My first grow, lot of mistakes but there still alive...well most of them.

I would just like to start by saying I have never succesfully growen anything in my life!!!

I have always wanted to grow weed but never really had a place. Then I rememberd this attic above an outbuilding we have which I had been sent in when I was younger to pull a wire through. Its VERY hard to get in to and so I figured they would be safe there!

Now im growing in England during the winter in a part of a building with no insulation and big holes in the roof...it hits below freezing DURING THE DAY at times throughout this grow! My 400W HPS light seems to keep them warm though after I hang up some rugs as insulation and block up any holes in the section im growing in. The first pic shows the space with out the rugs!

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I am using feminized blue cheese seeds. I originaly germinated just 2 thinking I would probably kill them so leave the rest in reserve! But then I thought screw it and germinated all 5! I made the mistake of using Miracle grow at first but did transplant in to canna coco!

My first one sprouted in 1 or 2 days and has proven to be the strongest plant!

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The other one I had germinated took over a week and I eventualy decided to try and find it which i did by moving some dirt (i guess I put it in too deep?!?!)

Then I did the other 3 which came up pretty quick in 2 or 3 days

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The first casualties. The second seed I had germinated didn't last too long maybe 2 weeks and it seemed to die on the same day as one of the other 3 (I have decided the first one was just too weak to survive my care and the other....I kinda knocked over out of its soil...I replanted it but it died a couple days later...my bad!)

SO down to 3! Now I dont know whats going on but one of them seems to be very different to the other 2! It is growing a lot more spread out with bigger leaves and a much thinner stem. The other 2 seem identical apart from the one I germinated first is a bit bigger. Now to make things easier I will name the plants (I had already named one....i know) the big one is Big Bob, the wierd one is Thin Tim and lets call the other one Shannon (i dont know why I named 2 of them with male names...)

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I have been using a canna veg nutrient. BUT not enough my plants all started to show signs of nitrogen deficiancy which it took me about a week to diagnose! So they didnt grow for a week and thin tim was worse effected and I cut all the dead leaf sets off (pretty much all of them but the top 3 so new leafes could grow quickly and get light)

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I added more nutrients and immediatly they came back to life and started growing again. I had also got confused and didnt realise that the sign for overwatering is exactly the same for underwatering so had also been under watering them (thinking I was over watering them)

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But they seem to have recovered from this and now I am about to put them in to flowering (from tomorow) I have a bottle of advanced nutrients big bloom on its way and should be here tomorow! I also have some canna pk 13/14 for the sixth week of flowering
I will post new pics when things start happening!


I dont expect you to of read all that but do have a look at the last pictures and let me know what you think. Thanks a lot.


PROBLEM!

I am leaving home in 2-3 weeks!!! to london so I am gonna have to some how get the plants to london and in a grow box (wardrobe) whilst its dark during their light cycle! How big will they be at this point roughly??? can I get them in boxes in my car! And would it be bad to break the light cycle just once if I couldnt get them up at the right time?!?!

 

So theyv been flowering for 2 days and finally my big bud nutrients arrived.

Good job too cause if you look at the pictures there suffering from some deficiancies!

But I have added the nute and given them a good watering. Im away for a couple days but hopefully they will survive till I get back!

 

haven't updated in awhile. But ye, when I got back they were still alive but JUST! not good and they have been under a lot of stress recently with me moving house and then for 3 days they were in a wardrobe with maybe 4 hours of light a night!!!!!! so they haven't had a great light cycle!!!

BUT they now have a rather lovely bud box to live in and they can get their 12 hours. As you can imagine theres not an overwhelming amount of bud but given everything im happy there is any. 1 especially isnt actualy looking too bad. 1 bad thing is i dont have my nutes up with me and wont for another couple of days and they could use a bit. noticed a calcium deficency on one of them. will put some photos up soon, only 3 weeks to go hopefully.

 

Pictures.

 

Thanks man, one of them looking pretty good but the photos actually make them look better. I had to hide them in a cupboard with no light tonight due to my flat mates parents coming round. And take the grow box down which is a pain but unavoidable....

 

I have some problems. 2 of them (the furthest along ones with lots of nice lookin bud) seem to be incapable of keeping leaves alive for more than a week then it decides to let them die and to try growing some more meaning they basicaly 1 in particular is basicaly just a stem.......im thinking maybe ph levels as thats the only thing im struggling to monitor as im pretty sure my ph meter is broken!

But not the end of the world as long as that buds still there. Have just started giving 2 of them pk 13/14 and then will harvest in 2-3 weeks. The other one which can keep its leaves alive im gonna give it a bit longer cause the bud hairs havnt started turning brown yet

will post pics in a sec after i have taken some.

Oh and other problems are heat and smell. my carbon filter (home made admitadly) doesnt seem to be working as it smells STRONG around here currently only surviving thanks to oust ill put some pics up of it after I have got some silent fans to replace the loud ones which are keeping me up at night!!!

 

Hey, thanks for the replies just ordered some molasses. hadnt heard of that before.

tempratures not fluctuating too bad I leave the box open a bit when its on in the evening (usualy about 7pm - 2 am) and then the tempratures around 30 oC gets a little hotter when its closed (2am - 7am) around 35.

I was useing advanced nutrients big bud but now am using canna PK13/14 both at stated doses. so i guess ill reduce that. The stems do look a little red now you mention it....

Thanks for the help. pictures below for you to see....

 

hmmm I dont know, Im in the UK so its a bit hard to come by. I ordered some which was intended for fishing as bate or something didnt say if it has sulpher or not.....I could of got some imported grandmas molasses but it was a lot more expensive...ill have a look when i get it.

 

Thanks man, im pretty suprised theyv made it this far!!!

I swapped my lights yesterday, my 400w HPS for a 250w CFL which had to be done, my hps just generated too much heat and as the box is in my room and my window only opens like an inch it got unbarebly hot in there. I also changed my exhaust fans from 2 small computer case fans to 1 big one which is a lot quieter so i can sleep.....

I am in the process of getting some more cfls for some extra side lighting and as I want to put more plants in there to utelise the space (maybe 8 plants) so obviously I need a fair bit more power!

ALSO: a couple of small top leaves on one of the buds have started turning purple. What does that mean?

 

Hey, I know the 400w HPS is a lot better but I just cant cool it in my room enough I only have a small window and no way of getting the heat out directly through that as the bud box wont fit by it! Also electricity wise this will be a lot cheaper!!! But I might see what I can do. Im planning on having a lot more plants in next time so I wont sell the HPS just yet. If I can cool it then ill use both on probably 8 plants.

Im currently feeding, molasses to 2 of the plants with half strength nutrients (big bud)

(only as of yesterday, they dont need feeding as often with the cfl as its cooler in the box)

Pictures are pointless as they look pretty much exactly the same as they have for about 2 weeks

or maybe longer actualy...

the only difference is they have maybe a few more brown hairs on the bud!

 

ye, only problem is im poor as hell, but hey buds better than food any day!!!

just ordered some more small cfls to use as side lighting for my next grow as well. Im pretty sure I can get the box nearer the window actually ill just need to move EVERYTHING in my room and sacrifice some space, ill also get some more silent fans to run in the box and were sailing!!!

Hopefully also getting my own place bought in a couple months then theyll get there own large cupboard designed for them !!!

But anyway....I am getting a little worried by the lack of growth in recent weeks as nothing is really happening, the molasses hasn't seemed to have an effect yet, don't know if the stuff i got was right or not it didn't say.....

Any other advise??? I'm getting impatient I want to try them......

 

Havnt updated in a while but im DONE! Harvested about a week ago and now have about an ounce of dried bud. I have also germinated my seeds for my next grow (10 x Big Bud x Northern Light and 5 x feminized cheese) of these 2 of the northern lights didn't germinate. All but 1 cheese and 2 northern light have sprouted. Ill post a link to my second grow once i start a journal. Below are the pictures during harvesting. I took the top bud off first then gave the bottom ones a couple extra days. Thanks for you help through out the grow and will almost certainly be needing it again on the next.