OlderStoner
Well-Known Member
Needing the great advice that's available on this forum I decided to jump in with a grow journal of my own. I have grown in the past and always in soil. Had some success but most of the time I end up with headache weed.
For this grow I started with seeds from known strains. Ordered them from Herbies Headshop. The price was reasonable and they arrived in a stealth package as promised. I ordered the White Widow feminized seeds, quantity of four. They threw in 3 free seeds, 2 white widow X and one Cotton Candy.
Planted the seeds in some organic potting soil I got at one of the nearby big box home stores. Seeds arrived on 9/9/2013 and were planted that evening. About 84 hours later I saw the first seedling popping up through the soil. The two White Widow X seeds were first up. The Cotton Candy followed the next day. On the next day three of the White Widow fems popped up and the next day the last seed made its debut. So I got 100% germination.
I don't have a big light setup, not yet anyway. In my last couple of grows, one of them being Scrog, I used these same two 48" fluoros with 2 ea 40 watt bulbs. I used a timer before and as soon as I can find it I will install it to get the plants on a 18/6 routine. Right now I've been giving them 24 hours of light and even setting them outside in the sun when it's not raining. I don't want to stress them and so far they look healthy, outside of some slight yellowing of the lower leaves. As you can see in the photos I have the lights right down on the plants. These bulbs don't get even the slightest bit warm. And in the past I've let plants grow right into them to maximize the light they receive. Very soon I'm going to make a decision on getting a 400 watt MH or HPS rig for this setup. But I have to examine the budget first.
I have lots of pure rain water collected that I'm using to water them. And in the past I think I went overboard with the ferts and ended up with problems. So I've added only the smallest amounts of MG 24-16-8 fertilizer, about 1/8 tsp to 20 oz of rain water. Twice I have also mixed in only a 1/4 pinch of epsom salts and a little blood meal along the way.
My intentions were to have the seeds in Jiffy pots for the first 2 weeks. But I moved some of them over to 8" pots early on. This also let me easily identify the strains. The ones in the jiffy pots were the four white widow fem seeds. The two white widow X were placed in larger pots early and the cotton candy was also moved into a larger pot.
The stay under the fluoros for 24 hours most days. On about 6 of the 14 days of growth so far I had them out in the sunshine for no less than 6 hours. Today, and last weekend they got a good 12 hours each day out in the sunshine. The outdoor temp was about 85° F. A little hot I agree but today they seemed to enjoy it as I noticed a real spurt in growth of the two white widow X seedlings, the ones that had the early jump on all the others. More to come about those in the next post.
For this grow I started with seeds from known strains. Ordered them from Herbies Headshop. The price was reasonable and they arrived in a stealth package as promised. I ordered the White Widow feminized seeds, quantity of four. They threw in 3 free seeds, 2 white widow X and one Cotton Candy.
Planted the seeds in some organic potting soil I got at one of the nearby big box home stores. Seeds arrived on 9/9/2013 and were planted that evening. About 84 hours later I saw the first seedling popping up through the soil. The two White Widow X seeds were first up. The Cotton Candy followed the next day. On the next day three of the White Widow fems popped up and the next day the last seed made its debut. So I got 100% germination.
I don't have a big light setup, not yet anyway. In my last couple of grows, one of them being Scrog, I used these same two 48" fluoros with 2 ea 40 watt bulbs. I used a timer before and as soon as I can find it I will install it to get the plants on a 18/6 routine. Right now I've been giving them 24 hours of light and even setting them outside in the sun when it's not raining. I don't want to stress them and so far they look healthy, outside of some slight yellowing of the lower leaves. As you can see in the photos I have the lights right down on the plants. These bulbs don't get even the slightest bit warm. And in the past I've let plants grow right into them to maximize the light they receive. Very soon I'm going to make a decision on getting a 400 watt MH or HPS rig for this setup. But I have to examine the budget first.
I have lots of pure rain water collected that I'm using to water them. And in the past I think I went overboard with the ferts and ended up with problems. So I've added only the smallest amounts of MG 24-16-8 fertilizer, about 1/8 tsp to 20 oz of rain water. Twice I have also mixed in only a 1/4 pinch of epsom salts and a little blood meal along the way.
My intentions were to have the seeds in Jiffy pots for the first 2 weeks. But I moved some of them over to 8" pots early on. This also let me easily identify the strains. The ones in the jiffy pots were the four white widow fem seeds. The two white widow X were placed in larger pots early and the cotton candy was also moved into a larger pot.
The stay under the fluoros for 24 hours most days. On about 6 of the 14 days of growth so far I had them out in the sunshine for no less than 6 hours. Today, and last weekend they got a good 12 hours each day out in the sunshine. The outdoor temp was about 85° F. A little hot I agree but today they seemed to enjoy it as I noticed a real spurt in growth of the two white widow X seedlings, the ones that had the early jump on all the others. More to come about those in the next post.