Okay so this grow started 8 days ago. After being germed they were potted into Premium Pro-Mix Potting Soil and put under 10 daylight 23watt CFL's inside of a cab I made. After realizing certain temp and ventilation issues the grow was forced to move from that cab into another rooms closet where its now under 4 daylight 23watt CFL's and a 250watt HPS.













Tomorrow I'm planning on dropping the light down a bit more with chains. Originally I had it so high cause I was worried about burning the babies while they were still so small. Also by next weekend I'm planning on taking a trip to pick up some Foxfarm materials including soil and fertilizers. I'll most likely be transplanting to their final 5gallons after their next set of leafs so I won't have to transplant anymore after that.

Main reason I'm posting here is to get good responses of constructive criticism since I'm a new grower so don't be shy!

Whats wrong guys? After looking through several other journals I noticed my leafs look more narrow than others and the veins through them are more creased than others...
Are they suffering?

I think it's the genetics.
To me they seem pretty healthy.

Hey 80degreez.

I saw you had a post asking for advice. I'm only half way through my first grow, but I've learned a lot so far. I made a post in my grow journal about simple stuff that I wish I knew when I started. SO here it is man...

Lessons learned.

Invest in enough equipment so you know what is going on with your plants and keep records of what you do when. It's incredibly hard (for me anyways) to remember everything I've done and when. And for people to help you online when you don't know what your PH is, temps are, humidity is, nutrients are. Also, when did you water? How much did you water? Keep track of this stuff. Write it down here in your grow journal. Put a link to it in your signature. Then people can find out about the history of your grow and give you better advice.

1. Be patient! This is at least a 6 month journey you are embarking on. You may get some great bud out of it. You may get nothing. Its the only way to learn though. It's hard to resist the temptation of mucking around with your plants every day.

2. Mylar - $13 online Don't use tinfoil. Get this stuff if you are going to grow inside for a bit. Or just stick with white walls. That works too.

3. Temps/Humidity - $10 at Target This thing will record the min/max temp and the min/max humidity of your grow area.

4. PH - $15 on Ebay I started off with nothing to test my PH, then I got something to test my water. I got this but it was a joke for testing PH, good for moisture, but can't really do PH properly. Then I got something else to test my dirt. The dirt test would have been helpful before I started to grow or transplant. But a digital meter is really the best and only way to go to see what you're feeding your plants. You should test the pH of your water, EVERY TIME YOU WATER, after you put your nutrients in. When the nutrients are in, the color of the water changes, so you can't use most other PH tests out there. Get a digital meter, get some calibration liquid. If your PH is wrong/off, then your plant may not be able to use the nutrients you are giving it. So it should be the very first step.

5. Moisture meter - $5 at hardware Does what it says. You can see how moist/dry your soil is at the bottom of your container. Not good for testing PH, like I said.

6. Nutrients - $30-40 at ? I found mine at Longs Drugs for $30. Get these, follow the chart. It makes it easy for you and takes out a lot of the guess work. Chances are you won't over fertilize them either. I started off using "regular" off the shelf stuff. The instructions on most of this stuff is ambiguous. This is probably the most important thing that I've learned. At first it sounded like a lot of money to spend when I didn't even know if I was going to enjoy growing or have any female plants. But now, regardless of what happens, I sure wish I had started out with this stuff.

7. TDS/PPM meter $15 Maybe not necessary, but it helps you get a better picture of what is going on with your water and your nutrients.

8. Misc. Get a oscillating fan (if your going for an indoor grow) to make the stems strong, cycle the air and keep away molds. Also, get big enough pots (3 to 5 gal), keep a close eye on them for pests if you are growing outside and be ready to react to pests immediately (already have your solution in hand.)

9. And read the crap out of this website. There is a lot of good info in the GrowFAQ. Make sure to look there before you post. Do a search before you post. And use your head. Don't trust or rely solely on everything everyone tells you. People mean well, but it's just hard to know when you can't see, touch, live with the plants yourself.

I'm sure not everyone will agree, but that is what I've learned so far and believe to be true. I sure wish I had started with all of this info. It would have saved me a lot of headaches at this point.

I'm still having a great time growing though. Good luck man.

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Wanna check out my journal and help me along?
http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/61423-my-first-grow-journal-leap-9.html

Thanks for the tips. One thing I don't have is a humidity reader. Is humidity less or more crucial during vegetative or flowering stages? Cause I have a window ac unit keeping the surrounding room cool...but AC units also dry out the air so I can imagine my humidity being super low. I do mist the plants while i water though..to add a little extra humidity and I'll leave the cap off my water so that some can disperse through the air...not sure how effective this has been though!

Also I'm plannin on gettin some Foxfarm soils and ferts today. Can somebody recommend the best soils they've got for vegetative growth and flower? I was planning on using Ocean Forest the whole way through but somebody told me it was for flowering only; which if it is the case I'll still use it for flowering, I just don't know what I'll use till then cause the Premium Pro-Mix right now I'm using I think is only good for seedlings..

As for watering up until the last feeding I had been giving them each around 1-2 capful's of water which would moisten the area around the stem the most. Last feeding I kicked it up a bit with about 4 capful's each. I havn't noticed any drooping from that watering either so I guess they are able to handle it!

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/71038-carmelicious-closet-grow-pics.html
first grow - 1week in

Does low humidity during the vegetative phase stunt growth? I've added a bowl with water to the grow room to hopefully increase humidity... any other tips would be helpful!
Growth seems slow the past couple days

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/71038-carmelicious-closet-grow-pics.html
first grow - 1week in

FF Ocean is fine all the way through (not to mention, as you x-pant, it will be consitant.)

For temp humidity, I use a dual reader meant for indoor and out door. This way I can keep it n the coffee table and know what the room is doing.(Plan on putting the base unit in the flowering room and the remote in veg and have it in the sweep of the webcam. the 2 birds with one stone type thing)

Less humid during flowering. buds seem to like to grow mold easier (less air circulation in them) I've heard a bunch of different numbers, so Ill let others go there.

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The Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor. Carmelisous Jornl :: ElecUsageCostsCalc (now with carbon footprint) :: FloroTubeCompendium ::

Alright I'm going to pick up some FF Ocean Forest and use that all the way thru vegetative with no additional nutes. Then for flowering I'll be using Foxfarms Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom since most of the nutes from the Ocean Forest soil will be done by then.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, newbie (me) might be jumping to conclusions here!

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/71038-carmelicious-closet-grow-pics.html
first grow - 1week in

Sounds like a plan! But be forewarned. I just started using the FF BB and TB. That lowered the pH a TON! Like from 6.4 down to 4.3. (was a 5gal bucket, but doubt that mattered)

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The Temporary Relief Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor. Carmelisous Jornl :: ElecUsageCostsCalc (now with carbon footprint) :: FloroTubeCompendium ::

I'm very new to this so adjusting pH is a bit iffy for me. I have a soil tester which reads around 7 in the soil and I have pH testers for my water though I'm a bit fuzzy on how and when to check pH. I check initially as it comes out of the tap and adjust it with lemon juice and vinegar (havn't been using any nutes as of yet) but when I do add the nutes to the water do I pH test the water again after adding the nutes and hit it with more lemon juice or vinegar after that again?

Many thanks!

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/71038-carmelicious-closet-grow-pics.html
first grow - 1week in