Colo's First Grow

[ggrant]

Re: Colo's First Attempt @ a Grow

Tragedy did strike though, as I was setting up the new lights. I idiotically left the plants underneath me and the light fell on top of it's frail body T_____T''' I hooked up some splints as ggrant showed but I kinda had to mess with it..a lot. It's got a sad droop but still upright...sorta. Is there anything I can do from keeping it from dying??? One still looks good and I planted a potential third that has yet to appear. Here's hoping >_<

It'll be fine. Keep it in the splint for a couple of days and it will recover completely. I dropped a 400W ballast on one of my girls once! She was bent over almost in half! I gently straightened her out and she was fine after a few days.

Don't forgot these plants are weeds and get trampleled, etc. out in the wild. As long as the stem isn't cut or completely crushed, a seedling will bounce right back. She'll probably give you a dirty look for a couple of days though until she forgives you.

 

[phdtje]

Re: Colo's First Attempt @ a Grow

woo! Look at them go!

If it doesn't bounce back, it's probably weak seed. I had one tumbling over during a night, I probably knocked it over or twisted it one time i didnt know i was doing that. Seemed it was broken and it's gone now.
Most do come back though, some cant be even bothered when knocked over. Good genetics have more rooting power, they might grow slower even than others, but their root system is strong and well developed and they often come back very strong, might be good yielders, possibly also clone moms.

It may be easier to start off with a soil mix. And be sure to take large containers, small containers means you'll still be adding more nutrients yourself and more carefulness when adding nutrients every day is also more bit more precise.

Good luck, i think after a couple of days or a week or so they can always take more lumen, specially after 3-4 weeks grow.

 

[ggrant]

Hey, Colo,

You might try Coco Coir. It's a "soil-less" soil, i.e., it doesn't have any nutrients in it. It dries out fairly quickly, so it has to be watered more often than other types of soil. The only thing you have to be careful about is adding a calcium supplement - otherwise you can end up with a calcium deficiency.

I would very highly recommend using either ProMix or SpringMix. They're similar and are great soils. They come in bale sizes and one bale will last forever! I don't have a car or storage space, so unfortunately I can't buy it, but I would use it again. I'm thinking of hiring a taxi to drive me to the store and keeping the bale in my livingroom (just kidding!).

Pro-Mix Potting Soil

Fox Farms Soil: Ocean Forest or Happy Frog

Pro-Mix BX, 3.8CF Compressed - Soil and Growing Medium | Greenhouse Megastore​

I used to get it from a grower friend who would buy it in bales and give me a plastic storage bin full whenever I needed it. A storage bin is good enough for at least two of my grows (4 plants under a 400W MH / HPS light). Unfortunately, he is out of town on extended assignment, so my source is gone.

This type of soil is very easy to use for beginning growers as well as experienced ones. It has lots of spaghnum peat moss, which keeps the soil from compacting.

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a MiracleGro type of soil. You will be sentencing your plants to a slow death. It compacts like mud. This is fine for houseplants that have thick burrowing roots. Marijuana is a surface weed, i.e., its roots spread out easily over a surface and to a shallow depth to get a foothold (I mean a roothold). If there is loose soil, the roots will penetrate the surface as far as it can.

Marijuana roots are very slender and cannot penetrate MiracleGro types if soils. I used a MiracleGro type of soil because I ran out of the Spring MIx. I cut it 50% with perlite to make it more "airy", but it still sucked. It almost killed my plants. They were stunted and had a nitrogen deficiency that I couln't correct.

That's why I transplanted to Coco Coir. After the transplant, the two plants I had in the MiracleGro crap doubled in size. Look at the last couple of pages of my journal and you will find an epic post (took a couple of days to collect the data and to post), showing in detail how to use Coco Coir.

Here is a thread from an outside journal. This site's rules do not allow links to these sites, so I've cut and pasted the text. The underlines separate the posters on that thread:

I can't compare Pro-mix to any other good brand of soil, but I can give you my opinion of using it since I started growing.
There are couple of different types of that soil less mix, I use the orange bag or the BX if you wish.

I started my first thread last march with two bags of that soil which now it has already 14 rotations and I have never experience anything bad with it.

Its soil less, which means if you flush your plants well after harvest is re-usable.
I tried also the one with the crystals and is wonderful too, same thing as the regular Pro-Mix but it has water maintaining crystals so you don't have to water too often.

Never compare Pro-Mix to MiracleGro.
Pro -Mix is a professional blend to grow some gorgeous crops of any kind.
You wont regret using it, to say the least, you might get to love it for its draining capabilities.

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all i add is 1 more tablespoon of lime per gallon, the plants roots love this stuff. its the lightest fluffiest soil ive ever used. it seems like roots double in size after a transplant just overnight.

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I've used both Pro-mix and Sunshine mix and I cant find that much of a difference between the two.I love both of them and would never use any other type of "soil" type of meduim.

 

[ShadowGrow]

You've got lots of great advice here! Lots of differant options thats for sure. The great thing about this is you'll develop your own methods. Then they can be tweaked and changed as you figure out what works for you. Good luck!

 

[bobulak]

Good luck

 

[ggrant]

ShadowGrow said:

You've got lots of great advice here! Lots of differant options thats for sure. The great thing about this is you'll develop your own methods. Then they can be tweaked and changed as you figure out what works for you. Good luck!

Amen to that!

Love the picture of the plant with the splint. You used cloth. Great idea! It keeps the stalk in place but doesn't crush the stem. She seems completely heathy.

She looks like a little girl who has cut her knee and you've bandaged it up!

Hope she's still not mad at you.

 

[ShadowGrow]

Any updates for us?

 

[Happy Kitty]

How did this grow turn out?

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