First grow journal

[AlcoholicAuthor]

Hey whatsup everyone, recently got myself 3 plants all fems, partially grown already from cuttings, had them under 2 150W CFL's since wednesday on 18/6, plants are in a big stackabox sortof thing, check the pics, theyr all different strains, one of them is bigbud one is cali orange and the tallest healthiest looking one i dont know what it is, if anyone knows pls let me know! so basically im on day 5 of veg, this is my first ever grow so i expect lots of mistakes to begin with, maybe with a bit of guidance itl work!

pics:

stealthin it


growspace


the unidentifiable strain


what i think is cali orange


bigbud from a distance


lights


and again...


overall


thats it, comments apprecciated,

AA

[AlcoholicAuthor]

forgot to say, i want to do LST on them, read the sticky and seems like a good way of maximising yield in a small space like the one iv got, gona start training em when iv got 3 nodes on each, still dont have ventilation as yet so temperatures are gettin as high as 85-90F, hence the open door in the picture, as soon as holes are in for ventilation i should be ok i reckon. is 300 watts a decent enough amount of power for three plants? and how do i keep the humidity up without overwatering the plants?

[AlcoholicAuthor]

comments...anyone??

[AlcoholicAuthor]

the cali orange (or so iv been told - 1)


and again (2)


aaand again from top (3)


BigBud(4)


big bud again(5)



and again (6)


not too sure about this one! looks healthiest though

unidentified (7)


overall view (8)



Ph Buffer solutions (9)

[SirNugz]

Hey dude, whassup?

Plants looking good so far.

I'd post a few more details, humidity? What are they getting etc (levels of nutes?). Important to know in case there's problems down the road.

The temp is concerning and may lead to heat stress. There is this other concept called vapor pressure deficit that is really interesting (I'm posting a link). It's a concept in commercial greenhouse growing regarding circulation from fruit to leaf and how to maximize nute delivery based on optimizing humidity/temp.

There's some great concepts but long and techie. The stuff on air circulation, temp and humidity is worth a read. There are reasons why some kinds of environments 'work' better than others. Don't worry that this says 'hydro'. These concepts are applicable to both systems.

http://cals.arizona.edu/hydroponictomatoes/system.htm

Good luck!

[AlcoholicAuthor]

hey SirNugz thanks alot for the reply, im not using any nutes as yet, just water thats been left to stand for 24 hrs, havnt been able to accurately record Ph levels cos the 3 times iv watered i havent actualy seen anything come into the capturing tray...guessing not a good sign i REALLY hope its not rootbound. and yeh iv been abit worried about the humidity and temperature, highest recorded temps were 98 degrees fahrenheit im trying to keep them around 75-80 which is just about doable wit the cabinet doors open on the lightcycle. iv definitely given them some heat stress, should be gettin some ventilation today which hopefully will improve matters, do you think the damage is permanent, im also pretty sure i overwatered since iv seen a couple of yellowy leaves? im gona wait a few days til i post up new pics, remember these are only day 5 of grow and im a TOTAL newb so i expect mistakes! i ALSO managed to drop my fan on one of the plants 2 days into getting the plants partially severing the stem, i splinted it though and its not looking too bad considering, im guessing it would have died by now if it was going to?

[stonedguy420]

Hopefully the fan victim makes it, sounds pretty bad... The closest you should put your CFL's to your plants is as close as you can get them w/o causing heat stress. This really depends on the amount of air flow you have and the temp. of the surrounding air. If your temps are in the 90's then I doubt you could put them too close. I try to keep mine 3-4 inches away, but I have a fan blowing up on the lights to remove heat and the temps inside the closet are usually around 75-82. Good luck man, thats cool you know they are female. I am excited/nervous to find out about mine.

[AlcoholicAuthor]

haha yeh i can imagine, this is my first grow and i know theyr all certified girls so havent even thought about it! good luck with yours, wishing them lots of oestrogen and mood swings! iv got my lights around 10 the plants, sounds like alot but temps were gettin way high, come down alot now cos i leave the cabinet open during light cycles, got it to around 75 - 80s = much better! hopefuly theyl be perking up soon if at all, will keep it posted up!

[AlcoholicAuthor]

ok day 7 since transplant (in geordie accent) the housemates are preparing to LST, so iv tied em down as seen in pics, only a lil bit cos i dont wana stunt them, but the one on the right was originally pointing so that all its fanleafs were pointing towards the soil, i wasnt sure which way to point the fan leaves cos theyr partially grown plants already, so iv left em sort of neutral but slightly better positioned towards the lights to catch the fan leaves, until i get some advice as to which way to go im just gona leave it so quick replies wud be nice



only got a couple of decent pics due to my not being able to climb into my mini closet and focus the camera, so i have to use autofocus which is great if you dont want to take pictures of the things you want to take pictures of!! anyway got a couple so here they are...

overall pic of whole growspace:



this is the big bud from day 5 since transplant:


and now on day 7, just gone into its light cycle after 6 dark and lookin a tad yellow on lower branches, shud be gettin the ferts tomorro at a grow shop, probly will go for somethin like urea, really high N and almost no PK, and then not sure as for flowering stage...



anyway thats it for tonite, need to get up tomoro so shud go to sleep seeing as iv done nothing bt post on this forum all day and night.

peeeeace!

AA


thanks,

AlcoholicAuthor

[urgr8estfear]

When using LST, look at the stem of the plant to determine the angle between the plant and the soil.
Never go much beyond 90 degrees (horizontal grow) many plants don't like 'inverse' gravity.
Your leaves will find the light within hours and re-allign themselves so just make sure they don't stick to wet soil or anything and you'd be good.

[AlcoholicAuthor]

cool thanks man, adjustments will be made

[AlcoholicAuthor]

cool theyr tied down some more now, looking good, temps nice n constant now at around 78.8 with 41% Humidity, think thats ok? when i get some ferts and after a few more days of LST i will post up more pics!

[AlcoholicAuthor]

just remembered something, so i took some pics as they are now, my mate said he thought one of the plants might be male? duno how this could be as they were sposed to all be fem clones, but anyway take alook n see if u can tell, finally got the focus sorted, higher apertures were the key! iv gone and named my plants, inevitable i spose, im calling the one i almost killed cali, no prizes as to why and the other two mork and mindy, mork was an alien so im gona say he was a tranny which leaves me wit three females only thing is one of my mates who used to grow said he thought cali might be a boy, can anyone confirm/contradict?

cali:


Mork and mindy (mork is the smaller one (big bud) and mindy is something i still cant identify.



i trimmed off cali's yellowing plant and i think it did some good, seems to have brightened up, my plants look waaaay better in picture form for some reason, i guess cos a lens is never as good as the eye. anyway, input apprecciated as always,

AA out

[SirNugz]

Heat stress is much more complex than the leaves getting close to the lights and burning.

There is a plant stress response to being overheated, akin to what happens to us when we can't cool off (we get it too, first heat stress, then heat stroke).

They've measured this biochemical response in tomatoes where they cycled them through stress and recovery. It's not crunchy granola theory heh heh...

http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci/dec2004/471.pdf

I don't want to get too technical. What you're shooting for in temps is great (70-80f). The dogma is lower humidity (50% or less) which I've done well on. Now I'm experimenting with higher humidity which is more like how commercial greenhouses do it.

BTW, dude, if there is still fiber attached you can probably make that stem regrow. Just give it support. I don't stress if there's an accident. Fix it or prune it .

my mate said he thought one of the plants might be male? duno how this could be as they were sposed to all be fem clones

He might be right if the dude sexed them prior to taking cuttings AND they were herms not 100% fems. I've also taken cuttings in veg that I had to keep in veg for a long time and they definitely were showing sexual characteristics even under a 24 on cycle.

But he's probably tripping. It's the wrong light cycle and they look too young.

They look green lush and really tite now tho bro! Keep it up!

[urgr8estfear]

Don't worry about the lack of runoff water after watering.
In your case, because of the mass ratio between soil and plant this is good.

Also you may want to divide the soil in three difference comparments with small plastic boards or so.
It's usually not good to have the roots of different plants intertwine, they'd have to compete for water/nutes and you'll never be able to seperate them again without serious root damage.