After reading a post from another grow journal, I decided to change my light 's photo-period. Here is the journal entry I read. It states to achieve optimal root growth, I should use a 16/8 cycle instead of 18/6. This is especially true for cuttings and new seedlings which both need rapid root growth.

This is a great example of why I love this site. So many people collaberating together to achieve a common goal while sharing lessons learned along the way. Happy 4:20 to all...

During the change of the light cycle on the timers, I noticed my grow cubes were bone dry! I flooded them with water and they are looking great. I didn't notice it before but the T1 has sprouted a second set of leaves and I didn't noticed it before because there is virtually no distance between the nodes! I am confident with this watering I should notice some impressive growth.

I haven' t made a journal entry for a few days. This is because I got a job and I haven't been around to do anything. There is a lot to mention in this post.

Water: Thursday night (2 days ago) I watered the plants. I've been watching the weed videos I have again to observe how much water to water. Being a new person to growing, I am afraid of over watering as that is a common problem with neophytes. I realized there is a really easy and simple way to water just the right amount. Take the volume of the container you are using, say 16 litres for a 4 gallon pot. Divide by 80 (the magical number) and the answer you have is 200ml (about 2/3 of a cup). This is how much water the plants should be given every day until the third week of flowering (when sex appears). After sex appears, watering occurs only once every two days. Since I'm currently using 4" pots, I've determined I only need about 30ml for watering my plants daily. At first, I thought that was way too little; and I was wrong . Coincidentally, the volume of a shot glass is around 30ml . So every morning my plants now get a shot of water.

I've been so busy over the last 48 hours that I haven't watered them only because I wasn't home to do it. When I got home today around 2pm on Saturday, I knew they would be dry but I didn't know HOW dry. The first picture in the attachments is what I saw under the HID.

Death: The first thing I noticed was X2. The soil was completely dry and the seedlings lay dead and dried out. Despite the fact that I lost one, I still am very happy because of all the seedlings, that is the first one I would have wanted to go. The second attachment is a picture of dead seedling. If you recall from my earlier posts, this seedling has been nothing by trouble ever since the leaves got burned. The down side is that this just reinforces my negative attitude towards XXX-420. I'm starting to think that the guys there just wanted to sell it to me for money, not because they thought it would be a good strain.

Germination: Success! All of the seeds that I planted earlier this week have now all sprouted! Check the pictures I've attached.

Afghani: Once again, I must say that Afghani fucking rules! The afghani is kicking the shit out of the competition! I'm so impressed with this strain that I don't give a flying fuck about the XXX-420 anymore. I HIGHLY recommend that you try Afghani if you haven't tried it.

Grow cubes: The seedlings are doing well, you can see fresh leaves and progress is very slow. For the most part, the cubes are dry but there is also a lot of moisture around the seedlings still, so I will not water yet. I've attached a picture of the seedlings, you can see that the growth is nothing like the ones under the HID. I'm glad I learned this, it's such a huge difference and the soilless soil is so much better.

Attached Images

	Day 17 - Under the HID before watering.jpg (99.7 KB, 89 views)
	Day 17 - Dead X2.jpg (97.8 KB, 98 views)
	Day 17 - A3 Sprout (before watering).jpg (137.3 KB, 80 views)
	Day 17 - Seedlings in cubes.jpg (40.0 KB, 45 views)
	Day 17 - Under the HID after watering.jpg (103.6 KB, 86 views)

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A2 and T2: I'm very proud of these plants. I really hope they are females. The stem on the T2 is a purple colour, and the stem is stronger than it was. I didn't have the fan on these plants over the last two days, instead the seedlings under the T5 FL got it. A2 appears to have a weak stem still and the colour is still the same, mostly green with a little white. My concern is that after I wanter A2, it falls over and leans up against the sign I made for it. I realize this is temporary as the drops of water evaporate quickly. I'm only worried that its hurting the plant by bending over like that. To help the stem, I've added a handfull of soiless soil and packed it down a little bit around the stem. This has added much support.

Attached Images

	Day 17 - T2 before watering.jpg (94.2 KB, 76 views)
	Day 17 - A2 before watering.jpg (70.8 KB, 62 views)
	Day 17 - A2 and T2 after misting.jpg (107.0 KB, 50 views)
	Day 17 - A2 after watering.jpg (71.0 KB, 37 views)
	Day 17 - T2 after watering.jpg (54.2 KB, 53 views)

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Peace, Love and Drugs!

wow man, everything looks great! keep it up..what site did U get those seeds from?

no site, i went to the store itself... located in toronto, ontario; its called Ontario seed bank. Its totally legal to own and sell seeds in ontario.

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Peace, Love and Drugs!

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks old for the first batch and about a week old for the newer ones. A2 and T2 are really growing now. They are very bushy and growing more and more leaves.

All of the seedlings under the HID are doing amazing! They all are around the same level of growth and have sprouted a solid set of true leaves around the same size as the seed leaves.

The three seedlings in the grow cubes are dying. The leaves are starting to show bright green/yellow on the leaves. The cubes are still moist. I believe it may be that the roots are rotting. If the cubes were not moist, I would have assumed they needed nutrients. I still think nutrients would help... I just can't feed them because they are still wet. These seedlings have been less than satisfactory and therefore I have no issues losing the seedlings. I've learned my lesson to never start seeds off in those things. The soiless soil is so much better! Speaking of nutrients, I will start to water the plants under the HID (including the new seedlings) with a small dose of nutrients to help stimulate root growth.

My friend has asked for his digital camera back so I will not have any pictures for a bit. I'm not sure when I'll get to borrow it again, but if there is anything that happens where I need a picture, I can always just use my webcam.

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Peace, Love and Drugs!

Today I noticed the plants under the T5FL are hurting. This time the grow cubes are really really dry! After consulting with a gardner, I decided to plant the three grow cubes inside a soiless soil pot. So each of the 3 seedlings are now transplanted into 4" containers and I fed them double what I would normally feed my plants under the HID (about 2 shots, or 60 ml). To find out if the HID heat is causing the problem, I left one on the shelf under the T5 FL and the other two under the HID. I should note that the ones under the HID are the worst and best out of the three. I did this for control reasons. I placed them to the far side away from direct light. This should help them without burning them. The HID is still about 4' away from the plants and I have no need to move it any closer.

A2 and T2: These are just down right amazing now. Each day I am noticing new growth. It seems like a new pair of leaves sprouts every day! I've also noticed the stems are really strong now compared to before when I was concerned. Last night I fed the plants with nutrients and I believe it helped. I also watered them today with the same stuff (leftovers from yesterday).

Batch 2: I am going to refer to the plants under the HID as Batch 2. Specifically the ones that I started on Jan 23, 2007. Check this out, I compared my pics from Day 10 to the Batch 2 (of 7 days growth) AND the pics I have show smaller growth than what I have with Batch 2!!!! This proves that applying my learnings from Batch 1 (the test batch), I have truly devloped an understanding for the growth process and the needs of the plants. I'm very proud to say that this journal has also helped me huge! Mad props to all those who administer and post to rollitup.org!!!

Misting: After watering all the plants, I gave them a very heavy misting. I love doing this because I can't over do it! I know that its good for the plants because it provide follier feeding. Also, it helps reduce the chance of insects and the humidity is no longer a concern. If anyone is concerned about the humidity, simply mist the shit out of the plants and I promise you won't have any issues. You can't over mist them because the HID will dry it out within a couple hours! Also I have a fan blowing on them which helps evaporate it and provides additional circulation for CO2. I have yet to see where too much misting hurts a plant.

Tomorrow I will be heading out to poker right after work and therefore I will not be around to water the plants at the usual time. To help this I plan on misting them before I go to work tomorrow and I feel they should be fine.

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Peace, Love and Drugs!

Yeah so all is going great! I've got A2 and T2 growing to the point where I am considering a transplant. All of the second batch are solid, showing excellent signs of growth. I've been feeding them the minimum which is about 3ml DNF per litre of water. It's been working out great by watering them once a day using a shot glass; I've now doubled the watering dosage to two shots. After watering each day I mist the plants heavily on both the top and underside.

Today I made my first cutting on the two strongest plants, A2 and T2. I noticed the plant's bottom set of leaves were starting to yellow and droop. I noticed they aren't getting nearly as much light as the top ones, and thus I removed them to concentrate the growth on the top set of leaves. I hope to transplant these into bigger pots by the end of the week. I'm expecting the visible growth to slow as the plants adjusts to the shock of loosing leaves. Perhaps the growth of the roots will continue.

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Peace, Love and Drugs!

very creative with the shot glass idea..U wanted to see if the HID was drying plants..what did u find? and what did u decide about the HPS light? r u gonna do it? honestly, if they look good with the t5 u might as well flower w/ the MH and maybe a couple warm cfl's..thats only about 15-20 bux..I mean ur practically ready to start budding so i mean if u were waiting "til u cross that bridge" ur about there mis amigo...
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ps MORE PIX MORE PIX!

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I'm considering moving the light closer to the plants since they will probably benefit from the additional light and the heat is not that bad. I'm seriously thinking of buying an oscillating fan when I get my next pay. I also want to buy a hood reflector and a new hygrometer. I'd like to get a digital hygrometer this time, I don't mind spending the extra cash. The reason being is that I strongly disagree with the temperature readings, however I do agree with the humidity readings.

Nutrients: When I was wateirng my plants today I was thinking about the DNF nutrient being added to the water. I noticed significant increase in growth from the last time I watered them and that was because I put a little more nutrient in the water than normal. Then it hit me, I've been feeding them only the minimum for seedlings and clones! I should have double the dosage when the plants reached a veg stage. The funny thing is that I don't know when a plant is no longer a seedling. I am going to go back to the videos to research some more again.

Spittn4cash: First off, thanks for your huge interest in my project! It's flattering to see the questions you're asking because it shows you are showing a genuine interest! Thank you . Now, in response to your questions:

Q: HID drying out the plants?
A: The plants are being dried out every day. I feed them just enough water so that they need water the next day. While I realise I could probably just water more and then I wouldn't have to water it every day. I still like this idea, because I never run the risk of over watering, which is the most common mistake of beginners. Even though they dry out, its all good, they are still showing signs of great growth. I believe the misting is helping huge with the low humdity (betwen 10% and 20%). I LOVE misting, I can't emphasize it enough!

Q: What did u decide about the HPS light?
A: I decided for now to delay purchasing the HPS light. Perhaps until the next crop. The reason being is that I didn't plan ahead for this and it will require some construction. If I'm going to invest in some grow room construction, I want to make sure I plant it out right then do it right. The T5 FL is great for seedlings but I gotta say the MH is producing far better results. Therefore I have decided from now on to only use the T5 FL for clones and the HID will be used for vegging and flowering. I'm going to setup the clones into another room or seperate area (when it comes time to clone). The reason being is that I intend to be flowering with my MH while the clones are rooting under the T5. The two lights will require different light cycles and thus need to be seperated. I also wanted to flower with the MH first since I've never done that before. It will provide me with a good benchmark to go from. Then when I get the HPS I can be that much more amazed at the results .

I hope this answers your questions. Feel free to read some of my past posts because I remember discussing some of the options I had and I've commented on how I've changed my mind.

I want to get more pictures too! Preferably high res as I did before. I am going to contact my friend again to see if I can borrow his camera. I'm really happy that you enjoy my pictures And since you asked for more, I will be much more inclined to take more since it's not just about me

Btw, I'm not too crazy about the CFLs. I'd rather buy another T5 at $50, because I feel it's worth it!

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Peace, Love and Drugs!