Hey guys, Started my first grow! Woot woot. I figured go hard or go home, so here's the set-up. -400W MH for veg./400W HPS for flower -eventually will be SOG grow -Nutes: 7-3-3 generic liquid fert for veg. --- generic liquid fert for bloom, plus the Fox Farm Tri-Pak (Open Sesame, Beasty Budz, Cha-Ching) for bloom, also a special perlite with time-released micro-nutrients (calcium, magnesium, etc.) in the soil. I have some plain seaweed, but I'm not sure how to add it or give it to the plant. The guy at fox farms suggested this, but I was afraid adding to the soil would make the soil too hot -soil grow: pots, generic sterilized soil with nutrients, 70% soil, 30% perlite, with bottom layers of perlite for drainage -water: bottled water -100 cubic meters/hr extraction fan connecte to duct filter, to pull hot air from top of box and then filter it before pumping it out -industrial dehumidifier (since I live in a humid city) -large drum filter (for filtering those beautiful smells) Unfortunately, I'm in China, so it's hard to get American stuff quickly, even if I order it. It may be made here, but it isn't sold here, hahaha. This is my total grow set up. I used a refrigerator box and lined it with light proof and light reflective umbrella material. Since this doesn't crinkle, it shouldn't cause hot points in the box. I have the air-intake valve at the bottom left to take in fresh air, and the drum air filter is blowing into it, to make sure good, clean air is going in and to help airflow. On the right, I have a digital thermometer that tells me how hot it is inside the grow box, as well as how hot and how humid the room is. -picture of whole setup -picture of filter and light fixture from top -extraction fan The inside of the box. You can see the umbrella fabric I talked about, as well as the small fan I have blowing in the corner to circulate fresh air around the plants. For my first grow, I decided to grow super silver haze and white widow max, since they are both hearty as indoor-growers, as well as my two-all time favorite from my visits to a-dam. Both very different and both very good. Let me say here that Marijuana Seeds (cannabis Seeds) High Quality Low Prices is totally awesome. The super silver haze I ordered from them all germinated very well and they look healthy. Then the white widow max did poorly in germinating so I quickly ordered some white widow to replace it. However, when I mentioned it to the guys at the company, they threw in some replacement white widow max seeds so I got to give it another start and it's looking a lot better. Anyway, these are my silver haze babies. Some of them stretched a little and are too tall because of the way that I planted them. I had to use some splints to keep these up. -sativa babies- This is the one white widow max from the first germ -wwm baby- And the others are germinating as we speak. This big plant is a random seed I started growing as a test a few weeks ago. I don't know what it is, also it's obviously mostly Indica. Anyone that could help give me more information would be appreciated! -picture of big plant- Unfortunately, the first time I gave it fertilizer, about a week ago, I burned it, because the leave ends browned up. I stopped it fast by giving it a few flushes and haven't added anything since, but now it's growing much more slowly than before, and it doesn't seem very healthy. The leaves are also looking really dark. Any advice for restoring it's health? Right now, temp is about 80 F and humidity about 40%, although I mist the hell out of these seedlings and they love it, so I might bring up the humidity higher. I'm mainly worried about getting mold, which I do often here. If anyone knows of a nice way to get rid of mold for the plants (with something I can pick up anywhere, not just a plant store, since there aren't many here), I'd appreciate it. Let me know what you guys think and help coach me through this. I'm planning on using a sea of green set-up, because I'm a little short on time and interested in quantity. The aeration is good, so it should be okay. -Ghost
Of course I have plenty now, haven't used any since I got my de-humidifier, Serenade works good to get rid of an out break. S.S.
Updates and Problems: 1)Silver haze seedlings really blooming out with explosive growth. Had a stretching problem, so I lowered the lights, but still a little higher than they should be. If I do this next time I'll get some T5 lights for the first week of birth. -picture of silver haze seedlings- Question: what's the deal when the tips turn light brown? They don't look heat burned because the leaf isn't warped, just browned at the very tip like in this picture. -browning picture Also, the White Widow seedling is doing alright, but slow. 2)The big mixed unknown plant I've had growing built two new leave sets and unfolded a third. I tried giving it fertilizer again yesterday and no nute burn occurred so far, which is a good sign. Picking up growth again but staying very short. Is this common? -picture of mixed- Looking slightly wilted here (just watered). I'm really hoping this turns out be female, so that I can switch it early and have some random bud. Since I only have one grow space for both veg and flower, I'll have to put a bag over it religiously to make it bloom while everything else veges. Any ideas? 3)White Widow Max seedlings survived heartily and are doing well, although exhibiting light stretch once again. However, they all pulled through and are just starting to show the serrated leafs between the cotyledons. I think I threw them in the oven a little early, but I've mad sure they aren't too hot, so I think it'll be alright. Humidity is 54% and Temp varying between 85 and 95, although never stays 95 long. -white widow max seedlings- Unfortunately, I think I mixed in too much perlite, since last time I had too little. I'm perfecting the ratio and getting much better at saving downed plants and encouraging slow ones. Really developing a thumb.
China, thats awesome! Just be super careful man,the mj laws there are very harsh. Anyway your set up looks good, ha i also use cardboard for my grows.
oh, that beautiful, beautiful shape. how i love thee. in other news, my sativas almost all were a little wilted this morning and have brown tips. no one is answering this problem on the sick bored. it's definitely not heat stress, as the temperature is very low. it looks like nutrient burn, but i never gave them nutrients and the soil hasn't done this to indicas (and is neutral, regular, sterlized soil). the only thing i can think of is that sativas are more sensitive and there was some trace amount of fertilizer since i refilled the same bottle with water. the new leaves on them look alright, though.
My suspicions correct but mystifying. Grrower confirmed it as nute burn in his post: "yeah, it looks just slightly burnt. likely from your soil. It doesnt look bad though. If it gets worse just flush the soil, which should be pretty simple given your container size." Guess that trace amount of fertilizer really hit them. I'll make sure to go easy on the nutes when the time comes to feed them later on. Like I said, new leaves looking alright, but the old leaves, once burned never recover, so I'll have to clip them.
Alright, update: First of all, the big mixed indica is looking great. Gave it some nutes and it didn't burn this time, but instead hit another round of juicy, recognizable leaves. Of course, the real grow here is the undergrow, as tens of shoots have exploded off of the now-thick stalk! This growth has been amazing, especially considering that these leaves don't get very much sun. Sativa seedling babies are turning teenagers now, exploding out and appearing to get over the nutrient burn. I will have to transfer these soon before they become root-bound. The sativa growth pattern has been substantially different, as they are already showing off-shoots. White Widow babies are looking okay, but the stretch problem has required a few to be propped up. Next time I'll use T5 Fluoros for the first week and a half. Unfortunately, the white widow from the first round has come down with something, as the new leaves are streaked with colors and one of the old leaves has developed spots. Will post when I find out what this is about. Additionally, I finally noticed some bugs this morning in the room. They don't seem predatorial, but it takes me nervous to have bugs flying around, because they have to be feeding on something. Am going to try to take pictures and have them identified, but when I pulled out the camera, they got camera shy. I've prepared a tobacco juice mixture to apply foilarly tomorrow, so hopefully that will ward off insect problems before they start. Until next time, keep it blazin'.
Some questions: Where did you get the soil? What kind of water are you using? Are the new seedlings in the same area as the other plants?
The soil comes in sealed bags and is sterilized and neutral. It's worked well for growing the big plant so far. I mixed it a lot of perlite with it for good drainage. I've been using only bottled water. Yes, all the plants are in the same area. This is shitty for the seedlings as you can see it's caused them to stretch, but I really only have one space to pull this off in. Thoughts?
Bad news guys. Transplanted the developed seedlings. Mixed indicas are fine, but the sativa's had bad, bad, bad transplant shock. One of them must have gotten a fungal infection, and the others are fighting hard. The good news is that I still have 3 good ones and 1 okay one that will make it, and I only need one strong female in the end. My poor baby: Nute damaged, but going to pull through probably: Mixed one that had no problem with transfer: LESSON LEARNED: Sativas are very sensitive to transfer, as well as nutes. You have to baby, baby, baby them. Indicas are hearty and will march on. Now the good news. Widow seedlings still going strong: And the big plant is still kicking hard. I'm about to clone some leaves from it just for fun and practice, as well as to give more light to the other plants.
if you had a fungal infection, you would know it. fungus spreads so easily and so quickly. fungus can grow for multiple reasons, temperatures and humidities specific to the fungus don't help either. (since grass and fungus like the same kind of growing conditions) if you have a fungus you would have to kill all your plants and sterilize, sterilize, sterilize.....EVERYTHING! and idk why your sativas are like that. i think its probably a combo of too much perlite (could not be getting as good of grip on soil, as perlite prevents clumping) and you could also have too rich of a soil. i always start out using NO NUTES the first 2-3 weeks. the soil has enough of the necesarry nutrients in it already. in fact the soil could power this plant through its whole life. i consider nutes just a bonus, not necessarily needed. i actually go as far as not using plant food to give my plants nutes...i use a special mix of organic coffee for nitrogen (and you can even dilute your urine for N, believe it or not, IF you are experienced with the %'s needed) and organic banana peels for K. with the amount of plants you have, i would kick out at least 12-14 plants out. half of them are going to be males anyway. I would say 4 good fems (maybe +1 mother) in that space would be much more productive than 10 fems in the same space. think about the logic here: using advanced growing techniques (specifically LST and SCRoG) more light getting to fewer of the plants (meaning for each less plant you have, the more light it gets) and also you don't have plants piling on top of each other to fight for the light (negating survival of the fittest) and lastly, spending more time in veg all these techniques can greatly increase your bud yield, versus a bunch of plants. i think something along the lines of what i just described would be WAY more productive, especially for inexperienced growers. also, i am kind of in the same boat you are. I have about a 3x3 GOOD LUCK! Hope this helps!
@new world order thanks man! helps a lot! i made a lot of mistakes this first round, but i've learned. at first i had too much perlite, then i used too little. now i have a good feel. i also burned them hard even though i thought for sure i'd avoid burn. it's weird, though, because you can see from the earlier pics they were going fine until transfer. i think i'll try using some b-1 vitamin next time just to see. @handaman, yep yep talking about the indica. those beautiful fan leaves got me tripping when i wake up every morning. god, i love this hobby. i just took clones from it and will upload pictures in a few minutes.
i agree with "new_world_order". In a small space, you have to use as many tricks as possible to get maximum yeild. i'd suggest a scrog. top the plants in the vegetative state, put the screen a higher then normal so you have more potential bud sites and use the height of your space to your advantage, and get some redder spectrum cfl's to light under the canopy. at least that's what i would do.
Okay, so garden is tanking fast. Made so many mistakes... First the good news: Big Indy is looking healthy, and I clipped some to free up space. The undergrowth especially is solid here. Hard to believe it grew from a seed. Now the bad stuff. Silver Haze seedlings looking really wilted, 4 days after transplant. Looks like some nute-burn. On another: Cut the curled leaf tips off to give more energy to the plant and help it pull through. White widow transplant is just shrivelling up all over the place. Not going to make it? Good news is that the mixed indicas survived the transplant fine: And the widow seedlings are still doing great: So yea, trying to get two healthy female silver haze here and one healthy white widow female or at least one of each. Figured it'd be easy to do that, but lesson learned...Start them in bigger containers so they can develop more before you transplant. Also don't give them any nutes in the first few weeks, regardless of what companies say, especially with indicas.
How did unpacking / loosening the soil work for you on the wilting one? Or have you not tried. If you can't get perlite / lava rocks to help aerate you may want bust up the soil gently loosening the tight packed soil to get some O2 to them. They appear over watered because they are under oxygenated. Need to get roots O2 somehow.
Okay, so I'll do that immediately. I've heard about using peroxide, too, for oxygen problems, IYO good idea or not good idea?