My lowryder #2 runt grow (in a Rubbermaid with CFL's)

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by latro, Aug 10, 2009.

  1. This is my first real attempt at growing, well I guess second if you count the seedling I managed to kill after only 3 days. I started this grow almost 4 weeks ago so I'll make a bunch of posts here to get caught up.

    Seed: Lowryder #2 Feminized
    Lights: CFL's (2600k and 6500k)
    Medium: Soil
    Grow in a stealth rubbermaid box, details here: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-roo...alth-rubbermaid-setup-being-put-together.html

    So far, it's turned out to be a tiny little runt. I'm sure it's something to do with the thigns I've done wrong. Like I know using miracle gro soil isn't the best route to take and it took me a little while to get the watering thing down correctly. Anyways, I'll let the pics tell the story.


    Day 1 (1st picture): All the supplies for planting. I just dropped an ungerminated seed directly into MG seed starting mix in red beer cup and covered it with a plastic baggy.

    Day 4 (2nd pic): Sprouted.

    Day 6 (3rd pic): A tiny 2nd set of true leaves is finally coming in.

    Day 9 (4th pic): Getting a little bigger
     

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  2. This is the phase where I might have turned the thing into a runt but not watering properly.


    Day 10 (1st pic): I had mainly just been misting the plant up to the point and the soil seemed really wet but the leaves started drooping and so I was worried I had overwatered.

    Day 11 (2nd pic): I wasn't planning to water because of the drooping the day before but the soil was dry on top but the plant was drooping much worse, so I watered it heavily at the end of the day.

    Day 13 (3rd pic): It started coming around a little, but was still pretty droopy.

    Day 15 (4th pic): Pictured next to a lighter so you can see how tiny it is, even though it's 2 weeks old.
     

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  3. #3 latro, Aug 10, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 10, 2009
    I transplanted into a 6.5qt pot at the end of day 15 and it's done a bit better since. I've also got it figured out now that you don't water often, just a lot when you do (until water comes out the bottom of the pot). I've only had to water every 5 or 6 days since transplanting.


    Day 18 (1st pic): I had added more lights by now. Using 3x26w-6500k's and 2x23w-2700k's (124 watts total).

    Day 22 (2nd pic): Getting a little bigger. I added fertilizer for the 1st time. Half strength of the recommend amount for indoor plants of miracle gro tomato plant food (18-18-21).

    Day 24 (3rd pic): Still growing. There were a couple of the first set of true leaves that I trimmed off. They had been sitting on the soil for the last week or so and were almost completely dead.

    and finally today, Day 28 (4th, 5th, 6th pics): It's doing much better now. It's still really small for being almost a month old but you can see it's grown a bunch since transplanting. The last pic is of the plant inside my grow box. I have 6 cfl's on it now (4x26w-6500k and 2x23w-2700k for 150 watts total).
     

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  4. I was going to wait until it was finished to put up the time lapse video from my webcam, but I'm way too impatient. This is day 1 up to today, day 28.


    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIatYVJcu0]YouTube - Grow Progress Time Lapse[/ame]
     
  5. Very interesting. I might be doing a grow like this soon.


    Peace:smoking::hippie:
     
  6. sick video. I am doing a lowryder #2 in my next grow. I will be interested to see how this comes out. I am using cfls and LED next grow.

    right now I am all cfls on a B52 that i am afraid i might have to harvest too early....oh well.

    best part is...you can always grow more:hello::hello::hello::smoking:

    good luck. plant looks pretty good.
     
  7. One thing I'm not certain about doing is when to change the bulbs around so I have more of the 2700k's on it than the 6500k's. I know on a normal plant you would do it when you started the 12/12 flowering cycle but since this is an autoflower, I've just had it on 20/4 since day 1 and I'm told you can leave it on that life cycle for the entire grow.

    Since it's already flowering on it's own does that mean I should switch out the light spectrums now or is it okay to leave it with mostly daylight bulbs for a while longer?
     
  8. Subscribed:cool:

    Good luck latro, I can't wait to see how your grow box works out for ya!!!
     
  9. Day 32: You can see in the pics that it's grown quite a bit in the last few days. It's still a runt but every day is much better than the last.

    Since the last update the only thing I've really done is swap out two of the 6500k bulbs for two 2700k's, so now I'm running 2x26w-6500k and 4x23w-2700k (144 watts total).

    I was hoping for a lot bigger plant but at least this one is looking healthy and it already smells really good.
     

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  10. #10 ihateyourdogs, Aug 19, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 19, 2009
    I don't know much about autoflowering strains but that plant definately looked stunted. Very Nice and healthy looking though. No nute burn or nasty leaves. If i can just get the elements stable in my box I will hopefully be able to show off a little too. CFL's all the way. From what I'veread your blue lights (6500) aren't going to do much in the flowering stage but from experience they can definately effect the color of the hairs on your bud. My last grow I used a light that had a color temp of 4100 (soft white). The buds closest to it maintained white hairs until matured while the buds closer to my red light (2700) took on a pinkish color very quickly. During my grow I am starting now I am going to use 2 26 watt (1600 lumen) blue bulbs and while they are young and ad the red bulbs when they can handle more light. I have 2 40 watt (2600 lumen) red bulbs in there two, but this is because I am experimenting with the Dutch method of growing (12/12 light from begining, resulting in one cola and about 2 months total growing) Why take out the blue lights? if anything, its just more lumens added to the total. hope this helps some because I babbled alot
     
  11. Day 40

    Funny you should mention the tips of the leaves because mine just barely started to yellow a couple days ago. I'm not sure if it's nute burn though because I didn't use any at all the last watering. So it hasn't had nutes since day 28.... although I guess whatever is included in the mg soil could be the culprit.

    I'm also still running 92 watts of 2700k and 52 watts of 6500k. I've just read that a mix is good in flowering as long is it's weighted to the warm light spectrum.

    Here's some new pics from today. You can see the tips are yellowing but overall I still think it looks really good, despite it's size anyway.
     

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  12. are they in 35gal rubbermaids, and if so u think you could have 2 plants in there?
     
  13. Yeah, two 35 gallon bins stacked one on top of the other. It's 14.5"x27"x36". Two plants should fit and that's probably what I'll do next grow.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Hey latro,

    Can you post up a pic of your final light configuration? Also, how did you put your exhaust together?
     
  15. This is how the lights are right now, it's not really the final configuration. There are some grooves at the very top of the box that I had planned to run a couple dowels across that I could hang the lights on when the plant got taller. I doubt I'm going to need to use those in this grow though... this plant probably isn't going to outgrow how far my clamp-on lamps can extend.

    [​IMG]


    As for the exhaust, I just used exhisting holes in the dryer vent and case fan and zip tied them together and then zip tied the whole thing to the rubbermaid box.
     
  16. Ok, so you just added a cliplight for more cfl...thanks

    Does your dryer vent have a one-way flap on it? How did you suppress the light escaping out of it?
     

  17. No flap. It had a grill on the bottom, which I was using to hold the bags of activated carbon. I was hoping the carbon would kill the light and it did a bit, but some still seeped through... not to mention I eventually removed it all since it killed my airflow and kept the temperatures too high. So I made another vent out of cardboard and duct tape and stuck it on the outside of the box.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. #18 latro, Aug 28, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 28, 2009
    Day 46

    I haven't done much other than add a little more wattage. I'm now running the following bulbs: 2x26w-6500k, 2x23w-2700k, 1x40w-2700k, 1x40w-3000k (178 watts total).

    I also haven't been adding fertilizer at all recently because I'm still a little worried about the yellowing leaf tips... even though I've been reading that can be a sign of both too many and not enough nutes.
     

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  19. Yea it seems like a little too much nitrogen as long as no more than the tips get burnt its not a major problem, what strength are u feeding at?, buds look good though, how long has it been flowering?
     


  20. I've just been using miracle gro tomato plant food (it's 18-18-21) at about 1/2 strength... which is something like 1/2 a teaspon per gallon.

    I first noticed the pistols around day 23 or so. So I guess they've been flowering for about 3 weeks. Since it's an auto, I've just had it on a 20/4 light cycle it's entire life.
     

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