Alright after couple years of wanting to do this and research, so far this is what I've come up with for my First Grow. Which will be more of a test with some mid grade bag seed, while i wait for my white widow, white rhino and trainwreck to come in. Supplies: 250 Watt Mh/Hps Light/Ballast lighting an Eye Hortilux - Blue Daylight Metal Halide Bulb Sun System 150 Watt Hps (comes in tomorrow) Various CFL's if needed. Digital Thermometer with Humidity Gauge Various Pots with plain soil (no nutrients) 2 Powergrower Eco's with drip system running water on timer for 15 minutes every 2 hours Hydroton Clay Pebbles 2 Air Stones Jiffy 25 Seed Starter Small Fans 3 Air Pumps 2 Timers Ph Test Kit with Up and Down 3 Different Flora nutrients 1 Superthrive nutrients Maybe a few more things... So far so good, I'm on day 5. I'm basically just growing these to get an idea before I receive my other seeds. If you have any advice, questions.. hit me up with them. I want to learn . Here are some picture: Pics were taken with my phone so... not the greatest.
Ordered seeds from worldwide last thursday and received them today, which was much faster than i expected. Updates on other plants:
rearranged the setup a bit and added some things. one of my plants leaves have light green almost like speckles on it.. is this from the light being too close? I have a 150 watt hps at about 18in away and a 250 watt mh about 14 in away from the plants. the cfls are about 3-5 inches away. Also some of the leaves are somewhat bending in certain spots of the leaf?? i have not gave them any nutes, ph levels have been around 6-6.5. sorry more cell phone pics: this one above ^ is the one with the lighter green on the 2 leaves, not all of them. also has the weird bending on the other 2 leaves. White rhino sprouted.. trainwreck is right behind it. Still nothin from the white widow.
Couple of questions, but I am no expert... You are referencing nute solutions and clay pebbles yet have the sprouts in organic material (peat pods), so which way are you heading? Also, how about heat removal, ventilation, air circulation? I do see a fan, but no exhaust. Again not an expert, but in the years I grew indoors I went full hydro and didn't intruduce organic material such as peat pods, only rock wool for the sprouts or clones, and lava balls for the medium. You also list air stones, where are they located? In the reservoir? Just a cpl of questions or observations fron your post, and again, not an expert... Stay balanced.
I'm growing most of them in hydroponics, i just started some of the seeds in peat, and the others in sunleaves super starter plugs. I'm not sure if this is a problem or not??? all the other medium is hydroton. for ventilation.. its in a good size room that stays really cool, so most of the time i use the light just to heat the room to the right temp. But i have a fan blowing across the lights, and then one blowing near the ceiling blowing out of the room through a hole. as for the air rocks, i have 2 strips running under the white contrainers, and i'v yet to put the air stones in the reservoirs of the other 2. I've been waiting for the roots to come on through. they seem to be doing pretty well, but if that peat is going to cause a problem please someone let me know.. Thanks.
Took some new pictures of the plants today with my buddies d90, tell me what you think.. the plants are now at almost 3 weeks in, except for the white rhino & trainwreck.
You are going to have serious trouble with all those plants in the container, they are going to kill eachother stretching for light and root bound. It's a pity someone didn't pick up on this for you before hand. If i were you, i'd carefully separate them or atleast take 2 of them out of that container (trying not to damage the roots) and put them in there own pot of medium, may it be soil if you have to.
Infact it is too late now, the roots will be massive on those plants by now. You can't kill some off either, because the roots will rot and you'll never be able to maintain your pH levels. Talking about pH levels, does the jiffy pellets not interfer and raise you pH?
see i knew this would be the case, i just didn't realize i couldn't kill one or the other because i was going to just cut the males out. luckily i did divide the white rhino and trainwreck. their getting plenty of light tho, but as you said i think the roots will be the prob. As for ph, its stayed from 6-6.8 pretty steadily, only time i have to adjust it is when i top the water with new.
I dont understand how well your plants look at that pH level. Your hydro system pH level should be around pH 5.8, you are definately locking out certain nutrients. Before i posted, i read your seed labels, and said they were feminized seeds. So I thought all the plants in that container were feminized. Usually i give information on what i've actually done. I have never made the mistake you have. But if i did, i would (if possible) put them into flower now, and when i see a males (which usually shows sex before a female) i'd cut the main stem above the lowest node (topping it) and cut all the branches leaving 1 or 2 to grow. What i think will happen is, the plant will put all it's energy into growing above ground, and this in turn will slow root growth (and the roots won't rot and die), i'd keep pruning the males, this will give more light to the females and also give them more room for roots to grow. Now, as i said, if that was me, thats what i'd do. EDIT: obviously, i would cut all male pollen sack off aswell
Thanks for the help john. I started flowering them about 4 days ago, so i got ya there. As for pruning the males and keeping them alive, that does sound like the best solution.. what would you suggest if their all females?
With them being in a hydro system (and not soil) allowing more air and nutrients to the roots, maybe, just maybe you could get away with not too much of a root ball. But it will slow growth down (which would be better than death ofcourse). I'd put them under a HPS between 250w - 600w lamp, Low stress them by tying/spreeding them apart, so the light can spread evenly over the canopy. Because, as i said before, they will stretch fighting for light.
i got some new pictures today thought i'd update and share them with you. so far out of the 10 plants i had only one turned out male, 2 of them being feminized, so really out of 8. i also transplanted them all to fox farm soil, except for the 4 plants and the white rhino in the hydro setup, but all of the 4 in the hydro setup were females. i finally pulled one of them out that was dying, it was about 8 inches tall. but so far so good. the 2 plants with the buds are 6 days into flowering, and are getting pretty tall. i'm about to upgrade them to a 400 watt hps tomorrow. let me know what you think.