thankfully ive recorded every step of the way in a journal so that if anything messes up we have something to look at to find the problem. ~ Started July 23rd: Planted about 10 seeds from a crappppy batch of herb (im really hoping i can nuture these plants better than the last generation was nutured). Left on a shelf with a 60 watt regular light bulb 5 inches above, all seeds in 1 small bucket. 8/1 - Plants sprouted! 7 babies arrived, and decided to give them all a little home in a plastic cup until they were stronger. Plus they were all in the same pot to begin with and... I didnt want any roots getting friendly with each other. Increased light to 120 Watts of flourescent and maintained 6-8 inches above. 8/13 - Got a little too excited at the rate of growth and noticed their "stems" were soo flimsy. SO i think it was just like the root above ground, no good. Living conditions were discovered to be absolutely horrible, the soil had sunk from over watering and the cups of dirt were turned into cups of mud. I also hadnt realized the soil in which they were growing had a lot of just unwanted things in it likee ehh pieces of stupid things you find in everyday soil. So a trip to the store was much needed!! Scrapped up nice soil from under a clover patch (nice and soft and untangled with anything gross).. However we did place some of the mud from the old cups into the new soil for natural fertilizing. However, since they are now in 1 gallon homes they are in a much better environment. Also bought organic fertilizer for like $8 at home depot, with a ratio of N3-P1-K1.5 for some help. Increased lighting to 750 watts total: 2 heat lamps 2 ft above (cautionous of flammable anythings), and maintained the same flourescent lighting. 8/14 - Too much heat!!!! Relieved 500 watts, Got 2 misting bottles to not sink the soil, added constant classical music because studies show plants grow a grander scale only to classical. Now being misted, the leaves can also recieve water directly and therefore photosynthesize more efficiently. Soil is now on a constant guard. (*also bought a deadbolt for my closet to stop curious wanderers*) 8/15 - 2 plants were not recieving light directly above them, and therefore one died To save the other, I have given them its own 60 watt light to love. Lets hope for the best. 8/25 - Joined this site to share ideas haha because experience is always golden. Anyways things are looking good, have 5 plants going nice with an added blue light made for reptiles that emmits nutrients .. $5 at petco.. figured it cant hurt to add some healthy lighting. Oh and yes a fan has been on during their whole lives doing well today! my best baby so far: any recommendations will be recieved with open arms and sorry i had no pictures of the very very first days i didnt think of it at the time
I will be trying 5-6 plants for my first time as well. I'm only trying this many in an attempt to get a female. This is more practice than anything, I have no real interest in getting any harvest I just want to practice cloning. I've read hours and hours I've downloaded videos and I know that every grower has his/her own little way of doing things. So everyone will tell you something different. I'm a little confused with the space I have available it's 24"x33" I know it's would be enough for maybe three plants. I'm not real sure about six. .... Enough of me rambling on how much space are you using?
The cubic feet is about 25, and yes its in a large closet with a sealed door, humidity and temperature are constantly controlled, watering seems to be going well, and yes if your confused reading this im helping in this endevour.
about 25 cubic feet of space... and yeah i know everyone does seem to have their own ways but i guess you just kinda gotta practice (lol) and like im gonna try a few different things a different plants to see what works.. im not sure. first i have to sex them so im waiting to make other decisions then
hmmm what do you mean light proof? what should i do? its in a closed closet and i mean i try to keep the aluminum foil on there to center more light on the plants but im not sure what else to do
Well the plants look good imo, but ur growing set up looks like shit, no offense.. and it looks flammable in the picture. how many bulbs do u have? to me it looks like 2 cfl's and 2 flouros cant be 750watts of light.. but i could be wrong... ill recommend sense ur growing in a closet is set up a better enviroment for them to grow in.
why do u have heat lamps in there because all heat lamps will do is make it hot in there. also try and get 2 more fluorescents in there they should be atleast 6000 kelvins(excuse my spelling) happy growing
yea those heat lights are worthless just buy more florescents...and the tin foil is bad it will direct heat from the lights to certain spots on the plants and cause burn spots. the reflectors you have will do great as they are. try buying some perlite to help losen up the muddy dirt situation.
Im sorry its not picture perfect. this is a first time grow. They are heat lamps with reflectors, they are only 60w to direct more than 50%lolst otherwise withoutthem. Thereisa total of about 280 watts for 5 young plants. And because it is all low tempurature yet sustains the light out put, this is good. We have fans running and (music?)We may we first timers but we are not idiots, all conditions inside the grow room cannot be seen from above photos, howeverthe context was, had you took the time to read it you would have seen we noted such heat problems early on. i have done some homework but still seek guidance until my thirst of knowledge is quenched. So please do not slander
i simply stated my opinion on ur grow, and if u really did ur "homework" then of course u would have found out that using foil is bad, and heat lamps are crap for growing. my advise is get ur self some flouros, or cfls. but hey u dont have to buy the stuff, and just see what will happen to ur plants..
well if you read they arent heat lamps... again we already noticed that i mean obviously we realized. we only have flouros and cfls.
Updated Pictures ~ Decided to make a white wall since I've been seeing the advice a lot around on here... and yes this IS a closet and ventilated Need to supply more light for the one closest to the camera here... working on that though Decided also to try low stress training on one of them with sucess.. so im planning on doing it also to the one already bending and then give it a nice light right above it thank you for the advice to everyone
Just some friendly suggestions, and I encourage the experienced growers to correct me if I am wrong as I have only done reading and have yet to have experience on this myself. Currently building a growbox, but I will post pics etc in another thread as to not jack yours From what I see in these pictures and dates provided you are about 1 month into your grow that for a 30 day period they seem a bit small. Assuming you are still on 24 light as they still need to do some vegging. Might want to pickup some quality growing medium, possibly some scotts mix and some perlite. You want a medium such as perlite to prevent your plants pots from getting muddy. Perlite will allow for better water flow and airation. When watering, do you happen to notice your catch trays filling with water, if not your medium is too dense and you should add some perlite. Your growing medium should maintain a ph level of between 5.9 and 6.5 for optimum nutient usage. I have included a scale below for soil ph to water ph. When buying soil at a gardening supply store it should list its ph, from there you will want to adjust your water according to the attached chart. A cheap way to adjust without using ph up and ph down solutions is to use vinegar or baking soda. You also may want to put your lighting closer, usually a plant does best in a cfl setup if the light is kept at 1-2 inches from the veg, keep in mind you will have to check periodicaly and adjust as you do not want to burn. When you mention that it is ventalated do you mean that there is internal ventalation providing airflow within the closet or do you have an intake and exhaust in the closet to an outside source. If you are only providing an internal ventalation then once the plants produce oxygen the air will be rich with it and lacking the required CO2. I would suggest if not already done to get an active exhaust, and passive intakes to this closet. This would be ideal, one other cheap way of getting supplimental CO2 in to the closet would be to setup a vinegar/baking soda wick system. Basically get 2 cups of 2 different sizes, 1 must fit on top of the other (Plastic cups work best). poke a small pin sized hole in the bottom of the cup that will but placed on the top. Now take a peice of yarn and put it through the hole so it would dangle down into the cup below, you may want to knote the yarn inside the top cup to keep it secure from falling. Now fill the bottom cup with vinegar and the top cup with baking soda. This will allow the vinegar to travel slowly up your homemade wick into the baking soda and the reaction of the baking soda and vinegar together will create CO2. Now once your plants are about 1/2 the size of what you want them to be at harvest. This obviously depends on strain but 1/2 should be a good rule of thumb you will want to switch them to a 12/12 lighting. Mentioned above about 12 hours of uninterupted light meants that the closet should not leak any light from an external source, during the 12 hour dark period make sure there is no light at all, not even opening of the door that may bring in light for a short period of time as this may stress the plant. One quick note on ferts if you want to get picky.. you will want a steady dose of potassium throughout a plants life however depending on its life cycle you may want to emphasis either nitrogen or phosphorus. During Germination, Cloning or Flowering you will want more phosphorus then nitrogen in your mix. Especially during the flowering stage as this will allow for less leaf production which will reduce the leafiness of your buds. During Vegetation you will want to provide a higher ammount of nitrogen for leaf production. Remember though, playing with fertalizers can be great but also incorrect usage could result in burning your plants. Everything in moderation, basically its all about trial and error, you will get more aquainted and know your plant you will know what its wants and needs. I am hoping this is good information for you but then again this is from a completely inexperienced grower. I hope to be changing that soon. Feel free to flame on if I have given incorrect information
yeah right now they are being giving N3-P1-K1.5 (ratio) cause i already knew about the nitrogen thing, and i actually found a really good thing for the flowering stage i believe... its for cacti and other "succulents" with a ratio of eh id have to go look at it, i just know it was a lucky find so ill post it later when they do flower lol... getting something to constantly measure the nutrients would be chill though, thanks for the idea, and i never heard of the cup thing for CO2 im definately going to try it!!