Holy crap, they sprouted, now what?

I have/had absolutely NO intention of growing weed. My friend said he can get a good deal on an 1/8th. Price was good, but the weed didn't get me high. It had seeds!

Out of boredom, I took all 8 seeds, placed them between moist paper towels and let them sit on my computer monitor for 2 days. I checked and holy crap, roots!

I put each one in a plastic cup with potting soil from some houseplants I had laying around. They're under fluorescents now..

The initial "roundish" leaves have opened and I see two distinctive Cannabis leaves - but growth is VERY slow!

It's been about three days and they're barely bigger than they were when they sprouted. One seems to have died (baked, too close to lamp) but the rest look green and healthy.

I keep the soil moist and mist every now and then.. temp is ~ 70F and light is on 24hrs..

should I put a bag over them for humidity? should I transfer out of soil and into a rockwool cube or perlite?

Attached pics. On the last one, the shell was stuck and seemed rotting so I took it off. It looks premature..

what type off flouresents m8

Two weak 23 watt household fluorescents.

I have a 600 watt MH from years back when I had an herb garden (legal kitchen herbs).. but I was afraid this would be overkill and fry the seedlings?

yes it would be too much too soon for them you really want one of them over each pot

but why are they growing so slow? According to the images on this board, the pictures people label "3 days after sprouting" look way bigger than what I have.

relative humidity is 50%.. should I increase this?

Should I increase temp?

do the lights have the right plant/aqareum bulbs? what kind of soil? is your water hard? ph'd? mabey a little to much water? I dont think the lights burned the one. put the lights as close as they will go. If your going to transfer them go into rapid-rooters, with clonex fert.

Jah Love.

keep those cfls about an inch away from them but not to a point where it cooks the shit just enough.....watch it grow......

And anyway, you used bag seed. That might account for a lot of the issue. Strain counts for a lot.

Um if the weed didn't get you high, then why grow it? It's probably got crappy genetics anyway. Plus, this kinda fell into your lap, so you should think about if really wanna do this, or if you're just messing around.

If you want to do this for real, then I would break out that MH light but keep it like 3.5 ft or more over the plants. You can move it much closer once the plants are bigger. Oh, and GET READING if you're serious about this. Read the grow FAQs here, and get a growing book if you're serious.

yes kilik is right on, you got some serious homework to do buddy... also, dont tell anyone.. like anyone

well i only have 1 400watt hid light and i used it from the start and it didnt kill my plants!i kept it 18" above um at first and as they got bigger and stronger i lowered it bit by bit and now there all healthy and have been flowering for a week now!the light is 10"above um now and they love it!what im trying to say is maybe you could do the same with your 600watt light except keep it atleast 26" above um at first instead!

Updated with pics (see parent thread).

How do those babies look?

I can put the 600 watt up but the main issue is heat.. but as long as they look healthy enough, I won't mind using the MH now.

They actually look pretty damn good...nice job. But you still need to consider everything we're saying.


And yea you're right heat is an issue. What you got for ventilation? Anything at all? What are current temps? How big is the space?

There's no dedicated ventilation nor any closed/set space. It's in the middle of my kitchen. So far, dozens of people have passed by, but nobody has noticed what they are (because I have other, bigger (legal) plants around them. Heat is an issue because the house is generally hot, let alone if I have to turn on a 600w MH..

I added some more fluoros and moved them closer, we'll see what happens in a few days. I'm just afraid of overwatering.

Thanks for the replies.

Overwatering is a good thing to be afraid of, because almost everyone does it during their first grow. The soil should be allowed to dry out in between waterings so air can get to the roots. Watering generally only needs to be every 3 or 4 days, but that can obviously depend on conditions a lot.

Yea I wouldn't bust out the MH if you put more fluorescents up. Should be good enough, at least for now. You definitely need to consider a permanent, hidden home for them. And it should have the best ventilation possible.

I was reading another post you wrote and you mentioned a ballast enclosure??? i have a 250 watt metal halide and a 400 watt hps with there appropiate ballasts (made in spain) which i wired myself and taped up the connections, they get fairly hot and they buzz... do you know anything about "enclosures" do they need cooling?

By enclosure, I just meant the box or cover that goes around the ballast. I've seen enclosures that look (and act) like heatsinks on digital ballasts, but those give off far less heat than the magnetic ones.

I only found the enclosure itself on Ebay awhile back, but can't find any now, but I haven't done a very thorough search.

It's optional.. good if you have kids/pets running around, or in case of an accidental water spill.

Yeah , I'm currently in the middle of my first grow as well. One thing I have to say is, you never know it all, and theres alot to read up on

i would transfer them into diffrent soil.potted soil,re pot.then place them under 24 hrs light.water only when soil is dry,see what happens.just because it didnt get you high,cant blame that on the strain.blame it on the grower!