My first grow (2 plants) - 1 NL#5 and 1 bagseed

I finally started on my first grow, since I got tired of paying ridiculous prices for the mediocre weed where I live, and I was tired of hunting it down everytime I went dry. My goal is merely to grow enough so that I can have a small personal stash. If I can achieve that, then I'll be happy.

My grow started on Jan 26, when I started germinating about 10 seeds. These seeds were old and they'd been sitting around for a long time and only 2 of them made it. I'm about to start flowering in a couple of days.

Here is some pix that documents the grow so far. I am a total newbie when it comes to growing anything at all, but thanks to forums like this one, I've been reading as much as I can, and I'm satisfied with the results so far. One plant is Northern Lights #5 (I think), and the other is an unknown bag seed. They both look kind of similiar in appearance, so maybe the bag seed was also northern lights ?

For the veg stage, they've been growing under 3-4 CFLS.

1 - 40 Watt - 2700k
2 X 27 Watt - 5000k
1 - 30 Watt - 5000k

When I start to flower in a couple of days, they're going under a 150 watt HPS system, which I just bought. I just have a small cabinet for my grow space, and I didn't want to go any larger than that because of heat and space issues.

So for flowering, I'll be using:

1 - 150 watt HPS floralux
2 X 25 watt - 2700k
1 X 40 watt - 2700k

Here's a few pix so far. I can't wait to start the flowering process so I can determine the sex of my 2 plants soon.

PIC 1 = Day 7
PIC 2 = Day 29
PIC 3 = Day 39
PIC 4 = Day 41
PIC 5 = Day 43

 

DAY 46 Total - DAY 2 (12/12)

Ok, I switched to 12/12 last night, and I switched from my CFLS to the 150 HPS. Today makes day 2 of 12/12. Hopefully I'll see the sex of the two plants soon. I don't even have a ventilation system yet, but I'm making that tommorow. I'll have one exhaust outlet (comp fan 80 cfm - variable) and 2 intake holes (pvc elbow 90 degrees). When the lights go out now, I'm shutting the doors completely, and it's 100% light tight and 100% air tight, hopefully the lack of air won't be a problem for the plants. Anyhow, that will be fixed by tommorow.

 

Since this is my first grow and I've never grown anything before, I'm just using soil that I picked up from a local garden shop. It has perlite and a few other ingredients in it that I don't recall. The pots I have are 3 gallon pots. They started in smaller pots, and I transplanted twice.

I've been reading up on carbon filters, but I haven't decided which route I'm going to take yet. My plants are not smelly at all. That's one of the reasons I chose Northern Lights, it's supposed to be a relatively non-smelly plant, compared to some others and I heard it can take some abuse, so it sounded like a good newbie plant to start with indoors. If they start to reek in flowering, I'm going to look into some sort of carbon filter. There's a few different designs floating around.

height 3.5 ', length 3', width 1.5 '

I don't have any huge expectations as to yield. First I have to find out if I have females or not. If they're both females, I'd be happy with 1 ounce from each plant, we'll see. That would keep me happy while I start grow #2.

 

Yeah, I don't have that much height to go on, but I do still have a little bit of height to use, even though it's hard to tell from my pix. The HPS light is hanging from these 2 upside down V hangers, so if I needed to, I guess I could mount it directly on the ceiling of the cabinet and gain an extra 6", if needed. Also, the 2 plants in the pictures are on top of some books, so that's another 5 inches or so. I wanted them as close to the HPS light as possible so that I could make the most of the 16,000 lumens that the light gives off. I did the back of the hand test underneath the light and it wasn't hot, and the plants don't seem burnt or anything by having the light that close. When I was using the CFLS, I had them practically touching the leaves, so I'm trying to keep my HPS as close as possible also. The light has a built in ballast, but it seems to keep fairly cool after I mounted a small computer fan (about 30 cfm) blowing across the top of it. The temp of my box in the daytime is in the mid seventies, with the humidity around 40.

Thanks on the female encouragement, I'm pretty unlucky, so to be honest, I'd be happy if at least one of them is female. I won't complain as long as both aren't males. As for cloning, I don't have a seperate space for that yet. I'll probably get a couple of grows under my belt first to gain experience, just using seeds and then if everything goes cool, I'll look into keeping a mother in a seperate space. Besides, I figure it'll be fun to grow some different kind of strains that I haven't tried before. I'll order some new seeds when this grow comes towards the end.

I wonder how effective the cat litter stuff is, I've seen similiar designs in a 5 gallon bucket that used ona gel in the bottom of it. A five gallon bucket is pretty big for the space that I have, if I did go for a bucket design, I'd probably make a smaller version of it. I have no significant odor problems at all yet. I'll tackle that problem when the time comes, I don't think it's any rush yet. At the moment, I'm still trying to get my ventilation system for the box completed. I installed the 2 intake PVC elbows today, though I didn't do a great job, and I'm going to have to find some other way of permanently mounting them. I still have to do the exhaust, but I had a hard time finding a 3" PVC elbow at the local home depot. I might try some other store tommorow.

Other than that, everything is looking good so far, within a few days-one week, I'm hoping to be able to identify the sex. That's when I'll update next time.

 

Thanks.

I did use CFLS for vegging, but I just recently switched to 150 HPS when I started 12/12. The CFLS do seem to keep the plants bushy, though I have been doing a ton of bondage on them also, tying them down alot. I'll probably supplement the HPS with a few side CFLS soon, but I'm waiting to see if I have females or not first before I bother setting that up.

 

Thanks. Good luck to you also, I saw your growjournal.

 

Thanks ! Will do.

 

I've been doing the seltzer thing a little bit. I turn off the venilation, and I spray/mist them slightly, and after 20 minutes or so, I turn the ventilation on again.

 

No signs yet. I guess I'll have to be patient for a little bit more.

 

DAY 50 total - DAY 6 - 12/12

A quick update with a few pix. Not much happening really, just waiting on the plants to show their sex. I finally got my exhaust installed, so I'm done with the ventilation. I hardly have any tools so thank god for aluminum tape, lol. Pic 2 is of the ventilation pipe, it's working better than I expected with the computer fan attached to it. I don't need to have it on max, and that's good, because it's pretty damn noisy if I crank it all the way up. The speed control on it is handy, because I can adjust it down at nighttime, when lights are out. The last 2 pix are of the plants taken out of the cabinet and shot from above.

 

Thanks ! The main reason they look so green in those pix is because they're not under the yellowish tint of the HPS light. Unfortunately, I think the healthiest plant, the bushiest one might be a male.

 

TIME TO SEX THE PLANTS I THINK

DAY 9 - 12/12

I think I might have some good news and some bad news regarding my 2 plants. The good news is that I'm pretty sure that plant #2, the bagseed plant is a female, I can clearly see the two hairs coming out of the pistils on various sections of the plant. The bad news is that I believe that the northern lights plant #1 is a male. I've posted pictures of both plants, so hopefully somebody experienced can confirm the sex before I chop anything down.

I've read that usually females are more bushy than the males, but perhaps it's the opposite in the case of my 2 plants.

PIC # 1: PLANT # 1 Those things look like small balls to me, I hope it's not a male, but I'm thinking that it is.

PIC # 2: PLANT # 2 I'm pretty sure this one is female, I can clearly see the two hairs coming out of the pistil on various parts of the plant.

So far, it's looking like I'm one for two. I guess it could be worse.