1st grow 30 days in...CFL

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Ok I ve really enjoyed this site and have learned a TON from you all. Thank you very much!!
I'm almost a month in my 1st grow. In the closet with CFLs I have 10 little bundles of joy. I'm sry no pics yet ( not that computer friendly yet). But I must say according to all the pictures I've seen and posts I've read I think my plants are doing REALLY good! They are only about 4-5 inches tall but they are all about 9-10 inches wide! (looking down on them) They are working on their 5th pair of leaves so there is only about a half an inch between branch sites. I have no idea what strain I have but the little bugers are sure to be bushy as hell!! I've got 2 rows of 5 plants with 2 4ft tubes RIGHT ontop of each row. I want to start givin them some nutes but I'm a little scared because they look like they are so happy already. I'm a very strong believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Anyway I've never seen plants this short with so many leaves and branches coming out so close together. Can anyone comment on this without seeing some pics??
 

inbudwetrust

Well-Known Member
well I have found that the really bushy plants are sometimes males. Where did you get your seeds? Or clones? you could probably add some nutes start off my using half doses until you get it down. good luck dude
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
5 seeds from really good bag weed, and 5 are from a friend who only gets the best stuff he can find. All 10 seeds sprouted all 10 growing the same rate. But all 10 look the same to me. I know which are which but they do all look the same. Geez if all 10 turn out to be males I'm gonna freak out!!
 

inbudwetrust

Well-Known Member
well they might be hermies, most likely if you have a hermie seed it will be a hermie plant. Odds are 3 or 4 should be keepers, even if they are hermie, you wont know until the end. Its good to practice though, my first really good harvest didnt come until my third grow. You have to just learn. I decided to sack up and buy some good seeds from Amsterdam, this way you know you have a girl. It sucks putting tons of time and love into plants that you have to kill, espcially with CFLS because the grow rate is so much slower. You could clone them all and flower the clones. flower one to see what it is.
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Yeh I'm definately going to buy good seeds next time and probably upgrade the lights too, but I wanted some "practice" before I started throwing to much money into my closet. As it is all I have invested is time. Thank you for your comments!
I'll have to read up on these hermies as I am not familiar.
 

MrFishy

Well-Known Member
Nowadays, any pot with seeds in it will almost certainly show hermie tendencies. This is because no grower would include seeds unless it was futile to remove them. That would cut into his/her bottom line. Grower wouldn't care if seeds were hermie, cuz' hermies generally beget hermies and are thus, little threat to biz.
So, unless you find maybe one single seed in some superior bud, you could be risking a wasted effort. I say "one seed" because the grower might be creating seed on purpose, and may have missed the one you found? This could be a bonus find.
Of course, this "one" seed may turn out to be hermie, too?
Know your source or risk your labor.
 

smokdoughgetdough

Active Member
chek this... all my plants r bushy but i have 8 cfls at the bottom n a 400 w hps at the top in my grow tent, i cant tell the sex yet but theyre lookn lik males does trichromes on the leaves mean ne thing, theyre still in veg stage
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Well... after some research it would seem likely that i am growing hermies. :( Maybe i should buy some seed now and start over. That way i can reuse my soil before the hermies suck all the soil nutes out. Or shud i just grow em out?? If they are hermies will i get anything smokable out of them?
 

inbudwetrust

Well-Known Member
yeah the weed willl still be pretty good, definity get you stoned. I had a batch of hermies once, grew themout and made some really good hash.
 

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Bushy plants tending to be males is false.

If anything it would be the other way around. All professional publications state that it is never very reliable to tell sex by plant characteristics but if you want to try, males usually grow taller and lankier as to grow above the females so they can pollinate easier. Femes also grow larger diameter stalks. Keep in mind though you could have a super bushy male and a lanky female, never know.

As for seeds from bags usually being hermie this is somewhat true and false. A seed could pop up from 1 grain of pollen from a male plant getting on a female. This happens more than you think. Even if there is a seed in the bud because the plant was a hermie and self polinated it doesnt mean the seed is going to grow a hermie. Feminized seeds bought from banks come from hermie plants and usually show around 30% herms.

Dont throw away your plants! Clone them and sex the clones when its possible so you know what you got and what to focus your energy on. Even if they are hermies you can carefully watch the plants and cut off all the ball sacks so the plant doesnt self-polinate. This will still get you high quality seedless bud.
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Bushy plants tending to be males is false.

If anything it would be the other way around. All professional publications state that it is never very reliable to tell sex by plant characteristics but if you want to try, males usually grow taller and lankier as to grow above the females so they can pollinate easier. Femes also grow larger diameter stalks. Keep in mind though you could have a super bushy male and a lanky female, never know.

As for seeds from bags usually being hermie this is somewhat true and false. A seed could pop up from 1 grain of pollen from a male plant getting on a female. This happens more than you think. Even if there is a seed in the bud because the plant was a hermie and self polinated it doesnt mean the seed is going to grow a hermie. Feminized seeds bought from banks come from hermie plants and usually show around 30% herms.

Dont throw away your plants! Clone them and sex the clones when its possible so you know what you got and what to focus your energy on. Even if they are hermies you can carefully watch the plants and cut off all the ball sacks so the plant doesnt self-polinate. This will still get you high quality seedless bud.
Thanks Daisy I appreciate your input. I am going to grow them out. I think I'll take one out and flower it early to see what it does. I was kinda bummed but you made me feel a little bit better about my chances for a decent harvest. Like I said its pretty much practice this time around anyway. I gave them their first nutes today (all but one [for a control]) and I think I'll do some other experimenting with this group too. They sure do seem healthy though. The stalks are real fat and strong and the closet smells really good. :mrgreen: They have got some really fat leaves too, I'm not sure what that means either but...When I figure out how to put up some pics we'll all have a better idea of what I've got growing.

 

Erysichthon

Well-Known Member
hi, those plants look good, in my experience short bushy plants have been female and taller skinny plants were males, this was true with my grow, i just offed my 2 males leaving me with one female. she was the best looking one, short bushy and now shes rockin.the males were tall and thin. by the way. if you just flower one of the plants that will just tell you the sex of that plant. either flower them all or as someone said before clone them and flower the clones. remember which clones are from which plants.

i went another route. i flowered my plant early and took clones from it 3 days into 12 12 when i saw the branches i wanted to axe get big enough. the clones are under a daylight cfl and 24-0 lights to revert to veg. then i grow them and bam they are female :) or at least thats the plan. and now would be a good time to get some more lights. if i read right you only have 4 4ft tubes. maybe i read it wrong but if thats all you got you need more for all those buggers.

Ery
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Thanks Ery, I've got some more lights but the plants are so short there's not really any place to put them. I'm going to try to rig a row of 23W CFLs between the two rows basically lighting up the sides of the plants. That should get some light under those fat top leaves. Tomorrow I'll get a pic of the whole closet, and I'll see what y'all think of it.
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Ok heres the closet today. I've added 2 1600Lumen cfls, 2 1000 short tubes (i know they are weak), and 1 square ring 1200 lumen cfl. So with the 4 tubes I already had I now have a total of 18,800 lumens. Lights range between 1/2 inch and 5 inches away from the plants. The closet is about 3ft wide by 5ft deep. I cant even open the door to it now with out putting some sunglasses on first!!
 

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Looks like a great start to a great grow

If you have cash and are looking for a way to add more light think about this addition:
You could grab 2more 4ft ballasts and use some 2x4s to construct somethng to mount them on (I'm thinking something that looks like a track hurdle. a sturdy base, 2 2x4s pointing up, then another horzontal 2x4 to mount the ballast on). Mount them horizontally and put them on the right and left side of your rows. The plants would love this and if you spun the plants every 1-2 days every part of the plant would be thriving in light.

Does this make sense? haha
 

itsgrowinglikeaweed

Well-Known Member
Thanks for for the encouragement! They're lovin the extra lights I gave em. They're now 5-6 inches tall and have stalks as thick as pencils!
I'm a little embarrased to say it , but there's a few small spots of mold on top of my soil a few days after watering with their 1st nutes. How bad of a thing is that? And NO I'm definately NOT over-watering them. When I first moved into this house I was finding mold here and there on window sills an stuff. Anyone ever have mold problems?
 

[BionicChronic]

Well-Known Member
well the top of my dirty kinda has some white spots.=[ but i had this plant going over 5 months now. so im not sure. and well its normal. just try and take it off with out harming the plant. good luck bro.-Bionic.
 
Top