My First Grow - Indoor & Outdoor

[MikeinBako]

This is my first time growing this type of plant, I've grown other plants before, and I've been wanting to grow my own. I started the grow from seeds, so I can have a more controlled aspect of the grow, and so far I am enjoying it. At first I tied some of the leaves down, because I didn't think they were getting enough light, pointing straight up. They're outdoors most of the time, so I took them off. I did top them at the 5th node, except for 2 of them, I want to see how tall they actually get. So far I haven't had any major issues, I did over nute them last week, but I believe caught it in time and flushed. The only other issue is, one of them was N deprived, so I gave it a little more this time around. Once they are ready to start flowering, I wont start them all at once, but will start the flowering process one a week. My indoor room is a typical 4x4, with mylar film for reflection. I know most people go with pandafilm, but I did want to see if this would work as well. Now to get the familiarity out of the way:

What strain is it? AK-47 feminized, purchased the seeds online (fingers crossed)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? hybrid, 75 Indica 25 Sativa
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Vegg state
If in Veg... For how long? I started the grow on June 25ish. Thats when I germinated the seeds
Indoor or outdoor? both, Im in SO CAL, so they get a lot of sun during the day, and then I bring them in for more light. 18-6 light cycle
Soil or Hydro? soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Kellogs organic mix from Lowes
Size of light? 4 T5 (2 regular HO, and 2 Hortilux powerveg FS+UV)
Is it aircooled? open
Temp of Room/cab? at night its roughly 70-80s
RH of Room/cab? high 40s low 50
Any Pests ? none so far
How often are you watering? every other day
Type and strength of ferts used? Foxfarm dirty dozen recommendation schedule
Bucket Size - 5 gallon
I started 5 plants at the same time, and about 2 weeks later I started my 6th.

I would love to hear your feedback, and what you think I am doing wrong, or if I'm doing it right. After all, the only way to get better, is by trial and error.There is no such thing as bad criticism, only bad listeners.

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[Dataint]

re: My First Grow - Indoor & Outdoor

looking great.. will be stopping by to watch the progress

 

[Stinky Snid]

Hey Mike, welcome to the forums. Jumping right in and starting a journal, eh? Must have been lurking a while... I'd suggest introducing yourself in the intro section, that way folks will see your new and have already got a journal.

Check my signature for a how to put a link in your signature, this will help attract spectators aswell.

Sign me up for the long haul, these sun bathing beauties are going somewhere. Good luck and...

KiG cheers

 

[MikeinBako]

Good morning family, I hope every one enjoyed their weekend, and your monday goes by fast. lets begin my update. Last week I noticed I didn't get all the nutes off of my plant, and it burned the leaves some, so this week I made sure to keep the liquid away from the leaves. I went down to the local big box hardware store, and picked up a couple of multi-readers. I am running mainly organic, and I've read that you don't have to worry about the pH, but I still want to know. The nutes I'm using isn't quite 100% organic, its the dirty dozen from fox farm, so it's very close. My pH was a little high, so I did add some pH down, and its now around the 7 mark, from above the 8.

Another reason why I bought the meters, is so I know what the moister is in the pots. I want to make sure I'm not over watering them, or under watering them. I did find there is a difference between the soils I used, the small plant is all soil, no mulch, while the others have mulch in them. The all soil doesn't stay as wet as the others, which means I'll probably have to water more frequently than the others.

I am noticing a difference between the plants I topped, and the 2 I haven't. They both appear to be doing fine, the topped ones seem to be more stretchy, while the untouched ones seems to bushier. The tops shutes stretched out, while the untouched everything is staying close. I've been raising all these plants at the same time, same condition, same nutes, everything. I haven't ran into any bug problems yet, so that's a good sign. It's been going on a little over a month, and I'm going to continue to veg them for at least 1 more month, before I start flowering them 2 by 2 with the hands of green.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Goof job on picking up the multi use meter. It's very useful to get info on the conditions of your soil. What's "hands of green" is that some sort of device...

KiG cheers

 

[MikeinBako]

Thanks, they've definitely come in handy. You're not a sci-fi guy, if you ever watched the show firefly you'd get it. Sorry, what I was referring to was, I am going to flower 2 at a time, one topped, and one not. Since I'm doing a in/out grow, I want to see which one will actually do better. And in the show, one of the characters say, they come 2 by 2, with hands of blue. Referring to govt. agents that are after them.

 

[MikeinBako]

Good morning, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, and remember, it's only preseason.

Last week, I started trimming and manipulating some of my plants, and I noticed they were suffering Magnesium deficiency. So I did my research, it happens with potting mixes that aren't specific to our girls. Easiest and quickest way to help them out, was to use natural Epsom salt. So now when I water and feed them, Im putting in about a teaspoon. All the suggestions call for about 2 tablespoons a month for regular plants, ours need it a little more than theirs.

With the cuttings, I started my cloning process, I took 2 clones per plant, and I did have a little problem. Most of the clones did pretty well, but some almost died on me. I left the lights on, and it was too hot in there, and not enough humidity (stupid SO CAL). SO I turned the lights off, continued spraying them about every 2 hours with the water, and flower kiss (once a day). The water does have some Epsom salt, but not a whole lot, again, these girls need it.

I measured my non topped plants, and they're about 1'7", they grow so fast :-') By the time I flower them, they should be over 2' tall, with a final height around 4-5'.

This morning, because of the Mg, deficiency, and as long as they've been growing, I went a head and flushed them. I started them out with the sledgehammer flush, and let it soak through, than I ran the water through them, till the water almost ran clear. Sense I was flushing, I didn't use my filtered water, I just used tap water, using filtered water like that will get expensive. I don't have an RO filter, I have one that filters out everything but the dissolved solids.

After I flushed and let it sit for a few, I fed them and put them up to get some sun.

I did take a couple of pictures of my veg room, It's temp room for now, I wanted to see how the mylar would perform. its roughly 3'W x 4'H x 4'L.It's strong enough to hold the light, and all my nutes and equipment on top, while not taking up a lot of room in my main bedroom.

If you noticed anything I should have done differently, please let me know, we're all here to learn.

 

[dubnation]

subbed!

i am also in socal, will veg indoors and flower outdoor. about two months behind you but lovely set up! check out my grow in my sig too. appreciate any comments/advice/critique.

 

[dubnation]

Another reason why I bought the meters, is so I know what the moister is in the pots. I want to make sure I'm not over watering them, or under watering them. I did find there is a difference between the soils I used, the small plant is all soil, no mulch, while the others have mulch in them. The all soil doesn't stay as wet as the others, which means I'll probably have to water more frequently than the others.

I also use fabric pots. They are so easy to work with. My method is just the tried and true "lift test". To get a good baseline, just fill one of them with only soil, no water. Lift it. Now you know the approximate weight. Then lift each of your girls and you'll know if they need a drink. My 2 previous outdoor grows in fabric pots were never underwater at all with this method.

 

[MikeinBako]

Good morning,

I hope everyone has a fun safe weekend, and Go Raiders. I haven't had any issues with my plants, all my clones are doig well, and I even have 2 of them outside. They are the strongest out of the 12 clones, in which 10 were cloned all on the same day. I took 2 from each plant, used the garden safe take root stuff from Lowe's, and they seem to be doing well.

My mothers are all healthy, growing big and strong, with the untopped at 1'9". I am thinking about topping them once they reach 2', or I'm sending them into flower at that height. A buddy of mine came over, and made a comment about how they look like they are ready to flower. So thats why I'm thinking about starting the flower earlier than I was originally thinking, but I have read that, the longer you veg, the bigger, stronger the harvest will be.

Any suggestions, on if I should wait till middle of next month, or start this monday. Thank you

 

[Stinky Snid]

I think the clones can wait a little while longer... But the others could go anytime imo. They'll get even taller once they get their 12 hours of darkness. It's up to you Mike, if space is not an issue I say wait it out.

KiG cheers

 

[MikeinBako]

Thanks, the other clones I have under softer light, luckily the weather here hasn't been as hot as it's been. If it was still hot, all the clones would be inside. Space isn't an issue, it's more about seeing that return on my investment. I'm willing to wait a few more weeks, but if the extra few weeks aren't really going to improve on anything, why wait?

 

[Stinky Snid]

With every node created there more buds to be had. You could even top again if you've got a month, double your Colas. But the difference between 6 weeks veg and 9 weeks is negligible in my experience.

KiG cheers

 

[MikeinBako]

Ok thanks, That's something for me to think about. I have been supercropping the topped plants, but only a couple of the branches of the nontoppped

 

[dubnation]

I'm doing an experiment myself with veg time. There are good articles online about more veg = more flower etc...

For mine, I will take half out of veg in 8 weeks and the other half after 12-16 (depending on what my tent can hold). There is an obvious correlation since I'm doubling the veg time, but I may just take 1 out after 10 weeks to do a 2 week comparison with the 8 week girls. Will keep ya'll posted if I do.

 

[MikeinBako]

Not much has changed, I did take a picture of one of my supercropping branches, I have read that pinching the branches, gives it the same effect, without the possibility of breaking the branch. Another advantage of the pinching, is that the branch won't lay flat at the 90, so it should help with elimination the need of the screen on the outside. But I think no matter what, I will need to put up supports, when it's time to flower.

Other than this, my girls have been growing, and eating up the nutes, I'm just hoping I'm not underfeeding them now.

My clones seem to be doing well, they aren't growing, so I'm hoping they're still growing roots, They've been there for 2 weeks.

This pretty much marks my 2 month mark, from seed to now, so here in a couple of weeks, I'll build a greenhouse for them, and start the flowering process.

 

[MikeinBako]

Not much has changed, I did take a picture of one of my supercropping branches, I have read that pinching the branches, gives it the same effect, without the possibility of breaking the branch. Another advantage of the pinching, is that the branch won't lay flat at the 90, so it should help with elimination the need of the screen on the outside. But I think no matter what, I will need to put up supports, when it's time to flower.

Other than this, my girls have been growing, and eating up the nutes, I'm just hoping I'm not underfeeding them now.

My clones seem to be doing well, they aren't growing, so I'm hoping they're still growing roots, They've been there for 2 weeks.

This pretty much marks my 2 month mark, from seed to now, so here in a couple of weeks, I'll build a greenhouse for them, and start the flowering process.

 

[BonzaSeedBank]

Not much has changed, I did take a picture of one of my supercropping branches, I have read that pinching the branches, gives it the same effect, without the possibility of breaking the branch. Another advantage of the pinching, is that the branch won't lay flat at the 90, so it should help with elimination the need of the screen on the outside. But I think no matter what, I will need to put up supports, when it's time to flower.

Other than this, my girls have been growing, and eating up the nutes, I'm just hoping I'm not underfeeding them now.

My clones seem to be doing well, they aren't growing, so I'm hoping they're still growing roots, They've been there for 2 weeks.

This pretty much marks my 2 month mark, from seed to now, so here in a couple of weeks, I'll build a greenhouse for them, and start the flowering process.

Still looking good. Good luck on a good harvest.

 

[MikeinBako]

Thank you

 

[MikeinBako]

This week I'm getting ready to put my girls into flower, so I built a greenhouse for this. The ground wasn't as leveled as I would like, but it'll work just fine. I do know that it's getting warm in there during the day, and my clones started getting white mold at the tips, so I'm going in there and misting them. I have on order on a misting system, and a fan, which should eliminate the heat and mold issue. I'll be putting plastic down, and sealing the rear bottom. The only other issues I've had, is I've lost a couple of clones, the roots never formed. So instead of using the cloning powder and soil, I'm going with a water only method. I know it works with regular plants, so I'm hoping I'll have more success.