400W soil grow: GRH WW, NS Cal Orange, NL - Grow Diaries - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums

unknownone · 12-09-2006, 05:25 AM

Hi everyone:

Thought this would be the apt place to chronicle my most recently-started grow. Technically this is my fourth grow, my first two were fluoro grows gone bad so I am really considering this my second grow.

I placed my first order to Gypsy for Greenhouse Seeds's White Widow and that was it. I looked through the website some more and remembered how much I enjoyed smoking the Nirvana's Northern Lights Pure Indica from my last grow so I placed a second order for that and some Cal Orange Bud from Nirvana. My first order arrived and I was itching to get started but I had to wait another week until my second one arrived. I live in the Mid-atlantic US and both orders took a week door-to-door which is great. Both came with the freebie seeds Durban Posion X Skunk #1 from Sam the Skunkman. I also had two AK-47 from Serious Seeds from my last grow two years ago. I also had some plain Skunk #1 freebies from my last order but did not go with those. So in total, my strains in hand were:

Nirvana Northern Lights Pure Indica
Nirvana Cal Orange Bud
Greenhouse Seeds White Widow
Serious Seeds AK-47
Sam the Skunkman Durban Posion X Skunk #1 (freebie)

According to my grow log, on December 4th at 7:50 PM EST I began the germination. I used the paper towel method in an inverted large plastic cover for those cheap metal dish pans you get in the supermarket. I covered with plastic wrap and put in a dark cabinet above my stove.

One thing that went wrong here was the seeds did get a little mixed up in this germ pan. I bunched like strains together on the pan but with the water and movement some got moved around so I am unclear on a couple of beans which strain they were. So when you germ, use separate containers so your strains don't get mixed. No big deal, most of the beans stayed put.

On Dec 5 I decided to measure the temp in my germ cabinet and found it around 60 F. Too cold for sure, due to our recent cold snap around here. I was hoping the heat from the stove pilot lights would be enough but not so. I thought putting it in the oven would be good, with the dark and stronger pilot light but thermometer showed 90 after a while. I finally ended up putting them in a cabinet above a heater in my bathroom where it stayed a cozy 85 F.

The next night I went to my local Home Depot for supplies. It is annoying that so many of the commercial soils come pre-fertilized now. Miracle Gro and Scott were the two brands around here most featured, and both boasted ferts in all of their products. I finally settled on a more generic potting soil with no ferts. I got 3 big bags of soil and 2 big perlite bags. I also got some picture-hanging wire for my HPS. Oh yeah, my light setup is a 400W HPS.

It took 4 days for me to be satisfied with the seed germinations. I remember it being much faster. The White Widow were by far the most popped, they had up to 1" tails. The Cal Orange was the second most mature. The Dp X Skunk#1 did not really pop at all, which suprised me. But, in the end, the most expensive seeds look the best, so I guess you get what you pay for.

My flowering set up consists of two plastic storage bins, about 8" deep. I plant 10 seeds in the larger and 6 in the smaller. I veg in these and only transplant to big pots when I have found the females. I planted seeds from all but the DpXSk#1. They just didn't pop and I did not want to waste space on them. Oh, the AK47 did not pop either so I left those out.

I had a heart attack when I took out my HPS setup from two years of retirement and it would not turn on. It was stone cold dead. Finally after wire jiggling it got going. I had to fiddle with the position to stop the buzzing.

So the grow is off and running. Sorry for no pics, but I will have them soon, to show you my closet and veg setup. I go for simplicity as much as possible.

Thanks for reading. Any comments or questions always welcome.

unknownone · 12-09-2006, 08:23 PM

Noone cares about my post! Oh well, guess that is what I get for not having pics yet.

Here are links to my first grow on CC forums with pics:
https://www.cannabisculture.com/forum...rue#Post407557

https://www.cannabisculture.com/forum...rue#Post410443

12-15-2006, 09:11 PM

post up on that cali o man i wanna know all i can about this strain

unknownone · 12-17-2006, 09:15 AM

Thanks for the reply aizen, sorry I have not checked this thread lately. I will post pics when they have grown up a bit. They are in the soil now for 8 days. Cali Os look good, just getting their second set of true leaves. more later.

unknownone · 12-21-2006, 06:50 AM

Well, this grow has turned into the "anything that can go wrong, will" grow.

By about day 10 after putting the beans in soil, they were definetly not as far along as they should be. Only one set of leaves had grown, they were still only 2.5" tall, with 0 internodes. There was definetly something wrong. The stems were purple and the overall growth rate was very slow. After multiple hours of reading the Cannabis Infirmary forum, and a few posts, I realized it had to be the soil I got. It was cheap potting soil from Home Depot and was clearly at a bad pH and of poor ingredients and not letting the seedlings get air near the roots.

Then, three days ago, I was lying in bed when I smelled something burning. I ran to my grow area to find my ballast on my 400w HPS smoking and sparking. I quickly unplugged it but it was history. So now I had some stunted seedlings and no lights.

Luckily I had about 100W of fluoros from a previous separate veg room I tried to set up. Within an hour I had a rigged a quick light setup to at least keep my babies under some lumens. I went on the internet and ordered an Econocool 400W HPS SS-10 Remote Grow system with inline fan and ducting. It is gaurunteed for 5 years so no more exploding ballasts.

After a lot of research, and a trip there to find it was closed, I found a hydro shop locally and went and bought three big bags of Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Although I wasn't planning on it, the clerk convinced to get a $100 pH pen. I figured I was in for $400 already, whats another hundred. Add some pH up and down to that and I was on my way home.

I live in a one-bedroom apartment in a major US city, more like a studio. It is small. So tending the garden is always interesting. I had a long night ahead of me of transplanting 15 seedlings from my old crappy soil into a nice 6:4 miz of FFOF and Perlite. My kitchen looked like a bomb had struck.

The seedlings went back under the fluoros after a pH balanced watering in their new soil. My next task will be installing the HPS when it gets here, hopefully before Xmas.

So that is the latest update in my saga. Still have not quite took off yet, but I have high hopes for the future. I will keep you guys updated, and hopefully have some pics soon.

Later guys.

unknownone · 12-29-2006, 06:26 AM

Well I am happy to report that the transplant to FFOF and using pH'd water solved my problems. The original soil that I got was crap. First of all it weighed about 2X as much as the FFOF. When I took the seedlings out of it it was damp and clumped together with sticks and bark. The FFOF was light and fluffy, smelled nice, was uniform and clean. After 2-3 days the seedlings showed new growth and now they are taking off. You could see on the shoot were the dark purple was being replaced with new green growth.

My new 400W also arrived and with it an air cooled hood. This thing is a monster, much bigger than my old 'bat-wing' setup.

Now I have to fight my paranoia with getting busted. Was reading through the security forum a lot and thinking about taking down my grow because of getting busted. Oh well, I have come this far, think I will risk it.

HeadyPete · 12-29-2006, 07:14 AM

Quote:

I had a heart attack when I took out my HPS setup from two years of retirement and it would not turn on. It was stone cold dead. Finally after wire jiggling it got going. I had to fiddle with the position to stop the buzzing.

Quote:

Then, three days ago, I was lying in bed when I smelled something burning. I ran to my grow area to find my ballast on my 400w HPS smoking and sparking. I quickly unplugged it but it was history. So now I had some stunted seedlings and no lights.

I am not surprised. "Jiggling" a wire to get a high voltage appliance like an HID light to work is the first red flag to tell you there is something wrong. You should have unplugged, waited a good twenty minutes to let the capacitors inthe power supply discharge (***warning***this may take longer. never touch any electrical part of capacitors or you will get shocked.) Big caps can jolt you real good.

If the loose wire couldn't have been secured properly or replaced, then a new ballast would be in order. I'm just glad you didn't have a fire in your apt.

Electrical safety is extremely important and HID lights deserve respect.

Also, I wonder if before you had the plants under too much light too soon, if I understood correctly. It seems now they are doing well under fluoro. Give them some good time to grow roots before you give them the HPS. Then they can utilize the extra lumens properly. Let em get a few nodes worth of good fan leaves and that should be good. Start the HPS light as far away as possible and bring in in small amounts, watching carefully after each move for negative symptoms. I'd imagine 12 inches wouldn't be bad with that air cooled, maybe closer. Definitely the soil swap helped too.

Good luck to you and your stealth and be safe. Looking forward to pix.

I, too, am interested in the CaliO.

01-04-2007, 06:23 AM

whats the latest man

my cali-o's are on day 19 of veg. going on there 6 node and i have lst'd them

unknownone · 01-05-2007, 08:40 AM

Hey whats up Aizen. Things are moving a long really well. I had some early problems with the garden when I initially used some bad potting soil from Home De Pot. I went to my local hydro store and got some FFOF and things have been sailing ever since. I had been using 20-20-20 tomatoe food at 1/4 strength but it has urea so I went and got some pure blend pro and bloom.

The Cali-os are on their 4th or 5th node, and getting stinky as hell already, even though they are still in veg. They have been in the FFOF about 20 days or so.

I was thinking about LSTing, but my internodes are pretty tight and the plants are short. I have never done it before and I am worried about trying it and screwing something up. Let me know if you think LST is really worth it.

I have 15 plants in veg now: the cali-o, NL and WW. I am hoping to get 5 females to go to flower under my 400w hps.

I will keep you posted and try to get some pics out there.

unknownone · 01-05-2007, 10:04 AM

I just LST'd 4 of the 9 cali-os after reading about all of the benefits of LST. I will see how they respond in the morning, may do all of them if things look ok.

12-21-2006, 06:50 AM	#5
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	Murphy's Law Well, this grow has turned into the "anything that can go wrong, will" grow. By about day 10 after putting the beans in soil, they were definetly not as far along as they should be. Only one set of leaves had grown, they were still only 2.5" tall, with 0 internodes. There was definetly something wrong. The stems were purple and the overall growth rate was very slow. After multiple hours of reading the Cannabis Infirmary forum, and a few posts, I realized it had to be the soil I got. It was cheap potting soil from Home Depot and was clearly at a bad pH and of poor ingredients and not letting the seedlings get air near the roots. Then, three days ago, I was lying in bed when I smelled something burning. I ran to my grow area to find my ballast on my 400w HPS smoking and sparking. I quickly unplugged it but it was history. So now I had some stunted seedlings and no lights. Luckily I had about 100W of fluoros from a previous separate veg room I tried to set up. Within an hour I had a rigged a quick light setup to at least keep my babies under some lumens. I went on the internet and ordered an Econocool 400W HPS SS-10 Remote Grow system with inline fan and ducting. It is gaurunteed for 5 years so no more exploding ballasts. After a lot of research, and a trip there to find it was closed, I found a hydro shop locally and went and bought three big bags of Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Although I wasn't planning on it, the clerk convinced to get a $100 pH pen. I figured I was in for $400 already, whats another hundred. Add some pH up and down to that and I was on my way home. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in a major US city, more like a studio. It is small. So tending the garden is always interesting. I had a long night ahead of me of transplanting 15 seedlings from my old crappy soil into a nice 6:4 miz of FFOF and Perlite. My kitchen looked like a bomb had struck. The seedlings went back under the fluoros after a pH balanced watering in their new soil. My next task will be installing the HPS when it gets here, hopefully before Xmas. So that is the latest update in my saga. Still have not quite took off yet, but I have high hopes for the future. I will keep you guys updated, and hopefully have some pics soon. Later guys.
	Quote

12-09-2006, 05:25 AM	#1
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	400W soil grow: GRH WW, NS Cal Orange, NL Hi everyone: Thought this would be the apt place to chronicle my most recently-started grow. Technically this is my fourth grow, my first two were fluoro grows gone bad so I am really considering this my second grow. I placed my first order to Gypsy for Greenhouse Seeds's White Widow and that was it. I looked through the website some more and remembered how much I enjoyed smoking the Nirvana's Northern Lights Pure Indica from my last grow so I placed a second order for that and some Cal Orange Bud from Nirvana. My first order arrived and I was itching to get started but I had to wait another week until my second one arrived. I live in the Mid-atlantic US and both orders took a week door-to-door which is great. Both came with the freebie seeds Durban Posion X Skunk #1 from Sam the Skunkman. I also had two AK-47 from Serious Seeds from my last grow two years ago. I also had some plain Skunk #1 freebies from my last order but did not go with those. So in total, my strains in hand were: Nirvana Northern Lights Pure Indica Nirvana Cal Orange Bud Greenhouse Seeds White Widow Serious Seeds AK-47 Sam the Skunkman Durban Posion X Skunk #1 (freebie) According to my grow log, on December 4th at 7:50 PM EST I began the germination. I used the paper towel method in an inverted large plastic cover for those cheap metal dish pans you get in the supermarket. I covered with plastic wrap and put in a dark cabinet above my stove. One thing that went wrong here was the seeds did get a little mixed up in this germ pan. I bunched like strains together on the pan but with the water and movement some got moved around so I am unclear on a couple of beans which strain they were. So when you germ, use separate containers so your strains don't get mixed. No big deal, most of the beans stayed put. On Dec 5 I decided to measure the temp in my germ cabinet and found it around 60 F. Too cold for sure, due to our recent cold snap around here. I was hoping the heat from the stove pilot lights would be enough but not so. I thought putting it in the oven would be good, with the dark and stronger pilot light but thermometer showed 90 after a while. I finally ended up putting them in a cabinet above a heater in my bathroom where it stayed a cozy 85 F. The next night I went to my local Home Depot for supplies. It is annoying that so many of the commercial soils come pre-fertilized now. Miracle Gro and Scott were the two brands around here most featured, and both boasted ferts in all of their products. I finally settled on a more generic potting soil with no ferts. I got 3 big bags of soil and 2 big perlite bags. I also got some picture-hanging wire for my HPS. Oh yeah, my light setup is a 400W HPS. It took 4 days for me to be satisfied with the seed germinations. I remember it being much faster. The White Widow were by far the most popped, they had up to 1" tails. The Cal Orange was the second most mature. The Dp X Skunk#1 did not really pop at all, which suprised me. But, in the end, the most expensive seeds look the best, so I guess you get what you pay for. My flowering set up consists of two plastic storage bins, about 8" deep. I plant 10 seeds in the larger and 6 in the smaller. I veg in these and only transplant to big pots when I have found the females. I planted seeds from all but the DpXSk#1. They just didn't pop and I did not want to waste space on them. Oh, the AK47 did not pop either so I left those out. I had a heart attack when I took out my HPS setup from two years of retirement and it would not turn on. It was stone cold dead. Finally after wire jiggling it got going. I had to fiddle with the position to stop the buzzing. So the grow is off and running. Sorry for no pics, but I will have them soon, to show you my closet and veg setup. I go for simplicity as much as possible. Thanks for reading. Any comments or questions always welcome.
	Quote

12-09-2006, 08:23 PM	#2
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	Noone cares about my post! Oh well, guess that is what I get for not having pics yet. Here are links to my first grow on CC forums with pics: https://www.cannabisculture.com/forum...rue#Post407557 https://www.cannabisculture.com/forum...rue#Post410443
	Quote

12-15-2006, 09:11 PM	#3
Guest Guest Posts: n/a	post up on that cali o man i wanna know all i can about this strain
	Quote

12-17-2006, 09:15 AM	#4
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	Thanks for the reply aizen, sorry I have not checked this thread lately. I will post pics when they have grown up a bit. They are in the soil now for 8 days. Cali Os look good, just getting their second set of true leaves. more later.
	Quote

12-29-2006, 06:26 AM	#6
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	Well I am happy to report that the transplant to FFOF and using pH'd water solved my problems. The original soil that I got was crap. First of all it weighed about 2X as much as the FFOF. When I took the seedlings out of it it was damp and clumped together with sticks and bark. The FFOF was light and fluffy, smelled nice, was uniform and clean. After 2-3 days the seedlings showed new growth and now they are taking off. You could see on the shoot were the dark purple was being replaced with new green growth. My new 400W also arrived and with it an air cooled hood. This thing is a monster, much bigger than my old 'bat-wing' setup. Now I have to fight my paranoia with getting busted. Was reading through the security forum a lot and thinking about taking down my grow because of getting busted. Oh well, I have come this far, think I will risk it.
	Quote

01-04-2007, 06:23 AM	#8
Guest Guest Posts: n/a	whats the latest man my cali-o's are on day 19 of veg. going on there 6 node and i have lst'd them
	Quote

01-05-2007, 08:40 AM	#9
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	Hey whats up Aizen. Things are moving a long really well. I had some early problems with the garden when I initially used some bad potting soil from Home De Pot. I went to my local hydro store and got some FFOF and things have been sailing ever since. I had been using 20-20-20 tomatoe food at 1/4 strength but it has urea so I went and got some pure blend pro and bloom. The Cali-os are on their 4th or 5th node, and getting stinky as hell already, even though they are still in veg. They have been in the FFOF about 20 days or so. I was thinking about LSTing, but my internodes are pretty tight and the plants are short. I have never done it before and I am worried about trying it and screwing something up. Let me know if you think LST is really worth it. I have 15 plants in veg now: the cali-o, NL and WW. I am hoping to get 5 females to go to flower under my 400w hps. I will keep you posted and try to get some pics out there.
	Quote

01-05-2007, 10:04 AM	#10
unknownone Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 71	I just LST'd 4 of the 9 cali-os after reading about all of the benefits of LST. I will see how they respond in the morning, may do all of them if things look ok.
	Quote