First Grow: The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and weed

Hello All,

First off, thanks to everyone who contributes here-- these forums have been a fantastic resource in setting up my first grow.

I'm growing from bagseed (most of which was from really good stuff that my friend grew). I have everything set up in an old refrigerator in my basement. I have 108W of CFLs going 24/7. There is a fan running and am keeping the door propped open about 3 inches for ventilation-- this keeps things a very steady 76F inside. I transplanted the seedlings into party cups full of Earthgro topsoil on 2/6 and so far have cotyledons on one and what I assume are root hairs on another, which apparently landed in the soil upside down-- I'm not touching it, as I figure it will know better than I do how to get it rightside up!

There are some pictures below-- any comments or advice will be much appreciated!

 

Week 2:

Things are going reasonable well, although I did have one of my seedlings die-- I'm pretty sure that was because I planted it into soil that was VERY wet. I have also germinated and planted 3 more seeds-- one is already showing some good vegetative growth after just a few days.

There are 5 plants with clear vegetative growth, but 2 are growing VERY slowly, with the one that was the first seed to sprout still not past the cotyledon stage. If anyone knows why this might be (I assume it's just something to do with the different strains), I'd appreciate a hint.

I added an extra lightbulb and replaced one, so now I've got 6 X 26w, all but one 6500K. I'm now on an 18/6 schedule.

No problem with temperatures, although humidity has mostly been in the low to mid 30s. It looks like I've been overwatering the plants (there is moss growing in some of the cups), but once that is dried out, I'm going to put a cup of water with a wick in there and hope that gets the humidity up.

That's it-- pics are below!

 

LGWI-- Thank you! I'll be glad to answer any questions you have.

Grrower--

1. Yeah, I'd been meaning to lower those-- thanks for reminding me. They're now about 2" above the tallest seedlings.
2. OK-- any advice on how to combat it? I'm going to pick out the bits that look the worst tonight, but is there anything else I can do?
3. No-- I didn't use any and that's looking like a mistake-- the soil is very dense. Would I be able to get away with transplanting the seedlings into new cups with perlite at this point (and hopefully removing the soil that has algae at the same time, or should I wait until they're ready for bigger containers anyway?
4. I've been testing pH, and it's been in the 6.5-7.0 range every time.

Thanks!

 

Week 3 Update:

Things are going quite well. Thanks to the Green Bastard's advice, I gave the plants 2 tsp of H2O2 in 2 cups of water last week, which put a quick end to the algae problem. There seemed to be a few remaining spots tonight, but things are 110% better than before.

No changes in temperature, humidity or pH. I've been keeping a cup of water with a washcloth in it as a wick near the fan, but humidity is still no higher than 40%.

Of the two plants that were growing weakly last week, one gave up the ghost, but the other one is (finally!) getting past the cotyledon stage after 3 weeks. The other five plants are growing well without any issues. Here is a complete listing (more for my future reference than anything else):

1: Got to the cotyledon stage quickly, but did nothing else until the past few days.
2: Very good growth
3: Good growth
4: Died
5: Grew slowly, then died
6: Good growth
7: Never sprouted
8: OK growth; very low to the soil so far

 

Week 4:

It's been a fairly eventful week for my babies-- I started LST and gave them their first fertilizers.

The two biggest and oldest plants were starting to look a little bit yellow, especially towards their bottoms, and based on some online information, it looked like a shortage of nutrients. I gave them about 1/4 of the recommended dosage of Miracle Grow (which is all I had around the house) with their last watering, and they seem a little bit healthier already.

I also began LST with flower arranging wire on 4 of the 5 plants (the last one is still too low to the ground to do it to, although it's getting taller). It may have been a little bit on the premature side for the two shortest ones, but I am getting some nice undergrowth on the two bigger ones.

It looks like my next step is moving them to bigger pots, and I am using better-quality soil and perlite this time around. I've got all of the materials, and will do that whenever I have some free time. Hopefully it will give me a nice growth spurt, as I'm going to have to start flowering before the end of the month-- I want to have everything harvested before a vacation in June.

Some pics below-- the close-up shows the largest of the plants, with yellowing and LST.

 

Week 5:

This week I moved the plants to bigger pots, with new soil and perlite so that the soil is MUCH less dense than the old stuff. I am also continuing LST, and all of them are nice and bushy now. There is still some yellowness in some of the plants, despite another addition of nutrients, and one has a few brown leaves as well that I'm a little worried about. pH has been steady at 7.0 or just below, and I'm thinking about adding a little vinegar to the water next time around to bring it into the 6.3-6.8 range that's supposed to be ideal. Hopefully that will improve nutrient uptake and maybe get a little bit of a growth spurt going, as I'm going to have to start flowering in no more than 2 weeks and the plants are a little smaller right now than seems to be normal. Some pics are below, and as always, any advice is appreciated!

 

Thanks for the feedback!

The containers that they're in now are about 40 Oz., but they were in 16 Oz. cups up until last week. The containers were definitely filled up with roots when I transplanted them, although not to the point where the roots were protruding from the bottom.

The pH of the runoff water has been right around 7.0 or a little less each time. Based on a little more research I'm definitely going to try to bring the pH down with vinegar.

Right now, I am using standard-issue Miracle Grow, which I know is not ideal, but it seemed silly to spend the money for something better when I am going into the flowering stage so soon. I do have the Dr. Earth bud and bloom fertilizer for later on.

 

I flushed with vinegar and water today until the runoff pH was 6.7. Hopefully that will lead to an improvement-- in addition to the one problem plant I mentioned above, there were a few small brown spots on another one and worsened yellowing on another this morning. I am definitely going to splurge on the good stuff for my next grow!

 

I put them in a week apart, so 5 weeks after sprouting for 3 and germination for the other 2.

 

I've seen molasses recommended, but what is it supposed to do?

 

Week 6:

After a good bit of flushing with water and vinegar, the brown spots and yellowing appear to be at bay. The soil still seems to be too basic-- on Friday I added water that had been adjusted to about 6.0 and the runoff tested at 7.0. There does seem to be have been a visible growth spurt this past week, and while I'm not expecting a huge crop, I'm glad to be at least making some progress. This week I also began doing some ghetto CO2 supplementation with a plastic cup with a hole in it filled with vinegar and placed above a milk carton filled with baking soda. The sources I've read online seem to be split on whether or not this is a complete waste of time, but what the hell, I enjoy playing McGuyver and had some extra baking soda and vinegar sitting around.

Since I need to have everything harvested before going on vacation in June, this will most likely be the last week of vegetation before I go to a 12 and 12 schedule. Wish me luck!