First time: CFL SCROG with Super Lemon Haze, Take 2

Hey guys, this is a new attempt after the failure of the previous grow: http://forum.grassci...lemon-haze.html

The seed germinated about 2 days ago, after a week of despair and I decided to try and peel off its shell with a pair of small scissors, half the shell came off together with a piece of the seed, I thought that was the end of it but apparently the seed was stronger than that and made it, though with one half of a cotyledon gone, oh well.



Soil is generic store bought mix that has some peat, some styrofoam granules, porous rocks, coconut fiber, and a little compost. I've added some more porous volcanic rocks at the bottom for drainage and mixed in some crushed egg shell + magnesium carbonate in the soil for more stable PH. I've got some 5-5-5 + Mn + Cu + Zn + Fe liquid fertilizer that I'm gonna use later on. For now the plant is getting 20W of CFL light and the box temp is around 66F (19C).

Wish me luck!

20W CFL light seems low, I read somewhere on here you should get at least 24W CFL's or higher, and 6500°K~ spectrum.

I have a total of 8 fixtures and plan to be adding CFLs as the plant grows.
Can a little seedling really use more than 20W?

It look healthy, so I am sure its fine, but I have 26W minimum for all my CFL's. I had 2 26W CFL's Y split on all my seedlings, they seemed to love it.

a 20 watt clf is sufficient for at least 2 weeks of seedling growth after that i switch to about 80 watts for each plant after a month i use about 100 watts for each plant.

pohc - Ive just read your 1st attempt journel and it seems to me you need to slow down mate and be more patient with things, you pulled the shell off with scissors?? WTF why would you do that and also a little tip for your watering, put your finger in the soil down to your knuckle and if its dry it needs watering, i made the same mistake with over watering dude and if your little plant has a bad time at the start it will always impact on the end result, if you ever think theres a problem put a message and picture on here and im sure someone will advise you within the hour just so you dont make sily mistakes. Last thing get rid of them the silly bulbs and use one 200w cfl or a 250w cfl like im suing at the moment. hope all goes well anyway dude

pohc - Ive just read your 1st attempt journel and it seems to me you need to slow down mate and be more patient with things, you pulled the shell off with scissors?? WTF why would you do that and also a little tip for your watering, put your finger in the soil down to your knuckle and if its dry it needs watering, i made the same mistake with over watering dude and if your little plant has a bad time at the start it will always impact on the end result, if you ever think theres a problem put a message and picture on here and im sure someone will advise you within the hour just so you dont make sily mistakes. Last thing get rid of them the silly bulbs and use one 200w cfl or a 250w cfl like im suing at the moment. hope all goes well anyway dude

Thanks for your reply!
The seed wasn't germinating after a week, even after i scuffed it with sandpaper, so I've decided to try it as a last resort, I've tried it on a bagseed beforehand and it worked so I decided it can be worth a try.
about watering, I use a wooden skewer - stick it in the soil and wait a couple of minutes, if it comes out dry I water it, otherwise I wait, is that a good method?
The bulbs i use for now are ones that I had lying around the house anyways, once I need more wattage I'm planning to buy the bigger ones, though 60W are the biggest I've seen around where I live. Isn't it better though to have several bulbs strategically placed than a single big one in the middle of the growbox?

put a big one as you call it above your plants and have a few little downsides if you need to and as for the watering part like i said i use the finger in the soil method its better than stick thats for sure, you can get a little meter thing for light, PH and Moist levels there a few quid on ebay have a look

Age: 1 week
Been watering with about 40-50ml of water every 3 days, leaves grown some and a second pair of leaves is appearing, but the stem didn't grow by much. I guess this might be because of the missing cotyledon which slowed down its growth abit.



Today is very cold and the temperature in the growbox is about 12C (53F)... I had some heating mat inside but it stopped working, is this a big issue? The cold shouldn't last more than a couple of days though.

Little update, this is at ~10 days
I've put the CFL closer to the plant, about 1 inch away and the leaves started pointing upwards like this:

I've read that it might be heat related but that's strange since it's pretty cold in the growbox, 15C (59F).

I've moved the CFL up and away from the plant to see if that would change anything, is that not too far away?

day 13


the plant grew abit but still looks a little weird, plus the stem isn't getting any longer.
does this look normal?
i've kept the lamp about the same height as in the previous pic, maybe a little bit higher.
the temperature has gone up to 18C (64F)

day 17
watered with about 100ml of water with a drop of nutes added
the nutes are 5/5/5 + B + Cu + Fe + Mn + Zn

SLH must be a low grower...

SLH must be a low grower...

Really? I thought it's a tall growing sativa dominant plant, that would explain a lot though.

Here's an update
Day 23



The leaves are starting to look weird again, and the stem seems like it's not getting any longer.
This is starting to get pretty frustrating, could it be that I got a batch of some virus infected seeds from greenhouse?

Watered again today with quarter-strength nutes.
The runoff PH was between 7-8.
My guess is that it's kindof high, should I wait for the soil to dry to water again with a lower PH solution? Also what kind of PH value would be recommended to use in the next watering?

Here's an update for day 30
The plant seems to have picked up and the leaves are definitely looking bigger than they were on the previous one.
Still they look kind of freaky, I didn't have a chance to fix the PH yet since the soil is still moist

Yeah definitely looks freaky , Your pH is real high, and you might need to re-pot soon ! That thick brown looks like nutrients burn.

sup guys
i finally solved my PH problem with hydrochloric acid (I couldn't find sulfuric or phosphoric anywhere)... Been watering with 6.5 PH water and the runoff seems to be about the same.
I finally repotted the plant to a bigger ~5 gallon pot. After mixing everything in (before adding the plant) I've watered it with PH 6 water and the runoff was around 5.5 PH, that's kinda low but I mixed in crushed egg shells and magnesium carbonate (gym chalk) in the soil and it probably takes time for them to start acting, I've also added porous volcanic rocks for drainage, they're supposed to get the PH higher too. Also, my tap water is about PH 7.5, so acidity shouldn't be a big problem.
Currently the plant is under a total of 5x20W flourescent lights, as you can see in the last pics, I've laid the bulbs sideways on the screen to maximize the light that the plant receives, and I might put some tin foil on top of them too
after working with the growbox for a while, I've noticed i'm totally blind after starting into those bulbs gotta start wearing shades while working with the plant from now on

Edited by pohc, 22 March 2012 - 01:28 PM.

Check out my WW in my sig if u still get on here.... Talk about a plant that went from weird to AMAZING! I PRACTICALLY scrogged, my growbox was too tiny so she got SEVERELY LST'D! Thank god she's finishing flower in a BIG TENT and doesn't have to be pinned down anymore!

Check out my WW in my sig if u still get on here.... Talk about a plant that went from weird to AMAZING! I PRACTICALLY scrogged, my growbox was too tiny so she got SEVERELY LST'D! Thank god she's finishing flower in a BIG TENT and doesn't have to be pinned down anymore!

Man, that plant started out really weird, but looked like it had potential with all those trichomes on the fan leaves Looks like you're gonna have an awesome harvest. Do you have any idea what was the most important thing you did to make the plant recover and start growing properly?
Your thread makes me glad I haven't discarded my first mutant plant, it's been growing in a different room, and I'm gonna post an update about it in a couple of days.