Green Troll's first grow from seed

Greetings to all.

I have decided to write a journal so you can all see my progress and my methods, and hopefully warn me if i am doing anything wrong or if there is a better way of doing it.

Currently i have 1 tent set up, a 4'x4'x6' Secret Jardin with a 400W MH and a 5" fan/filter. I am going to use this as a veg tent for the time being, but it will get used for flowering later on and clones will be taken and grown in a 3'x3'x6' tent which shall be the veg tent from there on. When the plants are ready to flower i plan on upgrading the light to a 600W-1000W Sodium and putting the 400W in the smaller veg tent.

So where am i right now?

Subbed up & ready sir!

Green Troll said:

So now i am patiently waiting for (hopefully) little babies to break the surface and let me know i have not completely failed right from the start.

The seeds are Super Iced Grapefruit (feminized) and i am trying to be realistic in hoping for 1 or 2 of the 5 to sprout. Any more than that and i shall be very happy. Do you think this is a realistic hope? Should i expect more or less? Please feel free to leave your feedback.

Green Troll​

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Glad to see you went with a tent in the end mate Ive got mine & should be getting the rest of the equipment this Friday. Hopefully mate you will get all 5 sprouting! cant see why not

Good luck with this. I will be watching & learning all the way

Well, they have sprouted. 3 of the 5 are clearly visible, the other 2 are just about visible pushing through the soil, so it looks like i have 5 out of 5!

Number 2 seems to be winning the grow race, but he has a helmet on. I am going to leave it a couple of days, putting a single droplet of water on the seed shell to soften it every few hours. I hope the leaves will push this off naturally, however if not, i am going to have to try and help it along.

I am very happy these magic beans have all sprouted, so many thanks to Rhino Seeds and Feminized Seeds for a good product.



I shall keep you all posted on how things go.

BTW that 6th pellet is empty, i just water it like the others so i can stick my finger in it to see how its drying without damaging the plants =)

The shell was clamping the stem of number 2, so i popped it off with a paperclip. It was stopping the first two leaves from facing upwards, so i didnt want it to stunt the growth of the plant. Not sure if i should get a CFL just to give them a little boost at this stage before they get stuck under the 400w MH on saturday.

i cant believe it. 10 hours later and all 5 are up and looking around! the largest is 2 inches tall at least, all 5 look to have 2 healthy pre-leaves, some have started to face upwards. I have put them under a pair of 20w CFL bulbs (1250 lumens each) hoping to keep them happy. They look a little lanky and i dont want them getting any taller just yet, not until the stems get a little fatter, so i have put the lights as close as i can.

For some reason i cant upload images right now, so i will try tomorrow.

I am so happy. Happy all 5 popped and happy they seem to have a lust for growing.

These pics are from last night. They seem a little perky now i have given them some light, nice and straight, starting to develop a nice red/purple tint on the stems, and the leaves are a good strong even green colour. A few have started to curl back their starter leaves while the true leaves are still very tiny, i am not sure if this is normal but i am guessing it isn't a worry.

I am unsure as to whether i should leave the propagators lid on or leave it off for more direct light. The bulbs are very cool, even putting my finger 10mm from the bulb is warm rather than hot, but i just want to give my babies the best chance, so some advice here would be great. Thanks =)

I left the lid off the propagator and have gotten great results. All 5 plants are healthy, have the first pair of spiked leaves now as big as the starting leaves, and the roots have just popped out the bottom (one has gone quite mad with the root and is 3 inches out of the pellet!) so time to pot these babies up tonight. They are all about the same height now, all lush looking, and i cant wait to get them into veg mode. Tomorrow i will update with pics when they are in the tent, in larger pots and hooked up with my automatic watering system (lets hope that works).

Potted them up, set everything up and ready to leave them to fend for themselves for 5 days! Lets hope that auto watering system works out =)



Very hot day today, and the temp has only gone up to 27 degrees. Humidity looks optimal, although i expect that to drop slightly when the potting tray dries out. The fan is doing an excellent job of cycling the air, the negative pressure is so high, it is sucking in the sides of the tent.

I have given my girls a bit of support in case they decide to wilt while i am away. they have just started to sprout the second set of true leaves. By friday, they should be in veg mode and start growing again once the root system is established. The pot size might delay it a bit but we will see. I plan to veg these a couple of extra weeks, get an idea of which is going to be the strongest of the 5 and pick my mother plant.

Running 24/0 cycle for now, next week i will cut down to 18/6. Feeding with pure bottled water until we get some rain, then it will be rain water.

Please feel free to comment.

looking great

just checked on them and they have cranked up to 29 degrees. who would have thought being too hot would be a problem in England, huh? Going to check later tonight see how they are holding up.

well last time i saw my babies, they were at a cool 22 degrees and it has been 5 days since i last saw them. i will see them again tomorrow, and i have no clue what i am going to find. either they are going to be starting their vegging stage, or they are going to be dead =( fingers crossed for the auto watering system working.

i have a rain water collection system going so my girls will have the most natural water possible (cannot afford to keep buying bottled water hehe) but we havent had much rain lately.

i cant wait to get home tomorrow and see how they have progressed.

Me too, post some pics if you can.

Sorry, forgot to post xD

I got home and my babies were fine. One is a runt =( but she perked up nicely. Looks like a moth had a chomp on one of her second leaves though. I have taken them off the sticks, standing nicely on their own, but i think the pots are a bit too big so they havent grown that much. Should have nice roots though and hopefully they will spring up. Anyway thats how they were monday (4 days ago) and i get back to them tonight, so i will see how things are.

I have a water butt set up, which is full thanks to the crazy weather here, the auto watering system is working like a dream, although controlling nutes is going to be a nightmare. So i am just going to under nute them. If i get a smaller grow because of it, so be it. Will be more of a natural taste hopefully anyway =)

I will definitely take pics tonight and update you all.

See you soon!

UH OH!

Came home to find my poor girls curling leaves and a tinge of yellow! Immediately noticed the culprit of this abuse. Dry soil! The auto water system failed me, but i found out why.



The little tube that is pinched shut by the sensor when the soil is moist didnt open up when it was unpinched. I pulled the tube out of the sensor to find a flat spot, and when i squeezed the sides, it "popped" open and the water flowed. Now i thought why didnt this happen before when i left it for 5 days last time, it watered just fine, and this time, since the plants are a TINY bit bigger, they should easily be requiring water just as often.

Then it hit me.

The tank i use was originally elevated about 8 feet from the ground. Now hauling 30+ litres above your head in an open tank with electrics around...not smart! So i left it on the floor. I am thinking perhaps with the tank not being elevated, there was less pressure. So i stuck the damn thing on a chair and hoped that would do.

Just to make sure as well, i have reduced the tightness settings on the sensors from 2 notches tight (as per the manufacturers recommendations) to 1 notch tight. Hopefully this wont put as much stress on the tube and force it closed to the point it sticks closed. I am sure the coco and light can take care of any over watering. We shall see. All trial and error and such.

So as you can see in the pics (i need to buy a better digital camera, the focus is shocking) the girls are looking a little droopy and yellowed. But i gave them a good watering and they should perk up by tomorrow.

This is now 3 weeks after the seeds first touched the soil, and about 2 weeks since they popped. Any comments are welcome.

3 weeks old and disaster has struck =(

I am actually quite upset.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/536263-yellowing-brown-spots-young-seedlings.html

I checked my plants this morning after cutting back damaged leaves, and while they dont look much better, they certainly dont look worse. Im hoping the new leaves are large enough to support the plant. My PH levels have gone from 8.7-8.9 right down to 5.8. I have flushed the pots every day to try and get the bad water out, and i have put the lights back on to 24/0. If they havent improved by friday when i get home, i think its time to call it a day, chuck the plants, scrap the coco and the auto watering system i have, and turn to hydroponics.

And this time i will check the damn PH from the start. Might change strains while i am at it too. We shall see.

Well, they survived, and are looking good. i am happy that the little champs pulled through my neglect, and 2 of them have turned a nice deep green colour. The veg growth has been explosive since then, and cant wait to see how they look when i get home friday =)

Well a nice surprise when i got home to find they are looking ok, bit more leafy, and my PH levels didnt rise much in the week either. Luckily i checked the calibration oh my PH tester though, it was showing 0.5 higher than it actually was.

Anyway, pics of my 5 girls!



As you can see, the first and last are looking a bit greener than the others. But they sure as hell look better than they did 2 weeks ago. I am not sure if they should be a bit darker in colour at this stage. Maybe someone could let me know?

It is strange because the first and last were actually the worst affected by my PH neglect and i was sure those two would be the first to die. Specially the last pic, she looked like a dry leaf!

Anyway, we learn by mistakes. I just hope i am as lucky with the next one i make =)

Hope all is going well for the rest of you. I will update again soon!