CPH's first grow journal

Time to start a journal. I'll be starting in the beginning the best I can.

Been waiting for a place I could grow in. Finally got my own house 2 years ago. Once everything came together the way I needed. I modified the basement a little bit. So far on this hole thing I have spent the most money on soil and a few other supplies, no more than $50.

My job has lots of benefits, All the wood I used came from crates that they throw away anyway. The lights all are left overs from remodeling about a year ago(with brand new bulbs). I now they aren't the best lights but they were free. I won't get to technical, the big one is a 400 watt MH shop light, and the other is a 4 bulb 40 watt standard florescent fixture. Not a great spectrum I know but it seems to be working good.

I added a wall and changed another, added a hidden door and was in business.

With a lot of stuff still incomplete I started anyway. Their is still ventilation to worry about as well as sealing the walls better, light and air still get in to the utility room but not the living area.

I don't have many pics from early on so I'll post what I can. I started germinating 21 seeds on Sat. March 21. Choose 21 bag seeds that I have got from different bags over the years. Don't know how long these stay good but I will find out if the ones I've had for a few years are or not. By Tues. 6 of the seeds were read, Wed 6 more, and Thurs 6 more. They all were about an inch long when I put them in the dirt. With in 3 days of going in the dirt they were popping out. Most of them anyway, of the 21 seeds I started 18 started and 15 sprouted from the dirt. At 2 weeks I transplanted them to bigger pots the best I could.

After getting good advice from the great people on this site, I decided to flower 5 plants or 4 pots. 1 of my pots had 2 plants, untill 1 ended up being a male. So I'm flowering 4 plants now. The rest are under the floresents for a while longer. They are growing very slow under it but thats OK buy me. A few of them are at their 10th node and about 14" tall. The others are a little behind but not much. Except the one runt that is.

Time to talk about my soil. When I started this I knew the best way was to get soil and nutes from the local hydro store. But because of money that was not an option. My soil is MG and Scotts premium potting soil. I mixed extra perlite with both.

I'm very unhappy with the MG, their is no consistency. Some of the pots hold water for ever and other dry up almost over night. Then the nutes that were premixed cann't be distributed through out the mix very well, even after I mixed it up and added the perlite. Some of them required nutes 2 weeks after going in bigger pots and others don't.

The scotts I'm a little happier with. The plants in the scotts all look happier and healthier. The pic I'm posting shows the difference in leaf color from the Scotts to the MG. The plants in back are in Scotts the on in front in MG.

Which color is better?
I'm really would like to know, I'm assuming that its the one in the Scotts. But being color bling I'm guessing sometimes about wether its dark green or brown.

I know consider my self 1 day before 6 weeks. They all came out of the ground with in 3 days of each other. I noticed the first 3 females with in 3 days of each other as well. The first on sunday and the second on monday.
The forth one is not showing yet. I hope thats a good sign, since I've heard it takes females longer to show. The one not showing is the one that I topped. I thought that might be the reason that is a little behind. I wondered if I did it to close to when I changed to flower, just 3 days before. The only thing slow is it not showing yet. It has grown 5 inchs since I switch to flower last week, and the 2 tops have grwon almost 1.5 in per day for the last 2.

If anybody is paying attention, I would like some advice on were a good place to order a HPS grow light from.
Their is only 1 place with in 2 hours to go buy 1. I know I could choose one of the hundreds you find searching but I thought I would ask some pros what they like best.

I decided to put the runt of the litter in to flower. It was using space in the veg tent that I needed for others. It went in 2 days ago and already is showing hairs. I think that is because after 6 weeks in veg all of the plants are showing signs of maturity. They have alternating nodes on the main stem now, and most are showing preflowers. I assume thats what they are anyway.
4 of the 5 plants I flowered ended up being females. Good percentage so far. Plus the runt makes 5 girls. I'll probably end up getting a dime bag of it but oh well.
They are growing exreamly fast in flower. The one I topped has grown 4" in the last 2 days. It's now at 25" It started at 16", so 9" in 9 days I'm Happy. But we'll see how long that lasts. I hope that its not growing that fast because it's not getting the light it needs. Hopefully in a few weeks I can buy a HPS.

Well no longer do I think I have 5 girls. The runt I said I thought was still is not showing any sure signs any way like I thought it was. And the one I topped and was hoping ended up being a hermie.
I pulled another pot out of the veg 2 days ago. When I cut down the hermie, no room right now to mess with. The new pot has 3 plants in it. 2 days in and I think I alreay see pollen sacks on one. I expected at least half to be male thats why I started so many. Still have 5 plants in 4 potts veggin.

The first pic is of a sack on the hermie. It ended up with more sacks than hairs just 3 days after first signs. The second is of one the better looking flowers. The other is in my avatar.

Are you still searching for an hps light? If so there is http://www.htgsupply.com/ I found them to have good prices and fast shipping to ohigho . I don't know where you're at but if you are near http://www.wormsway.com/stores/KY.asp that is a good hydro shop for nutes, soil, and what not but their light prices are really high.

rocweiler said:

Are you still searching for an hps light? If so there is htgsupply.com I found them to have good prices and fast shipping to ohigho . I don't know where you're at but if you are near worms way that is a good hydro shop for nutes, soil, and what not but their light prices are really high.

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking!!
Ya still looking. I have seen htgsupply.com, but really don't like the idea of ordering on line with a card. Their is also 1 hydro shop were i'm at probably 10 min from house, just not real sure about that either.. The few people I know around here that grow drive about 2 hours across state to get anything. They don't like to buy this stuff local. I now their probably just making me nervous, and I should just go to local one. Just can't bring myself to do it yet.

lol Beleive me I hear ya there. I will use a rental car to go to Worms Way when I'm buying bulkier type supplies and the ordering thing made me a lot nervous but in the end the price won me over lol. So far so good 6 months laters still got fingers crossed. Nice grow going here I'll keep watching for sure. You will love the growth speed under hps/mh lighting

Did you end up ordering from htg. I did notice they have good prices.
I can't get much further north with out being in Mich. The closest spots (besides the one in town) are around Dayton or Cleveland.

Yeah not sure what's up there by you. I'm at the other end of the state. I did order from HTG I got a 400w hps and some other small things. did it by phone and used my own CC no different then ordering anything else. The way I look at it is they need more to go on then a light bill or shopping at a hydro store. Can you imagine them kicking in your door to find nothing but some nice fat homegrown tomatoes lol. I do feel your paranoia tho I just try not to let it get the best of me. Always use my best judgement and trust in that it has got me this far in life and I can't complain. If ya get a chance check out my grow and let me know what ya think. This is my only way of showing it off like many others on here I'm sure.

I shure hope it takes more than a electric bill and receipt to be kicking in doors. I've also thought about going to Mich they passed a MMJ law that went into effect in april. I found 1 about a hour from my house on the net. Have to see, it will be a few weeks before I have the money.

UPDATE:
The plant that I thought was male, was. He went away yesterday. The runt is looking like a girl agian. I pulled all of the leaves and branches off the bottom. Not expecting much out of it anyway figured I'd concentrate it all on 4 braches.
The 3 girls are all looking great. Taller and hairier every day. The 2 in left in the pot are not showing anything. Patience...

Thought I would post a few pics that I took while watering.

I'm very pleased so far with how thier doing. Nothing has changed since the update yesterday just putting up some pics.

I will say its been 16 days since they went to 12/12 and 12 days since I first noticed flowers on any of them.

Only 4 pics, the first is of all the girls, well actrually 4 girls including the runt and 2 maybes.
The second is of the bushiest 1.
The third is of another sexy girl.

The last pic is of the runt when she got sickshe lost her top. Gave her some food and she came back with 2 heads.

Thanks for watching.

Hey man nice grow! im on about day 15 ish since 12/12 so were on the same page here.. literally..lol, ill make sure to stay in touch here and im subscribed. Looks good!

Oh and by the way.. if it helps.. i ordered my 400 watt hps from HTGsupply about 2-3 weeks ago.. Its the cheapest/best buy guarenteed!!! They are awsome and have good products so far!

Thanks, I would +rep, but I need to spread the love.

I am thinking that HTG is going to be the place. Just a matter of $$$.

I'm glad your watching I'll keep it updated. This morning I cut down a male that I found in the veg tent. But thats about it.

I just wanted to put some pics up.

All 6 of the plants in the flower area are girls!! Three are just a little behind the others. 2 of the 4 plants in the veg tent are showing female preflowers!!

The pics are of the tops of the 3 furthest along and 1 of the flower area.

On the lights, I figured I want a 600w. HTG has one for $199 plus around $17 for shipping, so around $216 total. The local shop has one on sale, for $239. It doesn't say if it is a complete light set or not. Choises..Choises.. http://www.hothydro.com/ This is the link to my local shop. Not a real big place. Let me know what you think.

Time for a bowl of some sensi star and my bed.

Wanted to put pics up that I took last night.

I decided to flush the 1 that has been slowly loosing fan leaves. I flushed it with about 3 gals of water. Not sure if it from a nute prob or a ph prob. I don't think it's from nutes but maybe. I still givr just thid one a N in the food, But thats not helping. It's just this 1 and always has been.

Everything else seems to be doing great. The pics are of different bud spots and the 1 I flushed.

Any comments welcome.