My first grow..MMJ Patient. Attempt #1...started w/ only 1 T-5 HO 8 bulb unit

Hi Ya all..I hope I am starting this correctly, but posted 2x asking how to do a grow journal with no replies. So I am winging it for now.
I'm a 1st time grower, zilch for experience (except tidbits I have picked up from these forums.)
I had a 9x11 room to use for this so I began by using panda film to split the room into equal (so-so) sections. Behind the zipper is my enclosed area for budding, which I am currently using for vegging since I don't have plants I feel are ready for the flowering.
My first purchase was a sunblaze 4' T-5 HO 8 bulb unit, which I was told contains I think 54 watt each bulbs ( had all 8 lamps in the blue spectrum the first 2 weeks but wasn't seeing any amazing growth, so I added 4 red spectrum bulbs for more balance and saw a change, increased growth within a couple days.Then I added a 1,000 watt HPS lamp(belongs to a friend) to the mix until the 2-600 watt MH/HPS units I ordered arrive.
So I started out with a Northern lights and a Romulan x grapefruit plant that was in such dire shape they shouldn't have been sold to me at a disp.
After nursing them a week, the NL died a bad death after much neglect (it was chopped so bad when I got it, like they had taken 12 clones from it then just sold it w/purple stalk and tiny leafs all pointing upward (hey, they SAW me coming a mile away, and apparently knew I didn't know any better. And next I added 5 new clones to my collection, 2-blue rhino, 2-Jack Frost and 1 NYC Diesel.
Of those 5..the NYC D upon transplanting to see why it wasn't growing I noticed had only 1 root! And it just popped off so easily I barely moved the surrounding soil during transplant, so I made a new 45 degree cut, dipped in rooting powder and threw it in a bubble cloner with 6 clipping of ICE.
So..now I have the Rom GF in recovery, it has finally started growing again and I would say even though she was a thick stalked horizontal only branch plant, she's really filling out with lots of new growth.
Oh and I need an experienced eye, of the 5 clones I received, none were labeled, so now I have 4 plants on the table, 2 of each strain, based on them looking identical in growth (one is verry bushy, so bad all the new growth under the canopy is coming in bent/twisted.) other is bushy as well, but about 3-4" behind her sister, think I shocked her with giving her nutes right off the bat when I had soil I didn't know had so many amendments I really didn't need any fertilizers for 3-4 weeks (Roots organics formula 707)
I found my plants holding too much water with this mix,(and getting nute burns) so to my 6 sq yards I added 2 smaller bags of vermiculite to aerate better, and now I give the pots a good squeezing after watering to get 02 down to the roots so they aren't water logged...and I stopped over watering, which I guess is a common newbie mistake.I stopped any nutes x 3 weeks so they could use what was in the soil mix.
Then they started growing better.
My clones in the DIY cloner/bubbler are going on day 14 with only 2 showing a tiny root, high (1") above cutting.
It is a 3 gal pail w/ lid, much like a 5 gal paint container, with 6 holes in top for net pots, inside I put the clippings into neoprene cloning pucks, and pushed down into pot until stem was slightly submerged (I scanned these forums for 2 days trying to figure out if they could sit above the water, or should be in it..found a thread on this an read up..so went with about 1/4" submerged in the PH adjusted 3 drops of super thrive added (1 per gal)bubbler.
I am getting unimpressive results with this cloning method, I did have 3 root for a friend who is also a MMJ patient who needed clones..they popped in 4-8 days in root riot cubes in a dome, but were a predominantly sativa, I am wondering now if type of genetics determines speed of cloning?
Ok, so until my new hydro unit arrives, I just ordered a 12 site ebb & grow unit with a 6 pot expansion set, for 18 sites.I am psyched to set it up and get some baby girls into it!
In a few days when earlier mentioned friend renews her certification, I will be growing 30 plants!
At that time I can add 2 more 6 pot expansions to the ebb & grow for a total of 30 sites.
But until after these are harvested, I will try to get these into flower..I planned originally to start 12/12 this week, but the plants just aren't as tall as I'd like to see them before vegging.
Tallest 2 are 11-13" but are still shooting out with a lot of new growth sites..so I will wait.
One question I have is when my 2 600 watt units arrive, should I go strictly with 2 600 watt MH along with my T-5 for veg? Or can/should I leave the HPS 1000 on them too?
It's ok to use HPS in veg, correct?
Was not in the original plan so I am flying by the seat of my pants here...
Seems the consensus is a 1,000 watt will cover an 8x8 area, plenty right now for all the girls to be under, and I put the T-5 vertical so it is getting hit with that light from the sides, and I rotate plants several time a day so they get even spectrum's.
Hope I am doing ok so far..
My one clone that was 3-4" behind her sister from stunted growth is finally getting busy, but with this strain, soo much energy is being used by the plant to build an almost intimidating network of branches off of branches off the main stem, to the point I couldn't see what was where, so I found a thread on thinning them a bit, and did some snipping of the 3rd gen branches (these 2 bushy girls already have 4+ cola areas from utilizing FIM.
So this is where I am at, I have the first set of pics when I got them..and took more 2 days ago..and I will update every 2-3 days if there is much going on.
Thank you for your time.

Here are most recent pics taken just now...I have a big bushy indica(pic # 3) that I am also unsure of the strain, anyone...look familiar?
Thanks for any help you can provide!!
Peace

I have fox farm nutrients, but even starting w/ 1/4 strength I was burning everything, so I backed off and just gave them nutes today for the first time in a couple weeks, prior to that was using plain distilled h20 with 1 drop a gallon super thrive (has realllly helped them develop huge root systems, which was a problem before, now they've all gone from 3" pots, to 2.5 quart pots, to the 3 gal pots when I saw roots in the bottom holes.
See in the 1 pic, I also make wine, and the only co2 I have are what is coming out of the 2- 7 gal carboys, also have done the warm h2o w/ yeast and sugar and let it sit in front of the fan.

wow, 44 views and not 1 reply...can someone please chime in w/ their opinion...I promise, I don't bite!! (hard)

They look real nice man. Maybe a tad bit overwatered. Look a lil droopy. Back off on watering. When u use fertilized soil u don't need to give much nutes in veg.

Water by pot weight. It will feel really light when dry

Hey lost, yes, I was over watering..a friend whose grown for 20+ years had these pots she let me use...they are 4 gal with holes cut on each side of the bottom (along with reg drain holes) then 5 gal buckets from home depot..she runs a wick of cotton material about 6" wide by 14" long, which run across the bottom of the soil pot,then it dangles down into the 5 gal pot where the nutes/h20 are..have you heard of growing this way?
It's new to me..but the pots are staying much lighter now..each transplant I waited until the roots were coming out the bottom, and she told me this way the roots will chase the water/nutes and take what they need?
She grew that long and never had a PH meter, lol..never had any problems.
My water is from a well and runs around 7.48, and I had been watering/giving nutes with this, until I saw on the fox farms feeding schedule to keep the PH between 6.3-6.8 to avoid nut lock out..so now I add nutes then get my PH in that range..but I am lost as to what the plant is telling you, if say your nute/water mix is 6.8 and the run off in the bottom is like 6? (have 1 plant that was doing this today.)
I am struggeling, man..lol..everywhere I am seeing pics of these monster plants that grow several inches a day, mine have gained maybe 1-2 all this week, I am missing 1 of the bottles in the fox farm nute line (grow big) as the store was out when I picked up the stuff, and all 3 bottles I have, Big bloom (0.01-0.3-0.7) (kangaroots(0.8-0.1-0.03), microbe brew (1-0.2-0.03) and the crystals open sesame (5-45-19)<<--- been adding a bit of this when I do feed because the N,P & K seem so low on the others, it's basically like just giving them water.
And everytime Ive used the 3 liquids for a feeding (2x) I get burnt leaves, and other signs that they aren't happy.So mostly when I water it's plain h2o with a couple drops super thrive.
Almost half tempted to get some miracle grow 4 tomatoes for this time until I can get different stuff, I don't like the FF nutes, they stink and my girls do not seem to like them.
A guy in a collective here told me today he uses this organic line (house and garden nutrients??) Have you heard of them, they are from Denmark I guess from what I read..and it's a more user friendly 2 part nute for main feedings, they have a lot of extra stuff, like root accelerator, bud bloom stuff, which he recommended and in 5 yrs has have zero problems...and he gets 2-3 inches over night most days, and grows 7-8 foot trees..I'm getting a batch of clones from him and I told him if he would keep them an extra week or two, I'd be more than happy to pay extra, but he said no, the 10$ donation was fine..
Oh and as if things weren't bad enough, I was sooo excited yesterday to realize 4 of my 7 clones in the DIY bubbler have popped tiny white spikes(finally on day 14!!), no change since yesterday, however, and when I just checked them, the stems dangling in the water had a slimy crap on them, hope they aren't shot now They were ICE and their moms and sisters sure were gorgeous!!
I did add a capful of h2o2 hoping I wouldn't have to change the water till they were done, but instead I got slime..
Thanks for the input, and sorry for my long winded reply but have been dying to get someone replying so I could pick their brains, lol.
Be well and thanks again!!! I will add a pic of each plant tonight for comparison, but I do believe I am starving them to death

OK..well I am going to put up some side by side comparisons, have not been at all faithful about posting, but life happens..
I read soma's book and now I think I am reading the plants better, and am getting dialed in on what each likes.All a newbie can hope for!
I did a mix of my original lights, I was running just a T-5 HO 8 bulb 4' unit with alt red/blue spectrum bulbs, to that I added a 1000 watt MH, then said wow look at the growth so I got a second (way overkill for the size of the room perhaps) It is 8x6, so now all my "bigger" plants are under MH, and the recently rooted clones are under T-5.(as well as my mystery seedling-non-seedling that popped up out of the soil in my afghooey plant.
The first pics are the blue rhinos x 2, of course one is growing much faster, but both have grown 6+ inches the past few days.

OK..so here is the unknown strain, a bushy indica from the dispensary, can hardly tell it's the same plant except that huge bifurcated tree trunk of a stem..

All the plants, sorry I have a really hard time seeing the thumbnail views so doing side to sides isn't so easy

Hey Newwb

Lots of pics to view that is for sure

They all look pretty well for their growth stage IMO. I too am growing in soil for the first time, and having somewhat of a hard time in dealing with the watering aspect. I go by how they feel in weight, light or heavy, and really go from there. My (4) girls received their bath (3) days ago, and so this morning I will take a peek and see how they are doing.

In the meanwhile, keep up the good work, and the very best of luck in your grow(s)

Happy Holidays !!

The MaineYankee

ok..it wasn't viral..it was a newb mistake...I ended up "killing" whatever it was when I transplanted it, so it never got past the 2 roundish leaf size.
As for the member above saying "he called BS" because I was using 2,000 MH..one was a friends who wasn't growing, and like everything else, I have gone way overboard with my first grow.
Out of my original plants, I think I have 3 of the originals left, they have survived my over watering, my poor soil choices,my heavy ish use of the 3 different lines of nutrients I have purchased,(not at the same time..) etc.
When I say something is pricey, sure I am on a budget and don't have unlimited funds, but I did use a chunk of money I had come in from my injury and I invested in some more "stuff" for my grow.
I bought my own 1,000 watt HPS ballast, econo model, think the hood w/ glass, ballast and bulb together ran under 300 bucks.
I am using a 68$ MH conversion bulb, and the other 1,000 watt ballast and hood are in my laundry room for right now, as I only have 4 bigger plants and 7 seedlings I ordered from Nirvana, 5 fem. ICE and 5 Fem. Bubblelicious.
And for Christmas I did order myseld the CAP ebb and grow system, comes with 12 pots, and I bought a 6 pot extension,. since I can legally HAVE 15 plants, seemed wise to go with my max..ok so after a month of it just sitting all over my dining room in boxes, I finally had insomnia/pain very bad one night and tried putting it together, which was a bit intimidating..I can see now why the one ebb and grow journal I have viewed the man hard plumbed the thing with pvc..my first "live run" I flooded my room,those 1/4" flex stuff it comes with have been in tight "rolls" so long, it easily becomes unattached from the buckets at the slightest movement,luckily I had laid down panda film, white side up for extra light reflection.
Ok so mess cleaned, I still am not running the "res." because I didn't yet have a meter to test TDS..ok, bought one yesterday, and tested it on a few of my nutes, and also my tap water, which read 50, I guess that isn't bad?
But then I looked at the foxfarm feeding schedule, which according to it, I should be feeding my seedlings already..(I added what it said, checked the TDS and it was like 1700!! Glad I read somewhere NOT to feed them until they have their second set of leaves, is this correct?(planted the 10th about 3 am, they all were popped the 12th, with the exception of 3 of the ice seeds, which only developed tails, then gave up..left them in the germinator an additional 8 days with no change, others that I germinated in perlite had long 3-4' roots with multiple shoots by then..I transferred them, carefully to rock wool, and tossed the 3 that didn't develop.
So now I have 7 babies, a TDS meter, I have them in the buckets with hydroton, but am hand watering for right now, 3 of the bubblelicious are just now at 1 week getting 2nd set of leaves..
I have another grower that had me convinced I had a bug problem and thats what killed most of my first batch of clones, I think I just got crappy clones.I have treated with azamax the required 3x in a month, I use neem oil 1x a week as a preventative measure, as I have NEVER seen a single "bug" of any sort on any of my leafs. I even got one of those small 80x magnifiers, which was what made me think I had bugs to begin with, as most leaves had these tiny clear and white bubble looking things, which one one webpage id'ed that as mite eggs..another web page I read yest. said its just triches early on...as with everything in growing, different person, another opinion..I don't know what to think.
So now I think I will ask my son in law to plumb my ebb and grow with PVC pipes, and do it in a way it all lays out under the 1,000 watter, if possible, though if I do get to the point I have 15 plants, have read I will need that 2nd 1,000 watter.
And of course, after I already purchased this ebb and grow (found it the cheapest online for 390.00) I saw they now offer one with 5 gallon buckets instead of these small 2-3 gal ones.
If I do want to go bigger, however, at 11.50 each for the outer and inner bucket, I would buy a slew of home depot 5 gal buckets and just have the holes drilled, so much cheaper.
But for my first rodeo, I'll see what I can do with what I already have on hand.As I am into my almost 3rd month of this, I have already spent more on this than it would have cost to keep me in weed for years!!!
So, I have the complete line from foxfarm for the remaining plants that are in soil, I also have bought the Lucas formula stuff, the GH micro and bloom only for use in my hydro unit..once the babies start needing nutes and using a bit more h20 I'll plug the unit in, I guess it kind of intimidates me now that it almost flooded me out..so right now 2 babies are under the T-5 HO, and 5 are under the MH, at a great distance, all seem to be more or less equal in size, with the bubbleicious seeming to grow faster than the ice does, (is developing more leaves faster) ok so now for pics...3 of the plants I was going to start flowering ( I did 12/hr them for 4 days until they showed sex) until something destroyed half their leaves, not much left after pulling off the ones that were burnt, wilty, etc..my one "bushy" plant of unknown strain (obvious indica) seems impervious to my over attentions and keeps bouncing back and has many new growth areas.
I am posting pics of the ones still giving me bad leaf problems, now that I am done over watering and over nute-ing, I decided to keep them on 18/6 and try to get them putting out more foliage, I bought roots organics oregonism xl..has a mass of good bugs, hopefully get those roots growing healthy again so it can look healthier above the soil..(all of the plants that I have killed off, basically had tiny roots for the size plants they were, and apparently I did this by over watering)
Now that I feel I am on track I will be updating regularly.
Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions/comments/critiques. (I do know I am long winded..)
And I'm not a guy, lol.

What a difference a day makes, see this kind of growth is what I NEVER got to experience with all the buggy disp. clones...I'm thinking I am a seed-only gal from here on out!

Anyone have any idea what may be wrong with bubbleicious#4? She looks a bit tethered, foliage is thicker,a bit crooked..this was prior to her ever having nutes(except a couple ml/litre of clonex per foliar), so starting the 1/4 strength hopefully will work that all out. doesn't look as happy as the others...I decided last night I would start them on nutes, am using lucas form @ 2ml/4ml/Gal (1/4 or around 480 ppm)
My Cap ebb and grow "brain" doesn't seem to be working,or I have it hooked up wrong...I am not very mechanically inclined.. isn't filling and draining properly, this isn't good!
Any ideas...think I will hand water/nute until I get it sorted out..how long can I hand water them..until the roots are coming out the bottom of the 4x4 rockwool?
I wish the instructions weren't shorter than my local burger joints take out menu...not a LOT of info there..
Another day...too many dollars spent.
All the adult plants died as a result of my desire to invigorate the soil and help the roots grow bigger, I spent 20 bucks on Oregonism xl...WOKE UP AFTER LIGHTS ON AND ALL OF MY PLANTS FOLIAGE ENDS (AND SOME WHOLE LEAVES) WERE THE SAME DARK GREY GUN POWDER'ISH LOOKING COLOR AS THE OREGONISM XL STUFF...i DID WHAT IT SAID, i DUG 3-4 HOLES AROUND ROOT BALL, AND ONLY USED half THE AMOUNT THEY RECOMMENDED,gave a cup or so of PH'd h20, and now my plants are dead.
Very upset..had sooo much $$ into the growing of my own medicine...damn.
So I sterilized the room with 1/4 bleach w/ soapy water and a fungicide/stuff that kills everything, floors, walls, nooks, crannies...put down new panda film on floor and moved the 7 baby girls into the light of the 1000 watt MH conv. bulb.
Just as a side-note, the 3 plants that were getting light from both the HO T-5 AND the MH are twice as leafy as the others, but it may be strain related, too...over all am very disappointed in Nirvanas feminized Ice seeds, I should have played the lottery on the 10 seeds, probably would have got more than the 3 that DID pop.The others got the little tail...then stopped growing.
The bubbleicious, on the other hand, was up in about 30 hrs in perlite on a heating pad, the ice followed by a day...but has remained behind in growth. Maybe just a smaller plant, the ones I have seen were pretty small, though the guy starts flowering as soon as his clones are rooted, I plan to veg mine to a good size since there are only 7 right now (plus a romulan grapefruit clone I took off a clone I got at the disp. that died) it isn't looking great, but because its in a smaller pot, I didn't dose it with as much oregonism xl junk...many of it's leaves look like hell and I had to remove quite a few (bad habit...if it looks bad, I can't help but pull it)
Well, I am relying heavily on my new babies, loads of pressure on them to produce, I was just about to flip my other 5 to bud/12 hrs.(RIP~ in my compost pile)
Good day to all...

Hhhhhmmmm........ You must get into shit really fast like me!

what do you mean?

hey stopping by and checking things out. dont know why your so hard on yourself in my thread your plants look great and you are obviously doing something right keep up the great work + rep and im subbed.

newwb said:

What a difference a day makes, see this kind of growth is what I NEVER got to experience with all the buggy disp. clones...I'm thinking I am a seed-only gal from here on out!

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where you at now? subbed any questions? feel free to ask ...and i will help with what ever i can

I am just posting on the newer thread for the babies, since all of these nice plants have died
I just went through the pics, I can't beleive that was only 2 weeks ago, they didn't look THAT bad, but it was the beginning of their decline in health..then the oregonimsn XL sealed their fates, literlly turned all the foliage limp and dark grey overnight, freaked me out thought they were covered in mold so I chopped and composted them, didn't want the babies getting whatever they had...
So I started over, took everything out of room, sterilized everything..re panda filmed the walls and put it on the floor also since my damn ebb&grow leaks...so I have been updating my progress on the "2nd attempt at first grow" thread, I should change that link in my signature..
Thank you so much for stopping by,and subbing!! love to have some experienced growers to ask questions to~!

newwb said:

I am just posting on the newer thread for the babies, since all of these nice plants have died

I just went through the pics, I can't beleive that was only 2 weeks ago, they didn't look THAT bad, but it was the beginning of their decline in health..then the oregonimsn XL sealed their fates, literlly turned all the foliage limp and dark grey overnight, freaked me out thought they were covered in mold so I chopped and composted them, didn't want the babies getting whatever they had...
So I started over, took everything out of room, sterilized everything..re panda filmed the walls and put it on the floor also since my damn ebb&grow leaks...so I have been updating my progress on the "2nd attempt at first grow" thread, I should change that link in my signature..
Thank you so much for stopping by,and subbing!! love to have some experienced growers to ask questions to~!

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sorry to hear that

yes please do post a LINK...or better yet change the one in sig...lol and I'll come and follow your new grow

done! And thank you!