First time grower, and poster.

Hello everyone,

My name is Jake, im canadian and im a first time grower. I have done a fairly good amount of reading and it seems that everyone has a slightly different opinion on how growing should be done, so im taking all of that into consideration and apply it to my situation, budget and enthusiam.

I have decided to use a closet in my spare bedroom due to its lack of use, light sealed and an alright size for a small grow (3' x 5' x 5.5') approx.

My germination stage is complete, i soaked the seeds in a moist paper towel until the white root appeared, now i have planted my 11 seeds in 3'' and 5'' pots approx. (couldnt find enough in one size). this was also done over a three day period due to lack of decision, and resources. I used potting soil from a bag, seems like it should be suitable for growth.

One has already sprouted and is about 2.5'' tall. Two more i can see just coming out of the dirt, i am expecting to see more about six more by the end of tomorrows light cycle. Which by the way i have decided to run 18-6 on-off respectively. I read 18-6 helps produce females?? anyone know if this is true at all or is it dependant on type of strain?.

So with eight of my babies i put nutrient grow sticks in the dirt. I saw them at the store, and gardening supplies are limited in my town especially in september. So i bought a few differnt N-P-K and i also bought a water soluble nute (20-20-20) but im not sure if thats going to be good to use?? any help here is appreciated. ANYWAYS i ended up using the Jobes plant food spikes 13-4-5 because i read that higher Nitrogen during seedling and vege stage was recommended. I also bought 10-10-4 and 6-18-6. Will those be useful? The last three seeds i put in with no nutes.

Now lighting ive been having trouble with. Im still wrapping my head around all the Lumens and Kalvins and what not. I ran out and bought these LED lights but quickly realized that was a waste, theyre 4w with 57 LEDS on each of the pair and in the 3500k range. Maybe i can use them as supplemental lights? I bought a shop light with t8 bulbs coolwhite 4200k 2800lumens 75CRI, and after a little research on them i have discovered that 1 unit (2 bulbs) will not be enough for 11 plants. So for my vege stage i will need to buy 2-3 more units at least?? Then i want to concentrate on getting an HPS for flowering.

I have not put a fan in yet but i will soon, for now opening the doors will suffice.

Anyways like i said first time grower so i am very excited to see what i can do, and what i can learn and what will happen. I took some pictures and plan on updating as it happens! Heres the few i took guys. and all feedback is appreciated im here to learn as much as i can so i can treat my babies the way they need.

light cycle doesnt influence sex. i'd focus on getting an hps now if at all possible. assuming you get around the normal 50/50 ratio male to female we'll assume you'll end up with 5-6 females, a 400w hps would be the minimum, a 600w hps would be better. One important thing is to make sure you get a high output blue spectrum added hps bulb, it is the best option to use for both veg and flower, outperforming any lighting other than the sun in both stages. the food spikes might cause nutrient burn problems, i'd maybe use them with a few but for the majority no. Your correct that something high in n and lower in p and k is good for veg while lower n levels and higher p and k is best for flower.but dont be afraid to give a few veg nutrient feedings in flower to keep the fan leaves alive and healthy as long as possible.

Thanks for the information darkdestruction. i talked to a guy from work who says he should have an old hps bulb, housing and ballast for me so i may be able to get that setup for a good price, im hoping like 50$ and some finished product. not sure on the specs of the bulb but at least its a start. As for the nutrients i already have the grow sticks in the dirt on 8 eight of them, so im going to let it ride and closely monitor for unhealthy characteristics.

Yesterday I predicted id be able to see another 6 or so sprouts by the end of todays light cycle. We are about 5 hours in and it looks like i was correct, im very excited to see what happens by the end of this cycle but i will wait until then to snap a few more shots!

On another note; I'm sure this has been discussed on here before but, classical music. I downloaded 100 top classical songs and burned a few to a disc, im going to set up in the spare room. I figured it cant hurt anything, but does anyone know if there is any truth to this? or is it just a myth?

So i snapped a few shots of the new seedlings, i think its neat you can see the seed split and fall off as it comes out of the ground.

While i was in there i put some heavy plastic down on the floor to protect the carpet. Ive been reading that i should i keep my humidity higher during this stage (say 70%). my humidity has be fluxing from 43% to 57% without me spraying the closet. Since i have no real control of humidity right now ive put a bowl of water in the closet and also i hung a damp towel in there to help increase the wetness, so i will monitor the changes this makes.

The more ive read about nutes the more worried im getting that i should not have put my food spikes in yet. Im still going to wait to see signs from the plants but im going to have to be prepared to pull out spikes.

Ill find out tomorrow if im getting the HID setup but if I dont get it im absolutely going to have to get some more t8s over these babies. 2 more units for sure. Worst case by the time its flowering point i will be able to afford a HPS setup. It seems like i should just go for the 1000w since its not awhole lot more exspenive. Any thoughts on this?

hey, welcome to RIU.

a tip i picked up along the way for humidity: get a bucket, fill it with tap water, leave it near the plants. the heat from the lamps will evaporate some of the water, raising the humidity, and after a day or 2, the tap water is fine to use on the plants cuz the chlorine and other chemicals evaporated off too.

Im pretty familiar with hydro, and doing dirt for the first real time myself, from what i understand tho, dont use those sticks, mix the nutes with the water, and start weak. 1/4th strength the first time, 1/2 strength the 2nd, then 3/4th, then full strength. now i also hear people saying if the soil is good, dont use any chems or fertilizers or anything til you well into flowering.

My advice, read a bunch, start a journal, write shit down, and take lots of pics. my first grow had some issues, but with the help of people on here, it worked out better than ever expected. im 2 weeks into grow 2, and im already on here every few hours soaking up more info.

Good luck!

The thing with music is it causes vibrations in the air, which would work sort of like a fan.I would think heavy bass heavy metal or heavy bass rap would work better. Personally i'd just stick with the fan.

Well my plants seem to be doing well, i noticed one rooted funny, im not sure if its because i didnt bury it deep enough, or it went in upside down i dunno, but today i found the little guy tipped over, i did my best to stand him back up and get some more dirt around him. i will have to continue monitoring it.

I also see the catolydes (i forget exactly what they're called/spelling of it) the one has a split down the middle of it on another one of my babies im uploading some pics so you can see, im not sure if its neccessarily unhealthy? maybe just a characteristic? is it common? uncommon?

Otherwise everything seems to be going alright. I need to get down to the store and get some more t8s for now because i dont see me getting an HID right away.

Loving the feedback guys, i need all the advice and critique available!

Those pics above from yesterday, these ones are from today. you can see the split better. Also dont you love the pic of the seed about to fall of!??! i think its just fuckin beautiful!

glad your enjoying your first grow the first one is so exciting, and gets even better at flower, unfortunately the t8s are stretching your girls. if you dont want a tall lanky plant your going to need to get something better fast, ive read that people will bury the stem deeper so basically add more soil around the stem so the initial stretch wont affect your seedling as much the t8s need to be a maximum of 3 inches away from your plants and that should minimize the stretch.

Alright thanks for the heads up, i just went and lowered my lights. Im going to add more soil aswell i think thats probably the best thing to do, seems reasonable.

they look fine. like he said keep the lights as close as possible w/o burning them. do you have a fan blowing air on the plants yet?

So as we enter the second week of in the dirt, my plants seem to look healthy. I went to get some more lights today but HH was closed so tomorrow ill get there for sure. I can afford to get another 4 t8s on there for a total of 6, i can get creative with some haywire and what not and get the lights/reflectors to arch around pots. I think that should hold me over until i can get an HID. Ive been looking all over the place for bigger lights and it looks like ill be able to find a nice grow kit for around 200$ including socket, air cooled parabolic hood, 1000w digital ballast with 600w 400w dimmer good for MH and HPS, A bulb, ratcheting hangers and all the cords/hardware. That seems to be a reasonable price but i cant afford it right at this moment so it will have to wait.

I still havent got a fan on there, i know i should already have it on there. Tomorrow im going to look into 120 to 12v transformers because i do have a 12v fan that would be perfect.

Plan is to have this all ready after work tomorrow and then ill have all weekend to watch my babies grow!!! I might snap a few more shots tonight, my biggest one is pushing out its second pair of leaves and the first pair is a fair size so exciting to see that!! I will defs take some pics of the added lights and fan tomorrow night!

sounds good for now if thats all you can afford at the moment. if you need any help dont be afraid to ask.

Just a bit of an update;

Plants are ok, i let them dry out pretty good and pulled them from dirt and buried them deeper. I read a really good thread on how to do this in the newbie section so i gave it a shot. I did most of them, and i did a fairly ok job i think, i did hear a few tiny little ripping sounds when i pulled them out, but i was as gentle as i could be. Anyways that shortened them up considerably and now with the added lights i might be able to recover from the stretch.

With the extra 4 bulbs overhead my temps have jumped anywhere from 4-8 degrees C. so im ranging from 22-33 i hope its not to hot, i really need to get a fan on them i know!! also with the temp increase i have had a big humidity decrease, im looking at like 24-35%. i keep re wetting a towel and still have a bowl of water in there. spraying the spare room and closet along with the towel seem to bring the humidity of for awhile.

I got some history on my seeds and theyre defs from hermie plants. the weed was seedy and didnt look potent, but it was an alright stone. so i have decided this grow to do some experimenting, starting with lst on a 2 of them. im not sure if its to early or the stems are to long but we will see what happens. Have not seen any adverse effects from the nutes yet so maybe in the clear on that. i took a few snaps but havent uploaded them, so ill probs take a few more tomorrow to show my anti stem plan ahaha and load em up for everybody to look at.

Thanks for the support guys!

do you know if it was a self pollinated hermie? or was their just a hermie in the room with the plant that made the seeds you have? it's hard to tell w/o pics if its too early for lst, but i would say wait till you see 4 or 5 nodes and then bend them gently so they are pretty much sideways and tie them. how hot is your temp in farenheit? humidity of 25-35% should be fine. no need to stress over it.

Alright so i took a couple pics, the first ones were before i replanted, theyre blurry but it shows the stem. I got them as deep as i could but a little more dirt wouldnt hurt probably. Probably shouldnt have lst the two i did lol but i got drunk and was in there messin around tied er down. See what happens.

I am now in possesion also of a 250W MH socket, ballast, hookups and 2 bulbs. Plug and play. Problem is i dont have a reflector and even if i did the t8 reflectors are in the way. On top of that i dont dare turn that thing on in there with no fan. As you can see by the pics the ballast looks old. Thats cause it is hahah. Old guy from work used to grow so he dug it up for me finally.

So should i get a reflector and get the mh set up and then build a stand or hang the t8s sideways so they are like side lighting?? would that be a waste? I think i might just start leaving the closet doors open. The spare room will still be light sealed between 12am 6am, its that time of year where its naturally dark anyways. Friday is payday and some sort of fan or fans will be purchased!!

Snapped a few pics of the temp in F. hopefully leaving the door open all day will take care of that.

Picture 8 looks like a sad plant also one of them i dont think has a future its seed started pushing out of the ground but didnt make it out fully. I noticed some gnats flying around so i picked some sticky roll shit, caught a couple so far.

Otherwise they look nice and green and healthy i think?

p.s a few males got mixed in the grow and a bunch came out seedy so. thats where the seeds are from.

watch for heat stress, with good airflow my plants can take up to around 95f before i start to see any problems. the t8 for sidelighting sounds fine. yeah, you are going to need those fans before you start using the mh. pic 8 doesnt look that bad to me, but it could just be im not seeing it from the right angle. oh no, fungus gnats fucking suck. make sure you are letting the soil dry before watering, it makes it harder for the offspring to survive, some people will go and add an inch of sand to the top of the pot to help with that since they will lay their eggs in the sand which quickly dries out and kills the larvae.

welcome to RollItUP and good luck with your grow

the plants you burried look much better, unfortunately the ones you havent yet look very spindly and like they will soon be too weak to support thier own weight, stretch is one thing but the stretch without a fan is really hurting your girls go and get the cheapest fan you can find for now atleast, they really dont need much just a little breeze. being a stoner i wrote out this reply 4 times every time forgetting i was looking at your picture and wiping my post lol.

Hey guys just a bit of an update. Its day 22 since ive planted my little friends in the dirt. I just took these pics today. The first few are ones of my plants that have started yellowing on the tip of the biggest set of leaves. All of the cotyledons have turned 60-100% yellow. I took a them off some of the plants because they were totally dead and dry.

Also one of the plants has shriveled up leaves but only on the first set the other ones look normal. weird i dunno? any ideas on this?

So im pretty sure its not overwatering because i dont water often, i always dig my finger way down in the pot to make sure its dry before i water. the plant with yellowing leaves also was one of the ones i started with nute sticks, and the light is about an inch and half away from the plant.

anyways any help would be appreciated on these problems. otherwise i think everything is going ok!!