My first grow!
Hey all, just started my very first grow after grabbing ye olde MM card! Score.
I germinated them June 11th and had them in soil June 18th. These seeds I got from a friend who had them in a baggie (so no idea the strains).
I began them using a T8 LED grow light. 3 weeks later I found a few T12 fixtures that someone had removed from their garage and we're selling for $8 a piece. $20 later I have one up and running off an extension cord and plant lights.
(I will add pictures later)
This was a decent enough setup to start with the space I had at the time. I placed the T12 across the top of the 3 pots I had. The seedlings were about halfway down the pots so... 8 inches from the light. Now because the pots are white and the light was sitting on the rim, this allowed a decent amount of light reflection within the pot.
I also wired computers fans around the room. 1 x 4500rpm fan on each wall creating a vortex and 1 x 3000rpm at the back of the room to vent excess heat. Also in line one of the vent fans I placed 1 x 2500rpm fan pointing into each pot to keep the air moving around the lower foliage.
At this point my room is lined with reflectix and sits at a constant 60f/30% humidity outside the pots and 75f /50% humidity inside. The light is good for what I have and the heat is stable.
Being a first time grower I have no idea of when and what to do with these beautiful little unknown sex plants. (at the time I had no idea how to truly determine the sex and I was waiting for hairs. My wife on the other hand was fully convinced by the 4 week point that all 3 are female. She was right of course!)
So me being a new grower I'm not very well versed on how moist the soil should be.... yup I just kept adding water when the top of the soil was dry to touch. Not thinking about the amount of soil soaking up water...
My first few major mistakes were:
-Pots were enormous for seedlings. Should have started smaller and transplanted. The pots I had found at the garden store for 50Gal/$10. (Not bad in my head).
-Should have drilled out them drainage holes before adding dirt *derp*.
After the first 6 weeks, I was looking to maximize my yield down the road.
Looking on kijiji, I found a guy selling a 1000W HPS light setup (bulb, socket, shade, ballast and abut 15m of ext cord to go between the ballast and socket. Also threw in 15 x 1/2 gal and 10 x 1 gal pots. I know how to wire, so having it taken apart was a non issue.) For a grand total of $110... he also dropped it off. Score.
I wired the light up and placed it in the spot under the stairs I had built. Instantly my lumens shot through the roof and my temp was a constant 80f+ *eek*.
At this point I have read enough to know thus is a bit high. I have also introduced iggy juice every 3 days or more until I saw slower growth. (I also started topping and fIming at the... 3 week point) So after taking into consideration a multitude of options I have now moved out from under the stairs and into a larger space in the main basement. I also cut their pots down to 2inches above the soil line.
At 6 weeks my ladies (yes all 3 turned female) started exhibiting some root problems. So today I decided that enough was enough. Out to the store. Bought a couple deep trays for water, lined them with drainage & pea gravel and added some fertilized water. Also finally filled out those drainahe holes. The last item on my list was to dry out some of that super soaked soil in the bottom. So a 107L bag of SS#4 was bought. I carefully took my ladies out of their pots (ensuring not to damage the core root system). I took out about 75% of the rooty, super enriched and soaking wet soil. Swapped it and bended in SS#4 then planted the ladies back in.
With the pots sitting on pea gravel and surrounded by drainage gravel, I topped the water up so that each trays water level was about 1.5-2.5 inches. (Hopefully this will take care of my root issues.
My next step is a constant flowing of filtered water through the troughs. DIY setup shouldn't cost me more than $30 for a 3 plant setup.
I am continuing to LST these ladies and they seem to have perked up since the transplant.
Above is the current setup, still working on light proofing and insulating so that we can still use the rest of the basement.
My question (finally) :
When should I swap to 12/12 on these two? I am fairly positive that one is sat/ind (seems to be 80/20) and the other is a ind/sat (maybe 70/30 or 60/40).
Both, with the topping are sitting at 9 inches.
Also, off these pictures does anyone see any problems with the plants (just offhand observations looking at leaves.. ect.)?
I germinated them June 11th and had them in soil June 18th. These seeds I got from a friend who had them in a baggie (so no idea the strains).
I began them using a T8 LED grow light. 3 weeks later I found a few T12 fixtures that someone had removed from their garage and we're selling for $8 a piece. $20 later I have one up and running off an extension cord and plant lights.
(I will add pictures later)
This was a decent enough setup to start with the space I had at the time. I placed the T12 across the top of the 3 pots I had. The seedlings were about halfway down the pots so... 8 inches from the light. Now because the pots are white and the light was sitting on the rim, this allowed a decent amount of light reflection within the pot.
I also wired computers fans around the room. 1 x 4500rpm fan on each wall creating a vortex and 1 x 3000rpm at the back of the room to vent excess heat. Also in line one of the vent fans I placed 1 x 2500rpm fan pointing into each pot to keep the air moving around the lower foliage.
At this point my room is lined with reflectix and sits at a constant 60f/30% humidity outside the pots and 75f /50% humidity inside. The light is good for what I have and the heat is stable.
Being a first time grower I have no idea of when and what to do with these beautiful little unknown sex plants. (at the time I had no idea how to truly determine the sex and I was waiting for hairs. My wife on the other hand was fully convinced by the 4 week point that all 3 are female. She was right of course!)
So me being a new grower I'm not very well versed on how moist the soil should be.... yup I just kept adding water when the top of the soil was dry to touch. Not thinking about the amount of soil soaking up water...
My first few major mistakes were:
-Pots were enormous for seedlings. Should have started smaller and transplanted. The pots I had found at the garden store for 50Gal/$10. (Not bad in my head).
-Should have drilled out them drainage holes before adding dirt *derp*.
After the first 6 weeks, I was looking to maximize my yield down the road.
Looking on kijiji, I found a guy selling a 1000W HPS light setup (bulb, socket, shade, ballast and abut 15m of ext cord to go between the ballast and socket. Also threw in 15 x 1/2 gal and 10 x 1 gal pots. I know how to wire, so having it taken apart was a non issue.) For a grand total of $110... he also dropped it off. Score.
I wired the light up and placed it in the spot under the stairs I had built. Instantly my lumens shot through the roof and my temp was a constant 80f+ *eek*.
At this point I have read enough to know thus is a bit high. I have also introduced iggy juice every 3 days or more until I saw slower growth. (I also started topping and fIming at the... 3 week point) So after taking into consideration a multitude of options I have now moved out from under the stairs and into a larger space in the main basement. I also cut their pots down to 2inches above the soil line.
At 6 weeks my ladies (yes all 3 turned female) started exhibiting some root problems. So today I decided that enough was enough. Out to the store. Bought a couple deep trays for water, lined them with drainage & pea gravel and added some fertilized water. Also finally filled out those drainahe holes. The last item on my list was to dry out some of that super soaked soil in the bottom. So a 107L bag of SS#4 was bought. I carefully took my ladies out of their pots (ensuring not to damage the core root system). I took out about 75% of the rooty, super enriched and soaking wet soil. Swapped it and bended in SS#4 then planted the ladies back in.
With the pots sitting on pea gravel and surrounded by drainage gravel, I topped the water up so that each trays water level was about 1.5-2.5 inches. (Hopefully this will take care of my root issues.
My next step is a constant flowing of filtered water through the troughs. DIY setup shouldn't cost me more than $30 for a 3 plant setup.
I am continuing to LST these ladies and they seem to have perked up since the transplant.
Above is the current setup, still working on light proofing and insulating so that we can still use the rest of the basement.
My question (finally) :
When should I swap to 12/12 on these two? I am fairly positive that one is sat/ind (seems to be 80/20) and the other is a ind/sat (maybe 70/30 or 60/40).
Both, with the topping are sitting at 9 inches.
Also, off these pictures does anyone see any problems with the plants (just offhand observations looking at leaves.. ect.)?
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