XxXD1PS3TXxX

Setup:
I have the simplest setup in the world as this is more of a test grow, that would be great if it produces a good yield. I have a box that I hooked a lighting fixture to with 4 light sockets. I will be using cfls for this grow currently I have 4 100w cfls 2700k but I'm going out to get 6500k today since they are better for vegging. I have a small fan at the bottom, and an exhaust hole at the top of the box, I am going to install a exhaust fan in that hole a little later into vegging.

Germination:
I filled a cup with about an inch of water, and then just put a bag seed in it. I then covered the cup so no light gets in and placed it on a heat mat on low. After about 24hr I saw the seed cracked in half but only the tip of the root was showing so I left it in the cup covered it back and raised increased the heat form the heat mat slightly. In about another 12 hrs the root was about 1/4 inch long. I took a cup and poked sooooo many holes on the bottom and filled it with soil. I then drenched the soil with water so everything was wet and tested the drainage of the soil/cup at this point too. The water was draining well so i took a pen made a hole on the top about 1/8th of an inch, placed the seed in root down, and covered it. I put it in the grow box, plugged in my lights and left it. In about another 24 hrs it sprouted

Seedling:
Ok so remember guys this is a test grow so I will be stressing the plants at different stages because ultimately I want to keep the plant low and bushy but not sacrifice yield. So It is now day 1 of the seedling stage and I figure if I stress it when its young and it recovers this plant would be a fighter lol.



So that pic above is Day 1, what I did was pulled one of the starter leaves back until it split down the center but not all the way maybe just 1/4 of the way, from the stem to about 1/4 way to the leaf there was a slight tear. It can't really be seen in the picture, but you can see I definitely bent it back.



Also as a note I water everyday but not a normal watering basically only to keep the top layer of soil moist, so that way I don't over water, and don't have to worry about the soil drying out, I also have the lights on 24hrs. So on day 2 the plant recovered marvelously besides the fact of a slight browning of the leaf that split, but the leaf is still healthy and I figure that browning should fix itself in a few days. Also I put a slight breeze on the plant to help strengthen the stem because I am thinking about tying them down and don't want the stem to snap when I pull it down for LST. Day 2 pics below.





So this is where I am at right now, I'll keep you guys posted and hopefully you guys pray its a girl ( I talk to the seedling every night telling it shes a beautiful little girl lol who knows it might help ... don't judge me lol)

Praise Jah

looks good

farmergiles

Germed nicely.

Don't mess with them too much until they get a bit bigger, they damage easy at that age.

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XxXD1PS3TXxX

Thanks guys .... and yea I will give the plant ample time to recover before I stress it again. I might not even stress it again I'm just going to tie it down once the first set of true pot leaves come so it grows bushy and then when i flower might do ScrOG not sure its all up in the air at this point. Also I couldn't find 6500k cfls at my local hardware store so I got 5500k which is along the same blue spectrum that they suck up right now.

stoneric

Good plan. LST is the cats ass. I keep my plants less than 2 feet after stretch, get about 10 bud sites going and get 4 oz's or more like clockwork.

XxXD1PS3TXxX

thanks everybody appreciate the input.

chefa da reefa

nice i hope everything works out for u

quick question do you water with nutrients from day 1 til the end? or when is the best time to start? and do you have to use nutrients or can u grow successfully without?

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XxXD1PS3TXxX

No definitely do not use nutrients from day one it will burn the plants. You should start using a half strength nute mix as soon as it starts veg state and then after a week or 2 I would use full strength. I am currently in the seedling stage. Also no you don't need nutrients at alll, but if your plants are deficient in a certain nutrient it will show you signs such as yellowing, wilting, curling leaves, etc. and then you will need the nutrients so its better to just use them to prevent the problems hope this helps.

chefa da reefa

very helpful thank you for the info.

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stoneric

Also depends on what growing medium you're using.

XxXD1PS3TXxX

Day 3 pics!!! lol .... So here is the daily update the cotyledon (I think that's what its called) that I stressed recovered beautifully, its just a little smaller then the other one since it spent part of its time recovering rather than growing. Also stem grew a little bit, the first set of true leaves are now bigger then the cotyledon and you can see that the second set of true leaves are coming in. Also you can tell by the difference in the lighting in the pictures from my previous post I'm using a light more in the blue spectrum which is better for vegging. Besides that no drastic change, I am going to start using nutes now even tho I would have liked to wait until about the 3rd or 4th set of true leaves came in, but my soil is missing nutes and essential phytonutrients, so I'm going to use a half strength very diluted solution for now with just a light spray. Any body out there have any suggestions on which nutes work well for soil grows. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Now enough with the talking time for pics

stoneric

Earth Juice grow for veg and bloom for flower worked good for me. I'm trying Biobizz nutes right now and I like them. They smell so good, it's hard not to drink them. I'd go organic, the taste is so much better imo.

José

i use ionic grow for veg, and pure blend soil formula pro flower. it's derived from fish emulsion, so I'm pretty sure it's 100% organic. smells pretty good too(not even kidding)! haha

XxXD1PS3TXxX

Does organic or non-organic really make that big of a difference, I mean if I flush the plant real good before harvest it shouldn't leave a bad taste. But will try some of those suggestions listed above. Thanks

José

i have no clue, i'm sure some good synthetic nutrients could make your bud taste better even. probably just personal preference if I had to guess. everyone eats processed food these days though so it hardly makes a difference unless you're only vaporizing.

but smoking is probably going to end up being worse for you than growing with partially synthetic nutrients. i mean they are pretty basic trace elements that are used in most 3 part fertilizers, msot of them are easier to be derived from natural things. i'm sure you won't get into too much synthetic stuff unless you get into some carbohydrate or hormone stuff. but you're right i have no clue how that makes a difference when it comes to flushing the buds at the end.

XxXD1PS3TXxX

Ahhhh just as I thought I'm going to use the synthetic crap because it's cheaper then organic and I'll flush them good. So I'm going to the gardening store tomorrow and look into some brands, I'll tell you what I end up using

farmergiles

Organic vs mineral nutes-

Organics chelate better- this means that unused nutes can be bound up in the soil for the plant to use when it needs them.

With mineral nutes on the other hand excess nutes are not so easily absorbed, they either build up as salts or are flushed away.

This means that organic nutes are more forgiving for dosage and for flushing at the end. Mineral nutes are more direct.
There's nothing wrong with mineral nutes, you just have to be accurate with dosage and make sure to flush well.

Organics tend to give better flavour.

If you really want to get into organics then you'd make your own soil mix with compost, bat guano etc.

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Peace seeker

havent had a chance to read the thread yet, but from a quick look on the pics, seedlings look good.

i ve had my eyes on those new low-energy 100W CFL's for vegging. Need to find a fixed 4-light socket though and i m thinking that 4 x 100Watt lamps (18W consumption for each lamp) plus the 4-light socket will be around 50E (70$).

thats maybe more than my electricity bill for the vegging period (40days) using my regular HPS for vegging. Dont know if its worth buying that set up.

what do u think FG? You have more xperience with CFL's during veg.

btw, are you guys totally covered with snow or what?? i ve been seeing it on the news for like almost a month now.

stoneric

Yeah. Some people don't think your growing true organic if you buy nutes that come in plastic bottles.

José

you're saying that the product Bud Candy is organic?

I hear good things about it. I've smoked bud that's rock hard dense that tastes great, and I'd be surprised if it was organic..