My First Time

[thecanuck]

I just didn't want to see you fry another seed. You can germinate outside the box and let the seedling grow under a small CFL & then after she strengthens up, into the box she goes.

I agree. I have a seedling under cfl right now that i put in my tent for a couple hours every day to get her used to being under those conditions before being thrown in there for the remainder of veg. Im using a 900w led tho so theres gonna be a huge difference and shock when she hits the tent.

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

I agree. I have a seedling under cfl right now that i put in my tent for a couple hours every day to get her used to being under those conditions before being thrown in there for the remainder of veg. Im using a 900w led tho so theres gonna be a huge difference and shock when she hits the tent.

I totally agree with you Canuck, she needs to be strong before going into the dresser. Mainly Lost has a pretty good concept, I'd love to see him get it dialed in!

+ Reps

 

[thecanuck]

I would keep them under the lights to prevent stretching. We are still having a cold winter, flurries today and lots of snow still on the ground in my neck of the woods. Most snow pack for this time of year since 1958.

I was living up there a few years ago. Glad i missed the winter you guys just had lol

 

[mainlylost]

Im in western new york and the weather forecast says 50 degrees from here on out, fingers crossed on that lol. The tough thing is that all those lights are all mounted and it owuld be a pain to pull them our and mount them somewhere else. Would it be the same just to run it in the box but with the back totally off and pulled away from the wall so that it is more of an open air set up? Also would ambient light from the room throw off their light cycle if I had them out of the box or with the back off? Im not sure how strong the lighting has to be before it messes with their timing

 

[thecanuck]

It would be fine if you just had them under light without being enclosed for now. The most critical time for the complete lack of light is during flower. If theyre still in just veg you can interrupt the dark cycle (wouldnt make it a habit tho) without doing any harm. A lil tip...keep your grow space really clean. Itll help later on when your enviornment changes.

 

[mainlylost]

Today in my mailbox:

SEEDS!! Jeez, it felt like it took forever but now they are finnaly here !
I used the moist paper towel method and put the seeds between 2 dishes underneath all the lights to add a bit of heat.
I am started germinating 3 pyramid purple auto (they will go right into the flower chamber) 2 northern lights, 1 kush, and 1 cotton candy. So in total about 1/3 of the seeds that I ordered (I'll have backups if I screw up again lol).
I feel pretty good about germinating, that went pretty well last time.


Right around the time I fried my seed during my last attempt I did a ph test, and it came back pretty low. For that test I poured in ph ~6.5-7 water (bottled) and out came ph ~5. One of the comments I got, from tanR, was that I used a peat pot, which he said can turn acidic as it breaks down and screw with the ph. So I went out today an bought solot cups and cut some small holes into the bottoms. I intended to use these for the seeds to go into after germination: (sorry about the bad picture, my phone was low on battery and the flash wouldn't work)

Its just 4 small slits around the edges, and a slightly bigger slit in the middle. Ill add another pic of this later to make sure the holes are the proper size for drainage
so after making a few of these containers I added fresh soil right from the bag

and then tested the ph of water going in (bottled water) and run off.

bottled water:

^^ looks like ph~6.5ish to me

runoff:

^^ looks like ph 4. =/

I did it twice, with fresh soil just to be sure. I always kind of assumed that the soil would come out of the bag with a fairly neutral ph. Can it change over time? The bag has been just sitting in my closet for about 2 months. Am I missing something?
Thanks again for all the help. You guys have been beyond incredible so far.

 

[MaineSmoker]

Wow that seems way to acidic, I have never seen it drop that much in my experiences, but I never check PH as much as I should have in the past and will do so now.

 

[mainlylost]

Wow that seems way to acidic, I have never seen it drop that much in my experiences, but I never check PH as much as I should have in the past and will do so now.

That's whats confusing me, I haven't used the soil. It seems like the whole bag was sold to me already way acidic. My first thought was that the ph test was off, but the bottled water tested right. What can I add to raise the ph?

 

[PukingPanda]

Raising ph of soil that much might be a challenge. I would suggest buying something else because you don't want the problem coming up again later down the road. Dolomite Lime is used to help make soil more alkaline ph among also you could try crushed oyster shells, hardwood ash, crushed marble, or bone meal. I really dig your cabinet set up and I'll subscribe to watch the rest.

 

[PukingPanda]

Personally I grow in ff bush doctor coco loco soil and love it have yet to have a problem with it(this is my first grow using it)

 

[MaineSmoker]

Looking at the reviews for that soil, seems like you are not the only one with PH issues in the runoff. I think I would find some new medium.

 

[mainlylost]

So I ended up buying a bag of fox farms lightwarrior to start the seeds in. 2 days ago (the 7th) all of the seeds had germinated and had nice tap roots coming out . I planted all of them into red solo cups and put them into the box right underneath the lights. I have been keeping the cabinet open to let them breathe. The only trouble is I keep the door to my room closed to keep all the moisture in from the humidifier, which I have been able to get up to ~35. Because my room is so small and I keep the door closed it traps all the heat generated by the box in the room, so my room is probably about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of my house. The temp in the chambers has been staying between 73-85 degrees, so that should be ok, but I know if I close the box the temp will soar. I think I wont be able to close the box until I put my window AC unit in. I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow night depending on when I can get nice pics of them sprouting up through the soil.

 

[mainlylost]

on my way out to work today I peeked at them and you could just barely see the tips of them poking out, after I got home about 10 hours later most of them are all the way out of the dirt and starting to spread leaves. Only one plant has nothing at all coming through yet. Hopefully she will make an appearance tomorrow here is how they appear right now:



3 under the lamps in the flower room



5 under the lamps in the veg room




plants in the veg chamber



close up of the other one in the veg chamber



more plants in the veg chamber



more plants in the veg chamber.





one of the ones in the flower chamber



The other 2 in the flower chamber.

 

[mainlylost]

Today is the 6th day of being in soil. Its been tough the past few days to keep the temperature constant. The weather has been crazy here lately and I dont have central air. Its 10f out one day and the next its 65. Ive been able to keep the min/max between 75 and 89 degrees and hopefully soon the weather will make up its mind. Anyway here are some pictures of their current progress.


autoflower pyramid #1


AF pyramid #2


AF pyramid #3
These guys are so short. I have been running all of the plants on 18-6 light schedules. It must just be the genetics of these autoflowering guys that is keeping them short. The first one has literally no stem, the leaves are laying on top of the soil





northern lights #2


northern lights #1


cotton candy


northern lights #2


kush


Overall I am pretty happy. One of the kush germinated but never came out of the soil so she got thrown out. Other than that I think they all look healthy and are growing everyday

 

[PukingPanda]

you're looking good brotha man. Good call on the light warrior to start. I'm interested to see how the seed straight to 12/12 does for ya.

 

[mainlylost]

you're looking good brotha man. Good call on the light warrior to start. I'm interested to see how the seed straight to 12/12 does for ya.

I actually am running both on 18-6. I was reading that the AF strands will flower on their own schedule regardless of lights and that the extra light from 18-6 gives it a bit more energy to grow. If anyone has a better recommendation Im open to that too

 

[PukingPanda]

I actually am running both on 18-6. I was reading that the AF strands will flower on their own schedule regardless of lights and that the extra light from 18-6 gives it a bit more energy to grow. If anyone has a better recommendation Im open to that too

Ah I have never grown autos so I am not sure but that is a smart way to start. As far as your temps go mine go from 60-85 it snowed here all day yesterday and my flower room was about 59 when I opened it up and the lights kicked on. To help stabilize it I let the lights sleep during the day and run at night when it's cooler. What soil and pots are you planning on using when your plants get a little bigger? Smart pots have a lower profile if you want a couple extra inches of hight they might be something to look into. Keep it up! Everything will be booming and blooming soon

 

[mainlylost]

Ah I have never grown autos so I am not sure but that is a smart way to start. As far as your temps go mine go from 60-85 it snowed here all day yesterday and my flower room was about 59 when I opened it up and the lights kicked on. To help stabilize it I let the lights sleep during the day and run at night when it's cooler. What soil and pots are you planning on using when your plants get a little bigger? Smart pots have a lower profile if you want a couple extra inches of hight they might be something to look into. Keep it up! Everything will be booming and blooming soon

The temp as been tough but I have kept the min/max between 71-87, and usually they are around 80 degrees. I have just been juggling how wide open to leave my window and how sealed/open the box is corresponding to the outside temperature and if the lights are on and off. Once the temp out side gooes and stays up, I will just put my window AC unit in which will allow me to keep a fairly constant temp.

I have some square white pots they will be transplanted into when they are ready. Theyre probably a bit above a gallon in capacity. You can see them in some of the pics on page 1. For soil I am torn about what to do. I might try flushing the bag of roots organic soil I already have to get a more normal PH and then mixing it with lightwarrior in a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio . My only concern is flushing with that much water will make some of the nutrients run out of the soil. If I don't end up using the roots organic soil I already have I will probably buy a bag of FF ocean forest and mix that with the light warrior. Any suggestions which way to go?

 

[PukingPanda]

I know people who love the ocean forest I tried their new stuff the coco loco at the recommendation of the really awesome huge hydro shop in town. I wouldn't worry about the old soil just use it outside for something or a house plant but for twenty bucks you could avoid having that ph issue again. Next time I visit the shop I will be picking up some hydro clay balls to put on top of my soil to protect it from the light drying it out, and the water displacing it. Some people will say add stuff in and I am planning on reusing my soil by adding to it next time. Right now I am just using the cocoloco straight and it is great. It claims to retain water in it so you can "beat your dumb more" lol. I cant really say this is true but, I have never had a plant dry out and I haven't over watered because it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a saturated pot and one that is lacking. The best soils for cannabis in my opinion don't contain many nutrients, but living organisms that produce things that plants like and then additives like worm castings oyster shell etc.

 

[mainlylost]

Hi guys. Progress update for my ladies. It is their 9th day in dirt, and I am just a bit worried about some of them. I took a TON of pics and hopefully you guys can give me some feed back. My biggest concerns are that some of them dont seem to be growing at all, and some of them the leaves are a bit droopy. They are all still pretty green so maybe i am being a bit paranoid, but I figure better safe than sorry. I am also not quite sure about how I am doing with watering. I have read that the most common mistake is watering your plants to often so I have been trying to be really conscious of that. I usually try to poke a finger down into the lower parts of the cup to feel for moisture, but it is hard to tell, and as they are growing I am worried I will start poking their roots. Their last watering was probably about 60 hours ago. I am just waiting to get some feedback before I water them

Pyramid auto purple #1 This girl looks like she has hardly grown at all. Im a bit worried about her.

Pyramid auto purple #1 view from above

Pyramid purple auto #2 This girl looks like her leaves are curling up a bit.

another shot of pyramid purple auto #2

shot from above pyramid purple auto#2

Pyramid purple auto #3 This is the best looking pyramid, but it still doesnt seem to have done much in the past few days.

Pyramid purple auto #3 from above

northern lights #1

northern lights #1 from above

northern lights #2 this lady seems like she is drooping a ton.

another shot of northern lights #2

northern lights #2 from above

Kush

kush from above

Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy from above


Sorry to post so many pictures guys. I know it probably makes the page load kind of slow.