1st Time Grow - 4x4 - 1000watts - Soil!

intotheunknown · May 28, 2010

try this for your cups instead of tape.
get some blue or red cups, the same size as the cups you have now. and just set the clear cup inside of the other, to act as a sleeve. then you can check them easily and block out the light at the same time. dont forget to cut slits out of the bottoms for drainage.

AcroPhobic · May 28, 2010

Perpetual Nooch said:
I used to think this as well, but after doing an experiment I found that the roots did indeed grow enough during flowering to justify a bigger pot. Try it yourself and you will see that it is true.

What I did was transplant into a bigger pot halfway through flowering. By the end of it the rootball filled the entire big pot. Conclusion: the roots grow during flowering.

Anyway, 2-3 weeks is plenty of time to fill a 3 gallon pot with roots even if you do the transplant on day one.

You are right to a degree as pure sativas/ sativa dom strains continue making roots if transplanted during flowering since they flower from 14-22 weeks. Indicas and most indica/sativa hybrids don't really apply here.

To StonerChick : Looks like you've done your homework for your first grow. Looking good so far. Hope you grow some big phat dank buds. :plant grow:

Stoner Chick · May 28, 2010

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone!

O.k. here is my plan for tomorrow (Friday 28th) morning:

- Get some red/blue cups to put my clear ones into.

- Order 3 gallon Smart Pots from hhydro.com and hope they screw up my order and send me another $100 dollar freebie!

- Pick up my dolomite lime for my soil. Not looking forward to that since it only comes in a 50lb bag - ouch.

- Pick up a Walmart kiddie pool for soil mixing.

- I will put off ordering the 15gal res and pump until i switch to flowering, so probably ordering that on the 15th.

Stoner Chick · May 28, 2010

May 27th - Official Day 3

May 27th - Official Day 3

They sure are growing quick!

Stoner Chick · May 28, 2010

Check out the weird bag seed in the middle. The leaves are all torn looking or chewed up, but there are no insects in there that are plant chewers. I spend a lot of time in there as well so I can see that critters are not landing on my babies and chewing them. I think it is just a mutant born plant. I hope it turns out female so I can see how it progresses to finish.

AcroPhobic · May 28, 2010

That seedling will grow out of it, give it a few days and it will look normal. In my years of growing most mutants I've grown turned out to be the best looking plants with the best buds. Kinda like an ugly duckling that becomes beautiful.

Perpetual Nooch · May 28, 2010

AcroPhobic said:
You are right to a degree as pure sativas/ sativa dom strains continue making roots if transplanted during flowering since they flower from 14-22 weeks. Indicas and most indica/sativa hybrids don't really apply here.

Yeah, well, I was growing indicas. So, believe it or not, no skin off my nose. Only telling what I observed.

Roots continue to grow throughout flowering.

420ish · May 28, 2010

looking good!i have used miracle grow many times with great success.good luck!

AcroPhobic · May 28, 2010

Perpetual Nooch said:
Yeah, well, I was growing indicas. So, believe it or not, no skin off my nose. Only telling what I observed.

Roots continue to grow throughout flowering.

Curious if your harvest was delayed? In my experience Indicas will stall because concentration on roots interferes with budding when transplanted half way in flowering. Also I'm blazed from a sample nug so in no way was I / am I being a know it all, just sharing what I know from experience. :smoke:

intotheunknown · May 28, 2010

Stoner Chick said:
Thanks for all the help and advice everyone!

O.k. here is my plan for tomorrow (Friday 28th) morning:

- Get some red/blue cups to put my clear ones into.

- Order 3 gallon Smart Pots from hhydro.com and hope they screw up my order and send me another $100 dollar freebie!

- Pick up my dolomite lime for my soil. Not looking forward to that since it only comes in a 50lb bag - ouch.

- Pick up a Walmart kiddie pool for soil mixing.

- I will put off ordering the 15gal res and pump until i switch to flowering, so probably ordering that on the 15th.

you can get a much smaller bag of dolomite lime, no need to get a 50 pounder. go to your local places and look for "sunleaves soil sweetener" = 100% powdered dolomite lime.

Stoner Chick · May 28, 2010

I just placed the order for the 3 gallon Smart Pots and they should arrive sometime next week. I ordered 10 of them and plan to grow the rest without Smart Pots so i can journal difference. I will probably start another thread for that - same strain, same soil, different pots - 3 gallon bag versus 3 gallon Smart Pot. Has that been done yet? If so i would love to see the difference. :blowbubbles:

This entire grow thing feels like one 3 month long Christmas Eve with lots of chances to still be naughty and get coal instead of gifts at harvest.

Stoner Chick · May 28, 2010

intotheunknown said:
you can get a much smaller bag of dolomite lime, no need to get a 50 pounder. go to your local places and look for "sunleaves soil sweetener" = 100% powdered dolomite lime.

I will have to look for that. Lowes only had pelletized lime, Aces hardware had hydrated lime, and Mernards has the stupid 50lb bag of which i only need a cup or so.

I will check in with the nurseries in town and see if they have it.

Thanks!

OPT · May 28, 2010

Referring back to some of your first posts I have some things to add.

1. There should be no need for you to have them all in 2 gallon bags before your know there sex. A MJ plant can live comfortably in a keg cup for quite a while. I've had some stay fine in one for up to a month. The only difference is you might need to water more frequently.

2. The PH of my water is also high, around 7.9-8.2 out of the tap. When I was growing organic, I rarely checked the PH of my water because I was always told PH was not as important when growing organically and that It will correct itself. Well after having some mid to late flowering problems show up that I couldn't really fix in time before they were done, I finally figured out that I did need to add PH down to my water to get it in the sweet spot. As far as the PH of the soil actually goes, if you follow the recipe you say you are, that "shouldn't" be a problem.

3. If your having problem finding lime, I suggest ordering some from a known hydroponic website. You'll want the course grade stuff not pellets. You can get a cheap bag of dolomite lime that they also call "Soil Sweetner" at some place similar to Worms Way. http://www.wormsway.com/detail.aspx?t=prod&sku=SSS400&AC=1

Hope that helps some!

OPT

Frozenguy · May 28, 2010

I dont know if you covered this but is your water softened? If you rent and dont know, ask your landlord if the water is softened at the house. Probably not but maybe. You can however call your local water district and request a free water analysis. It will tell you everything that is in your water and you need to know that. The city may soften the water, and if they do, they probably use sodium to soften the water which is very bad for plants.

With that said, lime doesn't drop pH, it tries to pull the pH to about 7.

My water comes out of the tap at around 8.5 but after I use my RO filter it goes down to about 7.1 and I've been watering with that forever no problems.
When I brew my veg/flower teas, the pH drops to about 6, but the EWC and lime help control the pH along with my organic micro heard. I haven't used a pH pen in years (since my hydro days).

I would check into your local water, and maybe check into a used (or if you can float it) a new RO unit. They can be had on the cheap these days, not like what they used to be.

With that said, your ladies look great! Lets hope they are all female.

Dont worry about missing a male. If you get lazy you may, but they are not hard to spot. They will actually grow little plant testicles which the female (hopefully) wont have.

Snypette · May 28, 2010

Hey girl glad to see another female grower! Your grow looks great so far!
subscribed.

~smokinbuds~ · May 28, 2010

I think there`s a few of us girls around here!

StonerChic, I will be following this grow! Good luck to you, girl!!

Learningfirst · May 29, 2010

Heya Stoner Chick,

I'm gonna get some pics up for ya on my post. It's cool to see someone as new as me doing their thing. I appreciate your interest & will get them up soon.

Your grow looks sweet so far. I avoided the MG; however I wonder now if I should have kept it simile - having to feed Nutes is sketchy for me as a noob. But I quote an indoor grow clerk "It's like living on McDonald's"... Well better that than rat poison which I figure is the same as messing up my Nute mix. Personally I am thinking of Organics on future grows - but I'll see after this one.

Peace and GL.

Stoner Chick · May 29, 2010

Can i tell if i my plants are sativa or indica before they bud?

My Dirty Dawg strain (which i found out today is not Dirty Dawg but a hybrid indica called Hair of the Dawg from the California Seed Company...Anyways, all those are short with fat first single leaves and are now on their 2nd set. My bag seed however are mostly taller sprouts with narrow leaves - are those sativa? Inquiring minds want to know!

I'd post pics tonight but i killed my camera batteries again tonight.

I wonder if my lil babies are tinge pale because the light is close? I checked and saw i had the setting on 1000watt instead of 600w, which i put it on tonight, so maybe they are a tiny pale from that, if pale at all...I can't tell. They shouldn't need any nutrients for a week or so after germinating right? My Smart Pots won't be here until late next week so i can't transplant them into a nutrient rich environment until then.

I think they are o.k. I have 27 total sprouts now. But my main concern are the Dawg strain.

I almost want to order some seeds right now from the boo but that will set me back in time and i really don't want to wait or start over.

Anti · May 29, 2010

Stoner Chick said:
I almost want to order some seeds right now from the boo but that will set me back in time and i really don't want to wait or start over.

Stick with what you've got going now. Half of your plants are likely to be male anyway unless you got feminized seeds. So that'll leave you with 12-14 females if all goes reasonably well. Might as well make your mistakes with these and then spend more money on seeds when you've gotten your training wheels off.

If need be, you can always reveg the best looking plants by simply leaving a few of the lower branches attached to the base of the plant and throwing the sad looking little thing back into 18/6 or 24/0.

I did this myself with my first run through the cabinet:

L to R:

Left is right before chop, 65 days into 12/12

Middle is after being transplanted from a 1/8 to a 1/2 gallon container and revegged for a few months.

Right is right after harvest. (The one in the first two pics is 3rd from the left, 2nd rows in.) I revegged 11 or so plants because I wasn't sure which was going to be the most potent (until I had a chance to cure and smoke them all). The one you see in the other two pics is the one that I finally kept and it is mom to about 8 or more generations of clones so far.

TheGreenBastard · May 29, 2010

Stoner Chick said:
Can i tell if i my plants are sativa or indica before they bud?

My Dirty Dawg strain (which i found out today is not Dirty Dawg but a hybrid indica called Hair of the Dawg from the California Seed Company...Anyways, all those are short with fat first single leaves and are now on their 2nd set. My bag seed however are mostly taller sprouts with narrow leaves - are those sativa? Inquiring minds want to know!

You can never really know whether or not your plants are indica or sativa early on, though you can get a pretty good idea of the dominance based on the leave size and node spacing. Your guesses were correct though based off of that information.

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