I haven't grown anything since 2nd grade. Let's do this!

A friend of mine in a different locale started doing this earlier this year after growing some other herbs and what not (guess that gave him the bug). Figured...sure, why not give this a shot, I'm pretty whimsical, and it could certainly save me some money! Any and all constructive (or at least entertaining) commentary and dialogue welcome.

Was not sure how this was going to go. I can get very obsessive about whatever projects I do, but I'm trying to put as little effort as possible in to this first grow to get a baseline; then go all mad scientist on my following crops. I breezed through Cervantes' book..while blazed, hah. Basically all I am doing is checking my water pH before making batches, and adjusting based on leaf coloring; nothing too tricky. Thus far my pH has been coming out to 6.5-6.8 after adding the nutes so I haven't even had to balance anything yet, though I'm not checking runoff (just have the bags on the floor, not watering them enough to get runoff!).

I've been swapping progress pics and figured I might as well do a grow thread somewhere. I started early May and I'll be catching this up. In a nutshell, I'm running a 600w cooled hood in a 3x3 tent stuck in a closet that just happened to have a vent in it. One small fan inside. Growing in a Humboldt Basement soil in 5 gallon fabric planters. Nutes are the Botanicare sampler pack. Water is tap out of reallllllllly old plumbing. Starting the seeds in rockwool. Trying a CO2 bag, why not I guess, concept is sound at least.

I picked up some 'Flo' seeds locally, and had one kicking around I found in some bud I had bought a few months earlier..was said to be "Atomic Blueberry I" but I haven't found anything at all on the strain online so who knows.

On May 7th, I scuffed half the Flo seeds as well as AB-I and the and threw them in some water..I'll catch this up to current in the next couple days but figured I'd get this started!

sound good carnt wait to see how it turns out for you

Thank you sir! I am quite excited myself. After things started taking off, it really has started to grab my interest..there's something therapeutic about it, I don't know! Problem is now I want a large grow area to work in..I bet that's a common side effect.

So working towards getting up to speed (I'll have to do this in chunks due to lack of time..also learning the ins and outs of posting!):

May 8th: In to the towel they go.



May 9th: All 7 have split their shells already. I stick them in rockwool in a humidity dome, raise the light and turn it down to 60%, or about 360w.



May 10th: One already pops up and out, and a few progression pics through the 14th.



May 21st: Roots are starting to show from under the small containers. I move them in to the 5-gallon bags. One isn't looking so hot so I leave it in the small tub and see if it's going to make it (didn't quite have enough soil for another bag anyway..).



That's all I've got time for, will hopefully get more in tomorrow!

May 23rd. AB-I is center.



28th. Ditched the two weak Flo's. Moving forward...








June 6th. AB-I is thriving, all the Flo's seem unhappy..especially the runt. Dialed back the nutes for Flo. Temps have been low 80's with 55% humidity or so, about 10 degrees over ambient, should be OK. Experimented with going 100% wattage, but they didn't seem to be fans of the higher temps or the extra wattage, so back to 75%.



9th. AB-I's trucking right along, 2 of the 3 remaining Flo's are looking a lot better to say the least.

June 20th. Me gusta; 75% at least.



23rd. RIP little guy. Something in my camera settings must have changed...I'm not really a photographer either. Local grower suggested I water them more based on this picture, which I did, and the leaf tips perked up. Guess I'll be in the minority of under-watering clueless n00bs?



25th. OK, OK, I can never leave anything alone. Decided to try some topping. And why not, let's switch to flowering at the same time..things are getting tall, the shock might be a good thing and slow down the stretching. Picked up a bulb deflector doohicky because I apparently had cash to burn. Leaving one Flo untouched for comparison. Gave AB-I the standard treatment and rolled the dice with FIM on one of the Flo's. Here's what I got..



Oh and I cloned too. Heh. Here they be, 4 from each plant. I took them from the lowest branches, 3 nodes down. Using Clonex, x-acto split ends, and rockwool soaked in a super mild nute solution (probably in the neighborhood of 1/15th strength). A month in to veg is premature a bit from what I'm reading, not sure how this will go. Stem diameters are a bit small for the holes in the wool, even with a pinch they're a bit loose. Leaving them in the dark for a few days on the suggestion of my friend who said they might benefit from it. Made a tub to contain the humidity dome with a couple 24w CFL strips in the lid.



28th. 3 days in to flower. Definitely running hotter with the HPS bulb, opened up the vents and turned the fan all the way up. Ditched the CO2 bag, no way it's making any difference with as much air flow as I've got now (was semi-sealed I'd say but as wide open as it can get now). Also helped I was trying to adjust it up and couldn't figure out my mess of a hanging system, lost motivation to make it work and just cut the thing down. Maybe next time.



Clones looking ok, flipped the lights on today. And by OK, I mean the Flo's all look like they're going with it and half the AB-I's are looking sketchy.

Looking awesome subbed up for the ride.

Wow, you can't even edit posts?! Sorry gentlemen, I was on the fence about sharing but that seals it. Back to lurk mode...

LIKING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER! Seriously more people should think safety when designing their rooms and your grow is looking superb.

ZOMBIESxWEED said:

LIKING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER! Seriously more people should think safety when designing their rooms and your grow is looking superb.

Click to expand...

Safety 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I agree that it's under-emphasized. I have one extinguisher in the tent, another outside the tent, and another outside the closet itself. I am working on a controls system with real-time remote monitoring, text alerts, and an automatic fire suppression system controlled by both temperature sensors and a flame detector. Being in an apartment means an 'incident' affects many more than just myself..plus I like inventing stuff.

I've taken precautions for privacy but until things are more lax in my locale I am going to stop my updates since I can't risk outing myself any more than I already have..it's unfortunately an unnecessary risk at this point. All this fuss over plants..

Damn monkey love all over that shiz. Lookin skanky. Rep plus n subboed. This, Will be great.&

ZOMBIESxWEED said:

LIKING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER! Seriously more people should think safety when designing their rooms and your grow is looking superb.

Click to expand...

Good call, i have one. I also take the nessesary precations to make sure that theres never an issue. Positive thinking and being proactive is the best defence. Coodos

shame i hate it when a grow diary ends without seeing the results!