First grow any advice??? \o/

[pwwn]

Hello everyone and thank you in advance for viewing my thread. This is my first grow of any serious attempt and im pretty tight on a budget. Im also growing in my closet and renting. I have three plants, one i think is a sativa dominant and the other two appear to be either a mix or indica dominant. I have all bag seeds and have no clue what strains they are. The oldest was sprouted around 6/22/13 and the other two are about 2 weeks younger then the first. I began growing in Miraclegrow ( I kno i was a newb :l) For the first couple weeks probably month i was just using tap water no ph but fixed that. I was using around 100w of cfls in the begining and now im around 200 i know its still a lil low but will be fixing that in the next week or 2 by adding a couple more probably 3 55w's.
For water i have been using a 5 gal drum thing to let tap water sit atleast 24 hours and have an 2 air stones in it. I topped one of my plants, fim'd one and left one alone as my own kind of experiment to see which yields the best.


That was my oldest at 2 weeks the MG absolutey burnt her to hell and i had no clue what was going on but i flushed the soil a bit and it helped or so i thought, I never expected this plant to grow really.

Then i planted more and a couple died and 2 more took to the soil and began to sprout up. These have much fatter leaves now so these i believe are indica dominant.



So i began to read more and found rollitup and immersed my self with countless hours of research. I started off somehow in an organic thread and thats kinda the route i went for a bit with guano but really didnt kno what i was doing at first and just mixing it with water. Then more and more read about teas so i got a micro premix bag from the local store and made a molases,guano premix tea and was feeding it to often. I didnt kno they expired or got fermented at first so yea i made quite a few big booboo's lol.

So the one i thought was gone (my oldest) suddenly started to grow a bit more so i was like whatever ill jus let it do its thing so now its about a month in and im giving ph water around 6.0 and teas occasionally. My plants were getting so hungry and i didnt realize it they began looking very nutrient deficient. I had them in very small pots also. Finally about 2 weeks ago I switched to FFOF and transplanted to 5 gal pots and have been using floranova bloom at 4ml/gal for the last 2 weeks once or twice a week since repotting.


The oldest one decided to show she was a female soon as i repotted them and thats what they looked like on 8/5 (44 days) right before we repotted on the 10th.
and the other pic is of the oldest showin her pistils

TLDR;



These are them as of now 8/25 (well yesterday) the measurements are from pot top not soil lvl and they are between 20 and 24" i think they are starting to stretch. I will be feeding tomorrow night with Floranova bloom at (3ml/gal and its 4-8-7) i also started using koolbloom (which last feeding was just 2ml/gal of kool, some molasses and epsom salt) but tomorrow ill put 2ml/ of the kool and i also got some hydro boost from green planet .4g/gal (says 1g to 10l so i figure .4g is close enough to 1gal and its 0-39-25)ill be adding tomorrow night.

Pretty happy with the way they are looking atm they have turned around 80% so they are loving the nutes .. I will continue to use the tea probably next week and just work out a good schedule, ill most likely just use the hydro boost tomorrow then maybe one more dose then in 2 weeks again 2 doses. (as im using cfls im hoping to get a lil denser buds) Ill continue the floranova bloom till i flush kinda close to lucas formula since im in soil and using teas and ill use the kool bloom till i finish upping slowly till i hit max.

Open to any advice and or comments hoping to see sex on the 2 that i cant tell yet soon.
Thanx for reading Pwn :l

 

[Sinse Milla]

hey there hows it going? you got some nice looking plants there! im a new grower as well, almost at my first harvest! looking at your pictures, i would get rid of the tin foil and use mylar or panda film. a ppm pen might also be beneficial. and just be sure you have space in the closet because those things will double to triple in size once in flowering. Other then that keep updating!

 

[pwwn]

Ya the one pic with all the tin foil is about 2 months old i do still havesome reflecting the light down but most was takin down. My walls are white so I plan on getting some mylar still.

 

[Ringsixty]

Ya the one pic with all the tin foil is about 2 months old i do still havesome reflecting the light down but most was takin down. My walls are white so I plan on getting some mylar still.

Emergency blanket from Walmart, cheap.

 

[sunni]

heres some advice dont use tinfoil youll burn your plants

 

[pwwn]

k so took almost all my tinfoil down but tbh it didnt appear to be burning my plants at all but figured i would listen and take it down. now when it comes to watering one of my plants the one i fim'd which is quite a lot bulkier then the other two is drier then the others and could probably use a watering but the other two dont need it yet. should i water the one when i have been feeding them together almost religiously or wait for the others for a day or 2?



this is more or less how i have them setup atm and the one thats drier is on the right.

also im kinda thinking differently then i thought about the strains. It appears to me the one that is on the right has skinnier leaves and may be a sativa dominant and the two on the left have fatter leaves. the one in the back on the left is my oldest and the only female im sure of atm.

 

[Rocketsummer7383]

Alright well I answered my own question and found you here, nice plants man. They look pretty happy, Seems like you've put a lot of care into them! Hope the buds are downright frosty

 

[Sinse Milla]

you should be watering each plant as needed. a nice way to tell when to water is by the weight of the bucket as its quite light when dry. when watering, keep going till about 10% of the water drains out the bottem. hope that helps

 

[pwwn]

Alright well I answered my own question and found you here, nice plants man. They look pretty happy, Seems like you've put a lot of care into them! Hope the buds are downright frosty

glad i could be of some help

with the 5 gal buckets it seems like it goes for 5-8 days without needing watering now, i think i may need to make some better drainage in them.

you should be watering each plant as needed. a nice way to tell when to water is by the weight of the bucket as its quite light when dry. when watering, keep going till about 10% of the water drains out the bottem. hope that helps

this is how i usually go by when i water, by feeling how light they are getting. the 10% thing is kinda new to me though i usually use around a gallon of water per plant now in the 5 gal buckets until i notice it having runoff for a bit. the soil level in the buckets is probably from 8-10" below the lip of the bucket. so there is around 4 gallons of soil (i dont even know if i can measure soil in gals *shrugs*) they definitely gain weight when im done with the gal though.

my plants have all kinda leveld out in height now which is a good thing hopefully they stay that way.

a ppm pen might also be beneficial. and just be sure you have space in the closet because those things will double to triple in size once in flowering. !

i also agree a ppm pen would be beneficial but at the grow shops near me they are $95+ and i have other needs before i can splurge on wants :l i should start lookin online though. anyone can recomend a good cheaper ppm pen/meter? and i actually got some stuff called hydro boost from green planet (has the same npk as bud blood) im hoping will help keep the stretch to a minimum, honestly tho my closet is 7ft highish and i could let them get all the way if i needed to lol

 

[Sinse Milla]

Just drill out a few holes at the bottom and the drainage should be okay. As far as taking a long time to dry out, most likely the pot is big for the root system. I kinda had the same problem with water sticking around, but it stops when the girl got a little bigger. Around a gallon should be fine. i was using about a gallon when i transplanted to 3.5 gallon buckets, but as the roots took hold now i use more around 2 gallons. If you want a even canopy research screen of green, toping and low stress training(it helps you get a bigger yield as well). All i have around me is walmart, so ebay is my best friend. $7.32 shipped for a ppm pen! Lower the lights as close as you can without heating burning the plants( cfls can be quite close), that is what is going to help stop the stretching. 7 ft is plenty, but to be fair these things can grow beyond 7ft if they veg for months. One day i will have a 10ft pot tree in my back yard..mark my words

 

[pwwn]

So tonight i fed the two younger bigger plants. I fed them 4ml Floranova bloom (4-8-7), 2ml koolbloom (0-10-10), .5g hydro boost (0-39-25). This will be the first of two feedings with the hydro boost says second week of flower and fourth so ill probably water one more time this week so 4 feedings of this total ( not sure if i should do that but i think im going to lol). Next feeding ill do a tea with just organic stuff. Hoping the hydro boost will help kick these two into flower so i can find out what sex they are *fingers crossed*

http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-EZ-Measurement-Resolution/dp/B002C0A7ZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377748085&sr=8-1&keywords=parts+per+million+meter

anyone kno if this is a decent ppm pen?

 

[pwwn]

I'm going to be adding some more lights I know I want 2700ks but are 23w x like 8 plus my current 55w x3 be good enough for flower?

 

[pwwn]

Just got some more lights today. Ended up buyin a power stirp and 5 plug in light adapters and a 4 pack of 23w 2700k lightbulbs (soft white 23 actual watts 1,600 lmn 2700k) so this is how it ended up with one spare bulb and socket just havent added in yet. Have 280 actual wattage going atm. close as i can to plants i leave them all night to grow with lights on and i tend to let them grow and get burnt :l .. i know retarded but i do occasionally so i dont really try to much closer then they are. goin to get some emergency blankets tomorrow probably to go around room and am thinking of getting venting goin into attick tomorrow night. anyone know what 280w cost per day to run 12 hours on ?

View attachment 2800260

 

[Sinse Milla]

The light cycle not the nutes will put them into flower. and yes that ppm pen will do just fine. As far as light goes, the more the better. But you should get a good harvest off 280 watts. Then check your electric bill for the kWh

 

[pwwn]

Lil update, got a mylar emergency blanket from wally world. unfortunately there was only one when two would have been optimal now 3/4 of my room is covered lol. Looks like one of them may be a male still hard to tell for sure but i think the other two are both female tho hopefully definitely one so far.

 

[pwwn]

So one was definitely a male chopped him up and sent him packin.. so now i have 2 one is definitely a female and im pretty sure the other is also. also started giving them some co2 through the yeast sugar water way lol. but i figure some is better then none. still need to find a good way to set my lights up in the closet so that the plants are surrounded by them and getting all the usefull light.

 

[Sand4x105]

What temps are you running? CO2 might be a waste if you keep it under 85 f.... BTW--> You got bad advice on tin foil, that is "Parroted" over and over again... with CFL's it is impossible to burn your plants with a reflected heat wave from the aluminum tin foil... come on, stop it... that is just a bunch of bull sheiot... Now, if you are using 1000 watt MH maybe... IDK... I just know for sure, tin foil is not a problem for burning your plants [with CFL's- OP uses CFL's]... is it the best, No, it only reflects about 55% ... better choices readily avail... and some worse choices also...Good Luck Man!

 

[pwwn]

Thank you for the advice sand4x105. much appreciated my temps are around 80-90 in the closet i just opend my attic access (which is in the closet) and screened it off and have my fan now pointing twords the hatch for ventilation so hopefully it will stay a lil bit cooler.

just adjusted my lights and setup a bit so heres a new pic for everyone.



the only part not really reflected is a lil bit on the left side and the door. i had a bit of a light issue getting into my closet (the door is a mess and doesnt close properly so i have been hanging a black curtain inside the door when the lights are off and sealing it off much better now from the outside. watered again with just molases and ph water last night with the big one and watered with nutes on the smaller one the night before. now that they are in like 4 gal buckets they take forever it seems to get lighter (well my big one does in a few days but the smaller one takes forever to get lighter.) they look like they will be getting a much better distributed light now (i kno they should be closer but they grow so fast over night a few leaves have been burning from touching the lights).

i have a old dc snowboarding shoe box above the light with the white facing down to reflect since i dont have a hood, am i wasting my time or should it help. i figure any thing to help reflect some lost light down is better then nothing.

for pot drainage i made several slices in the pot to help air get in should i drill holes or add more slices if they are not drying fast enough?

i have a feeling the one on the right is gonna be atleast 4 feet tall. right now its gotta be almost 30" and its only like 2 weeks into flower.

 

[Sinse Milla]

some reflection is better then no reflection! as long as the bucket can drain fine, i would not add more holes. keep it up and you are going to have a nice pair of girls!

 

[pwwn]

so the girls are doin ok growing well still. have a lil bit of clawing in some of my leaves now not realy sure why