My CFL Grow Day 1-Toke

So I wanted to keep a personal grow journal from day 1 to my first bowl and I hope to keep a nice following of people to help give me advice and comment on my setup. Im doing a CFL grow because I have a moderate budget and I'm not an expert grower. Im also romates with another grow journaler USERNAME: icetohot. We are giving this grow a try together. The first and second photos are pics of my DR 80 grow room. Im using a 125 watt CFL bulb and 2 supplementary 65 watt bulbs. They are 6200, and 5000 lumens respectively. I play on adding two 42 watt warm lights soon. For flowering ill use 2 cool white 62 watt bulbs and most likely my 125 watt CFL unless i can affort the lower lumen version of this 125 watt bulb. The room is equipped with a warm stream humidifier and a walgreens fan. Im using a 4'' duct fan that I bought at home depot for my exhuast system and I also have a window next to the room and I live in a cold weather area. I can regulate my temps fairly well and the last pic is my system temp/humidity after running it for over an hour undisturbed. I have 2 Northern Lights and 2 power skunk femenized seeds germing and I also have several bag seeds as backup if they fail to germ. The soli is 3/4 Fox Farm ocean forest soil and 1/4 Happy Frog soil on the top to promote early growth and increase the chances that the seeds will sprout successfully. Hope you like this journal and can help me along the way.

 

Oh yes also my cats love the room

 

I got all my stuff individually at gardening or hardware stores like Home Depot. One thing I can say for sure is absolutely do not waste your money on expensive exhaust fans. Im using a 4'' duct fan that i taped to a 120 V cord and it has air flow of 80 CFM. Just as good as a 250$ exhaust fan but it cost me 28$. If you need more air flow than 80 CFM, there was a 6'' model that put out 250 CFM. Idk what that feels like but 80 CFM is very similar to small bed fan at home. It does a good job and is very quiet.

I also have to give huge complements to Secret Jardin's DR grow rooms. I have the DR 80 right now and it is amazing. Took me under 15 min to set up and its very customizable. Also folds down and stowes into a hand bag not to mention it is 100% light proof. 5 star rating from me.

 

Ok so 2 days after I started Germing my seeds, this is what they look like. The first G13 seed hasnt pushed out a tap root but im not giving up on it. I also have like 10 bagseeds germing starting today as backup in case any of my 4 strain seeds dont make it to veg state. So i have a few questions, first are the 3 seeds with tap roots ready to be put in my soil or should i let the tap root grow a bit more first? Also is it better to plant them in a small pot first and transplant them to a large pot later or can i start my plants in a large pot? Finally how wet should my soil be when i put the tap routes in? Ive heard you water the soil untill it begins to drain from the bottom then let it drain for about 15-20 sec before you put your seeds in 1/3-1/2 inch deep tap root down. This is also supposed to be a VERY gentle process. Comments appreciated

 

Had some extra cash come my way and figured I'd upgrade my system. Put in a 250 cfm 6 inch duct fan for exhaust. I call it the "BIG BOY". moved my 4" to the floor as intake. Also bought 2 more lights I opted for the 42 watt warm lamps. They are wired on hanging wires that are adjustable and will help with side growth. I also put my humidifier on a timer and it pumps the room with steam for about 30 min before it shuts of twice a day. Im gonna prolly up that what I figure out how to jerry rig the timer .... Most importantly my first guy has popped his shell and is finally out. The other three were planted later so i expect to see them in the next 24 hours. Cant wait to see them start to veg and make big squishy buds. First seed up is my Northern lights x skunk seed i had. Hope u all enjoy the pics.

 

So finally some pics with green in em. These guys came up about 2 days ago and they are all doing fine. All except for NL 1 plant. He had a tragic seed casing incident that left him crippled. I don't know if she's gonna make it. It does, however, show optimistic signs. It has a healthy stem and the injury hasn't seemed to deter it from growing as fast as the rest of them. I'm beginning to think I may have to water my plants every other day. That may seem like a lot but my soil dries out (the first 3 inches) in under 24 hours. I do have a lot of airflow in there. Perhaps someone could give me advice on the plant's injury or my soil situation.

 

So Im a week into veg. Growth is mostly in the leaves. I do have concerns with 2 of my plants because they seem to have one of their leaves "clipped". One is also showing a small discoloration. I think i may be under watering them but I don't want to over water them. I have been keeping my humidity at 40% or higher and temps in the mid low eighties. What can someone tell me about the plants problems.

 

heres the photos lol whoops

 

Ya it was definitely the watering schedule. I made my waterings more frequent and they are showing a lot better growth and color. I just gave them their first dose of fox farms "GROW BIG" nutrients designed for the first 2 weeks. Ill probably feed them with it again in 5-6 days. Ill post new pics then soon..

 

Heres the plant's! They really have enjoyed the nutes I gave them the other day. I have seen a lot of growth. I plan on seeing even more growth once my 2x200 Watt daylight CFLs arrive. I think im going to mount them underneath my hood with zip ties. Ill have a 500 Watt Veg hood and should get good results. One of the four plants still shows signs of nute burn so I'll probably flush it agian if its like that tomorrow. It still is growing very rapidly, however, and I am a little concerned that it could be something else. Its probably nute burn and ill know more about its condition in a few days. The macro's ive been taking of my plants show nice white crystals on the plant. Thats a pretty sweet sight!!! Hope you guys have been liking the pics. Please let me know if you have any questions on my DR-80 room, my room setup, or if you have any suggestions to make this go even better! The plants have a nicely developed second node now and im just gonna wait one more node before I begin to LST them. Ill probably need a lot of advice then.