First Grow - Good Times

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by Azureblue, Aug 11, 2008.

  1. #61 Azureblue, Sep 22, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2008
    Updates :cool:

    On Friday I ran up to my local grow supply shop and picked up Fox Farm's Tiger Bloom flowering nutes. I used them for the first time this morning so we'll see how that turns out.

    I also purchased new CFL's for the flowering stage. Previously I used 4 27 watt Daylight (6500k) CFL's for the vegetative state. I am now using 3 23 watt and 1 42 watt Soft White (2700k?) CFLs. I implemented the lights on Friday and they seem to be doing well with the new CFLs. The bud sites are growing quickly :D

    I bought the cloning supplies I need but I'm having second thoughts about cloning this point because:
    1. The only cuttings I can take have bud sites now which I don't want to lose
    2. The clippings will (eventually) need to be on a different lighting schedule to get back to veg and I don't have anywhere to set that up


    ^ If anbody has any opinions or views regarding that let me know. I am kind of at a loss :( ^

    Now, why you are really here. Pictures!

    Today is Day 78, Day 19 of 12/12 Lighting Schedule:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    Lighting sucks in this picture. Notice the hard to see growth in the darkest areas of the bottom right as well:

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    Node growth at point of LST on Day 74:

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    ...and again on Day 78:

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    I am really starting to get a strong MJ smell. Thankfully I have a carbon filter in place so the smell for the most part has remained in the box. I do notice a light "planty" smell that can be passed off pretty easily as another basement smell. Inside the box however, if you put your nose right up to one of the bud sites and take a deep breath you get that strong, sweet aroma. It's interesting (but logical) that the bud sites smell *exactly* like the original buds that the seed for this plant came from.

    Anyway, that's the skinny.
     
  2. #62 Uchiha, Sep 22, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2008
    First off; plants look good! but...
    There are a couple of things i would recommend to you:
    1)
    get a pH test device or kit and test the pH of soil EVERYTIME you visit your plants (i remember correctly, that you have a very stealthy setup?...) you want that to be from 6.5-7.AND test yor water EVERYTIME you irrigate 8appr. same pH, so it does not get changed...) Test the water pH AFTER adding nutes (they sometimes change the pH)
    2)
    Use one of your 6500K´s during flowering, the plant will evolve better (3 CFL`s around 2000K and 1 arond 6500K)
    3)
    If you do not want to put up with bud loss, than i would recommend you to NOT take cuttings, but to invest 30$ for some seeds, germinate them, veg them and appr. 1 week BEFORE you let them flower, you take your cuttings ;)
    Besides you would need an extra space (they need either 24h or 18h of light) to veg the cuttings...and if do not have the space, the juice is not worth the squeez ;)
    I would suggest you build a small (appr. 40cm height) chamber ontop of your box, wwhere you can veg your clones next time. Or you build it right away, take up with a little bud loss and reveg the clones. It kind of depends how enthusiastic you are ;)


    PACE
     
  3. #63 Azureblue, Sep 22, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2008

    I will try this! Thus far I've been lazy about checking pH levels because it is a stealth grow and I can usually only check on the plant every other day for a few minutes at a time. It wouldn't be that hard to accomplish this, however, so I'll give it a try!

    Setup is very stealthy :). I am sort of breaking one of the indoor growing rules in not letting everyone in the house know about the grow. I worry at times about the negative consequences of it being discovered and hope it's not a mistake...:(. Still, it is very well hidden and in an area where nobody else goes because of how cluttered and difficult it is to get to.


    I may have to try this. I have heard others say the same thing. I was planning on it but it occured to me that one area of the plant would get the 6500k spectrum that the others wouldn't benefit from it nearly as much. Perhaps if I moved it from light to light on a regular basis it might work?


    These are some really good ideas!! :eek:

    I may end up doing that.

    I do have one branch (that does have a bud site) that I am still considering taking a clipping from. It's healthy and the bud site is still very small. I would need to come up with an area/place to get it back to veg and keep it on a 24/0 or 18/6 lighting schedule. I may need to get creative again...

    It would be easier if it wasn't a stealth grow :(


    I have thought pretty seriously about putting something together the last couple of days. I need to sit down and plan something out. It would sure be helpful to have this kind of set up! I'll let you know if I put something together!

    Thanks for stopping by Uchiha! Take it easy man :cool:
     
  4. pH is very important for plant evolution. If pH is too high or low, roots are unable to feed on some vital nutes, because they are all bonding with the excessive chemicals, hence the plant shows nute deficencies even thou you are feeding it more than enough. Consequently the plant is not growing properly and bud production is near 0...

    Or you can turn the pot everytime you visit her ;)
    or you could buy a t5 tube with 6500k... That would have nearly the same effect, i think. But this is up to you..
    But with the tube you maybe could also put your cuttings into the box. If you buy or build a SMALL humidity dome and place it directly under a t5 you mabe even could place it next to your plant.
    BUT you would have to keep them moist at all times, and probably moist them everyday with a sprayer, plus you want to have a heating mat.
    You konw i just thought about it and you can also do it with a CFL(6500k) since you will have a VERY SMALL dome....
    However, measure and plan everything exactly, but you already know that ;)


    Just imagine what you can do in a couple of years when you can use your stealth experience for a non-stealth grow :smoke:


    Keep up the good work!

    PACE
     

  5. ^ I've been thinking and thinking on the subject of cloning and I have decided that I am going to take this advice. ^

    In my current situation I am busy enough trying to maintain my flowering female. I am also not desperate for the resulting bud, this has been more of an experiment. I'll see this grow all of the way through, then do something similar to what was suggested above.

    Thanks again Uchiha :cool:
     
  6. No problem dude! I´m happy to help and very excited about how your buds gonna look like!!!
    PACE
     

  7. Me too :cool:

    I had a reoccuring dream last that my grow was discovered, dismantled, and destroyed :eek:

    In the dream I even posted here at GC about it!

    When I woke up, while everyone was asleep, I rushed to my growbox and took a nice, longing gaze at my flowering female :D

    Ah...all is well in the world :hello:
     
  8. Sweet Grow Blue!!! The ventilation set-up is cool. This is an impressive grow.
     

  9. Thanks man! I've learned a lot and I'm still learning every day :D

    Thanks for stopping by my grow journal :hello:
     
  10. #70 Azureblue, Sep 25, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 25, 2008
    Whew! Plant is getting REALLY stinky. I paid a visit to the growbox this morning and it almost knocks you over when you open the door.

    Thankfully my home made $30 carbon filter is doing an excellent job at scrubbing the air before it leaves the box. It doesn't apper that smell will be a concern for discovery which puts some of my greatest fears to rest. If anyone needs an affordable, reliable, easy to make carbon filter, I would recommend using this same tutorial that I did:

    http://www.gardenscure.com/420/security/60127-ryoko-builds-diy-activated-carbon-filter.html

    In the short time that I do have the door open the air that escapes definitely reeks of (oh so sweet) MJ smell. I have been simply lighting a match in the general vicinity to take care of that. This seems to do the trick. It does smell like someone lit a match afterwards, but there is very little people traffic in this area, the smell disappates within an hour, and if necessary I can attribute it to a "furance" smell :D

    I have a branch that would be an excellent candidate for cloning but I don't think I can create a seperate environment in which to provide it light that is stealth :cry:
     
  11. QUESTION!

    I picked up a kit to test pH here this afternoon. It is one of those kits that you add your soil, water, and some provided powder into a little provided container. Shake it up, see what color it turns. It looks somthing like this, though this is not the one I got:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    My soil, which was fairly dry, was mixed with tap water, and it came in at 7.0.

    My grow's water (tap water with Fox Farms Tiger Bloom nutes for flowering) was 5.5.

    I have been reading and researching and it sounds like the ideal pH level in our case is 6.5.

    Are these levels acceptable? I imagine when I water the plant that the soil mixed with my water may sort of "meet in the middle" and come out to be a reasonably well balanced pH level. What do you think?

    When I was in veg I had a few leaves that were yellowing, but that has cleared up since I started flowering. I do still have the occasional fan leaf (1 or 2) that droop hard. Most of the leaves are just fine however.

    Thanks for any tips, advice fellow GC'ers :D
     
  12. Hey dude nice stealth and progress but what happened the rest of you grow journal????:confused::confused::confused:
     

  13. High Azure!

    The Fan leaves dropping is nothing to worry, i heard that some strains drop very very very many fan leaves....
    Yeah MJ grows best at ph of 6.5 to 7.0
    however to be absolutely certain about your plants health you should try to check the pH after watering (also with nutes) your plant, even if they would meet in the middle, that would be a 6.25 pH and that is too low. Because did you knew that "...every full point change in pH signifies a ten fold increase or decrease in acidity or alkalinity." -Jorge Cervantes....
    I don`t want to scare you just trying to avoid possible negative effects in the future, ;) I think there are even growers who think pH is a new drug and still get a decent harvest. :D
    So keep up the good work!
     

  14. Hey thanks man :cool:

    The rest of my grow journal? Hmm....scroll to the top of this page (page 5) and take a look at the pictures. That is about where we sit today :D

    You may be referring to the gap from the 1st to the 2nd page. There was a period of time where I wasn't posting here at GC because I was so busy. I think it was about a month? There was a lot of vegetative growth in that time. I've been much better about posting since I started the 12/12 lighting schedule at the beginning of September.

    Just check the dates on each post and that should give you an idea of where I am at and where I have been. Today is day 82 of life, day 23 of the 12/12 lighting schedule, and approximately day 11 of flowering.


    Thanks man! I appreciate the advice and the tips! The next time that I water I will remeasure the pH of the watered soil. I wish I would have done this sooner, it was interesting to learn the pH levels of both soil and water. Thanks again also for the push to do the measuring originally. I got the idea to do this from you :cool:

    Thanks again for stopping by! Have a good weekend :D
     
  15. hey Azure, not so sure I've check this out before. Nice lookin grow dude... I'm looin at makin that same carbon filter for my box once I start flowering next week. Glad to hear that it works well. What kind of fan you using?
     

  16. Thanks for checking out my grow :cool:

    I am using two exhaust fans in my "pull through" ventillation setup. They are Ultra's 80mm Dual Ball Bearing (see very quiet) computer case fans that I wired up to a Radioshack A/C adapter.

    You can get them from tigerdirect.com here though they are selling them for $15 each and I paid $9:

    http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3478780&CatId=494

    They look like this:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    Here is the adapter:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    Here is a picture of them installed:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    From the other side:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    ...and with the carbon filter installed overtop of them:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    Even with the carbon filter in place they are moving enough air to keep my temp's in the mid 70's and provide more then sufficient air circulation. I also have a cheapy walmart fan blowing on the plants just to keep the stem strong which you can sort of see in this picture:

    ...

    ...

    [​IMG]

    ...

    ...

    I am very happy with my ventiallation and air scrubbing setup and it has served me well and cost very, very little.
     
  17. How come you didn't paint the interior of the box white or use mylar film on the inside of the box? Just curious, I'm trying to learn too.
     

  18. The real reason is: I keep putting it off :(

    However, the plant shows all signs of receiving plenty of light without it thus far. I also have a concern that if I paint the interior white or cover the inside with mylar that the few light leaks that I have will be amplified by the reflective surfaces and increase the possibly of my girl ending up a hermie. I don't have any data or information to back this idea up though; it is simply a thought/concern that I have. I know I have a few light leaks yet to address but they are very minor.

    I'm always learning, that's for sure!
     
  19. High Azure!

    Thanks for the props from before :cool:!!!
    Untill HeavyMetal uttered that about your walls, i haven`t noticed...i guess if you only have one plant and the light directly on the plant it does work good enough...
    BTW just wanted to let you know my grow journal is up now, so feel free to check it out;)

    What about your plant? how is she? pix please... :D


    PACE
     

  20. AWESOME!! I will check it out right away :cool:


    I believe she is doing good but I haven't seen much of her since Friday. It's been hard to get access to her here lately; just enough to keep her fed and watered. When I watered her yesterday very briefly I saw one fan leaf was yellowing but all else looked well. She's been requiring more and more water since I started flowering. I have been watering her every other day (when soil is dry) with a full cup of water (mixed with nutes)!!

    I will be seeing here again this Wednesday for an extended period of time so I will take some pictures of her for you then :D

    I'm going to head over and check our your grow journal!
     

Share This Page