1st Grow WW, Santa Maria.

clekstro · #1 05-25-2007, 10:09 AM

I began this first experiment with 11 seeds total: 10 Nirvana-ordered WW, and one SM seed dug from a bag while blazing in Amsterdam. My friend's buddy was nice enough to donate it to the grow as I had explained him my intentions...

Germinated seeds properly, i.e. the popular paper-towel method, kept damp/wet for 24 hours until first seed was ready (Santa Maria, of course), and planted in peet containers as I wanted to avoid the shock. My soil consisted then of floragard vitalblumenerde (a german hardware store flower soil, unsure of nutrient values... mixed with white aquarium sand, pinch of lime (actually greater at the beginning, perhaps 20% or so) and 10% perlite. Within 5 days, all seeds had sprouted and been planted, root down. The SM was still healthiest, although several WW seedlings were looking good as well.

Light consisted of a kitchen light, 40W and an 8" flourescent, run during the night and when there wasn't a windowsill available that was exposed to sunlight. 24/7 until 2.5 weeks or so when they were moved into a bigger closet. Before the had grown past the lids of the peet containers, I covered them at night with plastic to keep humidity up after watering and prevent mold.

clekstro · #2 05-25-2007, 10:26 AM

By the way, started with germination on apr. 17, SM came up the next day...
second batch of pics dates from days 3-5 to day 8 or so. Not exactly sure as I had assumed the camera would keep the date somewhere and it didn't. That's sort of the reason I'm trying to throw this whole thing together, to give it a little more order as well as to get some feedback/ideas. I've already had a few comments for pics that i had randomly chosen before to upload, but will post them here anyway so that everything is in it's right place...

clekstro · #3 05-25-2007, 12:39 PM

Once plants had grown taller than the peet containers, I found a somewhat larger pot to place them in, and kept the soil nearly the same. I added a porous material called seramis, which is a sort of nutritious hydroponic mix that completely replaces soil, and transferred the plants to their larger homes.
At this point I had no ph measuring device, so I watered with bottled water when possible and used tap water nervously, although it didn't seem to harm the plants. Also at this point, I prepared to move the plants into the grow closet I had constructed. I bought a regular 40W oscillating fan for air circulation, and ordered a 400 W HPS bulb to fit into my built in ballast/reflector. Had not yet used nutes, as the plants were at this point only 9 days old or so. Also pulled one plant before the transplant, bringing the total to 10: 9 WW and SM.

clekstro · #4 05-25-2007, 01:37 PM

It must also be said that the roots had already started to grow out of their peat containers before they were transplanted, but only barely. While shopping I spotted some lights which could be easily transformed into grow lights. While certainly not the ideal option (this, for me, was already on its way) it would give more light than none, considering that the larger pots could no longer fit on the windowsill and therefore received little direct sunlight. The bulbs were energy saving 20W bulbs supposed to put out 100W, and put out 1300 lm. apiece; at least the packaging said so. I had worried that the plants would suffer if the lights were too low, and wanted to avoid leaf burn or actual physical touching of plant and bulb as the plants were growing fairly fast, yes, stretching toward their pathetic light source. Yet I'm not so sure that such a start was to my disadvantage. I will discuss this in a more recently dated post. The plants stayed under constant light and "wind" conditions until the HPS bulb arrived (I ordered a plantastar 400W with extra blee spectrum) and i had begun to give them half strength nutrients between the second and third weeks. Growth at this point was rapid, meaning that the plants were stretching really badly, as they were not thickening. There were perhaps only four nodes with a height of over one foot.

clekstro · #5 05-25-2007, 02:40 PM

Started having problems as the leaves had started to burn due to some miscalculations. I had read that spraying the foliage with the foamy, carbonated water would be a natural (and especially inexpensive way in europe) to add co2 to the plants and increase growth. Unfortunately, this resulted in the burning of the leaves as seen in the first thumbnail.

The next problem became apparent as other leaves that had not suffered light burn began to show signs of nutrient deficiency, leaving me to ponder my next move. I still had no idea what the ph was, but followed a hunch that with the addition of the seramis, that the ph had lowered significantly enough to lock out the nutrients, as i had read on many other forums and grow logs. This proved to be a great move as the plants appeared greener and healthier overnight.

Recovery was prompt, and growth started once again to thicken once the nutrient problem was taken care of. I began to fertilize with full strength regular flower fertilizer, and then doubled it as it no longer sufficed (it was particularly low strength 7-3-6 NPK.

At this point, I also had to reconsider my grow closet's dimensions in light of the distance that would be required between the HPS bulb and the plants and accommodating the giant leap up expected during flowering. So I set to work to gut the closet, removing even the lower drawers to get as much room as possible. This left me in the end with a grow space (extremely small for an HPS setup I think) of 1.35m height, 1.15m wide, and .62m deep, which equals roughly 1.2 cubic meters. I was required due to temperature difficulties arriving from the use of the HPS to leave the closet doors open much of the day, wasting light and, seeing as the closet is located next to a window, perhaps attracting unwanted attention in the later evening hours. I should also say that I watered as every successful beginner probably does, a little too often than may be necessary, but not enough to kill them or cause severe irreversible problems. I was leaving the plants alone on the weekends while I was away, and worrying the entire time that they would die due to the heat. I was always pleasantly surprised, however, and found them each time to have grown healthier and thicker. I had bought some timers and set the fan to run 24/7 and lights on for 18, off for six and let the cheap energy efficient bulbs run all 18 hours, while having to shut off the hps every other fifteen minutes to keep from turning the closet (and my bedroom) into a furnace. Next on the list was a grow closet renovation...

clekstro · #6 05-25-2007, 03:10 PM

So the plants got some fresh air while the grow closet got a makeover. I set to hanging the HPS bulb with some manually adjustable chain, but ran out of time before I could fully finish hanging the rest of the white plastic. The plants had also outgrown their second container and were ready to be transplanted into their final containers. I could only fit 7 of them inside, however, and opted to choose the healthiest 7 that I could find, and let the other two feed off of the sunlight that made its way into the living room in the afternoons. I watered and left for the weekend, deciding to leave the HPS on and see what results would come. I was pleased with the results...

clekstro · #7 05-25-2007, 03:44 PM

In order to rid the grow closet of the heat, I ordered an inline fan with some dryer tubing attached to a coal filter for the eventual perfume of my lovely ladies... The heat is only a problem on hot days, as the temperature at my place rises above the 32 degree Celcius, and the fan can do nothing against it. The plants appear, however, to be healthy. From now on I will only be posting my progress. This set of pictures spans the week before last, days 30-34. Earlier I said that I would comment on how the stretching of the first few weeks may have in fact been to my advantage, and I would appreciate others' opinions on this as well.
I have seen in various grow films, posts and threads, how the cutting of the lower branches and leaves may be to the benefit of the plant's overall health: it lets the air circulate above the sections of the roots meant to soak up oxygen, does not waste the plant's energy in trying to maintain lower foliage that does not receive enough direct light which, in my opinion, would probably slow growth. My previous dilemma has left me with open stems that promote good air circulation (a huge plus in my tiny grow space) as well as not requiring me to trim the lower branches, therefore avoiding shock to the plant. I also have picked up a cheap soil ph monitor, and have been consistently between 6.5-7.
The fourth photo below shows the overall setup of the new and improved grow closet, as well as the healthy foliage underneath!

Also feel free to ask questions, as I am sure that I've forgotten tons of somewhat important info trying to summarize 38 days of growth in only 7 posts. The last pictures are as of yesterday.

midgradeindasouth · #8 05-25-2007, 03:55 PM

You need to be in a gal pot atleast.
You want 1gal per foot of growth.
You can bury the stem up to the 1st set of round leaves to combat the stretching.

You want the hps within 18".
As close as you can get it without burning.

You have not said anything about ferts (may have I do not recall).

You should add ferts at 1/4 strength after 30ds from seed.
Also you want to feed them and let them dry all the way out before watering or feeding again.

Ventilation is imparitive for plant health.
Ideally you want the air in the room to exhaust itself within 5 minutes.

Looking pretty good so far.
With a little learning you should do very well.

Happy growing

clekstro · #9 05-25-2007, 05:39 PM

ARRGHHH. So I've spent about two and a half hours typing this thing up and waiting for pictures to upload, and upon reading midgrade's response, realized that the last part that I had just posted for some reason never showed up. Tja. So I will give a quick response to midgrade, as I have left out some of the things he questions, and post the last set of pics that are from yesterday.

Containers: The containers are probably at least 1.5 gallons. I learned that same rule from Jorge Cervantes on the grow DVD, and took it to heart. Plenty of room for roots, plenty of porous material mixed in to facilitate good drainage and oxygen delivery to the roots.

Stretching now, and I think you can see it in the pictures, is no longer really a problem. Under the HPS, it seems to be coming in dense and bushy anyway, and the plantastar 400W with the extra blue spectrum seems to be doing its job. That really doesn't seem to be a concern, but maybe you disagree...

Ferts were unfortunately in my last post:
I decided that I would not be buying some expensive marijuana-specific fertilizer, as I have spent enough on the grow up to this point and will have a hard time convincing my wife, who doesn't smoke, to shell out even more money on this project (even though she will be ingesting some buttered deliciousness on occasion...)

Inspecting the nutes we already have at home, I came across some cactus fertilizer and bonsai fertilizer, and seeing as both had higher 2nd and 3rd NPK digits, decided to mix them. The cactus was 3-7-5 and the bonsai was 3-5-7 or vice-versa, leaving a solution (if balanced) of 6-12-12, a combination I have seen said to be appropriate. I have been using a 1.5 L water bottle for nutrient and water purposes, but the dilution instructions were different for each and required a little calculating to balance them out somewhat well. The final concentration works out to 13.5-26.3-28.3, which seems more on par with what I've seen.
@Mitgrade: I had been using 7-6-3 ferts during vegging stage, and had noticed how small those numbers were compared to other fertilizers, and have noticed no ill effects from the "double dosing." Could your rule have something to do with fertilizers of a higher concentration?

Watering, although tempting to do often (and apparently due to its ability to lower the temperature somewhat in my closet) has been done in my opinion correctly. I watered them today with the bonsai/cactus solution, .75 L per plant, and no water came out the bottom after I was done. I had not watered in 4 days, and had patiently waited until the middle of the soil had dried up before going ahead and watering...

Ventilation is no longer a problem: I have an inline fan set to clear out 410 cubic meters/hour. 410/12 will give me the amount cleared in five minutes, and this is over 3 times my grow area of close to 1.2 cubic meters. There is also a little fan hanging from the ballast, blowing the heat towards the coal filter to be jetted out quick, and this seems to be keeping the temp. around 28 degrees Celcius, but I can't go any lower than this when the temp in my place itself is also that high. No A/C in europe makes growing in summer a challenge, to be sure...

Thanks for the comments, and I will keep pictures coming every couple days. Let me know if something seems really out of place...

clekstro · #10 05-26-2007, 02:00 AM

The plants seem to have taken quite well to the new fertilizer, although I am wondering if the N value was not a little too high. I only have another 14-15 inches that I can move my light up, and am going to have to start considering alternatives to letting them simply grow up nice and small on their own. What strategies would everyone out there consider? I already plan on topping the plants at the end of the first week of flowering, so four days from now. But that doesn't solve the major dilemma I will have if the plants really start to shoot up in the next weeks. Can I train them, bend them, and force them to keep fitting within the tiny grow closet? Any suggestion welcome here, as I feel that height will be the real problem here, even though WW is not a very tall plant (so i have heard).

I should also say something else about the nutes, and defend the bonsai/cactus fert. mix: the bonsai fertilizer contains several trace elements that my plants lacked earlier in the veg. cycle. Some of them (at least one) appeared to have a magnesium deficiency, so I thought this might keep it from happening again.

I am leaving for a couple days again, put the lights up another couple links on the chain to avoid burning, temp is at 29 degrees Celcius, and new growth has already taken off. I took some photos of the nodes, thinking that some curious george might be interested in guessing the sexes only three days into flowering. I must say, however, that the ones with a "female" stature seem to be exhibiting little pistils. Was nervous when I saw the little balls, but a little pistil seems to be extruding from it. Will take some more photos when I return. Thanks for the feedback...