# My very first grow



## timdog4 (Nov 1, 2007)

Hey guys, I started my grow last Friday.  I am very anxious and a little scared at the same time.  I hope some people will help me along and give me some advice.  My grow space is 3'6x3'6x6'.  I am using a 400 watt metal halide light that I got for free from work. It is a high bay or low bay light, I altered it by removing socket, buying a reflector and new socket.  I had 100% germination but some didnt sprout.  I either didnt water enough or too much heat.  I am using fox farm ocean forest soil with nothing added, i am not sure if i should have added perlite or vermiculite.  I have 5 babies that sprouted but the seed shell still is on with only 1 showing a leave.  A friend of a friend just finished a grow and i got some an it was great.  These are supposedly the seeds from it, i know what is suppoed to be but I was thinking I wouldnt say and see if anyone can tell. It could be fun.  I think they might need watering but not sure.  I havent watered them since i planted.  I keep reading horror stories about overwatering.  Here are some pics, sorry about quality, trying to work on that, any ideas?


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## timdog4 (Nov 1, 2007)

Anyone know how I can raise the humidity, its only 29, is that a problem.  I tried a bucket of water and I even bought a little humidifier.  I think my exhaust fan is just eliminating the moisture.  Any ideas?


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## tleaf jr. (Nov 1, 2007)

uhhh freez a bottle of water put it in front of the fan pushing the air in (this will bring down your temps to )so be careful .happy growing


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## timdog4 (Nov 2, 2007)

Hello, my 1 week old babies have yellow on the tips of their leaves. Is this normal, I used foxfarm ocean forest soil, so i dont think they need nutes yet. Heres a pic, poor quality on closeups, hopefully someone can help.


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## Chubakkaz (Nov 2, 2007)

can't really see much, I try to keep the soil moist on mine when they are tiny like that. haven't had a problem yet.


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## theCre8or (Nov 2, 2007)

Seedlings like humidity and moisure.   I just started my first grow and I did one under a dome and one without and the one under a humidity dome did much better.  Very moist soil, too.  Just as a seedling.  Just for the 2 weeks. 

Just use a strawberry or grapes container.   It worked perfect for me.


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## timdog4 (Nov 14, 2007)

Thought i would update since i havent lately.  Growth was going real slow so I went out and bought another 400 w switchable ballast( which ill use in my flower room once i build it) , giving me two 400w mh lights.  Also bought air cooled reflector and made the reflector I already had aircooled(Bought some aluminum angle and glass from lowes), but havent ran flex duct yet but I will this weekend.  I started out with six but a few didnt make it but over the last couple weeks added some more seedlings.  The 3 oldest are on day 19 from the day i planted and a few others a week or so behind and rest just planted(12 total).  I started nutes on one yesterday just to see how it would respond.  It did fine so i fed the others nutes today.  I used ff grow big and big bloom at quarter strength.  Not sure why ff recommends big bloom in veg but I trust them.  Should i feed nutes every watering or just stick to every other?  Here are some pics, the first pic of one by itself is the bushiest , it is staying short.  2nd and 3rd are also 19 days old. 2 group photos of all 12 and new light.
Any input or comments are welcome and would be appreciated, I need all the help I can get.  How do they look for their age?


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## Sinkcrownize (Nov 14, 2007)

Damn, looks like you got a nice setup there.
looks good


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## DankCloset (Nov 15, 2007)

looks pretty well thought out, good job hombre.


Dc


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## 85cannabliss (Nov 15, 2007)

hey TIM, nice setup, and you got 12 plants to go in there. elliminate the males and you should be able to fit a max of 9 plants in the spce you have. cant wait t o see how this turns out.

keep it green 85C


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## audix2359 (Nov 15, 2007)

Looks like those plants have made some nice progress since they broke soil.  How's the humidity working out?


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## timdog4 (Nov 15, 2007)

Hey thanks everyone for the nice comments and checking out my journal.  Hey audix the humidity is still around 30, tried humidifier, bowl of water, frozen bottle of water and cant seem to raise it, but oh well.
  I need some help here, I went to check on my girls(I hope) and noticed something weird.  One of them has 2 stems coming out of the soil.  I looks like two seperate plants.  I know I only put one seed in the pot, I wasnt that stoned.  Has anyone ever seen this before or have an ideas what is going on.  I tried to move some dirt away to see what was going on but i dont want to hurt it.  Here is some pics


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## yeroc1982 (Nov 15, 2007)

Looks good man!


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## timdog4 (Nov 15, 2007)

I have a stupid question, Can 1 seed produce 2 plants?  Check out the pics above from my last post.  Let me know what you guys think.


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## krazycraker (Nov 16, 2007)

im no expert but i would think you want to get that out of there so there not fighting for space.


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## timdog4 (Nov 21, 2007)

Day 26 update. My babies still seem small to me for 26 days, but what do I know. But just by looking at other pics, they seem smaller. Any thoughts? I said that i wanted to see if people could guess the strain, but now I realize thats almost impossible so they are northern lights(supposedly). I got a bag from a friend of a friend of some killer smoke so i inquired and come to find out he was growing and said it was nl and these were the seeds. So there you have it my first grow is northern lights. with one or two bag seeds also. Is this why they look small maybe because nl stay short and bushy?  
  Ive been giving nutes every other watering. Started with 1/4 strength to half and next will be full strength. They are taking nutes well. I was thinking of transplanting the 3 biggest(the ones in the first pic) into 3 gallon pots. Does anyone think they are ready? They are almost as tall as the pots and i dont wanna risk them getting root bound. I would appreciate some feedback on this.
  I also got some new lights from work for free(i love my job). 4 100w hps shown in pic and another 400 w metal halide. I know have 3 400w mh, 1 400w switchable mh hps, and 4 100w hps. I dont know what im gonna do with all these but i just had to have them. They are everywhere at work, I swear there must be a thousand 400w mh ballasts laying around at work.
Anyways the first pic is the 3 oldest in same order as pic from last update to show progress. What you guys think? 2 group pics of my 8 that are left(some didnt sprout), and pic of new lights.


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## timdog4 (Nov 22, 2007)

Should I transplant today?  Will someone give me their opinion


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## tom-tom (Nov 22, 2007)

im pretty shure u can transplant any time u want but yes i would get them in biger pots also did u say that u are gonna give them full strengh nutes now?cause they should not be getting full strengh till close to the end i think ive read that but im not possitive,i have to say they look pretty good to me but when u transplant them i dont think id give them a full strengh nutes cause sometimes when u transplant they go a little limp u dont wanna shock them also be carefull with the root ball when i trans planted my plant it did not get any shock at all it started growing like crazy now plus i m usein fox farm ocean forest like u are but in any rate good luck and they look great i think when u get them in a bigger pot their gonna realy start growin faster for u since u got all them lights on them lol i wish i had just 1 of them lights ur lucky bud...


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## DankCloset (Nov 22, 2007)

my goal is to only transplant them once, from a 4' square pot to a 5gal, also its not efficient at all for 2 plants to grow that close, look at my journal. one will get seriously stunted and hard to light.


Dc


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## 85cannabliss (Nov 22, 2007)

looking good timdog, ive seen twins a few times. not my own, but others have had these. good you have seprated them, we can see how they do from the single plant seeds.


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## DankCloset (Nov 22, 2007)

oh shizzle, twins, damn i should have read a bit closer, hey man thats cool, now the trick is to see if there both female, that would be a trip. in theory there identical in genetics right? have you done any research on twins?

Dc


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## timdog4 (Nov 22, 2007)

i am sorry to say the baby twin didnt make it.  I transplanted the little one but he didnt make it.  I didnt really know twins was possibe, everybody had me convince i was stoned and put 2 seeds in one pot.  I still have 8 left.  
  I transplanted the 3 big ones into 3 gallon pots.  That was my first experience with transplanting, it was a little nerveracking but I think I did alright. I hope they didnt get shocked too bad.  
  The 3 oldest are gonna be 4 weeks since day I planted tommorow.  How much longer should they veg?  I thought most people start flower at 4 weeks, but i dont think they are ready.  Any opinions?
  Also I am gonna build flower room this weekend and get a squirrel cage fan. Does anyone know any links to building grow room?  I am not sue how big I am gonna make it.  The room is 3'9" wide so I was thinking 3 feet by 3'9".  Does that sound good for 400 hps or should i go a little smaller?


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## timdog4 (Nov 23, 2007)

I am going to start building my flower room today.  I went and got some 2x4s and 4x8 sheets of mdf.  I also picked up a 265 cfm squirrel cage fan.  I think im gonna make it 3x3x7' tall.  Does anyone have any good links to building flower room?  Any ideas?


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## lyfr (Nov 23, 2007)

400 should be ok in 3x3...you want roughly 50watts/5000 lumens per sq foot. line it with mylar and it should be plenty.sounds like you got a good plan,cant wait for the green.good luck


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## DankCloset (Nov 23, 2007)

go get some superthrive, that will help your plants with shock, its mainly vitamin B-12, which is nutes the plant can assimilate immediatly.


Dc


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## timdog4 (Nov 26, 2007)

Thought i would throw up some pics and quick update.  I started full strength nutes on 3 oldest and half strength on the rest with superthrive also.  They are taking nutes well, no burn.  I installed 265 cfm squirrel blower and am gonna make my carbon filter right now.  My 3 oldest babies are almost 5 weeks old, still seem small to me.  The others are a week or so behind them.  I am thinking of flowering them in the next couple days, what you guys think?  Can anyone see any sex traits in the pics?


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## Ekoostik_Hookah (Nov 27, 2007)

:yeahthat:  looking good dude, cant wait to see them bud
 are you going to clone???


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## audix2359 (Nov 27, 2007)

I'm not seeing any pre-flowers but it's kind of hard to tell from those pics.  You might want to pick up a magnifying glass to search for pre-flowers.


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## Wise Man (Nov 27, 2007)

Nice tight nodes man.

I dont see any pre's either.


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## timdog4 (Dec 10, 2007)

I started flower 12-2-07 , so like 8 days ago.  I have 8 babies and i believe 3 are males and 2 females and 3 not showing sex yet.  I seperated the 3 i believe to be males until I can confirm that.  This is my first grow so I wanna make sure so Ill wait a couple more days before I murder them.  It was amazing looking through the magnifying glass and seeing them pistils for the first time.  The strain is supposedly northern lights from an aquaintance that grew some.  I got a bag from him and it was the bomb so hopefully these are the same seeds.  It cost me $100 for a 1/4 so i am stoked.  Ill throw some pics up later after i feed them.  Also how long till the sacs release their pollen?  How much time do you have?  I want to keep some to mix in the future.  How would i go about this and would it stay good for a while?  I wish i could get some good pics of preflowers, comes out blurry, i guess 3.2 megapixel camera is not good enough.


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## timdog4 (Dec 10, 2007)

Hey guys, need some help.  I am using distilled water with ph between 6 and 6.5 but when I add my fox farm nutes the ph drops to under 5.  Am i supposed to adjust ph after I add my nutes, that dont make sense to me.  Please help before I feed tonight.


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## SmknWhiteWidow (Dec 10, 2007)

PH should be tested after the nutes have been added.


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## timdog4 (Dec 30, 2007)

I have been slackin on the journal, but heres some pics.  Im in 4th week of flower and everything was great till a couple days ago.  2 of my 4 plants have leaves with spots that started out light green and turned orangish brown and are curled under.  I cant quite figure it out, but i hope it will be okay.  I flushed one of them yesterday to see if that would help but not sure if it did yet.  I posted a thread with pics and info in sick plants but havent got great advice.  Please check it out and tell me what ya think.  Could low potassium cause this, i tested npk and potash was low.


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## timdog4 (Jan 6, 2008)

I though i would throw up some pics, had some nute burn or something on 2 of my babies but i think their okay.  I am gonna take it easy on the nutes, every other feeding starting 1/2 strength again.  Here are the 4 loves of my life and 6 more veggin almost 2 weeks.  Im gonna put them in veg room under 400 w mh once i get the ventilation done.  Do you guys think a 265 cfm dayton squirrel cage fan would be okay for both rooms.  They are combined 20 sq foot but my flower room has aircooled hood and carbon filter.  Thought it would be sweet if i could just get a 6"y and run it to veg room.  If not i guess im gonna have to get another fan maybe inline blower this time, new toy:yay:


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## timdog4 (Jan 13, 2008)

Day 42 of Flower.  I think I am thru the problems i was having, still not sure what it was.  I got my new toy yesterday, an oakton ph testr20, so ph will be easy from now on.  I just watered with 1/2 strength nutes , re introducing at low amount after the problem i had with 1 of my babies.  Here they are along with 6 other northern lights veggin it up.


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## 4u2sm0ke (Jan 13, 2008)

Hey Dog...Looking Great Man...and KEEP IT GREEN!!!!


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## HydroGrower13 (Jan 15, 2008)

They look good but for 19 days they are way small compared to mine! I am doing hydro ebb and flow and the stalks are like a sharpie at day 23! I also put some in soil and although hydro is alot of work it makes the soil plants look really bad! I also use 4 flourescent fixtues 4 tube t-8's with 3 daylight and 1 warm........ I just started to build a MH and HSP fixture out of a 2 x 4' fixture and the plants dance to the light from that! The undergrowth is coming out from behind the fan leaves and one plant has a 12 point leaf on it! The ******* leaves are bigger than my hand and I have never ever seen such growth in my life , but this is my 1st hydro project and my god are they healthy! Look up my posted pics and you will see the difference as I also posted the soil grown ones too and they are similar to yours so you are NOT doing so bad! Keep up the good work, but Hydro is the way to Grow!


			
				timdog4 said:
			
		

> Day 26 update. My babies still seem small to me for 26 days, but what do I know. But just by looking at other pics, they seem smaller. Any thoughts? I said that i wanted to see if people could guess the strain, but now I realize thats almost impossible so they are northern lights(supposedly). I got a bag from a friend of a friend of some killer smoke so i inquired and come to find out he was growing and said it was nl and these were the seeds. So there you have it my first grow is northern lights. with one or two bag seeds also. Is this why they look small maybe because nl stay short and bushy?
> Ive been giving nutes every other watering. Started with 1/4 strength to half and next will be full strength. They are taking nutes well. I was thinking of transplanting the 3 biggest(the ones in the first pic) into 3 gallon pots. Does anyone think they are ready? They are almost as tall as the pots and i dont wanna risk them getting root bound. I would appreciate some feedback on this.
> I also got some new lights from work for free(i love my job). 4 100w hps shown in pic and another 400 w metal halide. I know have 3 400w mh, 1 400w switchable mh hps, and 4 100w hps. I dont know what im gonna do with all these but i just had to have them. They are everywhere at work, I swear there must be a thousand 400w mh ballasts laying around at work.
> Anyways the first pic is the 3 oldest in same order as pic from last update to show progress. What you guys think? 2 group pics of my 8 that are left(some didnt sprout), and pic of new lights.


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## pharcyde (Jan 15, 2008)

timdog4 you got a nice set up!  It's looking real good, your friend wasn't lying when he gave u those seeds!

Definitely liking that veg room - you are thinking about the future, haha.:aok:


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## akirahz (Jan 15, 2008)

Wow really filling out and getting huge, how old was the bulb in the 400 w metal halide when they gave it too you? Or did you stick a new one in? Very nice NL's man, hats off over here


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## Tater (Sep 22, 2008)

Nice plants watch those leaves and check the stickies.  One of the posts in the stickies contains a link to the old overgrow nutrient deficiency page and it has pictures and will really help you with identifying nutrient deficiency's.  Also the reason your plants were small at 26 days (just commenting on the first page of your thread) is because of over watering.  Your leaves were showing classic signs of being overwatered, but they seem to have rebounded splendidly.  Good luck.


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## stoner (Sep 22, 2008)

nice man


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