Nebula and WhiteWidow/XXX Grow Journal

[FraggleRocks]

Hey folks,

Here starts my belated growing journal in which you will find my experience with growing ffice:smarttags"Paradise Seeds “Nebula” and also 420SeedBank’s “White Widow/XXX”.
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This is my first time growing and I decided to start to a complete grow indoors as i live in the city and there’s no place to plant these sweet babies. Now, let’s get onto the details of this setup!
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The Closet is 2ft deep, 3.5ft wide and 5ft tall, I built it out of cheap 1/8" fiber board and a lot of screws/elbow joints, built the beast for about $300 and it should last a few years or at least until I get busted lol. I have 2 fans inset on the walls. I just went and bought the biggest computer fans I could find which happen to be 12mm cheapo from a Future shop. The intake is mounted at the top so as to provide cooling to the light, and the exhaust is at the lower level. I mounted a square carbon filter over the exhaust hole as well. The fans are running on a modified power supply that I built in college, which is really just a standard 250W ATX power supply with the ATX connecter removed and given their own terminals. I just dug the thing up and hardwired my fans to it with banana plugs. I always knew college would benefit me one day!
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The Hardware:<O
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450W Metal Halide system<O</O
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I bought a 450W setup from my local Hydroponics store, as far as I can tell its a no name model as there are no visible markings on it, cost was $300 or so, not exactly sure as I bought other things during the visit, more on that later.
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Bulb<O

The bulb I am currently running is a Sunmaster 400W Neutral Deluxe , its definitely bright enough for the size of space I have and it generates quite a bit of heat even with the fans on, the temp stays at a stead 40’C with humidity usually at 20.
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Growing Medium and Nutes<O
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As for the growing medium at containers, I bought four 6” self water pots from Wal-Mart and filled them with PRO-MIX BX which I bought at the Hydroponics shop as well.
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I bought Dutch Nutrients GRO A&B solution for the grow stage and have used it sparingly as I will detail later.
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The Breeds:
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Part 1: Germination
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I was originally going to do the towel method, but didn’t like the idea of the seeds possibly drying up while unattended, so instead I just put my 5 seeds into a half cup of water with 1ml of peroxide (the stuff your mom used to throw at you like holy water when you got a cut). After about 24hours I could see they were starting to split and little root lings poking out. Remember to keep them in a dark place when doing this your self, as they don’t like light in this stage!
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Now that the seeds were ready they were placed into the soil and given 250ml to keep them moist and encourage growth and possibly premarital sex…wait, what?
*24hrs prior to the germination I had watered the ProMix pots to ensure it was ready for planting.
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Now that the seeds were planted they were watered with 250ml every day for a week with 24hrs of light.
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Eventually they rose up but one died, which is why I tossed a White Widow in to the mix, way to go White Widow! Takin one for the team…thata boy.
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Week 1<O
The plants were given a steady diet of water morning and night in doses of 250ml, this is my first grow, so I wasn’t sure how much they needed exactly in relation to heat/lighting conditions, so that’s what I did to make it easier on my nerves. Alas the plants grew fine and began looking like real plants after about a week.
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Weeks 2-4
The plants grew quite rapidly in this phase, I added in a water of nutes two days a week to encourage growth, but I chose to not increase the frequency of the nutrient waterings as I was not familiar with it and was not interested in burning my plants…well, I am interested in burning them, but that will have to wait till harvest. In week 4 I was called out of town for a personal reason and left the plants without water for 48hrs, I returned to find one plant in rough shape and the others were fine. I brought it back through a good watering and its back in action with the rest now.
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Who can read at a time like this! What about the Widow man?!
Ok, so your probably wondering how the WhiteWidow/XXX faired since it was pretty much started a week behind the rest, well Im happy to say that this little beastie is a true performer and has caught up with the Nebulas quite easily, although it doesn’t seen to have as many chutes as the Nebulas, but Im sure they will come in good time.

Below are some photos of the plants at their current stage as of March 26th. Sorry about the lack of photos prior to this but I didnt know these journals existed till now. I will be taking some more shots tonight as they have grown since this shot.




Alrighty, well hit me up with some messages or suggestions or what not, ill check back often. Im going to try and post some more pics of the plants tonight or tomorow as they have gotten a little larger, I think I will bloom them in about 4 days as they are at about the 1ft mark.

[urgr8estfear]

20% RH humidity is way too low. Aim for 50%.
40 Celcius is like growing near the gates of hell .....only a few more degrees and they're dead. 25 Celcius should be your aim.

The biggest issue are the temps.
If you ventilate enough and keep the temps at 25C your RH% will go up quite a bit and maybe even hit 40% which is pretty much the bear minimum.

To be honest your plants show it, that their being baked a bit, so give 'em a breeze and ventilate ventilate ventilate!
If you do your plants will thank you for it and show it off too!

[FraggleRocks]

Thanks for the tips. Im trying to ventilate as best as possible, but these damn things reek! I'll try putting some containers of water in there to up the RH. The center plant looks rough because it was the one the that got the worst of the 48hr dry spell. Ill update tomorow.

[FraggleRocks]

OK, so I opened up the doors on the hut to ventilate better as thats the easiet way for me to do so right now and I placed a bowl of water in there to up the RH, I have the temp down to 30'C and the RH is at 33% , so thats about as good as its going to get with the current setup I have. Im begining to think that when flowering time comes around its going to be a real pain as the odour is just going to get worse and I may not be able to keep the doors ajar...ZOIKS! Can someone tell me how to embed my pics into my post instead hotlinking the damn things?

I also topped my ugliest plant to make it worth growing a bit more, hopefully it shapes up in time for bloom which I want to start in 4 days. I'll post some pics as soon as I can figure out how to imbed them!

Use the attachment feature....it's the paperclip next to the smiley face in the window when you write a post.

Yes getting the temps right is a pain...you are doing much better, but to get humidity higher I went on to eBay and got a humidifier for £20...worth the layout for sure.
Have you lined the cupboard with Mylar? Makes a lot of difference.

LST like mad and keep the plants flat to the soil after a couple of leaf sets. If you can get your light any higher that of-course will make all the difference, but I think you said you have it as high as you can get it. After that perhaps the only thing left to do is buy an in line fan (or two!) so you can draw air into the cab. You will need a carbon scrubber if you don't have one already, and of-course that means another in line fan. I use one in line with filter and one large desktop fan. I think I have more space than you height-wise and still I am trying hard to control heat and ventilation. (Mine is 400W MH/HPS also)

Also: I bought a heat shield that fits onto my reflector and this made a difference too. If you are UK you might care to visit eBay and have a look at Starfish-Supplies. They do the heat shields.

[FraggleRocks]

Thanks for the tips Squidgey, I wish I could jam some fans in there or a humidifier, but between the plants and the lamp theres nowhere to jam them in. On top of that Im renting this apartment so I cant vent outside yet, im in Canada, so its hot in the day and very cold over night, but as soon as its a steady warm temp I think Im going to run some HVAC hose from the out out a window.

Im currently looking around at the local dollar stores here for a mini battery operated oscillating fan ( let me catch my breath after that one!) I know there around somwhere, and Im just going to wire it up to my power supply and stick it to the wall of the grow hut, that should help.

Also, yes my hut is lined with Mylar so reflection of light is doing well and making good use of the bulb, and I also have a shield over the top of the light, which I guess is also a reflector. Thanks for the info on emedding pics, ill post some tonight as Im at work at the moment, I guess I should LST my plants when I find out more about doing it.

Well you said that you will be flowering in 4 days...so the obvious thing to do I suppose is lights on at night when outside temps are lower and off daytime. This will help just a bit more. The humidifier is small...probably the size of the bucket of water you have in there? The tank only carries 1.5L.

Those plants look nice!! It's a bit late to be using LST, especially with DierWolf's pegging down method, but others tie down with string, so you could consider that. Only thing is some of the best advice is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and your plants are peachy...so perhaps best to continue as you are without LST, read DierWolf's thread and go for it on your next grow.

[FraggleRocks]

Hey,

So I finally got around to taking some pics last night, the plants are doing well and I feel the pics dont really do justice as they make the plants appear a little less healthy in terms of color and such. My topping of the weakest Nebula worked fine, so that was a bonus. I can honestly say that the WhiteWidow/XXX is a damn strong plant and grows very rapidly when compared to the Nebs. The temperature is still hovering at 30ish and the RH is usually at about 33%, I checked the history on the thermometer and overnight temps with the light going are around 18'C. I dont believe I mentioned it before but these have been vegging under 24/7 lighting conditions since sprout and they seem to love it. Anyhoo, I think Im going to start the first 12hrs of dakness begining at 9am tomorow, the plants seem to be big enough now and if I let them get any bigger it could cause problems with having enough space to accomodate the bloom. Im going to the Hydroponics store this weekend to get some bloom nutes, I think im going to go with something from Advanced Nutrients like Sensi Bloom or maybe Dr.Hornby's Big Bud, im open to suggestions about my bloom and nutes, so let me know your opinions.
The last pic of the 4 is a close up of the WW/XXX just FYI

[FraggleRocks]

Hey folks,

Here are two pics of one of my Nebula plants, im not sure if this thing is going male or female, and ideas? Theres hairs elsewhere on the plant going on, but these things are right at the top where I had topped it a few weeks back, they look like they could sprout some hairs, but theres a white sort of ball inside those pods, but not sure if its just hair in progress, color me n00b but any help would be appreciated!

[Ganjagod85]

Male ...........kill him

[FraggleRocks]

Alright,

Thanks for the help, I pulled that male this morning, and Im going to just let him grow on top of my TV for awhile, I think I will make some butter out of him or something, I could kill it I suppose, but I might as well get some THC out of it. Im going to get some more pics of the plants posted tonight, there just entering 2nd week of bloom, sorry that I havent been updateing lately but I was on night shifts and had no time
Now Im on days and can actually get some photos uploaded and such. My friend just hooked me up with some free Nutes over the weekend, so my looks like I will contiue using Dutch Nutrient formula for the Bloom period, but of course I will be switching to the newly acquired Bloom formula (A/B) with my watering tonight.

[FraggleRocks]

Hey all,

Alright, I found another male in the bunch, so I removed that mofo and put him in the bathroom, let him live for awhile, I dont have the heart to kill it lol.

Also, started my bloom nutes tonight, my timer seems to be working good, and no failures yet, pretty good for a home depot jolopy. I took some new pics tonight, Im down to 2 Nebulas and 1 WhiteWidow/XXX. Hopefully the WW stays on the female side of the fence, as Im looking forward to seeing this thing bud. Also gave the babies a foliar spray of DutchMaster Folitech, its a 1:12:10 formula. Im not sure if its a bad idea to spray and water with nutes in the same night, if anyone has some input on that I would be open to changing my application for sure. Anyways, here some pics and Im crossing my fingers that these 3 will not turn to males!

The pics attached are:

1. A nebula in its 2nd week of bloom, man do these things stretch!
2. A close up on the top of that same Nebula plant. Bring on the hairs!
3. A pic of the WW/XXX, what a nice thick plant that is.

Let me know whats up! Thanks!

[SmknVTEC]

Nice grow mang. Glad you got those temps under control. I know you don't have the heart to kill that male but, if he pollinates your female, they will be very low on THC and have seeds in them. By the looks of that picture of him, he is very well developed.

I don't mess with hash because there is really an absolute as to how high you can get and it is mostly dependent on the quality of the genes and how well it was grown. Plus the process is really long and time consuming.

My sister and B/F brought home some Amsterdam weed with some hash one time. The weed was so good that the hash we put on it really didn’t make us that much more high. I felt as if it was a waste of money and so did he; that hash is very expensive.

Anyway, best wishes on this grow.

[FraggleRocks]

Hey,

Just so you all know, I did remove the males (2 of the rotten SOB's!) from the closet and they are now growing on top of my toilet now. Lots of light in the bathroom during the day and now the males can live on for awhile. Ill continue to feed them and such, but in a way they will be treated like a red headed stepchild, just let the live by but no special treatment!

My females are doing good, Im hoping they wont stretch anymore becuase I've got only 2-6 inches of wiggle rooom for my light in terms of raising it any higher, so Im hoping the stretching at the tops soon slows. I did the foliar feeding and nutes last night, so tonight I will do a regular watering, do you guys feed nutes heavily during this phaze, or should I only be delivering the nutes 2 times a weekish? Im kind of scared to shock them this late in the growing stage as I dont want to effect my blooming.

I've settle on just chopping up the males in like 2 weeks or less and just making some butter out of them, mmmmm cookies.

[deadfulwu]

Nice grow... Any new pics?
I want to see the white Widow esp... one of my fav smokes i've tried..
Not sure about the Nebula? any more info on that strain?
Why even risk keeping the males???
Are you planning on raising the plant for the seeds? im assuming...

later