1st Grow

Hello

I have been reading a lot of posts on this site, have found a wealth of information.

I am attempting my first grow. We are 56 days into the adventure, ran 24 hour 6500K lights until 6.7.11 (day 51 with several sets of leafs) I went to 17 Hrs light and 6 dark. .. the next day was 14.5 light 8.5 dark and the next day was 12/12. I planned on doing this slower.. 1/2 to 1 hour after 6 hrs dark but my sister in law passed away suddenly Monday morning and we live 4 hours away. I really felt it was time to flower and needed to put a rush on the dark time due to our 5 day leave from home and having my mother assist me with basic care while gone with the help of a timer.

Here are my basics:

4.17.11
5 soaked seeds and 5 dry seeds placed 2 per jiffy pot (6 pots) w/MG organic herb soil...
Biggest mistake I found with this is obvious.. two per pot.

I was just going to toy with the whole grow thing, thinking that I would have 3-4 babies out of the 9 I attempted... maybe one 'twin'. I got two sets of twins and 3 singles. They were all put in 5 gal buckets with holes drilled for drain except one, ?she? went into a $ store planter with the drain cap etc.

Fast FWD... I ended up separating one of the twins into their own pot b/c it was much smaller then the others, I gave that plant away. Now we have 3 singletons in their own buckets, one still in the planter and one twin in a bucket.

Upon switching to darkness I kept 4 -100Ws and added two 75W 2800K's.

Here are some pics.. as you can see I have evolved their grow area a few times, but basically the same idea... I am waiting for their daylight and I will post some more pics to see if anyone can help me with sexing... Please post any comments, suggestions on what I can do better!!!! Thanks!

Well... they did not post in order.. but you get the idea!!

Bethie said:

Hello

I have been reading a lot of posts on this site, have found a wealth of information.

I am attempting my first grow. We are 56 days into the adventure, ran 24 hour 6500K lights until 6.7.11 (day 51 with several sets of leafs) I went to 17 Hrs light and 6 dark. .. the next day was 14.5 light 8.5 dark and the next day was 12/12. I planned on doing this slower.. 1/2 to 1 hour after 6 hrs dark but my sister in law passed away suddenly Monday morning and we live 4 hours away. I really felt it was time to flower and needed to put a rush on the dark time due to our 5 day leave from home and having my mother assist me with basic care while gone with the help of a timer.

Here are my basics:

4.17.11
5 soaked seeds and 5 dry seeds placed 2 per jiffy pot (6 pots) w/MG organic herb soil...
Biggest mistake I found with this is obvious.. two per pot.

I was just going to toy with the whole grow thing, thinking that I would have 3-4 babies out of the 9 I attempted... maybe one 'twin'. I got two sets of twins and 3 singles. They were all put in 5 gal buckets with holes drilled for drain except one, ?she? went into a $ store planter with the drain cap etc.

Fast FWD... I ended up separating one of the twins into their own pot b/c it was much smaller then the others, I gave that plant away. Now we have 3 singletons in their own buckets, one still in the planter and one twin in a bucket.

Upon switching to darkness I kept 4 -100Ws and added two 75W 2800K's.

Here are some pics.. as you can see I have evolved their grow area a few times, but basically the same idea... I am waiting for their daylight and I will post some more pics to see if anyone can help me with sexing... Please post any comments, suggestions on what I can do better!!!! Thanks!

Click to expand...

that one pic of that fan leaf is huge....awesome. + rep for ya.

p.s what strain?? subd so keep updating..

looking good ... I like it - and welcome to RIU !

p.s. - If you ever need any expert advice just pm me .... and I'll try to find an expert for ya : p

enjoy the site , it's a treasure trove of info ..............

That last picture you have 2 plants in 1 pot? Do you plan on growing them out together? Because that's gonna be really hard to separate with the roots gettin all tangled up. The plants look great by the way, keep em up .

Wow Thanks everyone for the encouragement!

Strain... I have to break it to you all that for my 1st grow I am using bag seed. It was good quality with poor taste from a friend who is a newbie as well and this was from his 3rd crop. I really didn't think I would do well enough to see a result so I didn't want to invest a lot of funds at first or waste precious good quality seeds. As they grew and I gave them some TLC I kept adding lights and necessities.

The two that are together I am just going to leave this time around. If one is male then he shall be sacrificed, if they are both female I will use it as a lesson for future grows.

I don't have a lot of experience with growing anything. A few house plants and tomatoes a couple of times at my sliding door, and some flowers from the store that I toss in my yard every year - that is it. I honestly didn't think two would pop up.

I have just been reading several posts here and various other web sites and using common sense, of course adding lots o' love

Jeff thank you also, I may need to utilize your services!

I am going to take some pics later today, Sundays are busy here! Thanks again everyone!!!

Hey Bethie,
The plants are looking great, keep us updated

so the gurls are now in flower?? this is gonna get very very beautiful, pretty fast. seems like it takes forever to get through veg,then flower always goes by so darn quick,untill the last week of it,then its all over. talk about an emoitional 3 month rollercoaster..

Yes, they are in 12/12 and I am excited to see this transformation! lol, almost obsessed with them!! Last posted pics were from 6.9.11, they are now 5 days into lights out cycle. Here are some pics from tonight... I am not sure if we can see sex here or not but I am curious to see if you all have any thoughts. No joke, I am crazy excited about this..

looks great well done IMO i would suggest re lining your box or room with white milar or what ever they call it this stopping any hot spots from reflections off the wrinkles from your aluminum etc

Looking good! I totally understand your enthusiasm for growing...I think most of us felt the same way on our first grow. It's exciting to see them through the whole process - wait til you see the girls poke out their first hairs... They really do become like your babies that you want to whip out photos to show off. (Don't do that unless it's someone you are absolutely sure you can trust to be discreet. Even though you may be legal, you don't want the wrong people knowing you have something worth stealing!)

It's not clear from pics what you have there yet - the boys will almost always show sex first, so you may see balls within the first week of 12/12. My most recent boy was only 5 days into flower when it was clear what he was. If you don't plan to make seeds, then remove the boys as soon as you're sure of gender (they won't be capable of pollinating the girls for a while, but you don't want to waste your light and efforts on them). If you don't already have one, you can get a great 30-40X jewelers scope on ebay for under $5, so you will be able to check out any preflowers, and later monitor the trichome colors for harvest. If you have questions, I'd be happy to help out any way I can - private message me and I'll get back to you with info or links to where you can find what you need. Good luck and happy growing! -Mandi

mornin,just stopping by, peekin for any new updates or pics...cough cough...

lkymnky77 said:

mornin,just stopping by, peekin for any new updates or pics...cough cough...

Click to expand...

I posted some last night (scroll back to page one of thread)

@ Mandi - I am actually growing in my fishing shanty added some solar/emergency blankets from the camping section to keep the light in. At least until winter. I have an fan that has two blades that run either direction, in and out to push and refresh air. I am gathering ideas for the winter though, I have them in my spare bedroom and plan on sectioning the room off for the different stages.. I think anyway

I am currently using three 6900K daylight CFLs and three 2700K CFL's.. my dad (all of 71 years old which cracks me up!) is also attempting his 1st grow and didn't realize that I am using intentionally using colors, he just purchased a big back of SW CFLs.. they do not specify on the box if they are 2700K.. they look like it when on, but I have no idea. His one baby seems to really like it, are SW's OK or are should I stick to 69 & 27K?

They usually prefer the 6500K range for vegging and the 2700K for flower - but you can use the soft white (I think those are about 3000K) for budding too. Many growers use a mix of both color temps when they flower, and that is just fine if your plants are happy that way. It's the 12hours of light/dark that are telling her to grow buds more than the color spectrum of the light she's getting. For the most part, the more light you can give them, the better they will grow. I have both 6500K and 2700K CFLs and I change them out for whatever stage the plant is in. Since I have enough of either, I have not mixed them in my grows...but there are plenty that do so with good results.

Good way to be resourceful on using the fishing shanty! Lol...you use what you have to save a ton of money. I've gotten lots of stuff at the dollar stores...silver mylar gift wrap film is lining my flower area, white poster boards reflect light for my vegging babies. I use plastic buckets and cans of varying sizes that I've drilled drain holes into - all for a buck apiece! My current 2 girls are budding in nice 2.5gal buckets that have already been through one grow (they'll hold up for quite a few more). The walls of my grow are a heavy duty cardboard box for a huge aquarium (got it for free!) that is papered with the mylar film. You might want to consider something like that for your wintertime grow setup. I know that Home Depot sells cheap boxes if you can't get any big ones for free. Making up some movable walls like that will allow for a very flexible setup that can shrink or grow with the size of your garden. If you start now, you'll have plenty of time to get it figured out and ready for the cold weather growing. If you have room, you may want to convince your dad to build some framework for a pair of movable walls. They could be positioned (using a corner of the room) for an enclosed flowering area, while leaving the rest of the room open for vegging. That way, your budding plants get a 'darkroom', while the veg area can have lights on without interfering with the 'night'.

Sorry about the rambling...lol So cool that your dad is growing too! -Mandi

Read the last post on this page and you will get the idea on what I was talking about with the movable walls setup...

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/151706-uncle-bens-topping-technique-get-166.html

Hey Bethie, nice garden, excellent work for a 1st grow. Very nice plants for a bagseed! I will be watching to watch you finish them up. It is an exciting hobby, also a great stress relief. Got some great growers on RIU and I am always around to help. Mandi is for sure one of them!!! Mrs. Ganja......

Peace

BKB

I love the removable walls idea, I was attempting something like that when I started these 'girls' with some cardboard boxes but went to store the shanty and my original idea was halted. That is exactly what I want to do though!

My parents live next door and it took some time for my pops to believe in lights His argument was simple, people have grown everything outdoors forever with great results, drop it in some dirt, water daily and all will be well. Hmm.. who do you think won that argument? He was taking his one plant in and out all day.. after a month, my babies were kicking his butt!

He then decided to take an old aquarium and made what I call his 'germination station'. His baby was still small enough to drop her right in... he lined it up with foil and one light. Baby took off like crazy! Yesterday he purchased some kind of insulation, it's like bubble wrap with reflecting coating.. looks pretty good I must say. He plans on going much larger after this grow and moving it all to the bathroom in his pole barn (pretty decent size).

My mom was harder to convince about all of this, but she was trumped as her fight was always the it's illegal thing... my dad is my daughters father's caregiver and I am my own ... next thing I know my mom is a frequent visitor to the hydroponics shop in town getting ideas and buying things they don't need to use yet, but they are gearing it up and have much deeper pockets then I do.

Looks like I am the one babbling this morning, I gotta run, babies need my attention, shower and work must prevail. Have a great day everyone!

ugh how much longer till all the good stuff starts...any more progress on determining sex??

It's the weekend Here are some updated pics. I am still trying to see if they are girls... boys... both... I think I can see at least one boy.. I am missing a pic of one of them simply b/c my camera died I may try to use my phones camera.