My first grow

I found beatles on my plants... 2 of them. I tried to take pictures, but they wouldn't hold still. They're about 3/4" long, black/dark brown, with a couple of fluorescent orange stripes. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the plants... maybe they're just there because of the lights? Any ideas?

I've been a little remiss in keeping up my journal, but nothing too incredibly exciting is going on. I haven't seen any bugs since I flushed those two down the toilet.

The plants look awesome, and smell terrific. I didn't originally plan on vegging my plants this long, but I'm waiting on the new light before I rearrange my closet. They've been growing for 3.5 weeks now. They've done all this under 120 watts of fluorescents. Anyway, here they are:


They're really bushy. Do you think I should prune them a little? Just get rid of some of the lower leaves that aren't getting much light, or do I remove upper leaves to let the bottom leaves get more? My real light should be getting here Tuesdayish, and I plan to start them on 12/12 then, and they'll be moving to a new home in a different part of my closet where they'll have a lot more room. Also, what's the longest I can reasonably wait to take clones?

So, the little cap I had that kept my pump from spraying water 4 feet up into the air came unglued... and made a fountain in my closet in the middle of the night. I of course didn't notice until this morning. The entire place is drenched. I did what I could to towel everything dry and now have the fan running and the doors open. Also, while I was cleaning up, one of the cats jumped into the reservoir and was licking up the water... hope she doesn't die, but really... how dumb can you be?

Tsolrathe said:

So, the little cap I had that kept my pump from spraying water 4 feet up into the air came unglued... and made a fountain in my closet in the middle of the night. I of course didn't notice until this morning. The entire place is drenched. I did what I could to towel everything dry and now have the fan running and the doors open. Also, while I was cleaning up, one of the cats jumped into the reservoir and was licking up the water... hope she doesn't die, but really... how dumb can you be?

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Yep i feel your pain!! Thats the one bitch about DIY there are things that can go wrong.

I would wait a few more weeks on your clones and no i would not prune.

Got the light I ordered off ebay yesterday... it even came a day earlier than UPS predicted! So, after a 13 hour shift at work, I stayed up 'till 2am completely redoing my closet in stage one of what's going to be a multi-stage process. My plants are now under the HPS at 12/12. It's really going to drive me nuts that I can't just check on them any time I want to anymore. I'll take some pictures tonight when the light comes back on. Over the next few days I'll be panda-filming the whole thing, adding a duct and in-line fan to direct-cool the light(I'll probably run this through a carbon filter, too), and switching to a larger tub. I'm worried that all this moving and change might traumatize the plants... but it needs to be done, and I guess that's why I'm doing a trial run anyway. Who says stoners aren't productive? You just need to give us the proper motivation...

On the HPS light... I was expecting a reddish-colored light since it's supposed to be replicating the lower fall sun, but the light is bright blue. Is this right? I got a grow bulb. Can't remember the brand right off the top of my head.

I'm worried that all this moving and change might traumatize the plants... but it needs to be done, and I guess that's why I'm doing a trial run anyway. Who says stoners aren't productive? You just need to give us the proper motivation...

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No worries on your plants buddy you will be fine i too moved transplanted TWICE and fumble fucked around in my grow so your plants will be fine.

On the HPS light... I was expecting a reddish-colored light since it's supposed to be replicating the lower fall sun, but the light is bright blue. Is this right

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I am no expert on lighting but i believe HPS should be reddish.. check on that!

Thanks a lot for sticking with me and helping me out, Sparkafire. If you weren't here mentoring me I'd prolly be doing all sorts of crazy shit to my poor plants. I'd +rep you more, but no matter how much I give to other people, it still tells me to spread the love more.

Anyway, I figured out the whole blue light/orange light thing... and I don't want to talk about it. It's fixed now, that's what's important. I left the light on all night with the doors closed and the fan on the tops of the plants, and it only got up to 80 degrees, so at least until summer I shouldn't have to worry too much about heat... that makes me really happy I got the 400w. Here's what my closet looks like now:


It's a big upgrade from what I started with:


And today's project is going to be to plumb this new tub. It's a little bit wider than ideal for my light, being 18" by 36", but it's the best I can find. It'll hold 18 plants(once I steal some more pots). I sprayed bondo rubberized goop on it to keep out the light(it was clear), and I'll cut slits in the lid so it fits nicely over the plants. For this grow, I'm going to have the plants a little spread out to give them room to spread their leaves.

Thanks a lot for sticking with me and helping me out, Sparkafire.

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No worries glad to help

If you weren't here mentoring me I'd prolly be doing all sorts of crazy shit to my poor plants.

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Crazier than you are now? LOL

Anyway, I figured out the whole blue light/orange light thing... and I don't want to talk about it. It's fixed now, that's what's important. I left the light on all night with the doors closed and the fan on the tops of the plants, and it only got up to 80 degrees, so at least until summer I shouldn't have to worry too much about heat...

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Thats great !


Ok a few things Lets try to get more water nutes to your plants soak the shit out of them twice a day and then drain off somehow the excess. These are your mothers right? If not and you need to sex lets start the process of cloning so you can get sex of the plants. You will be fine vegging your moms with the floro.

DONT use the cover! just from my experience

YOu are going to want to only have 10 plants max in your grow you can start out with 20 but only pick the best out them for the 10. and get bigger pots 8x8 square is ideal for our tubs i am changing to them next run. I know I know i was dissapointed also. really wanted to do 20 you will have better plants with less.

And today's project is going to be to plumb this new tub. It's a little bit wider than ideal for my light, being 18" by 36",

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Your fine!! move them if you find you need to.

Crazier than you are now? LOL
Hey, I'm not that bad... I haven't peed on them or fed them hamburger grease(yeah, someone did that). As a matter of fact, my plants seem to be at least comparable, if not better than other plants I've seen after 1 month veg... mostly due to good advice.

These are your mothers right? If not and you need to sex lets start the process of cloning so you can get sex of the plants. You will be fine vegging your moms with the floro.
Actually, I'm not going to use these as mothers. I'm not going to be using the 6" rockwool after them, and I'd rather be consistent, so I wanna use these up as fast as I can. My current plan was to start some clones from these, and keep those clones as mothers, assuming one of these ends up being female. I figure if I start them now, they'll be ready to rip apart(in the nicest possible way) by the time I harvest these. I was planning on using the fluoros for that.

Ok a few things Lets try to get more water nutes to your plants soak the shit out of them twice a day and then drain off somehow the excess.
I can definitely water them twice a day, and the tub drains pretty thoroughly, but even watering once, the rockwool's still damp for the next watering. I could change it now, but it would be hard to judge if it made a difference or not since I'm making so many other changes at the same time. You think I should?

DONT use the cover! just from my experience
Why not? Doesn't it help to keep the light off the roots and reflect more up towards the leaves? I notice you did it in your pics... but I assume you've learned something since then.

YOu are going to want to only have 10 plants max in your grow you can start out with 20 but only pick the best out them for the 10. and get bigger pots 8x8 square is ideal for our tubs i am changing to them next run.
Are you wanting the extra space for vegetation or roots? Al B claims to get 1 ounce per plant even with the 6" pots... I've kind of been assuming that's optimum, but most other posts I've read to seem to state that that's not nearly enough space. I kind of assumed that with going from clones to flowering, and the lollipopping, they wouldn't use that full space anyway. Are you lollipopping, and if so, are you still going to with 8" pots? Obviously the goal is to get the most bud in the least amount of time with the same square footage. Can I ask what you're getting per harvest now in that space?

No your doing just fine.

Ok then lets get cloning

Drown them and let them drain I had mine sitting in a small amount of water with no ill affect


Ah yes grasshopper what if you need to move them ? BUT if you only have 2 i guess you could use it. Your choice.

Are you wanting the extra space for vegetation or roots? Al B claims to get 1 ounce per plant even with the 6" pots... I've kind of been assuming that's optimum, but most other posts I've read to seem to state that that's not nearly enough space. I kind of assumed that with going from clones to flowering, and the lollipopping, they wouldn't use that full space anyway. Are you lollipopping, and if so, are you still going to with 8" pots? Obviously the goal is to get the most bud in the least amount of time with the same square footage. Can I ask what you're getting per harvest now in that space?

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ROOTS....... Yes he did and i might have spoken too soon. Try this do half and half and see what the difference is. Hell i will be watching to see it too.
I don't know what i ended up with yet i will let you know. remember it was my first.

I've got them moved into the new, bigger tub... boy was that a trial. I did come up with something really clever when plumbing it though. My drill was making the holes just barely too small, and I couldn't get the fittings in... so I used an old trick I use when making gravity bongs, and used my lighter to melt the edges of the hole. Softened it up and the fittings slid right in. It even melted an imprint of the threading into it, so the fittings screw in and out. I am awesome. The downside is... I cracked the tub when trying to get the hose onto the fittings, and ended up with a tiny leak. It's not horrible though because it drips back in to the reservoir.

Oh, and don't ever use Bondo... I've seen people recommend it in some DIY threads for aerocloners, to spray the tub to keep out the light. I used black spray paint the first time, and it worked fine after about 10 layers. This bondo stuff, though is a mess. It said it should dry in 4-6 hours. I left it for almost 48, and it still rubs off all over the place, making a huge mess, and leaving clear spots in my tub. I'd take pictures, but the light's too bright for it to come out. The bondo however did stick very nicely to the wall I rubbed up against, to the point where I can't even get it off with bleach. Bond = BAD... plus, if I'm not going to be using the lids, it's not accomplishing anything anyway, except possibly making the bin hold in more heat. Yay.

I may use the lid anyway... I haven't decided. I thought it was really bad to let light into the roots, but I did think about the trouble of moving it. I kind of didn't think it would be too bad if you can just slide the lid off via the slots... it worked fine when my plants were babies. I think I'll go without for this grow, because if they're not covered the rockwool will dry faster, and I can feed twice a day. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I'll try to get more pics and post tomorrow.

Hells yeah, pretty sure both plants are girls. I wasn't expecting them to show so fast, but they've got little hairs on either side of the new growth buds... I'm giddy like a little school girl...

For mature audiences only:

Tsolrathe said:

Hells yeah, pretty sure both plants are girls. I wasn't expecting them to show so fast, but they've got little hairs on either side of the new growth buds... I'm giddy like a little school girl...

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AHHHH are you sure??? when you see little white hairs next to the little horns then you have females. Sorry to burst your bubble.

You're right. I jumped the gun. I thought the 'horns' were the 'hairs' people talk about. It's kind of hard to find clear pictures of how to sex plants... but I did a little more research and found some.
Thanks, Killjoy, for bringing me back to reality.
Anyway, hopefully they heard me celebrating and will feel more inclined to be females.

On an unrelated note, the plants seem to be having a few wilted leaves in the 'mornings'. The last few days(since I switched them to a 12/12 and the new light, and watering twice a day), when I check on them when their light first comes on, each plant has had 1 or 2 wilted leaves. I haven't thought much of it because it's just the small bottom leaves that don't get much light anyway, and I've just been clipping them off. I assumed it was because they weren't getting any light to them, but then I realized the wilting is happening during their dark cycle. I'm thinking maybe it's over-watering? but I'm not sure. If it's like that again when the light comes on tonight I'll post pictures and start another thread to figure it out, and I'm not sure if it's related or not, but some of the lower nodes look really swollen... like nothing I've seen in pics before. I'll post pics of that too. Hopefully I'm just overreacting and it's nothing.
They're still growing by leaps and bounds every day. I'm going to have to figure something out because I can't move the light up much higher without moving the ballast into the closet.

Tsolrathe said:

You're right. I jumped the gun. I thought the 'horns' were the 'hairs' people talk about. It's kind of hard to find clear pictures of how to sex plants... but I did a little more research and found some.
Thanks, Killjoy, for bringing me back to reality.
Anyway, hopefully they heard me celebrating and will feel more inclined to be females.

On an unrelated note, the plants seem to be having a few wilted leaves in the 'mornings'. The last few days(since I switched them to a 12/12 and the new light, and watering twice a day), when I check on them when their light first comes on, each plant has had 1 or 2 wilted leaves. I haven't thought much of it because it's just the small bottom leaves that don't get much light anyway, and I've just been clipping them off. I assumed it was because they weren't getting any light to them, but then I realized the wilting is happening during their dark cycle. I'm thinking maybe it's over-watering? but I'm not sure. If it's like that again when the light comes on tonight I'll post pictures and start another thread to figure it out, and I'm not sure if it's related or not, but some of the lower nodes look really swollen... like nothing I've seen in pics before. I'll post pics of that too. Hopefully I'm just overreacting and it's nothing.
They're still growing by leaps and bounds every day. I'm going to have to figure something out because I can't move the light up much higher without moving the ballast into the closet.

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No your fine they will wilt down a bit in the dark cycle your fine. Need to work on that stuff now because it will kick your ass if you don't.

There were no wilted leaves this morning, so I'm going to assume it's not a serious problem. Here's an update on what the plants are looking like:

I've nicknamed the tall one "Icarus". It seems like no matter how high I move the light up, that one tries to touch it. It hasn't gotten burned at all so far, but I think that's mostly luck, and it keeps making me move the light further away from the other one, which is mostly just growing outward and trying to take over the whole area. This is probably also the first pic where you can get a good look at the other one I started late. That one's growing slowly, but it's not getting very much light. I may hang a cfl to shine specifically on that plant, or I might just see what I get this way(not much is my guess).

And here are those 'swollen' nodes I was talking about... I'm guessing it's nothing and I'm just being a hypercanicondriach(I made that word up).

That could just be normal growth for all I know, but it looks funky to me. It's both plants that are growing like that, but only in the bottom halves.

I was looking at the pics I took a few days... it's easy to not see how fast these things are growing when I look at them every day, but since they've been under the HPS they've at least doubled in size... in 4 days.

Tsolrathe said:

There were no wilted leaves this morning, so I'm going to assume it's not a serious problem. Here's an update on what the plants are looking like:

I've nicknamed the tall one "Icarus". It seems like no matter how high I move the light up, that one tries to touch it. It hasn't gotten burned at all so far, but I think that's mostly luck, and it keeps making me move the light further away from the other one, which is mostly just growing outward and trying to take over the whole area. This is probably also the first pic where you can get a good look at the other one I started late. That one's growing slowly, but it's not getting very much light. I may hang a cfl to shine specifically on that plant, or I might just see what I get this way(not much is my guess).

That could just be normal growth for all I know, but it looks funky to me. It's both plants that are growing like that, but only in the bottom halves.

I was looking at the pics I took a few days... it's easy to not see how fast these things are growing when I look at them every day, but since they've been under the HPS they've at least doubled in size... in 4 days.

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Your doing just fine!!

If you are flowering those 2 you know you could top one of them and even get more branches and then pull those down using string lower plant more branches .I know its an advanced move but hell if i could do it it cant be that hard.

I would put some sort of cover over your RW its not a big deal but algae looks nasty when it shows up

I know what you mean leave for 3 days and come back to a whole forest.

You will see little white hairs or little balls when you get to the sexing stage. You will know when it happens. and dont freak if you get a male just cry and pull it no worries about pollen just yet.

they look like boxelder bugs. Boxelder Bugs