First Grow, First Journal

JRegan420

New Member
Strains: 2 bag seeds, 3 Lemon Skunk, 3 Super Skunk, and 2 Buddah.
Lighting: 2 150watt HPS lamps around 14 inches above plants
Type: Hydro/Flood and drain.
Medium: Grodan Rockwool
Cabinet Temp: 82 degrees
Humidity: unknown.
The 2 bag seeds are a few weeks older than the Strains, and therefore are the only plants in veg. stage. The strain seeds are only 3 days old, and havent been given any nutes. Will hold off about a week before I put them into the same water as the rest of the plants.
Nutes: I am using the BC boost and grow, thrive alive B-1 Red, MagiCal, and The Sugar Daddy. all of which were given to me as a package by Technaflora.

Setup: I have a 6 foot cabinet that is 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. I am not financially able to purchase anything elaborate for my system, and can only work with what I had. Theres a fan bringing cool air into the bottom of my cabinet, and a fan sucking the hot air out of the top. I also have 2 small fans inside the cabinet blowing onto the plants.

I have 2 plastic bins(one setting in top of the other)With a water pump bringing the water up to my plants. I change my water once a week, and keep my ph between 5 and 6.

I had a problem with worms about a week ago and the 2 bigger plants were the only survivors, and sustained some damage none the less. I was told to just cut the lower leaves off because the worms may have planted larvae, and could return. So, I will ask the pros...should I remove the damaged leaves, or let them try to heal?

I will be keeping up with this journal, and would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that will make me a happy farmer!

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Re: First Grow, First Journal.

plants in that stage (grow) need a blue spectrum of light, the HPS gives off the yellow orange red spectrum used for plants when they are in the flowering cycle of their life. For your financial situation, I would suggest using cfls for the grow cycle and save the HPS for the flowering cycle, there is alot of info on lighting that you should know about, I wont wear out my fingers so here is a great link CFL Light Tutorial :welcome::peace:
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

Yeah, I havent given the tiny ones any nutes, and just fed the others for the first time today. I will go read up on the lighting, because Im not really sure what CFL's are! If I am unable to get CFL lights, what will the consequence be?

edit...
OK, Now I am looking at prices on these lights, and they arent that bad. So I should replace the HPS lights I am using currently with CFL bulbs? Do they need blue only, or maybe just switch one of the bulbs? Im no electrician, and got the lights from a friend...will I be able to use the same light socket/ballast for the CFL light?
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

Yeah, I havent given the tiny ones any nutes, and just fed the others for the first time today. I will go read up on the lighting, because Im not really sure what CFL's are! If I am unable to get CFL lights, what will the consequence be?

edit...
OK, Now I am looking at prices on these lights, and they arent that bad. So I should replace the HPS lights I am using currently with CFL bulbs? Do they need blue only, or maybe just switch one of the bulbs? Im no electrician, and got the lights from a friend...will I be able to use the same light socket/ballast for the CFL light?

nope, the cfl`s (have their own ballast built in) take a normal type household socket, read that tutorial a few times and you will understand more, also the otherlink has lighting info besides everything else, read that one a few times also, peace
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

I would recomend keeping the HPS lamps....raise them...why buy more stuff when an HID lamp is way more intense than CFL's
you can grow to fruition on CFL's and Metal Halide and High pressure sodium, LED's,T5's...dont get hung up on the spectrum.
How often are the flooded? they look just plain waterlogged and sad.
they need to dry out.
anything under 5.5 is no good..your plants will starve from lockout and overwatering. 5.5-6.2 is the recomended range. I would use 5.8 as a target.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

I flood them twice a day, usually once in the morning then once late-mid afternoon. I would consider hanging another fixture in my box if it is going to make a big difference...would a CFL in addition to the 2 HPS lamps I have be okay? I have an 18inch florescent light...would that give the blue light I need? I am going to raise my lights another couple of inches right now.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

cut down to 1 flood a day....dont add another lamp......you dont understand what Im saying about the spectrum. ALL of them will grow weed....they all just have some pluses and minuses.......leave the lamps
looking at your setup brings back memories of my 1st hydro grow in 1987ish...it was a sweater box and and rockwool
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

you can grow to fruition on CFL's and Metal Halide and High pressure sodium, LED's,T5's...dont get hung up on the spectrum.

agreed, I`ve done complete grows with HPS only and T5HO only, I`ve just had the best results with mixing the light spectrum during the grow, peace
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

here is a quick update for anyone thats interested. I swiched lights. I went with the CFL option for a couple of different reasons...primarily the heat and stress my plants seemed to be under.

I reduced my grow size to less than 2X2, and have almost 1000 lumen worth of bulbs. I have been unable to make a growbox for them, so they are in my closet for the time being. I plan on making some sort of light holder, right now everything is just kinda thrown together.

After one day of CFL the leave tips on 2 of my newborns started turning a deep purple color....heres the picture.
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and the other one
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the next day my initial thoughts were confirmed....Is this shock from the lighting change, or burn from the lights being too close? I had my lights about 3 inches from the plant.
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I am assuming that its a light burn, and I raised my lights to about 5 inches just in case. the other newborns seem to be enjoying the light though, and are sprouting nicely. another thing I thought was maybe windburn? I have a little box fan blowing air onto them to thicken the stems...is there a such thing as windburn on plants?
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

Did you add nutes?
Unless you got that CFL really close like 2 to 3 inches away. I can't see how that could be Light burn.
But maybe. I ain't heard any thing on windburn and most growers have some type of fan blowing on the plants, it does help strengthen the stems.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

yeah, it was pretty close. I raised em up a little. I did give them a root nute for seedling plants...and used only a slight fraction of what the recommended dose. I recently flushed the rockwool with ph 5.8 water just in case...and wont give any more until they get older. With the windburn, I thought that maybe without the heat, the leaves wouldnt take well to the wind.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

yeay I think that is best JR. give them a little time away from the nutes and away from the light.

after I got my seeds germinated, I only had a 26 watt light on them and no nutes for a week.
Then I put them in my veggie box upping my nutes about 50 ppms every 2 days till I got to 200, letting get use to the nutes and also started all the lights. Can't rush things right now. they are babies.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

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Well, the little guys that got burnt are pulling through nicely after a switch to the HPS lights, but had a mishap with thier siblings. The clamp that i had that was for adjusting my CFL lights slipped, and layed my lights directly onto my other plants. I just cant catch a break! One of them got toasted almost completely, and the other 4 are burned but still breathing! I germinated a few more seeds, and look at this one after ony 1 day!

I also added a few CFLs to the back of the cabinet for a little extra light...I know its not much, but I figured it would help a little.
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Re: First Grow, First Journal.

Well....my buddy came through with a nice surprise for me. 2 big plants! they look so nice, and will hopefully fill my cabinet with big stinky nugs! I am going to veg them for about another week, then flower. I dont know exactly what im going to do with my babies when I shut off my lights, maybe just throw them under a few 23watt CFLs for a month or so until I harvest the big ones.
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Re: First Grow, First Journal.

Well I think I overwatered these too....I cant wait until i can afford to piece together my bubble grow. They were growing sooo nice for about 3 days, then one morning the whole plant just curled up and the lower big fan leaves shriveled up and seemed a little crispy(dry) on the edges.
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Can someone please tell me how to fix this? I started giving them 1/4 strength nutes(boost,grow,b1,magical, and sugar daddy...technafloras recipe for success) and the first yellowing(today) occurred after the first night of 18/6(last night).
Could this just be a little shock from the light change? I will take pics of the yellowing around midnight when the lights come back on.
 
Re: First Grow, First Journal.

:goodluck:
 
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