This is my first serious attempt at growing, I moved into a pretty sweet townhouse with an empty room that was just meant for growing. I'm about 1 month into growing and I have 6 plants, I'm sure that I've fucked up along the way but here are pics I took about 15mins ago (phone camera sucks but its all I have) I can't tell the sexes of the plants yet, but i'm sure that's coming in due time. Its probably getting to the point where I need to replant them into bigger 3-5 gallon buckets. Most of you would probably giggle and laugh at my setup, but for the moment it seems to be working. My plants are placed in a rather large box which I coated with aluminum foil to hopefully help the light reach every part of the plants. I took the hood light from the room's ceiling and lowered it to about an 1/2 inch above the rim of the box. Please leave comments and advice if you'd like, it would be greatly appreciated.
I am by no means a professional, but what I have seen looking around and browsing, tin foil is bad, don't use it. It can burn the plants.
MITink is right.. ditch the foil, White walls or white trashbags would work better or get some Mylar. What kinda lights do you have? how many? Looking very good for your first grow way better then my first one.
Alrighty I just ran downstairs and removed all traces of the tin foil My lights are 2x 48" "Plant & Aquarium" F40 Ecolux Fluorescent Lights The box says - 1900 Lumens - 40 Watts - 20,000 Hours (and remember, I have 2x in a light hood.) I'm gonna look into getting something other than tinfoil to surround the inside of this box. I also use some miracle grow type shit my roommate picked up. Suggestions and comments please!
Hmm... well actually #1 myself and Ed Rosenthal (look him up) both say the foil isnt shit as long as you put it up on the nonshiney side since it disperses light better and has just as good of a light reflectivity value... as well as since aluminum is a very good conductor of heat it wont really be any more or less "hot" than anything else... so just dont let it come in direct contact with the plants and it should be fine. #2 the plant light is a sack of shit dont use'em... several tests have confirmed that even though it is supposedly in a better light spectrum it has less lumens than an equal watt light and Marijuana responds better to overall lumens rather than the actual spectrum to an extent.. (this is why you can use HPS only and have good results) the weed will just adjust to suit its spectrum in the room unless it is just extremely poor... I would recommend the mylar if you can get it but if not, and you have the ability to paint it most expert growers just recommend using flat white paint. #3 note: since you are I assume using soil from Walmart I would almost guaruntee you there will be pest problems later on (probably gnats)... but hopefully not. --------- but anyways.. if your gonna switch out the lights I recommend just getting the walmart 4' ballasts and using a mix of warm/soft white 40 watt flouros and cool/daylight light flouros... a 1:1 ratio would be fine as long as you had about 1 ballast of 1:1 per 1-2 plants and held them anywhere from 2-6 inches depending on the heat.
as far as nutes anything really that has a higher ratio of N in the start for the NPK values... and later on during flowering your probably gonna want a higher P value.. the only walmart brand that ive seen that I would use is just the "general purpose" and you can just follow the directions on the box and it should be fine.. if you notice some nute burn next time dont use so much and if its healthy and good green obviously its working fine... --- on another note the green 8" pots your using are good ive used them.. you can probably use only those if you wanted to really... the smaller ones I wouldnt recommend as you would have to transplant and in my experience its easier to just use 1 pot. (for first timers) ---- with the short/wide leaves its easy to say your gonna have a shorter indica dominate plant so thats in the nice for indoors note: feel free to pm me on w/e topic or question as I have read throughly probably I would say 10-16 printed marijuana growing books, co authored 2 guides, wondered the forums across the net for the last 6-7 years, and grown many IMO nice green healthy crops...
your an avid wal mart shopper like myself most of my grow op has also come from wal mart , go to the camping section and get some emergency blankets they are like 3 dollars a piece , those are mylar i use them my self with great results one will cover like 4 foot long by like 3 feet high or so good luck man
I'm gonna stick with my lights for now, but all the other advice is sweet thanks man, I'll keep this updated hopefully in the next few weeks I have some more to report LOL walmart has it all. Thanks for the advice.
Should I keep these on 24 hour light? I believe they are about 2 months in. - or - Should I start up the 18/6 for a few weeks and then switch 12/12? Not sure which direction to go in. Either way, I have a timer for this if need be.
Wow buddy, those plants look damn near gorgeous! Nice big leaves, perky solid stem. I'd say they may have a tiny bit stretch. Could just be a thinner stem. Either way, if you odn't already I'd get an ocsillating fan to put in your growspace to flow across the leaves. The plants will thank you for it later. If you're Vegging right now I don't think a 24 hour cycle will hurt them. You could put them on an 18/6 if you'd like and gradually step them down to a 12/12 but they may respond better to a 24 hour light schedule and then a sudden 12/12. I mean they look really good, so if you want to veg them longer than it's personally gonna be your choice. But really nice looking plants! Keep it up man!
I put a fan down there and set it to low, I didn't like it blowing my plants around. Also I think I'll set my timer for 18 hours of light 6 of dark for now unless other people disagree. And I know this is probably a stretch but how much longer do you guys think these will need to be growing for? Thanks in advance!
Are the leaves at the bottom of my plants supposed to die and fall off? Is this normal or do I have some problems starting? Thanks for any help.
you dont have any problems if the bottom leaves are dying. its not biggie. they dont get as much light and are probably straight up old, so no worries. You really should start blowing your plants around. if you keep they fan on them, they get stronger, and wont be moving around anymore. How are skinny plants gonna hold fat buds? I really like your grow and i haven't checked in here since a while ago! I also am using mostly wal-mart shit. lights/fans/reflectors/some of the soil/nutes check in with my plants if you want... my last post is something like "closet grow *pics* (ill)" today is day 25. I havent posted in a few days.... not sure.
as far as how much longer those plants need to grow before flowering, it's up to you. just keep in mind that mj plants tend to double if not triple in size in flowering. with that bit of info in mind, please please please PLEASE tell me you plan on adding lights to your setup, because you'll definitely need it for flowering (and really would've been much better off with more during veg as well). not that yours aren't looking healthy, it's just that the lighting you have at the moment is the reason why you're having such slow growth. someone else told you this before but i don't think it sunk in. a common way of thinking about how much light is needed is 100w for one plant, then 50w more for each additional plant (and those are ACTUAL watts, not incandescent equivalents). furthermore, you need to take into consideration the amount of lumens making it to your girls. 3800, especially for multiple plants, just isn't enough. keep with your current lighting, and your harvest will be paltry at best. add some serious light, and maybe you'll end up with a little weight.
What's up guys. I haven't posted in awhile.. I started with 6, now I'm down to 4, but its all good. I think I have 3 females and 1 male.. First off - I'm really sorry my pictures are shitty but do your best. I'm 99% positive that this one is a male, but tell me what you think anyways: Otherwise, things seem fine, plants are about 2ft, just a guess though ( I haven't actually measured). As always, thanks for any help.
dude thats soo out of focus i dunno what your talkin about. heres something weed forums taught me, use the digital macro feature on your camera and things taken close to the lens will appear crisp and clear. but yah that looks like balls.. even out of focus.