First Grow 400w, need some help

[mrprickleypete]

Hey everyone, this is my first grow, so I guess I'm not expecting to much, however I wouldn't mind having some bud when I'm all said and done. First things first, my basic info. My babies first sprouted 3.14.06, I used some "jiffy pots" to start them, two weeks later I transplanted them into 2 containers. I realized this was bad so last week 4.6.06, I transplanted them again to their own pots. I know that I should have filled the pots entirely with soil, however at the time I was unaware of this. It took me 2 days to transplant, so one of my babies did get a full pot of soil. Since then they seem to be doing ok. The soil I use is Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I started them on a light regiment of nutes last week, half strength at every other watering, which I do every other day now. Initially I had some yellowing of the lower leaves, but my current watering and nutes seemed to take care of that. For Nutes I am using Fox Farm Big Bloom, Big Grow, and Tiger Bloom. The PH is somewhere between 5.3 - 6.0, this is based on a water drop test kit I purchased. The temp ranges from about 75 - 85, and unfortunalty I don't really see any way to cut down on that currently. As the picture shows, I have an oscillating fan hanging next to my 400w HPS that blows air constantly. I also have a small hole in the top of my room (about 8x10 inches) with a fan on the other side sucking out air. They are on a regiment of 20/4 and like I said water every other day, and nutes every other watering. I've also been told that next time I grow I need to get darker pots, however I can't do much about that now! I do not know what strain these seeds are, I just got them out of some buds that I smoked. The tallest/ biggest plant is almost 10" and the others range between 7-9. I guess I'm just looking for basic advise. Is my feeding schedule good? why are some of my leaves dropping? enough nutes or too much? why is one plant significantly larger despite equal care? why are the tips curling sideways one a few of them? should I top them, if so when? Should I trim any of the leaves? When should I try to sex these babies? any advice would be much appreciated as this if my first grow. I've sunk enough cash into it that I'd like to have some crop to show for it. Also if there is any pertinent info that I have left out, I'd be happy to fill you in.

Thanks guys.

[mrprickleypete]

Just a few more pics for you to analyze.

[-E-]

i have no idea about growing green, but i gotta say nice job, keep us updated with pics, i wanna see how these babies turn out.

[JoshuaLogan]

bushy babies. :]

I think they are doing just fine. I don't think you should trim any leaves just yet. I'd just let them be how they are and once they're a little bit taller use a string to pull the stem and branches down a bit to expose more light down there instead of trimming leaves. but really I don't think you should be worrying about much at the moment. they look nice.

[br3ad_]

Wow, looking very nice..Keep up the good work

[SmknVTEC]

Hey Mr.Prickle
Plants look good. This may be a little nit picky but, I like to see no higher than the second node of my seedlums lining up with the rim of my pots. In order to get this fill your pot up with dirt all the way up to about an inch shy of the rim of the pot. This guarantees that you are using every square centimeter of the pot, for the all important roots. Also, if you think something is wrong with your plants, ph might be the problem because yours at between 5.5 and 6.0 is way too low. The correct ph should be between 6.3-6.8.

[MoggyDoggy]

I am assume that your still in the veg phase. If this is so, why are you using the big bloom nutes? Unless it states it on the bottle to fert with them before flowering you might not want to. The reason being is that mj's nutrient needs change from veg to flower. So you will be feeding it alot nutrients that it won't be using until flowering which may cause a nute lock out in your soil if your not carefull. Just something to look out for.

[mrprickleypete]

In regards to: "In order to get this fill your pot up with dirt all the way up to about an inch shy of the rim of the pot. This guarantees that you are using every square centimeter of the pot, for the all important roots" I realize this now, however when I was first starting it wasn't something that occured to me. In regards to using big bloom, I haven't actually started using that yet, it is just one of the nute bottles I have, and intend on using, during the flowering stage, like you said. Thanks for the advice though, keep it coming guys. be as picky as possible, the harsher you are on me, the better my plants will benefit!

[just_blaze_it]

hey man. well i cant really say anything other than theyre definatley looking good! i honestly cant say anything other than that LOL. if you need any help and your finding it hard with the lack of responses (due to the ENORMOUS amount of grow journals and the such here at the city) then done be afraid to PM me and i will be happy to help as much as i can. keep it up and keep us posted man!
Just Blaze It.....
.........................

[mrprickleypete]

Thanks blaze, can't wait to see you harvest that skunk bro.

peace

[ibowl]

Hey man. nice looking plants! But i would definantly encourage u to LST.

[mrprickleypete]

ibowl, exactly how do I go about performing LST?

[mrprickleypete]

ibowl, exactly how do I go about performing LST?

[ibowl]

Well what i do is slowly bend over your plant, if its stiff then do it over the course of a few days, until it has a 90 degree bend, or parrellel to the ground. i use clothes hangers and i cut them into, say 5-6in sections and then bend the end into a hook. Then i use that to hold the plant down. The key to LST is to do it gently, so as not to brake the stem and to get all braches parrellel to the ground. If you want to see how i did it check my sig and also there is a ton of info on this site and on the web. hope that helps. i would go ahead and do it now.