My New Project...

I posted this before in the wrong section, so here goes
This is my newest grow, although I grew quite a bit in the past. I'm happy to see that not much has changed so after a quick brush up I feel confident things will turn out fine.
First, the seeds were from a friend who got them at a seed shop in Toronto. Although they were mixed up when I got them, so it was a crap shoot. They were germinated in soil, and 12 of 12 sprouted, with only one mutant plant that has become our special little girl They were germinated in peat pots and sprouted within a week. I used Fox Farms soil, about 25-30% perlite, and about 10% 'organic' MG fertilizer mixed in (I know, but I couldn't find worm castings at the time! Now that I know exactly where to get them locally I could kick myself.) These are under 4, 50w cool fluorescent bulbs while the actual 'grow' room is being built. It's about 10x10, with brand new electrical service put in, so I shouldn't have any power problems like I did in the past. I only want six plants so I went with a 400w mh conversion/ 400w hps ballast from HTG. It's being vented with a 6" blower with a carbon filter, also from HTG. As of now I haven't used any Nutes other than rooting complex. However, I want to sooooo badly, but I'm being good The cloning room is cooled by a small 6" fan that runs for 3 hours a day on a timer. The water is in a 22gallon container, with an airator and pretty standard plant vitamins added. The leaves on the plants are HUGE! Someone on here said it was a hash plant, I tend to agree by the look of it. The others are a pretty equal mix of indicas and sativas. The smell of it is out of this world, so this room had to be completely wrapped in plastic. These pics are from a week ago, but I'm too lazy to take new ones right now. I will when the other room is finished. Which is where I'm off to now! I just want to show everyone that girls can have great grow rooms too!!

 

A few pictures about a week later. The plants are LUSH. Not a single crinkled or yellow leaf. Obviously there are way too many plants in this area, but this is a new room and a new crop from seed. I have 12 all together, 3 are being kept as clone moms (yes they are girls, already checked), 6 are being put into the MH/HPS room hopefully this week, and we'll see what we see. 3 need a little more time and need transplanted into bigger pots. I know it's taking me a while, but I have to work by myself and I have Fybromyalgia, so I have good days and bad days. Usually I can only work an hour or two a day on projects before I really start hurting. The last pic is the Mutoid plant. I never thought it would make it, but it did. Notice the even numbers of leaves! How weird is that?

 

These are my clone moms, as Mr. Green Man says 'these ones will be kept alive, just livin' and lovin' life' (I have a slight crush on Mr. Green Man btw, don't ask me why) First is my hash plant, second is my indica, third is my sativa. They are the best of the lot, and have been cloned to test gender. So within the week this room will only have 3 plants in it, and 2 clones of each. Since they're just for me, it seems a bit overkill. But I always try to experiment on two of them, ie one will have flavour added to it (just to see if it works), one will get topped, one will get different nutrients etc. I log everything and it keeps things interesting.

 

Since I didn't post these earlier, here are the baby pictures. I know it's out of numerical order, but let's pretend it's a Tarentino movie. (get it? Flashbacks...)
Anyway you can see how compulsive I am by these pics. Perfect clean rows with way too many plants. This room no longer exists, it was a temp while the other was being worked on.
The last pic was about a week later. You get it

 

Ok, flash forward to the present... This is the real grow room. It has two sections. There is a cloning room which obviously has clones, and their baby mamas. (I always wanted to say that) and the water reserve for both rooms. I'm using regular fluorescent tubes in this room, because they work, and because I have a giant box of bulbs! And then there is the flowering room. Please note, this is not finished. It's almost done. I need a few big rolls of mylar, I realize that. There are a few too many plants here, but since these 6 were from seeds, I don't know how many girls/boys there are yet, but I know the herd will be thinned out in about a week or so. I started flowering them 4 days ago. The 400w hps is on 12/12, and the temperature is 75 and sunny on, and a smooth 72 when off. Behind me are two fans, an oscillating fan, and a stationary one directed at the bottom of the light. The same exhaust system is used for both rooms, using only one carbon filter.
Knock on wood, everything's been going very well this grow, and although building the room was a ton of work, it was kind of fun. Can't wait till next week to see what I'm dealing with. Either way I'll be fine since I have some new clones on standby.

 

Thanks! 2 of 6 were male (well 1.5 technically, 1 was hermie), but I'll take that ratio any day.

 

Just an update... These pics are exactly 2 weeks into flowering. There are flowers everywhere!! (pardon the excitement, it always makes me happy). The plants shot up 1 full foot in two weeks and now stand just over 4'. I didn't give them bloom Nutrients until today, two of the back ones shows a slight phosphorous deficiency (oldest fan leaves curling under), but it's not a big deal and hasn't effected the rest of the plant. I gave them a shot of 'Super Bloom' 12-55-08. That's the only problem with growing different strains at the same time, each one needs special attention. But so far I am happy with the results, and as of now I have not lost a single leaf! Not bad eh? To my dismay I only topped one of the plants, now I wish I did them all, but in my defense this is my first grow since 1992. I was a bit apprehensive about pruning. The next girls are already vegging, so I'll make certain I do them all ahead of time.

 

Thank you It's always amazing to see things come to fruition without problems. But if you just read what the professionals have to say, understand the products and techniques they use, and do exactly what they do, it's hard to fail. I think the more complex you make it, the harder it becomes to stabilize everything, and the fun and joy of the whole experience becomes lost.

 

I'm amazed at how many buds have formed so quickly. A week ago I was happy to just know they were female, now I'm stunned at how quickly things are progressing. I tried to get pictures of the nodes in between the fan leaves and the stems, but none of these pics do them justice. Every day there are more and more and the aroma is fantastic. Seems like I raise the light every 5 days anymore because they really just exploded in every direction. You can see the crystals forming on the buds, especially when I used the flash on the camera, they kind of glow.

 

Just under three weeks now and things are rocking here! I still can't get a really good picture of the crystals under the hps, but these kind of show what's going on. Just tight, thick crystalline buds everywhere. I will have a nice chunk of hash when this is all done eh? Because this was my first grow with the new setup I didn't use a lot of things. 1. I didn't use my mh bulb, just the hps. 2. I didn't use my good nutes, I used things from Lowes (not mg, they have better stuff) such as 'Super Bloom' a product I now swear by and it was $8. I mixed the fox farms soil with quite a few things and I've been extremely happy with the mix, in fact I just mixed another 22 gallon container for the new grow. The only problem I faced so far was slightly acidic ph, but I flushed them and things have been 100% perfect since then. The plants are about 5' tall and 2.5-3' wide. I don't know how much I'll harvest when it's all said and done, but it really looks to be almost double what I had expected. The next batch is already growing well and I will top every plant the next time since the fear of trimming has left me. I have 4 Strawberry Haze plants, and 4 Big Bud . The new seeds popped through the surface in 3 days!! And had the 3 leaf sets in one week. That was really fast, at least it was to me. Anyway, I have a jungle now and the aroma is intoxicating. I probably won't document the next grow unless I get a hydro setup. But I still prefer soil grown taste. I'm going to start regular molasses feedings tomorrow along with the Super Bloom, I'll take pics when I see change. Ciao

 

Learning about drainage... the hard way.
All my flowering plants are in 4 gallon pots that were brand new from Lowes. When I potted the plants I noticed that the drain holes were a little smaller than I was used to seeing, but really I was caught up in the excitement of the whole first new grow and paid it no mind. Everything has been going very well, plants are big and healthy and smell wonderful. Until 3-4 days ago. I went into the grow room and something smelled different, not like mold or mustiness, kinda like popcorn cooking (that's the only way I can describe it). I freaked out, and pulled each plant out to examine them. I found the plant that was making the smell and it looked fine. Upon closer inspection of the soil, I saw little gnats running and hiding under the soil! I have never had an insect problem and my room is damn near air tight. So I went to the store and bought a bunch of pest strips and things and hoped for the best, the other plants are completely uneffected by the bugs, just the one. I also noticed that plant was 10 times heavier than the rest, they all get watered the same on the same schedule, and I don't water them until they weigh 30lbs either, I'm pretty meticulous about watering. What I found really pissed me off, the little drain holes were clogged! I have great soil and use at least 25-30% perlite. I always noticed the run-off of that plant was way less than the others, but honestly just thought that was the way she was. Well it let to severe root rot on the plant, hence the heavy pot, hence the gnats. I am so pissed I could scream! It was almost halfway through the flowering process and looked 100% healthy, and still does. But if you grab the stalk, you can move it around like an old atari joystick, in fact I am certain I could pull the whole thing out right now with ease. All that hard work, for nothing... When you only grow four plants, 1 lost is 25%. Luckily I have a bunch of plants vegging, so I took a very big Sativa and swapped it out. It's a pretty plant, but it's 3 weeks behind the others and it screws things up a little. Anyway, I drilled the holes out much larger on the remaining pots, and the new plant's pot has been really drilled out and has 10 drain holes in it, instead of 4 tiny ones. Fuck Lowes for selling those pots, fuck the Chinese for making them, and fuck me for not paying attention... I'm lucky it didn't happen to the whole crop or I would really be devistated.