First Grow-Organic -Skunk #11-400wHPS-All Help Very Much Appreciated!

[DonLuigi]

Hey! Finally got everything together that I need to start my growing. I've had an experimental grow with Big Bud before but that all went to shit, I thought I was using 200w of CFL but it was only like 40w (damn equivalent rating ).

I will be growing 4 out of my 10 feminized Skunk #11 seeds for personal use. I have only bought the necessary items for vegging at the minute and I will return for the rest when I am flowering.
Here is what I'm using so far:

4x 11ltr Pots
50ltr Plagron Royalty Mix
250ml Plagron Start-Up (Organic)
400w Hydrolux HPS Ballast + Reflector
400w Vialox Nav-T Super (Son - T- Plus) 4Y (Will probably swtich to Sylvania Grolux when I get the funds)
2x Easy Roll Light Hangers
Digital Max/Min Hygro/Thermometer
14 Inch 3 setting Oscillating Fan
Electric Heater for flowering

I will be buying more things once I need to start flowering but that's all I need at the minute. I'm growing in my bathroom which I've painted white (although some of the crappy graffiti me and my friends drew still shows through after 4 bastardin' coats!). The plant sit in two drawers ontop of my toilet which I have painted white(you will see better when I get the pics up, They're not actually on inside drawers). I have a small extractor fan on the ceiling also.

I began germinating 4 seeds 2-3 days ago and they all germinated within 36 hours and I then planted them into small starter pots with spring water. Two had begun to break the surface last night and when I woke up this morning they had fully broken the surface but the leaves had not yet openend up yet, how long does this usually take?

Also I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me tips on humidity. Before I turned on the light and just had the heater in there, the humidity ranged from 45-56%. Now it stays at 35-38%, it goes up whenever I spray some water in the room. I also have a shallow dish of water beside the plants, a 10ltr open bucket of water in there and I even filled up the sink with water and it still isn't going up. Got any tips? I don't want my little seedlings to be in too dry and enviorment.

I will have pictures up within the next couple of days once I get some batteries for my camera.

Thanks for any help I get from you throughout this grow

[Mr.GoodStuff]

You should have a fan blowing across the top of the water to up the humidity more, or start your seeds in a propagation tray with a humidity dome instead next time. I don't think they will suffer in 40% humidity, especially with enough water, but that's just my guess. Marijuana is very adaptable, they should be fine either way.

I think the best solution would be a humidifier, but I don't think it's that necessary.

My veg tent sits around 40-50% humidity and they are totally fine, I just use a humidity dome and propagation tray for clones and seedlings- and that's the only time you really want the extra humidity. I don't think it's totally necesarry but it helps for sure.

[DonLuigi]

I may invest in a cheap humidifier then. I moved the fan back a bit so that when it's oscillating part of its path is blowing over the sink and the humidity is now at a steady 40% which I'm happy enough about for now. One sprout is begining to open quite nicely but the other seems to have something wrapped around it, keeping it from opening and it isn't the seed casing, is this normal?

Cheers

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Well I would hope it was the seed casing, if not you might want to remove it j/k

It's totally normal just be patient.

[HighHopes420]

did i miss what soil u r using? also, have u decided what ferts u want to use? going organics is great, but u should decide now and do some research. wed be glad to help ya!

[DonLuigi]

Yeah you missed it, it's on the list - Plagron Royalty mix. The guy at the store recommended that I use plagron nutes as he says they go well with the soil and have produced great buds for him. I'll be using start-up for a while, might switch to Alga-Grow. I'll be using Alga-Bloom for flowering I reckon.

If you have any better suggestions then I'd be glad to hear them

[HighHopes420]

no suggestions other than just go organics the whole time. dont mix chem and organics. u wont like the results i bet. how much vertical space do u have? with the sativa u probably with get a stretch going like most sativas tend to do. ill be watching this grow.....
edit: ur nutes arent time activated r they? and make sure u watch out for N defficiencies and make sure u dont over measure ur nutes per gallon on water. it is always better go go under than over.

[DonLuigi]

My actual liquid organic nutes aren't time released but there's worm castings and such in the soil so maybe they are, I don't know.

I will only be using organic liquids and plan to be very very cautious with nutrients, seen it fuck up too many grows. The start-up recommends 7ml per litre so I'll start quite a bit lower than that and work up. Won't be giving nutes for a good while as the soil should have alot in it. I have over 7ft of vertical space which should suffice, I won't be vegging for too long, until they're 18-20 inches.

[HighHopes420]

so ud say about 5 weeks veg time? i think in our box, ours were about 16 inches in 4-5 weeks and u have a sativa so i really dont know. i would suggest not nuting until week 4 of 24/0, but that is just my opinion. it really varies from person and strain. do u plan on cutting them, i mean top/fim or not?

[DonLuigi]

I am thinking of doing some LST but I don't want to fuck anything up on my first grow and I would like to hear about how well this strain reacts to LST, wether it is worth it and wether it will actually give more yield or just the same yield spread out over more colas. Any experience of this strain? It's probably a popular strain because it's Dutch Passions cheapest fem seeds.

[HighHopes420]

not me personally, but because it is grow season, i have access to dutch passions skunk #1. its at week 1 of 12/12 and is doing well. hes at a disadvantage from u though, he is using chemies lol. u got the seeds femmed? i guess thats not bad not worrying about male plants, but i find femmed seeds not as good and poorer results from what the exact same strain looks like/smokes like when it was just a pack of seeds not femmed. the skunk #1 isnt LST'd, but its topped and lookin ok, despite fert burned leave tips that r hardly noticable.

[DonLuigi]

I think that skunk #11 is just femmed #1 anyway. I can imagine why femmed seeds aren't as good because when you think about it - pollen from a male is going to be better than pollen from a hermie, at least that's what I reckon.

I'm thinking of maybe LST'ing one and topping one and leaving the other two growing normally and then at harvest check out the differences so that I can get to know this strain a bit, then on my next grow I can do what appears to work best.

It's just that a friend of mine has gone 50-50 with me on everything for the grow so we're halving the harvest and he may not approve of me 'fucking around' with the plants. I've already discussed several training methods with him, I can see how training would really benefit a sativa dominant strain like this if it responded well to it. Just gonna have to wait and find out..it's a long way to go...aye

[HighHopes420]

there r plenty of sites and books u can read up on training for this strain. i know a lot of strains dont do well when trained. but what u said is good, experiment with what u have thn go better next time. thats what most people do...

[DonLuigi]

I think I'm going to top them this grow, perhaps leave one without topping.

In other news, all 4 have broken the soil! The first that broke the soil is having most progress and has fully opened. The other which broke at basically the same time still hasn't broken and looks sealed by some translucent thing, better open, can't be arsed starting another seed.

[DonLuigi]

I don't know if it's worth me even posting this. I got some crap batteries for my camera so I was in a rush to take pictures before they ran out, out of 11 pictures, this is the only remotely recognisable one and it's still very shite. I tried to get pictures of the problem plant, but it turned out bad, I should have turned off the damn HPS. Also tried a few macro's to no avail.

I also watered them all when I was in there as they were all a bit dry, hopefully this spurs the rest of them on to open a bit



Lol, it's really shite, if you look at the back right pot, you can just about see the one that has opened.