Emerald City grow

Hello all. I have been lurking for a while trying to learn as much as possible and now the time has come to post my very first grow attempt.
It began with just a few bagseeds thrown into a pot with some dirt and set in my kitchen window. After about a week I couldn't believe I actually had sprouts. Thats when it got a little more involved. On 4/20 I decided to germinate a few more seeds and do them right from the beginning.

My grow room is an unused shower with 10 26W 6500k cfls. I know everyone says DO NOT use Miracle Grow soil but I cannot afford Fox Farm stuff so it's the best I can do. The budget for this grow is more limited than you can imagine so any kind of household items that will help I will be using.

Any advice, opinions, criticism etc. will be appreciated. Just keep in mind this is my first grow and it really didn't start out with the intention of being very involved. That didn't last long.

Enjoy the ride.
Elphie

 

4/23

The additional germinated bagseeds were planted into little jiffypots.

4/25

sprouts emerged from the jiffypots and the original four that were in the kitchen window were repotted into 2 1/2 gallon buckets and sunk down a bit. (yes, I know they were stretching a lot)

So for pics we have the littlest babies in their pots and one, two, three and four in their new homes.

 

4/27

All babies looking good so far I think.

One, Two, Three, Four, A, B, C, D

They are going to get names soon

 

5/4

So everybody seems happy. Nothing major going on yet. Just some decent growth. I did top 3 out of the 4 oldest girls and they seem to be adjusting to it rather well. But Abby's leaves are all curly. Not sure why that is.
And all got names today too.
1- Amy
2- Beth
3- Cherie
4- Daisy
a- Abby
b- Brooke
c- Carmella
d- Dorothy (I'll try not to kill her)
e- Emily

I never planned on having 9 plants growing. I didn't expect them all to live. But with this many I am hoping to end up with at least one true girl to flower. If I end up with more that's ok too.

 

The youngest of the girls got transplanted out of their jiffypots today as I saw roots coming out of the bottoms last night. Just a minor upgrade since that was all I had laying around the house.
Here's a pic of my setup as of today.

 

5/11

Update day! I thought to only update once a week as there is not much going on other than a whole lot of growing. And I'm not gettin much love from the city so this is seeming to be just for me.
All the girls got a little fimming yesterday (except Cherie who is gonna just be au natural for the duration for comparison) and two of the youngest I have started a little lst. Contrary to the pictures, no one has come in and replaced my little babies with these enormous monsters. I could not be more thrilled with their growth in the last week!

If anyone sees anything that looks wrong or off, please let me know. I would hate to go through all of this care and then end up having something wrong with them that I could have fixed.

 

Amy, my rockstar today. 3 more weeks of vegging so the rest of the girls can catch up and it's on to flower time.

Also when checking on them all this afternoon, I killed about 4 gnats flying around. If anyone is reading here...Anybody got a cheap, easy solution for this problem??

 

Thanks. I don't have a hydro store anywhere around me. I was thinking diluted dish soap, just not sure if that would work for gnats.

 

5/18

Four oldest girls got water and 1/2 strength food yesterday. Three of the youngest got replanted into bigger pots too. They are much happier for it. I had planned on waiting until June 1 to flip the lights to 12/12 but I am rapidly running out of room. These are some fat phat sexy bitches here. So it looks like I am going to start flowering within the next week or so. As soon as I can get my bf to build the carbon filter and get the proper lights together. Once they show me their girlie (or boy) parts I am going to take a couple of clones so the next batch will already be started.

Now for some plant porn...all the girls individually and one group shot

 

5/21

Day 1 of flower!!! Yes that's right. Flowertime!! 31 days from seed for the littlest ones but Amy and Cherie have gotten so big I couldn't allow them any more veg time. So all the lights have been switched over and a couple added. I now have 14 2700K and 2 5000K to run for the duration. Now the real waiting begins. I am hoping they will show their sex sooner rather than later so maybe I can free up a little bit of room. Then I plan on taking a couple of clones to just hang out for a while in another area. Still working on the odor control thing. That is proving to be the most difficult part of the whole project. Alas, between the two brains that are working on it, I'm sure we will eventually come up with a solution. Stay tuned.... pics coming Wednesday.

 

So it seems that exhausting air out of the room proved a bit more difficult than was possible at the time. So we built a carbon scrubber that just sits in the room. Oddly enough since switching to 12/12 the smell has been minimal, almost to the point of non-existent. Strange. But I know in the not too distant future it will spread through the entire house if we didn't do something. Hoping the current setup will work through harvest. If not, it looks like we are cutting into some walls. Ugh..

They are all doing just fine with the 12/12 so far though. Growing like... well... weeds. Checking every day for signs of sex. Looking forward to freeing up some room. Damn, it's crowded in there. Pics in two days.

 

5/25

Day 4 of flowering and damn these things are getting huge. Checking every day for signs of sex but no luck yet. They are in their dark time now but when lights come on later they will all get water and their first dose of flowering nutrients. The side by side comparison of pics a week ago and today is simply insane. It's really surprising how fast they grow.

 

Yeah I know. They're thirsty. To be rectified later today.

 

Everybody got a big healthy drink last night and I meant to get some better pics this morning but I overslept past the timer for lights out so it will have to wait til after 8 tonight. I know it's still really early but I am closely checking for signs of sex all the time. I see no signs of maleness yet and it's either just too early to tell or I actually have NINE FEMALES !!!!! So I'm just going to keep checking, I don't have room for 9 girls to flower. What a problem to have right? More to come later...

 

So I have a male suspect. Dorothy. It's such a pretty plant too. But if I do get confirmation within the next day or so I will not feel remotely bad about chopping it. The other 8 are still looking pretty damn girly. I planted 9 thinking I was playing fair odds and would end up with maybe 4 or 5 girls. Right now I'm at 8 (and they are CROWDED)
I think I have pre-flowers starting but I can't tell if it's that or just new growth. Any help differentiating would be appreciated. Thanks y'all

 

Well I have had to space everybody out a bit more. And unless somebody is just being shy, I am ready to confirm 8 females out of 9 seeds!! Totally defying the odds and my expectations or even hopes I have 8 girls getting ready to flower. I don't plan on adding more lights so I am hoping that the crowded space won't affect their yield too much. But even if it does... with 8 plants thats still gonna be more than I was planning on. Thinking of taking a few clones to set aside for when these get done. Maybe tomorrow.

 

6/1

And then there were 7. One more male was found tonite. The rest have pistils a poppin. Did a little bit of LS-get the hell out of the way-T and in the process ended up snapping a main branch on Emily. It doesn't look like it will kill her but I'm sure she is not terribly happy about it either. Below is Cherie, who ended up being a Charlie and has since gone away. Terrible I know but the best I can do with a phone camera. Pics of the rest in the am. Nite GC

 

Damn it's a jungle in here. Some actual flowers are now forming. Here are the remaining 7. Big difference in Amy from last week to this. Some may say it's a huge no-no but she was so busy and blocking so much light I ended up snapping off a whole lot of her big fan leaves. So far it doesn't seem to be effecting her too much. But since this is my first grow I thought I'd experiment a little. At least now some light can get to her lower parts as well as everybody else down there. They all got a nice big drink with bloom booster last night and were all good and perky this morning. I'm thinking about 8 more weeks or somewhere there abouts. But we'll see. They'll be ready when they want to be.