I've always been interested in plants and their growth/life. I recently started smoking cannabis, and had a small collection of seeds. So I decided to plant some bagseed and try to grow them, I do understand that it's not just plant it, water it, and forget it, and that i'll need to do work to have them grow up. I know a little bit about growing plants from reading on the internet, reading books, gardening with my mom when I was younger, as well as from High School Horticulture Classes (Agriculture Science, Floriculture, and Greenhouse classes). I have two bags of soil on the side of my house that have been there for awhile, one is Miracle Grow soil, and the other is Peat (spelling?) Moss soil. I mixed these at about a 60(MG)/40(Peat) ratio and added it to pots. I originally added these to 3 pots, but decided that since I have a germination tray with 12 slots for plants to grow, i'd use that. The tray has two layers, one where the soil and plant goes, the other where the water can exit the first tray from. I found some lights in my basement from back when I used to have fish and turtles, and frogs, and a 20 gallon fish tank that has a partial piece of glass missing so that you can fit a aquarium filter in. I planted the seeds, put the fish tank light up (no idea what wattage) and i've since added another light that was on my computer desk. I have 3 sides of aluminum foil on the aquarium. One in the back, and one on each side. The plants have been growing (size in pictures), the stalks/stems/whatever you want to call them were bending alot even with a fan on (I read air blowing on them can help strengthen the stem) so I got 4 straws, cut these down the middle and cut them in sizes that were perfect for each of my babies. I water them with distilled water in a squirt bottle whenever the soil seems to be getting dry and the second tray is empty of water. The aquarium is on my computer desk nobody in my house minds, or would say anything to anyone about it. Here are my babies. Oh, and these are about 11 days old from seed. If anyone could provide tips to a first-time grower about my setup, or anything else, please assist. (I need help with when it's time to transplant to larger pots, when they should start showing sex, when to separate them and an estimate of when harvest could be.) Oh, and just incase, I haven't participated in anything illegal, and these pictures could have been easily found on google or any other image search engine. (Being paranoid about an herb found in the wild that has no reason being illegal FTL)
I would start thinking about putting the plants, at least the bigger ones in bigger pots now. also use mylar instead of aluminum foil, cuz foil is known to burn plants.
Okay, thanks for your input, and any idea where I can find Mylar? And do the pots in the pictures look big enough?
Yep, your plants are stretching due to lack of light or incorrect lighting. Also, get them out of those germination trays as soon as possible, no room for their roots. The pots in the pics will work for the first couple of weeks and then you will have to go bigger. A lot of growers decide on 3-5 gallon pots for their grows. Reading the Grow Guide might help ya out a bit too, if you haven't.
Thanks much guys, i'm going to fill those pots and find a few more in my basement and then transplant them soon, any ideas on how I could get that light any closer? It won't really bend in much closer, what about if I used something under the pots so that they'd be closer to the light?
Well, I grabbed some soil from outside, MG and Peatmoss again, but brought it inside to break up the clumps and realized "Hey! I have ants!". So my mom told me to seal it in a Ziplock bag until the ants die. That kind of ruins my ideas to replant them, but i'll hopefully be heading to Home Depot tomorrow to get soil, pots, and some new lights, and possibly check out some fertilizers. I'm probably going to be taking the Aluminum foil down tomorrow after I get everything and then i'll transplant them and get some new pictures up!