Jaymes First Grow Journal

Hello and welcome to my grow journal.Hopefully, this will be as much fun to do as the actual grow itself but I doubt it as I hate to type, lol.But anyway, this journal will try to record all the major and some of the minor events that have happened and will happen in my first go at growing weed.Please feel free to comment, criticize, and question and hopefully we can learn from each other.I've already made some semi-major mistakes such as choosing the wrong kind of soil, having my lighting too close, and poor air circulation, almost all of which have been corrected with the help of you guys on this board!So, I'll update as things move along and will have pics to illustrate any problems and solutions.Now, having said all that, I hereby commence with my first grow journal!


Well, may as well start at the beginning.So while I waited for my Endless Sky beans to arrive from doc Greenthumbs,I began to get ready an old plywood closet that I decided was perfect for my intent...to grow pot.So I read all kinds of posts on many different sites on how to get started and did just that.
I painted the inside flat white.I cut a hole for ventilation and a hole for intake.I went to my shop and built a light array using a 2x4, some 14/2 wire and 4 light sockets.I bought a digital light timer and a 50cfm bathroom fan from Canadian Tire and some soil and fert supplies.I was getting pretty excited about this new venture.Spent the next few days putting stuff together and reading more and more about growing bud.Here's some pics.

I just added that computer fan to cool down those "cool" white bulbs and so I can get them closer to my seedlings.I always thought they didn't give up much of a heat, but they do!
So, my beans arrived at their location about a week after ordering, which was nice because I was expecting them to take 2.I germinated 6 of them and all six produced a root.An early success!I felt great.I used the paper towel method to germ.It took a total of 4 days for all six to germinate to the point where I could plant them.So that's what I did next.I mixed my "soil".I had read somewhere that you should use a 4:1:1 ratio when mixing perlite, soil and vermiculite.So, after doing that I put the soil into my six 16oz. beer cups and watered till it seeped out of the drainage holes.Then I planted my soon to be seedlings and went away for a while.When I came back two hours later they weren't sprouted yet.I thought, jeezuz, hurry up lol.I was so impatient but thankfully they did sprout, well 2 of them one day and the other four the next day.It's been a week since then and one of them has light coloured tips on it's first set of leaves.I was worried about the composition of the soil so I bought a bag of organic potting soil and mixed some perlite into it.I transplanted one of my seedlings into it today and I'm going to wait and see if it grows or not.If it does I'll do the rest.
As you can see in the pics, all six of the girls(fingers crossed) have at least their first set of leaves and in some their second.Here's some pics.

Looking good, Goodluck with the grow and happy growing.

Here's some up to date pics and some more info.The lights are 8 cool white 23w 1700 lumen spiral cfl's.I also have 4 soft white 27w 2200 lumen for flowering.I put on the exhaust 3 times a day for an hour and i try to run the cooling fan as much as possible without it burning out on me. Probably not a big yield but if it's only an ounce I'll be just as happy! I figure the experience will be the real yield from this anyway.I named them all with female movie star names from the past.I'm hopin' they all turn out that way lol....female, not movie stars.Marlena is not showing any signs of shock from the transplant,yet.I guess it would be dumb to think that she isn't shocked but i hope it's minimal.Martha with the light tips, has a 90 degree elbow!I think thats because when i was pulling the seed off of her cuddly dons I pressed into the soil around the stem.I must of pressed it further into the soil. Here's the pics.

Hey james.. lookin good! I was gonna say I love the optimism in your name choices.lol then I read your last post lol. I'm glad you started your own journal, this will be Fun..(not the last time i will say that either). looks like you've got more veg lights then we do, so i'm expecting your plants to start catching up and prob passing ours. We have 4x15 watt daylight cfl's. will be interesting when we start to flower under hps compared to your cfl's.


what kind of organic mix did you buy? I'm kinda liking the idea of organicvs chemical. Just so much damn info out there/ i guess it's better than none tho.lol

ohh yeah you know what sucks?


when your growin weed that isn't done and the towns dry...


If ne1's interested james and I are growing the same strain under different conditions only 1-2 weeks apart/by coincedence....

Yeah they look alright, I guess.I was thinking that by now they would be taller though.The organic mix is called Home Gardener Organic Potting soil.It's got Canadian Sphagmum Peat moss and composted bark fines and vermiculite.I added some perlite, too.I've posted pics of all of my medium.It's funny tho, I'm using organic soil in one pot but I also have chemical ferts.What do I know.Oh and let me just say that I am in no way competing with mexiblunt and his grow.I think he is a more experienced grower than I am.I'm still learning and this journal is only that...a journal.Although, it will be interesting to see how we each do and what to expect from the Endless Sky strain.Also, I haven't decided which way I'm going to flower yet.I just may use a more powerful light like a HPS, if I can afford one.We'll see.Right now I'm hoping that Marlena will continue to grow in her new organic environment.So far, so good.And I noticed that all of the stems are looking more sturdy than they did before.I thought that was a problem for them but I was just being impatient i guess.Here's some pics.

hell no I don't want no competition, prob loose. I have sultz mix that has slow release but I also add a little chem just in case. Once it thaws outside I will go get more compost and try to go without chem.

I was just reading a thread yesterday about someone growing with cfls and it looks like a great way, cause in our small cab hps get's hot. lumens output looks like it could be higher with less heat using cfl's.

I just think it's a bit rare that 2 beginers have started growing the same thing at nearly the same time, and know about it?

Theres not much goin on with the golden girls today.I have noticed a few things though about their growth that have me puzzled though.For instance, if you look at the first couple of pics, you see tiny .... things on the stems of three of the plants.They are the most robust of the 6.I think they are new leaves but if anyone can confirm this I would appreciate it because it also looks like sex organs to my untrained eye.I know it's too soon for that to happen though.Isn't it?
Also in the third pic you can see the damage inflicted on marlena by my clumsy hand when i was transplanting to organic soil.Is it done or should I wait?, that is the million dollar question.When I tried to get marlena out of the cup, I had no idea how strong the roots had become and it surprised me.I tried to take it out gently but I ended up digging the thing out from the bottom of the cup.The soil wasn't exactly dry either.Oh well, lesson learned.
Just watered for the second time in 12 days too.That soil really gets sticky and holds the water.I'll have to see if I can make it to the city and get some of the good soil.If anyone knows what these things on the plant are please let me know.ty.

Hmm.. wish I knew the name of those things. There not sex related, I believe both males and females have them. I just call em horns. eventually little stems will grow in next to those horns in the upsidedown armpit of that main stem and leaf stem. I'll post a pic for you of this. I think marlena will be fine just giver some time, if it wasn't I think it would be dead on the ground.

As far as checkin the roots. those beer cups were drying out every 2 days so we waited till they were dry and just fliped it over-tap the bottom and they slid right out. I can see where you had troubles with Marlena as your soil was pretty wet. Looks like you know that and will try to fix. 12 days prob a little long to be holding that much water. The mix we went into those 1 gallon pots with seems (wetter) now that there is more medium/roots. I like it if I need to water 2-4 days. I don't mind lettin them dry out a little either.

James what is the ratio you used in your organic mix? This last mix we made was 10 gallons total. So I did 5 gallons shultz mix/3 gallons of perlite/2 gallons vermiculite, and this still seems like it may hold a little too much water. will see in next few days as the plants grow a bit.

Side note. The big canopy plant in our flowerroom was Trained from an early age, basically as an experement. There is lots of stuff out there about low stress training(LST), we had enough little ones around to try stuff on em. The mother we cloned it from was actually tied in knots..eeek crazy. That was what we called Hardcore Stress Training. lol. I'll do a post on that too, since we just smoked some great Domina!

Hey,mexiblunt, thanks for the confirmation.i can stop dreaming lol.The ratio of the org. is skewed because i just did the one seedling but I used 3/4 of the cup container with the organic soil, which already has verm in it, to about 1/4 perlite.I'll let marlena try to recover for a few days before I dump it.About the watering, I've watered twice in 12 days, letting them dry out first.I too would like for the soil not to be wet for so long but I'm going to be transplanting the three largest seedlings to a bigger pot soon.The others seem stunted although they took 2 days longer to germinate.Anyway, I'm going to find me some better soil for the rest of the grow.

Well, it looks as though marlena will make it.She was transplanted and looked after a day that she might be dead but this morning her leaves have lifted off the dirt and are reaching upward.As you can see they are still discoloured but the new growth hasnt been affected.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/theresurrection.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/familyfotoat14days.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/aerialat14days.jpg

Hi Jaymes. How are things going? Are you updating soon? I've still got some problems with the endless sky will post some pis in my journal within the day or 2. Later..

Hey,mexiblunt, and everyone else that may have been keeping track, I've just transplanted into probably my final pot.I might have been early with the transplant or just in time before root bound problems.Most of my roots werent in a ball at all but were threaded all thru the soil.I guess i was expecting to see a root ball shape.Anyway,it went well. sorry i didnt take pics of that but i didnt have my camera at hand and I wanted to finish this transplant quickly so as not to upset the plants too much.I used mg soiless mix this time and yes it has the time release nutes.I hope they do better in it than they did in the other 1$ a bag shit.Also, marlena is no longer with us.I decided i didn't want to transplant any sick plants.It was a small service, only family allowed. P.S. finally got a moisture meter and some dolomite lime.I think theres a ph problem in my grow but I'd like to know what you guys think.Heres some pics.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/Picture169.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/Picture168.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/Picture172.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/Picture171.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/greasejockey/Picture170.jpg

Well comparted to our endless sky, Jaymes your plants look pretty good.