First Grow: Fluorescent seed to weed

[TechnoMage]

Followed your advice urgr8estfear and transplanted all four to the bigger pots. Gave them a medium water and now I'm going to try and keep my hands off the water for a week. The three Hashberry were basically one big rootball.

[TechnoMage]

Sunday, November 26th 2006, 9:26 pm
Sprout +14
Well the plants are two weeks old and I transplanted them to 6” pots. They all had good rooting but the three Hashberry’s were just solid root balls. Gave them a heavy water.

Monday, November 27th 2006, 10:53 pm
Sprout +15
All the plants seem to be doing fine.

As long as the plants are doing ok, I'm going to hold off on watering until the weekend. I really want them to put out some roots.

Sorry I didn't get a shot of the Hashberry root balls but I couldn't plant and photograph at the same time.

Photo Time:

Tray Shot


Top Shot


Hashberry #1


Hashberry #2


Hashberry #3


Lockdown

[Stevecon]

how much did your whole lighting system cost?

[TechnoMage]

Originally Posted by Stevecon

how much did your whole lighting system cost?

Side Lighting
48” T8, 2 lamp fixture. Quantity 4, Total $30.00
48” T8 bulbs, mix of 6500K and 3000K. Quantity 8, Total $30.00
Side Lighting total, $60.00

Canopy
FULHAM WH7-120-L Ballast. Quantity 1, Total $40.00
55W 6500K 2G11 Base bulb. Quantity 2, Total $25.00
55W 3000K 2G11 Base bulb. Quantity 2, Total $25.00
PFO 23 inch Reflector For Single 55W/65W PC Bulb. Quantity 3, Total $40.00
Endcap for Realux/Hamilton Compact Fluorescent Bulb – Straight. Quantity 3, Total $20.00
Clip for Power Compact Bulb. Quantity 3, Total $8.00
Wood and sheet metal I already have, about $15.00
Canopy total, $173.00

The reason I bought two bulbs of each is that during grow I’m going to run two 6500K bulbs and one 3000K bulb. During flower I’ll switch and run two 3000K bulbs and one 6500K bulb.

[TechnoMage]

Time for another update.

Tuesday, November 28th 2006, 7:46 pm
Sprout +16
Finally starting to get a little height in the plants. Put together a DIY CO2 generator using the yeast/sugar method. Don’t know how much good it will do but it was only $5.00 to build.

Wednesday, November 29th 2006, 6:43 pm
Sprout +17
All the plants are doing great, even the Lockdown. Still bushy as hell but putting on a little height. 2” tall on my Hashberry.

And now photos:

DIY CO2


Tray Shot


Top Shot


Lockdown


Hashberry #1


Hashberry #2


Hashberry #3

[urgr8estfear]

So how close do you keep the canopy lights from the plants?
I never see any bulbs on your pics that's why I ask.
You can put those fluros 2 maybe 1 inch from the plants without frying them.

[TechnoMage]

Originally Posted by urgr8estfear

So how close do you keep the canopy lights from the plants?
I never see any bulbs on your pics that's why I ask.
You can put those fluros 2 maybe 1 inch from the plants without frying them.

My tallest plant is 2" away from the bulb. I try to keep it between 2-3 inches from the top plant.

[TechnoMage]

Time for another update

Thursday, November 30th 2006, 8:22 pm
Sprout +18
Everything good. Not much change but the plants all look good.

Friday, December 1st 2006, 1:57 pm
Sprout +19
Still growing strong. Tallest is still less than 3” but plants looking good. Five days now without watering.

And of course photos:

Tray Shot


Top Shot


Lockdown


Hashbery #3


Hashbery #2


Hashbery #1


Macro Hashbery #1: Playing around with some of the new macro equipment I just purchased. This one is using the +1, +2, +3 and 10X all stacked.

[urgr8estfear]

Yep they're doing well.
No sign of trouble anywhere.
Do you notice how the new leaves have a nice zigzag sawtooth leaves which are pretty much flat?
This is how you want to see them.
Within a few days or so you'll see those newly created fan leaves spread out.
Then the size expansion will really start to kick in.
Soon after that you can start LST.
It's exponential growth so the more plant you got the faster it will increase biomass.
Keep it up!

[TechnoMage]

That's great to hear urgr8estfear. Put my new 3 bulb canopy in tonight. Went from 9,600 lumens to 14,400 lumens. Plus my new bulbs came in. Instead of two 4100K bulbs I'm running two 6500K bulbs and one 3000K bulb. I've got another 22,400 lumens in side lighting. 16,800 lumens at 6500K and another 5,600 lumens at 3,000K

[TechnoMage]

Update time. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. Two weeks since sprout and the plants seem to be doing well. I'm still using pure Fox Farms Ocean blend for my soil. Water has been straight bottled water. We lost our well for a couple of days and had to open our big water bottles. I've got about 15 gallons to use so I can get the bottles re-filled.

I do have two questions:
1. When should I think about using nutes? I've got a bottle of PureBlend Pro Grow and another of PureBlend Pro Grow Bloom.
2. Should I fim or top and if so, when?

Saturday, December 2nd 2006, 8:37 pm
Sprout +20
Plants seem to be drooping. It’s only been six days since I transplanted them and I wanted to wait a week until I watered them again but I’ve decided to water them tonight. 2oz to each plant. Also added sugar to the DIY CO2.

I replaced the 2 bulb canopy with a three bulb canopy. Went from 9,600 lumens to 14,400 lumens. I also replaced the two 4100K bulbs I had been using. Now I’m running two 6500K bulbs and one 3000K bulb. This is in addition to the 22,400 lumens of side lighting.

Sunday, December 3rd 2006, 9:18 pm
Sprout +21
All plants doing well.

Monday, December 4th 2006, 11:53 pm
Sprout +22
Plants are really coming along. Even the Lockdown is doing quite well. Started slow but has almost caught up.

Now some photos

Top Shot


Lockdown


Hashberry #1


Hashberry #2


Hashberry #3


Top Shot

[urgr8estfear]

Those plants are whistling through life now you hear?

Originally Posted by TechnoMage

I do have two questions:
1. When should I think about using nutes? I've got a bottle of PureBlend Pro Grow and another of PureBlend Pro Grow Bloom.
2. Should I fim or top and if so, when?

1. As a rule of the thumb, 3 weeks at earliest. Depends a lot on the soil you are using and the size of the pot(soil) versus size of the plant. When using prenuted soil 6 weeks is not abnormal.
2. Depends on what you want. Do you have a growstyle in mind? I mean do you want the classical christmas tree look? Or candelebra-style? Or SCOG? If you SOG/LST your side fluro are not effectively used until you flower and the buds go up in the sky to catch light from the side. (box)

p.s. : and o yeah, you mentioned drooping plants. Must be me I don't see none. They are fine.

[TechnoMage]

Originally Posted by urgr8estfear

1. As a rule of the thumb, 3 weeks at earliest. Depends a lot on the soil you are using and the size of the pot(soil) versus size of the plant. When using prenuted soil 6 weeks is not abnormal.
2. Depends on what you want. Do you have a growstyle in mind? I mean do you want the classical christmas tree look? Or candelebra-style? Or SCOG? If you SOG/LST your side fluro are not effectively used until you flower and the buds go up in the sky to catch light from the side. (box)

p.s. : and o yeah, you mentioned drooping plants. Must be me I don't see none. They are fine.

Would you consider Fox Farms Ocean Blend prenuted? I know it's a premium soil but it's not loaded like Miracle Grow. Pot's are 6" dia, 6.5" tall. I guess about 3/4 gallon.

For grow style I just want to get several colas instead of just a main one and keep the height down a little bit. Here's what I'm thinking.
Lockdown: Do nothing for now since it's the smallest
Hashberry: I'm thinking of topping two and finning one. Which one I fin will depend on which one it's easiest to fin.

This way I'll get to see three different methods at once. These were from seed so I'll still need to weed out males. Once I've weeded the males I'll probably start some clones. Haven't decided yet but I may try a SCOG with the clones.

I took the photos the day after I watered so they had perked back up by then. I've only watered them twice in the past 11 days. I'd like to be at the point where I'm only watering them about twice a week. From what I've been reading about soil growing it seems that giving larger amounts less often is better than smaller amounts more often.

[TechnoMage]

Took a look at the plants tonight and decided that they are just to tightly packed to try fimming or topping. Maybe when they're bigger.

[urgr8estfear]

Originally Posted by TechnoMage

Took a look at the plants tonight and decided that they are just to tightly packed to try fimming or topping. Maybe when they're bigger.

Time for a litte trick I'd say.
Raise the lights.
You: WHAT?
That's right, raise 'em for a few days, the new growth will stretch towards the light.
Check everday, as soon as you can get you sciccors in between in the leaves cut off th top.
Then lower the lights.

Many good fluro grows end up really bushy compared to HPS.
This is because red light promotes stretching and fluros have less % of that compared to HPS, so longer and fatter stems.
Fluros are 'heavy' on the bluelight, great for growing leaves so in combination with short stems make for bushy plants.
Meaning, it may stay this bushy forever end you'll never feel 'ready' to take of the top.

So actually the bushiness is prove of your fluro growing skills.