P00T's super-noobaroo grow!

Howdy folks!

Remember your first attempts growing? All the silly mistakes, and overzelous attention to many of the wrong things...

Well enjoy a quick trip down memory lane as I document the fun I'm having.

History:

My poor little science experiments have been through a lot this last month.

• They started out as some really old seeds. (Over 5 years old)
• Some damp paper towels in a MickyD's sallad container
• A week on my old Yamaha Amp = 14 seeds with about half hatched.
• Put together a little 3' my wife had still in it's box out in the garage
• Loaded everyone into some peat starters in a jiffy tray
• Stuck my SunBox II S.A.D light in there hooked to a timer
• Filled up a cat litter container with water to let it sit and offgas some Cl
• Employed a trusty Silver Bullet ladel from Golden, CO as me watering can

Off to the races!


Turns out that if the tap-root isn't out yet, the little buggers can end up wrong side down when you water them.
After searching for reasons that the little cotyledons would be missing...because the tap root will grow straight up as if it were the stem...
I figured the problem out and righted the wayward plants after about 2 weeks underground...and 2 are still hanging on! (The others would have too, but I overwatered...never seen that I bet...lol)

Current Setup:

After much reading (Much of it here!) I decided on my setup.

• 8'x8'x8' room with B/W 6mil for walls (aprox 90% sealed)
• 1 Lumatek Dual 600W ballast
• 2 BlockBuster hoods
• 2 Supermax conversion MH 600W bulbs
• 6 ValueLine fan (noiser than I'd hoped)
  • T connecter splitting to pull from the 2 lights (they will get their own seperate intakes soon)
  • 6" intake for entire room

Hold on...

There is still another half of the room doing nothing, and I will probably put a sheet of B/W down the middle for better efficiency.

I've got 5 out of the original 14 hanging in there:

Beefy:
This one has the most veg, but seems to have 3 rather than 2 sets branching off
Normal:
This one "seems" to be the most normal of the bunch
Lumpy:
Not sure why it's lumpy...but it is...
Wiggly 1:
Survivor of a subteranian start...
Wiggly 2:
Another survivor of the dark depths...

I have started 3 more seeds in full 2.5gal pots (everyone gets a 2.5gal...) to see what I get without papertowels and peat starters...

So, that is my first month, and I will document further soon.
Thanks for reading, hope it made you grin.

-P00T

grin it did...lol

"Grin". Looks like your seedling soil is too wet, the algae is bad too. I don't grow in soil so get some other opinions.

cannatari said:

"Grin". Looks like your seedling soil is too wet, the algae is bad too. I don't grow in soil so get some other opinions.

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Yep, definitely too wet. (Wife reminded me yesterday that the Miricale Grow Moisture Control soil retains lots of water...)
I hope to let it dry out and kill of the algea. Not sure what problems the algea causes beyond chewing up some goodies from the soil...hope it doesn't produce toxins!

In about a month I should be able to set up a better watering system...the cat-litter resevior with Coor's can delivery system will not scale. <G>
Thanks for stopping by, and for the advice as well!
-P00T

Well, it has been a good week for the little ones, and I have some new pics to share.

The seeds that I was trying to start direclty in soil were not successful so I started 6 more in a zip with a moist paper towel. 5 of those were ready for soil yesterday and I put them in. Today I put some cling-wrap on top to keep their humidity high since I have a fan ocilating to get circulation and strong stems.

Had a little fun with the wife's PTouch label maker too! lol


Things are looking pretty good as far as I can tell, feel free to comment if you see anything I should start/stop doing.

Thanks for checking in, hope it spread a grin.

Well another week has gone by and more learning.

I decided to LST Beefy and Norm to keep them from bolting compared to the rest of the kids. (Wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined it would be, and they didn't seem to mind one bit!)

Of the 5 that I started last week, 3 seem to be making it just fine, and 2 died. The 2 that died never really got out of that doubled-up position, then these really tiny mites were chomping on them so I put them out of their missery. (macro is good, but not good enough to get you a pic of the mites)

Now I am trying to decide on a purchase from one of the seed-banks and was thinking of going with one of their Sativa dominant samplers. That based on my assumption that what I've got now is Indica dominant, which I am basing off of the leaf shape. (Anyone think that is right/wrong?)

Here is the crew including the 3 new ones that don't yet have a name:


Well, back to it...thanks for stopping by!

are you using an slr to take those pics? dof looks like slr, if not that's a good pns

ilcattivo said:

are you using an slr to take those pics? dof looks like slr, if not that's a good pns

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Old Sony Cybershot = DSC-S85 that was retired after it had a coke spilled in it...buttons are a bit sticky, but the optics(Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar) which can actually accept lenses are still pretty bad ass.
Sure, there are things I can't do with it that the Cannon 5D is able to take care of, but it makes for one hell of a pns!

Comming up this week, the addition of:
3 Matanuska ThunderFuck
4 Elephant Bud

Yet another week of learning, and I ventured out onto Craiglist to see what I could see...found some Matanuska ThunderFuck (From Seed) and some Elephant Bud (Clones). Also found one of the new co-ops in our area. That was an interesting treat!

So the original crew is doing very well, and here are their pics:


Of the 3 seedlings that had made it in last week's update, only two remain:



I picked up 3 seedlings (from seed) of Matanuska ThunderFuck(Tundra), and they seem to be adjusting to their transplant. (Keeping an eye on Droopy just in case!)



I also got my first set of clones. 4 Elephant Bud clones. (Or whatever they actually are for those who are all freaked out by BCSeeds strain names...)

I've been reading a lot about how clones should look/behave and I have to say that for a beginner it is a real nail-biter! None of them look too pleased with their situation, but I'm keeping hope alive that they will enjoy the soil, push some roots, and get back to green! (If anyone out there has been-here/done-this, I could certainly use some encouragement...sure don't like how sickly they look.)

I'll have another update next week, and hope to have a drip system picked out by then to discuss.

Hope everyone is having a good week, keep grinnin'!

Well, another week has passed and the fun never stops!
The room was getting rather smelly, so I hit the hydro shop and got my can filter.
I haven't decided where in the room to set it up, but I got more ducting and everything is connected except for that.
Got my HPS bulbs so I can switch to flower when ready. (Another month or so I'm guessing)

The lights are now on their own air system completely sealed from the room. Glad to finally have that done, and will be adding intake filters(pantyhose) and cleaning the hood glass(well overdue) in the next couple of days.

Right now I have the exhaust fan for the room set on a 30min on 30min off schedule, but would like to find a timer that will run it for around 10min/hour. (Any suggestions for this very welcome!)

With the venting, I haven't noticed that the room is less smelly but have caught a wiff or 3 outside while doing yard work! Gotta get that can connected...I'm legal, but the neighbors just don't need to know.

As sad as the clones looked, I actually had roots peeking out on 3 of them from the bottom of those little 4x4 pots so I gave them all their own 2.5 gal. (Strange, but the one with the most green had the least active root system...)

Here are the current pics, and a breakdown of what is what:
These are from seed produced in a cross with U-Dub and Jack Herer:

The Tweedles (Also UW x JH):
DeeDum

Matanuska ThunderFuck(Tundra):
LarryMoeCurleyAnyone know why?

Elephant Bud Clones:


2 of the Quarter sections of the room:


Well, that is it for now. I've pulled the LST wires from Beefy, Lumpy, and Norm so they will be launching this week.

Keep Grinin'

Lookin good bro... Yeah clones will keep ya up at night worrying they won't make it. Proper environment and time will turn that right around!

It actually makes sense that the greenest of the bunch is the one with the least signs of root. The clipping utilizes its own mass for the nutrients to reproduce roots. It has no way of pulling nutrients due to lack of roots. Hence yellowing of leaves and purpling of stem.

Yeah, it seems there is some really counterintuitive stuff involved with cloning...thanks for the love!

hey bud how close do you have those 600w lights to those seedlings? i would pull that light up to about four feet away from them!! they are way to young to have those bright ass light so close! the plants need to be stretching towards the light and i think thats why they are so stubby. on some of the pics the leaves are curling up thats because of heat! get those hoods up! just trying to help dont take it personal...

calismoke28 said:

hey bud how close do you have those 600w lights to those seedlings? i would pull that light up to about four feet away from them!! they are way to young to have those bright ass light so close! the plants need to be stretching towards the light and i think thats why they are so stubby. on some of the pics the leaves are curling up thats because of heat! get those hoods up! just trying to help dont take it personal...

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No offense taken, I'm here to learn! The only one that I have curling problems with is "Curley"<g>. The curling on the clones was giong on when I got them, so I suspect that they got a bit toasted at their origin.

That said, I can certainly back the lights off and see what comes. I've been trying to keep them around 18" as an average to the canopy, but perhaps that is a better goal for flower than veg?

I keep going back and forth on whether I want to split my 8x8 room to get a start/veg and a flower room, or just build out another room...The more grow pron I see, the more I worry that 14-15 plants is giong to be a fat load of bush after 2-5 mo of veg.

Thanks a ton for the advice, Cali!

Here we are mid-June, and still having a grand time.

I've become a bit antsy re: pre-flower identification, but am doing my best to wait. (only an issue for the first 7 plants...)
After this initial grow I am definitely going to sub-divide the room, or build an adjacent room so there is a dedicated area for flowering.

All of the plants are coming along nicely considering their circumstances. (No nutes, MG soil, no Ph considerations, and general noobtastic silliness...)

I am especially pleased that one of the Elephant clones has decided to take off!
The other 3 are showing progress, and I expect they will launch in the next week or so.

That said, enjoy some pics!

I've got to remember to add the pics BEFORE I start the text...gotta love that "feature" of the pics being randomly scattered through the text when added...

All comments/input is welcomed, and thanks for stopping in for a grin!

Found balls on 2 plants last night, and have moved them outside until I decide what I am going to do with them. (Likely get moved out to a gurilla grow with a couple of healthy females, but may live in their pots on a corner of the property for selective polinating...)

P00T said:

Found balls on 2 plants last night, and have moved them outside until I decide what I am going to do with them. (Likely get moved out to a gurilla grow with a couple of healthy females, but may live in their pots on a corner of the property for selective polinating...)
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Their much better than the first attempt haha lookin good man

Do you have a digital ph meter for your water? Your plants look like they having ph problems with the crinkly leaves. Your using miracle grow soil....have you feed them yet? Most people wait till about 3 weeks or so until they feed the first time because the soil already has bunch of nutes. Thast could also cause crinkled leaves but I dont see burns so it most likely ph related