First Grow

I'm starting my first grow... I'm sick and tired of scamming and/or unreliable dealers, the inherent legal risk, and the overall BS that goes along with trying to find a reliable hookup. Anyway, on with the show...

Equipment:Strain:
Bag seed I acquired a year ago. The guy dealing it called it ‘Grand Daddy Red’ - for being mids it was damned good stuff. I would have mistaken it for hydro had it not had seeds. It tastes a little spicy, dense buds, nice mellow effect, no couch-lock, etc.
Germination started with 16 seeds. I hope to get at least 6-8 viable females, as I plan only 4-6 weeks of vegetative growth for a quick harvest.\

Soil:
FoxFarms Ocean Forest, no nutes for at least 3 weeks.


Here's the basic setup, without any ducting (I was just burning in the lamps at the time). The containers were placed in there to see what would fit. Obviously, it takes up too much height, so I'm going with the soil plan for now.

Looks like you have a good setup.
Any questions?
Are you growing in those rubbermaid tubs?

No, the tubs were laying around so I put them in to see what kind of room they would take up. They are way too tall for any usage in that tent with the hood. I've decided to go with a soil grow for right now.

All 16 seeds popped, and as of this morning all but 4 had broken out of the soil. (yesterday it was only 5).

600W MH running at 50% - 18/6
Temp: 75F
RH: 60%

One of the eight that have broken through is a tricot.

Two of the remaining died in the soil, two popped through, and one of those just didn't make it. So I'm down to 13...

Anyway, there's been a change of plans...

More plants - Like a Boss! I started germinating 30 more seeds last Friday, and last night I transplanted the ones that have popped open - for 36 in total. I figure that half will be males, and I may have a few that will end up being culled out as well. This should leave me with plenty by chop time.

I've also switched lights to 12/12 (after reading del66666's 12-12 From Seed thread), still running the ballast at 50% on the MH bulb, will probably bump it up to 75% when all the plants have at least two nodes going.

Temps are 75F, humidity is floating around 50-60%. The leaves look a little pale under the MH - I suspect the soil might be just a little hot for them as seedlings. Next time I'll cut the soil a bit when I'm starting off.

Damn, this is a pretty aggressive first grow. Sub'd

I'm looking for a quick harvest, and hopefully to transition this into a perpetual grow.
But yeah you're right, this is pretty aggressive for a first shot...

Well day 10 from the original bunch... I have plenty of new seedlings coming in to replace some of those that didn't quite make it. Misting daily, watering every 4 days now (no nutes). I noticed pre-flowers so I went ahead and switched from MH to HPS today.

12/12 600W HPS @ 100%
84F / 45-60% RH

Does anyone have a clue when those preflowers should start showing sex?
Lots-O-Babies


Here's the tricot... has some type of leaf burn though... should I be concerned? The photo looks worse than it is.


Pre-flowers on one plant


Closeup of pre-flowers on another...

2-3 week is what del told me, i'm at 24 days and I now just saw my first white hair.
and every 4 days is kind of pushing it dont you think?
the containers you're using are very small and the light you're using is pretty big.

just me.



also, I would probably try to rotate the middle with the outer plants to make sure they evenly grow.
you'll come to find your light has sweet spots.

Subd.. Good luck. Ive got my hands full with 2

steeZz said:

2-3 week is what del told me, I'm at 24 days and I now just saw my first white hair.
and every 4 days is kind of pushing it don't you think?
the containers you're using are very small and the light you're using is pretty big.

just me.

also, I would probably try to rotate the middle with the outer plants to make sure they evenly grow.
you'll come to find your light has sweet spots.

Click to expand...

Awesome, cant wait to see which ones are my bitches... I'm really hoping the tri-node plant turns out female.

The watering is what they need right now, any more and I'm afraid I would be drowning them. I expect to eventually water them every other day as they start drinking more. I'll have to grab a moisture meter to where I have something better to measure against than my eye.

Yes, a 600W is huge for that tent, and from what I've read, better suited for a 4x4 area. Using an advertised 90K lumens, I'm blasting 11250 lumens per square foot down there. If I see the girls react badly to it I can kick the output to 75% or 50%. As far as rotation goes, that's in the plan when the other seedlings start growing the second node. I don't want to put them in the middle until I think they can take it.

Part of my strategy here is to get plenty of plants to experiment with and fuck up on, yet still have enough to make it through. I'm hoping to have 12-16 females out of this batch, and keep the 8 best looking ones. The females that don't make the cut will be put out to pasture... literally. I'll plant them outdoors and let nature do its thing, and see how they did come harvest time. Although I may use the outdoor girls to practice taking clones.

Here's another question... If I'm running 8 girls in a 2x4x5 (minus 1 foot for hood space), what final pot size should I use? I'm thinking a 2 gallon, but that's just a gut feeling guess. Anyone with some good soil experience here care to edumacate me?

2 gallon pots will be fine for a 12/12 grow. You could even go smaller but 2 gallons is about right.

Yea 2 gallons is perfect for 12/12 like he said.
I'm actually really happy for you, from the sounds of it you're giving them attention but still letting them grow. Perfect.
And ontop of that, you aren't like most 15 year olds and you did some research first.
600W is perfect for that tent, not too big, but a 600W light in itself is rather big lol.
Good to hear about the watering, wasn't too sure myself and I've always heard it's better to water a day late than a day early.

Exactly what my strategy was for my 12/12 from seed, I've been giving it large amounts of nutes, radical water PH levels, i've knocked it over probably 12 times when it was tiny with all the soil on the floor, and tons of other things. And yet it still is doing beautiful. Figured since my 4 other plants in flower I have to be really smart with, I gotta have something to kill. I mean, cmon its my first grow right?

lol. +rep man props to you.

Once you put them in the big pots water them in real good and you should only need to water once every 3 to 5 days just soak it really good everytime, check by the weight of the pot when to water.

12/12 from seed pretty much its not going to be that great of a yield and I think its a waste no offense, this style of growing is better suited for hydroponics, with soil using huge pots with tons of good soil and doing LST with long veg times and long flower times is the way to go, I am sure you know this since its your first grow maybe your working up to a better veg room but veg is the most important thing of all, It will be easy to keep perpetual supply once you add a good veg tent/room and start growing bigger better plants though, not trying to be a downer or anything cause this is going to be a worthy grow without a doubt you will be very happy.


EDITS: major edits after I actually read over this thread better

so my 2 cents if you got the space and the budget, and the patience, build yourself a solid veg room or tent and just let these babies veg

you will be cloning soon enough make a cheap dwc cloner, and then you can start selecting the best phenotypes of your seed plants.

deprave said:

so my 2 cents if you got the space and the budget, and the patience, build yourself a solid veg room or tent and just let these babies veg

you will be cloning soon enough make a cheap dwc cloner, and then you can start selecting the best phenotypes of your seed plants.

Click to expand...

hehehe... already ahead of you!
I've been working on this little project for a while, when I get time I'll finish it up and see how it works.



Originally I wanted to try to run some short autoflowers in here. The plan is to install an adjustable thermostat to shut power on and off to the entire freezer. The only issue I think I may run into is how to handle air exchange/CO2.

Well the roots had already started trying to escape the planters, so I had to replant the largest ones into 2 gallon grow bags. This was done over the past 3 days. The rest of the seedlings were either cannibalized for the soil or transplanted outside. I'm now down to 16 inside.

12/12 600W HPS
Temps running 70F lights off, 80F lights on.
RH ~60 lights off, ~45% lights on

Oh and yeah! They're starting to stink...
Got a nice picture of some preflower

Looks good. Hopefully you will get some preflowers to show you the sex. Im sure 16 plants is going to get crowded fast in a 2x4 tent. Gl

Since I'm running bagseed for right now, I expect to throw out 8 males. That will leave me with 1 plant per sqft, which should be fine for 12/12 from seed.