Its time: First Grow Journal:LST,150 Watt HPS,and Daily Updates(cause I have no life)

WELL guys I am super excited to say that after many months of planning and saving, I have everything I need to start my first Grow. My setup is in my single apartment and I have to say that I have worked pretty hard to keep it stealth.

CONSTRUCTION: I started by heading to Goodwill and picking up a used cabinet/entertainment system for 50 bucks even. Drove it home half hanging out of the back of my RSX type S and put it in my bed room. I then lined the walls with styrofoam and screws with washers. This provides decent light reflection and helps to lightproof the cabinet. I then had buy a bunch of deadlock bolt sets so I could get those circular hooks to attach the inline fan and light to the ceiling. SO I cut some holes for the circ ceiling hooks in the styrofoam and attached everything to the ceiling. (WAYY easier said than done with only a drill) The inline fan is on bungee cords to cut down on vibration noise and the fan is on chains with emergency/removing bungee cords. The cords on the light help when taking the light off to readjust the height and they could help prevent a disaster if the chain broke. I then had to tackle the light leaks at the doors with some weather stripping and Gorilla glue. This too was a pain in the ass and not a cool part about growing pot. This completed the preliminary construction but I was soon to realize that there was a problem. The inline fan made my room sound like an airplane hanger. So I went ahead and took the liberty and cut a hole in my back wall of my apt (the other side is my living room so its cool.) and am now venting my hot/used air into the crawlspace of my wall. Noise is virtually eliminated and my intake does not recycle air which helped drop temps into the mid 70's which is ideal. I also connected my passive intake to my A/C vent so I am getting super duper fresh, cold air from outside with perfect humidity. Worked out pretty well.

Esposito's Hydro Store: After construction, I began to collect the proper supplies in order to start my grow. I went to my local and super helpful hydro store and purchased two 2.5 gallon pots which I plan to use the entire grow, Fox Farm Ocean Forest with the Fox Farm Nute trio, dolomite lime, a heavy duty timer, a pH scale, thermometer, a mesauring glass, and a small fan for circulation. I highly doubt I have everything I need but I think this will suffice for now.

The Attitude: I then decided to order my beans from the highly acclaimed The Attitude Seedbank. I purchased 5 Big Buddha- Cheese Feminized seeds which came with 2 free DNA seeds (Sour Cream and LA Woman!). Just as the reviews have stated, it was super fast (got to Florida is seven week days) and was super stealth. Gotta love when a business comes through for ya. Guess you gotta go outside the U.S. to get service like that.

Germination: Today, I began germination. I picked out one Big Buddha seed and my only Sour Cream seed and I put them in a shallow glass of water to soak for three hours. I then took them out and put them into a wet paper towel and put them in the dark where they lay right now.


What do you guys think? How am I doing? Criticism welcome.

Day 2: Just checked my seeds and no sprout yet so they are still chillen in the paper towel. How long does germination usually take you guys?

We have Germination!: Two out of two of the seeds germinated! A little white root came out the bottom of both. Couldn't have been more than a centimeter long so I hope that is good enough to get me going. I had the lights down low as I transported my seeds from the paper towel to the soil. I did my best to keep the light out and to plant the seed with the white root facing down. How important is that? It says to in my book and one seed I got perfectly vertical but one I didn't.

Right now they are sitting in the soil under my 150 watt hps. The light is about 15 inches from the top of the soil because seeds and seedlings require/need very little light in order to focus on rooting correct? I plan to move the light down to 10 or 11 inches once they near the end of their seedling phase. They are also going to be getting 17 hours of light.

How does all of this sound boys and girls?

Sounds great....seeds don't need light but the warmth would do them good... seedlings would be best served using flo or cfl's 5100-6500 kelvins , but they can work with the 150 just watch the stretching.. how tall the cabinet ...nice job too...subcribed

thanks dude appreciate it. Yeah stretching came to mind so I def plan to lower the light. I also plan to LST the bitches too so that might help. The cabniet is about 5.5 feet tall while the top area is like 3 maybe 3.5 feet

Day 3- Not much happening today guys. Seeds are still in the ground bout a centimeter deep. No Sprout just yet but I know patience is the name of the game. I have been giving the soil where the seeds are some light watering because the soil sits under my 150 watt hps all day and it feels a little dry. I also stuck my finger in the soil and it felt dry i think. Moderate distilled watering is good right now right?

they will pop soon ...whats the temps like ????

I recently germed a seed by using a the paper towel method inside a ziplock. Then set it on my reflector. Came back 3 days later and was golden.

Here she is then and now...

Good luck with your grow

checking in

hey guys! sorry on the absence of post. Had to work a shit ton the past couple of days.

Sprout: My two babies have sprouted!. They are just little white things right now but I am keeping them warm (78-80) and keeping the soil evenly moist. I am using distilled water with <1/8 strength of FFBB. I'll upload pictures once I start to see some green

I'm waiting on my babies to germ at the moment, so we seem to be in the same place for now. Do you think it's too early to use nutrients such as ffbb

the book i have says to use some distilled (0ppm) water and 1/4th BB solution. So I'm using 1/8th. We'll see but they are going steady right now

Sprout pics: SO my girls are big enough to actually get on my camera. They look sweet as hell.

Info: The light is about 10 inches away. They have been on a 24 hour light schedule for about 2 days and will be on for the rest of tonight. I plan to start giving them 19/5 tomorrow and eventually bring it down to 18/6 for veg. Temperatures are around 80 degrees at the soil. Keeping evenly moist with distilled water.

How am I doing? On the right track?

forgot the pics

Week 1 Update: Well its officially been a week now guys and I have gotten to meet to beautiful ladies named Meaghan(right) and Kate(left). I felt they were stretching a bit and maybe a little overwatered so I lowered the light a couple of inches and cut down on the water.

I have a feeling I am going to need more light. I will be heading up to Home Depot Thursday to get a Y joint CFL ballast I can plug in and prob load it up with one or two 20 watt warm white CFLs. I know warm white is better for flowering, but I want my CFLs to give off the same, warm color light my hps gives up so it doesn't confuse the plant. Here are some pic...

hey guy it would be best to get the spectrum of light used for veg. (5300-6500 kelvins). That would help stop the stretching. The plant has zero chance of being confused..lol.... in fact the combination of both spectrums of light would greatly help your baby...when veg use more of the blue spectrum 5300-6500...when flower bust out that hps...if you had just two 42w cfl per plant you could veg with just that...then when you ready to flower add in the hps..hell you could even use just one 42 w per plant for veg just keep it close as you can 2-4 inches, but two would make it grow faster just thinking about heat issues...

i like your thinking. I have a test today so tomorrow I will be heading up to Home Depot to get the supplies to put a 42 watt CFL in there. More pictures to come

LOWNskater52 said:

i like your thinking. I have a test today so tomorrow I will be heading up to Home Depot to get the supplies to put a 42 watt CFL in there. More pictures to come

Click to expand...

yeah just get one 42cfl per plant. Home depot has some cheap shop lights w/ refector...looks like this http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-F...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 ... get two of them add the 42w cfl's and your babies good for veg..

what's the hole in the wall for