1st time Grow: 250w Red CFL micro...

[usualsuspect]

At the moment I have a dressing over the whole box, with an arm padded around the exhaust duct. Only a faint glow comes from it with the light on, barely anything rarely, so should be OK. It's not affecting the temps anyhow.

Tempted to put nutes in soon. Only 2 more set of leaves and I can do my first 'top' and get the main stem branching.

 

[usualsuspect]

Time for an update...

Here's an update on my plants! It's been two weeks now since I started germination and plants 1 & 2 are going on great. The first set of five-leaf growths have grown to 2-3 inches and so I pinched out the new growth on top to start the bushing process:

Plant 1:

Plant 2:

And the Runt!

I'd love to know why the runt is so shite. I've relegated it to the corner now to give pride of place to the other two. Here they are in all their glory:

I have got a slight issue with plant 2. It has a slight browning and down-turning to the edges of a couple of leaves and some small brown spots:

I haven't started nutes yet so can't be that, and after some research I think I haven't been letting them dry out enough between waterings. Remember to poke your finger down into the soil when checking it's dried out!

Also, the timer for the plug has fucked up, so it's had to be on 24 hour light for the last 3 days. Figure that not gonna bother it though? Will it bother it if I change it back to 18/6 today?

In a couple of days I'm gonna stick the nute pellet in. They look big and strong enough now don't you think?

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Lookin' good! Seems like you answered your own question on the water def. resulting in those brown tips on the leaves.

Nice job on the early topping too.

You can cut back the lighting w/ no problems usually, but it's best to keep a consistent lighting throughout the whole vegetative growth. But giving them a couple day of 24/0 then cutting back to 18/6 should *not effect them at all IMO.

Now if they were flowering and you timer went out, that would be an bigger issue...

Hope that helps a bit.

-Sense

 

[usualsuspect]

Thanks a lot sense!

 

[usualsuspect]

Seem to have a bit of a problem. The lower, largest leaves are turning yellowy and very brittle. The tops seem fine, nice green and healthy but I've also noticed that between the pot and base for the pots the roots have grown out the bottom of the pot.

Do I need to re-pot, or is this normal? I've got a couple of inches spare in these pots, stupidly I didn't make full use of them and fill them right up. I've cut watering back to every 3 days or so, when its fully dry down to 3 inches or so. This started just before I added nutes, so I don't think it's related to nute burn.. the light is only 2-3 inches away (150w cfl) but then the tops are doing fine (or is new growth more resistant to it?)

Growth is continuing well, with the topped parts diverging and growing nicely. Will post pics soon, don't have the iPhone with me at the moment to take them.

Easy peeps.

 

[usualsuspect]

repotted plants and pinned down the branches

OK, so after seeing that the roots had already spread through the holes in the pot and realising my error in not filling the pots to near the top first time round, I have repotted them (same pot, just filled more soil underneath). The roots coming out of the pot at the bottom had to be trimmed but they seem to have taken to their newly refurbished homes fine.

Here's a pic of the problem I mentioned in the last post:

It only seems to be the lowest leaves. I pruned the worst two, bottom, sets. The tops and new growth seems fine so I wonder if it was just the problem with the watering playing out on the leaves that had already been affected?

Here's a pic of the two branches that stemmed from where they were topped:

I then followed LBH's guide and created long 'U' shapes out of wire coathangers and pegged down the four branches like this:

After just 24 hours this is what they look like in their new homes:

As you can see they seem to be doing OK despite the lower leaf discoloration so I'm not worried too much.

 

[Misterdirt]

I have to say that I just love this thread. I've never tried a grow this small, but it gives me hope that if/when I have to move, I can get a little grow in and keep myself supplied.

 

[Misterdirt]

I'm not sure what the issue is with those lower leaves. It looks like it could be an Mg deficiency, but if it doesn't progress higher up in the plant, I would assume the problem has passed.

When roots poke out the bottom of the pot, it's time to repot, if you have the room. If you don't have the room, keeping the pots small will keep the plants from getting too big. In soil, the size of the pot will have a major influence on the size of the plant and the yield.

When you repot, you can tease the roots out that line the interface between the pot and the soil, and it will encourage root growth into the new soil. Otherwise, the plant might remain 'root bound,' and not explore the new soil, and not get any benefit from the new soil.

As far as taking indoor plants outside goes, it won't hurt them if the root system can handle the new water demands the great outdoor imposes. It's usually windier outside than in a little box, and that can draw a huge amount of water from the plants. Watch them, and if they start to look like they're drooping, get them back inside ASAP. You can pick up some pests from the outdoors, also. You have no idea how succulent a babied plant is to an insect pest.

 

[usualsuspect]

Hey misterdirt thanks for the tips, glad you're enjoying the thread.

These are definately staying indoor all the time, far too cold out this time of year. Come summer I'll use the greenhouse as well to do some easy-grow autoflowering lowryders which should be fairly discreet.

The tip about teasing the roots is a good one, though came a little too late! I did have to tease them from under the pot itself, where they had come through the holes in the pot so hopefully that will prove enough.

Next job now that I've done the topping is to build the scorg. Since I've only got about 2.5 square feet or so I'm not going to top anymore, should be enough to fill the scrog as it is. Still looking good for a christmas crop, that's what I'm aiming for anyway.

If I want it harvested and dried by christmas, when would I need to start flowering by?

 

[Misterdirt]

For AK48 and NL, I'd guess you'd need somewhere around 60 days, so you might want to flip them now. You may not get a chance to cure it before smoking. The amount of time it takes to finish varies not only with the strain, but the grow room/grow cabinet.

Get a hand lens with about a 20X magnification, or something better. Check the color of the trichomes from about week 6 on.

The last week or two, btw, the plants put on a tremendous amount of weight. So you don't want to harvest too soon. If it's not ready, take a small branch off each plant, and dry it so you'll have it for Christmas. Then maybe you'll have the rest by New Year's Eve.

 

[blueleaf]

this thread is great ! im pulling up a chair , good luck with the grow usualsuspect.

 

[usualsuspect]

So anyone got any ideas about when I would need to start flowering by, if I wanted a crop ready for christmas?

 

[BluntMazter86]

great thread man, im interested in seeing how this turns out! When you water, measure out x amount of water and water your plant until 15-20% drains out the bottom. Wait a day or two, pick up the pot and feel how heavy it is.. you'll catch on pretty fast as to how she drinks. I was also wandering what kind of water you were giving them. I dont have RO so I was feeding mine with bottle spring water... come to find out that shit is pretty high in ph which you probably know causes the plant to lock nutrients out. So now i get away with watering with my well water which has about 6.5 ph. I would be flipping pretty fast if you want to meet that deadline. :)

 

[usualsuspect]

Thanks blunt. I'm just using tap water, slightly warmed so as not to shock the roots too much. I'm pretty much out of money till my job starts so I'm having to play PH by ear, constantly checking the health of the plants.

Good tip about amount of water, I was watering until I saw a trickle come out the bottom, then leaving it till it was dry at least 2-3 inches down (usually 2-3 days) but I've never really been sure if that was optimal or not.

As for flowering, I've read that you need a good 4-5 weeks minimum which, together with drying time, means I'll need to flip'em in a weeks time. Propably not optimal but fuck it, I want some for christmas!

 

[BluntMazter86]

I used to do the finger check aswell, but its deffinatly not accurate because you cant really tell if your soil is bone dry or soaking soggy wet. Once you water and take note of how much you water, let it drain(I never let them sit in their runoff) and pick up the pot, it should feel pretty heavy. Then I wouldnt water again until your pots feel like they have air in them. Im also a first time grower and I still have a lot to learn but this is the sure fire way for watering. I have 2 almost 4 month old plants, 23 days into flowering. They are in 10" pots and I feed them 35-40 oz every 2 and half days any longer than that, the leaves start drooping. Also have them under 250 watt mH and 2 55 watt 2600k cfL. Hope this helps bro, Good LUCK :)

 

[usualsuspect]

Thanks blunt, I'll definitely give that a go next time I water. So your plants were, roughly, 3 month vegging before you flipped? I'm gonna have to settle for half that if I want some for Christmas I should think.

Or maybe not? After all, I just want a bit of percy of the holidays... it's not like I'm planning on giving it all out for presents. What if I flipped them, say, in the first week of December and just sacrificed one bud for myself early on? Generally speaking, how big would a bud get with only three weeks flowering? I could then leave the rest to flower to their potential. Sure, they'll have only had 2 months to veg, but it's still better than a month and half.

 

[BluntMazter86]

No problem man, just one noob trying to help another noob haha!! I did veg them a little over three months simply because they werent growing as big and as fast as I was expecting.. I mean they were 5 weeks old and only 7-8 inches tall, due to me underwatering with high ph water and having 80+ temps. I figured it all out 5 weeks in, about the same time I bought my 250w MH. It took them a while, but now I have one at 25" tall and the other is 11" with a lot of LST, about 30 tops!! But they are all just little nugz nothing spectacular.. yet! I am going to run them atleast 6 weeks, maybe 8. And I believe 6 would be a minimum for any strain.. maybe a little less for some indicas. You should go by what the websites say about flowering time on your specific strains :spacecraft:

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Generally speaking, how big would a bud get with only three weeks flowering?

No good man, your plants will probably need between 7-8 weeks flowering time depending on the strain. Some sativa's need up to 10 weeks flowering before harvest.

If you were to cut them at 3 weeks flowering time it would be a complete waste.

I ran my last round from seed: 30 days vegetative growth(18/6) and about 65-70 days flowering (12/12).

 

[devious d]

SENSE I, IS BANG ON TRYING TO REACH THE XMAS DEADLINE YOU WOULD BE BETTER CUTTING THE VEG TIME(IF YOU CAN) ONE OF YOURS IS AN AK48 ? SATIVA INFLUENENCED WOULD NEED 10 WEEKS, IVE A similar problem mine dont finish till the 24th december then theres drying and curing,( sorry about capitals) rush it and you will be smoking rubbish, good luck bro take yer time be worth it in the end:joint:

 

[usualsuspect]

hmmm thanks for the tips. Might just have to buy an eighth for crimbo then grrr. Fed up with these outrageous prices! Almost wish I'd just gone with autoflowering lowryders, at least then I might have had some by then.

On the plus side, they're looking lovely! Will get some picture updates soon.