1st grow (pics)

[blood_on_snow]

Hey guys, I found out about this site recently and so far I love it. I wanted to document my plant development for your constructive criticism. This wont be my first attempt, actually in the past I've had trouble with gremination. So If I get that far I'm going to be happy. This setup is in my closet and right now its setup with a fluro over a bunch of party cups filled with Miracle Grow soil, I'll get pics of that up later, but for now lets get to germinating . Below shows you what I've doen to attempt germination. I put 2 folded paper towels in a bowl, poured some distilled water on it, put the seeds in spacing them carefully, put 2 more towels on and put some water on them, put plastic seal over the top of the bowl, put the bowl in my closet over a towel with a heat pad in the middle and finally I put the bowl from my cooking scale over top to block out the light.

[MrKlauz]

is the heat pad plugged in? if so, it is probably too hot. I germinated using basicly the same process as you. Temp was probably around 86-90.

Many people here will say miracle gro sucks. But I used Scotts and they say that sucks too, but it seems to be doing fine. One thing I can agree on is if that miracle gro has nutes in it already, that's bad. You want potting soil with NO nutes to start your plants.

[toppotgrower]

ey dood dont need heat i just drop seeds into a cup water and put the cup in a dark place next day nearly all my seed have sprouted and planted them in coco nutrient free grow medium no nutrients for the first 2 weeks or u will burn them an they ill dye

[blood_on_snow]

Hey thanks, I didnt know about the nutes thing. I figured the heating pad was bad so I had folded the towel over more after I took those pictures but now I'm just gonna unplug it. I guess I gotta go find some new soil tomorrow or I wont have anything to put them in, any suggestions?

[MrKlauz]

for a first grow I'd suggest just some simple potting soil that has no or very low nutes. For example I started with Scott's potting soil rated at 0-1-0. Seemed to have a good mixture of soil, peat moss, and perlite.

Just stay away from flowering potting soil (pre-fertilized) and slow releasing nute soil.

[BlazinAZN]

yeah just stay away from nutes as youll probably kill or severly stress/burn your plants.....just get some regular potting soil....try to stay away from miracle bud killer brand

[blood_on_snow]

3 seeds germinated last night so I had no choice but to use the miracle grow soil. I'm going to get some new soil today and transfer them as quickly and carefully as humanly possible. Thanks again for that I would have killed them without knowing it. Ill post pictures of the grow setup I have later today. The fan I'm using is probably a foot in diameter but it has speed setings so I hope it isent too much for them. The light is a simple floro grow light so I'm sure that atleast is good enough for the first week or two

[blood_on_snow]

Ok here's my current setup, I still need to change the soil in the cups but I'm leaving soon to get it. I wanted to show you that the fan has speed settings from very slow to very high, right now it isent even turned on. The fluro is setup so I can adjust the height over the plants when/if they sprout. The last 10 seeds I tried to germinate using sink water (not good). My house runs on well-water so I think something in it killed the seeds before. Right now I'm using a gallon of distilled water to water them which I'll probably stick with throughout the whole process.

[MrKlauz]

good luck. since you have that fan right there, you could probably lower that light closer to the cups when the plant comes out of the dirt.

[blood_on_snow]

Think I should move it? I can set the fan further back np. I didnt know how much the plants would grow overnight so I didnt want to set the light too close. I'm sure since the fluro has a guard on it that it wont burn the plant but I didnt want to chance screwing up its stem. I'll set it so that the fluro will be almost touching the cups and about an inch back instead of right ontop. that way the plant will have room to grow straight up if it does grow more than I expect.

[smoke__aLot!!!]

I would take the guard of the light and get those cups really friendly with the light, you wont burn the plant unless its like less than an inch from it. I would suggest also finding some more lights from around the house or maybe even go out and buy some HPS or MH lights. You'll do fine if you pay attention to what you read on here.

[blood_on_snow]

Yeah I've done my homework, I'm gonna be getting one 400 watt hps kit and some more fluro's soon. I just need to find a nearby store that sells hps kits, the yellow pages dont list anything and I cant order online. My only hope is to find a store or find someone on craigslist or the newspaper. Anywho...I got the seeds transfered to a 0-0.01-0 potting soil by Scotts. I hope the transfer didnt shock them to death.

[MrKlauz]

Originally Posted by blood_on_snow

Yeah I've done my homework, I'm gonna be getting one 400 watt hps kit and some more fluro's soon. I just need to find a nearby store that sells hps kits, the yellow pages dont list anything and I cant order online. My only hope is to find a store or find someone on craigslist or the newspaper. Anywho...I got the seeds transfered to a 0-0.01-0 potting soil by Scotts. I hope the transfer didnt shock them to death.

that's the same stuff I started with. if they live through the transplant, the soil should be fine.

[blood_on_snow]

Oh thats good to hear. Hopefully I wont have to rely completely on those three since I have 12 more seeds germinating. My goal is 10 plants, maybe I'll make it.

[Snowdreams]

Hi!

This is only a suggestion from my side but If you're having
problems finding HID's (MH, HPS) it can
be enough with 3, 30-36w fluro on each side of your growroom (horizontally).
and maybe 3 or 4, 25w LE lights hanging down from the top...

Floura's having a wider spectrum of light, mixing
red and blue spectrum to your plants satisfaction...

Happy growing!

/Carl (Sweden)