Newbie tries his first grow

Vancouverguy

Vancouverguy

Active Member
Hi all - thanks for the great resource.

I posted this message in another thread, but I had a follow up question so thought I would start a new thread for it.

I wanted to see if a true newbie could blunder his way through a small grow.

I bought a 10-pack of Colombian Gold seeds from a local seed bank (Mods - if this is a no-no, please delete link) Vancouver Seed Bank

I sprouted 4/4 seeds and planted them in peat blocks, transferring them to small peat pots with potting soil after the roots came through the peat.

It's been about 5 weeks since germination and the plants are about 12" high no fancy lights, feeding with normal plant food.

This is a picture of one of the females. You will note quite a bit of "Stretch" (a term I learned on this site).

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Aside from the fact it seems way too tall, it appears healthy and happy.
 

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After reading about sexing the plants on this site (thanks!) I discovered that of my plants was male, and quickly sequestered him from his sisters.

I checked on it again today and now it appears *BOTH* male and female. Can someone help me out on this?

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#1 are clearly pollen sacs
#2 look like bud sites (2 hairs)
#3 looks like the start of a cola

If the plant really is a hermaphrodite - can it be saved? or is it too much of a risk to the other females?

What should I do?

PS - here is a close up of #2 (sorry for the focus issue)

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Apart from the hermaphrodite issue, is there anything obviously, seriously wrong that is evident from the pictures?

Thanks again!
 
The plant seeds to be stretching a little, get some cheap CFLs at walmart. We also need clearer pics to determine the plant's sex.
 
I followed kieahtoka's advice and bought two CFLs (150w equiv x2) and the gals are growing like hell now.

I had some concerns about some yellowing of a the larger leaves, but diagnosed it as a chemical imbalance from this site (thanks again!). I repotted them in larger 1 gallon pots with fertilized soil and blasted them with the CFLs 24/0.

You can see the huge growth in the pics below, including secondary leaves coming in to thicken the plant.

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On one of the three remaining plants, I decided to try topping it - so far it seems to be working great. There are two fully formed leaf sites growing out of the top (see picture). Obviously, I don't yet know if it will grow two seperate colas (that's why I'm experimenting!!)

Can anyone tell me (from looking at the pics) what a timeline would be to start the budding light cycle - 2 weeks? 6 weeks?

Thanks again!

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i would wait a week or two before flowering

this will let the new tops develop than flower.......imo

what other light do you have.......you will need more lights for flower
 
definitely get more light on that girl... i would throw atleast four more of those 100 watt equivelants cfls on em... a pack of the four for 10 bucks at a home depot if you live in the states...
 
I've added a big 125w CFL (so much for doing this on the cheap) to the two 54W CFLs (equiv to about 800w total IIRC), and the plants are a lot bushier, but not a lot taller (that's a good thing).

I have some other issues (uh oh) but I'll save them for the next post.

This is the plant that I topped about a week ago.

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(edited to fix pix)
I watered and fed the plants this morning, but tonight - bad news! One of the leaves is burned and curled - another plant has spots on some of the leaves - what do I do?

Burn and curl

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Spots

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Lots of Spots

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hey good to meet you...........I was wondering what kind of water? and are you balancing the ph after you add nutes? perhaps for now just give distilled or bottled water to let the ole girl recover.


good luck~
 
I had the same prob on two of my babies and I realized my ph was all off my water and soil was too acidic. I hope they recover..........I had to cut a few leaves that were burnt too bad but they recovered ,................
 
pjboy31 said:
hey good to meet you...........I was wondering what kind of water? and are you balancing the ph after you add nutes? perhaps for now just give distilled or bottled water to let the ole girl recover.


good luck~
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip - to be honest, I've been using tap water and I've never checked the ph level - they've been growing like hell so I didn't see any need.

I'll switch to bottled water and lay off the nutrients for a few days, to see if that makes a difference.

PS - if I wanted to buy a ph meter for soil growing, what would you guys recommend?
 
yeah my friend depending on where you live your tap water is probably high in chlorine and the ph is all fuxed up................use the same water (bottled and you will be ok)

good luck my friend~
 
try hydrowholesales.com for some of your needs
Depends on how serious you wanna get..ppm and ph meters can range from 25 to 200 or so..
If your going soil you either wanna by 2 ph meters..1 that measures water..the other for soil
A trick to get around the soil meter is to test your water after you've run it through,,
Some one else posted this method Ive found it better than using a meterd probe
 
i just read somthing on the burn and curl, its dew from over feeding it plant food with some kind of element

its on growfaq somwhere
 
With the leaf damage over the past few days, I decided to start flowering a week ahead of schedule - so switched to 12/12 lighting.

Within 24 hours there was an inch of stretch in the top stems and I see the little white hairs in several nodal spots (pics in a day or two).

Many of you recommended I check the pH levels so I went to my neighbourhood grow shop and bought a water kit for $10 (pool style) - I'll water tomorrow night so I'll check it then.

I asked the fella at the store for a suggestion for a bloom fertilizer and he sold me Botanicare Pure Blend Original, which is 0.5-0.5-1.0. Before I feed the gals, I would like your opinions on whether this is a good move - I am concerned that the Botanicare website suggests this stuff be used to supplement other ferts, I was going to use it solo.

To recap, I am doing a small soil grow.

Thanks for your help!
 
yeah it sounds like the big bloom I use from foxfarms, but i also use that with tiger bloom which has a higher NPK count I can get the exacts later I am high and ready for bed right now.............

good luck~
 
Vancouverguy said:
With the leaf damage over the past few days, I decided to start flowering a week ahead of schedule - so switched to 12/12 lighting.

Within 24 hours there was an inch of stretch in the top stems and I see the little white hairs in several nodal spots (pics in a day or two).

Many of you recommended I check the pH levels so I went to my neighbourhood grow shop and bought a water kit for $10 (pool style) - I'll water tomorrow night so I'll check it then.

I asked the fella at the store for a suggestion for a bloom fertilizer and he sold me Botanicare Pure Blend Original, which is 0.5-0.5-1.0. Before I feed the gals, I would like your opinions on whether this is a good move - I am concerned that the Botanicare website suggests this stuff be used to supplement other ferts, I was going to use it solo.

To recap, I am doing a small soil grow.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Im going to use pure blend on my next set of flowers..one of my growing buddies recommended it
 
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