Just startin off here on our little plants. It is my first time growing. I ordered some seeds from amsterdamseedcompany.com because they were the most reputable site that shipped to the US. I ordered the "Caramelicious" variety because the taste and high was what i was looking for. The other bonus was that the description said that it was a good grow for beginners. The company sold 10 regular seeds for $135 and then gave me 20 free seeds. Room set up and current pics soon to come.
Ok so the seeds came in yesterday so I made a trip to Walmart. I purchased the following items and i'll give you the approximate price i paid. 4' florescent shop light $15 2 48" cool white florescent bulbs $6 2 48" warm white florescent bulbs $7 25' Extension cord $5 Plug in vacation timer $10 Additional chain for the light $3 Aluminum Foil 200' $7 Miracle grow potting soil $7 10 4" round clay pots $0.45 ea. 2 80 pack thumb tacks $0.88 ea. Thermometer/relative humidity electronic sensor $1 2 Gal. Distilled water $2 Total around $100 all together and another $133 for the seeds I also need to purchase a pH tester and some solutions to balance the water. So the seeds came from Amsterdam in two separate little zip-lock bags. One labeled caramel and the other with no label. I am assuming that they gave me 10 caramels and 20 of some different kinds since they were packed in different bags. I took 5 of the caramels and placed the seeds in between two pieces of paper towels i wet with the distilled water. Then i put the paper towels on a plate and put a bowl over the top. Tacked foil to one of the walls and trying to decide what i want to do with the other wall. There is some cloths hanging on the other wall that my mom wont let me move lol. Hung the light and placed soil in the pots so they're just waiting for the seeds. I'm gonna go take some pics of the seeds and grow room and post them in another reply.
scrap that tinfoil ASAP its very bad for your plants use white paper or mylar for good reflection also MORE LIGHTS whats the total lumens your running with them rite now?
Thanks for the tip...I'll scrap the tin foil tomorrow morning... About the lights...I know i need some more...i'm plannin on either tryin to snag up a HPS light on ebay or something and another shop light to make a vegetative area and a flowering area...but lack of money has held me back so far. I'll get another shop light in the next few days at the very least. I'm runnin a 4' shop lamp with a 3400 lumen output "warm white" bulb and a "cool white" bulb in which i'm not sure what the lumen is i think it was 3200... I'm running the lights on a 18 on 6 off right now and it seems to be working.... Tonight before the light went off tonight..... 9 of the 10 plants had sprouted All 5 caramels sprouted rather quickly The rest of the mysteries took a little while longer The caramels stems seemed a little bit thinner than the mysteries 1 mystery hasn't sprouted and i think it might be because the seed that went into that pot hadn't been as far along in the germination process 1 of the caramels sprouted, bloomed, and wrapped its leaves under themselves so i'm not really sure what thats about.... Hopefully it will cure up in the next day or so... Here are some pics of the little babies...one of the sprouts came out of the ground with the shell stuck on the leave
Day 05 Alright just a short little update.... 9 of the 10 plants have sprouted and are looking great.... I read on some other posts about the plants "stretching" for the light and mine sorta looked like they were doing that so i moved the light down to just an inch or two from the tops of the plants. The light move brought my temp up to around 80 degrees close to the plants so i think i'm gonna throw a fan in there today for some circulation. I did a recovery mission last night on the seed that hadn't sprouted...I started digging in the middle of the pot....and kept digging....and maybe an inch down i found the long lost seed....the stem was coming out of the seed into the soil and it looked like the leaves were trying to slip out of the seed. So i put just a dash of dirt back over the seed and sprayed it with some more water. Today it looks like the plant made some progress but still hasn't left its seed yet....hopefully the little soon to be lady is building up for a big showing lol Lost the bid on a 400W HPS system on ebay last night but not too worried about it. I figure i have 3 mo to find a good one if i wanna go the HPS route. More shop lights to come when the children get a lil bigger. I think thats all for now.... I'll start making Mondays pic day Any questions or comments drop me a line....
[FONT="]Day 08 [/FONT]The children are lookin pretty good. Leaves are getting pretty big and another set of leaves are forming The plants are loving the light being lowered. They don't seem like they've been getting much taller but the leaves have probably doubled in size in the last few days. Overall the mysteries seem to be doing a little better than the caramels. All of the mysteries are starting their 2nd set of leaves, the leaves are larger, and the stems are thicker.... Caramels seem to be showing less growth but i really dont think anything is wrong with them... They non-sprouting mystery still hasn't sprouted.... my mom thinks its just a late bloomer but i think its dead.....so we'll give it a few more days Thinkin about maybe tryin to replant and buyin another light next week...? we'll see what growth is like first i guess. Here are some pics starting with the really good looking mystery and ending with a few of the Caramels. Hope you enjoy
Good news and bad news...... Good news is.... The plant that didn't look like it was gonna sprout....sprouted Bad news.... The cats got into my room...and messed with my plants... Pulled out two of them....bent up another two. The bent two seem to be doing fine...I think they're gonna make it no problem More bad news.... One of the plants the cats missed has some little white spots on it... and some wavy leaves Another plant has a little hole in it...that has a brown spot around the whole.... and another plant has some wavy leaves with no sign of spots.... pics below.... I think it may be a pH imbalance so i bought some pH down and some test strips... The bad part about the test strips is the scale only goes down to 6.3 so i've been just wingin the range....i think i have some good pH water now tho so we'll see if that helps... I have been just using rain water that i had collected when i first started the plants. Sorry the pics are kinda bad...i took them from my phone cuz the cam is broken =/ Any advice would be appreciated
I don't like MG Soil because it often contains bugs. Check to make sure there are no bugs. I don't understand why the pH tester won't go lower than 6.3. What is the run-off pH? Does the soil have added ferts or say anything on the bag like "feeds for 3 months?"
Thanks VTEC for helpin me out.... Since planting the plants i have read many unsatisfied people with MG...but not much i can do now...i plan on transplanting into something better.... The soil is MG "Moisture control" potting mix.... Feeds plants up to 3 months with mg continuous release plant food 21-7-14 formula... My pH tester is for pools and spas and crap...so it only goes down to 6.3 on the color scale.... i figured if i was a little lighter shade i'd be pretty close to where i needed to be. I've been watering the plants with the pH <6.2 water for 2 days now i think and the spots seem to be getting maybe a slight bit better.... Ran the soil run off today and it looks like its below the 6.2 mark too.... I did spend a little time in the grow room today and noticed some small gnats...i dont know if they are the reason or not... the 6 other plants look fine and dont seem to be showing the symptoms of the other 2... and mostly that one... Tell me what you think cuz i'm stumped -tg
Yup the gnats probably came from the soil. If it is much below 6.2 that could become problematic as the huge dose of ferts in those fert balls are waiting to be released. Your saving grace is that they are under CFL's which seems to slow down the time "release" process. Just don't add any ferts to it; give straight water.
DAY 25 Alright it been a while since an update so here it goes... Since the last update a ton has been done... Re-potted into some nice big black pots and got some extra nice fluffy perlite packed potting soil from the garden center. Also set the plants on a table, and added another light with a warm white and cool white bulbs For the good... all 8 plants are looking great.... The 3 surviving caramels look perfect as far as i can tell... One of the plants is really petite but just growing just as good as any of the others One of the caramels is massive with long thin leaves and they have a dark kinda striped stems the mysteries are lookin great as well.... two of them are massive... One of the two has just made some massive 7 finger leaves... the other has 2 sets of 5 fingers but it has started the second set of leaves at the stem already 2 of the other mysteries are shorter but really really bushy... the leaves are forming on top of one another and its pretty awesome Finally the runt of the batch is doin pretty good too... instead of making a 3 fingered leaf...it made a 2 fingered leaf, and then a 3 fingered... Weird i know..... For the bad...The sick plant with the spots still has them... all but the leaves except the new layer are covered in little spots I water all the plants with the same water, and they've all had the same soil so i can not figure out what the problem is... I got even put a little bleach on a wet paper towel and rubbed down the leaves but it didn't seem to make a difference... I'm goin to look at a 1000w hps/mh lamp with electronic ballast tonight...the guy doesnt grow anymore and just wants $200 so we'll see what it looks like.... Here are some pics i took yesterday... Yellow straws in the pics are the caramels and the blues are mysteries....fyi
my girl wanted me to get this strain I'm interested in how it's gonna turn out... I also recomend getting -a light with a better spectrum (HPS or CFL) -a thermostat with humitity I'd hate to see those expensive seeds go to waste good luck I'll be watchin BiZness
Rig thanks for the post.... More lighting is on the way... Picked up a 1000W HPS/MH Sun System light today so i'm hoping that will do the trick hahaha Paid $200 for the light, both bulbs, ballast, and 6" inline fan and I have a thermometer with temp and humidity gauge i got at walmart for i think $6... The room stays between 70-80 with 45-60% humidity depending on the day.... The trick now is gonna be keepin the light and room cool but i don't think its going to be too much of a problem.... A couple questions i have right now are..... 1. Will the plants show sex before i veg them? 2. If not, how and when should i clone my plants? I was thinking just cloning two of each pant, mark them, and throw out the males and male clones when that time comes... Time to smoke a bowl and hit the hay.... -tg
ohh nice choice on the light you're already a step ahead of my advice to answer your questions: 1: you are already veg'ing them and if you aren't you should be (18/6 or I like 24/0) 2: you should be able to tell the sex after about 4 weeks I noticed that you'll hit "weed puberty" faster with 18/6 you cant still switch to 24/0 after mthat if you'd like doesn't matter. 3: you can clone your plants when ever you got foliage to spare I usally do it a few weeks before flowering. but you can clone anytime also when clone make too many clones because some may not "take root" or survive as for the males if you have enough room to seperate them in a diff area its nice to keep males to cross breed with other strains and make a custom (your own new strain) I hope I helped you out and answered your questions
Thanks rig for the advice... Wed is week 4 so hopefully sex is right around the corner....if you know what i mean And i don't plan on cloning until close to flowering anyway i have just been thinking about how i'm gonna set up the closet so i can clone and keep a little system goin... And i'm not really thinkin keepin the males is much of an option so i'll toss those hogs out...tho making my own strains would be pretty awesome... Update Got the new light all hooked up, got the venting system all hooked up....and about 10 mins before the timer goes off for the night, i stepped on the cord attaching the light to the ballast and i think it made the bulb blow out.... So i'm pretty pissed i have to spend another $100 on a bulb for this bitch...just about takes away the sweet deal i got.... I get paid wed so hopefully i can get a light ordered up cuz the current set up is kind of bogus.... Anyone have advice on the best value on a 1000w MH bulb? The guy that had this before used a "warm deluxe" sunmaster grow lamp and i was looking at gettin the 1000w cool deluxe bulb this time around because its more blue spectrum for veg growth..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250205725162 The guy also gave me the 1000w HPS bulb but i know not to use that till flower... Also pulled up the plants and filled the bottoms of the pots up so the plants can use all of the pot for root growth...and added some "worm casting" fertilizer from walmart to the newly inserted soil so we'll see how that works out..... Other than that the plants have been goin nuts....having to raise the light every day pretty much and they went crazy after the last watering Thats it for tonight.... -tg
dman you got some bad luck, but becarful you dont want to let your plants to get too much darkness get that replaced ASAP. as far as your new light goes I meet a guy on here named HashMouf (he does very VERY good work) he was tellin' a bout the EYE hortilux HPS light I would recommend lookin into those, the website I was lookin' at was sellin' these for $79.99 P.S. I'm lookin' forward to some update pics
btw just so your aware the 20 free seeds are a indica satvia mix, they arnt the strain you orderd, the 10 seed named are your strain