here we go, yo

royalnobody · #1 05-05-2008, 03:31 PM

on april 22nd i used the plate and upside down bowl method to germinate some seeds i found in a bag from january. after five days, i planted them in pots that are way too big, but alas my first little grow began. as i live in the northeast, i was hoping to do a windowsill grow and plant them outside. after reading so many of the grow journals here, i changed that plan which you can see from the accompanying photos. i just set up the lights, which are cool white fluorescents, about 30 minutes ago. i put a small fan on low to strengthen up those stems. does anyone have an opinion about using sunlight and floros together? also, i see a lot of people do 24 on and some do 18/6? i'd like to do 20/4 so the roots can do their thing. thoughts?

Lacy · #2 05-05-2008, 10:16 PM

I wouold just go with 18/6
plants cannot absorb any more light after about 16 hours so anything after that is just wasted.

Maybe bring the light closer instead of blowing a fan on them.

royalnobody · #3 05-06-2008, 04:28 PM

thanks for the reply, lacy. i changed the old ge bulbs to new phillips cool white. on the box it says, they're 48 inch, 3200 lumens, 40 watt, color rendering index 70 and color appearance 4100K. there's a pic below of the old & new bulbs side-by-side. hopefully these brand new ones will be more effective. i let them sleep for 6 hours last night and i turned the fan off a few hours ago. most importantly, the leaves are now less then 1 inch from the bulb. this will be the first full cycle of floro's for them so i'm hoping for good things. plant 'a' picked up a bit after stretching for the sun on the windowsill, so she no longer needs the bamboo support. oh, and i answered my own question from yesterday...if you have lights, don't even bother with the sun.

80degreez · #4 05-06-2008, 04:38 PM

They look a bit stretched, make sure when you aren't using a HID light to keep them as close as possible without burning

royalnobody · #5 05-06-2008, 04:43 PM

yeah, they're totally stretched. i started out on the windowsill with the sun and just rigged up the grow room yesterday. so yeah, i'm a bit behind. they've only been in soil for 10 days now...how much water should i be giving them?

newtoit · #6 05-06-2008, 05:32 PM

just a idea, but with how stretched out they are, why not bury them deeper in the pot? that way they would grow some more roots in the stem that is buried... if you can take them out of the pot, or at least get some of the soil from the bottom without damaging the existing roots... I am just throwing the idea out there, as i have seen a few threads where they did that. I would wait to hear from another more experienced grower before doing it

royalnobody · #7 05-06-2008, 06:04 PM

i was thinking of filling up the pots with more soil...i still have plenty left from the bag i used. thanks for the tip.

newtoit · #8 05-06-2008, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalnobody

i was thinking of filling up the pots with more soil...i still have plenty left from the bag i used. thanks for the tip.

from what i have seen on here, if you do the plant will start to grow roots from the newly buried stem... I have spent a fair bit of time surfing thru threads as i have started my first grow/journal

royalnobody · #9 05-06-2008, 07:57 PM

newtoit, it looks like our little ones are close to the same age. i added some extra soil and gave them a drink. yours are looking great.

newtoit · #10 05-06-2008, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalnobody

newtoit, it looks like our little ones are close to the same age. i added some extra soil and gave them a drink. yours are looking great.

mine are about 6 days old(planted them in the soil on the may 1), the bigger ones anyway. Yours look a lot better with the extra soil... did you drop them down a bit? or just add to the pot?