Newbie closet micro grow - 165w PLL bagseed

[justanotherbozo]

Am I see that correctly? Those are just 2 liter Coke bottles that those flowering plants are in? Those are nice looking buds for such small container. You could get a ton of those in a 3' x 3' or 4' x 4' tent or room. I could see where vert would do nicely with those

yeah, those are just 2liter Coke bottle hempys and yeah, if you ran them in a stadium setup around a single 1000watter you could really kill it, ...me i'm just doing this mostly for headstash and i'm a lazy phuck by nature so i've moved away from the high-density SOGing and gravitated to fewer, larger plants, my yields may not be as good but the workload is way less.

...couple years ago i ran a high-density micro-SOG with 55x 1liter SmartWater bottle 'pots' where i was harvesting 10 every 2 weeks, ...i was averaging about 7 - 10 grams per if i remember right, like i say, it was a MICRO op, lol, here, here's a couple pictures so you can see how small she is.

bozo

 

[IndicaCowboy]

...couple years ago i ran a high-density micro-SOG with 55x 1liter SmartWater bottle 'pots' where i was harvesting 10 every 2 weeks, ...i was averaging about 7 - 10 grams per if i remember right,

Nice, nice. Are those two 150 watt lamps in that closet?

 

[justanotherbozo]

Nice, nice. Are those two 150 watt lamps in that closet?

yeah man, back when i built this cab you could get these 150watt HPS 'Vapor Tight' fixtures for $20.00 each, here's a link to the build if your interested.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=131157justanother stealth, DIY, 2x 150 HPS bud box, ...bozo style!

i ran it with those twin 150's for about a year and a half after which i upgraded to a 400CMH in a SuperSun II.

bozo

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

I love the Folger's hempy bucket I'm pretty much sold on the hempy/k.i.s.s. style for my next run. I have a couple dozen more seeds from that same bag, so it might be cool to compare different techniques. That HPS cooltube setup is awesome. Stealth growbox building is another aspect of the growing addiction it seems.

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

Here's what the seedlings are looking like now:







Could that be a little nute burn on #3 there? I haven't fed them anything yet but they are in Miracle Gro Seed Starter Mix, and apparently Miracle Gro spikes every one of their products with excessive crappy nutes. It also seems like this soil retains moisture like crazy. I haven't watered in 3 days and it's still wet as ever!

I'm thinking I might leave the Miracle Gro out of my transplant mix and just see if there's enough with only the Happy Frog/Ocean Forest/perlite mixture.

 

[rocketman420]

looks like your on your way man. i would re paint the room flat white, it is the most reflective. and let the soil dry a little before next watering on seedlings, lets roots grow in search of water. i would leave miricle grow out. like everyone said keep it simple and you should be fine. i make my own soil it is so much cheaper than buying it and you know whats in it. i use 5 parts spagham peat moss, 2 parts worm castings, 3 parts perlite, 2 tbls. per gallon dolomite lime. the soil is great for seeds, all you hae to do is water the first two weeks then start your nute reg. remember less is more when it comes to nutes. i fucked up and tried what the fox farm scheduale said my first run, gave me problems, so next run i cut everthing in half and slowly added more and worked out great.


and bozo, those plants look awsome, you have one hell of a thumb on you. great work

 

[rocketman420]

add 10-20% perlite to your mix you have now for beter drainage, thats what i did when using FF, and i never heard anything good about MG.

 

[rocketman420]

one more thing get a ph pen, my first problems with indoor was nute lockout due to high ph. get your ph between 5.8 and 6.3

 

[justanotherbozo]

I love the Folger's hempy bucket I'm pretty much sold on the hempy/k.i.s.s. style for my next run. I have a couple dozen more seeds from that same bag, so it might be cool to compare different techniques. That HPS cooltube setup is awesome. Stealth growbox building is another aspect of the growing addiction it seems.

Here's what the seedlings are looking like now:

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Could that be a little nute burn on #3 there? I haven't fed them anything yet but they are in Miracle Gro Seed Starter Mix, and apparently Miracle Gro spikes every one of their products with excessive crappy nutes. It also seems like this soil retains moisture like crazy. I haven't watered in 3 days and it's still wet as ever!

I'm thinking I might leave the Miracle Gro out of my transplant mix and just see if there's enough with only the Happy Frog/Ocean Forest/perlite mixture.

over the years i've heard many complain about the burning they get from Miracle Gro products, the moisture retention issue you can control yourself with the addition of things like perlite and hydroton to increase drainage. ...you want to do that too because your roots need a wet dry cycle of sorts, marijuana does NOT like wet feet.

...honestly man, if you have just a little money to invest i'd strongly suggest you save all that soil for your house plants and make the switch to coco hempys and KISS right now, a brick of coco runs about $15.00USD, a bag of gro-rocks at a hydro store runs about $20.00 but you can also use lava rock available for cheap at any Lowes or Home Depot type store or you could even use 3/4 inch gravel that you can get for pennies.

...then a bag of MaxiBloom that you could have delivered by Amazon if you can't source it locally for about $15.00, ...you'd also want to invest about $10.00 on a ph drip tester, piss yellow is close enough, you don't need digital accuracy with coco hempys KISS style.

...then for 'additives' you'd want something to raise the ph of your nutrient solution because Maxi is acidic and by itself is unhealthy for your plants, i myself use Silica Blast as my ph up product because it not only helps balance my ph, the addition of silica to the mix makes for healthier plants with stiffer stems better able to withstand the breeze from my fans and from my clumsy stumblings as i trip through my garden enjoying the aroma of my pretty flowers wafting in the wind. ...a liter of Silica Blast or the alternative Protekt would run about $15.00 - $20.00.

...so when all this is added up it comes to less than $100.00 and what you'd get for that investment is a method of growing that is very forgiving of mistakes, very simple to run and maintain, very inexpensive to run AND one in which even a new grower with little to no experience can begin producing a reliable, quality product, right out of the box, ...not to mention a gaggle of mentors because there are MANY hempy growers here who are only too willing to help you succeed, some have already posted here in your thread, lol.

...and yeah, lol, DIYing kinda gets in your blood, even once you begin having money to be able to buy proper equipment you just can't stop finding ways to re-purpose shit, ...which is why i choose products like Silica Blast that serve me in MULTIPLE ways.

...i started growing on the tightest budget you can imagine, i live on a fixed, and very small, income so in the beginning DIY wasn't a philosophical choice, it was a practical necessity, ...i built shit and repurposed shit because i couldn't afford to buy shit, lol.

...i guess the point i'm trying to make is that i tried many things over the years, from organic soil to DWC and while i achieved a level of success with each and learned a shitload from each, it wasn't until i decided to try the coco hempys KISS style that my grow became almost easy, ...MAN i wish i'd tried them sooner because now the hardest part of my grow is in dealing with the harvest trimming, there's just so much more of it to do!

bozo

 

[pacoveli]

Good luck on your grow just hang in there and keep reading.
Bozo thanks for all the info I'm taking notes

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

So it looks like the seedlings are having a tough time in this MG Seed Starter soil. I figured since it was specifically for starting seeds, that it wouldn't be so hot, but from what I can tell it's burning the crap out of my poor babies.

I let the soil dry out completely between waterings, so I think the drooping/curling is due to the MG soil being too hot. I decided to try a bit of a flush. I know MG uses time-release, but I'm hoping their seed-starter mix flushes a little easier than the regular stuff. I bought a gallon of distilled water and ran it through the cups. The runoff went from dark brown to light brown/almost clear. I'm hoping this will help at least a little.

Here's what they're looking like now:




And we have a new-comer! I was about to toss the other seeds that didn't germinate, when I noticed that one of them had cracked open. So I put it in a cup of soil (MG Seed Starter unfortunately - didn't know at the time) and it popped out Hang in there wee one! I also went ahead and flushed this one pre-emptively.

 

[rocketman420]

i would get some new soil or make some and very carefully free the roots from the soil and transplant them into a better mix

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

I'm thinking very strongly about Hempy buckets at this point. What if I soak them in a tub of water to rinse away the soil from the roots, and then carefully put them into a perlite/vermiculite Hempy bucket? Worth the risk to try?

 

[justanotherbozo]

I'm thinking very strongly about Hempy buckets at this point. What if I soak them in a tub of water to rinse away the soil from the roots, and then carefully put them into a perlite/vermiculite Hempy bucket? Worth the risk to try?

i don't think i'd risk the small one but the other 3 for sure you could gently rinse off the roots and repot them in hempy's.

bozo

 

[opiumo]

My advice would be just to let it be, have patience they'll probably make it through.

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

I tried to let them go for a couple more days but they don't seem to be looking much better










I'm going to go ahead and put them in Hempy buckets. I'll try to rinse away as much of the MG soil as possible in some room-temperature PH-adjusted water. Ever so tenderly... I hope they survive. I will be very sad if they don't.

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

Picked up some Maxibloom along with a PH kit and some ginger ale. I loves me some ginger ale so that part was no problem! I turned the bottles into Hempy buckets and covered them with Gorilla tape to block out light from the roots.


The cups were easy to slide off from the rootballs. I carefully dunked them into a bucket of room-temperature water and rinsed the nasty MG soil off the roots. It was way easier than I thought! Then I covered the roots back up with a 3 parts perlite/1 part vermiculite mix in the Hempy bottles.

Here they are immediately after the transplant. I'm waiting for the little one to grow some more roots before I fix it too.


I fed them with half-strength Maxibloom solution, and after only 36 hours, they seem to look noticeably better.


Getting excited again

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

Happy New Year!

The plants look like they're continuing to thrive. I've been slowly increasing the MaxiBloom to full strength. So far I have given them 2/3 strength but next time I water will be with full strength. I can't believe how well this is working. It's like 15 minutes of work every 3 days too.

Family Photo:


#1


#2


#3


#4



#1 and #2 are starting to smell like marijuana already, almost a skunky smell which I was not expecting.

#3 is growing distinctly different from the others even though the seeds are all from the same bag. It's taller and stretchier, and the edges of its leaves curve upward for some reason. Does anybody know why this would be?

Onward and upward we go!

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

Update

Update

They're still growing pretty well!


It looks like female pre-flowers have begun to form on 2 of them:





I decided to experiment with some Low Stress Training to start forming a more even canopy if possible:


Everything seems to be going well, that's about all there is to say for now!

 

[CottonwoodJoe]

Oh I forgot to mention - they smell AMAZING! It's like a sweet coffee and chocolate smell that soothes my soul. Can't get enough of it