My first grow - Powerplant

Currently sat under a 125w envirolite CFL with parabolic reflector, fan is a PC exhast fan powered by a battery from a drill. I'm using yeast sugar and water in a glass to create extra co2, and at the moment due to the lack of heat from my light (sodium on way) im having to use an electric heater to keep the temperature up. I got them as cuttings, and at first they didn't take to the new environment too well as you can see, but over the last couple of days they have improved massively. I think it was due to the lack of heat which has now been remedied, and i've started feeding them a little Vita Link Grow A+B too.

 

cheers....a few questions
is wine PH testing tape suitable for testing the water? what is the optimum ph for the plants? & what can i add to it to correct it that is cheap but won't harm them?

 

at the moment, growth is going well, but as soon as i get my wage on friday, it is top of my shopping list. A few substantial developments over the last few days, i bought a 250w sodium light on ebay for 15 quid plus delivery, and accidently clicked pay twice, the guy selling it recieved payment twice, paypal confirmed this, but my account isn't properly set up and therefore i didn't end up paying at all, the guy has offered to send me a cheque to cover the overpayment, but i have said instead that he can send me the 400w one he's just put online for the same price instead, so i've got 650 watts of light for exactly 0 pounds. Managed to knock up a 20quid carbon filter using among other things a pipe from a toilet and even a polystyrene soup tub from the chinese.

I have replaced the small fan i had with a larger one on an adjustable stand which is oscillating and blowing them all. its on a timer going off every 15 minutes during the day (as in the human day) and every half hour during the night when my house gets a little colder, keeping the temperature some where between 24 and 30 in light hours and about 15-20 during their dark hours, is this too cold?

The only thing i am having issues with at the moment is humidity, i have been told by a mate that im wanting 60-70 at the moment for the early stages, and im getting 30-50 tops, i've tried putting bowls and glasses of water but as they aren't above the light, they're not getting that hot, and making no difference to my humidity. I was thinking of putting a kettle in on a timer so it boils every half hour or so, and will let of steam. if it went on every half hour or so im guessing it would probably do a good job. any ideas?


Ill have some pictures up and may be a video tommorow, i left my phone at work today, so i have nothing to post .

 

New photos, a few days ago, and a video.
One of the plants has gone into a polystyrene box which at the moment im using to beef it up to make a mother plant over a few weeks til its bigger then im sticking it in a bigger box and this one is going to be the home for cuttings. Its got a 125w envirolite in the top, and in/out fans from a pc powered by a 14.4v drill battery.

 

Couldn't upload the video .

 

got them 2 weeks ago as cuttings, they were pretty weak to begin with, and were under a lower powered light, they've shot up in the past few days, those photos are 3 days ago and you can see a massive difference now, ill post some more tommorrow evening

 

The tallest of my plants is now about a foot tall, and fairly bushy, i've fimmed them a few times anyway, but only the last few days. I'm wondering if they are too tall to scrog, i have plenty of wire for making the screen as i was going to use the lst method gator01 mentioned on here, but i decided they were to tall and too bushy and it would be a hell of an effort to get them on to the screen, however, putting a screen over them is a different matter. Is it as simple as it seems, keeping the growth under the screen until a few weeks into flowering? After looking at what august west is managing to do with 2 plants, it really makes me want to make use of my space with the 3 i have.

 

Here's a photo from a few days ago.

The back one is a little behind the other 2, and the one on the left, the little one is not part of the equation regarding the scrog, its seperate and moving house soon.

 

and here's one, not right informative, from last night, just stuck my phone in by the light to see what it saw. don't worry, it actually sees a little more. lol.

 

Well, i decided to just give it a go regardless, here are some photos, the screen could do with a little more strength on the near side, but i've got something lined up for it, does this look alright?

 

im not gonna be bothering with that anymore, turns out my humidity should be ok, but it would only take 30 seconds or so to boil, as the water wouldn't have cooled down fully from last time, and it'd go straight off as soon as it was done.

i can get under to water, and when its spread out some more im going to be taking some cuttings off them all for the next time round, so that should help clear up some more space under there.

 

just clicked as to why you probably think its quite low.... the thermometer is hanging down right at the front and perspective makes it look like its sat on a pot, there's actually a good 10 inches between the back of the thermometer and where the edge of the pot rests. The plants are quite tall, but it certainly does give the impression they are a similar size to the thermometer.

 

how much should i be watering these things, at the moment, they're probably getting about 1 litre each a day, people are talking about watering them with half gallons and shit, so i'm thinking i may not be giving them enough, admittedly they are not that big but....
anyway i was told once that i want 50% run off, i don't know where that came from.. but if its right, i think im not watering them enough, scarcely any comes through the bottom compared to what goes in the top, so im not sure if im putting enough in... but when i re-potted them into those larger pots the other day, the edge of the soil when it came out of the pots was white not brown there were that many roots - wish i had a photo... and they all looked good.