My first decent grow, how I have evolved over a year, still not their yet though.

darknezz · Jul 17, 2008

So first let me introduce myself here at rollitup. High, I'm me, my friend grows bud legally and medically. For ease of writing though whenever I am typing "I" I'm actually referring to my friend, that grows legally... Got that? ok. Used to post somewhere else when first started but stopped after a few months. But I think I'll like it here, I can't believe so many people say they are growing and don't get caught... It's so easy to trace ip's. oh well at least I'm not growing as its illegal here

So now that that is out of the way I'm going to say a little about my history, I must warn though when I get typing it tends to get long, maybe you've already noticed... So If ya don't want to read it please skip down to my second post for my present grow. However if your new to growing I suggest it cause I did ALLOT of first time mistakes and maybe you'll learn something. So read on about my first year of growing experiences I had the worst luck at first with some tough lessons.

I started growing when I got my own house in the country. I would never grow in an apt or even a rental or really even in the city, I guess if I had to... I got my seeds from BC... I don't suggest that. Specifically highgrade-seeds the seeds are cheap and the pics look really great but I got the super mix pack which is 10 seeds of like 6 indoor strains... Lets just say these are not very good strains in the super mix. They came quickly and discretly though with 4 extras and had about %90 germ and more females than males. Later on another buddy of mine ordered though here and got a few very good strains, "Black Widow" and "Black Queen" but thats later. So on to my FIRST grow and let me say this to anyone starting out BUY GOOD SEEDS YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Ahem,

For my first grow I started under 8 23 watt warm cfls.
Heres what that looked like, dont mention the perilite, I thought at first it would help keep moisture in but soon learned it wicked moisture out.

I have allways used a good soil from my local hydro shop.
And their line of organic nutes "Harvest Moon" I'll post a pic later.
My light are on 24 hrs.

heres 18 days

29 days

So I dont have much more but sometime shortly after this a plant decided to show sex early in veg and busted its load all over.
Heres a nice pic of the male flower though...

I pulled that bitch but the damage was done. 5 plants left.
At this time I still hadn't gotten my flowering light
I was going to get a ballast kit and make my own, yes I'm electronically savy. But then I saw one on e-bay that was soposed to be brand new and was a display at some shop back east. It was a 1000w HPS ballast, socket, and batwing reflector for $150 with free shipping. Great deal right? So I got it and a SOPOSEDLY BRAND NEW "Grow Power" bulb (more on that BS later...)
I was about to go on vacation for 10 days and really wanted to get my new hps light going and put my babies into flower before I left them with their caregiver. So the night before I left I sectioned off my flowering room and got my light all set up and was excited. 3 days later and 2000 miles away I get a call, "the lights not coming on" fuck. I had them try everything posible without taking abpart the ballast and nothing. So my plants got 4 nights of 1000 watts and were loving life then next to nothing, I had my caregiver put the 8 cfls over them to save em for the next week. When I got home I tried everything on that ballast then took it in and they replaced the cap and ignitor and still didn't work... HOW THE F DOES THE TRANSFORMER GO?! I ended up buying a new ballast right then, with a warrenty. The guy that sold me the ballast dissapeared..... He had rep to. FUCK e-bay for this shit.

Heres what they looked like a few days after I got the 1000 watt back over them. Its the last pic of my first grow.

Anyway so I believe that stressed the hell out of my plants and I only got 1 female out of the 5. BS AGAIN.

I would like to point out 2 major things I was doing wrong at this point.

1. Vegged them entirly in 1 gal then transplanted to 7 gals and put into flowering in the same day. WTF was I thinking! now I know the plants need to be vegged in larger pots and transplanted, if at all, at least 4 weeks before they go into flowering.

2. Watering with straigt cold water, from a well, in the winter lol. shit...

So don't do that to any newbies arite

So my one lonly female was under that 1000 watts, but with all the mistakes I was making and the shock and the fucked up transplanting just everything. The plant was a bitch is what I'm trying to say plus it was hella seeded from that first male. I did'nt take any pics of it done. Less than an oz off that plant allmost a complete loss.

Somtime before that plant was done though I had my next batch vegging with new lights and better strains. My other growing freind ordered seeds from the same place and gave me some. The Black Widow and Black Queen and a classic mix which was either White Widow or NL5. He also got some of the super mix that I originally got and gave me some.

So here was my new veg setup

I don't have the cfls in their no more and u'll see why in my current growing.

To clone I made a little bubbler

Unfortunately I didn't take any pics but I got 3 females out of 5 and the Black Queen was really the only good one but very small yield again the other plants were just ok with a little better yield. The other 2 besides BQ were Super Mix.

AND GODDAMN IT, when I took clones I took of all plants except the Black Queen! I didn't know what was what when I cut them... DAMN IT DAMN IT I did have 2 super mix female strains now though.

Somewhere in here I had more plants, took more clones at odd times and experiemnted but did'nt document it just learned myself.

So somtime again before those plants were done though I received clones from my friend of Black Widow (see at highgrade-seeds) and the best strain I have White Queen which hes had for years, (see current harvest pics)

Heres the original Black Widow and the other plants of the original clones my other friend gave me just a few weeks into flowering,The BW is the short one in the middle. These plants were vegged the whole time in 3 gals and put directly into flowering, much better results than what I was doing earlyier.

This is a 14 bladed leaf from the Black Widow

and heres my first White Queen which was a runt clone, but the clones off it are fine.

So of course again along when those plants went into flowering I took my own clones of the White Queen and my other plants and I now use CloneX and peat pods in a propagator.

CloneX is the Shiznit, 10 days done.

But yeah thats my growing history as far as I can put it together digging through unlabeled pics and no documentaion.

So after all that its was about 8 months of growing and learning. That was 2 months ago and now I have expanded even more and gotten my strains worked out and my clone schedule proper. Almost anyway. I'm actually going to once again do things different after this harvest but thats later. So now onto what I have going on now... Which I'll post tomorrow cause I'm tired.

heres a sample

bah it took me a few hours just to do this, slowly lol. more tomorrow nite nite.

ballin jack · Jul 17, 2008

Taht was the longest post I've ever seen, I stopped reading after the 1st paragraph lol. Nice pics though, that 14 bladed leaf is sick!

darknezz · Jul 17, 2008

lol yeah like I said, I get to typin. I'm gonna post up what I'm currently doing and future plans in a little while. I forgot to mention I am open to any comments suggestions, ie I'm not gonna get but hurt if you tell me I'm doing something wrong, please do actually! And yea the 14 bladed leaf was cool, havn't had anything like that again, I have had a 1 bladed leaf though, off that first bitch White Queen clone. This kodak POS camera sucks at takeing clear close up pictures.

Prolly be late when next posts all done, gotta go water

darknezz · Jul 18, 2008

Whew, 8 plants just transplanted and 20 watered.

So a HUGE part of my problem before 2 months ago.... THE BULB I BOUGHT ON EBAY WAS A POS!! just like the ballast.... I bought a new Hortilux and it was visible 3x bright and I'm sure much better for the plants. About a month before that I also bought a new air cooled hood, used, $50, oh yes. I use 4 PC case fans to push the air though, works great, 10 bucks of fans and I had the PC power supply, compared to $100+ blower... I looked into those 120v "duct" fans at like home depot too but the computer fans push allot of air, I was surprised at how well they work. 3 months and havnt had issues with them, sometimes smells a little like plastic out the exaust.

If you read my shit above you'll know I bought a 1000w HPS on ebay and the transformer went out after 3 days, well I took that case and wireing and got a MH kit and thats what I'm Using now for veg.

So here is what is currently going on. The pic in the above post is the white queen now, it is 45 days into flowering. My friend harvests it around here, it is a VERY quick strain, I'm gonna let it go another week though. I have 3 White Queens, 2 "classic mix plants, possibly NL5" a plant I simply call "P2, it was one of my original super mix seeds" and a plant I call "my SS, which was a clone of a plant from my friend from seeds I originally gave him" so 7 big flowering plants. The Queens are 1 week behind the others but the others are 10 week plants.

The smaller plants in flowering are all at 4 weeks and consists of 5 Black Widows, 2 "P2's" and a nice Purple Kusch seed I recently acquired from a bud in NorCal.

This is what the White Queen looked like before it went into flower.

The Queen, Classic, and other, 7 plants total at 4 wks flowering

The Black Widow and others in veg that are currently 4 wks into flowering.

So here is the current pic of all my flowering plants, and yes I know they are seriously cramped, that's not gonna happen again. I took to many clones and just couldn't bring myself to kill them... Plus vegging to long.

This is all the plants above right now.

and a top veiw

Here is the bigger of the 2 "classic mix, probably NL5"

The Black Widows pulled out.

And here is the next set in veg that I just transplanted and moved under a 400w MH. It is 7 White Queens and 1 Classic.

and the rest of my veg plants, I ran out of dirt, 1 Queen, and 4 Black Widows, transplantsing these monday.

heres a shot from the door

So thats all my plants as of right now.

Again any advice, comments, suggestions greatly appreciated.

Here are the nutes I am using and the schedual, slightly modified so save a little. I also dont think they need all this shit, it sucks to mix it. I've been wanting to move to different nutes but soposedly these are really good. I also can't afford to buy another set of nutes as I just buy what I need of these one at a time. I'm also going to go hydro soon so it will change.

There is 2 shops in my town and only this one sells these, they are made local in this state as well.

I'm getting ripped....

and the schedule, hydro shops own, changed some....

Some things to clear up how I've done things. The plants in floweing I vegged 3 wks in 1 gal then moved to 5 gals under the MH for another 3 wks. Most topped once.

The new plants in veg I started in 2 gal and moved to 4 gals and 2 weeks and will prolly go no more than 3 weeks. They are all topped twice.

I water usually with 3 days in between, 1 gal each plant.

If ya didn't read in my first post I use local hydro shops soil and my veg lights are on 24 hrs, I also use a folier spray, can't think of nothing else. ask me.

In the future... I am going SOG, fuck all this. 2 sets of 10 small plants topped once in 3 or 4 gals. These big plants take up way to much room and because I dont have the room and the light half the plants are a waste. I could fit 4 smaller plants in the space of one of mine right now....

Also no transplanting... The plants I started in 3 Gal pots and didn't transplant had the biggest stalk base and were the densest I've has yet. I had to learn again the hard way that it seems like if you don't transplant them immediately when they need it they never seem to be as good as they could of been...

Learn Learn... Look foward to future grows... Hopefully hydro.
I'm drunk and going to play some 360 now later everyone.

Again questions, suggestions, advice, comments, and maybe some praise?
All appreciated.

pppfemguy · Jul 18, 2008

and the award for the longest post goes to.......................

darknezz · Jul 18, 2008

GOD DAMN why do people on GTAIV have to all be children?! BAD PARENTS OUT THEIR GETTING THEIR KIDS THAT GAME.... goddamn live poeple.....

oook. jeez I've seen longer, I would of put it in grow logs but I haven't really kept a "log" plus I want advice.

And so what if I like to lay things out... its not allot of words its just the pictures that make it long but it wouldn't make any sense if i didn't put them along with the text in order. And so what if I like to explain things, jeez.

darknezz · Jul 18, 2008

No comments? man allot of people post here, not in my threads though, already on page three.
I know I'm not really asking anything, just looking for suggestions to improve upon things.

satman rocks · Jul 18, 2008

darknezz said:
No comments? man allot of people post here, not in my threads though, already on page three.
I know I'm not really asking anything, just looking for suggestions to improve upon things.

I am havin' the same problem....nice grow dude,ain't it fun to get the hang of it...looking great man....+rep

bfq · Jul 18, 2008

Hell of a grow you got going there for being pretty new at the game

things look a little stretched... see if you can get your lights closer.

and i would think that exhaust fan in your flower tank would be a light leak and cause hermies... judging by your results though i would be wrong.

looks like you are sorta trying for a SOG... if so, keep your plants shorter and you lights as close as possible to make those buds dense.

the general method for seeing if the lights are too close is to put your hand under the light at the top of the canopy and see if you can tolerate it. if it is too hot for you, it is probably too hot for the girls and needs to be lifted up.

a cool tube or a vented hood will allow you to get the lights closer still and also drop the room's temp.

good job and thanks for sharing

darknezz · Jul 19, 2008

Thanks,

Uh I didnt even show a pic of my intake fan in my flowing, its on the outside of my plastic and it has a light shield over it. were u thinking of my clone and small plant area? Theres a good pic of the light on my second post second pic. It is sealed and vented out of the room. I also have a temp probe, its around 75 lights off(day) and 90 lights on, that is 4 inches away from the glass though right at the center of the bulb and my plants arnt that close.

I will be doing the next batch in veg smaller kinda sog but I have to wait till the big plants in flowering are done... I dont have enough room. :S

Were u saying my mh veg light needs a air cooled hood so it can be closer, the 400 watts probably isn't enough for the amount of plants I'm doin, but it was all I could afford, its around 18 inches from the tops right now, that little light is hot. I might get another 400 some time and some air cooled hoods, but when I am doing hydro and smaller plants it might be enough.

yeah it is good to kinda have the hang of it... I would like denser buds seems like their always not as dense as my friends, same plants and nutes, and he has allot more plants under one 1000watt hps and his bulb is a year old! Mines 2 months old. His plants are not super short either round 5 feet, including pot. where as mine are 6ft+. Shorter plants are denser nugs then?

I hope by the next time I take clones to be able to do them hydro...

Thanks again.

bfq · Jul 19, 2008

i could very well have made those mistakes... which makes a LOT of sense cause that big of a light leak should fuck your flowering all up

sorry to add chaos

i saw two grow areas and assumed flower and veg... which is silly since i have three grow areas myself

satman rocks · Jul 19, 2008

what kinda plant training are you doing...any LST or topping?

darknezz · Jul 19, 2008

heh yeah its okay, I know there's allot of info and pics to go though. But yea 3 areas, like half the room is the flowering

Yeah there topped... some once some twice, I have done all kinds of methods, bending, breaking, tieing, lst, and I have come to a final decision on what I am going to do from now on. I find when ever I did tieing down to let other branches grow up the were very small and didn't produce much and there is allways a more main cola. When I top more than once one of the tops on each branch always grows bigger than the other one then the small one stops growing while the other 2 larger grow so I get 2 large and 2 very small colas. I've made a plant look one of those Hanukkah candle holder things before, 8 tops, lol, didn't work well at all. Plus its a PITA to tie and mess with all those plants every day as fast as they grow.

So what I'm going to do from now on is wait til the 3rd node, top once, let grow a little, cut off all lower branches, let grow rest of veg, a week before flower trim extra undergrowth. That way the plant is a Y and theres 2 nice even colas, I have one plant in flowering now like that it looks good. Its also simple and I will SOG a bunch of 2 cola plants all at an even height. Thats the future plan anyway.

bfq · Jul 19, 2008

sounds wise to me

bigbong1411 · Jul 19, 2008

bfq said:
a cool tube or a vented hood will allow you to get the lights closer still and also drop the room's temp.

good job and thanks for sharing

I think that's sound advice but I would stay away from the cooltube, as it doesn't reflect light as well as most of the rectangularish reflectors. I read that in Jorge Cervantes's Grow Bible...

satman rocks · Jul 19, 2008

sounds pretty good to me too...You sound like a fella that once he comes up with a game plan,he sticks to it

darknezz · Jul 19, 2008

I also like the square glass sealed vented hoods, like my 1000w hps flowering one, allot more to.

VictorVIcious · Jul 19, 2008

I am amazed at what your friend is doing, I have been accused of putting up lengthy post a time or two, don't sweat it, many folks, myself included will go back and read those lengthy post. I am positive they tell an awesome story. Be sure and send Garden Knowm a link to your journal, we are having a contest of sort with journals and he is heading that up.
You need to link this to your signature. That way when you help some one out by answering questions they have posted they have a link to all of your information. Welcome to our forum. Thier loss is certianly a gain for us. VV :mrgreen:

satman rocks · Jul 19, 2008

darknezz said:
I also like the square glass sealed vented hoods, like my 1000w hps flowering one, allot more to.

I like these too,my 400 is in a sun super...tempered glass,2 screw access,and dual 6' outlets...8 ft of duct was 6.00,my hood exhaust is an old electric heater fan,mounted down stream,pulling air through the closet...on the intake end,my plants can touch the glass and not burn...the bulb end,well,that's different....lol

satman rocks · Jul 19, 2008

VictorVIcious said:
I am amazed at what your friend is doing, I have been accused of putting up lengthy post a time or two, don't sweat it, many folks, myself included will go back and read those lengthy post. I am positive they tell an awesome story. Be sure and send Garden Knowm a link to your journal, we are having a contest of sort with journals and he is heading that up.
You need to link this to your signature. That way when you help some one out by answering questions they have posted they have a link to all of your information. Welcome to our forum. Thier loss is certianly a gain for us. VV

he is very well documented...me,I am more scattered

My first decent grow, how I have evolved over a year, still not their yet though.

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