Kerbob16's First Grow - CFL Bagseed Closet Grow Box

Kerbob16 · Mar 30, 2010

Hey everyone, this is my first grow journal and im looking forward to learning as much as i can from whoever follows this. Ive attempted to grow 4 times but my seedlings never lasted past a week. For the past 2 years or so ive been extremely interested in growing weed from home and ive been studying and researching as much as i can on how to do it.

Here are some details on my grow:

Seeds - 2 bagseeds
Lights - Six 13 watt 6500k cfls (only four for now and il add my other Y adaptor later)
Soil - Scotts premium potting mix
Nutrients - Schults Bloom Build (for flowering)
Water - Brita filtered water every 3 days

The power strip holding my cfls is held up with twist ties and clear tape, i could find a screw with a thin enough head to fit into the mounts on the back of the strip. And the white thing beside the pots is a fan to keep air circulating.

As i mentioned before, i failed 4 attempts at growing. The first attempt i was using miracle grow soil and the drainage was absolutely horrible so the roots of my seedling ended up rotting, the seedling also was over watered and slightly burned by me forgetting to use the dull side of tin foil in my grow box.

My second attempt after i bought new soil and improved my grow box was going pretty good, until the power bar holding my cfls dropped and crushed the seedling.

The next two attempts the seeds simply never broke through the dirt. Im still not sure why.

Anyways, friday march 26th i planted 2 seeds at midnight (so technically saturday morning). I noticed they sprouted sunday afternoon. Today is monday and they are doing pretty good as you can see in the pictures ive attached below. This is my best attempt and everything seems to be going perfect.

I will be updating this thread with pictures once a week, unless i have an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

I look forward to this learning expirience and im open to any help or advice members on this site can offer me throughout my first grow.

Stay tuned

Kerbob16 · Mar 30, 2010

I might, but i havent really given it much thought yet. It would be a good idea though considering i dont have a lot of space.

twitcher2009 · Mar 30, 2010

i hope you have better luck this time, these super stealth grows can be tricky. i usually crack my seeds using the paper towel method, it give me a nearly 100% success rate so maybe you could try that next time?

subscribed

Kerbob16 · Mar 30, 2010

Yea thats the germination method i use, works every time i love it. Except 1 of my 4 trys i only germinated the seed for 24 hours but i still planted it because i didnt want to loose any more time and thats one of the ones that never sprouted. Thanks for subscribing!

Kerbob16 · Apr 3, 2010

DAY 7:

Today marks the end of the first official week of my plants lifes ! It makes me proud because my other 4 attempts already failed by now, but these babies are looking healthy.

Here are some pics. Anything you guys want to add? I think their looking pretty good.

twitcher2009 · Apr 3, 2010

they look ok for a week old matey

Kerbob16 · Apr 4, 2010

thanks! i really hope they mature more over the weekend

Kerbob16 · Apr 7, 2010

DAY 12:

My lights went on 24 minutes ago (midnight) and today right after my lights went off at 5 pm i transplanted my little girls from the mini pots to 1 gallons. I had a little trouble because my soil hadnt been watered for 3 days but i managed to do it successfully.

In the past 3 days ive noticed mainly growth in the middle of the plant. I see new leafs emerging and ive noticed the leafs that were already there are slowly maturing. I thought my plants were rootbound in those small little pots but i didnt even notice how much growth occured until i compared saturdays pictures to the ones i just took.

Il have another update at the end of week two which is saturday. Stay tuned !

twitcher2009 · Apr 7, 2010

those babies are gonna love having a bit more leg room, they will shoot up now

Kerbob16 · Apr 9, 2010

ya thats definetly what im hoping. i see lots of new growth in the middle of the plant. i also just added the third Y adaptor into my power strip hopefully the two extra cfls will make it grow even more. although one of the first four leafs on one of my plants seems to be drying out and it has weird spots on it. i hope its not something i should be worried about.

Kerbob16 · Apr 10, 2010

DAY 14:

One of my plants is doing incredible, the leafs keep getting bigger and bigger and it already has two new growths coming out from the middle sprouting up. Im very pleased with it.

My other plant on the other hand, is looking slightly scrawnier and one of the first 2 leafs that came out is drying up. Ive attached a picture. Also, the cotyledons are almost completely dead. Im not sure if thats bad or not, same with the dried up leaf.. this is only my first grow.

Please leave some comments on what you think of my plants i really need as much feedback as i can get so i know if im on the right track or not.

bestkeptsecret · Apr 10, 2010

make sure you ph the water ur using man. just filtering wont cut it. also research a better soil and better nutes. its fine for your first go round i guess cuz your gonna need more experience for better results. u can read all you want but you still hafta put it into practice to really get the hang of things. just know you get what you put out. bagseeds most likely wont perform as well vendor's seeds. ur soil prolly has time release ferts making it a possible ph nightmare, not too mention your seedlings may get nute burn as well. most potting soils available at home depots and walmarts have poor drainageas well. you need to know what ur watering with is ph'd correctly. you should be monitoring heat and humidity levels and doing your best to keep them in acceptable ranges. it looks like you have a fan in there but if you close that box to make it stealth your only circulating stale air in your box. u need to think about exhaust and intake for fresh air. or co2 set up. just remember you get what you put in.

Kerbob16 · Apr 11, 2010

thanks man that was some great advice! I only have crappy supplys because its all i could get. Home depot is 5 minutes from my house and theres no hydro shops around here. So i just bought whatever could do the job for now and later on im planning on buying a prepaid credit card so i can go online and buy some fox farms products and other products to improve my box. And eventually il purchase an hps but the cfls are all ive got for now. thanks again for the help i really appreciate it

thevaleyhaze420 · Apr 11, 2010

hey man since you live rite near homedepot they sell inline fans that can push a decent amount of air heres the link

Inductor 4 In. In-line Duct Fan - DB204 at The Home Depot

im def sub'd, and you should check out my stealth

Kerbob16 · Apr 14, 2010

I just topped the healthiest plant. I decided not to top the other one because its smaller than the one i topped and the 5th leaf set is barley coming in compared to the one i topped. I guess this will be a good expiriment now that i have 1 topped and 1 growing normally. Hopefully things go good.

Kerbob16 · Apr 17, 2010

DAY 21:

Today is 3 weeks from when i planted my seeds. I topped the healthier looking one 4 days ago and i see two little green things coming up in the middle of the top leafs but i thought they would be way bigger after 4 days Their not even noticable.

Next saturday which is my plants 4th week is when i start flowering (april 24th). I hope they grow a lot more within this next week.

Is everything looking alright so far? I water every monday and thursday and give the plants 500ml each of filtered water.

As you can see, one of the plants is much larger than the other. They still have the same number of leafs but the leafs on the healthier plant are just bigger.

If anyone has some advice they would like to share i would love to hear it

bestkeptsecret · Apr 17, 2010

its tough i know. trial and error bro. see what works best for you. i got a freind who grow on her back porch but takes virtually no care of her plants, uses bag seed, and doesnt trim ever. she never gets top quality smoke but she is perfectly happy with whats she has goin on. find your balance between money, effort, and quality.

shit just saw you posted. haha. dont worry they are gonna grow more into flowering. the growth varies by strain and conditions but they will still grow some. even if you dont get as much as you had thought ide still say to flower those. that way you can get a feel for how much more they grow when flowered. they are only bag seed so its not really a waste if you dont veg them long enough. just know your going at this with minimal effort/money/resources so dont expect super dense buds the size of your fist. good luck keep on learnin

Kerbob16 · Apr 17, 2010

thanks man i appreciate the help! Ya i only spent 110 bucks on this grow i dont really expect to have insane looking buds. I just hope i can get like an ounce off each plant thatd be awesome. Even a half o off each plant wouldnt be bad.

My second grow im buying afghan kush ryder seeds from the attitude and keep them in this grow box, but after that im moving to a bigger house and im going to have a huge cabinent with HPS and lots of other great equipment. This is only my first grow and it has to be stealth for now so i wont be disapointed if i dont get the best weed.