Musiks' first grow/ bagseed 2009

[musikgenman]

Before I knew much i decided to germinate some bagseed, I had some seed my buddy was collecting. 2 seeds were labeled Super Silver Haze. So on my birthday(June 18) I decided to throw them in a paper towel. The next day my roommate was headed to the brew shop so I went with him.(The brew shop is also a hydroponic shop) I came home with a 10 x 20 white tray with lid, 90 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch Grodan Rockwool cubes, General Hydroponics FloraGro and 15' x 10' of 6mil white and black poly.
Ok so first i soaked the rockwool overnight in a PH solution about 6.0. Now i read that distilled water has a PH of 7 so i grabbed 3 gallons of Distilled Water. When I check the PH of the distilled water it always reads 6.0. Now i'm using a generic PH tester i'd like to see what a digital reading puts out but for now it seems to be working.

June 19th put first Super Silver Haze germinated seed into Rockwool.
June 24th put other Super Silver Haze germinated seed into Rockwool. Also Put 9 more seeds into germination this time spraying with a 1/4 solution of the GH Flora Gro. I figured why not, these are all just bagseed. The nine more i put into germination I was told were Ice plants but the source is a shady one and i don't really care if they all turn out to be males, but 1 female will be fine with me
June 30th went to Hydro shop to buy a few things while I had the money. 400watt Galaxy Digital Balllast, Sun Systems Super Sun Reflector, 400 Watt Super HPS Hortilux Bulb, and GH FloraMicro, Hydroton.
Ok at this point I realized that the roots were growing out of the rockwool.
I ran out of money with these purchases and knew that I wouldn't have an irrigation at this point. So I did my research on hand watering. This is when i figured something out. My plants need nutrients because besides just water how else will they make their food! So I'm glad i got the Micro Nutes. I finished watering with the weakened solution of FloraGro before giving a healthier dose of nutes with the Micro and now I am on a good mix of nutes.
I water when i turn the lights on, this is also when i get home from work, now i have no reservoir so i recycle the water by hand just enough to keep the rockwool cubes moist, i let them dry out slightly when i nap for 6-8 hours when i'm sleeping, but then i water for a good hour before i go to work, then i come home and turn the lights off after 18 hours, luckily i live close to where i work, i've read that you can't really over water the cubes and that the water will run off of the hydroton. So they are getting a good watering about 3 times a day.
When i have money i need a few things, ventilation, FloraBloom to finish the third part of the GH nute system, and an Irrigation system. I have some pics to show as Its now the 3rd of July and let me tell ya, that the plants love the nutes I just wish i knew more so I could get the watering down, watering by hand the way I set this up is tedious work. LOL Live and learn, Long and Prosperous.



Btw only 6 of the 9 actually made it past seedling stage, 1 never germinated, 1 withered and died, and 1 never made it to seedling stage. Here go the pics~

These are of closet door, i know i need better ventilation. I am currently studying a few different grow rooms, its nice because the hydro shop i go to has a grow box system set up and working, so i can see what i need to do.

These are of my Ballast, It would be nice if the Ballast could handle anything up to 400w, like a 250w bulb, i dont know how ballast work entirely, except that they help regulate an even flow of energy for the bulb.

These are the nutes and how im applying them, by hand. Tedious work when you want to go hydro and you have no reservoir connected to an irrigation system.

CFL lights i used during germination into seedling stage-23w 6500k from Walmart.

Of course everyone who grows cannabis needs one of these!!!! It gets to about 50-55% RH 72-75F degrees when lights are off, and 35-45% RH 82-90F degrees when lights are on.

And of course a top view of my grow set up. Light is about 2.5 feet above the plants. except one plant they are all about 1 week.

Ok now i do have more pictures but for some reason the 420magazine site isn't letting me, saying the file type is not supported, i was thinking that maybe they are too big and need to be resized. ???? any help there would be nice.
Anyways I can't wait to get the closeups of the plants. (watching them grow is SOOOO much fun) I know this is gonna shock everyone but I am currently looking for the cheapest hydro set up. I got 40 bucks and I know I could build a DWC set up for less than that from walmart. I put my plants in the 10X20 tray with hydroton because roots were already coming out of the Rockwool. I need to get something fast so when i transplant i shock the plants as little as possible. \\\vVv///

 

[musikgenman]

After i posted, for some reason i couldn't see the pics, if this is true for anyone else I do have pictures up in the Member Galleries, under musikgenman. This site has been a great help to me. I have fixed a few of my mistakes that I would not have known were mistakes had I not tuned into to some grow journals. BTW the pictures are in fact imbedded into the message They just aren't showing for me

U should see them now.

 

[musikgenman]

Ok here are some pics of the little ones.

a very sick one, dont know what happened here.

looks like i only took pictures of 4 of the 6 1 week old seedlings. That is unfortunate because the ones missing are the ones that seem to love life, they are much bigger than the rest.

The Super Silver Haze first one is 1.5 weeks old the second is 2 weeks old. I put them through hell. But even these plants look alot better since these photos.

If anyone was wondering I initially thought I would need my entire closet for a grow, for my next grow I was thinking that my closet would be perfect for a Scrog or Sog grow, my closet is 29'' x 79''. I saw a rail system for 199.99$US that will move your light back and forth on a 3ft guide rail. If anyone has ever done this and has any tips, that would be much appreciated.
Anyhow stay tuned, give advice, help a brotha out, a friend with weed is a friend indeed, don't you forget that brother.(and sista's too.)

Musik out! \\\vVv///

 

[musikgenman]

By the way....for those that celebrate.....Happy 4th of JULY!!!!!

 

[musikgenman]

Ok I really wish i had pictures. For the 4th of July Weekend I had to go to Iowa to help my friends' dad move. I needed an automatic watering system. I only had 40 bucks to play with. I will get pictures for an update but here's what I did.

Bought-
13 Gallons of Distilled Water .76 per gallon
2 10 Gallon Totes 3.79$ each
8 7inch netted pots 2.98$ each(smallest Menards Had, Walmart had none)
20-60 Gallon Double Outlet Aquarium Air Pump 10.42$ (came with two check valves, which I have those in place, plus I have the pump elevated just in case)
8 ft airline tubing 1.53$
2x 5" Aquarium Bubble Stone 1.46$ each(which i didn't let soak because i was in a hurry, i hope there is no problems there, they were cheap so. What killed me was the netted pots at Menards. Only because I was a. on a budget b. on limited time and c. it was the 4th of July. But the netted pots put me over budget. Luckily my friend that came with had an extra 20 to spot me. So the grand total that I spend on my build, which I will put up pictures as soon as I am able to take them, was 56.17 plus tax.
Between Walmart and Menards you can build any kind of Hydro Farm you could ever dream of. Although I do like how the hydro shop just has everything I need and everything there is specifically for this kind of a hobby.
Well for those that pretty much know what I did from what I bought, I have to say, it was easy to do, the parts were cheap, and i really believe anyone could build this kind of hydro unit.
I decided a Deep Water Culture Unit would best fit my needs considering my budget, limited space, and time frame to finish this project. Which I still didn't finish in time.
Of course I started my build by tracing the outline of the top of the netted pots on the cover of the 10 gallon totes, 4 pots per container. Then I washed all the stuff that would be getting wet from the nutrient solution. The netted pots from Menards had stickers on them that were very hard to remove. and in fact on each pot some of the adhesive is still on the pots because of time restraints. I hope that the adhesive isn't too dangerous to the plants. I can't see it being good for the plants but its on the sides and I expect the roots to grow down so.
I then positioned everything in place the pump, air stones, nets. I made the solution for each bucket. After the solution was almost touching the nets I transplanted the plants. Most of my plants are only one week old and roots weren't out from the rockwool very far. 2 of my plants are a week older than the rest and their roots were all over the place. They were long but i hardly damaged them. I was wondering however, when i was transplanting them i tried to make it so the roots weren't in any different postions after transplanting. That is pretty rough to do and as you could imagine I failed to do that with just about every plant but the ones with few roots growing out of the rockwool. Will the roots just start to continue their downard search for food?
Now My pump says 2800cc and 20-60 gallon tanks it could support. Now since I only had 10 gallon totes, and the pots hang down a good 5-6 inches, and I only used about 6.5 gallons of nute solution in each tote, the nute solution should be fairly oxygenated im assuming?
The plants almost doubled in size however since 2 days ago when I transplanted, I know they are still young and just starting their vegetation stage, but if I had to go with gut feeling, these plants are loving the new hydro set-up!!!
I can't wait to share pictures....Stay tuned. LOL (even though im talking to myself but thats ok because I can use this site to look back on my first grow, I love it, digital journals are much better than freehand journals. IMO)
Now the air pump feeds both containers since its a dual outlet, it stays on 24 hours a day so the roots get proper oxygen with their food n water, my lights are on an 18/6 hour timer schedule...I think I'm completely ready.
After a couple of weeks I will be able to buy the rest of equipment to vent my closet properly. Then im going to completely seal the closet air tight with the black n white poly film with a zipper entrance right behind my closet doors. That way i can keep light out too, so when i have my light off and the 400w hps on it doesn't look like my light is on in my room. lol

I should mention since i knew i'd be away for a couple days I put some pure distilled water into each of the reservoirs so that at least an inch of each pot were under water so that when some evaporated and was lost to the bitches that they didn't run out of food. I figured since the solution should be oxygenated enough for the roots that I didn't have to worry too much about root rot, plus I was only going to be gone for 2 days.

 

[musikgenman]

Ok Well I finally found a camera, got a few pics before the camera battery died. So sorry no close-ups of the little ones.

These are the finished buckets. I do have to say that the plants have at least doubled in size in just a few days. They love the nutes, They love the oxygen and I think they are gonna love the spacious room I gave them.

This is the air pump with check valves. One hose into each bucket connected to an air stone. I will probably add another air stone to each buck via T valve and some more air line.

Here is what each Bubble Stone looks like. 5 inches in length. Easy to add more, take cap off of other side connect hose from one airstone to another. I want to anchor two in the bottom of each tank when I can to make sure that all the roots get access to good evenly distributed oxygen.

This is SuperThrive, my roommate had some, I was wondering if anyone had every used this before. If you have please enlighten me, I've checked out the website and haven't found anything. And I know these pictures aren't really the best I will get close ups later. Chow

Musik \\\vVv///

 

[Happy Kitty]

You'll get your questions answered by the experts, I just wanted to stop by and congratulate you on your journal and your grow. I'm looking forward to watching your ladies grow.

Peace and good growing

 

[j0nnyi3laze77]

looks great...doesnt hurt to use some of that superthrive....be careful tho and only add a little bit..i usually do about a half a cap full per 5 gal. of water. i mainly use it when i transfer my hydro vegged plants into soil, so it adapts to its new enviroment...

 

[Sonzor]

Like the setup and good luck with the grow. Be very careful with the super thrive. A very little goes along way. I use to use a couple of drop per gallon to get my clones started. But have stopped because it did not seem to help or hurt. And it smelled really bad. But test it out see what you think.. Good luck and cant wait to see those ladies grow..

 

[Chameleon1]

I have beeen thinking of doing a hydro grow myself. I want to do some DWC with some 5 gal buckets. I wanna do the T with 2 airstones in there as well. I think on my next grow I'm gonna go with at least one in a DWC bucket!!! Good luck and I'm subscribed!

 

[musikgenman]

HappyKitty, j0nnyi3laze77, Sonzor, and Chameleon,
thanks for dropping by. I haven't added the SuperThrive just yet. I may save that for the clones. I think If i do my research I might not have to buy any rooting gel/powder. We will see what happens.

I found out that the Bubblestones connect to each other, eliminating the need for any other equipment. I connected 2 bubblestones today and i noticed that one pushes more air out, could be that one is a few days older than the other. I am going to leave them for now and see if they balance out. I also think that if i did better research, i might be able to find something better than an aquarium bubblestone.

I will get pictures up very soon. These plants all have roots that have shot down into the bucket except one plant, but that one plant is still growing so maybe the roots are just having a tough time getting through the hydroton.

I love this site because its my research tablet, plus my scientific workspace, a place to meet likeminded peeps , and I get to realize a dream.

I just got laid off from my job today. Out for applications for a bit. Thank God for the DWC I dont have to worry about watering anymore.

Oh I noticed that my oldest plant, reaches for the light, and droops down in the shade, is that fairly normal? Darn Bushy little thing. I'm not too worried its still growing up and roots still going down.

Musik \\\vVv///

 

[musikgenman]

Ok finally for the pictures. The buckets were set up July 4th in the evening. Pictures taken July 5th upon return from Out of Town. I kinda wanted to do a side by side, from one day to show the differences. But i've been having trouble with the resize site, it seems to be taking forever to resize. Anyhow here goes, these pictures were taken 6pm pacific July 7th. Then I will post pictures from Today. There is significant growth and at least it will be documented for MY pleasure. (Yours too, isn't that why were here?)

The 2 plants in the front right of this picture came from the bagseed of Super Silver Haze. While at the moment I believe that the one in the upper right is also the same plant as these. They dont look sativa dominant so i've questioned their strain.

Just a headshot of my light lighting up my bitches!~! LOL

This is the plant in the lower left of the 8 net pots. This is a wierd plant, the leaves come out of the stalk in a spiraling fashion. I've not seen this in any pictures thus far, i hope it isn't a hermie plant!
I'm not an expert but i believe this plant to be mainly if not pure sativa, while the rest have to be at least mostly Indica, even then I could be mistaken, what do you think? and can anyone explain the leaves growing out of the middle in a twisting fashion? They do however unfold just fine, but im just curious. This plant in particular is much different from the rest while the rest all have much similar qualities.

I will have a pic up to show the slight difference. but right now with my closet doors open its about the same time of day, similar days as far as weather goes. 45% humidity 84F. Obviously this time of day if I have them closed it gets over 90F. I lost my job but was planning on getting a carbon filter, couple inline fans and some ducting to take out the heat, cover the smell when flowering. I'm gonna route this outside so the air goes outside, what do you think?


So stay tuned for the next set of photos.

Musik \\\vVv///

 

[Sonzor]

Not sure what the twisted leave thing is. I cant really see it from the pic. Otherwise you plants look very healthy, good job...

 

[musikgenman]

Alrighty THEN!!!!!!!

July 8th, fully updated with photos, I know...Iknow...flowering is prettier.
I do have a couple of questions. Is there anyway to get ppm without meter. And now that there is a good photo of my nutes and PH system, maybe somebody can tell me whats a really good way of adjusting, .5 ml at a time then check, 1ml at a time then check. I have about 6 gallons in each reservoir.

On to the pictures. This time I will give you another Headshot(i love this photo) a picture of the left reservoir and the right reservoir, followed by the roots of each plant, I will label them as easily as I can so you all can match them up. There is only one netted pot that does not show roots. The upper left bucket in the right reservoir. It is also the plant that got stuck together in the beginning, and its taking quite a few branches to look normal. But is still getting bigger so i know its getting food. If I dont see roots anytime soon should i get worried, like that the hydroton isn't allowing them through somehow? Even if I lose it, I started with 11 down to 8.

Another thing, In the space that I have currently I do not feel that I can flower here unless I do a scrog or sog grow, im kinda leaning at scrog because all I would have to do is put up a screen, probably within next couple weeks, and I wouldn't have to transplant them? But what you see in the headshot is them in a 5sq ft space 22 inches x 29 inches. Maybe turn the buckets sideways, adjust the light so that the buckets aren't so close? or should i just put up a screen and flower them? Should I take out the Sativa when I do this?

I'm sure there are different kinds in here, and of course they aren't all growing at the same rate, in fact I wish i had a PPM meter, the ones on the left are developing faster than the ones on the right, I know SSH is a slow one but that doesn't look like the SSH I see in other pictures, Gosh this is soooo much fun!!!! This bagseed is like the prize from a Cracka' Jack Box. LOL

I dont know if you can see very clearly but thats exactly what both reservoirs PH looks like. Of course when I started it, the solution was at a PH of 6.0 or close to it, now it looks almost like 7. Like I said they are getting bigger everyday so i dont want to ruin a good thing LOL

The HeadShot

The bucket in front on the left is the one I'm sure is Sativa, and this little mothaEffa is racing the others or something?!?!

The two buckets in front are the bagseed from the Super Silver Haze bag. the one on the right being the oldest of all the plants.

These are the supposed Super Silver Haze bagseed roots. I kinda figure they could be anything, it could be a cross between Super Silver Haze and something more indica, or its a hermie seed, but I thought they were banana shaped, Or not always? the one on the right side is the oldest plant I have, a week older than the rest, while the one on the left is a half a week younger. the rest of plants are a week behind the oldest one. So far so good in my eyes. BTW the top one, when i put the roots down into the solution and back up again weren't stucktogether like that.

upper left pot in right reservoir, the one that grew funny from being stuck together

upper right pot in right reservoir

lower left pot in left reservoir,, this is the one that definately looks sativa, im sure its the only Sativa growing

lower right pot in left reservoir

upper left pot in left reservoir

upper right pot in left reservoir

wow sooo finished. Well as you can see the left reservoir has something in it that the plants like better, or something, PH imbalance or more nutes by accident?


I'm trying to work this stupid Sony Cybershot to get close ups, im not camera literat so if anyone can help me please do lol, I dont have the booklet that came with the camera, im just borrowing it and haven't found anything on internet yet, hard to check when trying to post some pics, anyways the battery died and it takes 8 hours to charge UGH!! Now that I'm done I'll check I suppose! LOL (doesnt' mean if you know how you don't have to tell me!)

Hey enjoy the pics!!

Musik \\\vVv///

 

[musikgenman]

Hey thanks Sonzor for being so prompt, Kudos for the prompt response ++Reps from me,

I figured i'd show the best close up i could with this crappy tech i have, i also drew a bit to try and show, but the new leaves growing up grow straight up like the twin towers but the leaves are huggin each other almost, twisted like if you take a rag and twist it, you know to ring out the water, these leaves do that until the branches start pushing them up then they seperate, in all of the pictures that i've seen i've never seen this. (I'm still a noob and have alot to learn, i just thought i'd point that out) LOL

Anyways heres that pic:

look at the red paint i put on there, thats how the leaves are "hugging each other" like someone spun the embryo or seed like a top really fast and the plant is still dizzy!!! lol like i said they straighten out when they are tall and fall down like London Bridges, i also think its wierd the leaves grow stuck together like that, straight up, like stiff as a boner LOL Schwing, better not be a male, its the only Sativa looking plant in my grow so far. (I like Sativa's)
I guess i got jokes today!



Musik \\\vVv///

 

[Sonzor]

musikgenman

Looks like you have a good set up going. Just want to put out there that I am also very new at this and any advise is what I have learned on this site or by my first grow experience. About the Ph, make sure you ad the nuts before you check the PH. Each nuts effect the Ph in different way. One of the most important things I have learned in the short time I have been doing this is don't sweat the small stuff. You plant may be growing a little abnormal, but what I have learned it may work it self out. Keep a close eye on it and more often then not it will turn out to be fine. Anyway I am sure people with much more experience than I will chime in and give you some great advise. Good luck and I cant wait to see how it all turns out... + rep, keep it up half the fun is to figure it all out...

 

[musikgenman]

musikgenman

Looks like you have a good set up going. Just want to put out there that I am also very new at this and any advise is what I have learned on this site or by my first grow experience. About the Ph, make sure you ad the nuts before you check the PH. Each nuts effect the Ph in different way. One of the most important things I have learned in the short time I have been doing this is don't sweat the small stuff. You plant may be growing a little abnormal, but what I have learned it may work it self out. Keep a close eye on it and more often then not it will turn out to be fine. Anyway I am sure people with much more experience than I will chime in and give you some great advise. Good luck and I cant wait to see how it all turns out... + rep, keep it up half the fun is to figure it all out...

sonzor thanks for the encouragement! I AM real excited. To finally be able to watch grow what i've been smoking is a truly honorable experience if you ask me. We kill this plant to smoke it.(not trying to cause the W.E.E.D.A{weed everywhere experiences death alive} organizations to go stir crazy, calm down LOL) I hope it continues to go as well as it has, even though i feel like i'm thinking all these questions while my plants grow up, I just wanna sit in there with them and watch them all day long !!!!!!

thanks again for droppin' in Everybody that see's this and hasn't seen sonzors beautiful outdoor plants better get there quick!!!!!



Musik \\\vVv///

 

[SouthernOnt]

looking good keep it up

 

[Siscokid]

Damn man that is a sick lil system you got there, I do see a lil swirl but I guess you can't expect a full leaf to come out without some wrinkles or bunching right, you just got some hurricane weed, I'll be checking ya out from now on. Good luck with your grow.

 

[Chameleon1]

I love the root shots. That is the thing about dwc. You can always check out your root growth!!!

I'm using the same Ph test and I'm not sure if its maybe the camera but that ph looks to be way too high for your dwc you should have a yellowish color almost... its suppose to be like 5.5-5.8 right?