Finally getting tired of always having to get pot, I decided to test my luck. A seed found within a great bag put me over the tipping point, so I got to going. After doing a TON of reading here, I decided I would post here. DISCLAIMER: I started reading here after I started my grow so forgive my mistakes lol =) Here's the story: I found a seed in a great bag while sharing a toke with my father on his birthday. This bag was one of those that you comb for a seed, but know there would never be one, and right as I was saying "Wouldn't it be nice to find a nice round *plink*..... something hit the metal tray I was using. I looked down and to my surprise, a healthy, awesome looking seed. After a bit of debate with the wife, and a commitment to remodel the kitchen I got the green light (no pun intended) for my new project! Along with my precious (furthermore referred to as G.Skill... had a little metal PC case decoration sticker sitting around that I used to denote its peat pot) I germinated 6 regular/low-end bag seeds. Out of the 7, G.Skill and two others made it through. Out of the 7, five came up, but two never shed their shell, even with a bit of coaxing! Out of the three seedlings, I chose the smallest one to try a soil to water transplant into a small bubbler bucket..... That didn't go so well, but I'll post pics of my modified setup for criticism... but back to he main story! So here I am on Day 18, having gone through a couple different light setups, and temporary boxes (damn remodel construction been taking up a majority of my time) I am thinking I'm well on my way. I have started LST on the regular bag seed and am seeing some strange results. I started LST the same day I attempted to top the plant (yeah, yeah super stress) and the next couple sets of leaves had the strange deformity of having the fat, almost no definition fingers on the ends. Now there is new growth that seems totally normal. As for G.Skill, the KISS method is doing it justice. It's compact good looking green growth. When I first started I was over-watering to some extent, and my first light setup sucked. Right now I have 2x26W 6400k CFLs on both (as close as possible without temps going too high), and on the G.Skill I have a blue led flood.I am planning on adding more lights when they are a bit taller and I have more room to stack bulbs around them. I am currently trying to work out a watering schedule for these plants, the last time they were watered on the 22nd, and they both received 15oz of water with a 1/10 4-0-0 from natural sugar beets, ph tested @ ~6.5. They are probably due up for some watering. Aside from being a bit stunted from early over-watering/low lighting, how does the G.Skill look? Are the deformed leaves on the other plant someone normal from stress, or should I be concerned about that? Should I continue to supplement nitrogen at all? (The soil is a pot starter mix with 15% perlite and supposedly "enough food to stimulate through transplanting") Is the mylar aound the top of my buckets a good idea? I have a 65W 2700K CFL, would it be a good idea to fire it up too? Was saving it for flowering, but didnt know if it would be worth fighting the heat during veg. Temps are starting to climb in my area, as well as humidity. I am able to keep the humidity somewhat under control, but soon my box will undoubtedly be ~85+. What can I do to help my plants compensate with the extra heat Anyone supplement CO2? I've tried a couple of different methods and haven't come up with anything viable for long-term usage. Don't be too tough on this long post P.s. Pics of the bubbler bucket coming soon, but after all this I need to relax!
Looking good I didn't catch if you have a fan or some sort of air exchange system? I feel ya on the heat issue though, I am using CFL's and my cab gets really hot, I have to leave the doors open like 4 inches to keep it managable. nice first post too, welcome to G.C.
Right now I have a dual fan window unit moving air around fairly nicely. I would say it shakes the upright plant approximately 1/2" from its vertical axis. When I move to a sealed box I have a 3" squirrel cage fan I am going to use to ventilate air through a homemade charcoal filter. It sure would be nice to know approximately how stinky these are going to be, but I'm sure there's really no good way to compare it =D
Another question as well, I currently have both of these in 14" pots that are about 18" deep. I have 12-14 inches of soil inside the pots. Will I be alright finishing these in these pots, or should I transplant them into something bigger? I was thinking of vegging for another 10-14 days before flowering, this grow is just kind of a test run, so I'm not looking to max their size. If root constriction could be a problem in this size pot, I could transplant now with less stress, rather than letting them get constricted? Wall of text type post with several questions lumped together
You smoke the exact same cigarettes I do lol. Anyways, your grow is looking good, but to answer one of your questions....your going to wanna transplant into bigger pots but I would wait a little longer because the older the plant gets, the less damage it will do in terms of shock and stuff. Personally I wouldnt flower them yet because they are too young to flower, i'de wait another month atleast before I did that.
It's because we both have good taste when it comes to cigarettes! I was thinking along the same lines as you with the transplant, and waiting a bit longer to do so. With the plant that I am LST'ing, I'm afraid it may be a bit more problematic to transplant since it's going to be abnormal in its structure (being more like a vine and not straight up). Is there any tips anyone can offer on transplanting non-typical plants? I would assume for transplanting you would just want to maybe flex your pot a bit to break the soil away from the pot, and then maybe use your hands to get as much dirt around the rootball as possible to leave the roots as undisturbed as possible? Also, from what I've read you get about 2x the growth during flowering compared to veg. With this being true if I was shooting for a sub 42" plant, then I should not allow these to reach over 24" before going to flower? One more question =) I've read quite a bit about pre-sexing by going to 12/12 then taking the lights back to 18/6 (or whatever your day period is), and it seems that there is some heated debate on doing this. Since I only have two plants should I bother pre-sexing or just let both of them go to get some grow time under the belt? Also, I want these plants to finish at less than 42", so what is an acceptable depth of soil for this? I have these 14" diameter pots that are over a foot deep, are these large enough? If not should I just do a 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket?
Had a minute to try to get some decent close-ups of the babies.... totally wish I had a better camera Anyway, does this growth look somewhat typical for an LST'd plant? (Second and third photos) It seems to be trying to pack leaves in everywhere, and I think the mylar is keeping light supplied to otherwise somewhat shaded leaves. Also, anyone disagree with giving them 4-0-0 nutrient suppliments at this stage?