[Pic Intensive] PC Grow from Seed - Beginner

[RudieJ]

Thank you everybody for the help!
When I read these, I was taking the UPC stickers off of the new pot I bought to transplant into and was ready to get it underway, but I'll wait for a little while more.
As for feeding frequency and strength, I read differing opinions all over the boards. I am using FoxFarm soil and nutes, so I went to their site and found a feeding chart to follow at http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf.
As you can see from the chart, it suggests starting full dosages of grow big in the second week after sprouting with "every other watering." Would this be the same as a half dosage with every watering, like Sammet mentioned? I've never had nutes that had a chart to read before, so I am kinda lost.

In other news, I've been checking my calendar to figure out when I absolutely have to start flowering since I am moving at the beginning of May. I'm currently looking up kush flowering times and found estimates up to 10 weeks (using the worst case scenario, to be safe). So I have set the date to begin flowering at March 3, mark your calendars!

 

[jrw]

IMO dont feed them until they tell you they want something - then give them a little

Looking good man!

 

[ripOG]

I agree, don't feed it until it gets a little bigger. I'd give it another week. The risks of overfertilization at this age outweigh the benefits, especially with one plant! If you do feed, stay ~200-300 ppm.

As the others mentioned, don't worry about those leaves. They are called cotyledons and think of them as baby teeth- only temporary.

 

[Empathy]

RudieJ wikid nice setup u got there . Lookin very healthy! Best of luck. I'll be watching this one for sure!

Emps

 

[Sammet]

Thank you everybody for the help!
When I read these, I was taking the UPC stickers off of the new pot I bought to transplant into and was ready to get it underway, but I'll wait for a little while more.
As for feeding frequency and strength, I read differing opinions all over the boards. I am using FoxFarm soil and nutes, so I went to their site and found a feeding chart to follow at http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf.
As you can see from the chart, it suggests starting full dosages of grow big in the second week after sprouting with "every other watering." Would this be the same as a half dosage with every watering, like Sammet mentioned? I've never had nutes that had a chart to read before, so I am kinda lost.

I didn't mean you should fert every watering. Just start off at a low dosage once a week with regular watering in between. That chart is a good guide but that's all it is.

 

[Binnacas]

Hi there RudieJ! Nice setup there. And nice pics too. Is that case completely lightproof all around? It looks like the door could leak light a bit.

I know how it is to grow for the first time, I'm currently on my second grow. I was so stressed and of course excited, but also very impatient. You're currently on the bright side, your plant is healthy and through the germination. All it needs now is water, light and nutes every week or so. I know as much about nutes as you do. All you need to do is make sure you don't over do it. Better to have them a bit hungry than kill them.

The biggest mistake I did with my first grow was with the leaves and buds. Don't remove leaves unless it's the last chance to get light to a bud. Don't start smoking the plant before it's ready. I'm not ashamed I did cause at the moment I just wanted to smoke but I know that if I had waited for the plants to finish I would've been much more happy with the result.

Dunno if any of this helped but I just wanted to say don't worry so much about everything. I spent way too much money on stuff I didn't really need for my first grow.

Hope to see more pics soon!

 

[RudieJ]

Woah, I got a lot of great feedback in a single day! I'll take time out to comment on each one:

jrw - Thanks for the tip. I'm just glad that the cotyledons yellowing wasn't that first hint.

RipOG - Cool, good to hear it. I always want to err on the side of safety.

Empathy - Thanks for the nicey niceys, Emps!

Sammet - Thanks for clearing that up. That's one of the major questions I had been having about the feeding schedule that I wanted to get clear before I began the first round of feeding.

Binnacas - Thanks! Light doesn't leak from around the door so much (though there are three screw holes at the back that light leaks from only because I'm too lazy to screw the door on every time I close it. Most of the light leaks from places where I was careless and tore the aluminum tape near the light trap. Other than those few slight pinholes, the case is totally light proof.
I'll definitely not worry about too much though. Things are looking great for me... germination was hard because I wasn't sure about the quality of the seeds, but now that this plant has pretty much settled in for good, I've got no cares in the world!

 

[Binnacas]

I'd like to add that even though my starting cabinet is way bigger and I have a 250W HPS with cooltube and all that, I would say your setup is way better than mine. If only I've gotten a smaller grow cab and CFLs I would've had all those heat problems with my first grow. To all new growers I would say start small and cheap.

Does your plants get any wind on them? Don't know if it's very important in scrogs or small grows anyways, but I always try to keep some kind of fans blowing on my plants so they grow stronger stems. Not too hard though, of course. Just a light breeze.

 

[cfl...KING]

wat size CFLs do u have in there?how many lumens?how much floor space?looks good!

 

[RudieJ]

Yeah, I try to keep a little wind blowing on it, just to agitate the stem a little... but I think the whole scrog thing will sort that stuff out anyway.

The CFLs are 4 26W bulbs at 4600K for veg and I'll switch to 4 46W 2700K bulbs for flowering. The lumen output for the 26 watters is 1600lum. each (4x1600 = 6400 lumens total). For the 46 watt bulbs, I'm not sure about, but it's at the very least 2800lum. each (4x2800 = 11200 lumens). The floor space is 7.5"x15.5" = 116.25 sq. in. (about 0.8 sq. ft.)

Since I'm doing the calculations... the height is 24" giving a total volume inside of 1.615 cu. ft. The fans are probably anywhere from 25-45 cfm meaning that the air inside the case is completely recycled anywhere between 3.875 seconds down to 2.153333 seconds (which is why temps are not even a concern for me, especially considering that I'm using CFLs).

If you want to do those calculations for your own growspace:

length (ft) * width (ft) * height (ft) / cfm (ft^3/min) * 60 (sec/min) = time in seconds that your air is recycled.

For an enclosed growspace such as we are working in, you want this time to be on the order of single seconds. For entire rooms devoted to growing, you can get away with 5 minutes or more to recycle the air.

 

[RudieJ]

My little plant started to look sad today:



I figure it's hungry, so I made the transplant a little early hoping that it would like the new nutrients in the new soil. I was planning on making the transplant this Monday regardless of progress since I need to start flowering by March anyway (2 weeks from now).



Do you guys (sorry for the gender specific language... shout out to my fellow feminists out there) think this will help? I didn't want to feed since I don't want to shock the plant more than necessary.

I'm really drunk right now so this post will probably look very different tomorrow morning.

Edit: Had to fix grammar. I actually probably made it worse considering my state.

 

[jrw]

You're overwatering.

 

[RudieJ]

You're overwatering.

Crap, I didn't even think about it... again, I never thought I'd be that new grower who overwatered.

I promise to not water for 3 days... Tuesday? Too drunk to do math. And I thought I was an engineer.

 

[Sammet]

Now you've moved it up to the big pot you can expect a bigger delay in between waterings. How do you check if the plant needs water? The lift method is good if you aren't already using it.

I reckon your seedling will pick up now that you've transplanted.

 

[RudieJ]

Now you've moved it up to the big pot you can expect a bigger delay in between waterings. How do you check if the plant needs water? The lift method is good if you aren't already using it.

I reckon your seedling will pick up now that you've transplanted.

I've been trying to get used to the lift method while it was in the smaller pot. I'd just end up sticking my finger an inch or so into the pot, though. Once I start the scrog screen it won't be as easy to do the lift, but I won't have to worry about that for a while.

 

[apples]

very clean setup my friend!

I'll be watching you...

 

[Military]

RudieJ- .. Humm Ill just say what I would do if working with SOIL.. (New to soil myself in a hydro guy).. BUT

This is what IM doiing with my seedlings that are in soil atm..

I NEVER WATERED THEM ONCE!!

I got my soil.. I put in the container that my seedlings will go into. While the container is full of the soil.. NOT THE SEEDLINGS. I water the entire container till water starts to POUR out of the bottom.. I let it sit for about 30mins to 1 hour.

After that youll notice soil lvl really dropped.. Well just add some more soil without watering it, to the lvl you wish..

take your seedling, and take a PEN or something like that, and Make a decent size hole straight down into your soil, that was treated with water already.


After doing this NEVER WATER IT AGAIN!!!


Now I just take a spray bottle.. making sure never to hit the seedlings, I use SPRAY and spray the entire surface of the soil around all my seedlings, at each of there STEM base.

Id say i give each seedling about 5 FULL sprays at its base, this water will go down to the roots just ENOUGH to make it happy


Once the plants get bigger is when you can start to actually WATER them from top or dip method(set entire container in water so it soaks it up, make sure you have good drainage if doing this method though)

Your dirt should pretty much be dry ALL the time from surface to about 1" deep.. then it should ONLY be moist if that..

The plant will USE and be FORCED to use all the nutes in that bit of water,, So it will encourage the plant to make better roots to try and get ALL water it can,, This isnt painful for them at all.


Do this and Im sure youll have no PROBLEMS!!..


I would STOP watering that baby NOW if i was you also You'll know when it needs water.

Keep to a ONCE a week watering .. BUt you gotta really watch how much water your giving,, because it might be enough water for more then 1 week..

Hope this helps out

GL

 

[Binnacas]

Very nice tip there Military. I'm having a little odd time with my soil watering too. But That helps a lot. One of my plants (just as big as the others) is drinking very slowly and I've been thinking what might cause this. But at least now I know how to handle to situation.

 

[RudieJ]

Hey guys. I just checked the plant and it's AMAZING how much it improved/grew over a single night. The bottom leaves are still slightly yellow, but much greener than before. I expect them to be back to 100% soon. New growth has appeared like crazy as first leaves with multiple "fingers" seemed to magically appear when I wasn't looking.

The soil is still moist from the transplant and I don't anticipate having to water for a good deal longer. The next watering will probably be the first feeding at a fraction of the suggested nutrients. Thanks guys for helping me realize my mistake. Pictures to come soon.

 

[Sammet]

Glad to hear things are sounding better mate, lets have them photos!