1st Grow - Mr Nice CM

[ForTwenty]

Hi everyone!!

Well decided to have a go at horticulture this year and gonna keep a small log of whats going on here

This is my 1st grow ever so ANY and all comments are appreciated, I'm sure I'll have lots of questions too LOL


Ordered 10x Critical Mass seeds by Mr Nice after hearing plenty of good comments about them, arrived in the oiginal sealed packaging and to my delight it contained 18 seeds

Soaked all 18 in mineral water for 24hrs followed by planting 1" deep in Plagron Light Mix (4" pots), 17 have germinated.

This was 18 days ago and here are some pics from last week:

 

[djlifeline]

Hey man, look very nice, keep up the good work!

 

[ForTwenty]

Now we noticed after about a week that the plants were growing quite tall and spindly, probably as we had them approx 8" from the lights (1st mistake).

So after getting them nice and close to those tubes we got a 6" fan to blow them about abit and within a couple days they had noticeably thicker stems


In the past week (days 12-1 we have been moving them from the little box into the big box for about 6hrs a day under a 400w HPS (dual spectrum on adigital ballast) ad the results have been vigorous growth..... We now plan to repot and move permanently into the big box on day 21!

 

[djlifeline]

Sounds like a plan to me

 

[ForTwenty]

Cheers guys


I think we've got off to a bit of a slow start comparing pics in terms of size and height etc but our ladies will get there I'm sure!!

We're currently trying to deal with temps, occasionally we have hit 86F on the old Min/Max meter which I kno is too high and has probably stunted the growth a lil..... Another fan is going in next week which will hopefully keep it down to 75F ish!

Gonna be some sweet bud

 

[d.c. beard]

Nice, scribed. Definitely keep the temps in check and water properly as the plants' sex is determined in the first 2-3 weeks of the seedling stage and is most heavily influenced by the amount of stress and environmental factors. The better they have it, the more females you'll get. The more you stress them out, the more males will start popping up. I use a portable a/c unit to help out with this.

So where did you order the CM beans from?

 

[ForTwenty]

Nice, scribed. Definitely keep the temps in check and water properly as the plants' sex is determined in the first 2-3 weeks of the seedling stage and is most heavily influenced by the amount of stress and environmental factors. The better they have it, the more females you'll get. The more you stress them out, the more males will start popping up. I use a portable a/c unit to help out with this.

So where did you order the CM beans from?

Yeah we only thought to check the min/max function a few days ago! Seems the temps were creeping up in the day then dropping in the evening.... Proper sneeky like LOL

We ordered the beans from a local headshop, they're online but not sure on policy of links here :-S 24hr service direct from the seedbank then just went in to collect! Proper impressed

 

[d.c. beard]

Yeah we only thought to check the min/max function a few days ago! Seems the temps were creeping up in the day then dropping in the evening.... Proper sneeky like LOL

We ordered the beans from a local headshop, they're online but not sure on policy of links here :-S 24hr service direct from the seedbank then just went in to collect! Proper impressed

Judging by your proper use of the word 'proper', I assume you're across the pond in the UK?

 

[ForTwenty]

Judging by your proper use of the word 'proper', I assume you're across the pond in the UK?

Ah, gave myself away with typical British language LOL

Yeah in the UK unfortunately!!

 

[ForTwenty]

Ok here are the 1st week photos

Took a few close ups for prosperity LOL


The babies were kept in a small seedling box which is 4ft wide, 2ft deep and 2ft tall.... Currently only 1 half is lit with 5 14W Fluoro's but the other half will be done for next grow!

Watered every other day, each took about 50ml of water.... We used mineral water which is pH 6.8 and temps were kept between 70F & 80F (pretty much) during the day and down to 60F at night, humidity was at about 80% in the first few days then dropped down to around 40-50% after lid was off

 

[ForTwenty]

And here are the lates photos (Day 1 which were taken about an hour ago!

The bbies have been under a 400W HPS for about 12hrs at this point, they do look a lil dry IMO so tomorrow morning they will get a good watering

I've tried to take some pics of the colouring in the leaf stems.... There are little purple/red flecks on most of the plants, not sure why yet :-S

Temps have been getting a little higher this week but with new fan(s) going in soon that will be taken care of, for now an open window and cold UK air will have to do LOL

Watering is still every other day although now they take about 100ml per session, I think this will up to 150ml as from tomorrow and getting ready for the repot into 7litre pots in just a couple of days!!

Enjoy!


Sorry if I'm boring anyone

 

[d.c. beard]

Looking good. Looks like you have a bit of a greenthumb! If you can stabilize your temps and feed correctly throughout I'm sure you'll have a nice harvest.

What I would recommend doing is when you water, water all of them with about half of the total amount of water that you plan on giving them. Then wait for 20-30 mins for the medium to absorb all the moisture that you've added thus far and kinda expand. Last, water with the remaining liquid. This is the way that you always want to do it. And I would also drench the soil more than what you are currently. Really soak it down. Then feel how heavy the containers are wet and remember that feeling. Once a day or so pick up the containers, and if they feel light then you know that you should water again. If not leave them alone and don't water yet. This is assuming that you have holes punched in the bottom of those red party cups.

I would also get some fans like you say, but make sure that you get ones that seem to be bigger than what you actually need, and ones that are the inline type. You'll end up replacing them if you don't.

I see you've learned that pics come out best under flouros or with lights out and using the flash.

Oh and you have one serious mutant there! Not bad though for having 18 other good ones. Everytime I pop beans I get at least 1 mutant it seems. Sometimes they just grow out of it, most times actually if you wait long enough. Sometimes they are just doomed from the beginning though.

 

[watercooled@]

Sub'd good luck!

 

[ForTwenty]

Oh and you have one serious mutant there! Not bad though for having 18 other good ones. Everytime I pop beans I get at least 1 mutant it seems. Sometimes they just grow out of it, most times actually if you wait long enough. Sometimes they are just doomed from the beginning though.

I'd never heard of mutants til you just mentioned it!! Was wondering why she was growing a bit odd... I assume you're looking at the lower left plant in those last pics?!?!

She has real vibrant growth with massive leaves and lots of chlorophyll, I'll keep her going til she gets to be a nuisance LOL


We've just setup our new pots, moving into 7 litre square pots filled with 1/3 Plagron Light Mix & 2/3 Plagron Royalty Mix..... All have had a good soaking to wash excess nutes out today and tomorrow the plants will all go in

Oh and we even spent a couple hours sifting the compost, removed a HELL of a lot of lumps, twigs etc etc but now that compost is oh so light and fluffy I tell ya

As of tomorrow they are under 2x 400W HPS (dual spectrum) and in a couple weeks time we should have a vertical 1000W to see us through flowering! Got a 125mm intake fan on it's way which will be hooked up to suck cool fresh air in for temp control!

 

[d.c. beard]

Sound good. I'm not sure how big a 125 mm fan is (for some reason the US refuses to adopt the metric system lol) but if that's a 6 inch fan then that's good. The only problem is that I hope you got one with a high CFM rating, cause you're going to need it with just the two 400 watters. Once you add that 1kW lamp you're going to need another fan just for it. HID lamps run really hot, and remember, you want to keep your temps between 72 - 78 degrees F during 'daylight' hours and between 65 - 70 degrees F at 'night'. If you can pull fresh air in from outside, that's obviously the best. But the more important thing is to make sure to exhaust your warm, spent air outside or at least into the attic or another separate room through the wall.

 

[ForTwenty]

+rep dude for the advice!! (125mm is 5")

Yeah we got temps under control now we're focused on it!

So as from next week it'll be " intake just for cold fresh air and the exhaust is a real powerful 6" that moves like 500+cfm sucking through a big carbon filter.... We got good negative pressure and today on a test run without the intake fan (hasn't arrived yet) we sat at a steady 73F

Once the 1kW HID arrives it's gonna go in a vertical cooltube, just gonna put a T-piece into the exhaust and run a seperate 6" duct to that and hopefully keep temps manageable

 

[ForTwenty]

So we repotted today, little bit worried as a couple of the plants looked like they had a little bit of brown discolouration in places

Think we're gonna have to look at taking some action against root rot.... Possibly 2nd mistake, overwatered when they were seedlings?!?!

Also the 1st set of spikey leaves on around 5 of the plants have started to lose their green and have developed a washed out green/yellow look starting at the tip, damn these greenfingers are looking more like blackfingers LOL

 

[d.c. beard]

So we repotted today, little bit worried as a couple of the plants looked like they had a little bit of brown discolouration in places

Think we're gonna have to look at taking some action against root rot.... Possibly 2nd mistake, overwatered when they were seedlings?!?!

Also the 1st set of spikey leaves on around 5 of the plants have started to lose their green and have developed a washed out green/yellow look starting at the tip, damn these greenfingers are looking more like blackfingers LOL

What's your soil again? Are you giving them nutes yet? It's prob nute burn form the soil or your nutes, prob the soil. Pics?

 

[ForTwenty]

What's your soil again? Are you giving them nutes yet? It's prob nute burn form the soil or your nutes, prob the soil. Pics?

They were in Plagron Light Mix and ae now in mostly Plagron Royalty Mix (we had half a sack of Light Mix left over so mixed it all in together, so it's like 2/3 Royalty & 1/3 Light Mix).

The yellowing has cropped up before the repot and as yet we haven't added any nutes so I'd be surprised if it's burn.... I've been looking around ad think it may be magnesium deficiency, we've been using mineral water which is quite low in Mg so today we swapped to tap water and see if that cures it

Also today we've added a little ultrasonic fogger to raise the humidity up, it has been sitting at around 20% but I've heard that higher humidities help the plant deal with heat better as well as support decent growth..... With that running the rH is now sitting at a much healthier 35-40% and already tonight they look perkier!!

Also the mutant, it has sprouted perfectly normal sets of leaves 1 node from the top.... Should I cut the top mutated leaf off you think?!?!

 

[d.c. beard]

They were in Plagron Light Mix and ae now in mostly Plagron Royalty Mix (we had half a sack of Light Mix left over so mixed it all in together, so it's like 2/3 Royalty & 1/3 Light Mix).

The yellowing has cropped up before the repot and as yet we haven't added any nutes so I'd be surprised if it's burn.... I've been looking around ad think it may be magnesium deficiency, we've been using mineral water which is quite low in Mg so today we swapped to tap water and see if that cures it

Also today we've added a little ultrasonic fogger to raise the humidity up, it has been sitting at around 20% but I've heard that higher humidities help the plant deal with heat better as well as support decent growth..... With that running the rH is now sitting at a much healthier 35-40% and already tonight they look perkier!!

Also the mutant, it has sprouted perfectly normal sets of leaves 1 node from the top.... Should I cut the top mutated leaf off you think?!?!

Hmmmm, not sure about what that soil's got in it, I don't think they sell it over here stateside. As far as the humidifier goes, yeah you're pretty much right about that but I would highly recommend putting it on a timer so that it only comes on during the daylight period. If you run it when the lights are off the humidity will go through the roof. Also, don't use it during flowering at all. The plants will push out more trichomes if the environment is dryer, and humidity can easily lead to botrytis, or bud mold.

Haha see, I told you that they usually grow out of it! I'd just let it ride for now until it starts causing a problem. Sometimes if a little plant is leaning to one side or something I'll trim some growth shoots off to force it to grow in the other direction to correct itself, but only if necessary. Just keep it growing the way you want it, that's all.

Oh and if you aren't aware of the huge importance of an even canopy under your lights, you should def read up on this. Just keep topping the faster growing plants so that they are the same height as the slower growing ones. If you don't you're going to have up to a 2' variation in height which is not desirable. It's not that important as to whether you top, or FIM, or pinch, or whatever your technique is, the important thing is to have an even canopy so that the light is evenly distributed and you can get it the same height above all the plants so that you're not burning some of the tall ones up while the short ones barely even get any lumens.