First Time Grow~DIY~In My Basment

How's it going? I just joined here because RIU seems like a very helpful and chill site full of experienced growers.

Since I discovered a small room in my basement I got the idea of growing some mj in it. I smoke quite a bit and enjoy gardening so it seemed like a no brainer. So I ordered some seeds online about a week ago, but my friend recently gave me 3 plants that he didn't want. So I thought before I try and grow my expensive online seeds I will try to get some experience with some free plants.

I have 3 plants, #1 is about 7"s tall and has been kinda messed up(the leaves were trimmed by someone, but I hope that it can still grow well) and the other 2 are healthy plants about 15"s tall. They all seem to be of the Sativa variety but I could be wrong. My lighting consists of two medium size Flu. tubes for the little girl, and 2 4' eco-lux 40w tubes and a 23w CFL for the 2 big girls. I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil mixed with roughly 15% Perlite for soil. As far as nutes' go I plan to buy some FF Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, and Grow Big. But that may take a week or two.

A Few Questions
When do you think i should start these ladys in flowering??? It seems the big ones are showing small signs that they are female. Do you guys think they have enough light?? Are the pots big enough? They about 1 gallon.

I'm hoping to give periodical updates about every 2-3 days. The main reason I made this post is so some nice growers could spot any problems etc. on the way. So feel free to chime in!

1st PIC: General Setup For Two Large Plants

2nd PIC: Large Plants Side By Side

3rd PIC: Small Wimpy Plant

4rth PIC: General Wimpy Plant Setup

Nobody??? no input?

Hey WAsmoker, Nug here, thats quite a butcher job on those girls! but do not fear, all is not lost. those ladies will make it. they look generally healthy cept 4 those missing leaves & branches. the 1st thing u should do is let them rebound by growin back some of that missin foliage. ur lites r ok 4 now, but later when they start 2 bush u prolly want sumthin better like a 400w m/h / hps combo w/a dual ballast that fires both bulbs. check out htgsupply.com when ur ready. the place is top shelf! ur pots r ok 4 now but will have 2 transplant in bout 3 wks 2 three gal pots. ur soil choice could'nt be better stick w/that & finally i would let em veg 4 another 6 wks 2 develop alot more branches & potential bud sites. just go easy on the nutes & u should b fine. if u need any more help, just ask! just wanna see em happy & healthy ------------ Nug--

Thnx that cleared up alot. I'm gonna have to wait on the lamp though; it would be great to get a combo, i didn't know those existed. But they are just so expensive. It seems my two bigger ones have already developed a pistil on the top and small hairs on the joints(got them this way). So can I still leave them in veg or now that they started to bud a bit do I have to go to flowering?

Here are some pics of the plants pistils (am i using that term properly?).

1st is the right side plant's flower(if it is one)

2nd is the little pistils

3rd and 4rth is just same thing as first two except with left side plant'

(how do i post more then 4 pics?)

ya, those r just preflowers, if u keep the lites on 18/6, then they wont fully start 2 flower until u go 2 12/12. just let em veg like i said. The setup i got from htg supply came w/a switchable digital ballast ,a reflector, a cordset , socket & a 400w hps bulb, & i even talked them into throwin in a free timer all 4 bout 200$

ok thnx those pics didn't upload
Maybe i'll save up enough money to get a hps light, hopefully before flowering

No the pics didn't upload but keep tryin. yeah i would save ur $ & wait till u really need it. u wont be sorry, just get a dual digital ballast, ur girls will love ya 4 it. i would check htg supply just 4 shits & grins they mite have sumthin u can afford now, the sooner the better. keep me posted on this one, im concerned, i wanna see some healthy girls.--------Nug----

The plants seem to be progressing nicely. They have perked up and become more green on the bottom leaves. One thing I have spotted is a couple little mites on the bottom stem and leaves. I hope this isn't damaging the leaves. They might just be left over from the outdoors (that's where my friend had them) because the room i have them in seems pretty bug free. The leaves on the top of the left plant seem kind of weird, hoping they will fan out better in time. the yellow leaves on the bottom have started to turn more green and new leaves on all plants have started. im continuing 18/6 right now

tell me what you think.

Yeah, those leaves look a lil curled 2 me too. what is ur temp & humidity? how far away are ur lites? how often r you watering? sumtimes high heat & low r/h cause them to curl like that. if its too warm in there, like over 80 deg, u may wanna put a small fan in there 2 cool things down a bit, if u dont already have one---Nug----

My temp is if any thing too low. probably low 70's. I'm not sure how humid it is down there but it seems pretty dry to me. But that is how i got them so maybe in time they will improve. Watering every 2-4 days depending on the soil dryness. Do you think I should cut the yellow leaves off the bottom of the plants?

Nah,i would just leave em,if they're dead,they'll just fall off neway, either way no big deal

Things are going swimmingly in the grow room! All three plants are rapidly adding foliage and are looking healthier all the time. I also think it's time to name my plants: The big plant on the right: Ripley. The big plant on the left: Amelia (Earhart). The little girl: Maude.

The little plant has out grown my little shelf so I had to move her under the main fluro. I decided to clip the bottom leaves of Ripley (I didn't see you're comment yet Nug). Lets see here what else is new... oh, Amelia has experienced a flourish of growth on it's bottom and both plants have almost out grown the current placement of my light.

My Feminized Aurora Indica seeds arrived, and i germinated one (I don't have enough room for more now). It only took about a day, then i planted it.

Yeah, dude, sorry bout not gettin back to ya , been busy. clippin the bottom leaves wont hurt nething, the flouro could'nt reach em neway, & they prob would'a fallen off neway! so like i said no big deal. so keep up the good work, they're lookin good & healthy! ----------Nug---

Things are going according to schedule, and all the plants are doing well. My AI seed sprouted also, it is off to a good start. I got the nute's and watered them with 1/4 strength, next time i will go up to 1/2, then full. I'm using the fox farm grow schedule and all three liquids. I'm thinking I should start flowering soon, because if the rule of thumb proves true and these things double in size I may run out of room. I also need to switch Ripley and Amelia into larger pots soon i believe. The upper leaves on both Ripley and Amelia are larger than my hand now. Oh and Amelia was getting heavy and leaning to one side, so I propped her up. tell me you're thoughts!

I noticed this really weird thing today. There is a hole in ripleys main stem. you can see strait through it, it's like a little slit about 2cm long. she still seems healthy though so idk.

Those girls are tall! I had never thought of naming them though. I'm most excited about that AI seed. Your seedling looks to already have a nice thick stem. Makes me wonder if my own lights are too far away. And a hole in the main stem? Like a xacto blade hole or a stress split? Sounds crazy.

How's it going guys? Things have been bitter-sweet in the grow room of late. On the bright side: The plants are for the most part growing well. My AI has continued to grow and is looking healthy. Ripley and Amelia have gotten noticeably taller, the nodes are also much closer since the move inside, and Maude has grown more hardy also. On the bad side: I have noticed very small silver bugs in the soil. They are most noticeable when you water, when they come to the surface. There isn't that many of them and the plants have done great, so I'm not sure if they are affecting them. Furthermore, a hole has slowly developed in the side of Ripley's main stem( I already mentioned this, but now I have pics).

It looks like you may already have some damage to the AI. Maybe nute burn? And that hole is fuckin crazy. But my advice is to maybe wrap it with a piece of ace bandage or something so she doesn't decide to snap over when she gets heavy.

What's up bigchillin, thanks for stopping by. I don't think there is any damage to the AI, it just looks like that in the picture. I havn't even used any nutes' yet anyways. And yea that's not a bad idea, i don't want her snapping in two a week before harvest.