Space Docking in a cali closet with bagseed and a 400w MH/HPS setup

[eastbaybeast]

Hey whats up everybody? California grower here just trying to grow some proper chronic. This is my first time with this setup (3rd grow of my life, but first in a long time), so I am using bag seed. I live in an apartment and my lease ends in 4 months so I am on a deadline and therefore am pretty much doing a trial run here. Anything I get will be great. My next grow (hopefully in a house by then) will be with a quality strain.

Since starting one of these takes a while, I'll skip the bullshit and get down to it.

Details:

Strain- Bagseed
Lights- 400w MH conversion bulb for veg; 400w AgroMax HPS for flower. All of this in a nice enclosed aluminum HTG hood. 18/6 for veg.
Medium- SunFirst Ocean (organic) compost/soil mix with 30% vermiculite for veg. Kellog's Outdoor Patio Soil (organic) with 40% perlite for flower. Half gallon grow bags for veg, 3 gallon pots for flower.
Ventilation- A large fan blower unit with a supplemental AC unit to keep the room at a constant 75F.
Nutrients- Earth Juice Grow, Earth Juice Bloom, Grandma's Best molasses, Bloombastic
Planned time line- I plan on topping each at least once during veg (probably twice), and perhaps doing a SCROG. I want to veg them for 30 days, then flower them anywhere from 60-70 days if possible. Since they are bagseed, I will be sexing them in these half gallon grow bags up until they show their sex (this will be about a week into flower I would think). I will then select the 4 best females and proceed!

I originally had 10 seeds that I germinated in a soil tray with CFLs. After receiving my proper grow lights, supplies, etc., I transplanted them into half gallon grow bags. 9 survived the transplant.

While the plants had been above soil for about a week under the CFLs, the day I transplanted them into the grow bags and put them under the MH light is the day I call Day 1.

Pics of my grow setup are below along with Day 1 (dun dun DUN!) pics.


****UPDATED GROW NOTES****

FIRST GROW
12/28/09 - seeds done germinating then planted
01/01/10 - 10 seedlings survive
01/04/10 - watered all with plain water
01/07/10 - transplanted to 1/2 g grow bags, watered with plain water
01/08/10 - forgot to turn on ac, seedlings endure 5 hours of 130F heat
01/10/10 - one seedling survives

START OF CURRENT GROW01/10/10 - germinate 9 new seeds
01/12/10 - seed planted into 1/2 gal grow bags
01/14/10 - watered all with plain water
01/16/10 - 9 seedlings total, including "Survivor #1" from the First Grow
01/17/10 - watered all with plain water
01/20/10 - watered "Survivor #1" with 2ml/g Grow fert
01/21/10 - watered all other seedlings plain water
01/25/10 - topped "Survivor #1" at 5th node
01/27/10 - watered all with plain water
01/28/10 - moved mh400 down to 15" above canopy
01/29/10 - topped "Plant #2" at 5th node
02/01/10 - watered "Survivor #1, Plant #2,3,4,5" with 2mL/gal Grow fert
02/01/10 - watered "Plant #6-8" with plain water
02/02/10 - topped "Plant #4,5" at 5th node
02/06/10 - watered "Survivor #1, Plant #2-4" with 5mL/gal Grow fert
02/06/10 - watered "Plant #5-8" with plain water
02/07/10 - topped "Plant #7" at 5th node
02/12/10 - watered "Survivor #1, Plant #2" with 7.5mL/gal Grow fert
02/12/10 - watered "Plant #3-8" with 5mL/gal frow fert
02/13/10 - transplanted "Survivor #1, Plants 2,4,5" into 4 gal pots
02/13/10 - trashed "Plants #3 and 8", 6 plants remain
02/17/10 - watered "Survivor #1, Plants 2,4,5" with 10ml/gal Grow fert
02/21/10 - switched to 12/12 lighting, put plants in 24 hours of darkness
02/21/10 - watered all plants with 10ml/gal Grow, 5ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses
02/22/10 - Day 1 of flower
02/25/10 - watered all plants with 5ml/gal Grow, 10ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses
03/01/10 - chopped down 4 male plants. 2 plants remain.
03/03/10 - chopped down 1 male plant. 1 female remains.
03/03/10 - watered with 15ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses
03/06/10 - watered with 15ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 10ml/gal Grow, 1ml/gal Bloombastic, 1tsp/gal vinegar
03/12/10 - watered with plain water
03/15/10 - watered with 20ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 20ml/gal Grow, 1ml/gal Bloombastic
03/20/10 - watered with plain water
03/21/10 - added 6 cups topsoil amendment to pot
03/22/10 - watered with 25ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 10ml/gal Grow, 1ml/gal Bloombastic
03/24/10 - watered with plain water
03/28/10 - watered with 25ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 1ml/gal Bloombastic
03/31/10 - watered with plain water
04/04/10 - watered with 25ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 1ml/gal Bloombastic
04/07/10 - watered with 25ml/gal Bloom fert, 15ml/gal molasses, 1ml/gal Bloombastic

 

[eastbaybeast]

Ok so now that we are all caught up. I have an update already!

Pics are of Day 3 now (today). Only change visible is that I have added some vermiculite on the top to keep the topsoil moist.

Plants seem to be getting out of the transplant shock. I am looking forward to positive growth in the coming days.

That's all I can think of right now!

 

[eastbaybeast]

More pics.

 

[chadleebuds]

Dont be so down about bagseed, I bet that shit will be chronic.

 

[:-(]

Your grow looks good beast. But watch out, your 400 watt HID light can be too intense for seedlings. You might want to leave them under CFL's until they get a little stronger. Good luck!

 

[eastbaybeast]

Ya I hope this bag seed blows up in my face and surprises me with a good harvest.

I've got the 400w about 26" off the tops of the seedlings, with plenty of airflow in between; I think they should be alright.

I'll be updating in a few days. Hopefully they will have doubled (tripled??) by then.

 

[eastbaybeast]

shiiiiiit..........well I messed up this morning. forgot to turn the ac on. came home for lunch (from work) and my closet was about 200F. I cooked almost every single seedling. Only 4 of them look like they MIGHT make it.

::sigh::

germinating some more seeds right now. about a week set back so I guess not too bad.

i'll update this pos journal when I have something worthwhile to report.

 

[:-(]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, now's a good time to think about fire prevention.

 

[eastbaybeast]

.

 

[eastbaybeast]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, now's a good time to think about fire prevention.

ya a fire extinguisher would be good. aye good tip.

a few pics of the only survivor. this one survived 3 hours of probably 150F+ temps and lived...sorta. I'll have a 42w CFL on it in the meantime.

I expect the new seeds to break earth on Friday or Saturday at the latest...

 

[chadleebuds]

Thats why u should have vegged under a cfl for two weeks then slowly introduced them to the MH once they got strong enough...

 

[eastbaybeast]

Thats why u should have vegged under a cfl for two weeks then slowly introduced them to the MH once they got strong enough...

Ya true enough. That's what I am doing now.

New seedlings are popping up. Right now there are 5 showing. Yawn.

The one survivor of the last bunch, however, is actually starting to grow.

Pics below.

 

[:-(]

Lookin better already eastbay, first grow always = workin out the kinks.

All the best

PS: I updated my grow log per request

 

[eastbaybeast]

Lookin better already eastbay, first grow always = workin out the kinks.

All the best

PS: I updated my grow log per request

Niiiiice. Your shit is looking good dude.


Nothing too major to report on my end. The new seedlings are doing well and the one survivor of the last bunch is coming along. I have 5 of the largest seedlings under the MH400 and the other 3 (8 total) under two 42w CFLs.

All of them have just been watered with plain water, although tonight I gave the Survivor (I guess that's what I'll call it then then. I'll have to start capitalizing its name now, lol) a very mild dose (2ml/gal) of the Earth Juice Grow (2-1-1) fert since this is its 3rd week. I'll see how it looks tomorrow.

I'll start updating the first post with my watering/fert/events notes, also.


Laterrrrrrr I'm off to

Pics below.

 

[eastbaybeast]

My Earth Juice Grow and Bloom ferts ingredients for anyone interested:


I am also going to consider putting in some of this Bloom Bastic during flowering. Reading other peoples threads about it now. Does anyone think it's worth it?


Aaaand a quick update on the biggest plant.



The rest of the seedlings are growing fast!

 

[chadleebuds]

My Earth Juice Grow and Bloom ferts ingredients for anyone interested:


I am also going to consider putting in some of this Bloom Bastic during flowering. Reading other peoples threads about it now. Does anyone think it's worth it?


Aaaand a quick update on the biggest plant.



The rest of the seedlings are growing fast!

Aaaaaannnndddddddd there she goes!

 

[eastbaybeast]

Quick update with some important events:

1) Couple days ago I switched the lights to 18/6, for no real reason at all. Yup.
2) I topped the biggest plant earlier this week.
3) I lowered the MH400 from about 25" to 15" from the top of the canopy. I have a 24" fan pulling in air and blowing directly at the top of the canopy/light from about 3 feet away. Top canopy temp. stays around 75-78F. They are getting a TON more light now. Should be good.

I'll have new pics up and I will update my Grow Notes this weekend. Right now I am stuck out of town (work related) for the next couple of days. My grow closet is running on auto-pilot until I get back! I hope they're safe!

Before/After shots of the topping should be interesting!

 

[eastbaybeast]

Alright so I got home last night and everything was fine while I was gone for a couple days. The largest of the plants are growing faster and faster, however there are a few runts in my lot. The youngest plants are now about a week from sprout with the next oldest just at the 2 week mark from sprout. The Survivor is just at 4 weeks (that's how much the heat stress and subsequent transplant stressed it out; it's only this big for being this old).

I now know that I should have started the seedlings off in much smaller containers to get their root balls formed. This is probably why some are growing so slow; they are still wrapping their roots around the 1/2 gal grow bags I started them in! Oh well.

They are all going to be at different heights sooner or later because of the age difference. Oh, well. There is a solution for that.

Enter topping:

The Survivor has recovered better than I expected from the topping.


January 25th

January 30th


I also topped the next biggest plant last night. Just reached the 5th inter-node and so I decided to pluck it.

That's about it. Other than the fact that I totally underestimated the power of vermiculite in keeping the soil moist (I water every 5-7 days right now), and also regret the fact that I should have started the seedlings in smaller containers, everything is going to plan.


Full garden shot. 01-30-10.


Laterrrrrr

 

[chadleebuds]

Looks like you got some sativa bagseed.

 

[eastbaybeast]

Looks like you got some sativa bagseed.

Ya there are a few different phenotypes in this bag mix. At least three unique types (very sativa, mostly sativa, and a pretty good 50/50 sativa/indica mix).


Anyways, there has been some impressive growth in the plants this week. I'll post some pics in a week or so. I can't fill up my 100 picture quota on fucking seedling pictures anymore!

Peace,