First Ever Grow-CFL-Two 37 Gallon Rubbermaids

greenzebra said:

Thanks for the input Tanker! I just needed some reinforcement to make sure my suspicians were true. I'm really happy with their progress now, I feel like I'm understanding the plants more. All the reading I did still doesn't compare to this first hand experience. I'll probably have an update tomorrow or maybe later tonight, although not a whole lot has or probably will change. Now I have to go check them and make sure haha..

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Next time you grow, do NOT give your plants any nutes whatsoever before day 22. They get the nutes they need to survive and grow from the seed. It last 3 weeks.

That explains why Miracle Grow soils and others that have built in nutes aren't a good idea to grow seeds in.

You're going to be okay, but don't give it anything but water for a week at least.

Thanks Sandman45, I'll definitely remember that for the next grow. I was trying to treat the plants for nutrient deficiencies when the real problem was overwatering. Common newbie mistake I guess. It'll be a few more days before my next watering, the plants have been holding moisture pretty well so I don't really water very frequently. They are definitely doing better now that they aren't drowning.

Look at my signature line bud.

I'm still a noob too, trust me. I can tel you that you need to print a calendar and label all mondays and fridays with a "W".; Water on those days. The amount depends on the size of the plant, that's your job alone to determine.

The grow is lookin great man, we germinated on pretty much the same day and I have, as of yesterday, pulled the pug on my little gals. Most of them were curling up and turning yellow/brown. A couple just started falling apart and I figured even if I saved them they would be fucked up.

I am starting a new grow in a refrigerator so I can control the airflow and temps MUCH easier. Plus it will be in the garage not the bedroom and Ill be able to check on them every morning before leaving for work YAY!

Even at 3 weeks my largest plant was half the size of your largest, and I suspect overwatering was my main problem as well. So that should let you know that yours should start doing fine if they made it this far. Mine were pathetic looking, haha!

I have 8 more seeds germinating right now and Im pickin up the fridge tomorrow, Ill slap a link in my old thread as soon as I get the new one going.

Keep up the good work man hope they all bounce back with a full recovery!!

KB

Hey guys,
Been a few days so I figured it was time for an update. I'm not sure if I got my actual day mixed up or not, but after looking back at my pen and paper grow journal.. It is actually day 22 since sprout! I can't believe it has been that long.. The good news is, these babies are showing some awesome growth and green leaves On to the update!

UPDATE Day 22:

Ok, so as usual I've included the 4 individual pictures and one overhead of all 4. The "Thai" plants are the first two and the supposed Sour Diesel strains are the second two. As you can tell, the plants are all much greener and healthier looking since the last update.. I can't even tell you how glad I am to see this. All of them but one have started emitting a very skunky odor when holding them to the nose and they've all grown a very noticeable amount in only 3 or 4 days. This new stink they have put a smile on my face haha.. and while I'd love to smell that all day, I need to make myself some type of air filter so OTHER people can't smell it. I don't know if it's just me, but I can definitely differentiate the smell between the two strains already. The Thai seems to have a sweet skunky smell and the SD a more pungent skunky smell. Anyhow, enough about the stink..

The last time they recieved any water was a small spray a day or two before the weekend; hardly enough to even consider it a watering but I did have some 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion mixed in. Before that it was the Thursday of the week before and that was the last big watering. The soil and pot combo I'm using holds moisture really well so I don't have to water very often and the plants don't seem to mind.

I lowered the pots a few inches as well and it has helped my temperature drop a few degrees on top of the soil.

Thanks for everyone who follows this and gives me input, it is appreciated and I don't think these plants would be doing as well without the advice I've recieved here.

Looking good! How big you plan on letting them get before flowering?

Thanks Gastanker!

I was actually about to ask a question regarding when to flower. I've been thinking about LST but I feel like it may be a little much for my first grow maintenance wise. I want the plants to stay below the 26-28 inch mark so they fit in my boxes. How would topping serve these plants? I'd rather trim on the bottom than LST to get those branches light. What method would you suggest, if LSTing is my best option here I may have to do it; those were my original plans but I'm not sure if I still want to do that. I feel like I should be flowering them soon...

My largest plant is around 4-5 inches and the others are all about an inch shorter.. The largest plant has a lot more stem exposed at the bottom. The two SD are the squat plants, and the ones with supposed thai genetics the taller ones. I plan to add in 3 more 26watt 2700k cfls when I start to flower and I have the MG Bloom Booster nutes.

Any suggestions on what to do here? Top, LST, FIM, Lollipopping? Any help would be great!

greenzebra said:

Thanks Gastanker!

I was actually about to ask a question regarding when to flower. I've been thinking about LST but I feel like it may be a little much for my first grow maintenance wise. I want the plants to stay below the 26-28 inch mark so they fit in my boxes. How would topping serve these plants? I'd rather trim on the bottom than LST to get those branches light. What method would you suggest, if LSTing is my best option here I may have to do it; those were my original plans but I'm not sure if I still want to do that. I feel like I should be flowering them soon...

My largest plant is around 4-5 inches and the others are all about an inch shorter.. The largest plant has a lot more stem exposed at the bottom. The two SD are the squat plants, and the ones with supposed thai genetics the taller ones. I plan to add in 3 more 26watt 2700k cfls when I start to flower and I have the MG Bloom Booster nutes.

Any suggestions on what to do here? Top, LST, FIM, Lollipopping? Any help would be great!

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Hmm. for growing in a box i'de recommend LST and then scrog. Have you seen the clone I LSTed? growth pattern is perfect for a scrog and you dont have to cut any growth points off.

Dang always on that quick reply Gastanker haha,
I figured I was gonna have to LST the more I looked at them..I just need a good method for holding them down without having to cut all kinds of holes and deal with 50 strings. I thought about taking clothes hangers and bending them into narrow, tall, "U" shapes... Kind of like the croquet lawn loop things just smaller. Then putting those around the branch and pushing them into the soil upside down.. If that makes any sense.. My concern with this was roots, I didn't know how this would affect them?


As for the SCROG method, I've been really interested in that; it just sounded super hard. I need to check out your journal a little more and see how you did this.

As always, thanks again for the input!

greenzebra said:

Dang always on that quick reply Gastanker haha,
I figured I was gonna have to LST the more I looked at them..I just need a good method for holding them down without having to cut all kinds of holes and deal with 50 strings. I thought about taking clothes hangers and bending them into narrow, tall, "U" shapes... Kind of like the croquet lawn loop things just smaller. Then putting those around the branch and pushing them into the soil upside down.. If that makes any sense.. My concern with this was roots, I didn't know how this would affect them?


As for the SCROG method, I've been really interested in that; it just sounded super hard. I need to check out your journal a little more and see how you did this.

As always, thanks again for the input!

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I haven't done a scrog yet - really want to though. All you need is some chicken wire and secure it over you plants - they pretty much do they rest and you could secure it where the two tubs come together. Works best in congunction with LST. Your idea to hold them down sounds great! I also didn't want to do anythign drastic so resorted to heavy duty twist ties - would loop one end over plant and other end under the lip of my pot. Dunno if your pot has a lip though. G'luck! training plants is alotta fun.

I've seen a couple rubbermaid grows doen with scrog with fantastic results - if i run across them ill send you a link.

Well dang, that doesn't sound nearly as bad as I anticipated. I'm definitely going to do some research into the SCROG method, and that'd be awesome if you found anything similar to my grow. I'm going to look around for some similar builds. Thanks for the twist tie idea, fortunately I do have a lip on my pots so that could do the trick! I need to figure it out here in the next day or so because my plants are starting to get tall. Now when I LST these, how long should I go until I start flowering? Should I wait until the plants have reached a certain height while LSTed?

Off to check for clothes hangers and twist ties!

Thanks again Gastanker!

greenzebra said:

Well dang, that doesn't sound nearly as bad as I anticipated. I'm definitely going to do some research into the SCROG method, and that'd be awesome if you found anything similar to my grow. I'm going to look around for some similar builds. Thanks for the twist tie idea, fortunately I do have a lip on my pots so that could do the trick! I need to figure it out here in the next day or so because my plants are starting to get tall. Now when I LST these, how long should I go until I start flowering? Should I wait until the plants have reached a certain height while LSTed?

Off to check for clothes hangers and twist ties!

Thanks again Gastanker!

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once you LST and have the plant growing sideways you can flower at any time. the longer you let it veg the more shoots/budsites you will have. Once you hit 12/12 they wll all take off and shoot skywards - hitting the screen and then budding. Will look for that post I saw, looked awesome.

Zebra sorry I havn't been around, I think you could use my two cents.

First off, no more spray bottle! It's the devil! Not really but what you are doing when your spraying water on the leaves in creating tiny magnifying glasses on the surface causing spotting and yellowing. Secondly you mixed the fert. in with the water that you were spraying on the plant This is causing that s*** to cook onto and into the leaves, and nutes/ferts on the plant is never good. no more spray bottle..Just stick to watering the soil and keep the slow introduction on nutes running.

About the whole 22 day BS you can forget that nonsense. When mixed right, my freshly germ seeds rocket out of the soil with botanicare pro grow and liquid karma. Absolutely works from day one, now over doing this can be bad but that shouldn't push you away from using them. If you notice a nute related problem (or I do) flush the soil and let it drain, plant will be fine, its a weed.

I am amusing that you haven't reached full strength nutes yet? If you haven't your doing fine.,

If you are,flush and start slower with adding. Stay on your watering schedules of four days and no more spray bottle haha just thought I'd tell you three times. Add nutes to your water slowly and keep us posted so we all can look for sicknesses.

green, lst is a great idea. I am in a pc and the yield surprises me using lst. Keep it up!

Wow, I can't believe I got so many responses so fast!

Thanks a lot for that info be_more_curious, I will stop using the spray bottle asap! Good news is, I haven't been spraying the plants directly, I've been kind of spraying underneath and around them to get a more even watering but I'm sure I was still creating droplets on them. Do you just water them by pouring? I had read that this can compact your soil too much or create dry and wet pockets that was my reasoning for using the water bottle.. Trying to get kind of an even wetness. I just didn't even realize that it could hurt them like that.

You are also correct in assuming that I'm using a fraction of the full dosage on the 5-1-1 fish fertilizer. I'm using about 1/4 strength and I plan to go half and then full over the next few waterings. Hopefully all goes well with this!

cptcrunk:
Thanks for checking out my grow! I'll check yours out too man. It's nice being able to exchange info with other cfl growers, it makes the process SO much easier.

Gastanker:
That doesn't sound bad at all, here I was thinking I had to like weave branches into the screens and do all kinds of special cuts.. I never researched it enough.. I'm gonna start the LSTing as soon as I test a couple methods to see what is the most practical. Do the plants continue to grow upwards once they hit the screen, or do they slow down and fill out? I just need to figure out how far from the lights to place the screen so I don't have to worry about moving anything up or down once it's all in place.

Happy 420!!

greenzebra said:

Happy 420!!

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YES IN DEED!!!!!!

Hope you had a great 420!

Once they hit the screen the top part of the cola ends up growing through it and the rest bushes out below. Here's a guy who did a rubbermaid scrog - https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/178575-harvest-rubbermaid-style-bud-porn.html

Gastanker said:

Hope you had a great 420!

Once they hit the screen the top part of the cola ends up growing through it and the rest bushes out below. Here's a guy who did a rubbermaid scrog - https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/178575-harvest-rubbermaid-style-bud-porn.html

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WOW! This was AWESOME! Thanks for sharing that link Gastanker.

Wow, awesome link gastanker... That is like inspirational.. I can't believe people doubt cfl's when people are yeilding an ounce per plant in 2 rubbermaids. They may take a little more work to optimize the grow, but it's easy to see they're capable. I've been reading as much as I can on this SCROG method and I feel like I'd be cheating my plants if I DIDN'T utilize SCROG. I started LSTing my largest plant yesterday and it looks great already! I'll have an update soon with pictures of their progress. I hope you guys all had an awesome 420!