First Grow - Need Advice - Images Included

I have no affiliations with this guy,but youtube hygrohybrid. Out of everyone i watched and learned tips from. He's the guru if you ask me. he does mostly dwc, but he talks about it all. and he has a vid on everything just about. nutes, techniques,mediums,deficiencies, everything. I would say, tell him i sent you. but he dont know my new growin ass.lol

Stylez C said:

Effin NICE! i cant wait till i can take some flower pics. the plant in my signature pic is in flower. its only been about a week. how long does it take to show sex??

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Hey bro, you'll see sex within 1-2 weeks after the switch to 12/12. Took my plant like 13 days to show sex, but it's dependent on the strain also.

Hey maphyr.. the pics look like they are coming along great.. got a couple more questions about the cmh 400. How far would you keep it away from the plants
. And with 40,000 linens you think 4 smaller scroged plants would do good? Also does that run with a magnetic ballast. I don't know much about setting it up.. would the ballast have to be for a hps bulb or mh because there's a difference there right? The last thing I need is to spend all that money and it doesn't set up correct. If you can help me out with all those questions lol thank you.. and what's the. Deal with the Retro white also..?

DKellner47 said:

Hey maphyr.. the pics look like they are coming along great.. got a couple more questions about the cmh 400. How far would you keep it away from the plants
. And with 40,000 linens you think 4 smaller scroged plants would do good? Also does that run with a magnetic ballast. I don't know much about setting it up.. would the ballast have to be for a hps bulb or mh because there's a difference there right? The last thing I need is to spend all that money and it doesn't set up correct. If you can help me out with all those questions lol thank you.. and what's the. Deal with the Retro white also..?

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How far would it keep it away from the plants? I think that depends on the grow area. I've seen grows where the bulb is 6inches above the canopy but the bulb was air cooled with a fan. You'll just have to see what works for you, closer the better but you don't want to burn so find the optimal position.

I'm not sure if 1 bulb will be enough for 4 plants, I'd personally run at least 2 bulbs if I was doing 4 plants. I'd research more into that though. I know lumens don't mean a fuck to a plant, lumens is what humans see. The spectrum is what the plant cares about and that's why these MasterColor bulbs from Phillips are so popular, their spectrum is very good.

CMH runs on magnetic ballast. I think there's a few digital ballast out there now that will run CMH, but they are expensive. I'll just get a 400w magnetic ballast for $120, although I'd prefer a digital ballast due to it being quieter, cooler, more energy efficient and I've read digital ballast can prolong bulb life and quality of the light. If you find a cheap digital ballast that runs CMH, let me know! I'm buying my ballast here in a couple days.

Yes, you want a HPS magnetic ballast or a switchable one will work also, just make sure it's on HPS setting.

Retro white has something to do with Phillips making these bulbs to replace old warehouse lights and needed the same socket as the old bulbs to replace. I think the new all-starts have a different socket? Not really sure about all that.

I got my 400w MasterColor today and it has a February 26th manufacture date on it. So it seems they haven't hit the March stockpile yet? Probably quite a few of those bulbs left.

Good luck, DK.

They're discontinuing the master color 400s soon right? Isn't that what they talk about on top of the main page? If so that really sucks if they seem to be the best unless there's other bulbs out there I don't know yet. Ill probably just do two plants then. Moneys tight so im just going to get one piece of this masterpiece at a time lol and just keep learning for the time being. Hopefully I get to see how ur cmh grow goes once u do it!

I found a digital ballast that works with CMH. but it's expensive. GE UltraMax, GE-MH-250-400-MA.

$260 - Can't afford that right now, so I'm just going to go with a $120 magnetic HPS. Eventually, I'll get a digital ballast.

Make sure when you buy your ballast it's ANSI code is proper. No idea what it all means, but I'm guessing it's a good thing if the numbers match up.

How do I know if the ansi codes match up? Will they be the same? That ballast is from GE, which I thought u said sucks cause they break a lot...? Or is that just bulbs. Can you put a picture up of the cmh in the reflector?

DKellner47 said:

How do I know if the ansi codes match up? Will they be the same? That ballast is from GE, which I thought u said sucks cause they break a lot...? Or is that just bulbs.

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ANSI code is listed on both bulb and ballast.

The GE bulb that comes with the HTG CMH package is no good, not because it breaks but because of the spectrum.

Thanks for all the info. Can't explain how much you helped with decisions. Hope you didn't mind talking about all this. Can you put a pic up of the cmh in the reflector. I also believe I'd want an open reflector seeing as they don't burn as hot as other hid bulbs

DKellner47 said:

Thanks for all the info. Can't explain how much you helped with decisions. Hope you didn't mind talking about all this. Can you put a pic up of the cmh in the reflector. I also believe I'd want an open reflector seeing as they don't burn as hot as other hid bulbs

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Glad I could help out, I'm new to this just like you are. Everything I've learned is from a handful of very helpful people and hours of just sitting here reading shit.

I can't give ya a picture yet because I haven't ordered yet. I plan on Friday, ordering everything -- still getting my list together for soil.

dude, just want to say your shit is looking awesome. I'm in the same position as you right now, starting my first grow from bagseed. I'm about a week into flower with 2 ladies on my hands. started in MG garden soil and pretty much DIY'd everything. I spent about $250 and your plant looks a crapton better than mine do. I posted a thread yesterday with pics if you're interested in seeing how much worse it could've gone lol.

ii dP ii said:

dude, just want to say your shit is looking awesome. I'm in the same position as you right now, starting my first grow from bagseed. I'm about a week into flower with 2 ladies on my hands. started in MG garden soil and pretty much DIY'd everything. I spent about $250 and your plant looks a crapton better than mine do. I posted a thread yesterday with pics if you're interested in seeing how much worse it could've gone lol.

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Thanks man. I'll be glad with this grow is over with so I can move on to the next. I probably spent around.. $100 - $150 on this grow - but the next grow I'm in to it at least $500 right now.

Day 43 Flower

Every damn fan leaf on this plant is yellow and dieing, been like this for a solid week now. Don't know wtf, honestly I gave up playing doctor with a damn plant. I'm guessing it has a week or so left before I chop it. I've been looking at trichs and most appear to still be clear, there's a few amber tho. She smells fucking great, I want to smoke her hah.

Just waitin for the next grow, I've learned alot from this plant. Next grow will be much better, I'll know what strain I'm working with, better light, better soil, bigger pot, etc.

So yeah. It's a hermie man. Just noticed a seed. Then I noticed another, and then another....

Fucking seeds everywhere in this god damn plant!

Your doing great man its like getting your drivers license. you get your permit and practice practice practice. Since its no cost start up your not losing much money maybe electricity. mylar blankets are 4 bucks for 4 you can use them they work well. Listing mainly trains the plant to grow directional. After you list they will turn up toward the light again. I circle list around the pot when i use a grow box. If you snap a limb it will repair itself no worries. List in veg net in flower is what I was taught maybe its old school who knows. I wouldn't concern yourself with auto and ruderalis they all produce viable dank if tlc is used.

still smokeable no?

syrianweedman said:

still smokeable no?

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I'm not sure man.. like every calyx has a seed in it. I'm not even sure they are called calyx?

It's ALOT of seeds man, it's crazy. I thought they were swollen calyx but nah, there's a seed in every one of those things.

I'm super bummed about it, I'm not sure how it happened. I got the seed for a bag of some good smoke, so I guess the bag I had was a hermie? So this seed had more chance to go hermie? I don't know how that all works.

Maybe it was stress? I know I prolly stressed this plant alot.

At this point, I'm not really sure what I should do... cut it and say fuck it? or let it keep growing? It's only got a week to go or so, havent looked at trichs in about a week. It's on day 46 of flower.

I would suggest that the source of your bagseed was a hermie plant, and therefore original hermie plant passes on its hermie genetics to every seed it drops.

I've burned plants, snapped branches, over and under fed, let a few light leaks into the grow environment, and have never had a plant produce more than a dozen seeds. I sincerely doubt the seed issue you're facing has anything to do with your growing technique. I really think it must've been a hermie seed to begin with. Super unlucky, man.

All that said, from your pics, it still looks as though there are plenty of smokeable flowers. They might be laden with seeds, which is a shame because the plant concentrates some of its energy on seed production rather than thc production, but it can still be smoked.

I would definitely let it keep growing and harvest it normally. It would be a total loss for you to harvest now. If you can, invest in feminized seeds from a reputable seed bank for your next run.

SunnyJim said:

I would suggest that the source of your bagseed was a hermie plant, and therefore original hermie plant passes on its hermie genetics to every seed it drops.

I've burned plants, snapped branches, over and under fed, let a few light leaks into the grow environment, and have never had a plant produce more than a dozen seeds. I sincerely doubt the seed issue you're facing has anything to do with your growing technique. I really think it must've been a hermie seed to begin with. Super unlucky, man.

All that said, from your pics, it still looks as though there are plenty of smokeable flowers. They might be laden with seeds, which is a shame because the plant concentrates some of its energy on seed production rather than thc production, but it can still be smoked.

I would definitely let it keep growing and harvest it normally. It would be a total loss for you to harvest now. If you can, invest in feminized seeds from a reputable seed bank for your next run.

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Yea, I think I'm going to grow some of Sannies seeds next run. Looking at Shackzilla specifically and waiting for Sugar Punch to come back in stock. I've read alot of good things about Sannie. I wanted to try TGA but they're all regular seeds, since I'm only growing 1 plant at a time it would be a huge waste of time if I ended up with a male. I don't really wanna go thru Attitude with all the reports of seizures lately.

I just took a good look at my current plant and there's so many seeds it's ridiculous, like every single calyx? has a seed popping out of it. I've kinda neglected the plant since I found all these seeds, kinda sucked the fun right out of all this lol. Thinkin bout just chopping within next couple of days, I looked at trichs yesterday and there's quite a few amber and alot of cloudy. I just want to chop and harvest so I can go thru the process and get used to what I'm supposed to do.

I feel you, dude. Finding a bunch of seeds is lame.

If some of the trichs have already turned amber, it's harvest time. I'm certain your next run will be easier - the first one is always tough, and seems to take forever to finish.