first experimental grow... input greatly appreciated

[Davewr25]

Hey everyone, I've been lurking here for a while now studying and researching everything I can, and I've finally decided to register and start my project.

Let me start by saying that I've learned a lot thanks to these forums, and I have just started my first grow thanks to all I've learned from here.

I came across some bag seeds, and have been considering all of this for a while, so I decided to give it a go and see what happens. As I mentioned, this is experimental and while I would love to yield several ounces, that is not my goal at this stage. My goal is simply to understand the way the plants grow and mature, and to see if I am even capable of growing before I invest in more potent seeds, as well as more effective materials.

That being said, I germed them using the paper towel method last week, (about 10 seeds germed out of roughly 15), and I have already planted them in peat pots. I have read that peat pots are not ideal, and I do not plan on keeping them there for long. As you can imagine for a noob like myself, out of those ten seeds that germed, only three have survived and now stand about a half inch to an inch tall on day three after sprouting.

Now I'll start getting into specifics on my setup. I would post pictures, but at this time I am not on my own computer so I will be unable to post pics until later, but I feel they are unnecessary at this point anyways.

My space is in my basement, and as for now I've got about 8 ft to the ceiling, and I suppose as much lateral space as I need. I'm currently using MiracleGro organic mix, (I am aware that this is not ideal, but it was free and if I can mature a bag seed in MiracleGro then I think I'll be good to go when this shit gets serious lol) and I have given them their first nutes already. I think the mixture I used was 15-30-15, again not ideal, but free and thus useful for experimentation.

For lighting, I have a fixture with 2 42 watt fluorescent U-shaped bulbs, (rather large), and also I plan on using CFL's to supplement that light. At the moment, they are mere sprouts, so I only have the big light and two cool white (i believe thats 5100k?) 23 watt CFL's over the sprouts. in the future, i plan on switching those with stronger CFL's and eventually warm white for flowering if my experiment goes that far. behind the plants and completely surrounding them i have a nasa heat blanket to reflect as much light as possible back to the plants.

as for ventilation, there are several vents i opened in the basement, so the air will be flowing and ventilated, and it will stay above 70 down there..

i have sugar water (very light sugar) in a spray bottle that ive been using to water them when the peat pots feel light... that brings me to the question portion of this thread and post...

1. how often should i water and nute?

2. based off of given information and current health of the plants, (pictures later) what would you predict for me as far as my success rate?

i will have more questions and updates later on today and throughout my grow i plan to post pics and seek out input from others. as i said, this is experimental and extremely intriguing to me, so i will be resilient and i will not be discouraged by failure, though i am optimistic about this and i believe im going to have a likely success story at the end of this project.

thanks to all and help me out =)

 

[bluethumb]

If you are serious i would:

-Get clones or feminized seeds, males suck, but you can use bag seed
-Some bigger lights, sorry but 82 watts is a bit skimp
-What is your odor control? Are you just going to let the smell vent out unfiltered?

You could probably get something with your current setup, but it won't be much.

Investing in growing is well worth it considering how much buds cost. Why not invest a few hundred and get a larger crop?

 

[Davewr25]

If you are serious i would:

-Get clones or feminized seeds, males suck, but you can use bag seed
-Some bigger lights, sorry but 82 watts is a bit skimp
-What is your odor control? Are you just going to let the smell vent out unfiltered?

You could probably get something with your current setup, but it won't be much.

Investing in growing is well worth it considering how much buds cost. Why not invest a few hundred and get a larger crop?

Hey thanks for the input. I plan on getting cloned seeds later on, but as I've said this is more or less to see if I can maintain the plant at this level, then I'll build up when I move on from bagseed. I more or less wanna get re hang of things before I go all out and that's more what this is about. Since it's bag seed, I don't imagine I'd get a decent yield even if I did do everything you had mentioned.

I have such skimpy wattage for the moment because I read that too much light for sprouts is both unnecessary and sometimes not good for it, do you suggest that I put more light on it even in this stage of early growth? (day 3 after sprouting) by the time I get more growth on it, I planned on upping the wattage to around 350 in cfl's. Would that not be sufficient enough?

As for odor, I haven't really thought about that yet, I know it smells, but I don't know how bad honestly. If the basement and first floor of the house smell like weed, that's not a huge problem for me, but if it's any worse than that then I planned on getting some form of odor control when I figure out how much it's gonna stink lol.

I will post pics of my setup tonight or tomorrow in the morning

 

[RandomNegro]

I suggest stop using the sugar water. Unsulphored molasses is fine but not needed. Use distilled, reverse osmosis, or filtered tap water. Water when the pot feels almost too light in weight. The top of the soil will be crusty almost, stick a finger in and if it is dry (dry not damp) about 1/2 inch it's almost time to water. Less attention is sometimes better than messing with it. Make sure the fluorescents are close to plant tips, about 3-6 inches. When you get used to them you can maneuver them even closer. Don't worry about nutes for a few weeks and then I suggest just getting a single complete fert for flower. Make sure it is completely dark when the lights are off and keep the same lighting schedule throughout the grow (i.e. lights come on at 6pm everyday). Those are the things I had trouble with my first grow I hope it helps.

Are you veg right now? 18 hours of light and 6 hours of dark?

 

[Davewr25]

okay i will stop with the sugar water then... ill just use the water ive been using (filtered tap). right now i have two of the CFL's about 2 inches above the sprouts and the other lights (42 watt u-bulbs) are a little bit further, but not much, maybe like 6-7 inches. what would you recommend for that fert when i get to flowering? thats one thing that im not sure about because everyone in the world has a different method for giving their plants nutes so ive kinda ignored that until now haha. im gonna go with 24/0 for my light schedule for veg and i suppose thats where i am now, as i have said, the sprouts are only 3 days old. one of them is growing what seems to be quite a bit faster than the other two, and go figure it was the one with the shortest taproot when i planted it.. haha

 

[busty]

okay i will stop with the sugar water then... ill just use the water ive been using (filtered tap). right now i have two of the CFL's about 2 inches above the sprouts and the other lights (42 watt u-bulbs) are a little bit further, but not much, maybe like 6-7 inches. what would you recommend for that fert when i get to flowering? thats one thing that im not sure about because everyone in the world has a different method for giving their plants nutes so ive kinda ignored that until now haha. im gonna go with 24/0 for my light schedule for veg and i suppose thats where i am now, as i have said, the sprouts are only 3 days old. one of them is growing what seems to be quite a bit faster than the other two, and go figure it was the one with the shortest taproot when i planted it.. haha

I'm a big fan of keeping it simple. With your Miracle Grow soil and bag seeds you'll be fine without feeding your girls. I'd let your current plants get to where they start alternating nodes while growing and then try your hand at cloning. Once you have successfully rooted some clones and they're happily growing you'll be able to throw your new moms (or the clones) under 12/12 lighting.

There are different schools of thought, but for keeping it simple you'll be fine with CFLs. With flowering you'll have to build a cab or put things in a room of some sort to make sure you're not getting any light-leaks, but that's a little ways away yet.

Learning to clone and sex your plants under CFLs will allow you to learn how to grow well without spending a lot of money up front. Once you have that stuff down, then you can get into more complex things like mixing your own soil, feeding schedule and getting more serious about lighting.

Good luck with your babies

 

[Davewr25]

thanks for your input busty... i just watched an entire hour and a half video yesterday mostly about hydroponics which is not what i intend to use, but it was useful nonetheless as far as watching the plants progression.

i have a problem right now and im not quite sure whats wrong. im on day five, and my tallest sprout shot up about a quarter inch yesterday out of nowhere and then it tipped over on its side... it looks pretty healthy, and i can see the second set of leaves growing in the middle, but i dont know if what happened is normal or not. i buried the stem a little jst to make it stand..

also i dont know if this is normal either, but the stem leading into the soil is kinda purpleish brown...

heres a pic of the one i mentioned that is tipping over... it also has the purplish stem... for som reason the photo is sideways, but i dont have time to re-up cuz im at work... anyone know whats wrong with it?

 

[GrowBox420]

I dont know whats wrong but I wouldn't be to worried about it I would just get a stick and prop it up. I do agree with putting more watts up in there when I started out with a little light it didn't grow very fast I upgraded to a 150w hps and its night and day in comparison to the growth.

 

[darko_G]

dude i feel ya wanting to see what happens with this before spending dough on it... if anything i wouold go and spend 20 bucks on at least a 125watt red cfl... its best to use blue first for vegging and red for flower but if u wanna spend the absolubt minimum then jus get a red ans use it for both... that will be the best buls for the money. a single plant under one of them wont produce zips but it will give you a couple nice buds no doubt... keepint it as open as possible will eliminate having to spend dough on fans and what not if the room is big enough... get yourself a fertilized compost and dont worry about nutes.. maybe one or two feeds half way through flowering... ur plants are streching from lack of decent light.. use some sort fo stick to tie it up and get the new light maaan.... then u wil produce something.. make sure air is moving in the basement.. u must have an oscilating fan lying around