CFL Grow L.A. Confidential

This is my second attempt at doing a journal. The last one was a futile attempt with bagseed. Litterally a roll of the dice.

So here's the run down. I'm going slow, not in a real hurry. My intent is simply to grow the best quality stuff as inexpensive as I can. This is a mostly organic grow. I say mostly, because I still have FF Grow Big and Tiger Bloom left over. I hate to waste money, so I'll use it up. Going forward, I have a compost bin outside as well as a worm bin inside.

I'm starting in 16 oz recycled cottage cheese containers. I've drilled probably 100 holes in the containers to turn them into air pruning pots and allow drainage. The soil mix is FF Happy Frog with about 20% worm castings added. For water, it comes out of the tap. I let it sit for 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate. Then I run it through my filter pitcher to pull the solids out. My last grow, early on had pH issues until I started filtering the water. As for lighting, I'm vegging under 125w of 6500k CFL. I'm not certain what I'll flower under at this stage.

I put one in soil last night. It's under the light now. There will be pics soon, probably tonight. One more thing for now. If you have constructive stuff to say, or questions, feel free to post here. We're all one big happy learning family right?

A few days have gone by and that first seed hasn't germinated. One of the bag seeds I had sprouted, actually before I started the journal. She (karma) is literally growing like a weed. The seed came out of some decent smoke, so why not?

As I'm trying to figure out the best/most foolproof method for germinating I planted more seeds today using a different technique. I used some pellets that expand when you add water. They're coco coir, based on appearance and feel. I did the normal soak the pellets in pH adjusted water. Next I inserted the seeds, pointy side down into the hole. I used tweezers as I've heard handling the seeds by bare hands can be bad. The pellets are in a mini greenhouse on top of a heating pad.

Into the greenhouse went one L.A. Confidential, one Dinafem California Hash and one Dinafem Diesel.

I'm fairly certain that first seed will germinate as it's only been a few days. I've read a bunch on germinating and I'd just prefer to let Mother Nature's method do the work, within reason.

Hey Yeah Right, I heard many people just throw the seeds in dirt and let nature do its thing. I use the paper towel method and my seeds have always germinated. It takes about 3 days using this method. It sounds like you got a sound plan for this 2nd grow. I use CFLs for veggie (6500Ks) and 150w HPS for flowering. I'm on my 2nd grow too, I'm growing 2-Master Kush regular seeds and 1-Auto Blue Mystic. My auto is in the Auto Flower Mortal Combat Competition, check out my JONI "WARRIOR DESTROYER" https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/419988-auto-flowers-mortal-combat-competition.html

Sounds good YR, im on my Grow myself using CFLS and its going great. Got pics coming?

That first LA Con I planted has popped the surface. Waaaaaayyyy to early to tell if she'll make it, but I've got faith. She hasn't unfolded yet to extend her little initial leaves.

Ok, here are the first pics. The larger of the two plants is the bag seed. They'll get watered tonight. I'll probably go ahead and throw in Oregonism XL and blackstrap molasses in to get the root zones fired up.

Any thoughts on Hygrozyme?

Last night both seedlings got watered. I used about a quart of water between the two plants. I added 1/2 tsp OregonismXL and about 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses. The soil mix is pretty light so It drains rapidly. The added holes in the side of the cups add to the ability to O2 to the roots. The drawback is figuring out how many days between waterings.

The second LA Confidential popped overnight. The seed hull was hung up as it didn't split apart far enough to drop it. I figured the plant wouldn't make it either way. I rolled the dice and in trying to get the hull off, the initial leaves came with it. The little stem is still reacting to the light, maybe it will sprout leaves. I doubt it, but who knows. The other two seeds that were planted are in the process of unfolding themselves. It's so cool to check back every few hours and see the little girls making progress. The first LA Con was stretching a bit due to the light being raised for the bagseed with a 10 day head start. She's been elevated, I put her on an upside down bowl. Miss bag seed is doing fine.

As of this morning, every single planted seed has germinated. The Dinafem Diesel is looking a little beat up from her journey poking through the soil. The California Hash is looking fine. They'll get placed in bigger cups tonight. In review, I've got one of each, LA Confidential, Diesel, California Hash and then there's Miss Bag Seed. The LA Con that didn't make it will go into the worm bin to be a part of the next crop.

The Diesel and Cali Hash have been placed in bigger pots. I had to put a big piece of foam under them and still use the bowl to try and get all of the plants equal height. It's amazing how much the little fuckers grow in a couple of days.

This is the Miss Bag Seed at 12 or 13 days. The node spacing isn't really as tight as I'd hoped. But......there's quite a bit of secondary branching going on.

Things are moving right along. Slow for me as I read through harvest reports. Here are some pics. Everyone likes pics right? LA Con is 5 days old. The 2 Diesel and Cali hash are 2 days and Miss Bag Seed is 14 days. The bag seed plant got pushed a bit outside optimal light. I did that to hopefully slow it down just a bit, so the others could catch up.

After work, I decided it was probably about time to repot Miss Bagseed. Add to that, I really wanted to see what the roots looked like. She's at day 16-17. She's stretching because she's not the main focus of the lighting. I figured the roots would look decent due to the amount of foliage. I put her into a 2 gallon Smart Pot. The soil is still FFHF with worm castings added. She was fed with one quart of plain filtered room temp water. When she recovers, I'll start feeding her and top her. Not sure of the order on that yet. The topping will also allow me to practice cloning. We're also going to be playing with LST. All of this practice on the bagseed versus screwing up a plant of good genetics that were paid for. There are pics of the other girls too.

Any comments? They look good to me, but I'm pretty much a rookie. Knowing the root ball and canopy size are tied together, do the roots look good for 16 days with less than adequate lighting? My point being, the other plants should be doing better as they get more light.

Fed all of the smaller girls this evening. The soil was pretty dry due to the fan being on. One quart of Filtered water with 2tsp Oregonism XL and 1/4tsp blackstrap molasses. I split that between the three of them and a pot of dwarf sunflowers I germinated. My Diesel girl is quite the little runt. I'm pulling for her. It'll be nice to grow a sativa dominant strain to offset the two indicas. LA Confidential, I've got a feeling is going to thicken up like a little body builder in here. Cali Hash is doing good. The plan is to top Miss Bagseed tomorrow evening. I'm going to top for 4 colas. The cutting will go into a mini greenhouse to root. She's really starting to thicken up. Secondary branching is coming in. It won't be long and I'll get greedy and hang more lights. I figured the 125w CFL would be good to veg with. And it's doing a fine job on the plants that are the same size. Miss Bagseed was a late bloomer. I'd really counted any of those seeds in that planting out. So, I need to spread out the lighting footprint. I've got 3 parabolic reflectors and 3 off the corkscrew CFLs. Two are 68w and one is a 42w. They're 2700k and I used them exclusively my last grow. The results weren't spectacular.....but decent quality bud. It was a stepping stone.

Just a photo update really. Miss Bagseed isn't looking so hot. I'm thinking it's a combination of things. Light and still stressing over the repotting.

Ok, I didn't realize it had been this long. I cut Miss Bagseed down. First off she wasn't doing so hot after the re-potting. That's mainly my fault due to lighting. Secondly, I'm fairly certain that she was really a he. The preflower indicators sure looked that way. Add to that, the purchased seeds are growing with so much more vigor, I was feeling bad about moving the light around. The 2 indicas are doing great. The LA Confidential is just blowing up. The Cali Hash is doing great as well. The Sativa dominant Diesel is a bit slower. All the girls got watered tonight. I added 1 tsp of FF Big Bloom to the filtered water along with 1 tsp of molasses. This is the first feeding with any sort of nutrient added so I'm taking it really easy. LA Con is supposedly a heavy feeder......We'll see.

Two things though. Can anyone tell me if the slight discoloration in the leaves of the LA Con is bad? Got any ideas? Under the light it's a yellowish color. In the pics, it's more of a lighter green.

Secondly, any thoughts on Ceramic Metal Halide lights?

I'm really surprised that I'm not getting any feedback.

Keep it up! I am gonna follow this. i like the la con its looking great!

I'll be watering the LA Con in a little bit. She's really using the water up. The other two, can wait another day, maybe two.

I'm still curious about the discoloration on the LA Confidential's leaves. Have any of you seen anything like this? She seems to be doing good and hopefully I'm just being paranoid.

I transplanted all of the girls today. The indicas went into 2 gal smart pots. The Diesel went into a regular 1 gallon plastic pot. I only had 2 of the smart pots and the nursery was out. The light I'm using is really too small now. It's just not large enough to cover the 3 plants in the bigger pots. Also, it's raised up a bit in the pics, for the pictures. I lowered it as soon as I took the pics. I'll try and get a buddy to take the Diesel as she's going to be quite a bit taller than the other two. That way it will be easier to keep the canopy the same height in flower. They were fed after the transplant. One quart of water split between the 3. In that was 2Tsp Big Bloom, 1tsp of Grow Big. 5ml of Hygrozyme, 2Tsp of OregonismXL and 1tsp of molasses. The roots on all 3 looked great, but I only took pics of the LA Con's. The other two the soil was super loose and a real challenge to get into the pots. I also added Roots Organics soil to the pots. I used the rest of my FFHF planting rose bushes outside today. The slight discoloration of the leaves on the LA Con.....I'm guessing maybe a Nitrogen deficiency? That's the main reason I added the Grow Big. Plus they a couple weeks old with enough nodes to take a reduced dose. When the recover from the transplant, topping and LST will commence.