First Grow Op: Med-Large Closet

After reading a post from another grow journal, I decided to change my light 's photo-period. Here is the journal entry I read. It states to achieve optimal root growth, I should use a 16/8 cycle instead of 18/6. This is especially true for cuttings and new seedlings which both need rapid root growth.

This is a great example of why I love this site. So many people collaberating together to achieve a common goal while sharing lessons learned along the way. Happy 4:20 to all...

During the change of the light cycle on the timers, I noticed my grow cubes were bone dry! I flooded them with water and they are looking great. I didn't notice it before but the T1 has sprouted a second set of leaves and I didn't noticed it before because there is virtually no distance between the nodes! I am confident with this watering I should notice some impressive growth.

I haven' t made a journal entry for a few days. This is because I got a job and I haven't been around to do anything. There is a lot to mention in this post.

Water: Thursday night (2 days ago) I watered the plants. I've been watching the weed videos I have again to observe how much water to water. Being a new person to growing, I am afraid of over watering as that is a common problem with neophytes. I realized there is a really easy and simple way to water just the right amount. Take the volume of the container you are using, say 16 litres for a 4 gallon pot. Divide by 80 (the magical number) and the answer you have is 200ml (about 2/3 of a cup). This is how much water the plants should be given every day until the third week of flowering (when sex appears). After sex appears, watering occurs only once every two days. Since I'm currently using 4" pots, I've determined I only need about 30ml for watering my plants daily. At first, I thought that was way too little; and I was wrong . Coincidentally, the volume of a shot glass is around 30ml . So every morning my plants now get a shot of water.

I've been so busy over the last 48 hours that I haven't watered them only because I wasn't home to do it. When I got home today around 2pm on Saturday, I knew they would be dry but I didn't know HOW dry. The first picture in the attachments is what I saw under the HID.

Death: The first thing I noticed was X2. The soil was completely dry and the seedlings lay dead and dried out. Despite the fact that I lost one, I still am very happy because of all the seedlings, that is the first one I would have wanted to go. The second attachment is a picture of dead seedling. If you recall from my earlier posts, this seedling has been nothing by trouble ever since the leaves got burned. The down side is that this just reinforces my negative attitude towards XXX-420. I'm starting to think that the guys there just wanted to sell it to me for money, not because they thought it would be a good strain.

Germination: Success! All of the seeds that I planted earlier this week have now all sprouted! Check the pictures I've attached.

Afghani: Once again, I must say that Afghani fucking rules! The afghani is kicking the shit out of the competition! I'm so impressed with this strain that I don't give a flying fuck about the XXX-420 anymore. I HIGHLY recommend that you try Afghani if you haven't tried it.

Grow cubes: The seedlings are doing well, you can see fresh leaves and progress is very slow. For the most part, the cubes are dry but there is also a lot of moisture around the seedlings still, so I will not water yet. I've attached a picture of the seedlings, you can see that the growth is nothing like the ones under the HID. I'm glad I learned this, it's such a huge difference and the soilless soil is so much better.

A2 and T2: I'm very proud of these plants. I really hope they are females. The stem on the T2 is a purple colour, and the stem is stronger than it was. I didn't have the fan on these plants over the last two days, instead the seedlings under the T5 FL got it. A2 appears to have a weak stem still and the colour is still the same, mostly green with a little white. My concern is that after I wanter A2, it falls over and leans up against the sign I made for it. I realize this is temporary as the drops of water evaporate quickly. I'm only worried that its hurting the plant by bending over like that. To help the stem, I've added a handfull of soiless soil and packed it down a little bit around the stem. This has added much support.

wow man, everything looks great! keep it up..what site did U get those seeds from?

no site, i went to the store itself... located in toronto, ontario; its called Ontario Seed Bank. Its totally legal to own and sell seeds in ontario.

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks old for the first batch and about a week old for the newer ones. A2 and T2 are really growing now. They are very bushy and growing more and more leaves.

All of the seedlings under the HID are doing amazing! They all are around the same level of growth and have sprouted a solid set of true leaves around the same size as the seed leaves.

The three seedlings in the grow cubes are dying. The leaves are starting to show bright green/yellow on the leaves. The cubes are still moist. I believe it may be that the roots are rotting. If the cubes were not moist, I would have assumed they needed nutrients. I still think nutrients would help... I just can't feed them because they are still wet. These seedlings have been less than satisfactory and therefore I have no issues losing the seedlings. I've learned my lesson to never start seeds off in those things. The soiless soil is so much better! Speaking of nutrients, I will start to water the plants under the HID (including the new seedlings) with a small dose of nutrients to help stimulate root growth.

My friend has asked for his digital camera back so I will not have any pictures for a bit. I'm not sure when I'll get to borrow it again, but if there is anything that happens where I need a picture, I can always just use my webcam.

Today I noticed the plants under the T5FL are hurting. This time the grow cubes are really really dry! After consulting with a gardner, I decided to plant the three grow cubes inside a soiless soil pot. So each of the 3 seedlings are now transplanted into 4" containers and I fed them double what I would normally feed my plants under the HID (about 2 shots, or 60 ml). To find out if the HID heat is causing the problem, I left one on the shelf under the T5 FL and the other two under the HID. I should note that the ones under the HID are the worst and best out of the three. I did this for control reasons. I placed them to the far side away from direct light. This should help them without burning them. The HID is still about 4' away from the plants and I have no need to move it any closer.

A2 and T2: These are just down right amazing now. Each day I am noticing new growth. It seems like a new pair of leaves sprouts every day! I've also noticed the stems are really strong now compared to before when I was concerned. Last night I fed the plants with nutrients and I believe it helped. I also watered them today with the same stuff (leftovers from yesterday).

Batch 2: I am going to refer to the plants under the HID as Batch 2. Specifically the ones that I started on Jan 23, 2007. Check this out, I compared my pics from Day 10 to the Batch 2 (of 7 days growth) AND the pics I have show smaller growth than what I have with Batch 2!!!! This proves that applying my learnings from Batch 1 (the test batch), I have truly devloped an understanding for the growth process and the needs of the plants. I'm very proud to say that this journal has also helped me huge! Mad props to all those who administer and post to rollitup.org!!!

Misting: After watering all the plants, I gave them a very heavy misting. I love doing this because I can't over do it! I know that its good for the plants because it provide follier feeding. Also, it helps reduce the chance of insects and the humidity is no longer a concern. If anyone is concerned about the humidity, simply mist the shit out of the plants and I promise you won't have any issues. You can't over mist them because the HID will dry it out within a couple hours! Also I have a fan blowing on them which helps evaporate it and provides additional circulation for CO2. I have yet to see where too much misting hurts a plant.

Tomorrow I will be heading out to poker right after work and therefore I will not be around to water the plants at the usual time. To help this I plan on misting them before I go to work tomorrow and I feel they should be fine.

Yeah so all is going great! I've got A2 and T2 growing to the point where I am considering a transplant. All of the second batch are solid, showing excellent signs of growth. I've been feeding them the minimum which is about 3ml DNF per litre of water. It's been working out great by watering them once a day using a shot glass; I've now doubled the watering dosage to two shots. After watering each day I mist the plants heavily on both the top and underside.

Today I made my first cutting on the two strongest plants, A2 and T2. I noticed the plant's bottom set of leaves were starting to yellow and droop. I noticed they aren't getting nearly as much light as the top ones, and thus I removed them to concentrate the growth on the top set of leaves. I hope to transplant these into bigger pots by the end of the week. I'm expecting the visible growth to slow as the plants adjusts to the shock of loosing leaves. Perhaps the growth of the roots will continue.

very creative with the shot glass idea..U wanted to see if the HID was drying plants..what did u find? and what did u decide about the HPS light? r u gonna do it? honestly, if they look good with the t5 u might as well flower w/ the MH and maybe a couple warm cfl's..thats only about 15-20 bux..I mean ur practically ready to start budding so i mean if u were waiting "til u cross that bridge" ur about there mis amigo...
-
ps MORE PIX MORE PIX!

I'm considering moving the light closer to the plants since they will probably benefit from the additional light and the heat is not that bad. I'm seriously thinking of buying an oscillating fan when I get my next pay. I also want to buy a hood reflector and a new hygrometer. I'd like to get a digital hygrometer this time, I don't mind spending the extra cash. The reason being is that I strongly disagree with the temperature readings, however I do agree with the humidity readings.

Nutrients: When I was wateirng my plants today I was thinking about the DNF nutrient being added to the water. I noticed significant increase in growth from the last time I watered them and that was because I put a little more nutrient in the water than normal. Then it hit me, I've been feeding them only the minimum for seedlings and clones! I should have double the dosage when the plants reached a veg stage. The funny thing is that I don't know when a plant is no longer a seedling. I am going to go back to the videos to research some more again.

Spittn4cash: First off, thanks for your huge interest in my project! It's flattering to see the questions you're asking because it shows you are showing a genuine interest! Thank you . Now, in response to your questions:

Q: HID drying out the plants?
A: The plants are being dried out every day. I feed them just enough water so that they need water the next day. While I realise I could probably just water more and then I wouldn't have to water it every day. I still like this idea, because I never run the risk of over watering, which is the most common mistake of beginners. Even though they dry out, its all good, they are still showing signs of great growth. I believe the misting is helping huge with the low humdity (betwen 10% and 20%). I LOVE misting, I can't emphasize it enough!

Q: What did u decide about the HPS light?
A: I decided for now to delay purchasing the HPS light. Perhaps until the next crop. The reason being is that I didn't plan ahead for this and it will require some construction. If I'm going to invest in some grow room construction, I want to make sure I plant it out right then do it right. The T5 FL is great for seedlings but I gotta say the MH is producing far better results. Therefore I have decided from now on to only use the T5 FL for clones and the HID will be used for vegging and flowering. I'm going to setup the clones into another room or seperate area (when it comes time to clone). The reason being is that I intend to be flowering with my MH while the clones are rooting under the T5. The two lights will require different light cycles and thus need to be seperated. I also wanted to flower with the MH first since I've never done that before. It will provide me with a good benchmark to go from. Then when I get the HPS I can be that much more amazed at the results .

I hope this answers your questions. Feel free to read some of my past posts because I remember discussing some of the options I had and I've commented on how I've changed my mind.

I want to get more pictures too! Preferably high res as I did before. I am going to contact my friend again to see if I can borrow his camera. I'm really happy that you enjoy my pictures And since you asked for more, I will be much more inclined to take more since it's not just about me

Btw, I'm not too crazy about the CFLs. I'd rather buy another T5 at $50, because I feel it's worth it!

For the age the plants seem really small.Could be lack of light what size light are they under now? And remember less amount of transplants as possible. Each transplant is more unneeded stress and potential hermie times.If it is possible plant in final container to help promote huge root growth. At day 30 my plants from 1 inch clones were at 21 inches tall under 1000 watt mh.

hey i was wondering about misting plants do u know anything about this if so plz tell me how many times a day should i mist my plats and if i mist 2 much will it do any harm ?

FilthyFletch: The plants are really short because they are an indica strain. Also, If you read my journal in the first posts you'll see all the details on my grow light. I'm wanting to move the light closer and I think I will today because its still at 4' away and I believe I can move it to 3' with no issues. Thanks for your comments on transplanting, I really appreciate the knowledge you shared because I had no idea stress was put onto the plant during transplantaion.

animal grower: Misting is great because its really good for the plants and its hard to fuck up. Most of what I know is from direct experience, and some is from videos. What I know is that you can mist the plants as much as you want, there is no maximum. The only exception to this is if the water isn't able to evaporate efficiently due to poor ventilation. Its okay for plants to be drenched, just as long as it doesn't stay that way. Make sure you never mist after the third week of flowering (when the sex starts to appear). You can do it but there is more risk to budrot and fungus. I learned this the hard way by loosing about two 6" colas last year. Typically what I do is mist the soil of the plant so that its all moist, then I mist the underside of the leaves, then I mist the top part of the leaves. Make sure you don't get a drop of water near your (hot) bulb or it will blow. Misting the underside of the leaves will deteur insects and encourage perspiration (breathing). The minimum you should mist is once a day, and the maximum is no limit. I wouldn't advise too much because it is actually healthy for the plant to be dry most of the time (as it is in nature). I love misting because most damage done to a plant is through the roots. Misting doesn't hurt the roots at all, so feel free to soak the shit out of the plants once a day. I would caution you if you water more than once a day to make sure water doesn't sit in one place for a long time or it could harm the leaf. As a bonus I discovered that if you have your plants in an area with really low humidity, and you mist them daily, the humidity is no longer an issue and the plants love it because its like a tropical atmosphere!

Today things are looking better than ever, and I'm not exaggerating. The last update I had was on Thursday, its now Sunday and a lot has happened since. On Friday, I wasn't home to water the plants because I was at a friends house playing poker and ended up crashing the night. Knowing this in advance I watered the plants double of what I usually used on the Thursday.

It turns out that I won poker and therefore I had a little more money to spend on my plants. Saturday, I went out and bought a digital hygrometer and some potting soil (soiless soil, miracle grow actually).

Tranasplanting: I thought it was time for A2 and T2 to be transplanted so I started with A2. First step I took was the break up the soil and water the plant heavily until it was draining out the bottom. The reason you want to soak the plant with water is for two main reasons. First being that it will hold the soil together so when you remove the plastic container, the roots will be held intact by the wet soil. The second being that you want to have consistant and even moisture through out your plant's existing soil and the new soil you'll be added to the new pot. To do this we simply flood the larger pot with water after the transplant is done. When I took A2 and watered it, I removed the plastic container and I was shocked! The roots were not quite root bound, but pretty fucking close! This is great news to know that I was right on my suspicion of needing a transplant. I transplanted A2 into a 2 gallon container, the biggest I have. After transplanting A2 I found that I had very little potting soil left. I stll wanted to get another plant transplanted but I didn't want to put T2 into a 1 gallon container, so I decided to hold of on transplanting T2. Instead I took X3 and transplanted it into the 1 gallon container with the remaining soiless soil I had. I was shocked once again when I discovered the roots were pushing the limits of the 4" pot I had it in. Not only that, but X3 is two weeks younger than A2! Today I look at the plants to check up on the progress and it appears that A2 and X3 have taken well to the transplant and are now showing great signs of rapid growth!

X1, A1 and T1: For those of you who have been following my logs from the beginning, you'll recall I had issues with these ones. Well it turns out after putting them into the soil, they died. Once again, I am not upset at all, if anything I'm very happy. Why am I happy? Well it because now I can focus all my attention on the eight healthy ones I have and I have plenty more seeds if I need to start some more plants.

Positive Vibes: Check this out: Talking to your plants help. I'm not making this shit up, I've discovered this through extensive research (which I am not going to bore you with the details). All plant life in general is sensitive to the atmophereic conditions around it since the plant never moves out of the soil. It's like they have a heightened senses. By always having a positive mood and talking great things to your plants, saying how proud you are of the growth, the impressive results, noticing the smells, texture, anything! Your thoughts, and more importantly, your feelings are communicated to any plants up to 6 feet or more away from you. This is done through brainwave frequencies and other means. Meaning if you live in the same room as your plants (your bedroom), make sure you are always happy and at peace with yourself, especially if you plan on interacting with your plants (for watering, transplanting, etc.). This will drastically reduce the amount of bad things that can happen to the plants. Similarly, the plants will make you happy in return by provided abundances of oxygen and sweet plant smells. It's also a known fact that plants who are under the least amount of stress (verbal, physical or atmosphereic), are more likely to turn into females! And of course any man knows if he treats his women like a queen, he will be treated like a king! Therefore, if you flirt, compliment or even sing to your plants, you will notice a difference in growth and sex! If you don't believe me, then plese keep doing what you are doing. If however, you have plants struggling and you don't know why when you have the ideal atmosphereic conditions, then I suggest you give it a shot. Afterall, what do you have to loose? I know it sounds kinda corny and cheesy, so if you feel uncomfortable about doing this, just do it when nobody is around.

Why it works: The thoughts and feelings you have are communicated through water, yes that's right, water! Think about this, our bodies contain about 80% water, and you feed your plants plenty of water. The air in your room has moisture which is made up of water. It's all around us and its connected and its a conductor! A scientist in Japan made a truly amazing discovery of how water holds our thoughts and feelings. Check out the link

Future plans: I intend to transplant all my plants now that I've seen the growth they've acheived. I'm also going to feed my plants with water only for the next week since I don't want nutrients becoming an added stress through the transplanting phase. I will be transplanting T2 into a 2 gallon container, and the rest into 1 gallon containers.

Okay, so today's story is about light. It turns out that FilthyFletch was correct on stating that my plants look a little small for their age and then followed it up with questions about my light. Well it turns out that I had too much distance on my light. Yesterday I moved the light closer by about 1 foot. Today when I saw the plants, I noticed a difference in A2 (the closest to the center of the light). I checked my digital hygrometer for the Min/Max readings of the temp and humidity. Temp ranged from 19°C to 32°C which is kinda scary. Most plants from what I know, prefer to have a temperature around 25°C and prefer minimal variations of less than 5°. To solve this issue, I decided to move the light closer by another foot and to reduce the exhaust fan time. This will provide more of a constant temperature around the plants. The exhaust fan reduction will increase humidity and reduce the amount the temperature drops when the light is off. The humidity on the hygrometer indicated a range between 20% and 44%. While this is satisfactory, I still want it higher for vegetative growth. The recommendation is about 60% for vegging. To get around this I will mist my plants heavily in the morning before I go to work and mist them again when I get home from work during their daily watering.

Right on mate, keep up the good work

Okay well things as always are going great! Last night I transplanted the rest of the plants into 1 gallon containers. Today they are looking well, especially T2 who has shown tremendous growth since yesterday. The previous transplants A1 and X3 are doing excellent as well. Clearly they have taken well to the new pots and are growing really well.

X3's Big Leaves: Ever since X3 was a seedling, the leaves have been larger than any other plants. This has been even more exhanced after the transplanting into a 2 gallon container. The leaves are so big it blows my mind. I really wish I could have a high res pic for you guys, however my friend didn't loan me his camera. The leaves are so big, you can tell is a PHAT Indica! I only hope the bud is proportionate to the leaves

A2's Growth: A2 is doing the best and ever since it was transplanted about a week ago, I've seen lots of growth vertically. I've also been stripping the leaves which get little to no light at the bottom. I've also removed some leaves which got burned by my follier feeding. I've learned that misting should only be done with water, and no fertilizers!

I've moved the light closer too, its still about 2' away from the tops and with the fan blowing on them, its not hot at all. My digital hygrometer has a min/max feature which I've been using. Each night after watering I reset the device so I know how much variations happened during the last 24 hours. The results are as follows:

Temperature: Min 19°C, Max 30°C
Humidity: Min 10%, Max 65%

Despite the really low humidity, the plants are growing great. The humidity will become an issue when spring comes and pests become a factor. Until then, I'm pleased with them.

Vegging & Flowering Plans: As you will recall, my original plan was to have the plants in a vegging state by week 4 and then veg for a week or two before going into flowering. The reason being is time, however all that has changed now. I'm still in the vegging stage and I intend to keep it like this for at least two weeks. The main reason being that I want to get clones off each plant and right now nobody is ready. A2 is the closest to being ready and I still want another week before thinking about it. Hopefully, I will have clones by the end of two weeks at which time I'll be able to switch the light to flowering and move the clones to another area under the T5 FL. Knowing there is going to be 8 weeks for flowering, I plan on flowering start of March and continue through until the end of April. This is a real drag because my original plan was to have my first crop harvested in time for 4/20. However, based on the learnings I've aquired, and the ability to clone, I don't mind waiting a little longer.

you said that when you mist your plants, you mist the soil. i was doing that and the soil turned into a breeding ground for fungus gnats. you should let the top layer of your soil dry out in between waterings.

Good call...I'll make sure to ease up on the soil. I only misted the soil because the soil does get very dry under the HID

Well, I've learned a valuable lesson It turns out that misting the plants excessively will lead to stunted growth and takes away nitrogen. This is why my plants have been so short. I've decided to stop misting for now to see what the results are. The benefit of the stunted growth is that all the engery has gone into strengthing the stem...hell, it's a fucking trunk! Overall though, I gotta say I'm still impressed with how strong the plants are.