Poor Man's First Grow - Help?

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by dedzpot, May 19, 2012.

  1. #1 dedzpot, May 19, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2012
    Hi! I've been so excited with my progress that I never bothered to make an account to post, despite lurking for several years and gathering knowledge on the topic from this and many other sources. Big thank you to everyone in the community for encouraging knowledge and spreading information on this wonderful plant.

    My rig:
    250w Sunsystems HPS kit (reflector, ballast, yoyo hangers)
    Miracle Grow potting soil
    Nutria mite spray (discontinued; whitefly traps)
    24-8-16 Miracle Grow watering can singles(discontinued; severe leaf burn)
    3 Garlic plants per pot to ward off insects
    Jiffy starting mix
    Box fan and ceiling exhaust (kinda)
    Wall timer

    2 big ones from a rare nug with 3 seeds, source called it 'Lil Rascal', Google calls bullshit.
    2 small ones are mixed bagseed from various strains of mids
     

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  2. #2 dedzpot, May 19, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2012
    I was super excited, but the light I was using was a heat bulb taken from a scentsy burner I had mutilated and tacked to the underside of the shelf on my computer desk. They were getting long and falling over, so I went to my moms and dug in my old stuff in the garage and found a 'Gro-Light' I had bought years before from walmart. Flourescent 80w cool white shoplight, basically, but it was better than nothing and I couldnt afford a few hundred bucks for the right stuff.

    The third one didnt make it, a fly landed on it early and broke the stem because I didnt have them staked, so I wrapped the whole thing in plastic trashbags. I piled potting soil around the remaining two, and my weed man gave me a handfull more seeds. I put them in a jiffy seed starting kit and it sucked, only 2 sprouted.
    (I'm going to soak them in water til they crack next time) But now I have 4, and 2 are a mystery.
     

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  3. #3 dedzpot, May 19, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 19, 2012
    So with an ever-expanding fly problem, spitting all over my leaves and leaving black spots that I would religiously hand-wash off every night with soap water, I made some time between finals and work to douche out my garage, and stumbled across an even better discarded rack. With a plan in mind, I approached a cousin with whom I'd been going in halves with a proposition: Buy me a badass light and i'll split what I grow. He was skeptical at first until he saw what I had going, then he wanted me to prove I had done homework, so I did, and then he ordered me a light. Not the 400w HPS I wanted, but 250w was better than my florescent.
     

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  4. #4 dedzpot, May 19, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 19, 2012
    But I'm an idiot.
    The last picture of me giving thumbs up was sarcastic. My cousin who'd bought my light asked how the new setup was looking, and I responded with this picture and 'It looks like something from High Times!'
    If you notice, that box isnt very well ventilated, and I had a plastic showercurtain thrown over it to ward off the flies that had now consumed my nightmares. The light is MAYBE 9 inches from the tops of the plants. So this is what I woke up to this morning, approximately 24 hours after installing the light and new timer (i ran florescents 24/0) on an 18/6 schedule to continue veg'ing. Burned up and twisted crowns. But after a discussion with another novice grower here on the GC forums, I realize that I've been dumping a Miracle Grow Plantfood Single in every 1.5gallon watering can I feed them, 4-5 a week for the last 5 weeks. The fine print says 24-8-16, so i'm pretty confident that between removing the middle shelf to drop my plants low, adding circulation with a boxfan and exhaust fan, and letting my babies dry out all day today so I can flush the soil with straight water to help with nitrogen burn, that I will be back in business and able to start experimenting with cloning.
    My basic plan is one I pulled from a googled how-to by a guy named Mr. Green or something, in which he builds a bisected hydroponic system in a basement with a pretty small investment. He grew some babies for a month under 24/0 florescent, then took clones and let them grow good roots before sticking them in his flowering room to determine sex of the parent plant. He luckily got all females, but advised trashing the parent and clones if found to be male. By this time, the mother was ready to give off several nice clones, so he produced a third generation, and gave gen2 and 1 his all until harvest time 2 months later, keeping mom on florescent.
    I'll probably move everything back to my smaller rack, wrap and ventilate it, and keep my best and most vigorous veg'er moms there, and grow 9 clones at a time every 2-2.5 months, and scrumptious smoke shall be had for all.
    I will try to remember to keep this updated for any interested, and welcome any and all advice and questions. Let's make this journey together yo.
     

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  5. I'm pretty sure I've been burning them with these 24-8-16 packets I've been feeding them in high concentration every day without reading the npk.
    Feeling pretty stressed out over it, leaving them to dry out and continue to burn today so I can flush the soil out with pure water tonight.
    I'm scared I've been overwatering them, but the signs all point to nitrogen toxicity: Super dark green leaves, burned tips. This crown damage cant be from the HPS light because it looks like its gotten worse in the 24 hours since picture 2 of last post and these two from 10 minutes ago, but I removed the shelf and dropped them about 3 feet from the light.
    Any advice would really be appreciated. So lonely here =(
     

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  6. Power went out during a heavy thunderstorm last night, took the opportunity to take everyone out to the backyard for a heavy flushing with the waterhose to get all the nitrogen toxicity out of the soil. This morning they look much healthier, maybe it's just me?
    I've been told to stop spraying the leaves down during 'daylight' because the HPS will use the droplets like magnifying glasses to burn the leaves. Gonna start spraying them at midnight right when the night cycle starts, like a drink before bed. Freakin impossible to move around in the box and garage with the power out, but I guess that just means I did well sealing all my light leaks to stave off hermi's.
    Dead Thread. Considering deleting it..
     

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  7. Decided after a little cleaning from last nights lightless stumbling trying to flush in the dark to just top all the worst of the nitro-burned leaves, then just not touch them for a while so they can adjust to everything. They've been through a LOT in two weeks.
    Considering LST for my two small ones, before their stems get too strong.
    Pics of the cuts: one was clean, the other bled purple for some reason..
     

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  8. #8 dedzpot, May 22, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 22, 2012
    Responding well to the flush, leaf burn disappearing slowly. Very proud of myself for having figured this out.
    The potting soil I'm using (regular Miracle Grow), doesn't drain very well, I havent watered for 2 days since the heavy flush the night of the thunderstorm, and the soil is still really wet. Definitely going to switch to something lighter and drainier, probably some fox farms potting soil with tons of perlite mixed in?
    New tops responding well to recent cuts, on schedule to begin cloning in another 2-3 days. Need help selecting good candidate branches, but nobody reads this, so whatever.
    Starting to LST my smaller two, I named all the pots to help keep them straight and provide a point of reference for when i give updates to friends and relatives.
    On the 20th, Abel was 7 inches, Cain 8 inches, Adam 11 inches and Eve 12.
    This morning (22nd) before LST, Abel 8, cain 9, adam 12, eve 12.

    Gonna keep plugging away, because it really does help to have a thread to update.
     

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  9. Getting antsy, its been something like 7 weeks and I could be flowering right now but I want to clone instead. Gonna take more money to get my original box fixed back up with the florescent in place. I rounded up some schwag bagseed and stuck it in some jiffy mix on the 20th and 22nd, got about 13 cups made up and stuck in a folgers can on the back of my computer under my desk. One sprouted but i haven't put it in a pot yet cuz the shell is still on. After poking around, i found people have grown some pretty nice herb from crappy seed, so i figured I'd get more going while mine are young, as a sort of backup plan.
     
  10. Shameless bump. Many unanswered questions and advice needed on cloning.
    Moving the room around today to allow for better airflow, noticed an exhaust hole already cut in the ceiling, and probably transplanting my baby seedlings into some potting soil and 1 quart pots. After I clean the room, I'll rewrap the old rack and strap my florescent back in to veg the new babies under. Trying to get them in groups so adjusting the light isn't tedious.
     
  11. #11 dedzpot, May 24, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2012
    Got to thinking about the light distance, and pulled up the footcandles chart I saw elsewhere on these forums, and found out I was WAYY too far now. The nitrogen leaf burn I wasn't sure was caused by nutes, but thought maybe caused by the new HPS being too close, made me pull the light way off them before I figured out the problem and I never pulled it back down.
    Cost me a week of crappy growth, but after topping them and wondering why the new growth was so slow, I had an epiphany and dropped the light to 11 inches, and put some boxes under Cain and Abel to raise them to the bigger plants' height. AC went out in the house, had to call the landlord to come fix it, SUPER hot in my garage right now. Considering a window unit. Humidity below 50% though.
    So far less than $300 invested. Hoping to keep it below $500 to prove to friends that it's possible to produce high quality smoke on a poor man's budget.
     

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  12. Ordering from Attitude Seeds next week, scrapping my cloning plan and going straight to flower. Tied my two big ones down and moved my two small ones in with the new baby back under the florescent. Pics n stuff. First set from this morning during downtime, second set from 8pm tonight, the new bedtime for their 12/12 cycle.
     

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  13. #13 dedzpot, May 25, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2012
    Second set
     

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  14. #14 Arcturon, May 25, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2012
    Nice babies man! I recommend a DWC mini-cloner, google it, this thing has proven more than beneficial in my clone escapades. Had a tiny cutting with one stringy root that was 6 weeks into flowering and danked up in the ground. I then moved it to the clonebox, and in only 3 days I'm seeing mad roots. Today I was transplanting some plants to a bigger pot because it was getting root-locked, and I found a seedling I planted, all new, the seed cover hadn't even fallen off and the leaves had not yet folded upright. Popped it in the cloner in a desperate manuever to save the baby and now its opening and facing the artificial sun! Just make sure the water is a day old or de-chlorinated. Setup is cheap, less than 20$ for any size.

    Also, my grow op costs in all a little over $150, covering everything. I'd say spend at least a week just tearing the forums apart for every piece of info. There is an e-book that illustrates every damn thing I can imagine, called Growing Elite Marijuana that I downloaded a year ago that has been like a godsend. 750 pages of pure unfiltered knowledge.
     
  15. Look good man I like how ya got em bent around an pinned an I would say we are about even on size I just have more going an I may consider doing something like that to. Mine
     

  16. I had this grand plan to clone last week, i read up on it, went out and bought some nice gel and a ventilated dome, and 12 root riot cubes with beneficial fungus and shit, then decided to order some high quality seeds from Attitude Seed Bank instead. I wont be cloning until those are in veg for a month or so. I'll definitely look into that though. I remember the baby seedling you were talkin about in the back right socket in the lid on your bubbler. It's crazy how badly some of these things want to live, but how hard it is to keep some of them healthy sometimes.
     

  17. Like I said in your thread, I started flowering today. They'll be waking up from 6 extra hours of sleep here in 4 hours. So whatever you decide to do with yours, you can sortof compare and contrast with mine. You might consider waiting, so we can compare yields. If theyre similar, we know theres no reason to wait much after day 30-35 to flower, right?

    Thanks both of you for checking out my grow. It's been pretty lonely here lol.
    Any critique, advice, or tips and tricks you might suggest that you've picked up along the way, I'd truly like to hear about it, even if it's just brainstorming. Maybe between the three of us we can come up with some grows to be proud of =)
     
  18. I'm super confident about the crop I have growing now, the good energy must be skyrocketing if that little seedling revived itself! never ordered off a seed bank, good results? and I'd say give those babies 2 months!
     
  19. You go another month and I'll start now. I've read everything from 1month to two. I might be a little early for a plant from seed. I know clones are ready quicker. Let's see how it ends up, cuz either way we'll both learn, and that's what these first 2 are all about. I have my two LST'd younger ones to let get bushy, and like 12 more bagseed showing taproot, moved them to a paper towel with a dome this morning. It's all one big giant experiment, and I have my entire garage to play with. I did a little more FIM'ing this morning of the new growth from topping, gonna take some pics and post soon.
    Did you see this?
    [​IMG]

    It's from Let's Build a Bubble Bucket
     
  20. #20 Arcturon, May 25, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2012
    I wanted to try a bubble bucket but my air pump is already in my cloner! My god though, that root ball is otherworldly. And hell yes to the experimenting! I've been doing the same with each one of my crops, it's all a new plant's life and since my ladies usually crop out at the same time, it's a complete restart. It's a little depressing to see that area plantless for a little while.
    If you are experimenting though, I suggest getting some chicken wire and revegging one of those babies into a vine/climber after you harvest it. I've always wondered what an 8'x8' weed vine would look like.
    And I think I might give my until july 1st to veg up... I want MONSTERS.
     

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