Dwarfer
Member
Welcome to my first ever grow journal! It's certainly going to be a learning experience for me and I hope others wanting to start their own grow will learn a thing or two from my (hopefully few) mistakes along the way. Here's a little about the setup...
The two strains of choice are Nirvana's Ice and DNA's Lemon Skunk, both feminized. The skunk is a great free bonus that came with the order and I figured the ice would enjoy some company throughout the grow. Together they create a duo I call "Yellow Snow"
To save on cost and for the sake of ease I decided to go with a soil grow, more specifically Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed 4:1 with vermiculite. I read good reviews on organic growing, what with the little microherd in the soil giving the plant roots a helping hand, and FFOF seems to be a great product packed full of organic goodness. I also picked up a couple pounds of worm castings to add to the soil and to brew worm tea with.
The lights I'm currently using are two 42W 6500K CFLs and two 27W 2700K CFLs, all giving off about 9,000 Lumens combined. Yes, I know that's not nearly enough lighting for a full grow but I've got a 150W HPS light coming in less than a day for another 16,000 Lumens within a 2 sq foot area. When the HPS comes the four CFL lights will become supplemental.
The H20 is just regular tap water from the cold pipe (to avoid sediment buildup in the hot water heater tank) treated with an ozone generator pumping into a diffuser airstone to purify and to remove chlorine. I'm not keeping track of PH and PPM levels since soil is more forgiving and I'm trying to keep the cost low. Right now the only nutrients I have are in the form of worm tea I brew for a few days by submersing a teabag made from cheesecloth into water, letting an airstone aerate the water and adding a bit of molasses for the microbes to eat. Soon I will be getting the complete Blue Mountain Organics fertilizer package which includes Super Plant Tonic, Grow It Green, Flower Power and Foliar Harmony. I've read that people get amazing results from using the BMO products and I'm eager to order them for my babies too.
The enclosure they're growing in is a mini greenhouse inside a closet. Ambient room temperature in the room varies between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit while inside the closet it's usually between 75 and 85 with a relative humidity of 30-35%. The planned grow will consist of two plants in a 1'x2' area using the SCROG method. The current light schedule is 24/0 for veg and 12/12 for future flowering.
Now that the details are out of the way I can get to the good stuff Sorry about the lack of early pics, I only recently received a digital camera from a friend so I don't have any pictures of the germinated seeds or sprouts. The seeds were germinated using the moist paper towel method. All split their hulls within 48 hours and were carefully moved over into 2x2x2" rockwool cubes. Within another 48 hours the sprouts broke through the surface and were placed under the CFLs to begin their lives. I started the seedlings in rockwool cubes placed in styrofoam cups and filled with vermiculite to give them a neutral medium to avoid nute burn while still retaining air and water. A week later when the plants showed healthy growth and were producing their new leaves I transplanted the rockwool cubes into the pots mixed with FFOF and vermiculite.
It's been about two weeks since the plants were moved into soil and they have shown no signs of nute burn that some growers report when using FFOF. The lemon skunk plant is doing well but the ice wants to outshine its grow buddy. If I were a teacher judging their performance I would give the skunk a B while the ice receives a solid A. The genetics in the ice plant seem strong and I'm eager to see what kind of beast she turns into. It goes without saying that the ice plant will be used to spawn many more little icicles In this introductory post I've included pictures of the two plants as they are right now next to a lighter for size comparison. I've dubbed the Lemon Skunk "Pucker" and the Ice "Permafrost".
I'll be keeping a detailed journal on their progress as they grow from babies into big, stinky ladies. If you like the look of them be sure to stick around to watch the show
The two strains of choice are Nirvana's Ice and DNA's Lemon Skunk, both feminized. The skunk is a great free bonus that came with the order and I figured the ice would enjoy some company throughout the grow. Together they create a duo I call "Yellow Snow"
To save on cost and for the sake of ease I decided to go with a soil grow, more specifically Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed 4:1 with vermiculite. I read good reviews on organic growing, what with the little microherd in the soil giving the plant roots a helping hand, and FFOF seems to be a great product packed full of organic goodness. I also picked up a couple pounds of worm castings to add to the soil and to brew worm tea with.
The lights I'm currently using are two 42W 6500K CFLs and two 27W 2700K CFLs, all giving off about 9,000 Lumens combined. Yes, I know that's not nearly enough lighting for a full grow but I've got a 150W HPS light coming in less than a day for another 16,000 Lumens within a 2 sq foot area. When the HPS comes the four CFL lights will become supplemental.
The H20 is just regular tap water from the cold pipe (to avoid sediment buildup in the hot water heater tank) treated with an ozone generator pumping into a diffuser airstone to purify and to remove chlorine. I'm not keeping track of PH and PPM levels since soil is more forgiving and I'm trying to keep the cost low. Right now the only nutrients I have are in the form of worm tea I brew for a few days by submersing a teabag made from cheesecloth into water, letting an airstone aerate the water and adding a bit of molasses for the microbes to eat. Soon I will be getting the complete Blue Mountain Organics fertilizer package which includes Super Plant Tonic, Grow It Green, Flower Power and Foliar Harmony. I've read that people get amazing results from using the BMO products and I'm eager to order them for my babies too.
The enclosure they're growing in is a mini greenhouse inside a closet. Ambient room temperature in the room varies between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit while inside the closet it's usually between 75 and 85 with a relative humidity of 30-35%. The planned grow will consist of two plants in a 1'x2' area using the SCROG method. The current light schedule is 24/0 for veg and 12/12 for future flowering.
Now that the details are out of the way I can get to the good stuff Sorry about the lack of early pics, I only recently received a digital camera from a friend so I don't have any pictures of the germinated seeds or sprouts. The seeds were germinated using the moist paper towel method. All split their hulls within 48 hours and were carefully moved over into 2x2x2" rockwool cubes. Within another 48 hours the sprouts broke through the surface and were placed under the CFLs to begin their lives. I started the seedlings in rockwool cubes placed in styrofoam cups and filled with vermiculite to give them a neutral medium to avoid nute burn while still retaining air and water. A week later when the plants showed healthy growth and were producing their new leaves I transplanted the rockwool cubes into the pots mixed with FFOF and vermiculite.
It's been about two weeks since the plants were moved into soil and they have shown no signs of nute burn that some growers report when using FFOF. The lemon skunk plant is doing well but the ice wants to outshine its grow buddy. If I were a teacher judging their performance I would give the skunk a B while the ice receives a solid A. The genetics in the ice plant seem strong and I'm eager to see what kind of beast she turns into. It goes without saying that the ice plant will be used to spawn many more little icicles In this introductory post I've included pictures of the two plants as they are right now next to a lighter for size comparison. I've dubbed the Lemon Skunk "Pucker" and the Ice "Permafrost".
I'll be keeping a detailed journal on their progress as they grow from babies into big, stinky ladies. If you like the look of them be sure to stick around to watch the show
