First grow 6 weeks in, ebb and flow

[shaunthezombie]

Well this is my first crop... ever.... took me some bag-seeds, germinated in a towel, and here I am 5 weeks later... using 4 shop light florescents, 2 48" sunlight 5k grow-lights, 2 48" 6.5k and 2 cool white florescents, keeping my heat at 80 degrees and just upped my ppm to 700 via my Hanna or 1.4 EC and my PH somewhere in between 5.5 and 6.5. At first I was spraying a light nute mix on the foliage and ended up nute burning the lower leaves, so I stopped that altogether (I was basically concerned that my rapid rooters would dry up and my plants would die), so I was doing what all new growers were doing and worrying too much, over watering and all. Now there's no sign on my upper leaves of any nute burn, the branches have a slight pink to them up top, and I'm not sure if that's good or not, but it looks awesome. 5 weeks into the grow and my biggest is almost a foot and the others are catching up, probably put them through a little bit of shock with my trial and errors.... I don't use a timer ,I basically just kick my pump on 3 times a day for about 10-15 minutes, flood and drain on my homemade ebb and flow... I'm up for any advice that anyone has... I have no idea which ones are fem or not, and as far as I'm aware I wont tell until a few weeks into flowering. My main question is I don't think I'm able to purchase a HID light at this point... I have a bulb, a 400 watt HPS bulb, but the ballast and everything seems to be just out of my budget.... what happens if I just start 12-12 with my florescence? Can I maybe just add a 100 watt grow light or something to help the process? What can I do to flower my plants in a month or two and still get a decent harvest? Next grow I will be able to spend a little more on it, but this is all just a learning process for me ...

 

[stihgnobevoli]

you should prolly use the icmag albums.

 

[xeasyx]

you can flower with what you have but you will struggle to get owt decent back invest in a new lamp at least a 400w hps if not 600w but if thats not possible get some extra cfl's from the diy store good luck anyway cheers EASY

 

[shaunthezombie]

ive already got 6 florescents.... i dont even know if i have room to put more except on the sidesw

 

[shaunthezombie]

It seems like ive got stunted growth... my biggest plant which is the sexiest looking plant i've ever seen hasnt grown in 2 days... im not sure why... temperature of the reservoir is at 65 degrees... 6 lights are on it ... 2 6500 2 5000 2 4500, heat is at 80 degrees always... nutes are GH at 700ppm or 1.3ec, maybe the overflow isnt high enough? But the taproot is probably as long as the stalk is right? The container i'm using is roughly 6 inches concrete mixing container, filling up half way... the water DOES not touch the medium, or if it does it barely touches the bottom of it... PLEASE help me out... If you've got any help let me know... I'm constantly checking this forum with hopes of getting an answer... thanks in advance!

 

[stihgnobevoli]

you are worrying too much. just leave em to do their thing unless you see a deficiency. dont (s)Mother them to death. and your lights are enough to go from beginning to end. i dont know why people are still saying you need a kilowatt of HPS lighting to grow weed in 20 fucking 11 but your 6 lights are more than enough. just keep em low over the tops of the plant it will actually grow a little faster than with an hps and they will stretch less. light intensity at that range makes up for not having an hps 12-24 inches away from the plants. get your lights lower those plants shouldbt be that stretchy with all the light you have. keep the bulbs like 2 inches away from the tops. as long as you have some sort of air movement in there your plants wont get burned and you need some air moving in there to strengthen those stems anyway.

 

[shaunthezombie]

problem is my biggest is like 14" and my shortest is like 6" so I have to keep it at 15-16" or the damn leaves will wrap about the friggen bulbs and i know it wont cause harm, but i still dont feel comfortable with my leaves touching the bulbs

 

[shaunthezombie]

Because of the size of the biggest one VS the smallest one I'm considering either cutting the biggest one and cloning the top, or bending it... any feedback from anyone? Biggest plant at 16" now and smallest at around 7"

 

[shaunthezombie]

ok I'm on my third day of flowering, and yes I know, its kinda early, however, I have no idea what sex I'm dealing with, so I figure weed out the males early, flower the females quickly, and get on with the cloning... Once I kill my males, and keep my females, how do I keep a mother plant? Do I allow the best mother to flower, or do I kick her back into a seperate setup immediately, so that she DOESNT flower... is it difficult to clone a flowered female? Can I just pluck the buds off her and put her in her setup then? I know there are tons of threads all over about this stuff, but after countless hours getting lost in other threads and posts, I've put my hope into people replying to me... I have done research, and I just get stuck on certain questions.... please HELP!

 

[stihgnobevoli]

if you know what it is then just take a clone and keep it as a mom and flower out the one in there, or vice versa, whatevers its the same plant. you can clone at anytime as near as i can tell. ive taken clones before, during, and after flower from a reveg. if you take a clone in flower it will continue to make flowers and single blade leaves till you flip it back to 12/12.