My first attempt to grow anything - ever.

[JetUsUp]

well this is pretty much my hello thread aswell as my garden thread. i decided that i would join after reading the forums for a few hours. seems like there are alot of nice people here. so onto my garden. i live at home so it has to be small and discrete so it is. money is also a BIG problem. i have like none, so everything i have been using to grow i found at my house. everything.

so here is where my secret garden grows. notice the ashes all over the place, i common burn alot of incense when i smoke. also notice the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.

here is my soil. i see some people really get into they type of soil they use. i was lucky to find even that.

so here is a picture of some of my plants that you can see. i have a total of 15 of them. and no, i didnt run out of pots for the one plant. i wanted to try using a glass. i thought that maybe if the roots got light something odd might happen, like stimulated growth. ...or something.
oh all of my plants are 9 - 10 days old depending on when they sprouted. and i have no idea what strain they are. maybe some one can tell me when the get bigger.
my lighting is a 60 watt incandesent light bulb... im too poor to go out and buy a real big flor-light.
ive got them on an 18/6 (light/dark) light cycle.

venting consists of a fan that i turn on low and blow in there while its during the light cycle.

and proper water comes from my local Turkey Hill. i figure that i can get good pure, clean water there while i get a fix for my daily Slurpee addiction.

im sure i will get alot of comments about how crappy my setup is. and i know that it is. but please could you just leave helpful comments?
remember im prett limited to space. and money is a huge issue. so a $1200.00 carbon air filtering system is way out of the question. if you know how to make it with home supplies then im your man.

thanks!

 

[Guest]

helpful comments? ok
1. You live at home, don't grow. If LEO comes down, whoever owns the property, or leases it, is the one who gets busted.
2. If that isn't going to happen then you have a small cabinet, and you will never be able to grow out all the seedlings you have started.
3. Stop buying slurpees, and with the money saved go to the dollar store and buy a CFL bulb for say...a dollar, and lose the incadescent.(more watts the better)
4. Venting refers to pulling air out of the cabinet, not having a fan blowing on them while the light is on. You will need some type of air exchange, i.e. air in, air out.With an incadescent bulb, this is important because they are so damn hot.Also important because the plants need to breathe, just like you.(again, stop buying slurpees and save the money and go to radio shack and buy a muffin fan or a computer fan for around $20)
5. don't do this while you are living at home. save some money, move out, and then do this.
6. and oh yeah, clean that place up. looks like a family of hogs went thru there.

 

[Guest]

Jet
Good start. Also good advice from stankbud. Dont grow at home.
And the rest of what he said.. peace.

Sack's First Outdoor Grow
Our grow has been updated fully.. Enjoy..

sack :friends:

 

[JetUsUp]

thanks for the help.i wont get caught. living in the attic means that no one but me goes up there.
once the seedlings get pretty big i can just have them on the floor on a rubbermaid lid.
2 questions.
1. what kind of wattage am i going to need for the CLF bulb?
2. do you think i need to lose a few? - im thinking that i might after seeing how big some plants can get.

 

[Guest]

Jet> look for the highest wattage you can find, also look to see how many lumens they produce, get the highest lumens. Get several if possible, the more lumens the better, as long as you have SAFE sockets to put them in. Be careful with your wiring. Yes you need to lose some. You may want to consider going 12/12 from germ, or at least after a couple weeks veg. Check out Growdocs and Tics threads in this forum. This will alow you to sex them early, cull out the males, and pick the best females to keep. Also you need to think about ventilation, as even CFL bulbs put out some heat.

Good luck.

 

[JetUsUp]

thanks stank,
i was reading into incan bulbs, and it says they produce 1/2 tons of CO2 over its life time. http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm
while that seems like alot, wouldnt that be ideal? i know plants need CO2, and incan lights produce alot, so wouldnt that help them grow?
maybe like a mix of incan and CFL?

if anyone out there grows with incan lights, tell us something about how your plants grow.

 

[Guest]

incandescent bulbs do indeed give off CO2. However they also give off a lot of heat, not a good trade off in my opinion. Also they do not give a good color spectrum for growing, you want a Cool White for veg(blue spectrum) and a warm white for flower (red spectrum). As this is your first grow, don't worry about the CO2 this time around. Just KISS (Keep It Simple Stoner). If you're absolutely deadset on it, get a small nightlite, still get CO2 without the heat.

 

[Guest]

I know what it's like to be broke & live at home

Loose the incandescent - Ur yield & potency will be pitiful;

2 Slurpee's/1 qt beer = a better 125 watt bulb

Garage sales – old aquarium lights

You need to go to 12/12 ASAP

open the cab as much as you can for air

Good luck & all my blessings -

Please.......if you are under 18…… please reconsider, it’s not worth the risk your taking with the rest of your life

 

[Guest]

while I'm thinking about it, skip a couple more slurpees and buy some cheap white paint and get rid of that aluminum foil. White paint gives ya much better reflectivity. If ya wanna go hogwild, skip several slurpees and look for mylar emergency blankets in the sporting goods section(sometimes in the automotive section for emrgency kits) at wally world. They go for about 3-5 bucks, and are the most reflective substance known to man(I think).

Please tell me you're over 18..........

 

[JetUsUp]

fred>why should i go 12/12 already? theyre still less than 2 weeks old.

stank> here i spent a bunch of time hanging tin foil and you say that white paint is more reflective... ugh. and yes i am over 18... not by much, but i am over.

 

[Guest]

The stretch in 12/12 will out-grow your cab quick - a lot of SOG'ers & cab growers go to 12/12 after one week

yes - w. paint is better - but IMHO - u need a better light before U do anything /

@ 125 watt cfl is less than 3.00 at wallmart

It's summer - go do some odd jobs for cash - mow a yard, clean a garage, ect. - U can buy a cheap bike & use it for transportation to & fro a job -

when I was 18 & had no car or job, I did...&...it got me started


18 is not an easy age - try to remember U have a LOT of life ahead yet & the choices U make now can effect the rest of your life.

Good luck & hang tough -

 

[Guest]

Jet> Think Fredster suggested going 12/12 asap cause your growspace is pretty small. How tall is it? Keep in mind when you do go 12/12, your plants are going to stretch, sometimes getting 3 times as big as they were when you put them in flower. E.G. a 1 foot tall plant at beginning of 12/12 will wind up 3 feet tall at end of flower/harvest. Also, check out a thread in this forum on seed to harvest in 77 days by Growdoc. Also one by Tic seed to bud in 55 days. Since you are growing unknown genetics, you need to be prepared for stretch. Indica dom strains don't stretch as much, but still stretch. Sativa dom strains stretch BIG time. Stay with the foil if ya wanna, keep the flat( less shiny side) out. White paint is better tho. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

good catch Vestas, I stand corrected. just skimmed over that link rapidly and didn't catch that.

 

[Cannabisourus]

What you want is the Photosynthetically Active Radiation which allows the plant to live. This isn't produced in the neccessary amounts by incandecent bulbs. This is why you need more efficient lighting like flourecent, metal halide, or high pressure sodium bulbs which produce more light per watt therefore more radiation for the plants to turn into energy through photosynthesis. In other words, incandescent bulbs loose most of their energy in heat production rather than light production.

With such a limited space veging isn't a big concern so you can skip using the cool light spectrum and veg for a couple of weeks with a warm white compact flourescent bulb under eighteen hours of light. This will cause your plant to grow tight internodes keeping it short and fat and bushy, then you can go directly into 12/12 (twelve hours light, twelve hours dark) to flower your plant.

These were my results based on an experiment I did a few years back. Instead of moderate amounts of cool white light for veging I used high amounts of warm light. I flowered my B52 (mostly Sativa strain, Sativa/Indica mix) plants at around 18" and they finnished at between 22" and 24" with an average yield of 3.5 - 4 oz. dried weight per plant. I wanted to see if it was possible have a decent yield in under 26" of vertical space so this is why I choose B52, a high yielding, fast flowering strain.

 

[JetUsUp]

i guess i didnt notice that either. but thanks ALOT for all of your help guys.
everyone of you all who left a good entry and helped out.

thanks!

 

[JetUsUp]

Here i am about 5 or so days later with an update and some new pictures. I also updated my grow room from your guys advice. Im still rather broke so I got myself 4 new 100watt CFL bulbs. I just got those today. i cant wait until they start feeling the effect. here are the pictures you guys are yerning over...lol.




these are two different plants that for some reason have shot up WAY beyond all the rest of my plants. even though they didnt recieve any special treatment from the other plants. oh, theyre about 6 inches tall and are too tall to support their own heigth so i had to give them a stint. this happen much to the rest of you?



small group pic of my nicest looking plants.



just a close up of one of the better looking smaller ones.

feedback is much appreciated.
thanks!

 

[mosess187]

yeah man they are right! I'm a first time grower, and i started my seedlings with a 125watt agro from home depot. It turns out it did little good so............I went out and bought a two pack t-12, 4' DAYLIGHT flo. And man did 24hrs. make a big difference they put out natural SUNLIGHT at 6500kelvin!!! 2850 lumens per. bulb.<<<<<< BUT I HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE VIEWERS? RIGHT NOW I HAVE 19 SEEDLINGS UNDER THE FLO. FOR 24HRS. A DAY ON THERE SWEET SIXTEEN I PLAN TO MOVE TO A 22/2 THEN GRADUALLY MAKE THE DAYS SHORTER. IS THIS OK?

 

[Guest]

wow, ya gots some mad stretch going on there Jet, move your lights as close to the plants as possible, try for an inch or two off the top. Ya did the exact right thing supporting those two, when ya transplant to new pots ya can bury most of the stretch and have all of em the same size, or just try reburying it now, and get as much of that stalk below soil as ya can. Good job getting the CFL's!! If ya can get more, the more the better!

 

[JetUsUp]

here they are a few days later. i just got home a few hours ago from a small holiday.
i had problem that i hope wont affect too much. my plants were in complete darkness for over 48 hours this entire weekend. what happened was that the power tripped and it didnt come back on immediatly. so it reset my digital light timer to zero. so my plants got zero light for 48 hours. they dont appear to be too bad.

what should i do? increase lighting for a few days?

 

[Guest]

What should ya do? Want my honest opinion?