Heya all.

Long time lurker, first time poster. I recently moved into an apartment (January) with my girlfriend, and in late April I started my first closet grow.

The original plan was to germinate with paper towels, but for some reason my ratio was something like 1:10 that actually germinated. Because of the lack of success in germination, I spent about 8$ and bought peat pellets and a container for them. This method did the trick, and in three days I had five plants growing. (One from paper towels, four from pellets)

Now. The plant from towels was potted in miracle grow soil, and broke ground exactly 7 days before the other four plants. It was placed under 5 26 Watt CFLs, and left to grow.

Seven days later, the other plants were potted in plastic cups as well, but in nutrient free soil. (After discovering the miracle grow soil had time release nutes) Everything was purchased at either Wal-Mart or other local hardware stores, because Maine is devoid of hydro shops.

A few weeks into the grow, and everything was going good. The plants were smaller than normal (From what I have seen and read) so I added two 2’ grow lights (Again, Wal-Mart) to the now seven 26 watt CFLs.

The plat in Miracle Grow soil had a big headstart on the others, and was twice the size after about four weeks. One night coming home from work (11PM) the entire plant was wilted down, and the leaves were starting to become crunchy. Thinking I must have dry spots in the root system, I flushed the plant in the shower, and took the opportunity to do so as well with the four other plants, who were still much smaller, and starting to yellow rather quickly.

The flush did wonders for the big plant, and the leaves perked back up some within a few hours. The four others, however, continued to yellow (The reason for writing this log)

I now currently have all plants in 3 gallon buckets I got from a local greenhouse, and they are all planted in nutrient less soil. They are around day 60, And I planned to Veg for only 5 weeks. The height is not and issue, but the smell will be if I ever get these plants healthy enough to flower… The closet is about 6’Hx4’Wx2’D. I have been on a very tight budget, and have actually gone far over what I originally intended to spend on this first attempt. So now, some spec’s on the setup.

2 areas, one for the larger plant, and one for the four smaller ones. The larger plant is under 3 26watt cfls, and has a 2’ grow light on the wall less than 2 inches beside it. I know this isn’t enough light, and plan on adding 3-6 more cfls in the next week or so. This is only like this because yesterday I purchased 2 65watt cfl flood lights, and spent much of the night wiring, hanging and wondering how to deal with the height difference. The four plants also have 2 26 watt cfls directly in between them, just because they were kicking around after the reset.

About five weeks in, I gave all the plants a half dose of Miracle Grow 24=8=16 general plant food, and saw no improvement, so I stopped to avoid doing something irreparable. Since then, nothing has improved. The bottom 2/3 of the plants have lost their leaves (Either falling off, or me removing them because they were not salvageable) I am at a loss as to why this could happen.

I thought it could be a nitrogen deficiency, so today when I watered them, I added a full dose of nutes. I figure that they couldn’t hurt things more than they already are. The plants are about 6-10 inches tall, and all the foliage is near the top of the plant. It has been yellowing from the bottom up for a month.

The temperature of the room goes from 70-83/84. I have two fans in the closet, one blowing up, the other blowing on the bigger plant. There is no door to the closet, so I constructed one out of canvas and Mylar. (Keeps the light in well) There is an Air Conditioner about 10 feet across the open bedroom, constantly on low. I am pulling air from around the bottom of the “door” where it is open a little at the bottom. I will be putting a curtain up that boasts 99.9% light resistant when I get to 12/12 and have to worry about light leakage.

Humidity is from 30-40%, and the water I am using has been set out for about 48 hours after being pulled from the tap.

The plants have always been on a 24 hour light swing, but I am starting 18/6 tonight.

Any and all advice will be amazingly helpful. “Get a HPS” will not be. Because of smell, I am sticking with CFLs and trying to regulate growth at least a small amount. I also don’t have the budget at the moment to upgrade much. If we are talking 10-30$, that could be doable, but much over that needs to wait till I yield enough to cover investments already tied up. I understand not to expect much, especially from bag seed, but I would like to think I can accomplish anything with a little tweaking.

As I am not currently at home, I don’t have pictures. I will upload recent images around 11PM EST. Thanks all!

Alright.. a lot to expect people to read with no pics, so take some soon. First, don't veg your plants at 24 hours daylight. It doesn't help, even if it did a smidge, it's wasteful, and just not natural bra. Antartica is only place I know that gets 24 daylight, and there's no pot there bra. Also marijuana grows it's roots at night. People who say 24 hours light are usually the same morons who think more fertilizer than suggested will help a plant grow faster.

Good idea being careful with the nutes but it sounds like your problems could be deficiencies, not over fertilization. Every fertilizer is different, but once the plant is established you can fertilize half doses about every week. The best way is to slowly increase fertilizers. I use 20-20-20, so unfortunetly might be different for you. Another thing that struck me was using 3 gallon buckets? by my calculation thats about 10 litres!! That's Massive. Your plant will have lots of root space which is good but most people use about 1 gallon, or 2- 4 litre pots in the end.

Your room must smell like a farmer's field bra, ah that's rich. Careful not to overwater with those big pots, that could be part of your problems. Also with all that space maybe the plant can't reach enough fertilizer to optomize growth. Next time you can save some space, and go with 1 0r 2 gallon buckets.

What else....A yes the smell. HPS doesn't make stinkier bud bra. Good pot is what stinks. You heed what I'm saying and smell will be an issue down the line. Sometimes you can find strains that don't stink as much. I would stay away from skunks, or super-skunks, the reason is pretty self explanatory I think. I just bought this little 27 dollar Glade style plug in thing, that has a carbon filter, meant to eliminate smoke odour. Frankly it doesn't really do shit but it would if I had like three of them going at once. If your doors seal pretty well, staple a skirt to block the gap under some doors, keep windows open, and buy one of those double fan that are meant to fit into your window frame and pump air either in or out of rooms.

If you dont expect much from your bag seed, because the pot you got it from was crap, I recomend getting better seeds. If your gonna do this grow something sweet you've always wanted to smoke. The bag-seed could easily rock, so now try expecting awsome bud and it might come true, like a self fulfilling prophecy.

Hey NorthWest! Thanks for the input!

I know the original post was lenghty, I got carried away typing it up at work. I also managed to lose my SD card which had the pictures on it, so I wasn't able to upload them as planned last night. It took some work, but the timer is working correctly now, and they are on an 18/6 light cycle.

The pots that they plants are in may only be 2 gallon. I went by what the woman at the greenhouse said, but she could have been wrong. They are big, but not enormeous. (I think the bottom fits into a 12 inch wide tray for water collection)

None the less - The girlfriend is getting a new SD card, and pictures will be on the way tonight.

topher,

Sorry to hear of your troubles, but I just went through a similar learning experience. Most 1st grows have the problem of too much as opposed to too little. It's very easy to do, and the temptation is just about irresistible for a 1st grow. The large pot size would lead me to think there was enough nutes for the stage your plants sound like they are in. Posting the soil that your are using will help in diagnosis. Post pics over in the plant problem forum, you'll usually get much faster feedback for these kind of troubles.

growone

Ya, it could be a 2 gallon. That's still a bit big, but fine for now. I use 1 gallon, and for me it's the perfect size. When using CFL's typically I've found flowering smaller plants, 6 to 12 inches, makes the best size plants for CFL growing. Don't forget they can increase 3X during the first 3 weeks of flowering, meaning you'll still get a pretty big yield per plant in the end anyway. It's tempting to make the plant really big in veg, but unless you tie branches and shape the thing into a bonzi, you'll get skinny droopy buds, and it's just not with it.

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could still be the tap water even tho you leave it out for 48 hrs that wont change the ph if its off .. id buy a cheap ph tester like this http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com...23.html?ref=42 you could have nute lockout due to high or low PH
also goto a walmart o whatever and get a small aquarium pump and airstone for your water

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NorthWest - Thanks for the interest! I am currently germinating 6 new seeds in peat pods, and plan to veg them for only 4 weeks, growing in regular plastic cups. I planned to be a couple weeks into flowering now, but I want to get the plants healthy again before going to 12/12.

Buckshot - This is a good point. I actually have a spare aquarium air pump kicking around, I'll rig that up to my 5 gallon water container tonight.


I really wish I could get those pictures up to show exactly what is going on, I think it would help alot. Damn 12 horu work days. >.<

__________________
Everything I say is a LIE. I speak simply for amusement and out of boredom.
CFL Efficiency - http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...challenge.html

Wooooot. Girlfriend picked up another SD card while I'm at work... Pictures tonight! =)

__________________
Everything I say is a LIE. I speak simply for amusement and out of boredom.
CFL Efficiency - http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...challenge.html

Ok! So I have some pictures now to back up that looooong post, so let's get to it.

First, we will go with the entire grow setup. It's pretty McGyver'd, so I am open to any thoughts of changes.






This is the setup for the four smaller plants, and then the one bigger plant.

__________________
Everything I say is a LIE. I speak simply for amusement and out of boredom.
CFL Efficiency - http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...challenge.html

Alright. SOIL being used is This -



Now for the plants. Plant A!



This is the largest of the plants. It has (what I think) is pretty severe damage. This plant was seemingly dead a few weeks back, and has rebounded alright. Next is an upclose picture of the damage.

__________________
Everything I say is a LIE. I speak simply for amusement and out of boredom.
CFL Efficiency - http://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/...challenge.html