First grow, from germ to harvest

[hitmanbob]

To start out, i'd just like to say that this is going to be updated daily(or as close too) and it will span the entire time of the grow. if you're looking for bud shots, wait till about mid october.

I've been planning this grow for about a month or so. I've been gathering supplies and settin up lights and shit in my basement and i finally got my seeds in the mail.

currently, i've got about:

12, 23 watt, 1700 lumen, red spectrum CFL's
8, 27 watt, 1300 lumen, blue spectrum CFL's
2, 40 watt, 2700 lumen, red spectrum CFL's
6, 40 watt, daylight 4 foot flouro tubes

llumen output(all lights): 43450
wattage: 705

i'll be growing in MG organic choice soil with added perlite and vermiculite and will be using vitastart transplanting fertilizer throughout the grow. the ferts are 4-10-10 and its supposed to promote new root growth for recently transplanted plants so i figure it will promote root growth.

i'm germinating the seeds now and i'll be updating this thread

pics of the grow room and lights in the next few days

[hitmanbob]

so i germinated the seeds this morning, they are Northern Lights Special from K.C. Brains seeds, just put in a paper towel in a tupperware thing.

got my plastic cups filled with soil and ready to grow the babies in.

heres a pic so far

Day 0:

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Good luck man, hope things turn out well for you!

[hitmanbob]

just checked in on the babies.

The one NL seed thats germinated so far was put in soil 2 days ago and has just broken the surface. it's about a half inch tall. the 2 haze seeds that germinated are in soil and have yet to break through the soil.

i'll take some pictures of the grow set up tomorrow, not that its at all interesting. just 2 daylight flouros and 2 cool white flouros in a littlespace blanket enclosure.

i have 3 more NL seeds that havent sent out taproots yet. is there a timeline for when seeds should be deemed "dead", like after a week of the wet papertowel is it good to assume it's dead?

thanks for anyone that responds.

[hitmanbob]

just took some pics of the setup. it's a hassle to get in their, but if i was any taller/fatter i couldn't fit through the 33x10 inch gap that i use to get in. hooray for crawlspace!!!




heres the baby NL and one of the baby haze plants. the haze plant has literally broken through the surface in the last 2 hours.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Originally Posted by hitmanbob

i have 3 more NL seeds that havent sent out taproots yet. is there a timeline for when seeds should be deemed "dead", like after a week of the wet papertowel is it good to assume it's dead?

thanks for anyone that responds.

They can take awhile sometimes... Brokencage tossed out a seed after a week trying to germinate it and it sprouted in his compost pile. It is now being flowered and doing well.

I wouldn't count them out for at least 10 days, I waited a couple weeks for a few duds in my first grow. Normally they take a couple days though, for it to take so long is weird, but apparently it's normal.

[hitmanbob]

thanks man

so i just checked on the sprouts.

1 more has popped up, but it seems like they are tall for how developed they are. I'm really hoping its not them stretching. they are all about an inch tall with the coyteldons or w/e they are called and small leaves starting to develop. they are about 2 or 3 inches away from the 4 daylight flouro's i have set up.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Everything sounds good, I dont think they could be stretching that close to the light- so just give them some time and they should start making nodes.

[hitmanbob]

thanks. i'm just anxious about this whole thing and i guess im gettin a lil paranoid

though it might be this strong sativa bud i've been smokin

[Mr.GoodStuff]

You'll do fine, just have some more faith in yourself bro.

[hitmanbob]

heres some pictures of the baby plants.

first one is the NL, and the other 2 are the Haze special

[hitmanbob]

I'm insanely bored and i'm not doing much for the next few months, so i think im gonna try and do a daily photo update of the plants from now on. maybe when it's all done i'll throw all the pictures together and make an animated .gif of the grow or somethin.

anyways, here they are, first leaves are starting to develop, the first haze plant seems to be growing faster than the other 2.

NL



Haze #1



Haze #2

[greeny909]

Originally Posted by hitmanbob

and will be using vitastart transplanting fertilizer throughout the grow. the ferts are 4-10-10 and its supposed to promote new root growth for recently transplanted plants so i figure it will promote root growth.

Looks good so far, you certainly seem to have enough CFL's, lol. Is that the only fert that you're going to use throughout the entire grow ? Like the name says, isn't that just for when you transplant ? You're going to use it for regular feeding also in veg & in flower ?

[hitmanbob]

thats the fert that im going to use for veg. i'm a little strapped for cash right now but hopefully that'll change. whats the ferts i want for veg versus flower? i've heard that you want something high in middle number(phosphorus, right?) for flower, but what about veg?

[greeny909]

Originally Posted by hitmanbob

thats the fert that im going to use for veg. i'm a little strapped for cash right now but hopefully that'll change. whats the ferts i want for veg versus flower? i've heard that you want something high in middle number(phosphorus, right?) for flower, but what about veg?

Your soil already has some nutes in it, though I've never used that soil before. That fert that you mentioned is not too good for veg I think, here's why:

Ferts have a N - P - K ratio to them.

You want more N when you veg, and your fert has more P and K than N.

From what I understand:

N is for leaf development
P is for root development
K is for flower (buds) development

If your soil has a lot of nutes in it, which it claims to have, then you might not even have to feed at all for quite a while. As long as the plants look healthy, then they're doing ok. You want to be careful with overfeeding.