Inherited a plant

Ok, heres the story.

My late downstairs neighbor had a few babies growin in the downstairs apartment. His daughter approached me before throwing them out and asked if i would like one. She said i was a good friend to her father and he had expressed to her that he would like me to have one since i had kept him company for so many hours and keeping him busy instead of letting him sit by himself all the time. So i have a few questions and hopefully i can get some answers.

1.) He had a fluorescent grow light which I also attained and am using, should I look into another light or will this one work?

2.) The plant was on a 12/12 schedule which i heard is normal but I'd like to get a little more height and bushiness to it so I moved it back to an 18/6. Should I keep 12/12 or continue with my hours?

3.) Theres a few leaves that have either been clipped off, or had the tips die, pics will show what im talking about and any information on that would be great.

4.) Also, the dirt was damn near bone dry, so i watered it til water ran out the hole on the bottom. I took care not to over-water it but i wanted to make sure the dirt was good and moist. Any tips on that would be great too. Im pretty sure as long as i don tkeep the water saturated Ill be ok. I believe he said he watered it every 3 days - 16oz of water?

5.) I was wondering if the grow box i have set up will accomodate a plant or is there something else i should do to it?

6.)The plant has the characteristics of a female, its been cloned, and also where the branches come off the stalk, it has a flower/bud there. Upon closer inspection it looks as if it does have white pistils comming out of them. Theyre very fine like a piece of hair and hard to see so im not 100% sure if it truely is female. Any better way to tell if it is or isnt? -crosses fingers for female-

Thats all i can think of for now. I took some pics to show the setup and if theres any other info you guys can think to give me itd be greatly appreciated.


Pic 1 - The setup against the wall, how it will be for majority of the time.
Pic 2 - The inside of the growbox.
Pic 3 - The cut leaves. 1 - 2 - 3
Pic 4 - Box height
Pic 5 - Plant height


EDIT: Also, is being grown in my closet - 65-75 degrees, door open to the bedroom so air movement can flow. I live in the suburbs of a smaller city(like 35-45k people) and my water is well water = no city additives so should i wait the 24 hours or can i just water from the tap(also live on a freshwater lake so the water table is relatively high and good chemical balance from both lake/tap) Ive germinated a few plants and also helped crop some others but never have I been thrown a plant in the middle of the process. Thats where my state of confusion is comming into all of this cause one day I was wishing i had some buds...the next day I have a plant... o,O Thanks in advance for your help

1. yes more light. i think i read somewhere today to use 100w per plant. also the lightshould be closer to the plant...about 2 inches from the top of the plant.

2. im not sure but i think being that since you have little light it would be safe to switch back to 18/6 or even 24 hrs of light because the light isnt enough light to flower with anyway.

3. it looks like someone just tried to get rid of some dead parts on the leaves. not really sure what they were doin.

4. you could probably water every 2 days.

5. the grow box is to small to flower in. the plant is allready 2ft(right?) and the box is 3ft and the plant will double to triple in size during flowering so you'll need more room. but like i said you cant flower untill you get more light.

6. you probably cant tell the sex yet and i cant tell by any of the pics.

i would also suggest getting a fan and find out what the temperature is in that box. also if you can spend some money tear down that foil and put up mylar or paint the box white.

I have a fan, just havent set it up yet. I need to clean out the closet so my wifes clothes dont start smellin like MJ. lord knows shell have my balls in a vice. Got some white paint already and ill get on it asap. As far as the back of the box, should i completely close it off on the back side? Or is it ok to leave the box the way it is?

it would be ok to leave the back open during veg but during flowering (12/12 light cycle) the plant cannot see any light while the lights are off.

the temp should be 75-85 degrees fahrenheit and water mainly depends on the amount of ph it contains. from what i've heard rainwater is best but if its not easily available you can use other water by testing its ph and then balancing it out.

Ok, so i couldnt find any white paint but i found a couple of usps boxes outside my house from when my neighbor moved that are white so i tacked em up inside. Now as far as it being to soon to tell if its male or female i probably shouldve told you that its a 2 month old plant and in my honest opinion in dire straits but i believe its getting better. it grew about a ½" - ¾" yesterday on the 18-6. i just flipped the light on and indeed, its FEMME FATAL! wewt. wewt. Anyway. took some old 120mm pc fans and hooked them to some 12v adapters i had lying around the house for an old cordless phone and they seem to be working fine. the intake fan is adjustable speed which is nice otherwise id be blowin 110-120cfm which might be too much. So, just an update. any way you guys could get this thread moved from here to the journal forum? i plan on keeping up with this to let you guys know how shes doin.

Solo08 said:

from what i've heard rainwater is best but if its not easily available you can use other water by testing its ph and then balancing it out.

Click to expand...

Rainwater is readily available. its been raining here like a mother this summer.

well you cant tell sex untill the plant is flowering so if you actually know what the sex is allready then the 12/12 light cycle put the plant into flowering and you should continue the 12/12 light cycle. get a clear pic of the plants nodes and post it and we can tell you if the plant is able to be sexed yet. by the way...to the pro growers...if any of this info im giving is incorrect please let us know.

ah...so once it begins to show sex from flowering it should be kept on the 12/12 cycle? theyre about ½" long...from what ive seen in the pictures here its definitely female. I tried getting some pictures but for some reason my camera wont do a close up on them...even if i pull back and zoom up. ill try to get one on my cell phone later and see if i can get a clearer one.

yes 12/12 light cycle forces it to flower. those are pretty good pics you found but you have to clearly see pistils. its easy to mistakin the 2 but if you clearly saw pistils it is female and you should put the plant back on a 12/12 light cycle and get some more light as quickly as possible or your plant probably wont produce anything worth keeping. if this is just an experimental plant then i wouldn't worry to much about how the plant turns out but if you plan to continue growing you'll need more light.

yea...on the positive side...heres what happens.

I get to my dads house, walk down to his barn and look up, and to my pleasure i see a 400w HPS...-runs away- so im gonna borrow that for a bit. Im not sure about trying to use it in my closet at the moment cause its a big light...and...its frickin hot. I dont wanna torch the plant. Any ideas? ill read some more in the forums to see if i can find anything about growing with HPS but well see what happens. Thanks for all your info too btw. I appreciate ya taking the time to help a nub grower

EDIT: not sure if its metal halide or HPS but i do know that its definitely a light used to grow...

Hate to ask, but out of curiousity- do you know what happened to the neighbor?

plants can show sex before they're actually flowering. i had a mom that had preflowers for six months before i let her do her thing. she gave up plenty of kiddies before that too.

Well, as far as keepin her as a mother plant for a while ive contemplated it. Doin some reading and i know this one can be cloned cause he pulled 2 off of it before he passed and they rooted nicely in some dirt. But my wife is kinda pissy that i even have this one...talk about makin someone choose between their two loves eh? But well see. its definitely a female, i got pretty little white hairs for sure from several different areas. Got it closer to the light looks liek it grew a little more. its started to spread out. as far as it being in the flower phase it looks like it started already so im not sure what i want/need to do now...

Although i have come across a problem with the lighting. I havent grabbed the light from my dad yet as i havent had the opportunity...like to do it when hes not home so as to avoid the question, 'why do you need it' and ive been having a problem getting light to the lower part of the plant. Ive painted the box white inside, and also put a cardboard box in the back so i can open it and check it as needed without moving it from the wall, put some foil around the bottom of the plant in the pot to grab light from above and reflect it back to the bottom leaves but no luck..grab another light ya think or should i just leave it and get the hps/mh asap?

As far as my neighbor goes, he had a variation of different things wrong with him. Hep C being number one, he couldnt stay away from alcohol or drugs and if you know much about hep c, it kills your liver/kidneys etc. He also had poor circulation from like 17 surgeries on his feet/ankles and i think a blood clot is what got him this time. He had always talked about it happening though he was on blood thinners. His daughter didnt say and i didnt ask at that point, figured it was still a fresh wound.