Here I Grow!

A noobie with high quality seed is a dangerous thing! LOL

WHAT CHA PLANTIN?
Yesterday my package from Nirvana arrived.

Early Misty
Hollands Hope
Ice

And I also got a nice package from a friend:

Mixed Diesel (not sure if they are NY or Sour, etc. I'll take a picture later, maybe someone can tell me.)

EARTH (Medium)
All the kids are starting inside (in my grow closet), and going outside (into soil) after they sex.

My ultimate medium is soil (I will plant them alongside the vegetables in my established garden),

I plan to germ and pop in Rapid Rooter pods. Experience with the VLV (see explanation below) has shown that my closet environment is great for germination without rushing the seed. I'm not in a hurry, as this is all for personal consumption (I HATE waiting for the weed man!). I'm designing an outdoor grow room, but will work on that in another thread later on.

I'm a curious farmer, so I've also put one of each seed into my Marogarden.

3 EM in RR + 1 in Marogarden
3 HH in RR + 1 in Marogarden
3 ICE in RR + 1 in Marogarden
2 D in RR + 1 in Marogarden
(Why is the Diesel different? I got the D a week before the others arrived. One in the RR already has a sprout, the other RR seed was empty, so I replaced it last night. The one in the Maro has a taproot, I had to turn it around two days ago, so the root was pointing down.)

These babies will be grown along with some bagseed I got from another friend. I'm calling all those Viva Las Vegas (VLV), because I have NO idea what strain they are! The stems of some of them are colored in shades of red or purple, so I know there will be surprising rewards for my patience.

WIND (Air)
There's a small fan behind the curtain (very Wizard of Oz), but I have a larger oscillating fan moving the air periodically throughout the day, several times a day. (We have teenagers, I lock down the closet when we are not home...which also means the electronics in there have to be efficient and relatively silent.)

Once they go outside, Mother Nature will take care of the rest. She is very kind in my region ("just north of the border"), so outdoor plants get plenty of natural air, moisture and light.

FIRE (Light)
I wish I had space and money for a big hood light, but I don't. (Sponsors welcome! LOL)

But since I'm not using the closet for flowering (they're going outside), the CFL's work fine. I have 7 mixed wattage full spectrum (daylight) bulbs hung strategically throughout the closet. There are 4 shelves/5 spaces (from bottom to top): on the floor is one covered tray of germing seeds (no lights), then 2 shelves of sprouts, one shelf with the Marogarden, and on the top shelf are transplants in 3" to 4" pots (soil), waiting to sex before going outside.

So these babies are starting on the bottom shelf!

WATER (Nutes)
My hydro shop guy had to pound this into my head: No nutes until after they get their second set of leaves! I've loved enough starter plants to death via overwatering and nute overdose. These new seeds are too expensive to use for learning, so I've done most of my trial-and-error on the Viva Las Vegas.

I'll use purified water in the trays and in my mister. When they get their leaves and start talking to me (yellow tips), I'll add some Superthrive (1/4 strength). But since I'm using the rapid Rooter, I don't have to add anything until they sprout and start to dry out.

When it's time for nutes, I'll use:
Superthrive
Dyna-Gro Grow
Dyna-Gro Bloom
Root 66
bat guano (Jamaican)
soluble organic fish emoll.
(the soil recipe is my own, and my vegetable garden is organic)

Is that enough info to start with? LOL You know everything now except my damn shoe size!

SERIOUS ABOUT MY SHIT
CONSTRUCTIVE comments and encouragement welcome.

Keep your snide remarks to yourself, I don't want your negative energy.

I'm a self-taught vegetable gardener and long-time smoker (my nickname is Hoover) and this is my first grow. So be kind, you bitches! Pass the glass and help me out, don't tear me down.

We're all here to learn and share, so I want to contribute too!

More visuals to follow.

One of each strain in the Marogarden.

The two empty holes are covered, the one with no dome is a VLV that has a top, so I'll let it stay until it's ready to transplant, then I'll move the new ones around to avoid any space issues.

Here's the Diesel that's sprouted (3 total D: one sprouted, one in the Marogarden, and one with the other strains). It's about a week older than the others.

It's in a tray full of sprouting VLV's, waiting for her sisters!

How much does that mystic weigh?
What makes him mystical?

I think it may be mystique.

Since I've got the camera out anyway...

Allow me to introduce Schhmokay, the Master Kush in my tomato patch!And just for the record, the other pix are the older VLV, waiting to sex before graduation to the outdoors.Some growers warn against changing mediums like this, but that last pic is my first Maro-to-Soil transplant, showing all the right signs of success (so far)!

midgradeindasouth said:

How much does that mystic weigh?
What makes him mystical?

I think it may be mystique.

Click to expand...

The mystic is not literally blowing! That's just my favorite puff song.
Are you asking how much the snip weighed? I have no idea. But I'll take a pic of the jar and maybe we can guess at the weight. I'll try to get a close up, so you can see the hairs.

By the time they show sex it maybe to late to put them outside, wouldn't you think?

want_my_ink said:

By the time they show sex it maybe to late to put them outside, wouldn't you think?

Click to expand...

Kinky title!

I may have the timetables off, but I plan to transplant them to soil inside as soon as they get the second set of leaves, then wait for the sexing. I hope it won't be too late.

I'm sure I may have to move the potted plants outside before I want to, but I'm going to let the plants talk to me instead of me telling them what to do. It's hard right now for me not to add "just a little" Superthrive to the water I mist them with! (that's how I "love them to death," I am an over-waterer, and a repeat offender to boot) I'm an excited noob! I want to see progress each and every day.

Is there a suggested time frame for moving for indoors to outdoors prior to plants showing their sex?

Lets see. This is the 19th of June. If you veg the plants until say July 19th and put them outside you would have two months or so to let them flower outside. Put all the plants outside at that piont, when they start showing there sex pull the males. You dont have to keep them indoors until they start showing, its a waste of time. They will grow larger and produce a higher yeild in real sun light verses cfl's.
Hope this helps, need anything hit me up......S

A picture is worth a thousand words!
Updated pics are named to include the date.

I started on June 18, today is June 29. Here's where are so far.

Sorry for the long pause. I was building out my shed into a veg room, but that's another post...

Just realized that pic of all the babes from today is blurry.
I'll take a better one tonight.

July 10

First things first:
Yesterday I planted five each of some new happiness from Nirvana!

Jock Horror
Northern Lights x Bid Bud
Master Kush
New Purple Power

I matchboxed each strain separately, and will germ in Rapid Rooter. These are in my new shed (!) along with the VLV that I've growing alongside my purchased strains (for practice!). The VLV are a few weeks older than my first good seeds (EM, HH, ICE and Diesel), so any cloning techniques, nutes, soil additives, etc. can be tested on the bagseed before I give it to the big girls!

Now for the update!
(The attached pics are from July 5.)

The ICE strain seems to be a slow starter, which concerns me. So I rooted four more ICE seeds (Early Misty is a little slow to pop too, so I added two more EM) to make sure I have options when it's time to choose mothers.

The single ICE in the Marogarden started strong and showed a nice taproot; but last night I removed it. I planted that on June 18, so that seed was out of energy. The HH next to it also started strong but did not make the cut. Only the strong survive in this camp, so I replaced those with two new matchboxed HH to their pods.

The Diesel seeds are VERY strong! They sprout fast and are hungry for light. Ya'll don't bite my head off about the stretching--I've adjusting the lighting already.

I noticed this past weekend that I am getting some brown/yellow spotting on some leaf tips (just the edges, from the outside in, you can see it faintly in the Marogarden pic); I read up and searched sample pics, and believe I it is a potassium deficiency. As prescribed, I gave them Miracle Gro all purpose plant food (yes, at 1/4 strength) last night. This morning I can already see a difference in the position of the leaves. WHEW!

These were taken July 5.

Yes, I am lowering the lights.

The ones in the ground haven't sexed, but I think the single one is a female. It's older; I transplanted it from the Marogarden directly into soil, so it's looking good and strong.

I've been fighting a losing battle against the gnat population...until last night. I applied neem oil to EVERYTHING last night, indoors and out, and this morning all the children look shiny and green.

I bought the Dyna-Gro brand neem oil, since I also use the Dyna-Gro Grow and Bloom nutes.

Of the new seedlings, all four MK seeds have popped the seed shell!
None of the NPP are cracked yet. One of the four JH have popped and one of the NLxBB.

Of the second plantings of the original seeds, two out of five ICE (hooray! I understand that ICE is hard to grow), the Diesel (of course! this strain is showing me some serious zeal), and the EM is visible, but barely.

And both the replacement seeds in the Marogarden have taproots!

I think I might have been wrong about the potassium deficiency in the Maro--now the spotted leaves that were spotted have turned dry and crispy. Isn't that nute burn? Or is that what's supposed to happen?

...so we've had a great learning experience over the past few weeks, including a cure for wilting and the transition from indoor closet veg room to outdoor shed veg room. Also discovered coco as a medium/additive, and have thus incorporated it into all the plants by repotting (with the exception of the plants in the ground).

Lost quite a few young plants since the middle of the month. I plant enough seeds to get at least three strong females of each strain--two to flower and one to mother. But only the strong survive! So I babied them all until they were too far gone to recover or show any strength. That is SO hard to do, throw out a plant!

Did some topping and wiring over the weekend too, so all the children are green and tall...and some are already funky! Bet those are male...

Coming up, some visual updates!

My Diesels started off SO strong, but I lost a few to what I have diagnosed as heat stress. I had them incubating under a dome, and took the dome off completely off too fast, too soon.

I'm nursing the remaining D's, at various ages and stages, and watching them like a hawk! If I can come away with one healthy mother, I'll be satisfied. Plus I have more Diesel seeds, so I can cycle the planting.

Here's the one that's doing the best:

--(Pic 1) July 13, this baby was in the Marogarden (short and full, thanks to the extra lighting I added on the sides of the Maro)

--July 18, I transplanted from Maro to soil, with roots exactly one foot long.


--(Pic 2) July 23, it has been topped and planted in soil (with extra coco on top)

Looking good in the neighborhood!
So far, not too many obstacles in transplanting from Maro to soil.

Pic 1 is July 13, rooting like crazy in the Marograden.
Pic 2 is July 23, planted in soil, coco as topsoil.

I have a few younger EMs too, will post those later.

The Nirvana description for this strain says its hard to grow.
I should have taken their word for it!

I don't even have a suitable picture to post. It's like the young plants get to about 2 inches out of the soil, and then *poof*

The few (2? 3? I'll go check) that are alive are certainly on life support! Got one germed seed struggling for life in the Marogarden, just in case.

The seedlings (plantlings?) are growing nicely.

Pic 1 is July 13, Pic 2 is July 23.

Time sure flies when you are doing what you love!

A lot has happened over the past few weeks. We've found a few males (mostly VLV, but also *painfully!* one of the Early Misty was a boy), and repotted some of the stronger plants.

For the outdoor garden, you'll notice we bought a small palm tree to camouflage the blooming bushes. They are already showing "pre-flowers" with long white hairs...I might need a better camera sooner than I thought!

The pictures make it easy to see the difference. Also, we attended the Reggae Rising music festival in Humbolt County, CA the beginning of this month. I HIGHLY (no pun intended) recommend it. We got some phenom samples of GH products (GENERAL HYDROPONICS) and so now I have some new nutes to try--just in time for bloom!

And now, for the updates!

HOLLAND'S HOPE
July 16



July 23



August 8 - Pre-Soil



August 8 - Marogarden Roots



August 8 - New Soil/Coco Home



DIESEL
July 13



July 15 (Marogarden roots)



July 23



August 13



NEW PURPLE POWER
August 8



August 8



August 8



OUTDOORS IN SOIL
All these are VLV at various ages and stages, and all blooming!

August 13








INDOORS
August 13








Thanks for any suggestions!