I need some direction for my first grow

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by euphorianx3, Jul 21, 2010.

  1. Hello all, well I am 3 weeks into my first grow, and here are the facts:

    Strain: 3 Big Bud x Skunk #1 plants.
    Grow Room: 2' x 4' x 5' growing tent
    Lighting: 1x 125W large daylight bulb, with wing- 6500k I paid $69.99 for it, hope it was worth it.
    Medium: Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.. nothing else.
    Nutrients: None yet
    Ventilation: Ghetto 4 inch fan moving air through a duct out the top, plus oscillating fan, plus ghetto box intake fan.
    Temps / Humidity:Temps peak at 90F during the day, but if I'm lucky I see them as low as 88 with the lights on. The grow area is about 10 degrees hotter than outside. The humidity is about 45-50% when the swamp coolers on, 35% when it's off.

    So anyway I have a couple of questions, first of all, I assume my plants are having minor problems with leafs curling up because it is so hot,or something to do with the soil, I tried flushing the soil and get a run-off of about 6, I'm getting a better PH/moisture/light meter today.

    I need to know what kind of lighting I should get. If a HID system would be too hot when it's already 90F under flourescants, I understand. I prefer some lighting that's gonna be affordable, much preferred to be under $150. If what I have is not good enough for vegging 3-4 plants, please let me know, also need to know what kind of lighting I need for a hot environment to flower 3-4 plants.

    All I really want to grow is like 2 ounces a month, if more is possible thats great, but remember I probably am going to be battling these high temps for another month or so.

    Also when should I try to flower these babies?
     

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  2. For veg CFLs are fine. Maybe just get another one of those lamps you already got. I just finished harvesting my plant yesterday and did the entire grow with CFLs. I only had one plant but with some LST I got easily more then a zip.
     
  3. #3 LBH, Jul 21, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 21, 2010
    couple points to lead you in a better direction

    -Large cfl's can produce as much heat as an hps but can't be cooled as efficiently. I HIGHLY suggest a 250 or 400w AIR COOLED hps.

    -Yes, your plants are showing signs of heat stress, moreso,....poor circulation

    - circulation is about as important as light, don't under do this category, the more air exchange and movement, the better.

    -should u go the hps route, return the lrg cfl, tell them you got the wrong spectrum, need one for veg. Flouros are excellent for veg and I do mine (4 plants per run) under 2x 125w lrg cfls. (There are 3 fans in there with them, 2x 10" fans and 1x 24")

    -DO NOT FLUSH any more, ocean forest comes ph'd to 6.5 and pre loaded with all the nutes you need to get you thru veg, one of the reasons it's such a great soil. You need to replace those nutrients you flushed. (maybe) define what you did to flush first, it might not be so bad

    - You trigger them to flower when you want to. Usually depends how much room you have to work with, common veg times are 4-8 weeks.

    You seem to have a decent grip on the process but a little more homework before you planted could have saved you a little money and time but we learn a we go. I was in your exact shoes making the exact same deciosion based on the same factors and learned along the way. 2 most important things I leaned.

    1. Do it right the first time. For me, "right" was using the proper lights. I had set up to veg and flower with flouros, spent about $300 on big flouros thinking they are cooler than those hps lights. Wrong. I run 2x 400w air cooled hps's and it's cooler in there with those than it wa with 3 large cfl's.

    2. A decent ph pen can help you avoid many, many and even "Most" problems.

    Check the video in my sig, DANK TANK, and see how I confronted some of the issues you're facing.

    Good luck :wave:
     
  4. Thanks for all the tips, really I need them!

    My PH tester arrived today, My soil PH is either 6.7 or 6.8. Not sure why the run-off was reading as 6. This thing doesn't use batteries, it's cool.
    So my soil PH is just right, I think?, but the nutrients gone? I gave them each 2 gallons of water for the flush, they are 2 gallon pots. I don't know if you can see in the pics but there is brown spottage on some of the leaves...could this be due to misting under the light? I feel like I am in a losing battle, raise the lights and they might grow too slow, mist them and they might get burned, don't mist them and they start curling up, ugh...

    This one is for veg, the hydroshop said so, and I thought 6500k is veg? So from the sounds of it I should get another one. So I might have to throw another $400 down total for all this, plus nutrients and new soil! I hope these investments soon will come back, haha. I want to veg new plants in my closet when these plants are ready for flowering and take clones from them, (or keep 1 of the 3 as a mother), so I might want to hold onto these even if I get a HPS.

    I was looking into getting a carbon filter, inline duct fan and ducting to accomodate a light with a cool tube.

    And if anyone has one of those moisture testers, mine says dry / moist / wet, so should I just water when it gets to dry? (or further dryer on the meter).
     
  5. What is the name of the ph tester you got? You usually need to get up in the $50+ range for anything remotely reliable but I'm curious, could you link me?

    Had my head up my ass, that bulb is the one you want for veg. Head is out now, what a view!!

    2 gallons is just a real heavy watering ;) When it actually comes time to flush at the end, you want a MINIMUM of 3x the volume of the pot. 2 gal pot gets 6-10 gallons per pot to flush.

    3 gallon pots and up, that's what you want next time, don't want the risk of getting rootbound and more roots=more bud so give them more room to grow.

    Avoid misting (that's a personal preference, many will argue,...I don't)

    When it comes to watering,....throw the meter away, you want to learn here.

    You want to let the plants get COMPLETELY dry before watering. When you water, lift the pot and test the weight, then add till it comes out the bottom and stop.
    now lift the pot again and learn the wet weight. You will soon be able to tell if they need water by simply lifting them. Till then, stick your finger in the soil,...if you feel dampness above 1", they are good, let them dry more. You want a dry finger to the middle knuckle, that's when you water.

    2 reasons for watering this way. When you make them go in search of water, you promote root growth. "Search roots" are shot out to find water and when they do, feeder roots will build. Again, more root, more bud. #2, MJ does not like to be wet all the time (the roots). They need oxygen as much as they need water. When you overwater, you essentially suffocate the plant.
     
  6. looks good... good luck:hello:
     

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