Indoor/Soil/GHS "The Church", G13 Pure Power & White Widow

Here's post #1 of grow effort #1. I didn't name the thread "1st Grow" because I'm hoping for this to be a perpetual growing system for which I hope to keep this thread ongoing.

You can follow the link in my sig for more detailed growing environment information but here's the basics:

Closet grow, half of the closet is open for flowering plants up to ~5 feet in height, this could go higher if needed. Other half of the closet 2 chambers, 1 for moms/clones, 1 for veg.

I have a reasonable amount of CFL's in each of the smaller chambers and I have not yet purchased the HID for the flowering side. I'll take recommendations on that, as mentioned in my grow room build thread, I'm looking at 400w vs 600w for my 8 square feet of grow space.

I have planted the following:

1x G13 White Widow (UPDATE: NO GERMINATION AFTER 14 DAYS)
2x G13 Pure Power
1x GHS "The Church"

1 seed each in regular sized solo cups in a mix of 8:1 sphagnum peat to perlite. They are covered with plastic wrap right now as a substitute for a humidity dome and the cups have holes for drainage into a bigger sterlite container.

I have a 5 week old plant from bagseed that almost died. I've revived it and will let it continue growing until we see sex. The plant is small for its age but was stunted for a while. Current growth rate is very good. I'll update some on that plant if it looks productive, otherwise I'll throw it out.

Don't mind the tomatoes/strawberries, those are just renting this space for a bit.

I recieved these seeds today from attitude and planted them tonight so today is day #1 of germination.

Here are some pics to get us started:









Questions/Critisism/Advise/Comments are all welcome and encouraged, just don't be a jerk

 

Thanks! They're ~80 degrees where they'er at, 6 inches higher is getting mid 80s, I don't want to get them overly warm. I do intend to get them a little closer for sure, I just have to keep an eye on the temps.

 

No time for pics tonight but I did want to log that my GHS "The Church" and both "Pure Power" seeds have sprouted this evening, less than 72 hours from being put in the 8:1 peaterlite seedling mix. Just waiting on the White Widow to break through and I'll update with a couple pics.

Smoke one for the new ladies

 

Still no sprout from the white widow, it was a freebie so maybe it's old. I won't give up on it for another week or so.

I got a HID lamp today! It's a Sunsystem 250w ballast/reflector combo. I got it for $75 on craigslist! They go for ~$200 + shipping new.

Here's a pic of the 90% finished grow area. All that's left is bunch of light proofing and monitoring temps with the HID in there.

 

I've had them closer to the light for a few days now.

Here are a couple pics of the PP and TC, as well as how I used a double curtain to make my closet doors almost light-tight.

 

The temps were really killing me the last couple days. It's the ballast included in the 250w reflector. That thing is sweet but not in an enclosed closet. I searched a little on craigslist and ended up with nearly the exact setup I had been shopping for online.

For $225 I got a 400w Lumatek 120v electronic ballast (will fire MH and HPS bulbs), an air coolable reflector w/glass, a set of yo yo reflector hangers, and 1 each 400w MH and HPS bulbs.

Here's the boxes and the installed reflector running the metal halide bulb, you can see my little bagseed plant at the bottom of the 2nd pic:

 

Updateat Day 13:

We're doing ok. The Pure Power is going along nicely, and the GHS is growing but at a much slower rate. The schwag seed plant has completely recovered from its early trauma and is growing very rapidly. The white widow freebie seed from attitude seedbank did not sprout. I'm considering germing the freebie regular Thai Skunk but they're non-fem'd seeds and I don't want to create a situation where I introduce pollen to the air in the flowering area.

Here are some pics, GHS "The Church, Pure Power, Pure Power, left to right, then a pic of the schwag seed (the schwag is over a month old, it had complicatoins). please let me know if anyone has any ideas on the GHS "The Church":

 

Just transplanted all 3 seedlings and the bagseed plant to Fox Farm's Ocean Forest. I just fed the bagseed plant a 1/4 dose of Fox Farm's Grow Big yesterday morning, and transplanted today. I've never fed the seedlings, only 2 waterings in the peat filled solo cups and 1 today when they got transplanted to the new soil.

Any thoughts on the next time to feed the bagseed as well as when to start food on the seedlings? Next water on both? Next watering on the seedlings and skip a week on the bagseed?

Here's a new pic, notice the curling leaves on the bagseed and blotchy brown stops on the big leaves....this looks like nute deficiency to my newb eyes, even though I did give that 1/4 strength Grow Big, it looks hungry. Agree/Disagree?

 

Update: Day 21

Ok, we're about 6 days since I transplanted these into FFOF. The Pure Power has really taken off, lots of new growth. The GHS "The Church" seedling has had some growth but I'm thinkin it's a deformed plant, you be the judge. The bagseed hasn't fully recovered from the transplant, it lost some root mass, I'll expect it to perk up in another 4-7 days.

I've got 9 more seeds planted, 2 "The Church". 1 "Pure Power, 6 "Thai Skunk". They're in a 5:3 peaterlite mix. I really like how my current Pure Power plants responded to the peaterlite mix then a move to FFOF, so I'll repeat that process, just more perlite in the seedling mix this time.

I'm maintaining low to mid 80s under my lights, high 70's for ambient air in the room, with mid 30% humidity.

Here's the Pure Power, compare these with the pics right after I transplanted 6 days ago:




Here's a pic of the same 2 plants with "The Church" in front of them:



Here's the homely looking bagseed:

 

Update day 26:

I've terminated the first GHS "The Church" seedling and have sucessfully germinated 2 more....along with one "Pure Power" and 2 "Thai Skunk" (Thai Skunk is non-fem).

I've re-potted to their final 3 gallon nursery pots...felt bad for the bagseed plant since it had just started recovering but I really needed to get everything in the size pot for later in the grow.

Here's the updated pics of the 2 G13 "Pure Power" and the bagseed:



Here's the mom/clone/veg rooms with my cutting tray and some peppers/strawberries that are waiting for the last frost to go outside:

 

I've had company for 2 days....so far no questions...and they're been hanging out in the room that the closet is in. That's a testament to my 8" CAN fan....moving 400CFM with very little noise.


I'm going to try to update tomorrow after they leave, I have some growing girls to photgraph. I really want to get in there and check out some new transplants that I did this week...sucks not being able to tend to the garden but it's fantastic that the closet isn't obvious and noticable.

 

So here we are, 35 days since planting the pure power...and a bagseed plant that's a few weeks older. Here's some pics of the bagseed plant showing her girl parts, my new exhaust system, Pure Power and bagseed plants taken today, and a full height view of my flowering area, which I've finally finished. I just have a few minor light proofing things to clean up and I'll be completely finished.

 

A little over a month into veg on the G13 Pure Power and several more weeks than that on the bagseed, which was stunted by my poor growing. The bagseed is about as tall as I want it to be pre-flower so I put in the 400w HPS today and set the timer for 12/12. I also did some final light proofing of the mom/veg boxes that are inside the flowering closet.

The Pure Power plants are about a foot tall so I think we're ok to start flowering. The main thing from these couple plants is 1) harvest some good weed (obviously) and 2) get clones to work from for the next harvest.

I've already taken a couple cuttings from the bagseed, and I'll take at least 2 from each Pure Power in a few days. This should give me 4 plants about the same point in their growth and a couple moms for later, so I don't always have to cut from my current crop.

The Thai Skunk is doing good, 4 plants all ~7 inches tall but a little stretched. I have 2 good looking "The Church" seedlings going as well, and 1 more Pure Power. I don't plan to flower any of these, only develop a strom mom and take cuttings for future flowering efforts.

I'm running my lights 9am to 9pm, so I can check these first thing in the morning when I get up (about 5:30am) and around 10pm before I go to bed. I took a quick picture before I turned out the lights: