An almost dry run...

Alright, so I suppose that if I am going to spend half of my life waiting for seeds in the mail, I might as well start to get some experience before I dive right in. So here is how it is:

I have a small storage space, about 4'X2'x4' ish, and have set everything up pretty well. I have a 400W HPS running through a cooltube with a 250 cfm fan blowing out the hot air. Intake is passive. This is what it looks like from the outside:



Here is my cool tube:




And here is my temp after about 30 hours of constantly running the light:



Now, being sick of waiting (3 weeks so far) for my Great White Shark seeds from Dr. Chronic, I decided to plant a bag seed to get an idea of how my space would work, as well as getting experience with things like watering (not over-watering), distance from the light, LST, and all of the other things that I have tirelessly read about but still feel that I couldn't do properly. I might even decide to clone it for a little practice. If I get my seeds, I might just scrap this whole thing. If I don't, I am looking at this as a dry run. If it turns out to be a little boy, I won't cry too much. Here is the bitch yesterday: (You may have seen this pic in my "Am I ready to harvest yet? post)




If anyone has any comment they would like to make, feel free. This is not a closed journal.

Looks excellent. I recognize that ballast....HTG? Looks nice and stealth, good temperatures and humidity is exactly as low as mine this time of year, mine is usually 50-65% in warmer months, but now it's 33-35%. Good luck!

Alright, since I am still waiting on my seeds from Dr. Chronic (28 days today); and he still is assuring me that they will get here, and to be patient; I have continued this little three-quarter-assed but half-hearted grow. For the record, I state again that this grow is largely for entertainment purposes, and a bit of practice. If I get to bud this thing, it will be purely an extracurricular bonus (like a sweet field trip in grade school). But here 'she' is......








And this is what she looks like in her "natural" habitat:





I am fairly pleased with the way growth is coming on. My internodal spacing is pretty tight, which is a great thing for someone with as little vertical space as I have. The only worry I have is that the main stalk seems a little flimsy, as I left it too far away from the light at first sprout. I have a fan on it now, and have it at a good distance from the light, so hopefully it will strengthen.

If I haven't stated it thus far, I am growing geoponically (Smith & Hawken premium potting soil, which I think in hindsight may just be MG Organic with a prettier package and a bigger price tag), under a 400W HPS with Cooltube. I am on day 11 from sprout, and I just started giving 1/2 tsp/gal of Fox Farm Grow Big in soil as well as a weak foliar feed.

I am going to veg this thing for a while to try to get a bit of experience, and start to LST in a week or two. If I come across any female preflowers in that time, I think I am going to do a little ScrOG. I was thinking about making an easy screen tied onto the top of a big storage container (like the kind many of you hydro growers use as a reservior), by cutting holes in two sides (to put in fans for canopy ventilation) and setting the pot in the middle. Wires drilled into the top lip would be tied down at 2" intervals. I think it would make a nice little scrog setup.


I shall appreciate very much any advice anyone has to offer, especially on my idea for an easy, storage-container ScrOG.

S-Town

P.S. If you have come this far, thank you for reading my little journal. I do realize that my posts can become rather verbose; which is why I post very rarely even though I have spent at least an hour on this site every day since mid-August. I do try to keep to the matter at hand.

Oh, and (obviously from the pics) I mixed some extra perlite in with the soil, which already had a little bit.

Thanks for reading,
S-Town

Well, I felt that it was time for me to do a little update. Growth started to go extremely well over the last couple of days. She finally has enough leaves to keep her well fed and really growing up. Also, she is starting to start to smell really skunky, which is something I didn't know to expect on this unknown seed. Still no word on my seeds from Dr. Chronic, so I would really love a little girl to clone. Hopefully, I will get some preflowers in the next 3-4 weeks, so I know where I stand. Here are just a couple pictures:





And with my new 7-point fan leaves at the 3rd node:





I'm sorry about the blurriness in the pictures. I am a really terrible photographer. I am going to start tying her up in the next week or so. Even though I am really not even close to hurting for vertical space, I feel like I can never be too careful. I was thinking about topping her this week, but I think that would complicate my LST.

Thanks for reading,
S-Town

P.S. Even though I repeatedly used the feminine pronouns "she", and "her", within this post, I have no indication of sex this early. I just really can't call her "it", and I certainly can't bring myself to call her "he"! So yeah. There you have it.