herbtoker's first grow: easy sativa, northern lights, and pure afghani

so i just started my first grow... its going to consist of 3 easy sativa feminized, 2 northern lights (non-fem), and 1 pure afghani. i want to keep it relatively small but wanted some variety considering its my first grow. ill post pics as soon as i can (hopefully this weekend).

got the seeds from marijuana-seeds.nl. they got here in a week and a half and had great customer service. on the 6 seeds i had a 100% germination rate, so i was very happy. hopefully the rest of the grow goes this well!

supplies:
4-26 watt cool white cfls
3-26 watt daylight cfls
1-14 watt daylight cfl (found it at my house, hey why not add a little more?!)
one bag fox farm ocean forest organic soil
one bag of sta-green nursery blend flowers and herbs potting soil
one bag of miracle grow organic choice soil (i will put this at the bottom of their pots when i transplant them to their bigger ones- heard it has some nutes in it that can burn seedlings)
fox farm big and chunky perlite

gonna pick up some fox farm nutes later in the grow when they get about a month old.

i know my soil mixture seems a little crazy, but i was first planning on using the miracle grow for only one plant, then heard it burns the seedlings, but heard fox farms ocean forest was good. then i decided i wanted to grow more than 2 or 3 plants so i used the rest of a barely used bag of the sta-green i had at home.

im going to keep them inside for a few weeks then transplant them outside nearby, so im trying to keep the cost of the lights and stuff down.

ill get pics up of my setup as soon as i can.

here are a few pics that i took today. all of them have broken above ground and they have their little coteleydons (dont know how to spell that). you can barely see the comp. fan in the bottom right corner and there is also a bigger fan blowing around the closet theyre in right above the box. not sure the temp yet... gotta get me self a thermometer.

let me know if you have any suggestions or what you think of it please!

here is a pic of my best one. this was yesterday, 3 days after putting it in soil. ill have some more pics up later today of them that i took today.

sorry about the picture quality, got a little too close to the plant i think.

let me know what you think so far or if i should be doing anything different!

Hey HerbToker, looks like you're off to a good start.
Nice little setup you got going there.
Thanks for the headsup on getting your journal started w/ pics even, I'll be keeping an eye on things here. You already know that I'm jealous that you got your seeds and I got burned from marijuanaseeds.nl.

BigGuyTok'n said:

Hey HerbToker, looks like you're off to a good start.
Nice little setup you got going there.
Thanks for the headsup on getting your journal started w/ pics even, I'll be keeping an eye on things here. You already know that I'm jealous that you got your seeds and I got burned from marijuanaseeds.nl.

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i hope theyre off to a good start. theyre growin pretty fast, or maybe not but i just try to look at it that way. i know your jealous of my seeds, but i am far more jealous of your plants. they look awesome!
as for my setup, its awesome, i love it. but, i ended up spending about 100 on all the lights, those daylight cfls are fricken expensive! i could have just gotten a better light, but theyll go outside soon anyway and the lights wont matter.
should have some more pics soon that i just took. ill post them in a little and will do some more tomorrow as well.

these are pics from this morning a little bit after i turned the lights on. let me know what you think! are they too streched? i think i have the lights pretty close, but im not sure.

this is 3 days after putting them into the soil, day 5 overall.

let me know if you have any suggestions! please!

Just a thought, but is there any way to get some kind of reflector above or around them to maximize the light.
I can't quite tell what kind of surface you have there?
Lookin' good though so far
Oh yeah and thanks for the nice comments about my babies.

hey good luck with the grow, looks good im taking a seat,

northernlights said:

hey good luck with the grow, looks good im taking a seat,

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thanks northernlights. i hope it all goes well, im new to this but ill do my best.
let me know if you have any suggestions

BigGuyTok'n said:

Just a thought, but is there any way to get some kind of reflector above or around them to maximize the light.
I can't quite tell what kind of surface you have there?
Lookin' good though so far
Oh yeah and thanks for the nice comments about my babies.

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Yeah i was gonna get some tin foil, but heard that it creates hot spots and stuff, then i was gonna get some mylar but i dont want to buy a whole roll for my little box. what else do you think would work good? a white piece of cardboard or something cheap and easy like that?

here are a couple pics i took just a little bit ago. theyre all doin pretty good i think, except the afghani. it looks a little sad, and i dont think hes gonna survive. im not too mad, i just hope that doesnt happen to any of the other ones!
the first one is one of the northern lights, the second one of the easy sativas. the n.l. picture isnt great, i just didnt want to disturb it too much.

the only problem i see is that the little tiny round leaves (cotyleydons i believe) are curling down. is that bad? theyre not yellow and dont look dead, but dont look super happy. could i be over watering or too high of heat conditions? i just moved the fan so its on low right in front of the box, sorry i dont have a pic of it but i think that will help with heat and air circulation. i also put my cheap light holder fixture that i made on top of some cd cases to get the lights up just a little bit, not too much. i just dont want to burn them.

let me know what you think and what suggestions you may have!

herbtoker said:

Yeah i was gonna get some tin foil, but heard that it creates hot spots and stuff, then i was gonna get some mylar but i dont want to buy a whole roll for my little box. what else do you think would work good? a white piece of cardboard or something cheap and easy like that?

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Check out the GrowFAQ's for some ideas. I personally like the:
Elastomere paint (info by furun)

A rubberized roofing paint with 90% reflection. Good for growboxes. Mildew resistant. Highly reflective.

Kool Seal White Elastomeric Roof Coating ~ $15.00 (1 Gallon)

Ultra high reflectivity
Forms a rubber-like blanket that expands and contracts
Adheres to almost any surface (very good on wood and metal)
Available @ Lowe's Home Improvement: Buy Kitchen Cabinets, Paint, Appliances & Flooring
I'll probably use that myself next year on my grow setup.

herbtoker said:

here are a couple pics i took just a little bit ago. theyre all doin pretty good i think, except the afghani. it looks a little sad, and i dont think hes gonna survive. im not too mad, i just hope that doesnt happen to any of the other ones!
the first one is one of the northern lights, the second one of the easy sativas. the n.l. picture isnt great, i just didnt want to disturb it too much.

the only problem i see is that the little tiny round leaves (cotyleydons i believe) are curling down. is that bad? theyre not yellow and dont look dead, but dont look super happy. could i be over watering or too high of heat conditions? i just moved the fan so its on low right in front of the box, sorry i dont have a pic of it but i think that will help with heat and air circulation. i also put my cheap light holder fixture that i made on top of some cd cases to get the lights up just a little bit, not too much. i just dont want to burn them.

let me know what you think and what suggestions you may have!

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As far as the little coyteledons (or whatever they are called), I'm pretty sure a little curling is normal.
The over watering thing is why I switched to the tera-cotta pots from those cups.
If you have a problem and don't want to re-pot (which is stressful at this stage) you could try what I did and cut holes in the bottom of the cup. Then put some gravel in another cup and set the first one in it. I included a pic of it from my grow for you
Happy Growing!!!

wow bigguy, thanks for all the help! that was very helpful... but i have some bad news...
first- afghani is dead for sure. he looked the same for 4 days so i decided to pull him up and he didnt even have any roots. oh well, that was probably my fault
second- my growing buddys roommate said he didnt want them in their apartment anymore. i live at home still and commute to college everyday, and my parents wouldnt go for them being here. so, we had to put the poor babies outside today. i hope they are okay its been very nice here (except for that snow a week ago) but the news people said it should be the last snow (i hope they know what theyre talking about). we were planning to go outside with them anyway, but not that soon. his roommate said 3 weeks was fine, but he said he was too paranoid and didnt like the idea of having marijuana plants in their apartment. oh well, we'll do what we have to do i guess.

the spot were growing them is off of a trail across a river through a fucking forest of thorny plants that destroy my legs and clothes every time i go back there and in the middle of this opening in the forest. it should be okay, i dont think anyone would go back there, and theres nothing but plants and bushes anyway so it shouldnt look suspicious. i think there is a beaver there though, cause all the tree stumps are broken and there is something that appears to be a dam. dam beaver better not eat my plants.

before we moved them today i took a pic of one of the easy sativas. it looks pretty good, i hope it didnt freak when we took it outside today though. its still 60 degrees F here at 11:30 pm so hopefully its not too cold for em.

let me know what you think, besides the fact i am screwing up by having to put them out this early

do you think they are growing at a decent speed? theyre not really small, but then again, not very big. i am a paranoid parent, and i hope my kids make me happy (at least a couple of them)

Sorry to hear about the afgani, and about having to move them outside already too.
Sounds like your weather is quite similar to what we have here, and I think we're safe as far as that goes.
I walked down to the road in front of our property the other day and there are so many plants growing down there in the ditch they are like ground cover (thousands and thousands). They are all about the same size as yours are. I know they are just (literally) ditch weed. It is rather ironic how much we fuss over them and these these nasty suckers grow up all on their own every year to the point that they take up about a 10 feet wide by at least a 100 feet or more of ditch area (quite a site actually). The county always comes and trims the ditch before they ever get to any bud-stage and they are all pollenated of course too. But it sure looks cool even if it ain't good for crap.

BigGuyTok'n said:

Sorry to hear about the afgani, and about having to move them outside already too.
Sounds like your weather is quite similar to what we have here, and I think we're safe as far as that goes.
I walked down to the road in front of our property the other day and there are so many plants growing down there in the ditch they are like ground cover (thousands and thousands). They are all about the same size as yours are. I know they are just (literally) ditch weed. It is rather ironic how much we fuss over them and these these nasty suckers grow up all on their own every year to the point that they take up about a 10 feet wide by at least a 100 feet or more of ditch area (quite a site actually). The county always comes and trims the ditch before they ever get to any bud-stage and they are all pollenated of course too. But it sure looks cool even if it ain't good for crap.

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thats so cool, ive never seen a plant in the wild, but i guess i never thought about them growing in the wild either. i think mine will do okay outside, i hope so at least!

more bad news... this isnt goin so well

this morning i woke up at about 10 till 6 and heard it pouring outside. immediately, i thought, great, my plants arent ready for this much rain! i went to the bathroom (i know you dont want to hear that), then came out and immediately the rain got about 5 times louder on my roof. i thought, fuck, im an idiot. i didnt even cover the poor babies, what the fuck was i thinking!? then i looked out my window and saw that that wasnt rain, it was now hailing!

AHHHHHHHH!

i was 99% sure it was over and there was no way that they would survive but decided i would check later in the day just to see if any of them got lucky. i went across my river and through the woods to check them out. i got to them and was amazed at what i saw.

all of them were still alive and well, except for one (dont remember if it was nl or es). the one unlucky fellow got one of its 2 real leaves torn off, but still had the other one. i didnt take my camera or phone so i dont have any pictures, but ill get some for you all tomorrow. i was so surprised, 4/5 looked perfectly fine (a little leaf curling up... what could that mean?) and the other one was missing a leaf.

will she/it be okay? or do you think it will die cause its still so young?

i consider myself really lucky, but today i took over some glass and a bucket for them. they are in the bucket (a future home for one of them- a 7 or 8 gallon bucket filled with probably 6 gallons of my crazy soil mixture) and then i put a small piece of glass over the top that covers most of the bucket but leaves the sides open for air flow. its supposed to rain all week here, so i thought id protect them from losing anymore leaves. i know glass absorbs a little light, but i dont think it will be too bad.

sorry about not having pics today, ill get some tomorrow and show you all what im talking about.

went to water my babies again and make sure they were doin alright. they look okay, not growing as fast as id like but i guess i gotta be more patient. they look alright though, better than i thought theyd do after switching to outside so early

the one thats in the very back is the one that got one of its leafs torn off. its still kickin though so im happy. i hope they all keep growing well and hopefully explode pretty soon. i took one pic... here ya go

let me know what you think

growin too slow?!? or am i just too impatient?

went to check them again today, and theyre doin alright. some of their leaves look a little messed up from the hail, but they all are still green and growing like pretty good little weeds
i took the glass of the top of their bucket cause it shouldnt be raining very much for the next week, at least thats what the weather people say.
first picture is a group shot, second one is one of the easy sativas.

does anyone... anyone at all have any advice? i know im not an expert and id like lots of critizism and any suggestions you have!

and what does anyone think on the speed theyre growin? it seems a little slow to me. it does get a little below 50 at night. i know thats not optimal conditions but there isnt much i can do right now. ill try to look at the bright side of things... its just making them more hardy and ready for any kind of conditions

ahhhh... more hail yesterday! and i thought it would be nice so i left the glass off!!!
i went to check them after the hail though (had to work while it was hailing and couldnt leave). they looked pretty good actually, maybe im just paranoid!
one was a little torn at the end, not as bad as last time though. geez, this makes me feel like theyre all gonna go hermie. its supposed to be clear and about 70 to 75 degrees today and tomorrow, then the rain. ill make sure to cover em this time, i dont want to make any more mistakes.

any comments? growth speed? looking okay? please anyone... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Depending on what part of the u.s. you live in i would wait til the middle of may to put them outside!!! I live in N.E.and it' still cold... so good luck.. oh the the strong sun might burn them so you mite want to get a mesh fabric.. they sell them for putting down in the driveway so weeds dont come thrue the lets say [graval] or anything...

da plantDOC

hey DOC,
i know, i hate to have to put them outside so early, but i wasnt planning on it. my friends roommate said we could grow them in their apartment for 3 weeks but after a week he said he didnt want them in there anymore. we decided it would be better to risk them outside than to have him tell police or something like that. i live in southern colorado, so im in a little better place than you, but not much! its supposed to snow in colo. tomorrow or maybe tonight, but pretty far northwest of me, im really hoping it doesnt! but, if they die, its better than getting in trouble with the cops. his roommate is a real cool guy and likes to party with us, but is also pretty scared of us growin.