Well i have decided to start a journal. Its been a few months and withthe people here at RIU, its been working out. im looking at smoking MY herb soon... few weeks i guess. im super excited and ill be thinking of all of you when i do so. until then, ill be adding to the journal, and looking for noobs in the plant problems section that i can help. everyday i see my babies have grown and and i make my O face . thanks guys

Welcome to RIU man. It's great watching them grow, isn't it?

__________________
EVERYTHING THAT I SAY HERE IS COMPLETELY FALSE AND THE ONLY REASON I SAY THESE THINGS IS SO I CAN SOUND COOL.

I started in soil. that was too hard... worrying about the right soil, and if its draining and stuff. forget all that. find ROSEMANS article on how to b uild a DWC system. the bubbleponics system. (the thread w like hundreds of posts)

well he lays it out real simple and i did it. i start out w a germination tray w those coco plugs, i drop a seed in each one, cover, and wait a few days. then i remove the weed block film around the plug and insert it into the rockwool (rinse the rockwool cubes before using). put the rockwool in the mesh pot, fill w hydroton and turn everything on. easy as pie.

well in a few days i had babies flourishing. here, its easy to see the set up. i had made 2 of the blue bins like roseman said, and i had a tray for the extras

Attached Images

	DSC01227.jpg (78.2 KB, 32 views)
	DSC01229.jpg (77.1 KB, 23 views)
	DSC01230.jpg (74.7 KB, 21 views)

here, at 3 weeks after transplant from germination tray, they are rich and lively. at this point i remember thinking they are huge!!! i look now and cant help to notice how clean everything was... anyways. this whole time i got a huge bin ya cant see thats letting water sit in it constantly. it may hold like 20 gallons. every 3 days i add water+nutes to a 5 gal bucket, then to the plants bubble system. when the large 30g drum is empty, i fill it again, and it has at least 3 days to let the chlorine out. the only things i use are WATER from the tap, i add proGrow. like 20bucks for a small bottle that you dilute. and maybe some chlorine/chloramine remover from the petstore (amquel is really good for fish/aquatic plants, so why not)

Attached Images

	DSC01231.jpg (67.2 KB, 7 views)
	DSC01232.jpg (67.6 KB, 4 views)

i left the light really close to the plants usually. i noticed mine were bushy and short. i raised the light and they changed. stopped frowing bushy, and started growing upwards for light. this is important, cuz ya want the right balance. who wants a plant that is tall a narrow? or short and wide? depends on the space ya got i guess, but knowing you can manipulate the hieght of the light source to change the growth of the plants is cruicial to maximizing space.

Attached Images

DSC01235.jpg (80.9 KB, 9 views)

1st pic is at 5 weeks. the other 2 a close up of some hot rotting action!!! i came on RUI, asked around, and now i cover the cubes completly w hydroton. i tried little white squares, those suck, they remove algae growth but it still makes rot underneath. just add more hydroton. i started spay them too w some stuff called SAFER 3in 1. kills bugs, mites, and fungus. i moved the light up a lot around this time

Attached Images

	DSC01255.jpg (77.2 KB, 15 views)
	DSC01233.jpg (102.2 KB, 12 views)
	DSC01234.jpg (82.2 KB, 7 views)

at this point ive separated them to start flowering. im using another closet, w the same lamp, now w a MH sodium bulb. im using 16 cfls for the growing, i switched the light in the grow room already to the cfls to make sure nothing bad happens they are ok, so im doing it. this pic is the bigger plants in the 2nd closet that will start the flowering process

Attached Images

6w.jpg (54.6 KB, 12 views)

they are growing fast, using up water fast. i got bugs i spray for (little tiny white flies - still use the safer bottle but now also use 'dont bug me' from fox farm.), and i nice electric bill to pay. wondering when i will see some nugs growing... the last pic is a close up of an internode junction where the gender is seen (barely)

Attached Images

	DSC01254.jpg (90.2 KB, 20 views)
	DSC01252.jpg (89.6 KB, 18 views)
	DSC01253.jpg (43.1 KB, 17 views)

yea i love it i wanna move to do this full time.


fell free to post comments advice whatever. its a journal but whatever, this site has gotten me this far, i dont plan on frowning at comments now