Journal of my first real grow (Barney Farms LSD)

Please be a bit patient with me as there are a LOT of pics for this journal.
Quick run down of lights, soil, etc that I am working with.

Lights: 150W HPS, 50W HPS, 26W(x2) CFL, 17W 2ft flouro
Soil: Miracle Gro Moisture Control potting soil
Nutes: Right now only Miracle Gro all purpose being fed at 1/2 strength at the most

In some pics you will see two smaller containers, those have my freebies from 'Tude that I got (White Indica and Northern Lights x Skunk). Those two got germinated about a month after the LSD plant. I will add some more pics later today to show where I have started LSTing the plant as well. And some of the pics towards the end show where I went ahead and FIMMed her as well. And now onto the pics of my first month of starting from seed.....

---Apparently I got some of the pictures out of order, but you all can see pretty decently what I have going on

the miracle grow moisture control is awful for these purposes. i started my first grow with it. because it was so wet all the time (moisture control) i ended up with fungus gnats and all sorts. plain potting soil will do till u transplant, then either make ur own soil mix, plenty guides on here, or buy some a bit more tailor made for the job in hand.

good luck tho

Other than the MG products, this seems like a nice grow. Don't get me wrong, I've seen plenty of successful grows using only MG, you just have to make sure to flush a lot at the end, otherwise your smoke will taste like metal, and the moisture issues that Toaster mentioned too. You also have to be very concious of possible salt build up in the soil, which can severely alter your pH, which then ends up in nute lock-out, deficiencies, etc. I noticed you are using household containers as pots, when you do this, you have to make sure you have holes in the bottom so extra water can run off, otherwise you may run into even more moisture related problems. Best of luck, and please, always feel free to ask questions, but look around and do some research too, because there will be multiple answers to everything, some are wrong, some are right, and some may just not work for your particular grow.

Subbed.

Ya the household containers are only temporary till they move up to their final home. The 5 gal buckets I use have roughly two dozen holes drilled through the bottoms and then sit on some wood in their drip trays so they are lifted out of whatever runs out of them.

Venomhawk said:

Ya the household containers are only temporary till they move up to their final home. The 5 gal buckets I use have roughly two dozen holes drilled through the bottoms and then sit on some wood in their drip trays so they are lifted out of whatever runs out of them.

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Fair enough, keep up the good work. They look like they do well the way your doing it. I have similar containers at home, and was using the small ones for seedlings/clones too. I since just started using party cups, and poke several holes in the bottom and a few along the sides close to the bottom, only because I got paranoid about too much moisture/not enough drainage, and light hitting the roots once they start growing along the walls of the container. That also buys me more time before they get root bound, and makes only one transplant necessary. Just my process, not saying yours is wrong, by any means.

just a side note, if your using any transparent pots always cover the sides with tape or anything to stop direct light hitting the roots

I agree completely on that one, learned it the hard way when I started noticing algae starting to grow in the container the LSD plant was in before it got transplanted into the big bucket. I like using a see through container to gauge my root growth, but at this point I have actually made a couple of carboard slips that fit around the containers so I can block the light, but easily remove it to look at the roots.

Just wanted to add a couple of pics of how shes looking and some that show the different techniques I am trying out.

Venomhawk said:

Just wanted to add a couple of pics of how shes looking and some that show the different techniques I am trying out.

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Theses techniques will increase your yield very nicely, just be gentle, you don't want to stress your plants too much. I would suggest using plain old topping combined with LST or LST combined with SCROG for the best yield, without risk of disease or herming the plant in the long run from continued physical stress. I applaud your willingness to experiment, it's always good to try new things, just try to keep the overall well being of the plant in mind too, is all I'm trying to say.

Ya I wanted to go ahead and try out as many techniques as would work reasonably. I tend to try to do things like this in a fairly analytical manner. And the health of the plant is paramount to me. Being a first timer I am one of those that is in with the plant waaaaay more than I need to, always looking at new growth and how it appears to recover from the different stresses I've put it under. I just want to see what kind of potential I can get out of the plant and myself as a new grower.

Venomhawk said:

Ya I wanted to go ahead and try out as many techniques as would work reasonably. I tend to try to do things like this in a fairly analytical manner. And the health of the plant is paramount to me. Being a first timer I am one of those that is in with the plant waaaaay more than I need to, always looking at new growth and how it appears to recover from the different stresses I've put it under. I just want to see what kind of potential I can get out of the plant and myself as a new grower.

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I always spend a lot of time in the garden, during every stage. I don't care if anyone says its a newbie thing to do or not, haha.

And while I was in spending time with her last night, I am about 98.9% sure that I noticed pistils on one of the nodes. Now is this something that is possible while doing 24hr light? Because I didn't think I would see those until the shift to 12/12

Venomhawk said:

And while I was in spending time with her last night, I am about 98.9% sure that I noticed pistils on one of the nodes. Now is this something that is possible while doing 24hr light? Because I didn't think I would see those until the shift to 12/12

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A plant can start showing preflowers as it gets more physically mature, regardless of your light schedule, full maturity being when nodes start alternating. It won't go into full flowering until 12/12, but you will most likely start seeing more and more preflowers. It's one good way to know your plant is getting ready physically for flowering. You could switch to 12/12 right now if you wanted to.

Just wanted to add a couple pics to show how she's coming along lately. Not getting that tall, but filling out beautifully to my eyes!

Venomhawk said:

Just wanted to add a couple pics to show how she's coming along lately. Not getting that tall, but filling out beautifully to my eyes!
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Well done, sir.