This is my first grow- I've set up a grow cab that has a 32"x30"x4' space for a chamber, and it has two chambers. 220 cfpm inline fans vent both chambers, and I'm using CFLs for this grow. A few days ago I got my five seeds of feminized AK-48 from Nirvana, and soaked them in water for 24 hours to absorb moisture, then followed the Germination 420 (here) guide. Right now they're in the 16oz plastic cups in the veg chamber, around a foot away from the lights. I have three sprouts around an inch to half-inch high, the two others seem alive and kicking but aren't out of the dirt just yet. I'm planning to use 9" round plastic pots... the mix is LC's soilless mix #1 with recipe #1 (here) but the seeds right now are just in the base mix, no fert mix. The lc's mix w/ fert mix is sitting around doing its stuff right now. It's my first grow so advice or anything else is welcome. I'm looking forward to this first grow, hoping to keep it simple and successful. Edit: Forgot to mention, all of the plants are under a 16/8 schedule right now, with two 23-watt daylight CFL bulbs.
Today I checked on my sprouts again, and they're all out of the dirt. I was worried about one yesterday, because it hadn't broken the dirt yet and all i could see under the dirt was a root or sprout going underground and a white fuzzy ball (i covered that right back up, didn't want to damage it). Today, it seems perfectly fine! It came out of the dirt and is a proud sprout right now. One sprout I am concerned about though, because its leaves haven't unfolded- the remnants of the seed casing (its natural glue or something) seems to be preventing it. I'm leaving it alone for now though. I haven't watered them since i put the seeds in the sport cups two days ago, but the soil still seems okay. Don't want to over-water.
My seedlings seem to be doing good. I labelled them recently, and here are the names: Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewie, and Darth Vader. Most of them seem to be around an inch to two inches. Luke and Han, predictably, are doing the best. I haven't whipped out a ruler yet to actually measure. Watered them today, hopefully I watered them the right amount- I need to buy a hydrometer or something. Any recommendations for one?
Long time no update! My plants are mostly doing well, all of them are being trained and 4 of them are around 8-9 inches tall now. The last plant still isn't doing well, and hasn't been doing well for the last 3 weeks or so. It's been growing, but the leaves are much smaller, more mottled (with green or so) and kinda puny on the leaves overall compared to the other plants. I transplanted them way back to 9" pots, but I think I took too long before transplanting. I plan to flower them after hitting around 2' in height. I'd have some nice pictures but taking a picture around here is a chore that involves an electronic rube goldberg construct.
Here are two pictures of my plants. As you can see, that's 8 23-watt CFLs. I try to keep the plants around 2-3 inches away from the lights. Sorry about the low quality of the pictures, I don't own a camera so not much I can do about that right now.
Here's the bud porn, guys! http://imgur.com/a/carYm/all If anybody can tell me how to make them show in a nice gallery in the post, i'd appreciate it. Right now they're way oversize.
I would also really appreciate constructive criticism, or information in any areas that could help me grow better.
Man it looks like you got a hell of a stretch with these girls.. Next time around you might want to add a lil more light or keep your cfls a lil closer to the plants.. U can get a 150 watt hps for like $70 on ebay or a 250 watt lamp for around $100.. Not only will this make a hugh difference with the amount of stretch you get but it will also increase your over all yield... Honestly you did better then I did on my first grow atleast you got some real nice smoke out of it.. How much longer do they have to go?? Here's a couple pics of my AK-48 I harvested a few days ago..
Thanks for the advice. Your plants look like they turned out pretty awesome. I tried to keep my CFLs pretty close but I guess not close enough. I purchased a 400W HID setup recently so no worries, I'll be growing bigger and better hopefully.
Yeah 400 watts will def make a hugh difference... The only problem is if you don't have proper ventilation your gonna catch hell with the temps that small of a space...
I took those pictures yesterday, and they aren't ready yet. I bought a good 60x-100x microscope today, and got to look at the trichs. They're pretty clear, and looking at the hairs tells me they aren't quite close to ready yet. But soon, I hope! I'll definitely update with more pictures and smoke report.