What up GC? Hope life is givin' you straight lemonade right now. As the title says, this is my first grow. It has been awhile in the making (props to hawaiian_haze for advice on design) , but the room is set up, the lights and seeds in their proper place, and it's time to get it on like Donkey Kong. A few basic details first. Strain: 5x Barney's Farm LSD Lights: 1x 85w CFL w/ 4 or 5 24w supplemental CFLs for the first week or so after they sprout. Then after that, I'll be using a 600w MH/HPS cooltube fixture for the rest of the grow. Soil: Roots Organic Soil, mixed with about 25% extra perlite. Nutrients: I will be using 3 bottles from the Soul Synthetics line: Grow, Bloom, and Infinity. I also have a small bottle of Superthrive that I may incorporate for vegging. Pots: 5 gal Smart Pots (may fold them down to 4 gal, we'll see) Room: All of this is set up in a small area of my attic (5'x5'x5') I've lined with panda film that is being exhausted by a 240cfm fan attached to a 6in carbon filter. Also there are 2 fans just blowing air around to make sure I get proper circulation. The temperature with the light on stays at about 81 degrees. Sweet. Before we continue, I need to drop some shout-outs. Rumpleforeskin, MX, Mr+MrsEd, Mechanibus, Alatar....when I first found this site your journals/tips/guides/posts were the first ones I read and subscribed to (and still do). I got the inspiration to start growing because of what I saw you guys and gals doing with your set ups. I may not have commented on your grows yet, but damn if they aren't some of the most awesome things I've seen. I invite ya'll to come and watch as I try my darnedest to give my own girls a loving home. Now that that is said and done, you're probably wondering where we're at in the actual growing process. As of right now, the seeds are sitting in Rapid Rooters in a germination station in complete darkness. Temps are about 88 degrees /w about 70% RH. I figure the temps are near the high side, so I'll try and bring them down a bit. The gals have only been in there for a few hours, so I'm crossing my fingers we'll have some sprout break through tomorrow or the day after. Pics will soon follow as I just wanted to get this journal established as a motivator and a place to exchange ideas and tips. So yea, I'll catch ya'll on the flip and look forward to chatting with ya'll as the grow continues.
thanks for droppin' by man...they need all the love they can get bro! gonna find out who my females are in a couple days probably. have yours decided to join the party?! let's see some pics
Aha thanks for stopping by man. I hope you get some strong sturdy young ladies. Your plants really seem to have taken off too with all those leaf sets. Chyeaaaa. All 5 seeds indeed decided to get in on the fun in my seedling dome, with temps around 85-90 degrees and humidity around 70-80% in complete darkness. When I finally saw them break ground after 2-3 days, I almost didn't wanna leave the room. lol I had them under an 85w CFL on 18/6 for about a day and a half, just until that first true leaf sets started to show. To my surprise, their taproots had penetrated the RRs and were looking for water at the bottom of the tray already! Boom, transplant time. Blue Solo cups with some holes drilled at the bottom. Done. Also, I could tell this wasn't enough light as they were realllllly bending to soak what little there proved to be. So with that in mind, I made the executive decision to put them under my 600w MH Friday on a 24/0 light cycle. At first I had the light about 24" away. After a day, they seemed to be fine with the move. About an hour ago I lowered it down to around 18" from the plant tops. You can see the 2nd true leaf sets beginning to show themselves as well. Gonna split this post up. Pictures and some more stats to follow soon!
Temps around the plant tops seems to be holding steady at about 82 degrees F. Gonna try and get that a tad lower before tomorrow. I keep my one little fan blowing at all times just above the leaf tops so that while air isn't actually hitting the stems, it's being circulated towards them. Also, another fan in the corner blowing full blast making sure that all the air in the room is moving. Air circulation should be taken care of here. The humidity is a little low, (damn hot ass MH light) with the constant being around 25-30% RH. I am attempting to bump that up with some water in a cup (maybe 2 or 3) layered with perlite. If that doesn't get it to around 35-40%, I'll buy a humidifier. As for the girls, they are all under 2 inches in height. I can see little white hairs up and down the stem. That isn't a bad thing, right? Just a byproduct of the low humidity which shouldn't affect long term growth I hope. I wish I had a better camera to show ya. I'll work on that. They are almost due for a watering I think as well. I've been putting just a tiny bit of Superthrive in my brita pitcher (gets it to just the right pH haha)with each watering. Now that they are in solo cups, I'm thinking full solo cup of water should be the sweet spot amount. Pictures for your enjoyment, and now that everything is a bit settled, I'll be checking back here more often with updates. Peace to the east. (The first pic is a before shot)
hey man, setups lookin' good! keep up the good work! i've got my fans on a timer so they turn on every 15 minutes, then off for 15 minutes and i've found out that this will allow the humidity to rise up to 40-45% before kickin back on. my temps stay between 75-83 and humidity fluctuates between 25-45% and the girls seem to be lovin it! the humidifier did wonders for me, i would highly reccommend it if you got an extra $20 layin around. also, multiple shallow dishes filled with water have proven to increase humidty maybe 5% (shallow because when filled with water this will have more surface area than a regular cup, allowing for more evaporation.) however, i've also read a lot that humidity is not a HUGE factor in MJ growing. once your plants get bigger they will produce more humidity themselves so your RH will most likely level out naturally when they get a little bigger happy growin!
So as a quick update, I had a question that's been on my mind for a bit. My plants have been transplanted to their Solo cups, Rapid Rooters and all. And I've given them a a little bit of water every now and then to make sure the soil is moist and what have you. Well in the past 2 days or so, the rooters have been getting extremely dry, to the point where they are almost completely hard if you poke at them. However the soil around the rooter is still a little moist (not the top inch or so though). The rooter plugs do stick up above the roots organic soil line just a bit. Should I cover the rooters completely? Should I be watering on a schedule that will keep the rooter moist at all times? This really is a trial and error process.