zlock's 1st micro CFL grow - Skunk #1 and Aurora Indica

How's it going everyone?
My name's Zlock and this will be my first grow from seed.
First, the specs of my growing setup:

• Germinating and cloning in a hydrofarm tray/dome on top of a hydrofarm heat mat
• 12" T5 CFL ~ 2" above the top of the dome
• Temps inside between 80* and 85* now, humidity stays up around 99%

• Veg/mother box is a PC case, 17"x7"x18"
• Three 23w 6500k CFL's
• 80mm PC fan for exhaust, passive intake on opposite side of the case

• Flowering in a homemade box, 22"x14"x28"
• Three 40w 2700k CFL's, one 13w (-)Ion generating CFL
• Two 120mm PC fans for exhaust, DIY carbon filters, passive intake along the bottom of the walls

• Growing in 20oz Aquafina bottles cut down a few inches from the top, 11 drainage holes in the bottom
• Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil mixed 2:1 with Schultz perlite
• Going to experiment with Fox Farm, B'Cuzz, and Pure Blend Pro nutes

My first time around I'll be growing a Seedsman feminized Skunk #1 and a few Aurora Indica seeds from Nirvana. I want to take a few clones of each.

Got my seeds on Tuesday, Dec 30, and started off the Skunk #1 seed in a damp paper towel right away. The seed was cracked open a little bit, and I didn't want to take any chance of loosing that one seed. I folded it up in a damp paper towel I soaked with tap water with a drop of superthrive, and let it sit next to the cuttings i'm trying to root from some plants that were given to me. Temp was right around 85* and humidity was 99%

The next morning (yesterday) it had a little tail poking out, so I carefully transferred it to a small applesauce container I had prepared the night before. Drainage holes in the bottom, filled with some Schultz seed starter soil and perlite. I watered the soil ahead of time with tap water and a drop of superthrive, pH around 6.6

I put it in the corner of the hydrofarm tray away from the light, and a day later (today) I came home to find it had sprouted up from the soil and the very first set of leaves are unfolding now.

Pictures:

inside the flowering box. Right now home to three plants that are WAY too big to just be going in to flower. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with them, they were given to me not much shorter than that. Jorges Diamonds, Celtic Hash, and Cheese.

My PC case I'll veg in

My seed order

Where I'll be doing my germinating and cloning

And... Say hello to Ms. Skunk #1!

Outstanding set up description! And the pics show a sexy little grow op! I am imagining an amazing harvest in the coming months! I will be trying yet another setup to get those temps down. So when I have time, which will probably be about a week or so, I will be modifying a dresser, using Icurbyou's style with the inline fan and everything. I will just have to order it online after I get some other stuff done. I am certain this plant will never finish if I don't get the temps reliably. Make sure you can get those temps a little lower to below 80 I will be trying the same thing myself. Try to get your humidity lower if you can. It would be tragic to lose all your hard work to mold and fungus gnats...

I will certainly be keeping an eye on this grow! I wish you the best of luck. AI I will shock you during veg!

hackel said:

Outstanding set up description! And the pics show a sexy little grow op! I am imagining an amazing harvest in the coming months! I will be trying yet another setup to get those temps down. So when I have time, which will probably be about a week or so, I will be modifying a dresser, using Icurbyou's style with the inline fan and everything. I will just have to order it online after I get some other stuff done. I am certain this plant will never finish if I don't get the temps reliably. Make sure you can get those temps a little lower to below 80 I will be trying the same thing myself. Try to get your humidity lower if you can. It would be tragic to lose all your hard work to mold and fungus gnats...

I will certainly be keeping an eye on this grow! I wish you the best of luck. AI I will shock you during veg!

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Glad you stopped by man! The temps I posted are for my little germination/cloning setup... my flowering cab stays in the mid 70's sometimes going up to around 82, humidity in the 20%'s usually. My PC veg box is where I need to put some more work into... With the three 23w CFL's and an 80mm PC fan the temps stay in the upper 80's and low 90's. I have an idea of what i'm gonna do to get them down though. Just wanna do that first before I mess with the A.I. beans.

How much stretch should I be expecting during flower? I gotta go back and look through your journal...

Came home after work today to find that I probably should be germinating seeds in something a little bit deeper than an old Mott's applesauce container. My little seedling had grown quite a bit since I left the house this morning, and had stretched up about an inch and a quarter (if I had to guess).

Took a little more of the seedling soil (didn't mix in any perlite) and filled the container up as much as I could, now there's about a quarter inch of stem before the cotyledon leaves. One of them has I guess part of the inside of the shell stuck on it, the outside of the shell fell off on its own right away, but i'm just gonna leave everything alone. I can also see the first set of true leaves starting to form.
I think I'm gonna let this one stay in this container till I see some roots around the bottom, then I'll transplant it into its permanent home... a ~16oz soda bottle pot!

I want to try this B'Cuzz "Root", I guess its supposed to stimulate healthy root growth. I have to do some more research before I start feeding ANYTHING though.

Well I put Skunk #1 in my flowering box yesterday afternoon, being a more sativa based plant I don't want to risk it getting too big. She seems to be enjoying the 40w CFL 2" above her head, now its not stretching as much and the leaves are growing more. Temps inside the flowering cabinet were a consistant 77* yesterday with the lights on.

I was going to get some Ocean Forest ready to transplant into, but found that the freezer bags I had put the soil in were now covered with a thin layer of fuzzy mold! I might try and get most of the mold off and just mix it up really well, but then again I don't really want to mess anything up so I might just go buy some Promix down the street.

Lastly, I just soaked a paper towel in some water/superthrive and folded up four Aurora Indica seeds inside. Its sitting next to my cloner (which I have to re-design, its been like 2 weeks and still no roots!), hopefully before I go to bed tonight I'll be putting them into some soil.

AI doesn't stretch too, too much during flower. After 20 days my main stem was about 8 inches and it ended up being about 12 inches. The longest part will be that main cola. I broke mine halfway through flower and it is still about 5 inches long... Since it is on it's side due to LST it looks more like a part of the main stem with really, really short internodal spaces and lots of little buds coming off of it.

hackel said:

AI doesn't stretch too, too much during flower. After 20 days my main stem was about 8 inches and it ended up being about 12 inches. The longest part will be that main cola. I broke mine halfway through flower and it is still about 5 inches long... Since it is on it's side due to LST it looks more like a part of the main stem with really, really short internodal spaces and lots of little buds coming off of it.

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I'm trying to figure out how long I should plan on veg'ing these things for. Also how much I should try and make them stretch during veg (how far to keep'em from the lights)

Of the 4 seeds I germinated, all of them had beefy looking taproots sticking out the next morning, put them into small containers with seedling soil, and 3 of them tried to grow upside down. Maybe I should pay more attention to which way I plant them, though I thought that they would figure it out themselves. Anyway, 3 of them are sprouting (in the right direction) right now, the fourth I fear might be a loss. Its taproot had grown up and around in the very top of the soil quite a bit, and was sticking up in the air. It was all white but part looked fuzzy almost, I wonder if that part is dead. I carefully tried flipping it over, I guess only time will tell. Either way, I've got 3 healthy looking ones so we're still going full speed ahead! I'll update with pictures tomorrow

Had some computer/internet issues the last few days so I wasn't able to post any updates.

Thursday the seedlings had been in the new and improved PC case for 24 hours, temps were a CONSTANT 81* (now they're a steady 83* 'cause of a little bit of air restriction due to lightproofing), I've got two 23w 6500k bulbs and a 40w 3000k bulb in the middle

My new layout with two 80mm exhaust fans on the SIDE of the case with intake slots along the bottom REALLY improved not only the airflow and temps inside of the case, but also de-cluttered the electrical stuff inside as well.

Here are some pics of the PC case as well as the Aurora Indica sprouts as of Thursday

And here we are today, Saturday, and since Thursday I planted two clones that grew some nice looking roots (both "Cheese"), I lost one A.I. for some unknown reason, but the other 3 are looking great!
Its EARLY on to be making guesses, but I think I've got one that grows a little quicker than the rest. Hopefully its a girl, and if not, I'd be more than happy to take some pollen from it to create an interesting cross! Then again it could just be that this one jumped ahead at first and might slow down later, I dunno.
So three A.I.'s are looking healthy to me, once I see the roots really filling in I'll transplant them into their soda bottles with ocean forest.

Ok so I killed all the Aurora Indica's by accident. SSShhhitt. Aparently I over watered them, even though i THOUGHT i was letting them dry out nice and good before watering, but the soil was very heavy and held a lot of water I guess.

Now germing: 2x Aurora Indica, 2x White Widow

Hopefully I get a female of each, but if not, oh well, maybe I'll try making a few seeds!


Skunk #1 is doing just fine however! She's right at 2" tall and working on pushing out her FOURTH set of leaves! I dunno if its too early to tell, but the leaves on this thing are FAT! Could it be an Indica Skunk #1?

Dude! I am really sorry to hear that! My golden rule for watering is to give them about 10-15ml of water daly until they have about 1 true leaf set then up it to about 1/4 of a cup every 3 or 4 days if you can tell the soil is dry 2 inches past the surface. After they get 3 leaf sets I start to just wait for them to start drooping before I give them water. This drying prevents the roots from rotting and if the watering is done in a 1/2 now, 1/2 in 30-45 minutes it keeps the plant from getting roots that just sit at the bottom. Better luck with your next batch. Germinating was always a nervous wreck time for me cuz those little bastards just want to take their precious time coming up. All the advice I can offer after the planting tips is just... try not to love them to death. After they are in the gound and they come up... leave them be! I noticed you piled up some dirt around the stem, but that will cause the stem to rot because it is a lot less suited to handle moisture than the roots. The motts cups are ok as long as they have adequate drainage and you don't plan on finishing the grow in them. after the first couple of leaf sets get established you can move them to their bigger pots. It's ok to grow them in a big huge pot/bottle so long as you don't overwater. That way you do't have to worry about accidentally destroying the roots during transplant. Your motts cup idea was a really solid idea though.
Next time you get the chance, go to the nursery and look at the pallets of flowers and you will notice that each of those little 6 packs have just about as much soil, in each cup, as your planters do. I bet the roots and soil will all slide out easy when you decide to put them in their permanent home, so stay your course, man!

Good luck this time!

Thanks bro!
All four of the seeds I planted are poking up, none of them have really come out of their shells, but they're stating their presence!
I'm really not a big fan of this soil, I mixed it around 50/50 perlite to soil, water drainage is much better now! Right now their still in the "germination station" under an 8w (i think...) cfl tube, once they start to grow out of their first set of leaves I'm thinking I'll throw'em into the PC case to veg.

So I've had a tough time with seedlings, but the clones I've got flowering right now are looking incredible! I LST'd my first grow (the one that came out REALLY bad), and when these plants were given to me, they were almost as tall as would fit in the flowering box, so I supercropped them (before I knew what supercropping was!), they seem to LOVE it! They're around 3 weeks of flowering, and they're getting pretty frosty!
Making me anxious to get an Aurora Indica or two as well as a few White Widow's in there!
I'm pumped, now I'll (hopefully) have 6 strains going!
Cheese
Celtic Hash
Jorges Diamonds
Skunk #1
White Widow
and Aurora Indica!

I just have to get everything figured out and get a good rhythem going, hopefully I can be pumping out a plant or two a week consistantly! and be able to switch it up to whatever kind of weed I want!

im doing a similar grow.. ill be watching! looks good

sylvania12 said:

im doing a similar grow.. ill be watching! looks good

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Cool! whatcha growin? I'd be curious to check out your grow too!

One of the White Widow's is off to a fast start, the other White Widow and one of the Aurora Indica's are both out of their shells but still stretching open their first set of leaves. The last Aurora Indica is taking its time actually coming up above the soil. Its poking its head out, but maybe just isn't ready. Who know's.

The Skunk #1 is looking healthy, still hasn't grown too much UP, but its got some mighty fine lookin leaves!
I'll grab some pics tomorrow...

Well, I suck, I cannot get these damn seeds to grow! one was a dud and didn't budge after poking its head just above the soil, the White Widow that was doing so good, I almost killed (heat!) but is looking OK now, the Aurora Indica that was looking OK is probably dead (Heat), and the other one (Forget it if was AI or WW) is looking OK except it can't seem to get the seed shell off!!! the second set of leaves are starting to poke out of it, the cotyleton are still stuck together!!!
I know (now) that the reason i'm having such horrible results was cause i was letting it get TOOOO HOTTTTT, so I'm gonna see what the remaining 3 look like tomorrow, and if they're gonna make it, i'll probably start another seed or two. If I only end up with 1 or 2 that are gonna make it, I'm gonna try two more white widows... this time, heat mat gets UNPLUGGED after they poke up above the soil.

zlock said:

Well, I suck, I cannot get these damn seeds to grow! one was a dud and didn't budge after poking its head just above the soil, the White Widow that was doing so good, I almost killed (heat!) but is looking OK now, the Aurora Indica that was looking OK is probably dead (Heat), and the other one (Forget it if was AI or WW) is looking OK except it can't seem to get the seed shell off!!! the second set of leaves are starting to poke out of it, the cotyleton are still stuck together!!!
I know (now) that the reason i'm having such horrible results was cause i was letting it get TOOOO HOTTTTT, so I'm gonna see what the remaining 3 look like tomorrow, and if they're gonna make it, i'll probably start another seed or two. If I only end up with 1 or 2 that are gonna make it, I'm gonna try two more white widows... this time, heat mat gets UNPLUGGED after they poke up above the soil.

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Well, hold on now! It doesn't require all that. Just sit back. Then, take a deep breath and remember that these seeds are part of a species that has existed eons before there were super hi-tech sprouting boxes with vapor hoods or even heater pads to start them on their journey. You are killing them with kindness. They don't need them to grow and adding them, in any combination, to a box that was already going to be warm enough is turning your perfectly fine box into a sweat lodge.

The box that you're sprouting in is small enough to require only 1-2 cfls to heat up the soil enough to have germination of the seed. After you put that seed in the soil, leave it alone. You simply must be patient. There is only one function you need to serve, at that point, until the seedling has 2-3 nodes. That is to keep the soil moist with plain, aged water. No nutes are needed as the seed came with all the nourishment it would need until it is big enough to find more when it does.

Until that plant has enough root structure to support that plant through periods of drought or excessive heat, it is just not strong enough to tolerate handling or any sort of forceful or excessive watering. The roots of the plant will be able to protect against the soil washing away when watering more than a couple of teaspoons every day or so. The plant will tell you has reached that point by being able to support 2-3 established leaf sets. It can take as few as 2 days for the seed to come up, or as many as 15. Don't start worrying about something being wrong until about day 10.

You can do this, but you need to just calm down and let it happen on its own. This plant really is a tenacious weed and is suprisingly resilient, even as a seedling, so don't give up on the crop you have now.

zlock said:

Cool! whatcha growin? I'd be curious to check out your grow too!

One of the White Widow's is off to a fast start, the other White Widow and one of the Aurora Indica's are both out of their shells but still stretching open their first set of leaves. The last Aurora Indica is taking its time actually coming up above the soil. Its poking its head out, but maybe just isn't ready. Who know's.

The Skunk #1 is looking healthy, still hasn't grown too much UP, but its got some mighty fine lookin leaves!
I'll grab some pics tomorrow...

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growing early misty.. heres my journal https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/155173-early-misty-seed.html

Hackel - You're 100% right man... I realized what I was doing when I saw the seedlings dying off AGAIN. I haven't plugged in that damn heat mat since I realized, and one Widow and one Aurora are looking like they're gonna be OK!

Right now I've been feeding them 1-2 bottle cap's of water+superthrive, before I leave for work (7:00am) and when I get home from work/school (6-9pm), the soil drys out pretty quick and they both seem to be liking it from what I can tell.

I've decided I might end up ditching the perpetual soda bottle sea of green, 'cause I just don't have the sort of time needed to keep up with more than a few plants right now. Between working full time and taking 3 night classes a week, I'm literally WORKING from the time I wake up (check on the plants as I rush to get ready for work), working all day, and either getting home from work and tending to the plants or going to school THEN tending to the plants, I just can't see myself taking care of upwards of 20 plants (counting mothers and clones)
So, I'm thinking i MIGHT try six 6" pots, and maybe top the clones once or twice early on... I dunno how that would work, but its worth a shot!

My "Jorges Diamond #1" unfortunately passed away, so I've got the little buds from that drying right now, I went to bed Monday night and it looked fine, it was due for a watering the next day (Tuesday/yesterday) and I lifted the plant and soil out of the cup and the soil was still moist at the bottom, so I figured it would be fine even though I would be getting home later than usual...
Well, I got home last night and the Cheese and Celtic Hash were looking thirsty, and Jorges Diamond was looking BAD. Gave it a good soaking, figuring it would spring back like they all did the first time they got a little too dry, but tonight when I got home it hadn't changed AT ALL, so I gave it the chop. Should get a few grams of some premature bud, but it'll sure beat my first harvest!

I think I'm gonna germinate two more seeds tomorrow to increase my odds of getting a few females, then I'll grow'em, clone'em, flower'em, and decide what I want to keep around as mothers. Then I'll switch to the 6" pots. But for now they'll stay in water bottles.

The question is, what seeds should I germinate?
Heres what I have:
(4) Nirvana Aurora Indica
( Nirvana White Widow
(1) Barneys Farm Blue Cheese [Fem]
(10) Seedsman Purple Bud
(1) G13 Labs Gigabud [Fem]
(10?) G13 Labs Power Skunk
(1) G13 Labs Diesel [Fem]

Whoever wants to suggest the next two that I germinate, feel free. I'll go with whatever you guys want!