Hey guys, I have just started a grow in the closet of my apartment and I would like to get some advice or criticism on how I'm doing it. Anyone that could offer any advice it would be very much appreciated! These are the specs: I planted my 3 seeds in 3 Jiffy Pots with Miracle-Grow Sprouting Mix on Monday, April 25th on my kitchen window seel in the sun. Two of the three seeds sprouted on Thursday, April 28th. Last night I placed he jiffy pots in two brand new five gallon buckets containing Miracle-Gro Potting Mix. I cut seven 1 cm. in diameter holes in the bottom of each bucket and placed each on in it's own plant watering tray. Then I mixed 1 gallon of Miracle-Gro Quick Start Planting & Transplanting Starting Solution. I used 1 cup of the mixed gallon and poured it on the top soil around the plant. There are two sets of 2, 4 ft. 40 watt. clear white flourescent bulbs hanging approx. 3 - 4 inches from the top of the sprout to the bottom of the bulb. They are on an 18 hour on, 6 hour off light schedule. If you have anymore questions that I might have missed feel free to ask! Thank you for your help, it is MUCH appreciated!
Okay, there's nothing wrong with what you are doing, per say, but here are my opinion. -Dont use miracle grow products. Some strains maybe be able to handle their hardcore nutes, but most cant. MG is loaded with nutes that will burn or lock up your seedlings/stunt their growth. -I wouldnt plant from jiffy cup to 5 gal bucket either. Starting with smaller pots and transplanting to bigger has seemed to work best for me. -And i dont know if u have those watering trays to catch runoff or to water them ... but make sure you are watering form the top.
Ok thank you for the info! At the stage of the grow how often would you say I water them? And how rapid should I expect to see their growth so I know if they are growing correctly?
well, you have such a large bucket, and so keep that whole thing moist you need a LOT of water ... but at the same time that little seedling only needs a tiny bit for a while ... so your going to struggle at the beginning with overwatering your plant, or letting the soil in the bottom completely dry out.
If I were to put water in the base tray and water from the top do you think that would compensate for the abundance of soil? And do you know an expected rate of growth at all?
I made the same mistake before being told that keeping them in smaller homes at first creates a concentrated healthy root ball. I transplanted to smaller pots until they were soakin up food and water almost every other day then went a size bigger repeated until they were doin the same before putting them in 5 gallon pots. Also as far as a watering schedule.. I just let the plants let me know when there ready for water by watching them. The leaves will start to droop a bit that's when you know. And wouldn't worry about any nutes for the first few weeks and after that would only do a quarter or a half mixture to avoid nute burn
Ok thanks man! Do you think that it would be very bad for the plants to leave them in the 5 gallon bucket? I doubt at this point that the roots have grown through the Jiffy Pot so I could probably just transpant the Jiffy Pot to a smaller container for a few weeks?
Bad?? Maybe not..but I do know you want more condensed roots(healthy root ball). What kind of soil are you using? Also make sure your pots have holes in the bottom and you fill the bottom of your pot with rocks to promote good drainage. A humidity dome is commonly used on young seedlings...I do it...seems to help
How does a humidity dome work? Could you tell me more about this? I'm using Miracle-Gro Potting Mix soil. It says on the bag that it promotes strong growth and healthy roots.
Well first of all in my opinion of course is you should get rid of that MG soil and go to the nursery and buy just a regular bag of potting soil with perlite mixed in and little to no nutes in it. its sterilized to help prevent nats, spidermites, fungus etc etc. Then add your nutes through feeding later on. A humidity dome is just a glass jar or glass you put over your seedling to help trap in humidity. I open the glass 4 or five times a day for air exchange and even sometimes spray a lite mist of distilled water into the jar to add moisture.. make sure whatever glass you use is very clean to ensure its not carrying bacteria fungal spores blah blah...you'll need a way to keep your moisture up for vegging and flowering in ur lab. I use a cheap ass vicks one I bought for $18 . Works like a charm. You'll also need a way to monitor your temps and humidity as well as ph of your food, water and soil. if you want big healthy stoney budz that is
Taken april 9th in the same big ass pot and same type of soil ur using. I transplanted a day or two after this
Your plants are looking good its time to read up on vegetation growth thats the best thing you can do for your plants right now.
Yeah those are looking good man, are they natural light grown? Would it be safe for the plant to transplant to different soil at this point? I would be scared to shock the weed.
I've been thinking about adding another 4 ft. fixture and putting 1 40 watt blue bulb and 1 40 watt red bulb to get a better light spectrum going in the closet and I also added tin foil to the walls and doors. Any comments on adding different lights?
Tin foil I've heard actually absorbs more of the "good light" than it reflects...if u can't use panda paper or mylar just go with flat white paint....also instead of those flourescents u can pick up a 250watt mh/hps for like 80 bones with ballast and bulb ...that's what I'm using...not the sun
Oh yeah? I didn't know that about tin foil. Well I'm 9 days in and they're still looking healthy. For some reason I feel like they are growing a bit slow. I'll post pictures in the morning and see what you guys think. Until then though, they're both standing about 3 - 4 inches with about an inch diameter around the first true leaves. Is this normal for an indoor grow? If there is anything that I am doing that might be contributing to this please feel free to say so!
tin foil is a horrible choice for a reflector only reflects 50% of light at best and reflects the light at oblique angles with the slightest crinkle so your light reflection might not even be hitting your plant. grow looks good so far