Strawberry Cough from seed, 250W, 1st grow

Well, this is my first grow and first post.

Two seeds started germination on 4/5/10 and germinated within 48hrs with the paper towel method. They were then planted in foxfarm ocean forest in 16oz plastic cups. The seedlings are under 2 27W cfl (5000K, 1750lumens each). I've been watering every other day with distilled water. So far so good.


Here's a legend for what picture is what.
620 grow closet
623, 624 seedlings coming out of the ground with shell still on (4/10/10)
614 nutrients and ph stuff
more pics in next post


Next week i think i'm going to switch to 250W MH (switchable light system that can run either a MH or HPS bulb). Other supplies i have are big bloom, happy frog bat guano 0-5-0, ph meter, and ph adjusting solutions.

I also have a box fan (24"?) running at the slowest speed 24/7. The cfls are about an inch from the top of the seedlings. Light on for 19hrs, off for 5hrs. Soil mix is 75%FFOF and 25%perlite.

Some more pics.
625, 630 seedlings on (4/11/10)
633, 635 seedlings on (4/12/10)
610, 611 seedlings on (4/14/10)
710, 711 seedlings on (4/17/10)

Keep me updated looks like you have a pretty good operation.

Im Puffing Strawberry Cough right now, MMmmm....

I noticed today (4/18/10) after watering this morning the one showed some droop. I think it may be a little over-watered. I've been watering ever other day; i add the water until it starts to come out the bottom. Maybe i should water every 3 days or use less water for each watering. Temps have also been a little high 80-85F, i opened a window to lower it to 77F.

I forgot to mention, I plan to make this a SCROG grow. These seeds are not feminized, so hopefully i'll get at least 1 female (if not 2). If i just get one, then i'll let it veg longer.

Thanks for the interest.

I have a few new pictures. The seedlings at day 14 (4/19/10). They're looking like some nice strawberry plants.

I decided to fire up my 250W MH light today.

For nutrients, i think i'm going to go with fox farm big bloom, grow big, and tiger bloom. I may start to feed big bloom next week or a 25% dose this week.

good looking start ill tag along

W00t good stuff man !

I saw a root or two coming out of the bottom of the containers, so transplanted them today into 3 quart pots.

They're getting bigger (Day 18 including germination time). I haven't added any nutrients yet. The new soil from the re-potting i guess will keep it going. I think i'll give some 25-50% strength big bloom this week.

Be careful with nutes. They aren't ready for nutes and you already put them in Hot soil. I highly recommend not to add the Big Bloom.

Ok, thanks for the advice. I will be sure not to add any nutrients yet. I noticed on the one plant...there's a small strip of lighter leave (hard to see in the previous post..pic 4 lower left leave)...this may be some slight burn from the soil (even though it's 33%perlite, 67%FFOF...it must still be pretty hot soil).

Give them atleast 2 weeks from when you put them in the soil before feeding.

ok, i'll do that, thanks.

View attachment 897691This is one from clone. she is a proud mommy. Also don't over water. let them dry out good. It will help the roots.

Nice looking plant. Yeah, i'm learning the overwatering thing.

I took a few more pictures today. The pics aren't as good b/c I left the plants under the light....but the plants still look pretty good. I haven't watered the one on the right for a week now, since it was previously a little overwatered. The soil isn't completely dry yet...it feels slightly moist near the bottom. I'm think i'm going to wait a few more days (either until the soil at the bottom feels dry or the plant starts to wilt) before i water again.

I put up some reflective mylar yesterday and added a little more soil/perlite mix today so the level is up to the first node.

I decided to add some better new pics (Day 22 including germination).

Pics 610 and 612 are of the plant that hasn't been watered for a week. Leaves are a bit darker green, with slight wrinkling.
Pics 611 and 613 are of the other plant (watered ~4 days ago).

Is there any harm in moving the plant away from it's light to take pics for a minute during veging? Hopefully it doesn't stress the plant much.

The one plant is growing very well, and looking good. The other plant has never looked as good because it had been mild/moderately overwatered in the past (droopy leaves which were dark green). Since then the watering history for this plant has been:

4/20 (day 15): transplanted from 16oz cup to 3qt pot and watered lightly (300ml) (same soil, 70%FFOF/30%perlite)
4/28 (day 23): watered lightly again with 250-300ml
5/2 (day 27): watered with 700-800ml (about an hr ago), til it started dripping out the bottom

I noticed some small brown/copper colored spots on it's second leaf set. It doesn't look like a bug had done it, since it's in the leaf. I read up and found it may be a K deficiency (also someone else had added epson salts mg/and it cured their brown/copper spots...this is also possible). I think the soil still has plenty of nutrients. I've haven't had much run off (obviously from the watering history ~ 1 tablespoon). My diagnosis is that it may have never gotten over some root-rot from the past and the root system isn't able to deliver the nutrients. I checked the PH and its 6.8-6.9 (should be the same as the other plant). I've only watered with distilled water so far and no nutes. The growth is also stunted...but new left sets have still been coming out the top. Temps have been a little on the high side 80-85F.

It was quite dry when i watered it....so maybe the lack of water prevented it from getting proper nuts from the soil. Leaves still went droopy after the watering even though the soil was dry....so it looks overwatered in the pics.

Should I add h2o2 to clear up any possible root rot, or wait and see what happens since this last watering?



Pic 610(2) and 611(2) are of the good looking plant
other pics are of the other not so good plant

it has perked up some now. we'll see how it looks tomorrow.