First Time Grower Seeking Tips

[MadmanFox]

So it's my very first time growing, been an avid smoker since the age of 13, (23 now), and I've recently gotten tired of all the shady dealers in the area, and the only reliable ones that I have live a state away, so I'm gonna try and grow myself. I live in an apartment, with my gf so I'm not really worried about security, as long as I have it hidden for the monthly pest control, I should be fine. But, moving on..

This is my plant, the 3rd attempt, as my first one was killed by a bad rainstorm when I was away, and the other never germinated. This one, however, looks the most promising. Any helpful advice or tips are GREATLY appreciated as I have absolutely no clue what to do. I've done alot of research, but nothing beats having some people to talk to if the need arises.

Some things to keep in mind:
1) I'm using no lights, or ventilation. This is simply a clay pot, with miracle grow soil, and miracle grow feeder sticks implanted in the soil. I water them about once or twice daily, depending on how dry the soil looks. 95% of the time the plant is under a regular lightbulb, and I've recently been trying to put it in the sun during the day for the added nutrients.
2) I have no idea what strain it is. For all I know this could be some new, crazy hybrid. I smoked many different kinds and kept the seeds. Ranging from Sour Diesel, "Loud", fire, and plain old reggie. So these sprouts were made from a combination of all those seeds.

Here's what they look like now. Hopefully, I'll get the help I need from here, and I can continuously post pictures as I go along.

 

[Anotherlover]

The stretching is due to the lack of real light.

Get some decent lights or put them into direct sunlight for at least 6 hours a day.

They will die soon otherwise.

Do some research of you are serious, what you are doing here is playing.
It's fun to play but there will be no return on effort.

 

[MadmanFox]

As I said in my post, I have done research. As far as the lights, I'm working with what I have access to. I live in a really remote town, so traveling to buy lights would be a 30 min trip one way. I have however heard that using the CFL lights helps tremendously. I'm working on getting an area where I can have about 2-3 of them on the plant at all times. But as far as lighting, that's the best I can do. I know the stretching is the lack of light, I noticed them getting weaker looking and having a hard time standing up on their own, so I have started putting them in the sunlight. What you're seeing here is the "healing" process from the hiccup I had originally. I do appreciate the advice tho, I'll definitely start being more strict on putting them outside for a few hours daily.

Also, keep in mind, I'm not looking for a massive output, or even a large plant. I'm looking for something small enough to remain hidden, but that being said, I'm not planning on switching them to flowering anytime soon. I wanna let them mature as much as possible before switching them.

 

[spek9]

A 60 minute round-trip time to grab up a proper lamp (HPS if you can only buy one) or a setup of good CFLs and 'Y' adaptors (6500k for veg, 2700k for flower) will save you countless attempts at trying to achieve anything from the plants you're currently growing.

There is very little to no chance at all you'll achieve anything with an incandescent bulb and some window sill sunlight.

We won't get into the photo period info at this point... I'm telling you straight up that your setup won't work.

Sorry for being so harsh.

Welcome to RIU

-spek

 

[BarnBuster]

get them out of clay pots also.

 

[Anotherlover]

As I said in my post, I have done research. As far as the lights, I'm working with what I have access to. I live in a really remote town, so traveling to buy lights would be a 30 min trip one way. I have however heard that using the CFL lights helps tremendously. I'm working on getting an area where I can have about 2-3 of them on the plant at all times. But as far as lighting, that's the best I can do. I know the stretching is the lack of light, I noticed them getting weaker looking and having a hard time standing up on their own, so I have started putting them in the sunlight. What you're seeing here is the "healing" process from the hiccup I had originally. I do appreciate the advice tho, I'll definitely start being more strict on putting them outside for a few hours daily.

Also, keep in mind, I'm not looking for a massive output, or even a large plant. I'm looking for something small enough to remain hidden, but that being said, I'm not planning on switching them to flowering anytime soon. I wanna let them mature as much as possible before switching them.

Possibly look at microgrows

I have a server I use for vegging.
I have flowered plants out in it in the past though.

It started out as 4x 18watt florescent tubes and a couple of pc fans for extraction.
I also have a cab that uses 15x cfl's.

At a push or to learn what you are doing something like this is simple to make, parts are available just about anywhere and it is small enough to hide (if you keep fan noise levels in mind when designing, placing).
These cost me next to nothing, 2n'd hand junk and cheap bulbs+fittings from the local hardware/grocery store.

Some pics here of how they look now.
https://www.rollitup.org/stealth-micro-cab-growing/754730-my-cab-server.html

Just to show you what they looked like when I first built them (before modifications).

And as time went by it evolved.

1 of the plants grown and flowered in there

Cab:
Originally 2x cheapie 220v fans for extraction (instead of the current 1x 220v inline fan).

Anyway, hope this gives you some inspiration

Good luck and welcome.

 

[MadmanFox]

I don't mind the harshness, honestly. I have no idea what I'm doing, and that's why I'm here, lol. I appreciate all the advice, and I'll definitely start working on fixing my setup if there's no chance of it working in it's current status. Until I can get the lights, what would be my best bet. I have plenty of CFL's around the house, so setting them up wouldn't be too much of a problem. I also have a back patio area that I could put the plant in during the day if it's better than just being on a window sill.

 

[MadmanFox]

What's wrong with clay pots?

@Anotherlover Damn, your plants put mine to shame in the worst way possible, haha But like I said, that's why I'm here, live and learn.
Dunno if I wanna make a cab and server though. I'm looking for mainly a one time harvest, smallest plant, with maximum yield possible. (for a small plant)

Depending on how well this grow goes, I may look at keeping one plant around. But as of right now, I just wanna get this girl healthy and lush

 

[spek9]

I don't mind the harshness, honestly. I have no idea what I'm doing, and that's why I'm here, lol. I appreciate all the advice, and I'll definitely start working on fixing my setup if there's no chance of it working in it's current status. Until I can get the lights, what would be my best bet. I have plenty of CFL's around the house, so setting them up wouldn't be too much of a problem. I also have a back patio area that I could put the plant in during the day if it's better than just being on a window sill.

If you have outdoors space, that's your ticket at least until you can get better lights.

To take it outdoors, we do what is known as "hardening off". Your little babies will be particularly sensitive. So, what you do is leave them out in mostly shade for a couple hours every day for a week, each day expose it to a bit more sunlight (or time outside). After 7-10 days of this gradual warming to the outside environment, they should be able to stand their own ground in full sunlight all day.

Do some research on light spectrums, particularly 6500k and 2700k in reference to CFL. Grasping that basic understanding will pave the way for you to actually grow something semi-reasonable

-spek

 

[Anotherlover]

What's wrong with clay pots?

@Anotherlover Damn, your plants put mine to shame in the worst way possible, haha But like I said, that's why I'm here, live and learn.
Dunno if I wanna make a cab and server though. I'm looking for mainly a one time harvest, smallest plant, with maximum yield possible. (for a small plant)

Depending on how well this grow goes, I may look at keeping one plant around. But as of right now, I just wanna get this girl healthy and lush

The photos in this tread are old and put me to shame
I have seen some really cool microgrows that are tiny as well (from a 500g cookie jar to a vacuum cleaner vertical SCROG hydro setup to a foot stool).

Anyway, If you are going to use cfl's look for anything above 6000k or cool daylight (during veg).
Same for florescents.\

Flowering you want to mix it up a little, mostly 2100 to 2700k with a couple of 6500k.

 

[MadmanFox]

I took your advice and just did some research. It seems that the best thing for me at this point would be 2 lights, one MH, and one HPS. Those should give enough blue spectrum light for leafy growth and the HPS for budding/flowing. What do you think?

 

[Anotherlover]

I took your advice and just did some research. It seems that the best thing for me at this point would be 2 lights, one MH, and one HPS. Those should give enough blue spectrum light for leafy growth and the HPS for budding/flowing. What do you think?

If you are going to go HID you better do plenty research on ventilation and make damned sure that you can blackout any room you want them in as they are extremely bright.

Cops will be on your case if your apartment looks like a UFO in disguise.

 

[MadmanFox]

Yea that's another reason I was leaning away from a standard lighting setup. I was thinking of using my spare bedroom, putting a quilt over the window, and having 2 small lamps on the plant at all times, until flowering. Only other thing I'm worried about is those 2 types of bulbs on 24/7 might create a spike in my electric bill. Also a cause for concern, at least around here.

 

[Anotherlover]

Yea that's another reason I was leaning away from a standard lighting setup. I was thinking of using my spare bedroom, putting a quilt over the window, and having 2 small lamps on the plant at all times, until flowering. Only other thing I'm worried about is those 2 types of bulbs on 24/7 might create a spike in my electric bill. Also a cause for concern, at least around here.

In vegging that should be "ok" as long as they get enough light but during flower they need 12 hours of absolute darkness.
A timer is cheap and your plants will do fine on 18/6 (much better than 24/0).

 

[Dabolili]

start off using CFL-s and move up to MH/HPS after you have some experience .
and don't plant the seeds in the same pot it'll be a bitch when it's time to transplant

 

[CaretakerDad]

Just go with a high pressure sodium until you have some experience. While not optimal for vegging, it will do just fine. Below are some pics of some seed plants I took yesterday, they have been under 1000w HPS ( because I am too lazy to put up a MH )since they broke ground just 14 days ago. Good luck, keep asking questions, and happy growing.

Critical Sensi Star


Cotton Candy


Blue OG

 

[Dribbles]

An hour flicking through threads here should indicate to even the most intellectually bankrupt individual, that you're doing absolutely everything wrong and the plants have no hope of doing anything but struggle to stay alive with you torturing them.

Put those poor plants out in the sun or put them out of their misery and be done with it!

 

[harris hawk]

Just "keep it simple and easy many make it to complicated

 

[MadmanFox]

Well I've ran into my first problem today. I put my plants outside, to get some natural lighting, as it'll be a few days before I can get a lighting setup, and my cat decided that the plants made a perfect playtoy. -.-
I'm now down to 2 out of 5 plants. The stalks aren't damaged but he did manage to knock the initial leaves off the top. My question is, should I just pull these stalks out, or will they regrow? I know anything like this is detrimental to the health of the plant, especially this early on, and I also know that those leaves are the only thing that the plant has to absorb the light. So should I take the 3 leafless ones out?

Note that I also have a hell of alot of extra seeds. And I also realized that I didn't germinate these properly beforehand. (They seem to have done okay by themselves, tho) I'm sort of considering giving it one last ditch effort, and if they don't start "fattening up" I may just scratch these and start over.

I think the main reason I started off so shoddy this time, was my original source. He gave me little to no information. Told me just to plant the seeds, that I didn't need all the bells and whistles, (lights, vents, etc). That they didn't call it "weed" for nothing. I do appreciate all the information, though. It's been really helpful. I'm probably gonna get a small cab or something for the new ones, just so they have their very own little place, where nothing and noone can mess with them.

 

[MadmanFox]

Just go with a high pressure sodium until you have some experience. While not optimal for vegging, it will do just fine. Below are some pics of some seed plants I took yesterday, they have been under 1000w HPS ( because I am too lazy to put up a MH )since they broke ground just 14 days ago. Good luck, keep asking questions, and happy growing.

Critical Sensi Star
View attachment 2917944

Cotton Candy
View attachment 2917945

Blue OG
View attachment 2917948

Your plants are roughly as old as mine, and look at 'em. Damn, man I messed this grow up big time.