Hey all, I recently started my first grow this past weekend. I'm growing in an area of my closet roughly 3feet by 3feet and just about 6feet tall. For now, I'm growing with CFL's (broke college student). I wired up a vanity fixture and threw in 2way spliters so i have a total of 6 cool white cfl's in the fixture (total of approx 10,000 lumens for 6, approx. 1700 for each cfl). I can also add another 2 cfl's if need be later with another fixture. I was planning to grow at least 4 plants (hopefully get at least 1 or 2 females, all 4 hopefully lol). I have about 5 or 6 more seeds sitting in the plate and papertowel. I think the majority of the rest are gonna be duds cuz some have been sitting for many days and dont seem to have changed at all since the start. Anyways, I just planted sprout 3 and 4 (germinated seed) yesterday and today. Tonight, a few min ago, I just noticed another seed has split and the root is barely showing. I cannot decide what to do, this is where you come in (hopefully). I have the 4 ( 2 fully sprouted, 2 germinated just about to come thru the soil) in a rectangular planter roughly 24inches by 6 inches. Right now I have the 4 spaced out evenly in the planter. So, looks like this [ o o o o ]. I think that I should also plant this next germinated seed (and any others that germinate), but I am worried that I shouldn't put any more that I have in my planter at the moment. WHat I would like to know is if I could plant this next seed (and any others i guess) in between the ones I have there now. So it would be like this then, [ o * o * o * o ] where * is the new planted seeds. I obviously know in a few weeks these will have to be transplated and that all of these cannot possibly grow in this planter. I have new soil and new pots, etc. on the way. I just would like to know if for at least the few couple weeks (maybe more, you tell me) if it would be fine to have from anywhere from 4 to 7or8 total in this planter until these plants develop a bit more and hit the veg. stage (and when i have my new pots and stuff). I just figure since more seeds germinated, i might as well grow them a bit cause it will give me better chances of getting females and being able to choose 2 or 3 from 4 or 5 to keep growing and flower them, etc. The only thing is I am worried about crowding them or not being supposed to plant them too close (because of possible complication with plants next to it, root complications or something). Could someone ( or more) let me know if it would be fine to do this so I can move ahead with it and focus on getting these bad boys...uhh...BAD GIRLS developed . Thanks to those who reply!
that might work, but you really don't want their roots to intertwine and tangle. your best best will be to get some 16 oz plastic drink cups (the ones you use at keggers, they're blue or red, being a col student you have to have some of those around) and use those until you get what you need.
Agreeed^^^ but...for now, to keep the seeds and their roots seperated try sticking something in the soil to seperate them. Kind of give them their own little space untill they can move into bigger and better accomodations! Yeah, thats all I can think of. Also when you go to transplant them be easy with the roots.
I don't have to worry now, I got some bigger pots and new soil. Some new custom made soil, specially engineered for grass from my buddies hometown friends who run a hydroponic store and are basically hippie scientists who do nothing but create the most amazing strain mixes and have nothing but the best organic hydro. They make all kinds of their own custom soils and nutrients, etc. to their specifications to what they believe gives them there best results all the time. Hopefully my babies flourish in no time...
Here's my grow setup for now. It's in my closet, as you can see. As I said I have 6 cfl's (4 on right now) and can add 2 more as of right now. bulbs are cool whites, 23w, ~1700lumens each for total around 10,000lumens( good enough for now???...good enought for a half decent grow???). I bought a 3bulb vanity fixture(for like 10$) and some cord and a plug and wired it up. I haven't put up any reflective material yet, but i will when a little more time has passed (part lazyness). Also i have yet to make a reflector fo go above my lights so light is not wasted. I have 5 skunk#1 seedlings (2 are about 5 days old since sprouting, 2 are 1or2 days old from sprouting, and the last is sprouted(today) but the seed has not detached yet so its covered still)....
I think your pots are too big for your seedlings.. I made that mistake once and had rapid growth but the roots quickly filled up the pots as oposed to starting in cups, moving to 1 qt, then 3 gallon and finally to 5 gallon. The pots are so big that your plants will reach a certain point and stop because you dont have a larger pot to transplant in. Each time you repot you get a growth spurt. I made that mistake once and wont do it again.
When you say rapid, how rapid? How big did u end up growing your plants. My goal really is to get them to hit at least between 30-50cm. I'm not planning to grow these 3or4 feet tall or anything. I thought these pots would be fine to getting them to the size i want. For my first grow im not expecting much, but i dont want it to get fucke dup 2 months into it either or that will just be a huge pissoff.
well i had 5 plants in 1 qt containers... i had one plant in a 3 gallon container.. the one in the 3 gallon container caught up with the growth of the ones in the 1 qt containers quickly. My problem was my grow was out of whack because when i went to transplant from 1 qt to a larger contaier they were rootbound at that point but the one in the 5 gallon container was also rootbound but the same height and size as the others in 1 qt containers. i transplant from 1 qt to 3 gallon and expect a growth spurt. The one in the larger container.. i had nothing larger to plant in and wasnt ready to go into my final 5 gallon buckets which i was saving for flowering.. Here is a pic from that time... The one in the back right hand corner in the green bucket was the one in question. At one point it was larger but after i transplanted the others.. they took off this one didnt.
Cool thx, I'll take that into account. But to be honest, since i've already transplanted and have no other smaller containters, fact that its its my first grow, etc...i'm just gonna let them do their thing and hopefully they will reach the height I am hopeing for before they slow down, if they do at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed... All 5 are sprouted now, the two that came up last night and were still white/yelow are nice and green now and are spreading nicely. Looks to me like the transplant of the two already sprouted havent seen to chow any effect from it...as the leaves now have just about doubled since the transplant.. I've been keeping these under the light 24/7 so far....i figure i'll keep it like this for the first week or 2...then switch to 18/6...im just wondering whens the best time for me to do that? is 2nd week ok, once they all have grown a bit....and what is the best way to make the switch?? just have a 6 hour dark period one night and then continue with 18hrs of light? or have a 24hr dark period and then start up 18/6?