Hello All, Hahahaha first time posting, long time forum visitor. I am starting my second grow. My first try was ok and I decided to try again. This is very addicting indeed. As a medical patient I really want to save money and grow it myself. My first grow I disappointed myself a bit. I yanked them too early (62 days) because I had thought they were ready but in reality they weren't even close. Got some smoke but not what I wanted. It was a while ago but I really wanted to give it another shot so here I go. I will document my grow this time hoping I can get some help along the way. I will try not to ramble on too much. Here is my set-up. 1000 watt Ushio Super Metal Halide (Conversion Bulb, I don't have a switchable ballast) for veg and 1,000 watt Hortilux HPS for flower. I am growing in FFOF and Happy Frog soil blend with 50% plus perlite added to the mix. I am growing 2 Fire OG, 4 Pure OG, 2 OG Haze and 1 91' Chemdawg. The three pots in the center are part of an experiment. Inside the pots are 6 x 6 Grodan rockwool cubes surrounded by a 70/30 perlite/soil mix. The other pots are called "root makers". My last grow I used Smart pots so I am switching it up. Nutrients: Botanicare Pure Blend Grow, Hygrozyme, Humbolt Verde, Bush Doctor Root Drench, Cal Mag and Rhino skin. I could use all the advice in the world. I wish I had a better/bigger reflector but I cannot afford a bigger one now. I am kind of bummed I bought this one. Enjoy, any comments would be appreciated.
Update. I am in the first week of nutrients. Starting them off slowly and I actually decided to switch up my nutrient program. I am going to be using GH Flora Nova Grow, GH Floralicious plus, GH Vegan Blend, Floralicious Nectar, Cal mg and Hygrozyme. Pics are uploaded. The first pic is of my first attempt. It was ok, 1,000 hps veg and bloom, yanked them too early and didn't get the quality i was looking for. The next pics are of the first day I got them in their new digs on 8/11/11. They all started in 3 x 3 rockwool cubes. I also have a strawberry cough seedling from medicinal bagweed that is gooing to be thrown into the mix sooner or later. It will be a liittle smaller but I am more looking at getting some clones for the next batch if it is a female.
BUMP Week two Update. The girls have doubled in size and are looking beautiful. I am glad I chose the Flora Nova. It seems to be working well. After the first week of veg on very light nutes they have done well I think. The only think I want is for them to be bushier. Today was a no nutrient day. 5 gallons of PH adjusted, 1 day aged water is all I fed today. I want to let the salt break down so I don't have any issues of nute lock. I lost a couple plants like that last time around. Tomorrow I ramp up the nutes for vegging. I was on a very light nutrient plan for the first week. I only think I can veg these one more week unless I top or do something. There are already close to 17" leaf height on some. I want to be around 36" total heigth when all is finished so I can't go too much bigger for veg. I learned a bunch from my first attempt. I was thinking should I try out LST or super cropping these bitches but I am not sure if I should mess with them. I don't know if anyone is following or checking this thread but any comments are welcome and appreciated for sure. Thanks!!
Update: Last night I decided to leave a CD player in the room on A continous loop of AC/DC Back in Black. I think I am going to leave music on in the the room 24/7. Came to check them on my luunch break and they have grown an inch since yesterday. Next week I think I may have to switch to flower if they keep the growth at this rate. I am not sure if I should pinch or super crop them but it may just be too late to LST from what I have read. If I keep it natural growth then next time around will be a bit more experimenting. I have some tomato cages about 30" tall that I might add to each pot once the lights are high enough so they fit. That should provide support for the flowers once they form. Any advice guys and gals. Thanks!!
Day 12 update: Immediately after feeding this morning I added the tomato cages. These are pretty small cages as you can see. I have had the clones 12 days and they really took off. They have only had nutrients for 9 days including today. I added Botanicare Zho to the soil during transplanting. I think that helped with getting them going. My reasoning behind the cages is I want to have a way to support and train the branches a little bit. The last time around I had branches flopping in the wind with no support so this time I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. If anyone has any advice on the tomato cages please feel free to let me know the pro's/cons if any. I also want to provide good support during flowering. Any comments? Thanks for looking!!
Thanks for the advice. I had never topped a plant before so I was talking to a buddy of mine and he reccomended pinching them. He says it does the same thing. I tried that and I will see how that pans out. Fed regular nute schedule this morning continuing week two of veg. I will update with some pics in a couple of days. Thanks for looking.
FIM is just as good. Try a different technique on each plant. Doing so will help you quickly determine which is your favorite pruning technique. I understand you already pinched but if you top/FIM/pinch again.... Try multiple techniques. Can't speak to tomato cages, fishing line/string is an easy, space saving option (depending on what pots that you are using with tie downs or adding short bamboo rods for tie down supports). Saw you mention that you are disappointed in the reflector that you purchased.... Hey man we all have to value engineer our dreams to get where we want to go. You will be where you want to be sooner rather then later brother. Looking good my man, I respect the detail and organized set up. I'll be looking for the updates.
Thanks for the kind words. This is very addicting. I find myself in my grow room all the time hahaha, just watching them do nothing at all for 30 minutes at a time. I am off to a much better start than my first attemt which was fine until I yanked them early. I will add some pics over the weekend after my pinching nightmare unfolds. I punched then in haste on a lunch break when I should have waited and been more precise. They are healing themselves but I don't know if I am going to get the desired results. Cheers!!
day 22 update: I just switched to 12/12 yesterday and this evening when the lights turn off I am switching to my HPS bulb. I did not have the time yesterday but one day won't make much difference I don't think hahaha. Here is my nutrient formula for transition stage for a few days then I will start with full flowering nutes on Monday after a Flush Sunday. I am following the GH drain to waste feeding schedule with the 3 non GH additions below in red. Flora Nova Grow @ 1.25 tsp per gallon x 5 Flora Nova Bloom @ 1.25 tsp per gallon x 5 FloraBlend @ 5 tsp per gallon x 5 Floralicious plus @ 1 tsp per 5 gallon Flora Nectar Sweetner @ 5 tsp per gallon x 5 GH Kool Bloom Liquid @ 1 tsp per 5 gallon Advanced Nutrients Sensi Zyme Advanced Nutrients Rhino Skin Botanicare cal mag It seems like alot but Monday I will eliminate 1 from the mix which is the FloraNova grow. The FloraNova grow program really impressed me. Thanks for looking and happy gardening!!
excited to see how they flower! Saturday i flip my room to flower. I got 40 12in. purps under 1000w mh than goin to 2 1000w hps with a 3rd kicking on and off throughout the flower.
Day three of transition. I am starting to worry I will run out of space heighth wise. I can only raise the light a maximum 15 more inches. They were 19"+ when I flipped them and now they are 23-25" and I think I can go to a maximum of 41. I switched to my 1000 watt HPS last night in the dark so today I started with the HPS. I also decided to feed them Aged water only. I also did a foliar feeding this morning with Cod Fish Hydrolysate. I was at my local hydro store and a sales rep was in there and he gave me a couple of samples. The Cod Fish Hydrolysate 15/1/1 has a break down of the following. Total Nitrogen (Dry basis) 15% P205 (Dry basis) 1% K20 (Dry basis) 1% Profile of Amino Acids (Dry basis) 80% Protein (Dry basis) 93% NaCl 3% Moisture 5% I am afraid they are going to take off now I am afraid of space issues. I know I flipped them way too late. I was just so shocked that I only did 20 days of veg in soil from pretty small clones that I kind of lost track of my timing. Last time I vegged for 45 days and they got to about 19" but since this happened so rapidly I was not prepared. Should I top them again? Pinch them? I really am kind of at a loss. I also wonder if at a worst case scenario in a month or so if I run out of space can I finish them outdoors in my backyard? I hope they dont get bigger than 41-43". Should I install a mesh screen above? If so, how can I make one. I have a nice 3 day weekend to get this done and installed. It will go around a 4 x 4 tray, but how high? Thanks for looking. Any advice s always is appreciated. I will post pics after I make breakfast for the fams.
Day 23 Update: I switched to MH so now we are really ready to kick off flowering. With some minor adjustments I may be able to let them grow to a heighth of 47 inches. I found a way to make a lttle more room. Now How much of the lower growth should I remove and in what increments? I am going to take some cuttings today and I want to start some clones. I don't have a clone machine like some but I have a tray and some cubes and some clonex. I will have to make it work Here are the first pics with the MH lights. I am going to put up the mylar today for reflection as they are now more spread out. Before I didn't think they were close enough to the walls for it to make a difference. I think I am going to try and finish the little strawberry cough youngin' outdoors and see if I can get it to bud. Is it too late in the season to start flowering outdoors in so cali?? If not I am going to let this little guy or gal (not sure, from a seed) finish outside. Happy gardening!!
Day 30 Update - Week One Flowering I flipped to 12/12 first of the month and let them transition for a few days then started the mild bloom formula below. I have heard of the Lucas formula I am trying this first to see if there is a difference for me. Flora Nova Bloom @ 25 ml. per 5 gallon FloraBlend Vegan Booster @ 50 ml. per 5 gallon Floralicious plus @ 5 ml. per 5 gallon Flora Nectar Sweetner Sweetner @ 25. ml per 5 gallon GH Kool Bloom Liquid @ 12.5. ml per 5 gallon Advanced Nutrients Sensi Zyme 20 ml. per 5 gal Advanced Nutrients Rhino Skin 20 ml. per 5 gal Botanicare cal mag 25 ml. per 5 gal I also took some cuttings today and cleaned up the lower sections of the plants. That is why the ladies are outside and not in the growroom. I took a total of 44 cuttings, assuming there will be carnage, hoping 9 survive. This is my first attempt at clones so we will see how it goes. I have a tray as shown, I used Clonex gel and some PH balanced, aged water. I dipped the cubes in the water, dipped the cuttings in CLonex for about 30 seconds than placed them in the cubes. It started raining so I let the tray fill up with rainwater and let the cuttings get a good little soaking then I put them under the lights. I have a 7" ventilated dome on top of them now also not shown in the picture. I hope they are successful. To anyone checking out this grow, thanks for looking!!
Day 32 Bump...date: I am still on the same nute regimen. I am starting to see small flowers on all of the plants now which is a good sign. I think once the flowers start to get bigger I am going to switch from the bloom stage to the aggressive bloom stage. Below is the program I am using. I am adding some extras like the Flora Nectar, Cal Mag, Rhino skin (small sample 250 ml.)and Sensi Zyme (small sample 250 ml). When those samples run out I will swith to Botanicare silica blast and hygrozyme The Ladies are back inside after having a thorough trimming on the lower levels. Amazingly I have zero pest problems to date even going back to my first grow. I am definitely not inviting one either you know. Here are some photos again. Day 12 of 12/12 day 32 overall. I failed to mention that the name cards that were inside them got a little un-organized and well It is going to be hard to remember all of them but again I am growing the following strains for pain relief. 4- Pure OG 2- Fire OG 2- OG Haze 1- Chemdawg 98' I have a problem where the bone was seperated from the muscle in both of my knees and I am currently wearing a patella brace to keep the bone tight. It is painful It has been like this since high school and it sucked. It is one of the main reasons I stopped playing high school football which I loved, but that is another thread. For those tuning in, thanks. Any advice is always good. Thanks!
bummer bro I suffered a career ending injury in college. I had surgery and 10 years later I still get flare ups. I hope it gets better. Knee injuries suck.
I have some more good news i think. My strawberry cough plant from seed is a female I believe. I am not certain but I think so. I will upload pics tomorrow or tonight if I can. Like always, thanks for looking!!