indoor soil grow

Hello ic mag. I have a few seedlings going inside under some fluorescent lighting. i have two skunk #1's, two skunk 1's x thai haze, and one skunk 1 x big bud (this one is feminized.) I have them under a T12 with OTT-LITE tubes. These tubes claim to be full spectrum and excelent for indoor growing. I did a little research and found that most people found other bulbs to be more effective for indoor growing (GE plant and aquarium wide spectrum.) The one who claims this was growing venus fly trap's so i am not sure if this pertains to marijuana.

So check out my pictures tell and tell me what you think. I can run some blue spectrum CFL's (23w) or cool white tubes in my T12. Let me know if you think the lights are too close. I am growing in pro mix seedling starter right now, and i was wondering when i should start fertilizers (gots me some Pure blend pro.)

BTW, these ones popped through the soil about a week ago. Anyone have any expierence with these ott-lite tube?

So check out my pictures tell and tell me what you think. I can run some blue spectrum CFL's (23w) or cool white tubes in my T12. Let me know if you think the lights are too close. I am growing in pro mix seedling starter right now, and i was wondering when i should start fertilizers (gots me some Pure blend pro.)

Hey hey

Either one will work for you. You can, and should, get them as close as you can without burning them...and inch or so. I believe the thinking is the closer they are the tigher the node spacing will be. Anyway, most people like to keep them pretty close.

I like my Four foot, 4 tube T-8 fixture with that diffuser. My plants spent almost 6 weeks under this fixture. The shelf is 16" deep and 48" long. The diffuser gives nice even lighting to the whole shelf. Plenty of grow space this way. No hot spots or shadowed areas. They were all extremely healthy the whole way. I think the bulbs are 5000K bulbs. I don't like the really bluish white cooler bulbs. They give me a headache after a while. My computer is in my bedroom where my grow is.

They won't need any ferts for another week or so, just ph'd water (ph 6.5 or so) My personal opinion is to give water only till I see "signs" like leaves being a shade lighter green. That usually is about 2 weeks BUT can vary with strain/pheno/soils...etc. I err on the side of waiting longer till I feed because burning them early on is a bad thing. You plants will recover quickly if they are a bit short on ferts in the beginning. This does not mean wait till you have yellow leaves falling off. OK? You need to look for the more subtle signs.

pedro




These didn't get any ferts till about when this pic was taken October 18, 2007. They are 2 weeks old here. SSH #1 is now on day 75 of flower. SkHaze #1 is on Day 80 of flower. The others were males.

nice lookin.

thanks for the info pedro. guess i will let them chill out for a while, maybe add a CFL.

i just decided to switch one of my plants to a 23w CFL. This bulb has a 5000k spectrum. It seems to give off a lot of light, i will let it go a couple days and then compare it to my other 4 plants under the 4ft tubes.

Just to clarify what I meant:

Either CFL's or, T-12, T-8, T-5's or any combo of any of them will work...as long as the result is enough light (lumens) for seedlings to grow properly.

You'll get lots of opinions on what works best...

pedro

What are you gonna mix with youre pro mix ?I like to get the pro mix hp (extra perlite).And add 1 tbs. lime per 5 gal pot.I add even more perlite i like the fox farm chunky perlite.Its like super big chunks of perlite.Say it can take place of hydroton in net cups.I also add some worm castings.1 20 lb. bag per. 3.8 cubic bale of pro mix.And always add some kind of mycoriza (sp?).Its a living fungus or something?It makes it eazyer for the plants to take in nutes.I use this stuff called en/ea (earth necter and earth ambrosia).You mix this stuff in water,Some myc. comes in powder.I put my mix in big tubs with lids for a week or 2.2 Is prob. better.Gives the en/ea to start to grow and the lime and worm castings get mixed up real good.I take the lids off the tubs couple times a day and mix it all up.This soiless hydrophonic system works great for me.I start the seeds off in 16 oz. foam cups wih strait pro mix wih LOTS of perlite.After a couple weeks thay start getting there pure blend pro grow at 1 tsp. per gal.I also use liquid karma ,cal - mag ,Hydroplex and top max from bio bizz (great stuff!)If you got the rite strain and lights you cant go wrong with this mix and feed!

Heres the stuff you want to mix in youre pro mix http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=5690 There are lots of products that have this in it for youre mix.

Thanks for all the great information. I think the dude at the grow shop said that pro mix already has some lime in it, maybe im wrong. i remember learning about about mychorrizae in biology. I will stop by the shop on monday probably and pick up some of that stuff.

I have a few more questions. The closet i grow in cedar and seems to be very dry. The room that it is in is also covered in wood and is extremely dry (i wake up in the morning with a dry throat.) I think its all that damn wood on the walls! What humidity do you guys like to keep in the grow room? I run a humidifier every once in a while, but im not sure if it is satisfactory.

PrideofCucamong said:

Thanks for all the great information. I think the dude at the grow shop said that pro mix already has some lime in it, maybe im wrong. i remember learning about about mychorrizae in biology. I will stop by the shop on monday probably and pick up some of that stuff.

I have a few more questions. The closet i grow in cedar and seems to be very dry. The room that it is in is also covered in wood and is extremely dry (i wake up in the morning with a dry throat.) I think its all that damn wood on the walls! What humidity do you guys like to keep in the grow room? I run a humidifier every once in a while, but im not sure if it is satisfactory.

Click to expand...

You should pick up some dolomte lime too. Promix doesn't have enough lime in it IMO. You may want to ask Suby or BurnOne about lime and promix to be safe.

I grow in a hydrohut in my spare bedroom. The window is closed (it's winter here and COLD, below zero at times). The room is heated by electric strip heat. Humidity is 45% in the room as I type and that's typically where it stays most all year. I ehaust into the same room. I just keep my bedroom door to the rest of the apt open 90% of the time. The only "visitor" is my g/f. I'm beginning my 4th grow back to back in here. I've never had a problem with mold or pests like red spider mites.

Personally, I think being on the dry side is better than the humid side of things. It's easier to raise humidity than lower it. I wouldn't be concerned if your RH stays between 30-50%. Depending on your climate and local pest problems, I think RH's above 50-60% are the enemy, not low humidity which is easier to correct.

I monitor my temp and humidity with one of those wireless gadgets from Radio Shack. Catalog #63-1090 "Weather Forecaster. It's perfect for a grow. You get inside/outside Temps and RH with no wires.

Hope I'm not being annoying with my long posts on your thread ..Ok?

pedro


Here is that RS gadget(wireless remote sensor not shown). It is "The Nuts" for growing IMO.


I suggest screening dolomite lime before mixing into soil mix. The "fines" will be incorporated into your mix more evenly, and will disslove more quickly over time than the big hunks will. Uneven sized particles wont mix as evenly and the risk is "hot spots" in your soil.



This what my soil looks like. I mix it about 5 gallons at a time in an 18 gallon tote, then dump into this larger one. I like to mix my soil mixes thoroughly with my hands. I moisten the mix with water with 1tsp/gallon Liquid Karma and 1tsp/gallon of Earth Juice Microblast. That may be overkill, but hasn't hurt any of my plants.

You'll see a good bit of perlite in there. I like my soils to be light and well draining. Yes, that means watering a bit more frequently. However, "overwatering" is tough to do with a well draining soil.....although I'm sure some idiot could manage it. LOLOL!!! Soils which drain evenly and relatively quickly will have lots of good air spaces for roots. And so I make my soil mix about 35-40% perlite by volume....roughly 2 gallons of a "regional" brand soil mix (70% compost-20%sphagnum moss-5% peat-5% perlite...so the bag says), 1 gallon of Worm Castings, 1.5 to 2 gallons of perlite.

We're not doing a chemistry experiment where measurements and amounts need to be "exact". I gauge my mix to be "right" when it looks and feels right to me. One test is friability test. Grab a big handful of freshly mixed soil. If it WON'T hold together, it's probably about right in friability terms. Soil that "clumps" too tightly just won't breathe correctly IMO. It's just too dense and you risk drowning your plants if you aren't extremely careful when you water.

thank for all the info pedro, post as much as you want

Pedro, why do you have the cover on your lights?, are you happy with that light penetration, even though it's dimmer? less light ? more expensive to run in the long run, ? just curious, thanks.

libby said:

Pedro, why do you have the cover on your lights?, are you happy with that light penetration, even though it's dimmer? less light ? more expensive to run in the long run, ? just curious, thanks.

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Hey libby

I forgot that was in the pic.

Some weeks ago both my Skunk Haze and SSH started doing the wispy bud thing...for lack of another term. The bud ends began producing these wispy, sparce growing tips. One guy I know who has grown sativas for 20+ years suggested reducing the intensity of the light by putting plants in the corners, out of the direct light. Some sativas/hazes will do the wispy bud thing when they get close to the light later in flower. My light is high as it will go.

The theory, or one theory, is that as the plants get closer to that bright intense light, it somehow causes them to began vegging again, or partly vegging...making the wispy buds. And apparently this is more prevalent among long flowering strains/phenos like these haze phenos of mine, or one like Nevilles Haze, or long flowering landraces like some Thais... the wild ones in Thailand.

So I did that and in addition, as an experiment, I also put this standard fluorescent light diffuser between the light and plants. It seems to have worked, OR it was a coincidence of sorts. The plants stopped doing that wispy bud thing. The SSH of mine is really getting frosty too. And she will have to go 13 weeks since I have to leave town next week for a while. So maybe I'll really get some good resin on her.

pedro

Thanks for your reply pedro, but i need to say, that's a new one on me, not pulling you down, maybe correct, anyone else got a view on this ?

My next grow is satori, will i face the same probs? cheers.

You won't have problems with Satori. I grew Satori before this haze grow. I kinda screwed up my Satori, I thought. But after a few months cure it smokes very nicely. I had 5 plants I grew 12/12 from seed. Satori is a very vigorous plant. I'll dig up some old pics and post them on my SSH thread for you tomorrow.

pedro

pedro won't steer you wrong, libby. He's good people.

I'm going to stay tuned to this one...

Old Fool said:

pedro won't steer you wrong, libby. He's good people.

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Well I hope I won't steer her wrong LOL!! Libby can learn from my mistakes...which is one reason I like to post so much. hopefully newbies newer than me can learn something without the pain!!

Don't ask why I germed so many plants when I had so little space. I was trying my 1st 12/12 from seed and didn't quite know what I was doing.

I would not grow Satori 12/12 from seed unless I absolutely had to for space reasons or something. Satori is a plant that needs a few weeks of vegging if possible IMO.

And I know Mike Mandala says Satori is a very efficient feeder and don't over feed her...that said, don't underfeed her like i did early on. I also transplanted my Satoris too early which led to some overwatering problems I think. All 5 of my Satoris lost a lot of lower fans way too early from my mistakes.

Here are some pics from that grow. I hope they help somehow.
If you have any questions, let me know.

pedro



Satori=Blue Cali Ornage =Yellow ThaiTanic = Red

ALL these plants sprouted within a few days of each other. See what I mean about Satori's vigor? Plants are about 2 weeks old in this picture.


Here they are at 3 weeks old. Look how big the Satori are! The stems were THICK as well. They were extremely healthy and vigorous at this point.



Here is an anomoly. This Satori turned out to be a trifolate pheno. 3 branches from each node. Happens about 2% of the time according to Mike Mandala. Yield doesn't change much he says for this pheno.



And here is one of them about 7 weeks into flower. You see they grow without much branching. All 5 of mine grew this way. Most all of the yield came from the main cola. I would have had much better yield if I hadn't screwed up early on.



Here is one at harvest. Too bad I didn't feed them better early on.


Last, I would advise you to cure Satori for at least 2 months. I was really disapointed when I smoked her in the first few weeks after drying. I still have some now and it smells, tastes, and smokes MUCH better.

Thanks very much for the photo's pedro, i'm thinking of doind a scrog with the satori as it's my favourite way.
Do you think satori would be ok for that, or is a scrog ok for any plant?

That plant IS a fast grower going off your pictures!!

My box is about 31/2 ft by 51/2 ft, i'm hoping for 6 out of ten females, i have 2 600hps, do you think one would do the job? i feel 2 lights would be a bit much, no? thanks.

ps. thinking of hydro as well......too much?