Colombian Gold (first grow)

What I want & what I expect
I'd really just like to have some decent bud to smoke. Obviously getting loads at the end would be great but I'm a realist and I'll be pleased with myself if I can grow more than an ounce and a half of decent bud first time around.

I don't have a seperate vegging room so I'd like to just end up being able to grow a few ounces every few months (just for myself).


What I have
Plug and Grow system 200W CFL (blue range)
3 Colombian Gold fem seeds (now seedlings) 75/25 Sativa/Indica
6ft tall, 2ft deep, 4ft wide closet
Matte white walls
Crappy oscillating fan
3 x 10 cm pots
3 x 7.5 litre pots
Humidity / temp meter (cheapo)
PH / water / light meter (cheapo)
Seed tray
Plastic lining over carpet.
Good english water (consistently 6.7-6.9PH)
A really bad phone camera

Where I am with it
Well these were put in pots on 6th Jan, germinated in damp tissue rolled up sideways into a little pot about halfway up, with about 1cm water at the bottom, with cling film over the top in the airing cupboard. Tap roots were between 1-2cm when planted.

So pictures begin today - day 4. First up is the close-ish image, not much to share there so kept the image size down. I doubt you can see much with the quality of the images, but all three are looking well to me, i wait till the top cm/inch is dry before i water. Seem to be working well, solid progress each day. 1st day i could see the seed casing in the soil which had risen from about 1-2 cm down. 2nd day was it almost completely out of its seed casing (1 already had, the tallest now). 3rd day all were out with just a gentle nudge with a ruler, all plants were now 2cm - 4cm tall. Today all have their first spear leaves ranging from 6mm-11mm, stalks are all light green and look nice and strong. The other pic is the overall setup. Light is hanging about 1ft and a half above plants and fan on the right. The pictures have been dimmed a bit so you can see.

Please note that I DO NOT mind at all if anyone would like to offer thoughts on my project, but please keep on topic. Just want to keep this fairly consise

Temps are: 27 Celcius / 80.6 Farenheit, 40% Humidity.
Medium: 50/50 Perlite / Tomato Grow bag soil mix.

Day 5
Well the girls are all still standing quite proudly to attention, the pots were feeling light so I've given them a quick little water, and I'll not feed them again now til tommorrow night or tuesday morning. Temps between 25-30 C which I think is ok, humidity currently ranging between 30-50%. Luckily the Colombian Gold strain is a landrace which is supposed to be fairly good at adapting to conditions. I'm slightly annoyed that the main stem may be a little stretched on the plant that has progressed the furthest, as I had to muck around with lights too much in the first couple of days (while i was at work i needed to put them just by the window as I was worried about the HPS light I was using before hand - only felt comfortable when I could supervise it), but also relieved as at least they all made it through and look 100% healthy otherwise. Theres new growth I can see on the way, and overnight the leaves have all gotten bigger and stems are visibly gaining more strength.

I'm going to get a better fan and work on lightproofing better for when it gets to flowering stage, but for now I'm sticking with what i have. The only adjustment I've made is bring the light down to about 4/5 inches from the tops of the plants, hopefully they'll not stretch any more.

Day 5 continued....
I have a serious (i think) problem. I've just come home at the end of the day. While i've been out, one of my plants has basically 'leant' right over about 45 degrees. It looks green and healthy so I'm suspecting that it's a result of the stretch I mentioned in the previous post, but when I came in the temp was also 35 C which I know is bad. I think it may be a bit too top heavy? Is this likely? For the moment I've propped it up against a pencil. Any questions you might have to help me with this issue, fire away - I don't want all of my babies to die on me :_( Please help! I want to fix this! Much love in advance <3

Another day 5 update not long after the last update
Here was the plant (one with the pencil holding the bottom part of stem up). Interestingly once the temp had cooled I took the pencil away and it actually stayed up fine. The stem is now slightly bent, but hopefully it will stand up straight again in a day or two in comfortable conditions. Is all ok or should I worry..?

Edit: I also repotted it quickly, covering/stabilizing the bottom 1-2cm of stem. I seem to remember I planted this seed the shallowest so i think it may not have had enough anchorage to support the stretching.

Day 6
Well I had a quick look this morning before work, everything looks good after the 6 hour dark period. The seedling with the problematic stem seems to be doing fine after the repot, no impact noticable on it's growth...

The closet is slightly warmer than I'd like, I'm not sure yet how I'm going to combat this. Temps will go up to about 35 C if I close the door for more than about 2 hours. The closet backs onto my airing cupboard that houses the hot water tank, so I've switched my central heating/water to 'auto' mode at 20 C. Hopefully this will help. It's a rented house so I really can't be cutting holes in the doors/walls for ventilation so if anyone else has some bright ideas... feel free to help me out here. I was pondering to myself earlier how much would it help by putting a big tray of ice cubes in the closet next to the fan? I would have thought that would cool the air but I'm not sure. The only other way I can think of right now is just leave the door open about 4inches during lights-on... I always close it at lights-off. The 200W cfl is definately a LOT less warm than the 400W hps i started with... but still I need to get this temp problem sorted asap.

35 C is far too hot, and even 30 is pushing things. I know that you don't want to hear this, but you need to get extraction and airflow sorted, one way or another. Not only do you need to remove the heat from the light, but you also need to supply the plants with fresh, CO2 rich air if you want them to grow well.

As for a practical solution, I can understand that you don't want to damage the property. How would you feel about removing the door completely, and storing it somewhere where it can be put back if needed. Then replace it with a wooden panel, which you can safely cut into for ventilation.

Either that, or get a wardrobe instead. That way, you can chop it up as much as you need to.

Nocturn3: Thanks for having a look at my journal here, and thanks for taking the time to suggest something Basically I'm quite nervy at the moment about having a grow op in my bedroom, so as much as I love my plants and I want them to do as well as possible, I can't really go to the lengths I would if I had a bigger place of my own. Removing the door and making a panel isn't something I'd be adverse to doing, I just don't want to draw attention to my closet like that... BUT I was thinking of incorporating that idea maybe behind my real door? I might do a diagram later to explain what I mean. The wardrobe is again something I've thought of, but really in my room I don't have space for something like that, and as I've got a housemate I've said I'll keep this all confined to my room. What I WILL do though, and perhaps in a few days, is get a decent fan, my current one pushes about a cubic foot every week - seriously it's awful. I think a decent fan might cool the lamp enough that I can make do just leaving the closet door semi open 95% of the time during lights on.

Day 7
Not much to report, just a nice new set of leaves coming through properly, looking great and overall the plants look quite happy. I'm hoping by lights-off tonight (lights are on from 8am-2am) those leaves will look pretty much fully developed.

Question. I have grown from this tomato grow bag soil stuff with 50% perlite... I should expect there to be nutrients already in this soil mix I presume? There wasn't much info on the bag.

Day 8
Well, progress has been slower today. I actually notice that one of the seedling has quite 'clawed' first speared leaves (the other two look better but I think they look like they could go the same way). I suspect thats a under/overwatering issue, and seeing as I've been seeing everywhere that most people tend to overwater, I think I may have been a bit tight on them. I've been spraying the top soil gently (pretty much daily) but I don't think i've been giving them decent enough amounts of water each time. So basically what i've decided to do is the following... I've watered them til water comes out of the bottom of the pots, now I'm going to wait for all of that to dry up/get drunk. I'll hopefully be able to sort them out just sticking to that regime. My water is at about 6.5-6.8ph, temps have been good since I sorted central heating out ~25-27 C, humidity about 45% fairly consistently for the last couple of days at least.

I guess I figured what I was doing was fine, as the plants all looked perky and good colour. They are still a great colour, thankfully, so hopefully getting them a better supply of water is going to get them going a bit more vigourous. If the plants get worse, then I'll assume overwatering and I'll pray they get through the dousing they have just recieved, and wait a good day or so to see if it improves. Pics coming - trying to find a better cam than my phone one :/

Sounds like you are on the right track with the watering issue. It's best to give the plants a wet/dry cycle, by watering them well until there is some run-off, then allow the medium to dry out well before you water again.

The best way to tell if they need watering is by the weight of the pots, but this takes some getting used to. An easier method is to put your finger down into the soil, and if it feels dry below the surface, then you are good to water them.

It sounds to me like you already have this figured out well enough though.

Thanks Noc, these things take a little getting used to. I was too cautious about overwatering and it turns out I definately was underwatering. (See below! ) I've given you +rep for continuing to offer your advice/ideas on my little grow.

Day 9
Well, the decent watering I gave all three plants last night seems to have confirmed my thoughts yesterday. Today, the plants look better than they have for 2 or 3 days, the plants have obviously had a really good drink, and are looking very strong and perky indeed. Hopefully the lack of water recently hasn't stunted/stressed them too much, as the plants are so young I assume they'll bounce back strong. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out over the next 3/4 days, I'm expecting growth to really start picking up now. I'm getting a friend's camera in a couple of days, so hopefully some decent quality pics fairly soon. I tried taking more pics with the phone cam last night but the focus is horrible.

Day 13
The strain both from W.o.S. and other sites/info claim that CG is a very vigorous strain, and I was beginning to wonder when it might happen. Finally a bit of pace has stricken the young'uns. I'm pleased to say the new watering routine is sorted and is working very well I think. I did notice the bottom spear leaves on 2 plants had a couple of wrinkles, kinda twisting up the sides of the middle of the leaf... it's maybe a shade darker on the bottoms than the mid/tops but I'm guessing thats just because they're newer. You can see it slightly on the middle plant in the angled pic below.

Going to start nutes in about a week and a half. Any good advice on this welcome. Done some research, was thinking about going to a hydro shop and getting some biobizz grow + bloom... good / bad? I'll take it easy as the tomato grow bag potting soil I used is probably full of cack.

Day 14
More of an update on yesterday really... after making my post I took another look at my babies, and notices in all 3 pots, just reaching/poking at the drainage holes in their 10cm square pots. I took it upon myself to transplant them into 7.5 litre pots, a little less perlite this time, more like 60/40 soil mix/perlite. The soil coming from the 10cm pots was a little loose so I can only hope damage/stress was minimal, as it kinda started to crumble a bit before i could get them installed.

Despite a slightly stressful repotting, and the plants looking slightly sad afterward, this morning they looked quite perky again and ready for another healthy dose of CFL goodness. Growth progress overnight looked to be nil, but I'm hoping the roots are just settling in.

Firstly sorry for no pic - phone cam is useless for (everything+) close ups.

Having had a closer look at the leaves that are a bit twisted/wrinkled up near the edges, I can describe the leaf tissue as almost looking waxy on top, making it look darker in normal light (only just) and has a light sheen to it under light. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It feels a little crispy almost. It's on the bottom spear leaves only, on 2 plants.

At the time I first found them like that I remember thinking it might be slight burning as the light was a little low... possible? Now I'm starting to get paranoid and wondering if it's spreading, which would lead me to think some sort of fungal thing

Any help appreciated... what can i do?!

Seeing as nobody is helping () I went on an extensive research trail last night trying to find some explanation for my wrinkled slightly hardened patches on my lower leaves... I figure it's either mild nute burn (from the pre-nuted grow bag) or overwatering. I can't find any mould or fungus that seems to match my prob, so for now I'm going to carry on, keep an eye on it, and assume (hope) it's nothing terrible.

Day 15
Five fingered leaves are here Plants look happy and quite comfortable in the new pots now, they're looking more and more ready for nutes. I'm going to get some neem oil and biobizz nutes asap (when I get paidin about a week).

Day 17
Unfortunately due to circumstances, I'm unable to finish this grow. I'll have to move home unexpectedly fairly soon, and don't want to risk getting caught by my landlord showing new possible tenants around. I'll therefore either have to scrap the plants completely, or think of a way to store them well enough that I can continue the grow elsewhere.

For now, the best option for them is probably to go into my mum's greenhouse. Due to UK climate this means they will probably all meet their doom In a few months time I'll hopefully have settled in a new place of my own and ready to start the mission again.

I guess to a certain degree, at least I've learned a lot from the experience, and i'll be that much more prepared for the next time. Happy growin' folks.

Nooooo! This is so sad I'm very sorry for you