First Grow Bag Seed CFL 23 Watt 6500k/HPS 400 Watt

this is my FIRST EVER BLOG POST/THREAD POST AND FIRST GROW

Decided to Start my first grow. Have not established a grow room yet but will eventually as the seedling gets bigger. I could only get my hands on one seed. I put the seed in a cup of water for 24 hours and then moved it to a moist paper towel in complete darkness. Tap root showed after 2.5 days, and immediately put into my roots organic original potting soil. I am currently using 2 23 Watt CFLs with a 400 Watt HPS ready for flowering. Im considering a metal halide for veg after the seedlings grow. No nutes or ferts purchased yet though I am open to suggestions. The light cycle is 24/0. Humidity stays around 50-60 in the daytime and 30-40 around nighttime. Temps are at an average 78F but sometimes are a bit higher in the 80s.

BUTTTTTT there is one problem, the seedling's first set of leaves are drooping. I may have over watered a bit at first but i let the plant dry out for a 3 days before watering again. I have pictures uploaded as well from January 21st 2012, the first sprout, to January 26th where the second set of leaves are starting to be clearly visible.

Im new to GC but i hope you all will be able to help me out throughout my first grow and maybe you can learn something from mine!

Roll up some of that sticky icky icky and enjoy the show:smoke:

Here are the latest pictures of the drooping leaves

My temporary grow set up. until i get mylar, a nice closet cleaned up. hopefully the seedlings will buy me some time to get those things arranged. Im not sure how I will set up the air flow because I cant make any holes in the walls or doors to set up an exhaust fan. I will definitely have a small fan blowing heat away from the lights, especially when the HPS is also put to use

Also, I do not have a pH tester just yet so I'm not sure what the runoff level is at right now but I have not used any nutrients or fertilizers and the water source is bottled water. The hydroponics store said roots organic would be a good level for the seedlings without adding any nutrients and its not as "hot" as Fox Farms Ocean Forest. Anyways I hope this gives the you a good idea of what im doing with this grow. This is simply for practice and hopefully a decent first yield before I spend more money on seeds from a seed bank. happy posting!

The droopy leaves problem is getting somewhat better. I let the soil dry out longer than I usually do so i assume the problem was over watering. I also used a drop of superthrive during the watering. The third set of leaves are starting to show and of course I have pictures! Wonder when i should start getting nutrients and fertilizer. Also a pH tester and small fan.

Generally speaking, you don't use nutes on seedlings, but if you do, use it at like 1/4 strength. Are you going to lst, top, and/or supercrop it? I just ask because that 400w HPS seems a bit overkill for one plant, unless it is one massive plant.

Yeah I have looked into topping and LST and I think i want to give that a try. How soon can I top the plant? I Know it will be a while before I can properly LST the plant. I have pictures of recent growth but i need to upload them to my computer first. they should be up sooon:D

Yeah I have looked into topping and LST and I think i want to give that a try. How soon can I top the plant? I Know it will be a while before I can properly LST the plant. I have pictures of recent growth but i need to upload them to my computer first. they should be up sooon:D

I am no master of topping(i'm still in my first grow hehe), but i have done a large amount of research in preparation for this. I have a suggestion for your single plant! I am currently doing this on 2 of my plants as well, to make them bushier and have far more tops!
LBH's "4-Way LST" tutorial (with a topping sub-tutorial)

Day 21, 3 true sets of leaves time to FIM/TOP!

1-3 Supplies: rubbing alcohol, x-acto blade, rubber gloves and 2 lovelies ready for...

....I did this according to:

http://forum.grassci...tml#post1290826

Ty DierWolf

pg 2, post #18 of my grow. has picks of the two i did.

looks good keep it up, sub'd

New pictures!! my baby is lookin beautiful! so excited!!
anyways I topped my plant after the third set of leaves. so i topped the fourth set that was coming out. The last picture is of the new growth.

can somone tell me if I topped it correctly. I can't really tell if two new tops will start growing but man the new growth is coming fast. I also watered it today with super thrive.

Its time i should start shopping for nutes...any suggestions? I'm lookin for something with a higher nitrogen proportion as I have read in Jorge Cervantes' Grow bible that it increases chances for females and its the way to go during the veg stage. I'm not even sure what stage i'm at but I would say its the late seedling stage/early Veg.

I'm still running a 24/0 photoperiod and I want to know if I should switch to 18/6 for the Veg stage or keep it at 24/0.

Anyways I hope you all keep coming back this ones gonna be exciting! Anyone wanna name my baby?

personal thanks to weedict for taking interest in my grow!

Also My nodes are really close together. Is this a problem? I was trying to keep my plant from stretching so that CFLs are like 2-3 inches away. Really close. and the leaves feel slightly crunchy but they are still pretty soft. I dunno maybe Im over thinking it, they look healthy to me though.

Also.... What about them new york giants baby!!!

Being that I've only topped once it looks similar to mine. So..lol.

I am also new to the nutrient thing I went to my grow shop probably 10 times before I purchased the organic Aurora line. I would be getting pots or something and I would spend an extra 10 minutes looking at nutes. I finally started asking the shop guys questions, beating around the bush about what I was growing. That led to pamphlets of the most likely I was going to purchase. After I read them, did some price comparisons and research online I made a decision.

About the "stage". I read somewhere that when growing from seed the 3rd week is considered veg, prior to that its seedling. So it gos germination(from seed-popping out), seedling(from popping out-2weeks), veg(3weeks-when start flower), and flower(obv).

Well i topped 2 of my plants, and it looks like i am about 2 days ahead. But mine did look like that 2 days ago and the 2 stems are still growing, so i would say good job!

sweeeett!! thanks alot guys. I guess Ill post more pictures up when the plant clearly shows 2 tops.

Here are the latest pictures of the drooping leaves

Aww they look so sad :'(

If you're using tap water then there's a good chance that you're sitting at 8.0+ for you pH. If this is the case next water session either get some ph down from a fish store or if you can't get/afford it then put a couple drops of vinegar in the water. This will only last temporarily, but if it's cause of pH, then this you'll see them perk a little bit.

Edited by BonghornLeghorn, 07 February 2012 - 05:00 AM.

hmm, well right now i'm using bottled water.. but i'll definitely look into the ph down or vinegar. thanks! not sure if i should be worried now lol

Well what can happen if your pH is to high or low is lockout. Your plant will be ok for now. But if the pH is to far off the reg for this kind of plant eventually you will see deficiencies that you won't be able to correct due to nutrient lockout.

Here are the latest pictures of the topped new growth. You can clearly see where I made the cut and the 2 new stems growing. I see some small brown spots on the edges of 2-3 leaves. I think my lights were too close so i moved them away. It could also be a nute problem. its definitely not nute burn because i havent used anything other than superthrive. but I'll stop using superthrive until i get some more new growth and see how that turns out.

this is day 17 of my growth from the first sprout.