ChemIndeuced's Short Rider Closet Grow (Soil, 400W HPS)

This is my first time trying to take the growing process beyond the seedling stage all the way to harvest, and I'm pretty excited. Constructive input is both welcome and appreciated. This first post is a bit wordy, but I just wanted to let everyone know the details of the set up right off the bat, so they can see if it will be helpful for them.

Alright, so today was the day I've anxiously been awaiting. I ordered 5 feminized Short Rider seeds from Nirvana on the 4th and they arrived today. I am germinating 4 of them using the water method and saving the fifth for next summer. I am hoping to use it for clones.

Here is my set up for the grow:
I have a smaller sub-closet hidden well out of view in my normal closet that I have converted into a grow spot. I scrubbed the room thoroughly, covered all the walls, ceiling floor and shelf with the plastic used by painters, and covered the floor and halfway up the walls with Mylar. Initially, I coated the whole room with Mylar but it was impossible to control the temperature and had to make an adjustment. I have a small but adequate small, movable shelf for the room, which I'm using to set the seedlings on while they are still in solo cups, so they don't spill while they are light and vulnerable. I have an exhaust fan at the top of the closet on the shelf in there and a cheap Lil' Blizzard oscillating fan at level with my light to keep it cool. I have a UV ionizer on the way for the odor and mold control.

I naively bought a T-5 fluorescent that I paid far too much for before realizing that 5,000 lumens just wouldn't cut it. I wanted serious buds, so I drove to HTGSupply on the 14th and picked up a 400 Watt HPS light that makes it look like the sun is in my closet. I will use the CFL when I have guests in my room during the lighting period.

Doing Miracle Grow soil, I know... I have read up on this and think all will go well as long as I am conservative with adding nutrients and wait a while to do so.

I chose to go with an 18/6 lighting cycle to let my equipment cool and since the strain is supposed to autoflower, I will keep this for the entire grow period. I am aiming for 4 weeks of veg, 8 of flowering, and then a bountiful harvest for me and my housemates.

I'll post a few pics, although they won't be the best b/c the light is on and I couldn't get too close. The plant pictured is from bagseed of an unknown, potent strain. I have been growing it as practice for my valuable Short Rider seeds, and it has flourished so far with no blemishes. It is about 2 weeks old, but has doubled in size (at least) since I put her under the HPS bulb.
P.S. won't let me post pics right now, I'll try later

I just needed to resize the photos.. duh

I germinated my first two seeds successfully,potted them and put them under the lights to keep them warm. I'll put up the fluorescent light tomorrow so they aren't overwhelmed by the HPS. The other two are starting to split their shells, but not enough for me to take them out yet.

Looking good.
You can use Miracle Grow soil, Garden Knowm did when he wrote his book, Marijuana Buds For Less. He did not add any nutrients, just watered them properly, harvested a little more than 8 oz from three female plants. VV

I am a little concerned about the height of my trial plant, she is already growing her 5 point leaves but is probably a little less than an inch and a half tall. Should I worry about this?

If anyone can answer the previous question,... +rep, I think I need to know this or I'll be concerned for my high quality genetics. I had to pay big bucks for those and I'd hate to lose one. I potted another seed today. The first two haven't sprouted yet. The last seed in germination has started to progress regularly after I scored it carefully with a knife.

If the plant looks healthy then having a short plant is a good thing, it is not stretching for light. Usually the ones that are three inches tall stretched to get to more light and need to be propped up. VV
PS. getting answers in less than an hour is not always going to happen, its a forum not a chat room?

I have been pretty good about not babying my plants, I'm just anxious for them to sprout b/c I'm on a tight time schedule to finish by mid-August

Two of my SR's have sprouted and are starting to staighten up, the other two pots are in cling wrap to humidify. I heard that circulating air during germination is a no no, so I took the oscillating fan out. I am just keeping my fingeres crossed on the other two and lighting one up.

The bagseed looks great and seems to be liking a dose of the CFL and growing quickly, but it reacted the same when I first put in the HPS, I wonder if anyone has done any experimenting with rotating lamps?

Light just came on again so I checked them, and a third sprouted. The first one that split and I planted is the only one that hasn't reached the soil yet.

So it looks like the 4th seed isn't going to sprout. I'm disappointed, but with this small of a sample size 75% is close to what you'd expect on the first try. I just finished transplanting the bagseed plant to a 2L pot and then gave it a little cal mag solution for watering because the first leaves were yellowing at the tips and the rest looked healthy, which I'm diagnosing as a calcium deficiency. We'll see I guess.

I'll post some pictures on Friday at the one week mark for the Short Riders, which are growing well but nothing remarkable. They are about an inch high each give or take a little, and the first set of leaves are just starting to outsize the embryonic leaves.

I am changing my diagnosis to Potassium problems, I will add some transplant solution I have if the problem persists. I don't want to add it before I see the effects of thee transplant because there is plenty of K in the new soil.

If she's green and healthy I wouldn't worry bro. One day they just start taking off. You will find that as the growing process goes on you will become more patient. You will take pride in the baby steps and enjoy seeing the new growth every day. Instead of just taking photos also measure your plants. This gives me a little satisfaction along the way (being able to compute the growth in numbers instead of images).

Regarding just watering and no nutes. It's not all about yield. You could grow more plants to yield more, but those same plants with the right nutes could produce higher quality buds.

I am only hesitant to add the nutes because of the miracle gro soil, I fear that I would burn my plants too badly for them to recover at their size. I will probably start gradually introducing nutes in the fourth week of vegging.

ChemIndeuced said:

I am only hesitant to add the nutes because of the miracle gro soil, I fear that I would burn my plants too badly for them to recover at their size. I will probably start gradually introducing nutes in the fourth week of vegging.

Click to expand...

What MG soil did you get? All my buddies use MG Organic and it's not too hot. We've all added nutes after a two weeks or so. Regular MG is pretty heavy in Nitrogen and you may want to wait a good 30 days.

Start slow on the nutes...25% strength.

edit- I'm not saying to not use transplant solutions and what not...but the more stuff you feed that plant the harder it could be to figure out what is really going on. If it looks healthy but is a slow grower I say keep it simple and stick the NPK nutes bro.

I mixed the MG potting mix and the MG outdoor soil. I used just the potting mix for the trial run I started with my bagseed plant and it didn't hold moisture well enough for my taste. I just added 1/8 strength all purpose fertilizer and 1/8 transplant solution to give an even N:K ratio at 1/4 strength. The transplant solution is just an NPK based fertilizer with high P and the all purpose is light on P so it was easy to get a good ration by mixing equal parts. Thanks for the advice Dubsfan.

I am posting some pictures of my Bagseed plant to see if anyone can explain what is happening with the first set of fan leaves that it grew. The canopy is covering from most of the light, so hopefully that's why they are yellowing and dying. And I'll post the one week progress for the Short Riders in a little.

Here are my little Short Riders after about a week, they are doing a little light bending so I rotated them but aside from that they look pretty happy. They all have the second set of fan leaves budding, and I hope they are growing a good root system above all because I want to get them into real pots asap. They are pictured in the order they sprouted, just because that was the only distinction I could come up with that made sense... if there is a better way to do labeling among a single strand let me know.

Edit: the poor dears in the ceramic pot are my housemates, he was trying to grow them in that pot outdoors to miserable effect. He wanted to put them in my room for some rehab and they liked the Fluoros, but can't stand the HPS. Probably b/c they've never had adequate light and are in shock. I don't like seeing them it makes me sad, but I'm trying to revive them

My bagseed plant has absolutely blown up in fan leaf growth over the last few days and I'm optimistic that it's a girl b/c she's so short. I decided since I don't exactly know what it is, but I remember the nice lemony smell and flavor of the bud I'm calling it Lemonhead Delight. + rep for anyone that gets the reference... the short riders all have their second set of fan leaves sprouting and are staying at about 1+1/2 inches tall. My mom is coming to visit me soon so I'll be switching back to my CFl for a couple days and go into stealth mode. I'll update again on Friday and post pics, I'd do it now but I'm at work.

Here are my short riders at the two week mark from when I planted the seeds. They are healthy and doing well, although they are growing a lot slower than I anticipated. I am not really worried about it b/c as I have seen with my Lemonhead the vegetative growth is pretty slow at first and the plant can only grow as fast as the size and number of the leaves allow it to. I just have to sit back and wait until they are ready to transplant.

I am going to abandon my original plan of staying 18/6 through the grow for two reasons.
1) I think I can get quite a bit of bud from the Lemonhead (bagseed) if it turns out to be a female and don't want to herm it by keeping it in 18/6 too long or lose out on the benefits of the HPS by putting it outside or using another light.
2) From what I have read the Short Riders might not be fully autoflowering because of the breeding and I want to stay on schedule.
I will switch to 12/12 two weeks from today