenever else. Been fed just standard Miracle grow type plant food.

New Set up - 250w HPS in a 19inch x 23inch converted closet.

Medium - Soil

Method - LST / ScrOG



First of all Id like a little help on finalizing whether this project is worth the time and effort. Hopefully you can tell me if this little girl has any hope of blossoming one day after the horrid times she's been through already.

so what do you guys think? Cant wait to hear your thoughts!

If you guys take interest and want to see the grow space and scrog Iv built id be more than happy to share !

Stay high.

donmayn

 

[nykogrowled]

OK my man let me give yo a few pointers your grow space is a bit small for a 250w I myself run a 250w in a 2x4x5 grow tent and never any issues with heat. Your girl is worth is it you get her in a bigger area with good ventilation and air flow soil never use mg that stuff sucks I use fox farms ocean forest with fox farms nutes I would transplant her into at least a 3 gal pot light schedule 18\6 then 12\12 when yo want her to flower hope this helps a little bit I recommend reading up on some stuff ------------.com best info site

 

[MrKipling]

Cant give you any pointers ha, i'm just 3 weeks into my first ever grow myself. Just wanted to say, hope it goes well, great pics.

 

[donmayn]

OK my man let me give yo a few pointers your grow space is a bit small for a 250w I myself run a 250w in a 2x4x5 grow tent and never any issues with heat. Your girl is worth is it you get her in a bigger area with good ventilation and air flow soil never use mg that stuff sucks I use fox farms ocean forest with fox farms nutes I would transplant her into at least a 3 gal pot light schedule 18\6 then 12\12 when yo want her to flower hope this helps a little bit I recommend reading up on some stuff ------------.com best info site

Gave up hope on any replies in this thread until I checked up last night and saw I had two replies! and the little input you guys gave has already helped!

So been about 13-14 days in now and because of the history of the plant with no nutes or real light for 4 months before I didnt want to rush her into a controlled environment. I gave her a week on just light and water kept her in original pot and noticed her leaves starting yellow and crinkle. I raised the light and this slowed the yellowing, 7-8 days in I transplanted into a bigger pot with Bio Bizz Light mix soil, I got the pot from the back yard so no idea how big my guess 15 ltrs? gave her a day or two to recover and started giving half dose nutes Bio Grow, I also lowered the light again which started the yellowing of leaves which I am guessing was because like MR KOGROWLED has said the grow space is too small for the 250 hps with no real air circulation just a fan in too lower temps. She has seen VERY little growth in 14 days and i put this down to alot of stunting due to new environments, new feeding schedules and most of all non existent air circulation in a space not large enough to accommodate the heat and light virtually suffocating my girl.

So last night I thought id check up on the thread and took your advice ASAP as I figured I couldn't waste much more time. I got up this morning and started searching for supplies to create a new home and luckily I found all I needed to have this project done before dinner!

She is now in a much larger box with alot better ventilation. Width 31" Length 31" stands 4 and a half feet tall.


This was the old wardrobe convert she was in yesterday.

This is the Grow box I made for her today.

As you can see no roof, I did plan to put a roof on it but I got too eager to finish and decided against + the extra ventilation should help.

Inside.

Close up.

Dont know If you can see the yellowing on the leaves but you can see there is very little change from the first night in terms of height and width and for two weeks in there its seems very unusual, hopefully I have solved the problem and things can start to take off from here!

Thanks for input guys.

 

[nykogrowled]

hey man no problem im glad it could be of some use to you. anyways i like the nw area that should be plenty enough room for her now now the yellowig could also be root problem from staying in a smaller pot for to long but that 3 gal one she is in now should be perfect dependig on how tall you let her veg. do a lil research online on plant problems and what the look like exc exc, this will help alot in the future. do you know the relitive humidity and temps in your grow space?

 

[nykogrowled]

and also stunted growth probly from being root bound but now that she has the bigger pot like i said she should be fine..... here is some bud porn for you from my latest grow

 

[donmayn]

Going to try update every week or so hopefully keep seeing noticeable changes. Shes now been in the new space for 8 days on half dose nutes 1ml Bio Grow / 1ltr water for over a week and has been loving it! Seeing growth almost daily now so decided to double the nutes up to the recommended dose of 2ml to 1ltr will carry on running this until flower time, hopefully she wont get burnt.

Day 8 in new space.

View from above.

I noticed because it had been topped the main two stems where growing quite rapidly with alot of the growth in the middle not really growing out as rapidly so decided to try my hand at a little LST to bring the most out of the inner growth.

And if anybodies wondering why the plants are wet, I spray them 2/3 times a day, I get a little paranoid about heat issues since the yellow crispy leafs

 

[nykogrowled]

helllls yah man shes lookin way way better im stoked for you man. spraying is good but i wouldnt afer flowering switch. all in all nice comeback my friend

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Looking good so far. Make sure to get that cabinet lightproof for the 12/12 or you will get improper flowering and possibly a hermaphrodite. You should also find a way to vent out of that enclosure with a fan. But she does look much better for sure!

 

[Major PITA]

IMO, you do NOT want to spray her. That is not a good solution for heat. You need to get a fan to suck the hot air out of there.
Make sure the room stays dark since you have no roof on the grow box. If she gets light during light-out, you will have problems with flowering.
The bigger pot was much needed and probably why you were getting the yellow leaves. Be very careful with nute's on a girl that small.
I assume the new pot has plenty of drain holes in the bottom (?).
Usually I'd say that light is too far away, but I don't know your temp's and since you don't have a fan, maybe that's as good as it gets right now.

 

[Emilya Green]

I agree with the above post...stop spraying this poor thing. Also, the towel underneath her instead of a drip pan strongly suggests that you do not have drainage holes in this bucket. I am also perplexed why you just chose to use half of the bucket... are they short on soil where you come from? Fill that dude up, and give her all the soil you can provide for her.

And then, after you have stopped spraying and being stingy with soil and have drainage holes in your bucket, research out the lift method so you can be sure that you are watering correctly. You should be able to go for days between needing to do anything to your little girl, and if you find that you are in there every day watering or spraying, you are doing this wrong and I am afraid that your girl is going to get in trouble soon because of distressed roots.

 

[donmayn]

IMO, you do NOT want to spray her. That is not a good solution for heat. You need to get a fan to suck the hot air out of there.
Make sure the room stays dark since you have no roof on the grow box. If she gets light during light-out, you will have problems with flowering.
The bigger pot was much needed and probably why you were getting the yellow leaves. Be very careful with nute's on a girl that small.
I assume the new pot has plenty of drain holes in the bottom (?).
Usually I'd say that light is too far away, but I don't know your temp's and since you don't have a fan, maybe that's as good as it gets right now.

So no more spraying got it! I am in the process of saving for a carbon filter and extractor fan, ill get one a soon as I can. I fixed the roof the next day after building the space so thats no longer a problem! The temp sits at around 79 degrees Fahrenheit .

Major Pita, If a bigger pot was needed before to stop the yellowing and it is gradually starting to re appear does this mean she will need transplanting into something bigger? ( dont worry ill fill this one up to the top this time emilya )

And it does have drainage holes in the bottom, the towel is there to soak whatever runs through which is very little.

Im following the bio bizz feeding scheduled, 1ltr every two days.

Thank you for pointing out how many noobie mistakes iv made this was all made with the best i could get from around the house so bare with me! but Ill learn from my mistakes and get on with correcting them asoon as.

All help appreciated as always.

 

[Emilya Green]

So no more spraying got it! I am in the process of saving for a carbon filter and extractor fan, ill get one a soon as I can. I fixed the roof the next day after building the space so thats no longer a problem! The temp sits at around 79 degrees Fahrenheit .

Major Pita, If a bigger pot was needed before to stop the yellowing and it is gradually starting to re appear does this mean she will need transplanting into something bigger? ( dont worry ill fill this one up to the top this time emilya )

And it does have drainage holes in the bottom, the towel is there to soak whatever runs through which is very little.

Im following the bio bizz feeding scheduled, 1ltr every two days.

Thank you for pointing out how many noobie mistakes iv made Ill learn from my mistakes and get on with correcting them asoon as.

All help appreciated as always.

ok, more help on the way...

if when you water, you are not totally saturating the soil in your container and producing runoff (which would soak that towel) you are doing it all wrong. It is not up to you to determine how much water your plant wants or needs, it is up to her. When you water, soak that puppy... try as hard as you can to get that soil to soak up as much water as possible... and when you reach the limit, the excess will drain out of the bottom.

Then, after doing this, sit on your hands for about 3-5 days... until you can lift up that bucket and find that you can't feel ANY water weight at all.... NONE. Only when that container has been drained by your root system down to the very last inch of that container... only then, is it time to water again.

If you measure how much water it takes each time to do this and keep track of the time between waterings, you will all of a sudden have a much better view as to the health of your roots and your plant. She should be able to take a little bit more water each time (the roots actually can uptake it while you are watering) and the time between waterings should steadily go down until reaching a point where she is using all of the water in less than 2 days... and then of course it is time to put her in a bigger container, and start this process all over again.

---Sense Emilya

 

[Major PITA]

As always, Em hit it out of the park.
I'd lose the towel, water the pot to full saturation then leave it alone. I don't know anything about Bio Bizz products, but I don't think you are understanding their feeding instructions. I bet that "1 ltr" is a guideline for mixing the correct concentration (which you can probably cut in half). If they really tell you to water with 1 ltr, I'd run from that company's advice ... and products.
Yellowing is almost always a result of nutrient problems or root problems. Most often these are related to improper watering/feeding and/or PH problems. You can grow in small pots and small amounts of soil (or no soil) but PH, nutrients, temperature all become more critical. Seal up those light leaks along the edges of the panels you used to make the box. They look like they could let in enough light to cause problems. Duct tape would probably do it.

 

[donmayn]

A few changes since I last checked in! Got rid of the towel found a drip pan and sorted out the light leaks! duct tape worked just fine

Was a little confused as to what to do with the watering and nutes because she hadent shown any problems on the watering schedule she was on but I did need to be filling her up alot more so filled up her up until i saw it was dripping from the bottom and kept the nutes the same ml.

I also put the scrog in there!

Two days after last image after LST.

Today after being under scrog 1 day.

Under side.

Going to try get a decent carbon filter and extractor fan in here before the scrogs filled. Most likely invest in some black and white for the walls when I do as well

hopefully she'll be alot happier now iv cleared up alot of silly mistakes!

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Looking great!good things are happening here!

 

[donmayn]

Guys! Iv been noticing some problems with my light. It keeps turning off and back on again by itself each time no longer than 40 seconds or something it turns itself straight back on. There is a little cap where you can check the fuse, opened it up and there was a damn nail inside there! cut to size to fit in where the fuse was suppose to be! friend said someone must have done it when he lent it out before hand. that or hes trying to burn my house down.. Iv tried a 13amp fuse and a 5 but what evers suppose to be in there is really small.. any ideas?

Or is it worth buying a new one when I order the carbon filter and fan which should be the end of this week been looking at a few 400w's. would she benefit from a stronger light on flower? I know she cant be under this broken light when it comes to 12/12 so need to get this fixed fast!

 

[Major PITA]

I'd hate to stop in mid-grow, but I'd hate to burn my house down a lot more. I'd replace that thing ... like yesterday. You can get a new ballast pretty cheap, but a whole new setup isn't that much more. That will let you choose size and get a new bulb too. I always keep a spare timer, bulb (or two) and a spare ballast on hand. If you buy a new setup consider buying some backup pieces.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I'm with the major on this one. I would stop using it and keep the plant under whatever fluorescents I had until I could get a new set-up. Nothing is worth a house fire. Bad enough if you aren't home, even worse if you are sleeping.

 

[donmayn]

I'm with the major on this one. I would stop using it and keep the plant under whatever fluorescents I had until I could get a new set-up. Nothing is worth a house fire. Bad enough if you aren't home, even worse if you are sleeping.

going to order a 400w tomorrow morning, i knew this was a major hazard when i realised what was up so not going to take any chances.