First Grow Ever - White Widow

I'll include here my first grow ever. I'll start off by posting my grow room that I finally got together. I will be attempting to grow 5 seeds of white widow. Using (2) 32 watt fluorescent bulbs for vegging and will have a 400watt hps for flowering. Soil will be Pro-Mix Ultimate organic. Going to try for a 80% soil and 20% miracle grow perlite. Will also be using fox farm nutrients. Open for comments, suggestions, etc.

Closet is 6'x2'x6'5" (to the rack). It was initially only about 5' high but I moved the rack up some more. I covered up the creases in between the closet door with construction grade black plastic and painted the inside of the closet doors white.




Here is the grow room. Have about another day for seeds to germinate. Then it all shall start!

I do have a couple quick questions though. In the picture with the green light, that is a little green light on my extension cord thing. Will this pose a problem when I switch to flowering? It's not that bright of a green light but it's there. Also, is the bucket big enough? It says 12". I have 3 gallon ones as well but I bought these because they are square and fit much better in the closet.

5 seeds germinated. Still waiting for one. I used the plate, moist paper towel, seeds, moist paper towel over that, then plate on top of it all method. They germinated in a day and a half. Have them now sitting under the lights. Time to pray.

I dont think the green light will hurt.. Happy growing

Hi ya

Welcome to RiU


You will be told time and again by many here to " Read "....Take that as advice ... the best advice anyone in your position could get ...Trust me on this .

Its all well and good asking question after question .... But if you dont put some head into it ....people will soon tire of telling you the answers .... So read ... LOTS

Allways keep in mind that people are spending time and supplying knowlage ... Respect that at all times ..and you will be rewarded .

Take your time ...its not a race And Good Luck !



If your worried about the green light ... Duct tape over it

The pots will be fine for later on .... go small durin rooting and early veg stage and then step up ... Be sure you pots have good drainage holes ...and maybe get bigger trays ... the pot dont fit that tray to good...looks like it might split with the waight of soil ?

Tip 1 : Look into ventilation NOW ... coz your gonna need it when your plants start to grow and you switch to bigger lights ....oh ...and to get rid of the smell your plants will make .... They will smell ... belive that


Tip 2 : Cover that carpet with some white plasic sheeting .... Spills happen even with the most carful growers ... Carpet soaked with fertalized water = Mould and all manner of other little problems ... White sheeting will allso refelct light back up to your plants

Im willing to bet $100 that you never cleaned your room down with disinfectent ... Most peope overlook this ... do it now while your room is empty

Whats that Fan doing ? ... looks like your blowing air out of the room ? Brings me to another tip ... Try and discribe what your pics are , Rather than just random pics of wires or Walls


Im subscribing to your journal to follow your Progress

Good luck ... Have fun here ...and again .. Welcome to RiU

Thank you very much Vento! Your post is very much appreciated. At this point I think I have my head wrapped around everything. But then again i've read so many different opinions I get confused again and then have to re-read things. Oh well. First grow so i'm setting my standards low and not expecting much.

I'm totally going to put plastic down on the ground. Was going to do that when I transplant them into bigger containers. Just put the soil into the bigger pots today so i'm ready and the treys hold good. I took them from the bottom of the 3 gallon pots I have (going to use those for my feminized seeds the second time around.) You are totally right on not disinfecting anything. Ha! I shall do that today. I have two fans. One sucking air in from the side closet hole and bottom. The other one is blowing it out the side closet hole and bottom. It's really the best I can do for that closet. Although I will be able to open the doors and such to let a ton of air in for hours if i'd like. I suppose I should probably get an osculating fan as well? At the moment I have (3) odor genie things where I will put one or two in the closet and one outside of the closet when the time comes. If anything else, I'll just spam the shit out of my entire basement or something.

One more question popped in my head just now. How long should I leave the lights on for 16 hours to promote females and then switch to 24/7? Been searching around for an answer but can't find it.


Thanks!!

Planted the germinated seeds this morning and 1 has already sprouted. What a trooper.

As I first start out i'm sure i'll post a lot of pictures. Then once it gets into a groove i'll slow down a little bit. Hahaha. Just so excited for the baby plants.

That was the most easy $100 i ever made

Ok ..I read your post .

Disinfected room CHECK
Plastic Sheeting CHECK
Trays solid CHECK

Ok ...this is the science part

Heat rises .... so a fan in the bottom corner of your room pointing at a hole in the door is just a waste of electric

This is a clip from a post i made today to explain why venting is so vital to a growroom

We supply a nice enviroment our plants to be left alone to grow in , Feeding it ..makeing sure its warm / cold enough ... Being indoors we need to exchange the air in the room ... Using the Lights as the sun ... plants convert carbon dioxide and water into simple sugars and oxygen ... so you need to supply it with Co2 and be removing the warm Oxygen rich air at the same time .... As pointed out HPS lights give off a LOT of heat ... So you need some kind of device to regulate not only temps but allso to bring in new Co2 .

Click to expand...

Do you have any way to add ducting to your room ? ... A 400w HPS ( that you intend to use later ) gives off a lot of heat ( that rises ) having the door open in veg ( Light cycle 16 hours on 6 hours off .... or 24/0 ) is fine with CFL lights ( as long as the off period is totaly dark .... But when you add that 400 W and switch to flower cycle ( 12 / 12 ) you need to have some kind of control over airflow and heat control .

I know how it might look to somone just starting out ....

" maybe i can cut a few corners here and there ... save a few bucks ... Not have to do to much work and i can get by and just wing it ... i dont need all the gear ...im just gonna grow a few plants ! "

I know this coz i thought the same at first , But the more i learned ... the more i seen thats just not case with some things .

Look around this forum ....The stuff people need to grow decent crops ...all the good will in the world CAN'T get you by without most of it ..... Or we would all just be opening doors and hopeing that will be good enough for the plants

Im gonna recomend something your not gonna want to hear ... But its the best advise i would want somone to give me if i was where you are right now ..... Get your plants to veg stage ..... and then get as much cash as is needed to get some ducting ... an extraction fan ... and a carbon filter ...It will pay for its self in your first crop .

If you can't duct your room ( ie make a hole for clean air intake duct and an exaust air out duct connected to a fan and filter ) ... Think about ether boxing your room ( room in a room ) or a tent system fully fitted with all the intake and exaust .

Like i said to the guy today .... if you have your mind set on growing ... you will do it ..and wing it .... and gorw ... something ...

But ... what most of the guys here want you to do is produce quality and quantity ..... So whatever way you decide to play it ....you will produce weed .... How much and how good it is depends on how you filter the advice and use it in practice .

To answer your question regarding light times . Opinions may differ here but hers mine .

Seedlings in a cup ( days old ) 24/0

After a few days you can switch to 18 /6 for rooting and veg period ( i kept my clones on 24/7 for 3-4 weeks )

Flower period 12 /12

Hope this helps ... im sure it will bring up a few questions ... Good Luck

rockdub said:

Planted the germinated seeds this morning and 1 has already sprouted. What a trooper.

As I first start out i'm sure i'll post a lot of pictures. Then once it gets into a groove i'll slow down a little bit. Hahaha. Just so excited for the baby plants.

Click to expand...

Post LOT'S of Pics ... we all LOVE em ..... we can see where you going wrong hehe

Ok do you have then seedlings under a dome or in a propagator ?.... If not ... you might want to put a clear cup ( or a bag ) over them to keep it humid ... Watering is not a good idea ..you may over water ... Humidity is the key ...not water

remove the cup or bag every few hours just to let air in .

You want the light about 6- 8 inches away.. and get closer over the comming days untill its within 3 inches from the top of your baby .

And thats the best i can do with one pic and zero info

Good luck ... keep us posted

Ok I shall post as much pics as possible. Haha. I'm down with that. Didn't want to annoy anyone. Anyways, no dome or anything. I just planted them right away after they germinated and put them under the lights 24/7. Humidity is at 70% in the closet right now. Watered the cups last night before I even put them in there and then watered them again not to long ago after i put them in there as the top was dried already. Not planning on watering them again for a while. If i have to, i'll water with a spray bottle mist?

Looking into the duct stuff. I can do it as I have an over hang type deal from the closet. Although i'm not entirely sure i'm ready to go that far yet. I might just try and make it work the first time and then see what happens. I moved the fan up to blow out to the top as you suggested. Heat rises (duh!) I was thinking of putting the fan on top to blow out so I did like you suggested. I think right now i'll just work it and see what happens. If it just turns out shit this time i'll put some money into some exhaust work.

I really really appreciate you helping me out here man! I forgot to add. The closet is in the basement so it is regularly cold down here. During the winter it will be even colder so I think i have that working towards my advantage.

Here are three that are starting off very well.



This one is taking it's sweet time. The one to the right of it is taking it's sweet time even more.


Just a close up.

I need to water these babies almost every day. The soil dries up pretty quickly. I have a fan blowing a light breeze on them all day.

Here is day six. Looks like they are doing very well. Other two started late so I didn't even take a picture of them yet.

Do you think this one is droopy due to too much water? Light is 2 inches from the plants. I watered them more then I was before a couple days ago. Haven't watered them since.



Here are the other ones. So what do you all think? Are they looking good for 8 days? When do you think I should transplant?

Anyone have any suggestions about the plant with a little droopy leaves? I'd just like to know if it's normal or not. Not entirely sure when I should transplant either. Another week and a half?

I also tore down all the black bags in the closet that covered all the creases. I just put some up on my window in the room to keep the light out. I'll have the entire closet open during the flowering period as to let a lot of air in and out and to keep the heat down. Put a lock with key on the door as well to keep anyone out of the man cave.

Well, all of them are dying now due to the mistake of over-watering one time. Depressing. I'm going to have a whiskey coke in their name. But, i'm not giving up. Going to germinate 4 feminized seeds. 3 white widows and 1 white russian and do it all over again. The ph was at 6.9, humidity 60% and temperature at 64 degrees. I'm sad.