First grow ever - Nirvana NL, T5HO, and potting soil in closet

[p13m4n]

Hi all.

I'm growing for the first time ever; first, as in marijuana will be the first plant I ever grew. I've been researching for quite a bit, and here's my setup:
7'x2' Closet (81"x21" to be exact)
6 4' T5HO Fixture (6 6500K and 6 3000K bulbs)
2 5.5 oz pots for seedlings (I was wondering, what's with all the plastic cups? You can just grab a small pot for like 30 cents each.)
2 5 Gallon pots
Potting soil (2 parts Schultz Potting Soil Plus, 1 part Perlite, 1 part Vermiculite)
Northern Lights seeds from nirvana-shop.com

The seeds just got here - ordered on 10/08/09, received on 10/14/09. I put two on paper towels. They're nice and moist sitting on a plate on top of the cable box, with saran wrap then another plate on top.

I plan to LST them like this.

I can't find any AA batteries around my place, so pictures will come later.

Feel free to leave any comments about the setup and whatnot. Thanks.

[grim20]

looks like you got a good game plan good luck keep us updated

[p13m4n]

My thermometer placed on the plastic wrap reads about 30 °C, or 86 °F. Is that too high?

[grim20]

i would take it off the heat... they only need to be warm Ive germinated with room temp

[p13m4n]

Originally Posted by grim20

i would take it off the heat... they only need to be warm Ive germinated with room temp

I did feel that 30 °C might be too high. They're chilling in the closet now. Hopefully both female.

Also, check out my thread on pH meters from Hong Kong/China.

[p13m4n]

Damn, I'm impatient... I checked the seeds only after a couple hours - one had barely cracked; I put it in soil and waited a bit more for the other one, which grew a tiny taproot. Both are in soil, and I'm just waiting for them to pop out. I should go ahead and tie myself up so I don't go dig them up or anything. :/

[p13m4n]

Awesome! One of them popped up last night, and I'm still waiting for the other one to pop up. Pictures to come later today, when I get off my ass and get some batteries.

[p13m4n]

Okay, so apparently when I wrote, 'later today', I meant like two weeks later. Still, better late than never. In the meanwhile, the first one to pop was ripped up and uprooted by my dog, lived, later dropped, ripping off the roots again, and it's still alive; although obviously growth has slowed. Here are some pictures. The lights are pulled up about two feet from the plants, because I thought that might stretch them a bit so I can start tying them down to the egg crate early. No stretch so far. Should I just put it back down or pull it up higher? Also, there's definite yellowing at the edge of a leaf on the smaller one, and even the whole thing is slightly yellower than the other one. I'm thinking Nitrogen deficiency. What do you guys think?

[p13m4n]

Bump. Anyone?

[4gFrost]

I have not experienced that yellowing as young as they are. It does not seem to affect the new growth of the plant. Just the older blades.
They are almost 3 weeks old, A light dosage of nutes won't hurt, and How close do you have the lights to the plants?

[p13m4n]

I pulled the lights back down. They're about 6 inches from the soil surface.

Should I get 20-20-20, or 24-8-16? Google suggests that vegetating Cannabis likes Nitrogen more than others, so at this point, I'm thinking 24-8-16.

[4gFrost]

Yeah go with the one with the high nitrogen for sure. I came up on some 18-18-21 Miraclegro for tomatoes at teh do it center. The girls love it!

[p13m4n]

Welp, some more pictures. Let's call the smaller one A, and the bigger one B. I've transplanted A to the 5 gallon pot, soon after I took the pictures four days ago. Looking back, maybe I should have gradually gone up in size; apparently that's good for building stronger roots. Oh well. B's cotyledons are starting to yellow, and actually the first set of true leaves seem to have a slight hue of yellow as well. I went to the local big box hardware store, and they had replaced all the gardening supplies with Christmas decorations. It was kind of weird, seeing as how they had put up a big display of potted house plants around the entrance. The time release nutrients are keeping them alive and well for now, but I don't think they're growing as fast as they could. Compare the pictures with the ones from 4 days ago; is this a normal speed? Not to mention the overall size? What do you guys think?

[p13m4n]

Well, A is looking green and healthy, but now B is kind of droopy and yellower. I watered them both yesterday, but B hasn't improved too much. It's definitely not overwatering, since I let B dry out for more than a week. The soil was quite dry before I watered. Perhaps B has outgrown the time release nutrients. I've put out 2 gallons of water and put in 1/2 tsp of Miracle-Gro All Purpose 24-8-16. That's 1/4 the indication for houseplants and 1/12 the indication for outdoor plants. Should I put in some more? It's sitting out for now in order to let it warm down to room temperature.

[DeadbyDawn]

I know it's tempting to fert your seedlings but DON'T! I've been growing NL for 6 weeks now and they're doing GREAT!!! The only nutes they've been getting is Molasses. Nutes can BURN your seedlings or cause nute "Lockout" later in life!
Personally, I'd flush them in the next watering and then water as usual with NO NUTES for AT LEAST a couple more weeks!
Good Luck!