Hero's Grow Quest Summer 2006

[TheFxckingHero]

Hey, guys. I decided to start up a grow journal finally. I am growing under a 400w HPS, currently feeding the plants with an all-purpose plant fertilizer equaling 24-8-16 NPK, and foliar feeding a diluted epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) solution with a misting bottle.

All plants are from various bag seed, except for one nirvana pure power plant, which I am hoping turns out to be a female. If it ends up being male I plan on using it to manually pollinate a few small buds to cross some decent genetics into the unknown bag seed strains to have some "home-made" seeds for a future grow. I will be buying quality seeds then as well of course, but the idea of crossing a few strains and seeing the results next grow sounds fun to me. All plants were started at different times, and there are currently 18 total -- 6 larger plants, and 12 seedlings, with even more on the way in the coming days.

Why so many, you ask? Well, I'm planning on a simultaneous indoor and outdoor grow. Some of the newer seedlings will be making a trip to an outdoor plot in 2 to 3 weeks when I feel they are big enough to take on the wild. I am planning on flowering 3 to 4 girls inside under the HPS, and estimating my outdoor plants will be ready for harvest roughly 2 months after the indoor plants. I will be covering both grows in this thread. I would also like to take clones in a few weeks, so I may begin to LST some of the larger plants soon to promote branching, but I haven't decided yet, so we'll see.

A few months ago I started a small grow, but problems arose and I had to get rid of my plants before flowering. So, I have a little experience growing, but this will end up being my first harvest. Over the past few months I have done a LOT of reading and learning, and recently I've spent a lot of time and money on this project. I am confident in my future results. Now it's time to put all of that knowledge and effort to work and gain some experience! (and hopefully some nice buds too)

I will be sure to put up plenty of pictures to make the thread more interesting while the grow progresses. Thanks for taking a look.

Picture 1: An overview of the grow space.

Picture 2: A view from the side under the HPS.

Picture 3: The largest plant at the moment, at its 7th node and beginning to push out branches below.

Picture 4: A fat indica baby seedling. This one varies from the others so far, appearing to be a pure or mostly indica, while the others all appear to be hybrids balanced or slightly leaning towards the sativa side.

Picture 5: Check this out. I have never seen a seedling do this. I know that the picture is blurry and I apologize, but look closely. There are two mysterious white points sticking out by the sides of the first true leaves. They look just like tiny pistils. I know that this isn't the case, but I found it interesting, as it is something I've never seen before. Any ideas?

[WGPsmoker420]

Ive seen that before in a seedling it turned out to be a mutant to so just killed it off.

[TheFxckingHero]

Hmm. Well, I'll see how it develops. Jeez 26 views and only one reply. C'mon, guys.

Here, I'll add some more pictures I took. These are not related to the grow -- just for fun.

1: Close up of a flowering cactus in my yard... I don't know what kind of cactus it is or anything, but I thought it looked pretty. Haha.

2: Close up of a rose, from a bush that has now died off... just a rose bush that sits in the yard that dies off and comes back to life over and over through out the seasons without any attention care given to it.

3: Close up of my marijuana giant. Hah, just kidding... I wish! It's a 30+ ft tall giant bush of bamboo in the corner of my yard. My pops planted that a long time ago... maybe 7 years ago? I'm not sure. It was only around 3 feet tall when it was first planted. Now, it is huge!

4: Another picture of the bamboo from farther away to show how big it really is. I should go chop one of those thick stalks and make a home-made bamboo bong. :P

5: My cat chillin' on one of my guitar amps.


Hope you guys like the pictures. I liked the way some of them turned out, so I wanted to share. The camera is only a crappy 2.2 megapixel digital, but I got some really nice close ups with it with some experimenting. Anyways, I'll be adding more pictures of the grow in maybe a week when it actually looks different. How was everyone's weekend? Any plans for memorial day (here in USA) tomorrow?

[nicho69]

nice looking grow
and nice pics

[TheFxckingHero]

Thanks, nicho. :]

[hippycracker]

Looks like your off to a fine start ! looking forward to more pics. Good luck! Here kitty kitty..lol

[TheFxckingHero]

Thanks, girl. :] Oh, and my cat is amazing. "Kitty" is her actual name. Haha, never got around to naming her... hah.

Small update on the grow:

I just took a look at the plants while misting them as they woke up, and a couple of them are starting to form preflowers around the 4th and 5th nodes. I think a few of you might jump at me saying it's too early to tell sex, but if you look up some more info there have been experts who commented saying a lot of plants begin to show preflowers at the 4th or 5th node when the plant is around the 7th or 8th node. This seems to be exactly the case for me. Keep in mind I can't yet see the actual preflowers, but the little flap of foliage that comes out covering them is clearly visible.

I spotted two on my largest plant and one on a plant about one node behind. I didn't check all of the plants yet, because I didn't feel like reaching back deep in the closet. However, the little preflowers are still covered up by that flap of foliage and still too small for me to easily pull back and examine the preflower for sex. I may be able to tell in about a week or so. Cross your fingers for me. Hoping for females.

[TheFxckingHero]

Well, the forum was down for a while. That was weird. Anyways, that seedling that had the two white points sticking out of it is definitely a mutant. It SPROUTED with two nodes already... and the bottom node leaves are mutated strangely... they are almost rectangular and webbed looking. The second pair of leaves looks normal though.

That indica seedling I showed a picture of is progressing quickly... It's a lot wider and fatter than any other plants I've seen growing. I' m guessing it is 100% indica.

I started LST on two of the plants lastnight. I already can see a little bit of growth on the branches. My goal here is not to create huge bushes... I'm just hurrying the branches growth along. I'd rather have about 6-10 fat colas per plant than 20+ small ones, so, I'm going to release them when the branches will be almost equal to the height of the main stem. If I like the results, I'll probably start training the other plants too.

The PPP was started about 10 days after the last of the other 5 larger plants. It's now on its 5th node and growing nicely. Seems like it is growing a bit faster than the others did, but that's probably because the others had some heat stress when they were young that I had to take care of. Hoping this is a nice pheno of the PPP.

I'll take more pictures in a few days.

edit: oh, P.S. - There is already a faint musty, skunky smell in there... It's not really strong yet, but I can definitely tell it's there when I walk into the closet, and they haven't even started flowering yet... I think some of these are going to be pretty smelly. Haha. I'll have to get some of you guys to help me with ideas of things to set up for odor control soon.

[TheFxckingHero]

Well, hardly anyone is really paying attention to this thread, but if any of you read this I need some help. One of my plants is starting to get a little nute burn and I'm definitely not going to feed it again for a while. Next time I go to water them (probably tomorrow) I am going to try to flush a lot of the nutes out, but I was wondering if there is anything else I can do other than flushing to help fix the over-fert problem. It's not too bad now, but I'm just playing it safe. Anything else to do besides flushing?

[nicho69]

as far as I know you flush and you wait
try to post some pics

[TheFxckingHero]

Alright, well I just finished flushing the 3 of them that had a little nute burn and let them drain before putting them back in the grow room. The others are just fine, no sign of problems. Hopefully the burned plants will not get any worse than they are now and just keep growing.

I also released the two that I had in LST, because I've decided I'm going to wait until I know which plants are female before I start taking all the time to tie down the plants. I really like how LST was working, so I will definitely go back to it as soon as I know I'm only left with females, but for now I'll just let them grow vertically.

I may need to go pick up a lens to see the preflowers clearly. Maybe I'll go to radioshack and pick up that 60x-100x illuminated microscope if they still have it. I saw somebody saying that they are going to discontinue it. I'll have to go check. I could use that to check out the trichomes later on too, so it would be pretty useful.

EDIT: I just checked online and apparently my local radioshack still has it in stock, so I think I'm going to pick that up later today, along with an xacto knife and a CFL to plug in a desk lamp later for taking clones, some more soil, and a light timer for the 12/12 in the near future. Lots of errands to run today. Updated pictures in a few days.

Also, I've got another question for anyone that can answer (I wish more people would look). I may end up deciding to veg a mother plant or two for a while inside so I can get a decent amount of clones. I don't have a second area to grow inside, but I have places to take plants outside. I was wondering if there is anything I can do to allow myself to bring plants that are outside back inside later without having to deal with bug problems. I've heard it's not a good idea to bring plants in the house from outside because of spider mites and other bugs, but if there's anything I can do to allow me to do this it may be able to help me soon with space. So, let me know if you've got an answer.

[hippycracker]

[quote=TheFxckingHero]Thanks, girl. :] Oh, and my cat is amazing. "Kitty" is her actual name. Haha, never got around to naming her... hah.

Thats awesome! Cats are great, have 2 of my own. Wish I could help as far as advice and such, its just not my department, no worries Im sure that you will get the answers you need. cant wait to see more pics. cheers!

[CronicSmoker]

Looks like your doing a good job... Solvin your own probs and everything.... The question about takin them outside... Youll just have to take the chance and see what happens... You dont have a greenhouse so there aint to much you can do becides sprays... Make sure there used for foods.... But i wouldnt worry about it to much... I would take them outside for w/e reason you said you had and then bring them inside when you do.....

I didnt read everything so i dont know the hole grow... If you need anything ulse just type it up....

There might be someone ulse that has a better way of doing the plants inside then outside then back inside thing....

[TheFxckingHero]

Alright, I just got back home. I spent about $35, and here's what I got:

+ Utility knife with razors -- for taking clones.

+ 3% Hydrogen Peroxide -- diluted to 30ml per gallon of water to prevent root rot, kill bacteria, and supply the roots with some extra oxygen

+ Appliance timer -- to turn the 400w hps on and off regularly on 18/6 and 12/12, so I don't have to do it manually

+ Pack of three 26w (100w incandescent equivalent) CFL's for rooting clones.

*** Question *** Are these CFL's okay? I have never used them before, because I just use the HPS, but the HPS will be too strong for clones so I decided to get some flourescent bulbs. Lowes had the same bulb, but made by Sylvania, for $7 for ONE of these bulbs. I got the 3 pack from walmart for $7, but these are the brand Soft White. I wasn't sure if these will work or not, but I got them because they're 3 for the same price, and I figured I would just ask here if they are okay to use. If they aren't, I'll take them back and get something else. So, yes/no on these CFL's? (pictures below).


Okay continuing with list:

+ Illuminated Mini Microscope 60x-100x magnification & AAA batteries -- for checking for preflowers and later looking at trichomes during flowering (and just playing with, because the thing is pretty cool... haha)

+ 80 more pounds of potting soil mainly for putting in holes for the plants that will be planted outside.

Here, I'll upload pics of the stuff while I eat my strawberry poptarts

[TheFxckingHero]

Adding another question now. For the first time I just went and measured my largest plant... it's on its 8th node and only 5 inches tall. I know that tight node spacing is a good thing, but is this far too short for being on its 8th node?

Still need the question about the CFL's answered too. I couldn't find their color spectrum anywhere on the box, but each bulb produces 1700 lumens. Will one or two of these in desk lamps overhead of a cloning chamber be enough light for clones to use but still stay in stasis and root?