My First Grow!!

This is my first grow and i would defiantly like to hear what you have to say, feel free to leave a message. I stated by doin lots of research on riu to figure out how to do this and make it work. let me tell you, there is an abundance of knowledge on hear, i love it. Im pretty sure my girl hates it tho cause now all i do is chill on here haha!

Aight so i guess i start out by tellin you about the grow room. its about 5'x3'x5' and its kinda a cross between an attic and a closet, ut i think its perfect. I ran power to the room by turning an outlet in the wall around and started from there, i insulated all the walls and then covered them in cardboard. After readin a lil more on riu i found out white was the best color so i just covered the wall in posterboard. i put some white acrylic down on the floor to help with reflection. I just mounted the fan to the wall and there is a heater right under it, i left an opening in the insulation behind the so that in can pull fresh air in from a vent in the wall, as for my power strip i put in on the wall next to the door away from all water and shit. I just ran a nylon cord thru some eyelets on the ceiling for easy adjustment. As for the light, when its time to flower i will have around 14 CFls, 4-42w 2700k, and 10-27w 2700k. for the veg i have 10-27w 5000k and plan slowly adding the the other 4 lights as i need too. Got some pics too!!

looks good so far, what soil/medium and nutes u running?

wowisuckatthis said:

looks good so far, what soil/medium and nutes u running?

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I just grabbed some cheep organic shit from lowes, its called jungle growth, Not so jungle like, lol. as for the nutes, its the general hydroponics flora series, a buddy told me that it will work for soil, is that accurate?

Oreo111 said:

I just grabbed some cheep organic shit from lowes, its called jungle growth, Not so jungle like, lol. as for the nutes, its the general hydroponics flora series, a buddy told me that it will work for soil, is that accurate?

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i think they have separate lines for soil and for hydro systems. im not sure what the differences are. i use fox farm so not real familar with gh. as long as the soil is nice and airy and drains well it should be ok. if the container bottoms get swampy on you mix in some extra perlite, its cheap and it does just about any soil good.

So i germed the seeds in a papertowel till they cracked, then i poped em in some jiffy pods on and stuck them in the corner for about 3 days. After they sprouted im moved them into the room and put a lil on them. The next day i put them in clear solo cups, i gave them a nice drink and put them under 24/0. i left them alone for the next 4 days, i checked the soil everyday and it was nice and moist but not to wet. I read on here to use clear cups so you can see how the roots are doin. Thats a great tip. i could see the roots all at the bottom of the cup so i figured it would be best to put them in their pots.

Once i transplanted i gave the plants one 8th the recommended dose of nutes per gallon and then split that gallon between the 9 seedlings. I gave them a good amount of water and i think it helped. the temp was kinda high in the room and the soil was a lil dried out after 2 days so i gave them just some regular water. and they have really started to grow.

They are about nine days old now. i got the Buds For less book (http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Buds-Less-Grow-Than/dp/0932551874)
and it says that i should switch my light to 12/12 at 14 days since i am using CFLs. i was thinkin of adding some lamps around the sides of the plants for secondary lighting.

looking good man, i wouldnt flip the light cycle so early, give em atleast 3 weeks before fliping. or wait till they are about a third the hieght you want them to grow to.

Oreo111 said:

i should switch my light to 12/12 at 14 days since i am using CFLs. i was thinkin of adding some lamps around the sides of the plants for secondary lighting.

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Definitely add some secondary lighting, with CFL's you can never have to much! I agree with "wowisuckatthis" too, it looks a little early to switch to 12/12

wowisuckatthis said:

looking good man, i wouldnt flip the light cycle so early, give em atleast 3 weeks before fliping. or wait till they are about a third the hieght you want them to grow to.

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Yea, thats what i was thinkin. i thought they seemed a lil small, i was already plannin on waitin, i have 2 the germed a lil later than the rest and i put them in a seperate cabinet with 12/12 lights just to see what happened. they are about an inch tall and its only been a couple days. ill post some pics later tonight.

ColoradoLove said:

Definitely add some secondary lighting, with CFL's you can never have to much! I agree with "wowisuckatthis" too, it looks a little early to switch to 12/12

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Yea, i have 10 daylight cfls on it now and i have 8 more to add as the plants get a lil taller. my only worry is the height cause my room is only like 3 feet tall. i was tinkin i would lst them. i have been readin alot about it and it seems pretty easy, so i think ill try on 1 or 2 and see how they do.

Technically speaking it takes about a month for a plant to reach "maturity". Basically, Before that it wont even start to flower it will just stretch like a midget kid that wants to be taller. So even if you do switch its just a waste of time and space really. As for CFL's, There really only good a couple inches from the plant and in a place that big your going to need a boat load of big CFL's or a 250W hps or MH. Youd save money and time going with a HID lamp anyway because CFLs loose lumens as they age (a LOT more than HID's do) for example...Ummm italic wont cut off sorry. Anyway, A hps losses aprox 10% of it lumens before it dies, a MH will loose up to 50% and CFls by the time they die are basically useless. Still, Il be watching, Scribed.

Oh one last thing: 6500K is the best CFL wise for veg.

newport78 said:

Youd save money and time going with a HID lamp

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Yea i was thinkin of switchin to and hps for flowering i found one that i can afford online at htg supply, i was thinkin about goin with a 150w, should i be lookin for more than that of would it be enough?
http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=53025

Im using the htgsupply 150W right now. Good company, But I would use a 250W if you can afford it on that size of a room, If you REALLY wanted to kill it go with a 400W HPS/MH conversion.

Aight, so im right at 13 days old, i just gave them a lil water as they looked thirsty, and a couple looked kinda droopy, anyways its been 4 days since i last watered them because i think i was over watering, to be fair the temp was a lil higher in the room and my soil was dryin out faster. i think i got it figured out no tho. my temp has settled right around 75, and the soil is lookin a lot better. the light are still 24/0 and they are about 2-3 inches above the plants.

Ok so i was tryin to post some pics but somethings wrong, i see what i can do and hopefully have them up later

newport78 said:

Im using the htgsupply 150W right now. Good company, But I would use a 250W if you can afford it on that size of a room, If you REALLY wanted to kill it go with a 400W HPS/MH conversion.

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Yea i was thinkin about that because its a great price, plus i would have the power to expand if i wanted.

Id go with the 250W minimum to start though. Especially if you dont want to have to upgrade for awhile. The 150 will work but it wont be but half the crop is going to be fucked on light, So youd need a light mover, Or, Have to manually move the light every 30 minutes.

Aight well its been a few days since i have posted, i have been doin some rebuilding.

I was in a closet with some cfls and no good ventilation, plus i was using some cheep soil i got from lowes. I just thought it was gonna be easy lol.

anyways on with it, so i looked up the local hydro shop in my area and rode down to look around and shit. I was like a kid in a candy store. so i checked out some grow tents and lights and shit and how they did it all and i designed my own!

the tent is 26"deep x 4'tallx3'wide.
i built it out of 1/2" pvc and wrapped it in panda film. It has a white acrylic floor and open air top. i have a fan on top blowing down, and 2 supports that run across the top to hang my light....Ahhhh the light, So i found a 400w hps on ebay and grabbed it up, i believe you can run a mh on it also but am not sure and dont wanna know wat happens. i have a 4" duct hangin from my reflector and an inline fan pullin outside air in. I have already been using genhydro flora series so i figured i would keep that and i got some fox farm ocean forest soil and some happy frog jump start fert.

i put them in the pot as soon as i got home and stuck them under the hps. i gave them a good watering and man over the last couple day they have just started lookin good, to me at least... i mean they are small for a month old but i think it was b/c they were rootbound and needed more light. so i fie the problems and i can tell a diff like night and day. i have just kinda been adding as i go, i was havin trouble gettin the temp lower so i decided to get some sugar and yeast and make some c02. thats what i did today and i hope it helps out. the plants were under 24/0 w/ the CFLs and i left em on 24/0 for 3 days after i transplanted on friday and then i put them on 18/6 to see if shorting the hours of like will maybe make them grow faster or bigger...i got one of the 5 gallon water jugs and just fill it up at publix, it cost like a buck or 2 so it strait, have a 18" bubble curtain in my 18 gal steralite container that i keep my feeding water in

Anyways thats all i can think of for now i have so pics too! let me know what ya think!!!

https://www.rollitup.org/members/oreo111-210572/albums/first-pt-1-11402/

https://www.rollitup.org/members/oreo111-210572/albums/first-pt-2-11338/

https://www.rollitup.org/members/oreo111-210572/albums/new-diy-c02-setup-11403/

WOW...Besides the discoloration theyre beautiful...Even if they are a little small for there age.

So i put the sugar yeast mixture in their last night and i believe they are lovin it i can see a huge difference i took a couple pics to. i topped a couple also, i have one that was done under the cfls and since bein under the hps it has just taken off.

beautiful...

GateWay2Haven said:

beautiful...

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Thanks Dog! it was a slow start but its comin along....This place is full of fantastic info!
Roll one up and keep readin!