New guy with some questions.

[prevaricate]

Hey everyone. Ive had a blast reading about everyone's grows on the various forums. But now, i have a few questions, perhaps some veterans can shed some light on for me. But first, a little background.

I am in the process of building a cabinet. I am going to be using CFL's, and it will be a micro grow. I plan on doing a perpetual grow, and yielding just enough to hold me over till the next harvest, etc.

Since I am in the middle of the planning/building stage, about a month ago, I germ'ed some seeds. And have them sitting in some 20oz water bottles with potting soil on my back deck, they are fed nothing but water at the moment.

My plants are a month old, and all around 6in tall, and are on about the 3rd set of fan leaves. Is this normal growth for outside plants starting out? And I assume, once my cabinet is done, and I put them under almost 24 hour light, they will grow much faster? I only worry because if these all end up male, I dont want to be set back months.

Next, I am in Florida, and the temps have been mid to high 90's every day, is this too hot? I dont want to be stunting their growth by exposing them to too much heat.

Lastly, I plan on moving them to some slightly larger pots soon, I kind of cut these bottles low, and feel I need to get them into something better. Especially since if these don't turn male, they will be my mama's. And I want them to have plenty of room to grow. Any recommendations on pot size, and or some easy to get, and or cheap nutrients I can look at getting to start feeding them? I only want these to be no more than 2.5ft in height, but plan on bushing them out.

Well, any tips are appreciated, even if I didn't ask the question. I am going at this for the first time, and haven't even grown a tomato plant in the past, so this is all an learning experience.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[dubwise]

Hello. Welcome to IC. The best advice I can give is to read up more and do some experimenting. A big part of the goodness you get once she's finished is knowing how you did and why you did what you did to the plant as she grew. Trial & error are really the best teachers. FWIW-I'd move them into larger pots sooner than later. Take some cuttings off of the current plants, flower them until you know what is what....cull the herd and grow out the females. Read read read experiment experiment experiment read read read. Best wishes!

 

[prevaricate]

Thanks for the response!

Yah, I plan to move them over this weekend, to give the roots more room.

And youre right, this is a lot of fun. Problem is I am out there every day looking at them, so its like the whole a watched pot never boils kinda thing.

Again, thanks!

 

[unclefishstick]

if you dont already have one get a copy of jorge cervantes grow bible,and get those little ones into larger homes asap.
as a beginner i would recommend you start with an easy method,my personal choice would be a sterile medium like pro-mix or metro mix and liquid nutes of some sort,i use organic nutes myself and would recommend the General Organics line,they have a sampler pack that runs about 30 buck plus shipping and has enough nutes and additives to get you through at least one grow if not more. they are very easy to use since you dont need to fuss with pH but perhaps someone with chem nutes experience can chime in with an easy to use line.i also understand the botanicare line is also pretty good.