1st time serious grower (please comment)

Hey yall. I'll get right to the point. about 5 years ago i grew a plant for about 4 weeks, then on my travels to transplant them outside, i got into a car accident and it was a mess i wont go into right now. anyhow, i have about 20 seeds ive collected from dank bags over the past year. And I did A LOT of research by reading others grow logs and searched a bunch of shit on this and yahooka's forum.

I started on Friday March 23.

Things i've tested:

THE CUP-O-WATER TRICK WORKS! it really works! the good seeds sink, the bads seeds float. after 24 hours i took all the good seeds and put them in a wet paper towel to germinate. They all germinated beutifully overnight. I left the bad seeds in for another 24 hours..... yet still floating, so i planted the good seeds in about 70%soil-30%vermiculite Dixie cups. and put the bads seeds in the paper towel and hid it back away in the dark warm spot. When the plants began to sprout the the SOIL a day later, there was still nothing happening with the bad seeds in the PAPER TOWEL.
OUT OF 20 BAG SEEDS, 15 WERE GOOD.
I put the bad seeds in a cup all-together (incase they are late bloomers) EDIT: AND THERE WERE... (edit)
Anyways, i bought nice neutral potting soil, and Vermiculite (my roomate owns lizards... great for lizards).
Years ago i was "perscribed" a light for seasonal despressive disorder or somethin. it emulates the sun rays enough to lighten sumones mood. it's doing a great job but i cant seem to get it low enough to the actual plants. it's enough to give them rays and heat them it's kinda wide and the hood is very easy to "direct" the light. Tonight i am going home to pick up to "clip-on/gooseneck" lamps (if that makes sense) to focus light more directly onto the plants. We are having a freakishly warm day today, so i gave them their first taste of sunshine for about an hour. I am getting a slight "curling" downward effect in the leaves. nothing huge but present nonetheless. i spray them often with a very fine mist and water them at least 3 times a day. not a lot, but just to keep the soil moist. I really dont want to drown em. I have heard plants do better undernourished, than overnourished (with H20 anyhow.)

All the cups are inside a plastic "tub" containter i have some plastic wrap covering about 2/3 of the top to keep moisture and heat in. (though today was warm, it get pretty cold at nite)


I assume i'll have at least 3-5 females (10 max unless im too lucky), so i want to plant a few outside in Mass. in a month from now. the other few i'll continue flower inside. But i dont have room for flowering 15 plants till i sex them. So instead I maybe just want to keep them all indoors flower them extremely early to keep them short.
My ideas:
2 weeks from germ to veg state
2 weeks veg state
4 weeks bud


what do you think.... i could then take a clone from the best lookin female and just use that from now on and have one plant... does this plan sound crazy to anyone?

and how often do you all water your seedlings in this state???

oh yea, i accidnetally knocked over a few of them, but i was lucky and saved them quickly. i hope they recover ok. ive got 15 I'd be dammed if i killed my only females! haha. i doubt it.

thanx for readin.

PICS IN NEXT POST!!!!! JUST BELOW \/\/\/\/\/\/

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ok im gonna try and do this organized as possible, but im running out of time before i gotta leave for work... so here we go:

KEEP IN MIND I TOOK THESE JUST AFTER MISTING THEM!!! so it's usually not this "wet" looking... it dries out pretty fast actually.

Picture number 1, "Closet" is of the general setup i have in the closet. you can see the hood of the light very well in this pic. I Dont know the wattage, there is no markings or anything on the entire light i have no idea.. but it works magic. Cups in a tub....

Picture Number 2, "fromaboveall" was taken about 1 foot directly above the plastic wrap looking down onto the cup formation. The water on the plastic wrap dries very quickly as it drips gradually down into cups.

Picture Number 3, "Inside" pretty nice lookin baby plants. TIN FOIL IS DULL SIDE OUT! (or in, rather... DULL-SIDE IS FACING TOWARDS THE PLANTS) comprende? The cup in the bottom left corner is the one with multiple "bad" seeds. just testing to see if anything grow in the next few weeks. (dam late-bloomers)

Picture Number 4, "Inside lookin back" OK some of you are prolly askin why am i using those small ass cups. i was sick of the big ones always toppling over or rather i was afraid of that. anyhow it should give me experience and i'll know how quickly roots grow in. i plan on transplanting most of these in about 2 weeks into 3 gallon pots. They wont die in two weeks inside those small cups. as long as i transplant them as soon as possible.

my lighting right now is 24 hours a day.
for veg i'll switch to 18/6
and for bud the standard 12/12

Like i've mentioned in the earlier post, i am installing two new lights tonite. 2 "clamp-on/gooseneck" sorta lamps. the light im using now in these pics is flouro, but im not sure of the power... if anyone with experience in lighting could give me a ballpark estimate that would be cool. if not whatever.. no biggie. I just hope i dont run out of room too fast! hahaha. any suggestions or comments or questions... feel free to post!

thanx,
E

 

Picture Number 1, "Seedling" This is cool. out of the 15 good seeds planted 2 of them came up out of the soil with the seed. this picture shows the seed rearing up like a head almost about to open up and release the leaves. The following picture is of the other one in a later state...

Picture Number 2, "another seedling" Like mentioned above, this photo is of a plant that still has the seed out of the soil. This one has grown quite a bit from the seed.

IS THIS BAD???!... i think it's normal. BUT maybe im missing somethin.

Just thought i'd share these.


by the way, I DONT USE ANY NUTES OR FERTS... JUST POTTING SOIL, VERMICULITE, AND SPRING WATER.




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yea i know. i wanted to list the minimums. I dont even care if the bud stage takes longer. it's the veg stage im more concerned with "shortening" as much as possible (no pun intended). thanx though.


E

 

ok, i took off the plastic wrap now that everything has sprouted. (I was trying to acheive an "incubator" type effect with the wrap untill they sprouted up through the soil, but now they really need to breath)
i now have 3 goosenecks installed in the mix! (PIC 1) the 2 on either side are both on. the center one is off until i really need it. besides i dont have a very strong bulb in there as of this moment. These enable me to focus light more intensely on 1-3 individual plants, and helps more light reach the lower/smaller plants. as they grow up i'll attempt to utilize the lights properly to keep the sides bushy. rather than focus on being tall.
Some of the ones in the small cups seem to be growing at an incredible speed. maybe it's an optical illusion due to the small cup, but they seem to be thriving very well. except for one seedling that im still waiting to really shoot up....

and there still no sign of life in the "bad seed" cup.


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i had some drooping, curling. on some leaves. as soon as i started to get use to an established watering cycle... they seemed to perk up.

the following pictures are from a few days ago when they were approximately a half week old. the following post will have pictures of the week-old plants. enjoy!

 

"GOOD" NEWS: The "bad seed" cup has a sprout! 1 out of 5 aint bad. i cant imagine another one coming up. it's been one week since the begining of germination....

"BAD" NEWS: This mornin i saw a couple fleas/fruit flies flyin around in the closet. i dont think it's that big a deal. Im using neautral steril soil. besides half of them will eventually be planted outside. there is still a seed attached to the stem of one of them, i touched it to see if it would just simply fall off, but i dont want to force it. so i'll wait another week. im afraid of the seed to cut off the circulation of the plant. maybe thats stupid... i dunno.


the first picture is of the lil seedling that could.
the second one is of the whole set-up today (1 WEEK)

 

hey.... actually i found it in an old box. i thin it;s used by swat teams and paranoid mothers to check for bombs under your car... and perverts to look up dames's dresses. i use it to just display the plant better. i bought it many years ago at I think like Auto-Zone or something.



Edit: i'd also like to add this mirror has prolly saved me and my plants tedious moments of trying to get a good veiw of plant whether for watering, or taking pictures, or inspecting under leaves for mites. it just helps me see where i normally cannot without moving things around.

Ive also heard a study done a long time ago, using electronic meters and whatnot, they measure certain frequecies of plant activity, and when the farmer (or owner) would approach the greenhouse, the plants would sense his footsteps, and actually "faint." So maybe not only does an overenthusattic farmer overfeed his plants but he keeps them unconcious by his presence.

Another study (proven on Mythbusters) MUSIC!!! Heavy metal beileve it or not the plants had reacted to better, moreso than classical or talking to your plants. there were some other music but ive forgotten. Heavy MEtal is what your plants want to hear. (i suggest MESHUGGAH, Lamb of God, or Opeth) and classical (i suggest beethoven, mozart, vivaldi, or bach). And you're always a winner with TOOL and PINK FLOYD.


Addition: Heres the Mythbusters video about music and plants. they also talked to the plants. very well done and very interesting. PLEASE WATCH if your growin!!!

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6609068041106073533&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

Here's an article about a study done in the 70's. It says the opposite, that rock music will kill your plants. You decide for yourself. Im testin it myself, so i'll let you know how it turns out.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070226143735AAtZeBe

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Not exactly sure. I am a professional sound man and im very knowledgable about frequencies and whatnot, so im doin some experiments. I play them the music i have listed above as much as possible.
AND i did just install the Mythbusters Video SEE ABOVE/\ /\ /\ /\

i was thinkin switchin to 18/6 in a week. then two weeks thereafter go to 12/12 for as long as it would take.... is that gonna make my plants too big by then? im thikn about transplanting them within the next week to 1-gallon containers. Do the roots grow more or less during the flowering stage??? i heard they grow more when it's dark, but if it's budding maybe it conecntrates energy on that instead.

 

ok so i think this is what im gonna do... They are a week old. with a few late-bloomers. So I think im gonna put them on 18/6 all this week. Monday (3 days from now) I'll transplant them into 1 gallon containers. and a week from now they should be well-adjusted enough to those containers for me to start the 12/12 cycle. I think i am just gonna form a giant Box out of many boxes and ductape and move my plants in there as i transplant them.

i noticed some more fruit flies/fleas in the closet today, so i put the fan on, and put out some maple syrup on tiny little plates, so hopefully it'll act as a homemade fly strip. if anyone has any suggestions by all means share...

tomrrow morn will be the plants first taste of darkness for 6 hours. fingers crossed...


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Hey.... My babies are sleeping as of right now and it's kinda cool in the apartment. but Not cold. it's definitly above 55F. (the minimum temperatures for these types of plants.) but i want it to be warm rather than cool. do you think it makes that big of a difference???! I think it should harden them and toughen them up a little if anything. any suggestions? How do you control the temperature in your grow room at "night"? Also should i not spray them or water them when its time to turn the lights off??? maybe it will chill them over-"night" (sound stupid?)

I left a dim light on facing away from the closet door while they are sleeping. Im tryin to draw the "gnats" out of the closet by way of light through the hairline cracks. I dont think the plants will be very affected by it. If anything it would emulate natural moonlight... and since they are seedlings... that maybe a plus.

(NOTE: Im also incredibly feverish this weekend so my initial feelings for temperature maybe skewed due to these dam chills.)



I will put photos up this evening of what the plants look like when i switch the lights back on.... ...fingers still crossed!




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just switched the lights on. plants look healthier. i think the darkness helped a lot. I wasnt sure if they would droop a little due to lack of light, but if anything they have "straightened Upwards" prolly cuz of the some "overnite" root growth....

Another SEEDLING POPPED UP FROM THE "BAD SEED CUP" if theres anymore i will assume that, maybe 24 hours floating in water maybe not enough for some strains. anyways. i think im gonna transplant them together into the same jugg. BAD IDEA??? the seedlings are in the bottom left cup of the first picture.

No signs of gnats today... and the syrup has trapped none overnite...

It's day 8 since germination.

The first pic is inside the tub looking healthy. You can see one of the small plates of maple syrup in the center down between the cups.

The second pic is of the closet setup. In a couple days im gonna transplant them over into 1-gallon juggs. in 6 days im switchin to 12/12 lighting. i first have to build a little grow room out of boxes... and then move them out of the closet.


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i started their 18/ 6 cycle yesterday, but today i was stuck in traffic and got them an hour late. i really need a "timer". Anyways, one extra hour of darkness cant hurt. i also did the math and if i kept subtracting one-hour a day they will be 12/12 by friday (2 weeks old) but i think im just gonna continue with teh 18/6 as best i can for the next week. tomorrow i transplant them. ((fingers crossed))