My First Hindu Kush CFL Grow - COME ONE COME ALL

WELCOME! Thanks for stopping by to check out my setup. I will try to update as much as possible and provide as many pictures as possible to keep you guys interested.

I've been a medical patient since 2010, and I love the new comfortable lifestyle that medical cannabis has helped facilitate. With that being said, weed in SoCal is darn expensive, especially if you smoke multiple times a day to relieve your symptoms; so I thought I might give self-sufficiency a try. Please feel free to comment as this is also a learning experience for me as well as you. Enjoy!

Here's What I'm Currently Working With:
Fox Farms Ocean Forest Potting Soil

Marijuana Horticulture - The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible, by Jorge Cervantes
Four 26w compact fluorescent lightbulbs, 5000K attached to clamps
Manual pH testing kit
12" pot (5 gallons, I'm not 100% sure though)
16" Honeywell fan
Reverse-Osmosis H2O, balanced at 7.0
Feminized Hindu Kush seed, bought from The Farmacy. $30 for 10 seeds was a great deal!



My Wishlist

105w CFL 2700K for flowering
Digital pH meter
Moisture meter
Thermometer/Hygrometer
FoxFarms Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom OR Beastie Bloomz and Cha Ching (anybody have experience with the water-soluble granular fertilizers vs. the liquid concentrates?)


OR

Edited by Count, 03 May 2010 - 10:36 PM.

SEEDLING STAGE
April 3, 2010: Soaked seed in H20 for 24 hours.
April 4, 2010: Moved seed to moist paper towels and enclosed in a tupperware.
April 5, 2010: 36 hours later, a white root emerged from the tip of the seed. I planted her in a Jiffy sphagnum peat pellet within the bigger pot of soil, covered her with Saran Wrap, and sat her under the lights.
April 7, 2010: We have liftoff! I removed the plastic wrap and rearranged the lights to sit 3" above the seedling.


I checked on her 12 hours later and the stem kinda grew about a half inch.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 08:57 PM.

Seedling Stage
April 9, 2010: At 10:30 am, the seedling had still not shed the cap. At 4:20 I checked her again, and she already sprout her first set of leaves!


I watered her with 1.5 L of water, and smoked in her honor.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 08:58 PM.

Seedling Stage
April 10, 2010: I re-read Cervantes' section on transplanting, and I realized I should have cut the netting around the jiffy cube before planting the seed. When I tried to cut away the netting, some of the roots had become tangled with the netting and some of the roots got ripped clean off when I removed the netting. I expect to see some stunted growth, and wouldn't be surprised if she took a week or so to resume growth.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:00 PM.

Seedling Stage
April 14, 2010: Today I named the plant Indira, after Indira Gandhi of India. I figured since this is a Hindu Kush, I might as well give her an Indian name. She is looking good despite the transplant disaster. She is growing everyday now, but her leaves are a little droopy, which I blame overwatering. The first pic shows a little purple tinge, which would be awesome if I had some purple traits come out during flowering stage.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:03 PM.

Seedling Stage
April 15, 2010: Indira is turning out to be quite squat. This morning I rearranged the lights to hover 3" above the plant. Later that day, my 105w CF bulb came in the mail and I positioned it about 5" from her leaves (1000bulbs.com). I am considering raising the lights to induce a little stretching.



April 16, 2010: Indira is coming along nicely... haven't watered her since the 13th so I think she's good for a couple more days.


April 18th, 2010: Watered Indira with 1.5 L of H20, although I may have watered her too soon. The leaves are a little droopy and tinged bright green. Also, I have noticed for the past couple of days an irregular leaf formation. Check out the second set of leaves, left side. I am almost certain that the botched transplant is the main causal factor. I hope Indira stays strong and resilient.


April 19, 2010: Noticed a couple gnats flying around, could be harmless but I think I'll get sticky-strips to trap them.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:11 PM.

Vegetative Growth (13 Days Since Germination)
April 20, 2010: Happy 420! Even though it's been less than two weeks, I think Indira has started her vegetative stage. I topped her today at the 5th node; I firmly pinched the growth and twisted off. The first pic was taken in the morning, where you can barely see the 5th set coming in. I rearranged the lights to about 1'4" above her to induce a little stretching.


Second and third pic were taken after topping.


April 22, 2010: Still no sign of the two new growths. I'm beginning to wonder if I topped correctly. On a side note, there is a lot of new growth on the bottom leaves.


April 23, 2010: Today, I went out and bought FireFox GrowBig for $13 and some sticky fly paper. I will begin the fertilization schedule tomorrow. I set up the sticky paper close to the plant and let her be.


But when I came back to check on her a couple hours later, the fly paper had fallen over and stuck to a part of Indira! FUCKKKKK! I tried to peel it away as slowly as possible, but ripped off a big chunk of her leaf. I feel so stupid because I also fucked up the transplant, and I really hope I didn't do any long term damage. I better go smoke before I get depressed

Evidence Room Exhibit A


Evidence Room Exhibit B

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:18 PM.

Vegetative Stage (17 Days Since Germination)
April 24, 2010: Geez this watering business is harder than I thought it would be. Currently, I'm using these 1.5 L plastic water bottles that I fill up from my kitchen sink (my reverse-osmosis system is set up to run through the whole house). But the directions on the GrowBig bottle said to use 2-3 teaspoons per gallon, and I only had a tablespoon measuring spoon.

So I had to do some math to convert gallons to liters and teaspoons to tablespoons get the number to tablespoons per liter (anybody remember dimensional analysis from AP Chem?) And with some guesswork, I hopefully got the right amount. I guess this is where a ppm or EC meter would come in handy . Also still impatiently waiting for that 3-in-1 meter to come.

Anyways, these are two pictures of Indira right after I watered her with GrowBig.


And these pictures were snapped 2 hours later. Look at the difference, Indira loves this stuff!


I'm also excited because two new sets of leaves are just starting to growing right on the main cola. We'll see how fast these puppies grow with the nutes mwahahaha. That is, if I don't fuck up.

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:23 PM.

Vegetative State (20 Days Since Germination)
April 27, 2010: Indira is looking very good after the nute shot, although I should remember not to pour the water directly onto the leaves, as I can see some signs of nitrogen overdose on the top leaves but the bottom leaves look great! I think I'll increase the amount to 75% strength next time.


Also, the two new growths where I topped are coming in nicely.


April 30, 2010: Hello everybody! I hope y'all had a good April. Indira is looking great, although I think I should lower my lights a little. As of now, they are about 1' away from the plant, and since they're CF's, I should put 'em 6" from her. She's about 6" tall and her fan leaves are blowing up like balloons. I watered her today with 3 L of H2O without nutrients, and I'm still waiting for that friggin moisture meter to finally come in the mail to make my life exponentially easier.


Bird's eye of the two mains growing in from the topping site. C'mon baby grow!


Things are running smoothly, although I do have one concern. Some parts of the fan leaves are curling downward. The parts that are curled feel dry and crusty and not as soft as the other parts of the leaf. I'm guessing this could be from underwatering, but I will never know until this stupid meter comes. Any advice?

Edited by Count, 02 May 2010 - 09:29 PM.

So I'll update tomorrow after I fertilize, I promise.

In the meantime, here's a cool picture of Indira. The fan is blowing on them from the bottom right.


When I snapped this shot, I noticed the two books that I absentmindedly chose to support the pot.


That's some pretty deep symbolism right there. It blew my mind away lol.

Your set up looks nice man. I don't know why she is growing so short and not spreading. Other then that she is looking really strong.

Your set up looks nice man. I don't know why she is growing so short and not spreading. Other then that she is looking really strong.

hey ismoker thanks for checkin in!

she is short cause i have the lights about 4-6 inches from her, plus i topped her not too long ago. shes gradually getting bushier underneath though so i'm not too worried.

Thank you all for stopping by!

Enchantment by Marc Chagall

Vegetative Stage (26 Days Since Germination)
May 3, 2010: I heard the other day that you can't really overdose on fertilizer on a plant that's in vegetation; once it's in the flowering stage then you have to be careful not to overdose. So instead of giving Indira a half dose of the light feeding - which is 2-3 teaspoons per gallon - I gave her a full dose. I'll monitor closely for any signs of burn or overdose.

It was such a nice, sunny day out! At 10:30 am it was already 78 degrees, so I let Indira sit outside for an hour to soak up some natural sunlight. My question is would giving the indoor plant some natural sunlight for a prolonged period make any difference in quality or quantity?



Moved her back inside and snapped these pics 5 hours later.




When do I start the 4-Way LST?

Edited by Count, 03 May 2010 - 10:42 PM.

May 3, 2010: I re-read LBH's 4-Way LST Tutorial http://forum.grassci...b-tutorial.html

LBH said to top every 3rd growth set from each of the two mains that grew in from where I topped on the 5th site. I decided to give the FIM technique a try because quite frankly I was too impatient to wait a while week for the tops to come in. I cleaned a sharp knife from the kitchen, placed the growth in between my finger and the blade, and pressed the blade against my finger and the growth came cleanly off. Getting surgical with it!

FIM site #1


FIM site #2


Side view

She looks good man. Dont know about your sunlight question.

I was just looking at hindu kush seeds today! She is looking good, I fimmed my last grow, this grow, ahh-natural!! LOL....

looks good bro!! i am here for the long haul! there really isnt anything better than a good kush!! ahh those big green leaves and the powerfull aroma that a kush plant lets off! i am excited for you man and i dont even know you! although i feel like the whole gc community are my friends in a weird sorta way. well good luck man and ill be checkin in often. btw... i appreciate the nice big colorful and clear pics!!

She looks good man. Dont know about your sunlight question.

Hey gsxrkid
thanks for checkin my setup! im following yours closely as well!

I was just looking at hindu kush seeds today! She is looking good, I fimmed my last grow, this grow, ahh-natural!! LOL....

haha sweetleaves, i actually heard one of foxfarm's fertilizers is not organic, but thanks for stopping by!

looks good bro!! i am here for the long haul! there really isnt anything better than a good kush!! ahh those big green leaves and the powerfull aroma that a kush plant lets off! i am excited for you man and i dont even know you! although i feel like the whole gc community are my friends in a weird sorta way. well good luck man and ill be checkin in often. btw... i appreciate the nice big colorful and clear pics!!

hey philly,
yeah the leaves are getting pretty ridiculous, but no smell yet. we are all buds in the GC community! and btw i put the pics up for viewers like you

Thank you all for stopping by! . My question is would giving the indoor plant some natural sunlight for a prolonged period make any difference in quality or quantity?

When do I start the 4-Way LST?

Hey man first off nice looking set up for a first time op

Giving your girls some outside time is fine as long as you do it when your lights are on! You don't want to mess with the plants sense of time it will turn them into Hermies!! During young veg state its not so bad but as you get closer to the 12/12 mark you want to be really careful about stressing them out with light.

As for the 4-way you want to start it after your 2nd topping has grown out long enough to pin down. 4-way just refers to having 4 branches to pin down. Your topping looks pro so you should have no problem doing it, just give her some time to grow some stalks. If your ancy to start training you could use string to start pulling the stocks towards the outside; it will let more light in and you'll be less likely to snap anything when pinning to to soil.

Hope that helps man

peace