First Grow! 150HPS + CFL, 3 NL, 2 unknown

Hi GC! I am knee-deep into my first real grow and thought I would start posting my progress. I am currently doing a closet grow with 3 Northern Lights, and 2 unknown plants under a 150 HPS light and 2 18w CFLs, 24/0. I figured I can add CFLs as needed. So, five plants total. I am currently on day 19 from seed and the plants are looking great! I've got them in Happy Frog soil, and just started them on FF nutes.

I have enjoyed every minute of this grow and can't wait to see how many turn out female. I am not sure when I am going to put them into flower, any suggestions? I don't want to end up outgrowing my space/budget for lights, but I don't want to completely gimp my yield. What size should they be when you flip them to 12/12 to really take advantage of the plants?

Also, I would assume there's a 50/50 chance for M/Fs, right? I read somewhere that the percentages are higher for seeds bought from seedbanks? Is there any truth to that?

Attached are pictures of the girlies(?) from today. The first ones are the NL, and the last two are a freebie that came with the NL, and a mysterious seed that I found in my planter one day while gardening(probably just bagseed that found it's way there, but who knows?).

 

Thanks everyone!

Well, I wanted to try to keep the grow w/i a 26"x26"x~4' tall space, but theoretically it could stretch to 26"x4'x5'. It doesn't get too hot in there, around 75-80 unless I keep the closet doors shut for too long. The highest it has ever gotten was ~90.

And it has been 20 days now from sprout, not seed. It has been 23 days total from seed.

As for LST, I don't think I am going to try to attempt it on my first grow. I have topped all of my plants though to attempt decrease their total height as well as increase yield.

Attached are some pictures of my attempts at topping. It went well for the most part but I ended up messing up on one of my NL, chopping off one of the embryonic fan leaves I guess, and doing some other damage. I has recovered mostly, but it's growth has been slightly slower than the other two NL.

 

Day 27 and the plants are thriving! I switched from FF to Earth Juice, for organic reasons, but the plants seem to love it. I gave them their first dose Thursday morning. Since then the NLs I am sure have grown at least 1/2 inch. The freebie seed has also reacted well to the EJ. It looks much more solid and has shot straight up.

The topping seems to have been successful! All of the girls have sprouted two strong new shoots. Pictures are attached!

I also think I will introduce all of my plants individually to you guys, because they are growing differently. Of the attached photos, the first 2 photos are NL #1. I topped her later than the rest, at the 6/7 node I believe, and she is bulkier than the others. She's a big girl. The next 2 are my freebie seed, which looks like it is going to be a strappy little sativa. The next 2 are of NL #2. She was the one I originally topped, kind of as an experiment and then proceeded to top the rest at different points. She's gorgeous though. Very geometric in appearance. The next 2 are of my little mystery seed. It looks to be a different strain than the others, and is the slowest growing. Still, I am very intrigued as to how I got the seed. I'm hoping the weed gods were looking down on me And finally NL #3, the one I kind of hacked apart while topping. She has recovered well, but is still the least impressive NL.

And that's everybody! I am really excited to see how many turn out to be female. I have looked at the calender and think I'm going to start flowering next Friday, Feb. 6th. That will be day 34 from seed. Will that be ridiculously early? I figured if I wasn't impressed by there growth by next week I might delay it, but I don't want to outgrow my resources.

Any questions/comments/advice?

 

bump. Anyone?

 

Thanks for dropping by! My HPS hangs ~12-15 in. above the tops of the plants, depending on plant height/angle/etc. Is it safe to put it much closer than that? I read that if you can keep your hand their for 60 sec it should be good, I just didn't really want to risk singing my plants.

And I was just about to upgrade the CFLs. I figured the seedlings didn't really need that much power anyways, but now I'm sure they'd love it. Thanks for the reminder

I wasn't planning on LST. I'm a softie and don't think I could contort my girls in all sorts of directions. I would feel guilty, haha. Completely ridiculous reasoning, I know, and LST would probably increase my yield, but eh I don't really care. Let the girls stretch their arms! I don't think height should be too much of an issue. I am switching them to 12/12 this friday so they're not going to get too too tall. Hoping to harvest at the end of March.

As for smell, it is not a problem at all so far. The plants themselves smell incredible though. Fresh, and plant-y, and weed-y None of it really escapes the closet though.

 

Hey GC! I put my planties onto 12/12 on Thursday night, so today is day 4 of flowering!

I didn't think I would be able to tell sex for at least another couple of days, but yesterday I noticed little balls forming in the nodes of a couple of the plants and I got pretty nervous. The balls looked very similar to the balls on my last male bagseed/single CFL experimental grow, with that same banana shape.

But today I believe I may have my first girl! I noticed the two smallest hairs poking out of the top of one of the balls on my smallest NL. The second is on another NL but I am not sure if it is just new growth, and the third is a ball on my mystery plant, which I am the most worried about. Sorry for the lack of focus.

What do you guys think? I know time will tell, but I'm impatient!

 

Day 7 of flowering and the news is bad. NL #1 an #2 and boys, as well as my mystery seed.

My third NL is indeed female though! Which is good news because I don't know what I would have done if I didn't get any females. My freebie seed has yet to show any signs of showing sex. It is looking really sativa-like at this point and I have heard that sativas are usually slow flowerers. I would guess they were slow showers too.

But with the loss of three of my potential plants, I have decided to 4-way LST like suggested. I am going to have to milk this girl for all she's worth. She looks like a solid plant at this point though, and am excited to see how she turns out. I'll post pictures when I get the time.

 

DAY 14 OF FLOWERING:

I'm still pretty bummed about all my boys, but my one girl seems to be doing alright. She was really wilty for a while but I think I figured out the problem.

And she actually turned into a 6-way LST by accident. I guess I topped her a little late. She seems to be okay with it at this point though. I just trained the top branches at the time of the pictures. Other than that, I gave them their first batch of flowering ferts today, since fixing the pH problem. EJ Bloom: 0-3-1, and a tablespoon of molasses/gal and they're liking it. I still have one plant that hasn't shown sex yet. It has been very finicky though, worse than the girl.

Thanks for stopping by!