First Grow: Diary of a "Growing" Obsession

I saw a youtube video where a guy made a ghetto reflector out of aluminum heating duct. You know that 3" or 4" diameter heating pipe thats connected to your hot water heater? Most of that is galvanized steel for code purposes. But they make that same pipe out of aluminum and it's used for bathroom exhaust fans and dryer vents.

Anyway, he bought a piece of that aluminum pipe and used it for a reflector. It's pretty shiny already, but I'll bet you could go to the auto parts store and get some aluminum polish. Couple minutes with a drill, a felt buffing wheel, and some of that polishing compound - you'd have a mirror finish reflector.

You can also buy polished aluminum reflector material from Catalina Aquarium. I use this stuff for my fish tank lights. It's relatively cheap (not as cheap as the pipe) and works great. You just roll it into an arc and slap a few screws or whatever into it. Mount the light and you're shining like the friggin' sun!!

He lists sizes by width. I'm pretty sure the standard length is 12". So his 12" piece is going to be 12" x 12" His name is Jim. I don't know him personally or rep his products. I'm just a happy customer. Been buying my fish tank lights from him for about 5 years.

He has a link on the left hand menu for hydroponics stuff. But here's the reflector material if you're interested.
Link> http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/store/index.php?cPath=71_78_100

Picked up a new stash today, some of it is "hash plant" with a couple beans in it! Updates on those as they come along. I'll take photos of the plant in an hour or so, it's looking good to me!

Sorry for the massive gap in pictures, time to either go on a T break from everything or at least drink less and smoke more, haha. How're the roots looking to you guys?

Haven't topped it yet, don't know exactly where my appropriately sized scissors are, gonna need to sterilize them, and I'm kind of worried about doing anything I don't need to that could damage the plant on my first grow, If I only harvest 10 grams but it's 10 smokeable grams that's just fine for my first time, though of course I wanna get it as large and nice as possible.


When do you guys think flowering might be appropriate? 2-3 weeks? yesterday was her 3 week birthday

i see roots coming out of the bottom i think it's time to put her in a new bigger pot..and she looks droppy as hell maybe you over watered her imo

Those roots are nice and healthy, they are Begging for more room to stretch. You can see at the bottom that the soil is saturated with water which is why she droops. Sooner you repot her the better.. I would let her soak that water up in the current pot 1st then repot. Besides that..you have a perfect little lady.

THANK YOU repotting in 4 hours, 20 minutes


EDIT-didn't notice the coincidence with the exact amount of time till repotting...

update-easiest transplant ever, used about 35-40% perlite (probably 35), a tablespoon of blood meal and a little less than a tablespoon of bone meal, and miracle grow "organic mix"

Edit-in the last set of pictures, picture number 5 where the plant is against the window, there's a brown line in the background that's a hammock. I'mma go smoke an enormous bong load in it. Not related to the grow but my drunk ass thought you guys might like to know, especially poordad, whom I gotta chill with soon and throw down a blunt or something with.

borbor said:

update-easiest transplant ever, used about 35-40% perlite (probably 35), a tablespoon of blood meal and a little less than a tablespoon of bone meal, and miracle grow "organic mix"

Edit-in the last set of pictures, picture number 5 where the plant is against the window, there's a brown line in the background that's a hammock. I'mma go smoke an enormous bong load in it. Not related to the grow but my drunk ass thought you guys might like to know, especially poordad, whom I gotta chill with soon and throw down a blunt or something with.

Click to expand...

I wish I had a hammock! I remember going to my aunts house as a child and chilling on one all the time. It was strung up between two trees for perfect shading.

Your plant is growing nicely! How big of a pot did you transplant her into?

8 inch, I'll put pictures up in an hour or so, thanks!

okay, here's some pics, looks good to me! she gets a healthy dose of sun every day along with the lights.

Doing some thinking, and during the daytime, since I have the ability to put the plant in full sun, should I try to focus on getting as much sunlight as possible even at the cost of CFL proximity, even removing one or two of the CFLs around it so the sun can get through? I'm kind of surprised I don't see more people growing under the sun with a CFL anywhere where there would otherwise be a shadow, seems like you could not only emulate nature but get way better.

Also, hypothetically, anybody have an idea how it'd do and whether or not it'd be easier/more productive to make this a backyard plant?

Here's a few of the baby outside, the last two show a grill lighter next to the plant for size comparisons, and also show the south-facing windows to the room I keep it in usually. As stated above, using all the sun I can, with CFLs whenever I can use both or whatever.

i would top it in a few days, bout he same size i did mine

kind of considering not topping it, just trying a really really basic first grow, but I may top it

Started LST today and she loves it! pics soon

I believe the plant sprouted on the eleventh of may, possibly the tenth, I should have written that down, but if it was the eleventh, today's her four week birthday! how would you guys say she's doing for four weeks?

LST was first administered today about seven hours ago, the pics were taken a few minutes ago. I love the way she responded to LST so quickly, I'm going to see if I can make it spiral upward. This may become a predominantly sun-lit plant, I've been putting outdoors for a bit each day, and before it moved to this setup it was in my house's greenhouse/atrium type room with sun on it whenever it could be and CFLs at the same time. I might take some lights outside with me during the day, so it can get sunlight and the parts facing away from the sun (in shadow) can still get some 6500k cfl light at least. has this been tried and well documented anywhere?


Oh yeah, the fan on the left in the window, do you guys recommend I set that to exhaust or intake? the entire house is well ventilated all the way through, especially this time of year

If she likes it I love it. Good set-up she is just loving life from the looks of things.

Lookin good dude! rep+

thanks! view from where I'm sitting now (lights turned off for a decent pic)


Edit-Apparently this post means I am able to roll a joint! coulda sworn I did that the other day though

here she is, looking pretty good to me, the leaves are drooping a little bit, probably partially related to a light being momentarily dropped on the plant today, I don't think it did much if any damage, it was a split second thing.
I'm thinking about the 21st to put it outside for flowering? longest day of the year, I know it's a little early but you guys think she'd produce more than a half ounce after 5 1/2 weeks veg?