Good Morning from "Someday it's going to be sunny again" southern California, and welcome to The Node. Please refer to me as Ock - it's easier to type. This first post will be a bit long as I tell about myself and my set up and my goals on my first grow. Obviously, all input is highly welcome, but understand I'm a beginner, and the "sub name" of this grow is a dedication to the meaning behind the phrase "Ockham's Razor" which, loosely translated is "Keep it simple, stupid." My personal history is kind of amusing (so I'm told) and so for entertainment purposes, I'll give the short version that ends with me typing this. I'm 48 years old. I retired from 20 years of active duty military service at the end of March. In the military, my job was to play the piano. Yes, that is the amusing part. I've been playing piano for the federal government for 20 years, and you guys that are American Taxpayers have been paying me to play things like Toto's "Africa" for schools of orphans IN Africa. I don't care how you slice it - that's good times That aside, I am now a Medical marijuana patient in California. Two days before retirement, I went for my appointment. My MMJ card has a ghost image of my active duty military ID card on it. And come on - that's amusing too, no? So I've been retired for 29 days, and smoking again for 31 It's nice after 20 years to enjoy a little well earned freedom. So now - to the grow. No pun intended, but I'm not going to get into the weeds on this grow. This grow assumes some pretty simple stuff. Food + light + water = plant. My efforts in this grow will be to provide "clean" basics for the plant and see what happens. By "clean" basics I mean not just watering, but checking water PH first, etc...I'm just providing basics this first time, but those basics will be "correct." I live in a 6 bedroom house with just my wife. The bedroom with no windows is now my grow room. I have christened my grow room as "The Node." Currently that room is full of crap, so I have to clean it out, but it should be perfect. It has an attached large closet which I am using for seedlings (as you'll see). Seeds: Afropips Malberry - Malberry is the first strain I chose to try. I didn't have access to cuttings or seeds, so I just went to some huge seed retailer and shopped until I found a hybrid I liked. Malberry is a cross between Malawi Gold (Sativa) and Blueberry (Indica). So far, 8 of the 10 seeds ordered have germinated. I'm hoping the other 2 just show up late. Lights for seedlings: I bought a 4 foot dual fluorescent strip "shop light" and have two 32W 6500K T8 Daylight bulbs in it. I use some simple link chain and S-hooks to suspend the shop light at the height I wish using the clothes hangar bar in the closet. I can touch the bulbs and they aren't even warm to the touch, so the light is suspended 1 inch over my babies' heads. I leave these lights on 24/24. Soil: I started the babies on some Miracle grow potting soil rated at 10/5/5. I have not picked my main medium yet, so input welcome. Remember, I'm sure your fancy tricks are awesome for an experienced grower, but I'm a noob, so simple suggestions for the moron, k? Thanks Ventilation: Ok this part will get tricky and will be in development as I proceed. Right now, plants one inch tall aren't aspirating much, but CO2/humidity/and heat levels are all things I'll have to watch out for working in a room with no windows. As far as I can tell, at the moment, I'm going to need 2 6" inline fans. One fan will pull hot air from the light and vent it - somewhere. Not sure where I'm going to cut vents yet. It's a two story house, this room is downstairs. Simple solution is to just cut through the door, but if something more elegant occurs to me, I may switch that up. The second inline fan is just to make a DIY carbon scrubber with. That part should be easy, and I have up until flowering to get that done. The plan is to grow these babies to about 5 feet under a 1000W MH then switch them to 1000W HPS on a 12/12 for flowering. I will be rooting a cutting from each and labeling so I can choose a mother from the female that grows the strongest. I'm hoping that the one lamp will be sufficient to penetrate the canopy once they're all vegged out. I tried to inline some photos, but the links aren't working for me. I have my own webspace, so if I don't figure this out, I'll just upload the pics to my own site and link them here. Welcome to the Node.
This is The Node - still full of a bunch of junk I need to remove. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/IMG_0403.JPG And this is The Node Seedling Closet: http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/IMG_0403.JPG Here are the 8 babies that showed up by day 2. Notice that #1 brought a friend. No idea what that is - I'm sure I only put one seed in that cup - twins? Beats me - someone tell me what to think on #1's buddy, please. I won't overload the journal with pics of all 8 every day. This is just to get us started. As the daily changes are less evident, so shall be the pics I take. For now, here are the Fisher Price My First Marijuana Grow contenders. 1. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_1.jpg 2. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_2.jpg 3. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_3.jpg 4. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_4.jpg 7. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_7.jpg 8. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_8.jpg 9. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_9.jpg 10. http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_A.jpg
Get fox farm soils and nutrients. and just so you know, plants get 2-3x the size you start their flowering in. So flowering at 5 Feet will be quite a plant...
Krop, that's good info. How much room should I allow for flowering? How much more in feet will they grow once I send them to flowering?
Uh - my bad. You said 2-3x. Ok, well I'm gonna have to play it by ear, I guess. No room for a 15' plant, but I don't want to start them flowering at 3' either. It's going to be fun to see how this grow goes.
18" really? Well, the beautiful thing about this is I have nothing to lose and everything to gain as far as knowledge goes. And I do admit - a 15' plant would rule I'll take some more pics and post them in a week. That should be plenty of time for everyone to convince me to turn my extra bedrooms into "facilities."
Depending on the buckets you use, the lighting setup and the height of your ceiling you are able to let it go longer to get 5-6 feet or whatever you feel you can handle.
You can always train the plants with Low Stress Training, if height is going to be any issue. I also recommend you top the plants once you see parallel nodes, this will at least double the amount of main kolas on the plant each time you do it. As for soil, you can go with Fox Farm Ocean Blend like every other un-creative grower, but if you really want to get dirty with it, get Black Gold. Also, make sure you get High Pressure Sodium lights if a couple hundred bucks isn't a big issue and make sure the room is painted bright white with the exhaust of the ventilation blowing up and out of your home like a chimney.
hey man.. GL with the grow you can let them grow to 2ft and tie them town a little since your running a 1000w it should be no problem. definitely don't veg them yo 5 feet some people have bad luck with that MG soil.. so be careful and do not feed them at all for a few weeks. if you haven't put the seeds in dirt yet, then you may want to think about something organic without so much added ferts.. baby weed doesn't like strong chemicals. cheers man..
Thanks for all the responses and well wishes and the good advice (And the pic of the 15' plant adds just the right level of entertainment to the thread ) Just a couple of things - #5 and #6 have been declared no shows. I poked around the soil in those two cups seeing if I could find the seeds to see if they'd done anything at all. Apparently #5 couldn't shake the seed husk and was tied in knots (beyond redemption) about 1/4" below the surface. I never even found #6, but this morning the remaining 8 babies look very happy and healthy. @AugustWest: I had read about the MG problems and bought the Organic one. I suppose the point of a grow journal is to post EXACTLY what you do. So amend my current soil to: Miracle Grow Organic Choice Potting Mix 10/5/5. @SFV: Since I'm trying to keep the number of variables down by keeping things as tried, true, and tested as possible, I'll likely go with the Fox Farms deal, too. But my memory is a steel trap, and the phrase "Black Gold" is now stuck in there for observation later Looks like I also need to google parallel nodes and Low Stress Training Thanks. @Kroptonic: You mention buckets, and I had been wondering - so this question is for all - 5 gallon buckets with drainage holes and about 2-3inches of gravel at the bottom? That about what I'm looking for? Thanks again, community! I will be taking some more pics tomorrow and will post them weekly after that.
P.S. Regarding this photo: http://www.ockhamsrazor.org/grow1/429/4_29_1.JPG Anyone have a clue who the little buddy is?