FIRST TIME GROWER: Growing from seed in my closet!

[itsjasonovak]

Welcome to my closet grow journal. As a first time grower, I thought it would be fun and beneficial for not just myself, but for everyone watching, if I documented every step of my first grow.

While this is my first time growing, I have spent the last year learning everything I can.

The resources I’ve had access to here on this forum, and will continue to have access to throughout my grow, make me confident my first grow will be a successful one.

Information about the closet grow
Note: I'll be linking to the specific products I'm using so that you guys can learn more about them and grab them yourself if you wanted. I did a lot of research on what I wanted to use and I think these products are going to be great. IF THIS VIOLATES ANY TERMS AND CONDITIONS: please let me know. I will simply stop doing that and will remove the links, just thought this would be extra helpful for others looking to start their first grow

The Grow Tent
I am going to be growing in the High Rise 2’ x 3’ Multi-Chamber. I chose this tent because, well, it fits in my closet perfectly!

But, I won’t be using it in a perpetual growing style. I removed the partition so it’ll just be one growing chamber for veg and flower.

The grow light
The Covert UFO is a perfect beginner light, as its completely plug and play. At just 150 watts, its super energy efficient - I won’t be paying more than $5-10 bucks a month to run it during veg. It also produces minimal heat, which is really important in such a small tent.

Controlling odor, heat, and humidity
One of the main goals I have for this grow is to be as discreet as possible. I want to be really stealthy, and prevent anyone from finding out about the grow. This is why fitting it in my closet was so important for me.

With that in mind, I have the 4” Covert Ventilation and Odor Control Kit installed in the tent. I can’t risk any chance of my neighbors smelling my grow, and I don’t want to reek up the entire house anyways!

Since I am growing in a closet, I am just ducting the air into the closet itself. I have the fan speed controller turned all the way down, and will be running the fan 24/7.

I also have a clip-on fan to improve the growing conditions and keep air moving around the tent.

Grow medium and nutrients
I will be growing in pots with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil. This natural, organic soil is considered one of the best you can grow with. Its pH-adjusted, and works great with the nutrient line I selected - The Fox Farm Soil Trio.

This three-part nutrient package includes Fox Farm’s Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom. I also grabbed some of their Cal-Mag supplement.

Genetics
I wanted to start my grow from clones, but was unable to find any in a timely manner. So, seeds it is!

While this will be more work and take longer, I’m up for the challenge and have been told that growing from seed is far more rewarding anyway.

I have a few different strains I am trying to pop, with varying quantities of each:

• Cotton Candy (3)
• Eleven Roses (1)
• Black Sugar Rose (3)
• Bag Seed (3)

Remember, I only have a 2’ x 3’ growing space. That’s enough for 2-3 plants MAX. Because I want to grow great plants, I’ll probably stick to two so they have plenty of room to reach their full potential.

These seeds are NOT feminized, so who knows how many will even end up being contenders. I am going to grow them all, and once the plants start showing their sex, I’ll weed out the losers and double down on the winners.

Now, without further ado, let’s get into week 1!

Week 1
The first week is just about popping these seeds. I have everything I need to get the highest germination rates possible, including a seedling heat mat, a tray, dome, and a T5. If you want something similar, grab one of the seed starting kits from Hydrobuilder.com!

Days 1-2

These seeds have been stored for a long time...so I decided to wake them up with a bath! I dropped them in cups of water and left them overnight.

They floated at first, but eventually sank to the bottom of their respective glasses. After 18-24 hours, I removed them and placed them in a damp paper towel. When taking the seeds out, it appeared as if some had already started to crack!

As you can see in the image, a little tiny white taproot is visible. A few of the seeds still showed no signs of popping yet. So, I put them in the seed starting kit and turned everything on.

Seeds need a few things to germinate - warmth, water, but most importantly - time. It just became a waiting game at this point, where I watched for that little white taproot to emerge.

I woke up on the morning of day 2 and checked the seeds. Unfortunately, the paper towels had dried up a bit. This is not ideal, as once seeds crack, they need constant moisture.

I turned off the heating pad but left the light on so it didn't get too cold (the room is only around 65 degrees during the day). I wet the paper towels again and put them back in the tray.

Days 3-5
Luckily, it doesn't look like the quick dry spell my seeds experienced is affecting them! The Eleven Roses seed has completely taken off, with a taproot of at least half an inch.

The Cotton Candy Seeds are germinating pretty well, although not quite as quickly as the Eleven Roses.

One of the Sugar Black Rose seeds is starting to pop, slowly but surely.

The bag seeds look to be a bust, as even now on day 5 they are showing no signs of germinating. But, I'm not giving up on them yet!

After four days, I planted the Eleven Roses in Botanicare Coco. This was honestly a nerve-wracking process for me. I know how delicate the little taproots are, and the last thing I wanted was to take a seed that was doing so well and damage it when planting.

I moistened the coco, and planted it taproot down, about a half-inch deep. I covered it up and moistened the top of the coco with a spray bottle.

On the fifth day, the Cotton Candy seeds looked to be ready for planting as well. I followed the same process of planting, and put these back in the seed starting kit.

Days 6-7

By day 6, three of the four seeds I planted have begun to sprout! The Eleven Roses seed continues to grow the fastest, as its already a half-inch out of the soil.

While one of the Sugar Black Rose seeds now looks ready to plant, the other one is not showing signs of life.

This one and the bag seeds are probably not going to end up germinating, but I am pretty happy with the success rate of over 50%. For a first-timer with some pretty old seeds, I can't complain!

I've been misting the seedlings with a spray bottle a few times a day, as this will help prevent overwatering and drowning these little babies.

Throughout the first week, I kept the temperature in the seed starting kit between 75-80 degrees. Humidity was kept between 60-65%. I will continue updating here as the grow progresses Please share any feedback or advice you guys have. Again, this is my first grow!

 

[shishkaboy]

I just started some seeds, so I'll grow along with ya...

 

[itsjasonovak]

I just started some seeds, so I'll grow along with ya...

Sweet! How far along are they? I'll be watching your progress on your journal!

 

[Rhodes55]

Sweet! How far along are they? I'll be watching your progress on your journal!

Great to see fellow well educated growers! My first grow was such a waste of time and money because I didn’t do my research. The last grow I yielded 4.5ozs. Hoping for double if not more, with all the ideal conditions. Will be watching both y’all!

 

[itsjasonovak]

Great to see fellow well educated growers! My first grow was such a waste of time and money because I didn’t do my research. The last grow I yielded 4.5ozs. Hoping for double if not more, with all the ideal conditions. Will be watching both y’all!

Thanks! I have no expectations going into this grow, but I am hoping for maybe an ounce per plant...these won't be getting too tall, probably 2 feet max.

 

[itsjasonovak]

Week 2

Week 2 showed some pretty impressive growth from the Eleven Roses and Cotton Candy seedlings. Just like week 1, Eleven Roses continues to lead the charge. I ditched the bag seeds, as they don't appear to have any life in them.
Days 8-10

During week 2, I just continued to maintain temperatures between 75-80 degrees and humidity between 60-65%. They are still in the seed starting kit, with a T5 running 24/7.

The Eleven Roses started to develop it's first "true" leaves, which are more jagged than the sprouting leaves you saw above.

The third Cotton Candy seed has also started to pop through the soil. While it wasn't looking as healthy as the others when I planted, I decided to plant the final Sugar Black Rose seed. To this day, the first Sugar Black Rose seed has not popped through the soil.

I feel as if I may have planted that one too deep. Hopefully, it's just a late bloomer, and both Sugar Black Rose seeds sprout soon.
Days 10-12

As you can see, the Eleven Roses seedling has developed a few sets of leaves already. It's progressing noticeably quicker than the other seedlings.

But, the Cotton Candy seedlings are also doing really well. All three of them are growing very quickly, each having developed two or more sets of leaves.

As far as the Sugar Black Rose seeds are concerned, I still have nothing. This is disappointing, as I was really hoping for at least one of these.

I've heard and read great things about this strain, so I am slightly bummed. But, I still have 4 healthy plants to work with!

In the coming few days, I will likely take the plants out of the propagation chamber I have and start using the LED. But, I want all the seedlings to develop a few sets of leaves before I do that.

At this point, I am still just feeding plain water with a spray bottle. I moisten the grow media twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.
Days 13-14

I saw more leafy growth on the four plants over the past two days.

The Eleven Roses plant is working on its third set of true leaves and looks really healthy to me.

The Cotton Candy seedlings are growing steadily as well. They are all pretty close to the same size, despite some being planted earlier.

Throughout all of week 2, I simply sprayed the media with a water bottle 2-3 times a day. I kept the T5 on 24/7, and temperature and humidity were kept between 75-80 degrees and 60-65% respectively.

 

[itsjasonovak]

Week 3

During week three, the Eleven Roses showed insane leafy growth. It is not starting to look like a real plant, and the Cotton Candy plants are growing well too.

This week, I ended up removing the humidity dome and hanging the T5 a bit higher, as the Eleven Roses has grown to within just 2 inches of it!
Days 15-17

As you can see, the Eleven Roses is now 3-4 inches tall, and has three sets of true leaves. It is twice the size of the Cotton Candy plants, and is the reason I need to raise my T5 light.

The Cotton Candy plants are all growing well too, with one of them starting to pull away in terms of speed. One of them is taking its time, but again, these were all planted on separate days, so it sort of makes sense.

Days 18-21

Over the past few days, there has been more leafy, vegetative growth. These were the last few days that I will be using the T5. Starting week 4, I'll be using the Covert LED UFO.

The Eleven Roses just continues to develop at a rapid pace, while all three Cotton Candy are growing at different paces.

I did notice the leaves look a bit lighter on the far right Cotton Candy plant. I will have to monitor this closely.

I was also concerned because I saw a little white splotch on this leaf. But, someone I talked to about this suggested it's likely a water spot that caught the reflection from my light.

This makes sense because I have been using a spray bottle for watering. It won't cause any long term damage, but going forward I will definitely be more careful.

And, one of the Cotton Candy plants also has some weirdness going on with one of it's leaves. Some light splotching appears to be going on, with one of the leaves looking like it almost got bitten off.

There are no pests (from what I can see) in the tent or anywhere near the plants, but this is something I'll need to keep a close eye on as well.

 

[itsjasonovak]

Week 4

Week 4 presented an interesting challenge. When I made the swap from my T5 over to the Covert LED, my plants freaked out. I learned a lot this week though, specifically about stress and water.
Days 22-23

The first day of this week the plants looked great. They looked bigger and healthier every day, but I knew they were outgrowing this T5.

So, on day 23, I decided to switch over to the Covert LED. I was super excited, hoping to see even more impressive growth by switching to a way more powerful light.

Within an hour or two of swapping my 150 Watt LED for the T5, my plants started wilting really badly. The two biggest plants were affected by the change the most.

Their leaves were super droopy, and they were balling up. I started panicking. The light was about 2 feet above my plants, but I immediately raised it all the way up to the ceiling.

The temperature had reached 86 degrees and humidity was down to 50%. It had gotten super hot and super dry. Interestingly enough, though, the smallest plant started to look healthier.

I asked around to see if anyone had any advice, and I was told that this was just stress from a new lighting source with much more power. The Covert LED is obviously brighter and more intense than the T5, and the plants are not used to this much light.

And, I had been using a spray bottle to this point to water. The media stayed moist for a while because the T5 didn't produce any heat. But, the Covert dried the media up right away and sucked all moisture out of the tent.

I gave the plants a good watering, saturating the media. Within a few hours, the plants had started to bounce back. At this point, I switched the photoperiod from 24 hours down to 18/6.
Days 24-25

I woke up on day 24 and the first thing I did was rush to check on my plants. My light turns off at 9am, so it was still on when I woke up.

Much to my pleasure, the plants looked much healthier.

Still noticeable wilting, and some discoloration, but the plants have uncurled, and look like they are going to make it.

Days 26-28

The plants older growth is still very droopy, and has become discolored. There is yellowing on the older leaves. But, the new growth on the plants looks to be healthy.

One thing this could be is a nitrogen deficiency. I do not suspect pH because I know the tap water I use comes out at about 6-6.5.

It could be a Nitrogen issue, but I am surprised they are already this hungry at such a young age, considering there is Nitrogen in the Ocean forest mix I have them in. Any chance they could already need liquid nutrients?

On an unrelated note, it may be time to transplant this Eleven Roses soon! I see roots popping out the bottom of the soil already.

 

[Herb & Suds]

Glad you caught it in time
If it were me I would up pot all of them and start feeding lightly

 

[itsjasonovak]

Glad you caught it in time
If it were me I would up pot all of them and start feeding lightly

Unfortunately I only have 2 bigger pots....was hoping these would have lasted much longer in these pots, to the point where they maybe showed their sex so I could eliminate a few! To the garden store I go...

 

[itsjasonovak]

Week 5

This week, the plants were able to bounce back from the issues I was seeing last week. They've started growing again, and their leaves look strong and healthy.
Days 29-32

I replanted the Eleven Roses into a much larger pot, and gave it a good watering.

They are still growing slower than I'd like, but the growth I saw this week was promising especially considering the state they were in a few days ago!

One of the Cotton Candy plants is much smaller than the others with lighter-colored leaves, as you can see.

Ideally, I won't transplant the Cotton Candy plants until they show their sex. As space is limited in this tent, I can only fit one or two more large pots in here.

So I'd like to determine which plants are male and female before doing that, as this will likely result in me throwing a plant or two out (hopefully not all of them).
Days 33-35

Over the past few days, the Eleven Roses grew much bigger while the Cotton Candy plants followed suit.

But, the runt of the group is starting to stand out a bit more because of it's lighter leaves and tiny stature.

I don't know what it could be, but the newer growth on the top of the plant seems healthy, so I'm hoping whatever is going on just corrects itself.

If you remember back in week 4, the leaves had some real issues when I turned on my new LED. But, the plants seem to have rebounded completely. The old, damaged growth has dried up and withered away. As you can see on these plants now, there is no way to really tell that anything ever happened!

In week 6, I am going to start feeding nutrients. Thus far, the nutrients in the Ocean Forest soil has been the only thing feeding my plants. But, I am going to lightly start feeding the Fox Farm Trio Soil Pack.

 

[itsjasonovak]

Week 7

This week, I saw more impressive growth from the Cotton Candy plants than any other week. They really started to catch up to the Eleven Roses, and all three are ready for another transplant already.
Days 43-45

The cotton Candy plants have caught up to Eleven Roses in terms of growth. But, the Eleven Roses has far more growth sites than the others.

I only topped it once, yet it has 8 visible growth nodes compared to the 4 or so of the other plants.

But, it doesn't look as healthy as the other three plants. There is still some discoloration on the leaves, and they are curling a bit.

This plant has been struggling for a while with some clawing. In fact, at one point all the plants were. However, the others bounced back, but not the Eleven Roses.

I thought it could be overwatering, but I really don't think this is it anymore, as I've only watered twice in the past 6 days and the soil is very dry each time I water.

My next suspicion is a nutrient deficiency. I am going to feed a bit heavier, and see if this causes the plant to uncurl a bit.
Days 46-49

I am getting to the point where I have to make a decision on which plants to keep, and which to get rid of. By next week, you may see fewer plants in this tent!

They all appear to be female, at least to this point. If the Eleven Roses doesn't bounce back the way I am hoping it will with the extra nutrients, I will likely scrap it and potentially keep all three Cotton Candy plants in here.

I ended up topping the all three of the Cotton Candy plants, and will make my selection on which plants I'm getting rid of by this time next week.

 

[Anonymousey]

I just caught up with ur grow and I'm subbed in from now on. I am also on my first grow but not as far as yours, I'm at about a week.

The only suggestions I have is maybe start with feminized seeds next time. It makes things easier not having to sex them. Also be careful only using a spray bottle, unless u spray until u see 10-20% runoff, then that's ok, but if u just spray the top the roots could die out. Well good luck I'll be sure to keep following

 

[itsjasonovak]

I just caught up with ur grow and I'm subbed in from now on. I am also on my first grow but not as far as yours, I'm at about a week.

The only suggestions I have is maybe start with feminized seeds next time. It makes things easier not having to sex them. Also be careful only using a spray bottle, unless u spray until u see 10-20% runoff, then that's ok, but if u just spray the top the roots could die out. Well good luck I'll be sure to keep following

Yeah, these seeds were actually given to me from a buddy so I couldn't be too picky, but in the future it's only feminized seeds or clones

And you are spot on with the spray bottle. I really should have stopped using it once the plants popped through the soil. That likely is why these babies grew so slowly. Thanks for tuning in!

 

[weed-whacker]

Hey mate

I don’t see any fans in your pics

Do u have much circulation in there?
What are ur humidity and temps like?

Do u see any swelling on the leaves?

 

[itsjasonovak]

Hey mate

I don’t see any fans in your pics

Do u have much circulation in there?
What are ur humidity and temps like?

Do u see any swelling on the leaves?

Hey, I do have a carbon filter/exhaust running on the same timer as my lights (18 hrs/day right now), I also have a small clip on fan blowing over the plants too. I think there's a good amount of circulation, and humidity stays between 40-50%, generaly right in the middle at 45%.

 

[weed-whacker]

Ok what temps?
It looks like u need a few more fans

U can use old computer fans and wire them to a phone charger or get some more clip ons

Need more air movement

Just coz I see u have overwatering issues but u don’t seem to be over watering and the pics look like ur plant already has edema

 

[itsjasonovak]

Ok what temps?
It looks like u need a few more fans

U can use old computer fans and wire them to a phone charger or get some more clip ons

Need more air movement

Just coz I see u have overwatering issues but u don’t seem to be over watering and the pics look like ur plant already has edema

Temps between 75-83 usually. Do you think removing two of the plants and giving the two I keep more space would help with this? Because I'm giving two away today and putting my focus into just two of them.

I have access to more clip ons if I need as well. I'll look into edema. Thanks.

 

[Arnski5000]

Great journal and good work buddy you seem be on the ball with everything. Definately more space and more air circulation and they should really bloom for ya

 

[Arnski5000]

Have you got clean air going into your tent. It does look a little sucked in on the picture