Mystik's first grow log

Okay this is my first real attempt at growing anything indoors properly. I've made a few past attempts, and being a idiot about it didn't read up properly and wound up with a bunch of dead sprouts. Right now I only have this one surviving seedling (having killed the first two because the light was too far away) It's a simple closet grow attempt, I do not know the name of the strain because it's a bag seed. It was particularly good and this was among only three seeds found in nearly a ounce of bud, I actually had expected them to be sterile. Anyhow, this is roughly day 8 since it broke ground. I added a little mulch to the top to help keep the soil from drying out too much.


started a discussion thread so you experienced guys can toss input as I go...
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal-discussion/187677-mystiks-first-grow-discussion.html#post2423228

what kind of lights? soil? etc. whatever lights you have, leave them on 24hrs a day during veggie cycle. NO NUTES for the first 30 days. good rule of thumb is that your lights are too close if you put your hand the same distance away from them that plant is, and it's too hot for you to bear. if you can comfortable keep your hand under them at same distance as plant, it's probably ok to be there. but we need to know what lights your using. lights that are too far away cause long, stretchy, weak plants that will topple over if not supported. you want to grow a small bush, not a 6 ft. scragley tree. what size pot do you have plant in?

If that whole pot is filled up with the soil shown, you will have slow growth because the roots will have a hard time getting around the big pieces of wood

no the top layer is just deep enough to make it look that way the inside does have a few chips but they are about a 1/4 or less the size of what you see on top there. My only real experience growing anything successfully is outdoors which is not possible for me with this because I have incredibly nosy pretentious neighbors around here. The soil probably could be better but I read a bunch of horror stories so I actually went with this purely organic stuff. My money is so tight I could barely afford the current cfl's I'm using for light, (actually had to toss out a few of them when I noticed the plant leaning to one side because it obviously preferred the light from one of the two types I got) I have a larger rig I've yet to install I just want to see if I can make one plant survive to end, even if my yield is horrible it's only for personal use anyway I'll wait 6 months if I have too no complaints. Once I see I can do this successfully I fully intend to invest as much as I can in doing it more "by the book"
attached is a more typical sample of the soil in the rest of the pot, there are some very tiny little twigs mixed in there but no big chips like the mulch I put on top. That was actually done because my own experience growing regular plants in the little garden around the house has shown the little layer of heavy mulch on top keeps the soil under neath moist even if you neglect watering at times. sorry about the quality of the pics, I'm clipping them in paint shop pro, and having a hell of a time making this camera with the busted flash take clear close up pictures.

ok, keep that cfl as close to plant as possible. use metal reflector hood if you can. get as many cfls as you can afford and get them above plant and on sides. what size pot are you using??

the pics are great bro..fuck nosy neighbors lol.. the soil looks great, it just worried me that the whole thing was those giant pieces haha...

yeah it's siblings actually died due to the lights not being close enough, it was right as they were bending over about to croak that I found this site and started taking in as much as I could... I related all that in my intro post here on the forums. You guys actually saved this little fellow as I learned my mistake and corrected it before he had time to fall over. Current pot is fairly small (don't know exact size it originally contained a plant bought from home depot guess would be in the 2 liter neighborhood) but I have an enormous pot to transplant into that is easily large enough for 2 plants, possibly three.
Anyhow, I'm going to stop posting for today I made a discussion thread for us to move too
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal-discussion/187677-mystiks-first-grow-discussion.html#post2423228
as I plan on using this log to keep track of time something I'm normally pretty bad at.
I'm going to create a reflective array for 6 lights here in the next few days, I have the materials for the time being the 3 lights I have in normal little desk lamps surrounding it seems to be doing fine (3 equally spaced in front reflector against the wall)

Well I have the materials I'll need to finish a proper beginners grow space, since what I have set up right now is not large enough to support the plant as an adult. Amazingly it's still only cost me the original price of the lights I had to get to get started, plus the larger fl I already had out in the garage. No real news about the plant itself today all she's done is to start sprouting a new set of leaves overnight. I've been looking at the results from this screen method, and I was wondering about the tying to spread things out. I've read a dozen threads here from people that have done it successfully and it doesn't seem very complicated or bad for the plant, but if anyone wants to humor me with a bit more detail I'm open to any advice.




https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal-discussion/187677-mystiks-first-grow-discussion.html#post2423228

slowly progressing.
Don't freak out the white leaves is just bad lighting they look fine...

update : IT'S A GIRL!!!!!
I'm so relieved all that time spent wasn't wasted but I started 12/12 just two days ago and she's already showing.
I can't take pictures I left my camera at my mom's place on mother's day, it's a clean showing though so I don't have any doubt.

The bottom most leaves are starting to yellow and die off a bit, I've been kind of lead to believe this is normal though, should I just trim them off? I actually have a surgical scalpel so I can make a damn clean cut.

Thought I would add pics, they are kind of old taken before mother's day, just got the camera back...
It was in a transitional space when I took these while I divided it's normal space in half so I could 18/6 and 12/12 in the same closet.
Anyhow it's about half a foot taller now, and still looking fine, though 7 days into flowering light cycle it's not showing much.
I'll take fresh pictures when it finally starts to show some flower.

She's finally starting to show a number of flowers starting up, I still haven't gotten my camera back from my mom, I think my stepdad fell in love with it, so I'm going to have to go over there and forcefully retrieve it, she's growing at a nice steady rate, I expect her to be nearly 4 1/2 feet at the end if this keeps up.
Meanwhile I've started my next set of seedlings and have the space and resources to get a sog going in the long run, my only trouble right now is my limited funds have me hurting for good soil, I'll sacrifice for it if things keep going this well though.

Okay this is getting wierd now, I'll admit I did some strange things to this plant as part of an experiment, but I didn't really expect the results I'm currently getting.
the bottom half of the plant is done. I mean stuff was starting to die off trichs were good, so I harvested. Dried, and even smoked some... all good.
Here's where things get strange. The top half of the plant, is NOWHERE NEAR READY.
It's like it's on a totally different schedule from the bottom half of the plant.
Anyhow what I got off the lower branches was pretty good stuff. I'm just trying to figure out why the top half is at least a month behind... the 11th will make 8 weeks which admittedly is still a little short of the expected on this plant. I'm just kind of lost as to why the bottom half of the plant matured so quickly and the top half seems to be sticking to the expected schedule.
Picture is attached it's not much to look at now since it's been somewhat brutalized when I harvested the lower half...