First Time Grower - I really needed a hobby!

[PhantomSulker]

Hi everyone, with MI passing recreational usage, and timing perfect a friend that had grown for a while was moving out of state and gave me what he had. That along with a lot of free time at work I have read just about everything I can find and then when I think I understand a topic I read about 3 other opinions.

I am kind of a techie person so I have setup a WYSE WIFI enable 1080I camera on my 1500 LED Light, i like to watch my plants grow. I also bought a Goove H5051 WIFI Enabled Hydrometer it has enabled me to keep my heat and humidity levels consistent. In addition I have purchased 3 Kasa WIFI Smart Plugs 2 monitor power. The first Kasa device I bought did not have energy monitoring, so I bought 2 more and used that one to turn on and off my dehumidifier. All of these devices I can monitor on my smart phone and will make a post just about that and include some screen shots. The Kasa smart plugs also were big (too big for my power strip I bought some 8" Dongles that solved the problem.

I have also built a spreadsheet with all my cost and have built a formula to calculate the almost exact cost per OZ when the grow is done. but too early and I am buying stuff for next grow right now as well.

As for the plants, I don't know what they are, but the story goes that the guy I got the weed from did have a light problem and they hemed a bit but the bud was really good. So I saved the seeds. The guy that gave me the tent, grew 4 of them 3 of them turned out to males so I was worried about not have fem seeds, but first grow just go for it. I had 6 seeds and they all sprouted, but one got damaged while I was planting it in the cube and it died.

They are currently in the middle of week 3 flowering since going to 12/12 after 36 hr blackout.

I will post a ton of pictures that I have taken up through today and will post what I have been doing with them. I am open to any advice and like to research stuff so this has been a great new hobby it fills my down time. I will add post in chronological time from seed to now.

Information on plants so far:

11/28/18 - Friend gave me all the stuff he had.

[PhantomSulker]

12/14/18 - 12/21/18

I started the seeds in paper towel and then Sunday a friend who grows came over to help me get the tent setup. I was surprised how fast the roots grew when I took them out of the egg carton the roots had already attached to it. I should have cut it up and planted the whole thing?

[farmerjim]

Welcome fellow nerd! 🤘🤓👍🌱🍀🌳📊📉📈
Check out a few of my grow journals if you like data. I started growing about a year ago for the exact same reason, needed a hobby. I'm obsessed with timelapsing too. I post most of my video and timelapse stuff to my Instagram (@farmerjim420) if you're on IG check out the #wewatchgrassgrow

Loved your intro and about to catch up on the rest of the thread... just couldn't wa ait to greet a fellow self proclaimed (weed)nerd

[PhantomSulker]

12/22/18 - 1/27/18

Planted the cubes in 5 3-Gallon Pots from Amazon I forgot to add I had ordered a 1500 Watt LED light that came a few days before this. Actually I bought a whole bunch of additional stuff listed below. Will show more of these items soon.

Date	Amount	Where Purchased	Description	What For
12/16/18	$140.00	Amazon	LED 1500 Watt Light	The most important part and it will pay for itself in electrical saving in this first grow alone
12/19/18	$18.00	Amazon	4 of Soil pH Meter 3-in-1 Soil Test Kit For Moisture,Light & pH,Great For Garden,Farm, Lawn,Plants,Herbs & Gardening Tools,Indoor & Outdoor Plant Care Soil Tester(No Battery needed)	4 PH, Light, Meters, I had one already
12/19/18	$39.99	Amazon	Fitfirst 1200W/600W Ceramic Space Heater, Portable Electric Heater Fan with Adjustable Thermostat, Auto Oscillate, Tip-over And Overheat Protection, Carrying Handle, for Home Office Use	Works ok using the digital thermometer, it has helped me dial in the exact temperature, but would research further a better option.
12/19/18	$7.91	Amazon	Houseables Spray Bottle Cleaner, Plastic, 24 Oz. Professional Sprayer, Adjustable Nozzle, Pack of 3	Got to have a few
12/19/18	$13.99	Amazon	VIVOSUN 5-Pack 3 Gallon Plant Grow Bags, Premium Series Thichkened Non-Woven Aeration Fabric Pots w/Handles - Reinforced Weight Capacity & Extremely Durable (Black)	Grow Bags 3 Gallon, should have gotten 5 Gal to start
12/21/18	$20.13	InnerGrow	Potters Gold Soil	Soil for the 5 3 Gallon pots. Should have packed a bit more in and gotten 3 bags, after dirt settled,condensed down about 3 inches should have packed the dirt a bit.
12/21/18	$12.97	Amazon	iPower GLFANXCONTROL Exhaust Variable Speed Adjuster for Duct Inline Fan Vent Blower, HVAC Controls, 350W, Black	Exhaust Fan speed controller
12/21/18	$7.98	Amazon	iPower 4 Inch 8 Feet Non-Insulated Flex Air Aluminum Ducting Dryer Vent Hose for HVAC Ventilation, 2 Clamps included	to vent exhaust fan outside
12/21/18	$17.93	Amazon	iPower 4 Inch 100 CFM Booster Fan Inline Duct Vent Blower for HVAC Exhaust and Intake 5.5' Grounded Power Cord	Fan, it did not have a low enough speed but kept in case and shipping back was half of the cost
12/21/18	$75.99	Amazon	Wifi Temperature Humidity Monitor for iPhone/Android, Govee Wireless Digital Hygrometer Indoor Thermometer, Humidity Gauge, Wireless Temperature Sensor with Alerts(Data Log and Calibration Available)	WIFI Temp and Humidity Monitor, next to the camera my favorite thing to check on my phone.
12/21/18	$20.99	Amazon	Purple Reign 125V 24 Hour Hydroponic 8 Outlet Power Strip Grow Light Timer	Power Strip with timer, it sucks but using it as a power strip, do not buy this get a wifi smart plug or smart power strip
12/22/18	$14.95	Amazon	Happy Hydro 2 Pack Straight Tip Trimming Scissors Spring-Loaded Comfort Grip Handles Titanium Coated Blades	Trimming Scissors
12/22/18	$9.89	Amazon	Missry Associates Misco Plastic Watering Can, 2-Gallon, Lime Green	the spout fell off about the 2nd week, POS don't buy
12/22/18	$4.20	Amazon	Bulbrite 105425 25W Transparent Green A19 Bulb	Green Light for going in the dark times in tent
12/23/18	$5.99	Amazon	Samsung 32GB 95MB/s (U1) MicroSD EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME32GA/AM)	For Wyze Camera
12/23/18	$25.98	Amazon	Wyze Cam 1080p HD Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera with Night Vision, 2-Way Audio, Works with Alexa	Wyze 1080P wireless Smart Camera to monitor tent
12/24/18	$10.05	Tractor Supply	Zip Ties and Vent	Always need zip ties and got a reducer for the vent fan

[Rwise]

Is it just me or are only 2 pics showing?
I use the same meter and I luv it,

[Canuck147]

I'll reserve judgment til I see more pics.

[PhantomSulker]

For some reason it won't let me upload more I will get them up I just downloaded over 200 photos from my Google Photos.

[PhantomSulker]

12/28/18 to 12/31/18

Happy new year to the plants they are doing well, I took everything out of the tent and moved all my electrical up to the ceiling. I was not comfortable with draining water and electricity and I am usually standing in there barefoot. I also started them on the grow formula from the fertilizers that my friend gave me. They are old, I am thinking I should buy new nutrients for the next grow.

I don't think my photos are loading so I am going to take a break posting. Pictures for now.

[Canuck147]

Way to grow! Glad to see all that new stuff you got - first impressions with your first pics was - looks like a lot of. crap. Good to see you are changing that. Yeah - pics aren't working.

[Potted]

Some pitchers dident, but from what I can see and here hopefully u will try again

[alltatup]

Hi Sulker, welcome to the forum!! Sounds like you have some fun toys to play with; all my toys are for making concentrates.

Old nutrients: I had a hella time for around 3 weeks using old nutes which were expired, I realized as I watched my plants' leave yellow and get brown splotches until my new nutes arrived. Then they bounced back real nice. But if you see lower leaf signs, you may very well need to replace those nutes.

I also got some hermied seeds on one of my grows where all the bud was excellent. But I didn't mess with any of em; your grow will be exciting!

ps. This is the best hobby in the cosmos.

[PhantomSulker]

Yeah, I don't even know how old they are, but the Maxi Grow was almost solid when I got it I broke it all up and seems to be working just fine. I did have some nut burn early, but that was me using nutes from day one no knowing yet that the dirt had all they needed.

I ordered yesterday, Geloto and Strawberry Banana for my next grow so getting ready for that I will likely buy a new set of nutes.

[PhantomSulker]

For some reason any photos I try to upload show up with a broke picture icon in the middle. Anyone have any knowledge if there are issues uploading photos or is there a limit?

[PhantomSulker]

Well now I can upload photos it looks like again. I will fast forward. I found pollen sacks on one plant today, I thought I saw them yesterday, but today it was evident. So one plant is coming out when I get home. I switched from my LED light to a HID due to the extreme cold we are having in Southwest MI. Tomorrow the windchill is going to -38 below 0. I added 2 clip fans to blow down and have 2 fan units from humidifiers running below the plants so lots of good air circulation.

[alltatup]

PhantomSulker Yo, I'm a little concerned about all those calls on the second picture, because I don't see any pistils. Those may be pollen sacs; you should start a new post: Pollen Sacs??? or some such thing, and get some more opinions. They don't look like calyxes to me... could be bad news...

[PhantomSulker]

This past Saturday, I trimmed up all the lower 20% and took a lot of shade leaves out. I also gave each one a bath in the sink. They are doing great (except one male) but the rest look good.

[alltatup]

does my comment
above refer to the male you removed? You did remove him, right?

[PhantomSulker]

I did remove the two the other day and then some Pollen Sacs showed up on another so I am down to 2 of them and a friend came over and thinks the other two are male also. He brought me 8 clones he had growing, but in the time he walked from the car to my back door i think the -14 temp killed them. One looked ok this morning. My seeds I ordered should be here today, the mail has not run for last 2 days due to storm. I will post some photos of the remaining 2 plants soon.

[PhantomSulker]

I just checked on the last 2 of my 5 plants ans am pretty sure they are female. I posted photos from the last 2 days including the clones I got that are in the veg tent. Hope one or more make it. They were from flowering plants and the guy that gave them to me said to just plant them as soon as they start showing roots out of the cube. I am just going to keep them on 12/12 and see what happens.

I included a photo of the male plants in a box at -15 degrees in garage overnight.

[alltatup]

Pollen happens...

[TLP80905]

The remaining plants do look like females. You should be good. Too bad about the others.

[PhantomSulker]

One of the two plants kept getting taller and I could not put my light up any further, so i tied a clip to one of the tent poles and made it go sideways. I also spent some time yesterday tieing various branches apart so all the leaves are all getting light. I did not take detailed photos after. But they are both doing well.

The clones my buddy brought over are starting to grow on Sunday I switched the light back to 16/8 and going to see if they grow and I took some cuttings off the two plants in the flowering tent and put them in water in the veg tent. I will just see what happens with them. I am going to put the cuttings I took in root cubes this evening.