Okay, so new to grow scene...had some early screw ups, but now the dust has settled, and I have some viable plants. Basic set up: indoor, soil (no nutes yet), 600 watt MH/HPS, roughly 4 feet of headroom to start...but will hopefully be able to move light further up at some point...giving me 4 feet of usable grow space. I am growing 1 utopia haze and 1 nevilles haze, both are 25 days old from seed. Early setbacks caused me to germinate a few extra seeds about 1.5 weeks in, so now I have 5 total plants: 2 which are 25 days old, and 3 which are 1.5 weeks old. The 1.5 week old plants are a mix of bagseed, dna rocklock and dna lemon skunk (all freebies). Now here is my issue: I want to clone and perpetuate my utopia and nevilles haze, these are the strains I purchased and wanted to grow. The plants are ready to flower this week, so I planned to snip a few clones a few days before flower. My problem is the haze varieties (especially the nevilles) can go 14 weeks in flower, and my clones will only need about 4-5 weeks to root and veg. I can veg them in a seperate set up with some cheapo cfl's (not much $$ right now), but eventually they will need to be dumped into the flower room under my HPS. I can only fit 6 10" pots in my grow space, and there isn't a millimeter to spare. So if I have a bunch of stuff in the flower box taking up space (5 plants until at least the end of july when the earlier strains are finished), how do I take care of my vegged clones? I can't keep them in a kitchen cabinet under cfl's for 8 weeks waiting for some of my earlier strains to finish up....and even if I could, the older sativa's will be casting some pretty big shadows and taking up some serious space. I read it is possible to clone during flower...but since this is my first grow, and I only have 1 of each plant, if I hermie the thing, or fail to get clones, it would be devastating. Timing wise it would be great if I could snip them off halfway through flower, but I think it might be easier to LST the crap out of some clones under the kitchen sink, than to lose my plants/yield entirely. Anyone have any experience with this? I am not looking to get 50 clones, but it would be nice if I had at least 4-5 solid plants for grow number 2...and would be a total bonus if the haze plants finished flowering within 8 weeks of each other, perpetual yield sorta thing. My other question is regarding the rock lock, skunk, and bag seeds. They are almost 1.5 weeks old, the biggest has its first set of 3 fan leaves. I can veg them under my aforementioned cfl's for a little while as I switch the big plants into flower. Buuut...how big of a yield would I expect if I were to flower them after they were only at their first set of 5 fan leaves? They would flower under a 600 watt HPS, constant temp/air circulation, potentially some sort of flower nutes 10-30-10...or somthing of that nature. I only ask because times are tough. the other day I purchased a dime bag of seeds for about 25$, and that is gonna have to be it for the forseeable future. No money, no reliable access. Even a half ounce yield would be better than nothing, but I don't want to put in so much time and effort for no return...should I just be patient and stop smoking? I don't like the sounds of this one bit... My best option so far (i think) is to cut my clones this week, let root, veg under the sink. Keep them in small pots, and successively move to larger pots as they grow, and put them into 10" pots right before they go into the flower box. Problem is the time scale...8 weeks of veg will be a bit much waiting for some space to open up...I'd like to avoid flowering under cfl's when I have a big bud producing 600watt hps. Guess I am just hoping someone can help me play musical chairs with my plants...I am hoping to set myself on a sustainable course, so that I can have a constant easy supply. ANY suggestions at all would be really helpful. Here are a couple pics of the bigger plants, the others still look pretty boring...i'll post pics of them after they bulk up a bit. hmmm...won't let me repost pics Ive already put up, so here is a link to my post regarding N deficiency in the utopia haze. all pics are of utopia. http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/598220-possible-n-deficiency.html rest of the pics go here...group photo, and the rest are nevilles haze.
Hey man, Im no expert - on grow no.3 now - but have much the same situation as you Nice plants dude, although personally I think it looks like your doing the age old overwatering... dont worry, they dont drink like a fish! water when they need it, ie slightly light crispy leaves, not when youve been told to!! You CFLs will be good for your clones - id never change personally - mine are happy as hell at the mo. All ive done to make there life easier is to give the lots of co2 (yeast/sugar method) and every day I give them a spray and stick a lil bit of hot water in there to raise heat / humidity... not to hot though ;-) as for your rotation cycle - Dont panic to much... You can keep a plant under veg lighting for as long as you like (lots of people keep a mother plant under foreverish - just for clones). Id personally move them into your flowering space whenever space becomes free! With my grow - I had 9 at the start - 6 big bud / 3 random. I cloned all of them (12 clones in total) however I found out that 5 of my main plants were boys / hermie when I started to flower. Ive got rid of all the boy clones, cloned 12 more from the definite girls. So now I have 4 (very sparce looking) girls coming to the end of flowering (there pretty much just a stalk - but are still somehow doing fine). 5 established clones and 12 new clones... I have limited space too... but as soon as I can move the 5 established clones through I will... Just to let you know - all my clones were taken during flowering, which delays the time quite abit, but i didnt buy feminised seeds - so what could I have done? Now I have a room full of girls though, so wont have to next time Its a pain doing things on the cheap - but I wouldnt change it for the world. You get to really understand your plants needs and why they have them, and itll make you love them even more. So dont worry - you'll be an expert in no time!! Lastly - my three top life saving tips... Dont get light leaks - I think thats what caused my hermie Use rooting gel, not powder, for clones it seem to work lots better Dont smoke your produce, invest in a nice space saving hydro-grow. Thats my game plan (Maybe - HAHAHAHAHA!!!!)
Take as many clones has you can, being a beginner you should count on a 50% loss with clones until you develop skill based on your experience. I've taken clones up to 2 weeks into flowering with no noticeable difference vs. taking them from vegging plants. I'm about a year & half into growing and I still haven't got a perpetual grow to time out perfect or even close, most of my issues were due to lack of clone experience, having plants ready when the other are done. You should plan to keep a veg area and a box to clone in to realistically keep a perpetual grow going, personaly I like floro's or CFL's for veg, still get heat & need a decent way to cool. And I would think you should definitely LST those girls with the low ceiling What are you doing about keeping your flower box cool with the 600w light? Good luck, S.S.
had heat issues with the box at first actually, but have since been able to keep it consistant around 75. I have my light up as high as it goes away from the plants...600w seems to be enough even at 3 feet to prevent stretching in these sativas so far. I have a 4" inline duct fan at the top of the box, near the edge of the light to exhaust the hot air. And most importantly, the location of the box just happens to be right next to both a window and an A/C unit....if I'm around the door just stays open, I have pretty good ventillation during most of the day. At night I try to keep the light away from the window, and have to close up the box...but the fan at the top keeps the temp steady around 80 or below. Im hoping once I switch to 12/12 with the HPS the box will not be so likely to torch them...will have light off during night hours when it is the coolest. Also hoping for somthing to turn purple... Edit: Also, still curious about what my pro's and con's might be if I start my flower around first set of 5 leaves (of my presumed 9 week strains), under a 600w hps soil set up. Things on this end are lookin pretty slim, and I feel like an addict buying dime bags in the housing projects. Any yield around half an ounce per plant might make it worth it for me...the sooner the better. Loose ballpark figures is all I'm trying to establish...is it possible to get 1/2 ounce off a plant that flowers at 3" ( 1 set 5 leaves in my set up) from seed? Normally I wouldn't compromise, but its products are likely to be the only reasonable smoke I come across before the end of the summer.
Your lucky you can keep you temps so well managed. You should try LSTing those girls, I'm committed to vegging in a 36" tall space using LST and splitting my 72" tall flower box in half using a top & bottom aprox. 36" I just finished my 1st LST grow, it was a small pain in the ars but once I got used to it-no big deal. I'm going to start using tomato cages to wrap around and get them a little air space between the edge of the pot I was using to tie down to. Dude I'm real interested in how your grow goes with such a limited ceiling & a 600w HPS, that 600watter should work good and get you a decent yeild, is it in a cool tube? personally I veg for 1-2 months, I've gotten my best yields on 2-month veggs, but thats just me. Good luck S.S.
no cool tube...this sucker could probably heat my apartment. fans and ventillation keep me cool, probably couldn't stick the 600 watt in any other closet...this one just happens to be by the window, and A/C. These suckers have been growing for 4 weeks, and are a foot tall. If I vegged for another month I might be able to build a tree house to play in during flower (the nevilles is somthing like 75% sativa). I am planning to flower soon (as in, tonight?)...just need to figure out how to make sure the box stays light proof...in the living room area I'm sure lights will be on well after the bitches go to sleep. Edit: if you want to see what this set up produces I have a half assed grow log with a few pics. I'll keep updating it from time to time..but right now no one seems to give a shit about it, so I'm not really posting too often. Have a few sorta recent shots of the main grow room, and a few plants.
