Hello, Everyone. First-time Grower Here.

[Fangthane]

So, here I am. A couple of months ago, I just got a bug up my ass to try my hand at growing some of my own, on a basically nonexistent budget. I had some random swag seeds laying around, so I germinated a couple and decided to just try to kinda wing it and figure it out as I go. It's an indoor grow; but living in a desert region, I have a feeling it's not going to be a painless process - not just due to my complete ignorance.

I did fairly minimal research, and decided that LED COB lighting seemed to be the cheap/effective way to go. I figured it's worth a shot. I got a 1.5 cu. ft. bag of Ocean Forest soil and some Dyna-Gro Grow and Bloom plant food. I still need to pick up at least a few more things when I have some more cash to play with - namely, a half-decent tent and some more chemicals: pH-control stuff and the like.

I'd started the seedlings on some old-ass, used potting soil we had around the house. I don't know that they thrived at first, but they seemed to be pretty healthy. As of about 2 weeks ago, I got the OF soil and transplanted them, it was roughly the same time that I got the LED lighting and started using that. It's only been a few days since I finally got the Dyna-Gro, but it appears I'm already getting some "nute burn" from it. I may have mixed it a bit strong -

mL/gallon.

I'll post a couple of pics of my two plants, feel free to let me know what you think of them. They're only a month past sprout, but I'm thinking that they're probably smaller than they should be. All in all, the smaller one (white and blue container) seems to be doing reasonably well. The larger one.. maybe not so much. The drooping and clawing of the leaf tips is kinda alarming. Guess I should just go with straight water for a little while?

 

[Fangthane]

Didn't mean to double up on the pictures. Tried to edit the post and remove them, but apparently that somehow makes my post "spam-like." This forum seems a bit more clunky than the kind I'm used to.

 

[GT21]

So, here I am. A couple of months ago, I just got a bug up my ass to try my hand at growing some of my own, on a basically nonexistent budget. I had some random swag seeds laying around, so I germinated a couple and decided to just try to kinda wing it and figure it out as I go. It's an indoor grow; but living in a desert region, I have a feeling it's not going to be a painless process - not just due to my complete ignorance.

I did fairly minimal research, and decided that LED COB lighting seemed to be the cheap/effective way to go. I found what seems to be a pretty good deal on a Morsen Max 5 1500 watt light. For $77, shipped, I figured it's worth a shot. I got a 1.5 cu. ft. bag of Ocean Forest soil and some Dyna-Gro Grow and Bloom plant food. I still need to pick up at least a few more things when I have some more cash to play with - namely, a half-decent tent and some more chemicals: pH-control stuff and the like.

I'd started the seedlings on some old-ass, used potting soil we had around the house. I don't know that they thrived at first, but they seemed to be pretty healthy. As of about 2 weeks ago, I got the OF soil and transplanted them, it was roughly the same time that I got the LED lighting and started using that. It's only been a few days since I finally got the Dyna-Gro, but it appears I'm already getting some "nute burn" from it. I may have mixed it a bit strong - View attachment 805802 View attachment 805803 View attachment 805804 View attachment 805805 mL/gallon.

I'll post a couple of pics of my two plants, feel free to let me know what you think of them. They're only a month past sprout, but I'm thinking that they're probably smaller than they should be. All in all, the smaller one (white and blue container) seems to be doing reasonably well. The larger one.. maybe not so much. The drooping and clawing of the leaf tips is kinda alarming. Guess I should just go with straight water for a little while?View attachment 805802 View attachment 805803 View attachment 805804 View attachment 805805

They look just fine.. Good job.

I hope the bug crawled out of your ass.

 

[RuralFarmer]

Welcome first time grower.

 

[Enforcer]

Welcome to the Farm

The spots are more than likely just some nute solution the was splashed on the leaf. You said you just transplanted into FFOF soil. That is relatively hot soil out of the bag, so you shouldn’t need any added nutrients for a few weeks. I recommend you stop feeding (water only) until the plant begins to look hungry.

 

[Fangthane]

Welcome to the Farm

The spots are more than likely just some nute solution the was splashed on the leaf. You said you just transplanted into FFOF soil. That is relatively hot soil out of the bag, so you shouldn’t need any added nutrients for a few weeks..

Thanks for taking the time to provide some useful information! The spots popped up on another leaf, but the plant seems to be doing relatively well still. It seems to have shot up an inch or two in the past few days. I'd mixed a bit of the Grow into my misting bottle, so maybe that's the cause of it. I'd read about how many considered OF to be "hot," but I guess I let beginner's zeal get the best of me.

I recommend you stop feeding (water only) until the plant begins to look hungry.

Having no experience, I just don't have much of any idea what a hungry plant would look like. In the past week, I've mostly just used straight water; I also gave a noob's approximation of a flush to that plant a few days ago, thinking that maybe I'd overdone it with nutrients.

Once the soil's nutrients are used up, what kind of general feeding schedule would you recommend? I'd really liked the idea of following the instructions on the bottle and using the Grow/water mixture with every watering, but it seems that that's overkill. Living in the desert and having very low relative humidity, I find myself having to water them several times a day. With the frequent watering, should I just make a much weaker mixture to compensate for that and still feed with every watering like the bottle suggests? Use the Grow mixture once a days and straight water for the rest of the day?

The bottom leaves feel kinda brittle and paper-like. Is that something I can/should correct? If so, how?

 

[Enforcer]

Thanks for taking the time to provide some useful information! The spots popped up on another leaf, but the plant seems to be doing relatively well still. It seems to have shot up an inch or two in the past few days. I'd mixed a bit of the Grow into my misting bottle, so maybe that's the cause of it. I'd read about how many considered OF to be "hot," but I guess I let beginner's zeal get the best of me.

Having no experience, I just don't have much of any idea what a hungry plant would look like. In the past week, I've mostly just used straight water; I also gave a noob's approximation of a flush to that plant a few days ago, thinking that maybe I'd overdone it with nutrients.

Once the soil's nutrients are used up, what kind of general feeding schedule would you recommend? I'd really liked the idea of following the instructions on the bottle and using the Grow/water mixture with every watering, but it seems that that's overkill. Living in the desert and having very low relative humidity, I find myself having to water them several times a day. With the frequent watering, should I just make a much weaker mixture to compensate for that and still feed with every watering like the bottle suggests? Use the Grow mixture once a days and straight water for the rest of the day?

The bottom leaves feel kinda brittle and paper-like. Is that something I can/should correct? If so, how?

I’m not a soil grower, but the rule of thumb is water/water/feed. Basically you water, wait until the pot is noticeably lighter, water again, wait until light, feed and repeat. What I mean by hungry is yellowing from the bottom up (nitrogen deficiency) or yellowing of the upper leaves but the veins are still green (Magnesium deficiency). As long as the plant looks dark green, no extra feed, water only.

When you do begin feedings, start at 1/2 the recommendation on the bottle.

 

[Enforcer]

And yes, with frequent watering in low humidity, you’ll want to reduce the feed strength so you don’t get burn.

Just be careful not to over saturate the soil, or you’ll run into root rot issues. Water thoroughly to about 20% runoff, wait until light again, water & wait, feed & wait....repeat.

 

[Mr Bee]

Those gals look almost exactly like uk cheese or a similar type of skunk.

 

[Fangthane]

After having to abort my previous grow, I'm ready to make my triumphant return. I've upgraded my setup a bit: I got a 39"x39"x79" mylar-lined grow tent; a pH meter to try to make my water a bit more palatable to the plants; also picked up some off-brand Pro-tekt silica supplement to try to battle the high temps here. Still using FFOF soil (mixed with some Miracle Gro soil to make it go a bit further. For now, still going with the Dyna-Gro nutes from the aborted grow. After some research, I also decided to get some 3-gallon fabric grow pots to help avoid root binding.

I picked up some Flawless Finish flush solution, since my nutes aren't organic. After reading a bit, it seems there's a bit of a schism over whether or not the epsom salt flush is effective; whether flushing itself is even necessary. Wouldn't mind some current opinions on that. If I can reasonably avoid flushing, while avoiding the horrible taste that supposedly comes when you don't flush the accumulated salts out, I'd love to cut that step out - assuming I can get the little ladies to the point where there's actually something to harvest.

Instead of just using garbage seeds I had laying around, I decided to try to produce something worth consuming. I dropped $40 on 3 Tangerine Dream "auto" seeds from another site. They broke through the soil on 8/15. After about 5 days, they were roughly 3" tall, but the stalks were alarmingly thin and weak. If I'd accidentally pour some water directly on the leaves, the whole damn thing would just flop over and lay along the soil. Not really sure if it would qualify as stretching, since if anything I probably had the lighting closer than I should have. Although I didn't really like the idea of transplanting 5-day-old seedlings, I figured I had to do something. I moved them to a cooler closet and put them in the fabric pots, sprinkled a bit of rooting hormone around the stalks and buried them to within 1/2" of the leaves. In the 5 days since doing that, they seem to have really rallied VERY nicely - I'd say they at least tripled the amount of leaves since transplanting and the stalks are MUCH thicker now.

So, 10 days after going topside, here's what I have today. Compared to 10-day-old plants you guys have dealt with, how do they look?

P.S. I know I'm long-winded - sorry. I've just generally found that more information is preferable to less.

 

[jumpincactus]

@Fangthane please continue this thread in the grow diaries threads. This thread is for intros only. You can pick this up there and carry on :D:smoking:

 

[jumpincactus]

what do you want as the title? what strain/s are these? So you can find your thread.:D

 

[Fangthane]

what do you want as the title? what strain/s are these? So you can find your thread.:D

My bad. Being a total noob, my thinking was that it was probably best not to jump into general population just yet. They're Tangerine Dream auto-flowering. If you're creating a thread for me, name it what you will.