First time grow looking for advice

[JakeTheGreat]

Hello fellow enthusiasts, first time grower here looking for some friendly advice.
So I found some old seeds in my stash box and have no idea what strain they are but I stuck them in some soil and they took! Its been about two months and my girls have grown strong. Been looking around online to try and figure out how to keep them happy but I can't help but feel like I don't have a clue what I'm doing.
I built them a nice little closet with the LED's and fans and timers and the works and they are doing well (at least they seem happy) So I guess I'm just looking for some first timer tips if nothing else.
I've been topping and cloning, watering and trimming, loving and caring for them, can anyone out there give me some direction? Am I overdoing it? Am I missing a vital step? I just want what's best for them.
I know they are female, I suspect they are Indica, on an 18/6 veg+bloom light cycle, watered with PH booster every 3-5 days, trimmed with care. Pour some knowledge on me. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
As I said, first time doing this so forgive me if I've misspoke or used improper terminology. Thank you my fellow enthusiasts!

 

[Alafornia]

Lots of good info here if you look around. If you post more info on your grow and pictures you will get some excellent advice. Welcome to 420 Mag.

 

[Backlipslide]

Welcome to the site @JakeTheGreat

I would love to give you pointers and help you out, but I don’t really know where your having trouble. Some pictures would help greatly.. pictures in real light preferably, blurple pics are aloud but provide some real light photos for us to really get a good look at it.

Another bit of advice is to start a journal, great members will flock towards it and help you along with every stage of the grow!

Your welcome to go to my journal and catch up if your interested, it’s located at the bottom of my post called blue angel 2019.

 

[Nunyabiz]

If it's been 2 months then it's about time to flip them to flower.

 

[JakeTheGreat]

Welcome to the site @JakeTheGreat

I would love to give you pointers and help you out, but I don’t really know where your having trouble. Some pictures would help greatly.. pictures in real light preferably, blurple pics are aloud but provide some real light photos for us to really get a good look at it.

Another bit of advice is to start a journal, great members will flock towards it and help you along with every stage of the grow!

Your welcome to go to my journal and catch up if your interested, it’s located at the bottom of my post called blue angel 2019.

Hello, and thank you for taking an interest in my girls.
So to start off, it's not necessarily that I'm having trouble so much as looking for pointers or advice I may have overlooked. I've attached some pictures per your suggestion, maybe you could tell me how they look. (Sorry about the quality of the pics, my phone is nothing fancy.) There's a pic of my setup, (their home) and then one of each plant. I've taken to calling them Riley and Elsa after my favourite... actresses. lol Riley is the bushy one I've been letting grow naturally with minor trimming and maintenance and Elsa is the smaller girl I've been topping and trimming pretty heavily (days apart to avoid shocking the plant) Should I maybe just be letting them do their thing? Are they overgrown? Any advice or criticism is appreciated.
Lastly, I've got their home set to a steady 28*C and 48% humidity.
Thanks again!

 

[JakeTheGreat]

If it's been 2 months then it's about time to flip them to flower.

But... But... Then don't they just flower and die off and I lose them forever? Their clones haven't really taken yet and I don't want to harvest them until I know their legacy lives on. Or is that just first time growers separation anxiety? lol

 

[Backlipslide]

Your right, pictures aren’t that great, but! It kinda looks like it’s happy and healthy. How much room do you have between the plant and the light? How much room do you have above the light for it to be adjusted higher if needed?

The plant will almost double in size from start to finish of flowering. So I don’t want you to veg them too long, then run into height restrictions when the time comes.

 

[JakeTheGreat]

Your right, pictures aren’t that great, but! It kinda looks like it’s happy and healthy. How much room do you have between the plant and the light? How much room do you have above the light for it to be adjusted higher if needed?

The plant will almost double in size from start to finish of flowering. So I don’t want you to veg them too long, then run into height restrictions when the time comes.

As a new member to the site, I gotta say that I love that there are people out there willing to offer friendly advice and quick to respond too, so again, thank you!
So if I really needed too, I could probably raise the light maybe 4-5" and the distance between plants and light is 1ft. I know its a very confined space but I live in a small apartment and the available space is very limited. (I had to get rid of my dryer to accommodate for the girls, but it did allow me ventilation to control the smell) This is why I looked into topping which from my understanding makes for a shorter plant while maintaining decent yield. Are they too far into their life cycle to be topping? And also, will switching to a flower cycle affect my clones which I keep in the same cabinet? Should I even be keeping my clones alongside the girls? Sorry for all the questions but I suppose this was the sort of advice I was looking for initially. I've got two clones from Riley and Elsa (2weeks old), and then four from my brother (3 days old, Critical Haze and Northern Lights)

 

[Backlipslide]

It is completely do-able to produce good quality of smoke in small environments. @carcass is a great example! I’m going to tag her in here as well to maybe put out some input and help you along as well.

I suggest making your self another small area for vegging. Hopefully that would give your clones time to set. In that area you could use a small 2’ t5 for example, (like I use) and have your clones in there. The other plant will probably run out of room but you can deal with that when the time comes. Now, that your thinking about having a small veg area, what you will want to do, is figure out a time schedule for an x amount of plants. Have three or four small plants in the veg box, and three to four in the flower tent. When one is finished in the flowering tent, have it timed out to where you bring one plant in from the veg box to start flowering. Then you would start a new one to put in the veg box, so on and so forth. Ideally you would be cutting down a flowered plant every two weeks or so.

To be able to do that ^ you may need to suck it up and buy some good feminized seeds to ensure that you’ve got enough seeds to get you going, once you get started you can always start making clones later.

It is just a thought by the way^ you don’t have to actually do it, but it’s an idea.

What kind of nutrients are you using?

 

[Carcass]

Welcome to 420, Jake...growing in a small space,are ya?
It's definitely do-able,but if you don't put them on a 12/12 flowering schedule real soon,
they'll be up into the light before they even start flowering...As @Backlipslide said,they'll
double in size when they're flowering,so you should really get them started sooner rather than later...

Then don't they just flower and die off

Well,that is kind of the point of this whole "growing" thing...but they will be around for at least
another 6 to 8 weeks while they're flowering..it takes them awhile to grow the big fat buds we all know and love,so you'll have plenty of time to prep yourself for their demise...
About those clones-no, you can't put the clones in with Riley and Elsa once they're on a flowering light schedule,or the clones will also start flowering,so you will need to figure out another place for the clones to live the whole time the big girls are flowering.
As far as keeping them small is concerned,you need to read up on LST(Low Stress Training) and supercropping (do a search on them both) because if you've only got a foot more for them to grow,you need to do some training on them real soon. LST is pretty easy,just remember to bend things slowly,a little at a time,so you don't break things off.

I know they are female

One question...If you found the old seeds in your stash box,and you don't know the strain,how do you know they're females?

 

[JakeTheGreat]

It is completely do-able to produce good quality of smoke in small environments. @carcass is a great example! I’m going to tag her in here as well to maybe put out some input and help you along as well.

I suggest making your self another small area for vegging. Hopefully that would give your clones time to set. In that area you could use a small 2’ t5 for example, (like I use) and have your clones in there. The other plant will probably run out of room but you can deal with that when the time comes. Now, that your thinking about having a small veg area, what you will want to do, is figure out a time schedule for an x amount of plants. Have three or four small plants in the veg box, and three to four in the flower tent. When one is finished in the flowering tent, have it timed out to where you bring one plant in from the veg box to start flowering. Then you would start a new one to put in the veg box, so on and so forth. Ideally you would be cutting down a flowered plant every two weeks or so.

To be able to do that ^ you may need to suck it up and buy some good feminized seeds to ensure that you’ve got enough seeds to get you going, once you get started you can always start making clones later.

It is just a thought by the way^ you don’t have to actually do it, but it’s an idea.

What kind of nutrients are you using?

A plant every week or two! That would be amazing but I don't know if my lungs could keep up lol. A separate cloning box is something I've had suggested before so I guess I'll need to address that ASAP. So just a simple box with a different light and light cycle then? And how do you know when a clone is ready for transplant?
Currently I'm only using a basic PH enhancer added to the water, but I've yet to invest in any sort of device that tells me the current PH of my soil so I've been very conservative with it. (1/2oz per 6cups water)
And then just some simple fertilizer sticks from my local dollar store once they were transplanted into their larger final pots.
Until I have a way of better reading my soil, I don't want to overdo it with the nutrients.
Thanks again for all your advice and suggestions!

 

[JakeTheGreat]

Welcome to 420, Jake...growing in a small space,are ya?
It's definitely do-able,but if you don't put them on a 12/12 flowering schedule real soon,
they'll be up into the light before they even start flowering...As @Backlipslide said,they'll
double in size when they're flowering,so you should really get them started sooner rather than later...

Well,that is kind of the point of this whole "growing" thing...but they will be around for at least
another 6 to 8 weeks while they're flowering..it takes them awhile to grow the big fat buds we all know and love,so you'll have plenty of time to prep yourself for their demise...
About those clones-no, you can't put the clones in with Riley and Elsa once they're on a flowering light schedule,or the clones will also start flowering,so you will need to figure out another place for the clones to live the whole time the big girls are flowering.
As far as keeping them small is concerned,you need to read up on LST(Low Stress Training) and supercropping (do a search on them both) because if you've only got a foot more for them to grow,you need to do some training on them real soon. LST is pretty easy,just remember to bend things slowly,a little at a time,so you don't break things off.

One question...If you found the old seeds in your stash box,and you don't know the strain,how do you know they're females?

Hey, thanks for the input.
I've established that I'm going to need create a separate cloning environment so thank you for confirming that for me.
As far as super cropping goes, I'm familiar with the concept but will definitely research it more extensively if you think that is my best route for the girls. My cabinet could be easily modified to accommodate this technique.
I'll be switching them to a flowering cycle starting tomorrow. So is there any advice you could offer to ease their transition? Or do I just switch it up all-in?
I just want what's best for my girls, they grow up so fast... *tear*
And perhaps I misspoke in saying I KNOW they are female but I've looked into gender identification in great detail and I am almost certain my girls are in fact girls lol
Thank you all for your continued interest and advice with my grow!