My first from the begining

[Farmer Stealth]

Tonight I join the wonderful world of growin my own

I just put my first seeds in a wet paper towel and put them in a cabinet.
15 seeds in all, all from Nirvana.
5 AK-48
5 Chrystal
5 Mazar-i-Sherif

Hopefully all 15 will pop, when they do all will go under a 2' 2 bulb T5 light.
I'm using a mix of perlite, vermiculite, and peatmoss for soil. I'll be using
Humbolt Master A & B for nutes. Any suggestions on extra nutes (bigbud, biggrow) anything, please let me know what ya think.

Hopefully if all goes well in a month or two I'll take clones from all then they'll go under my 600w.
Question: My 600w is switchable, MH and HPS, I have both. Any suggestions on how soon I can put seedlings under the 600w MH and for how long before I switch to the HPS?

Anyway, heres a rundown on my full setup:
Sm dresser w/2' 2 bulb T5 light and sm fan for seedlings and clones.
Flower area,
5'x8'x7' closet, currently only using a 3'x5' area.
600w Dig. HPS-MH.
6" exh fan for light.
4" fan with charcole fillter for oder.
Mylar on the walls.
Sm oscellating fan.
Ph test kit with UP and DOWN.

Anyway, thats what I got, thats what I'm doing, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Any and all Suggestions, hints, ideas, direction, good mojo, positive vibes, slaps upside the head or swift kicks in the ass will be greatly apreciated.

As soon as I got sprouts, I'll post some pics.

See ya'll soon and GROW ON!

 

[colorfullyben]

Good luck.

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Looks like I got seeds sproutin'

Hopfully I'll be planting tonight. Time to mix some soil.

 

[DocPouceVert]

we want some picture !

For what I know...MH is better for vedging and HPS better for flowering

Good luck with your first grow

 

[BesideHimself]

Yo Farmer Stealth looks like you've for some nice variety there to kick things off.

Not sure how long you're going to want to let the seedlings sit under your T5's, I'd say let them get to at least 5".

Anyway GL I'll be tuned in, ready to see some pics of the set-up.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Any suggestions on how soon I can put seedlings under the 600w MH and for how long before I switch to the HPS?

Your seedlings blow their nose on your puny 200,000 watts. What? You only have 600? Well, now they're just laughing at you. These girls are built for the Sun!

Because you mislead the plants to believe floros are the Sun, you'll need to hang the 600 extra high for a day or three as they re-acclimate. Make the first day under the 600 a half day by placing them in the cab at "noon"

Never did the HPS/MH switch. I'd suspect that at the beginning of 12/12 to the end of the stretch would be the time to switch. The sooner you switch the more stretch. Whether more or less stretch is good depends on your situation.

 

[Farmer Stealth]

I got sprouts!!

All 5 of both the AK and Mazar poped last nite so into the dirt they went this morning.
Just checked the 5 Chrystals', 1 just poped and 3 more look like there about to. I'll plant them in the morning.

Looks like one of the Mazars has already poked its head up to say "Hay."
I'm kinda wonderin', would they come up that fast, 14hrs?

Anyway, I'm geting batteries for my camara tomarrow so mabey tomarrow night I can post my first of hopfully lots of pics.

Ya'll be safe and

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Time for a lil' update.

Day six and I'm down to 10 girls, HOPFULLY!
I got all 5 AK-48s, 4 Mazers and only 1 Chrystal

The AKs and Mazers are 2" to 2 1/2" tall. The 1 Chrystal is only about 1 1/2"
tall, I started it a day late.
I guess this ain't bad for a week along.
I've been moving the light from between 3" to 7"-8" away, 24hrs on.
So far my temps have been between 72 to 85 deg mabey a lil' cooler now, I just started the fan blowing across my plants.

Tomarrow I'll start putting the flower area together, Mylar the walls, get my light hung up. OOOOOOOOOoooooooooo I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

For some reason I keep forgetting to stop and buy batteries, I wonder why? lol
I promiss to get some this weekend so I can post some pics.

Anyway, so far so good

 

[BubsNugs]

Good luck with the grow dude!
Liquid Karma is good stuff and great supplement.
Don.t over water let them dry out between waterings and every 2-3 weeks id give em a dose of just ph balanced water.
Do you have more seeds? Perhaps u might wanna get a few more goin because don't forget you will be pulling some males once u get flowering. Give the plants plenty of room when in veg so they bush out as well as gain height.

Peace

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Yo BubsNugs, thanks for stopin by.

I see a lot of folks use Liquid Karma, I can use it along with Humbolt Master A-B?
Yesterday I gave um there first feeding, a VERY light feeding.

I'm planing on vegin them for about 4 weeks then I'm gonna try for 3-4 clones off each plant. Once they go 12-12 and show sex I'll weed out the males, atleast thats my plan.
I do have 5 more AKs and 5 Chrystal seeds left but I was wantin to hold on to them incase I screw up this first run. LOL

 

[NiteTiger]

No need to feed seedlings until the coyts start to turn.

Also, remember that you don't have to wait til 12/12 to start sexing. Once you see alternate branching (sometimes before), you can identify preflowers. At this early stage, I wouldn't pull based on pre-flowers, because you're not experienced enough yet. In this grow, make note of what the pre-flowers look like, and which ones turn into males. Then in future seed runs, you'll be able to pull based on the preflowers.

As far as nutes and additives, don't. This is your first grow, you've got a lot of experience to get under your belt. heck, you won't even know if those additives did anything except drain your wallet on this grow Pick a simple, known formulation, and stick with it. There's simply no need for all the other money sinks. My preferred nute is FloraNova Bloom @ 5ml/gal veg and 8ml/gal flower. Usually, the only other thing I add is molasses. I've tried playing the additive game, and trust me, it's just not worth the time at this point.

Just ease back, and let the girls do their thing. They will tell you when you need to do something for you.

Good luck on your grow!

 

[Farmer Stealth]

Well I just fired up the 600 mh for the first time.

Got the girls sitting about 3ft from the light, I've had them under the T5s 24/24 for about 9 days now.
I'm thinking about leaving them 24/24 for a few more days under the 600mh then going 20/4 for a week, then 18/6 for a week, then going 12/12. Does this sound good or should I do somthing eles???

Also, I've had a fan blowing on them constantley, the stems seem to be kind of weak, there about 2 1/2" to 3" tall. Are they normally weak, I'm I over annalizing, GOD I'M GOING NUTZ!! LOL

Anyway, got some batteries tonight so I post pics tomarrow.

Thanks for looking and as always,

 

[greenpenguin]

the stems are most likely normal, they don't really start to thicken out until you have 3 or 4 nodes. Sounds like you've only had your seedlings for a week or so, give it another week and a half and you'll see them get thicker. Though the metal halide might speed you up, I dunno, I've only used flouros in veg.
I'm sure you'll get a lot more feedback once people have pics to look at, keep it growing!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Stems may have stretched from low light in the beginning. I like to beat my girls up every day. Make a V of your fingers, slip them around a stem and give a little shake. Mimics wind and animals brushing by. They'll toughen up in no time under a 600.