So ive tried my thumb at growing a few times before, but it was never anything serious. Just the "hey, lets plants some seeds and see what happens', kind of thing. The first of which got sent to a better home while still seedlings. I never did find out what happened to them. Ive helped a number of people with their grows, which all started indoors and then moved outdoors to get foraged by assorted animals ((I Hate Mice!). Those outdoor grows were most likely killed by rabbits or deer. But anyhow, the last grow i participated in was all indoors and yielded about 2 ounces, nothing spectacular. So ive had a lot of free time and i realized it was the beginning of february and i should probably start something. The ultimate goal of this grow was to put a couple plants outside when it gets warmer. I had six, but now im down to 3 healthy plants and one that is fighting to survive after the mouse attack. Now my goal is to get atleast one female going indoors and possibly clone it and put those clones outside around may/june. Now I rushed myself into this grow without thinking and it is constantly evolving. I started with 18 seeds (all bagseed from different sources). 9 germinated, not too bad considering id been saving them for awhile and some of them werent from very good product. so from those 9 i had 6 that were growing well. Then the mouse struck and i was down to 4. Right now the grow is at about a week and a half from sprout, coming up on 2 weeks in a few days. I started with two ballasts, each containing two 20 watt sylvania gro-lux fluoro's (4 tubes total). I did a little reasearch and apparently they give off 325 lumens each (total 1300 lumens). Not too impressive, but they work damn good for the first days/week. Two days ago i added a 20 watt CFL that gives off 1200 lumens and a 17 watt CFL that gives off 1000 lumens. That brings us to a grand total of 3500 lumens. Today I added another pair of gro-lux lights to bring us to 3825 lumens. Im hoping to ride this for another week or two before another upgrade. I have a 250 watt ballast, so im trying to find a HPS bulb for cheap-ish. Right now theyre in a very tiny space, with just a 120mm PC fan to circulate air. I might add another one tomarrow since the temps seem to be getting rather high. As far as soil goes, theyre in Miracle Grow Moisture control. Ive heard bad things about ti but its what i had and it seems to be working well so far. Theyre in 4 inch pots and im planning on transplanting to larger pots in another week. Pics are coming when i get back from my smoke break and rig my fan back up! (If anyone was on 420times years ago, yeah its me)
Just a little note about Miracle-Gro: The reason it is widely unused by most growers is due to the haphazard nature of the feeding process. It can burn your plants up real quick and since they are time released soil mixtures (correct me if I am incorrect about the type of soil you are using) you could see problems down the line with some serious nutrient problems. I will concede, however, that plenty of growers have used Miracle-Gro successfully -- without nutrient problems. I just think they comprise the minority. Good luck on your grow! Exactly how small is your grow space?
Im not sure if it is time release or not, but it does have atleast 10% nitrogen in it (ill have to check the bag later). Im fairly confident that the soil has seen enough water to flush those problems away though. If it does become a problem, hopefully theyll be far enough along to be able to recover from it.
And the pictures...about 1 1/2 weeks from sprout. The grow 'area' (Roughly 1 1/2 feet deep, 2 1/2 feet wide, 2 feet tall) Pretty damn small...its in a closet with a shelf/rack thing, this is just the easiest/smallest area to confine for the moment, mostly to keep the light contained. Yes, thats one of the garage/utiliy light thing hanging from the top. 3 sets of 2 fluoro gro-lux tubes standing vertically, two CFL's from the top. And the 120mm fan suspended in mid-air. The front runner (hope it isnt a male) My 2nd favorite...(topped it as an experiment, hope it isnt too young for it) and the lanky one...(just weird shadows/lighting on that leaf) stunted victim/survivor of the mouse attack...minus the chewed leaves Also, those ARE NOT my CD's...just using them to put the plant closer to the light...it used to be my sisters room...and they were there....im serious. And the group shot...(most of the first round leaves were chewed by the mouse)...just about 4 inches tall i suppose. This was at after the mouse attack...hopefully theyll start growing quicker with the additional lights...definitly seeing an improvement already.
prett good lookin seedlings considering what they lived through.... i had mice probs a few yrs back. set two classic mouse traps wit peanut butter each night for about a week catching a mouse in each every night. Havent had probs since they should explode in growth soon, the topping may have been a little early but it should be fine