Newbie experiment

I'm in a Midwestern climate and have been collecting seeds from the regular brick weed that I get on a regular basis. I also bought a small fluorescent grow kit from the garden store which is designed for just getting seeds to germinate and stuff.

After the seeds sprouted a bit, me and my GF moved them into small pots using the potting soil mix available at home improvement / garden stores. They are sprouting nicely, but I suspect that we'll eventually have to move them inside to avoid any nosy neighbors.

How soon can you start to be able to tell the sex of the plants? Will moving them inside after they get bigger hurt them at all?

I ain't planning on setting up a grow room or anything, this first time out is just an experiment. If it works well, I might purchase some more exotic seeds from an internet vendor.

They'll do just fine indoors with proper lighting, and possibly better than they did outside. I have read that starting plants outside helps b/c your plant builds immunities and there's no environmental factors inside that will be worse than outside except maybe light and humidity.

First thing you should do, is only use one pot per plant. It's very risky business to have multiple plants in the same pot because the roots will get tangled together and compete for nutrients.

As for the sex, you'll start to notice the sex of the plants the first couple weeks into flowering.

You don't have to wait for flowering to tell the sex. But you do have to wait untill they are mature, and showing pre-flowers. Depending on strain this will take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks maybe even longer. mine usually take about 6 weeks. Check on the 6th node from the bottom. I think thats the node that usually shows first. There is NO other reliable method of sexing (other than force flowering 12/12). But you dont need 12/12 light like everyone thinks. Just takes time.
Also since you will bring them inside, I'll tell you that CFL's work better than people would have you believe. There is a CFL tutorial in the CFL forum.
If you go with an HID be ready for serious HEAT. Happy growing.

well there is one other reliable method for getting sex. take clones and put them under 12/12. they will show. but you must label plant a clone a, and you must be able to clone proficiently, which is tough for a newbie usually. hell im just now getting the hang of it and i have about 60% so far. you could clone about 3.5 weeks into the grow easy i think. and know in maybe 2 weeks more. but by then they may be showing preflowers anyway. just a thought.

Well, as this is solely an experiment for fun, I am not gonna try and do any cloning at this stage in my growing career. The seeds were just taken out of the brick weed I usually get from my guy. Some sprouted, some didn't and that's ok.

I will get them in separate pots ASAP.

I'm still getting used to all the acronyms, so if y'all could use the full word in your replies, I would greatly appreciate it!

Definitely READ anything and everything you can on this site, CFL, 101 questions, also check out Newbie Thread..I have been on this site for about 4 months almost and I am still learning as I go..and keeping my fingers crossed that my babies break ground in a few days... MUCH LUCK to you ad your GF on your grow...hope it works out for you..

I am about 2 weeks away from harvesting only the second plant I've ever grown. The people on this website played a very important role in my plants turning out as good as they have. You can find tons of good info from the people here but pay attention to the number of posts they've made and be careful cause you can also find bad advice here. You should buy a grow bible and read it begining to end and start there. That alone should eliminate a lot of your questions and get you started on the right path as well. There are many different ways to grow a weed but your goal isn't to just grow weed, your goal is to grow good weed! I'm only on my second plant and I've already spent close to a grand on my setup and lights. My payoff is that I'm high on the weed from my first plant right now as I'm typing this and i did'nt pay a dime for that!

UPDATE:

I have transplanted (or, I should say, my GF transplanted, but I did some of the work, too!) and have nine plants in separate containers. I have been following SeeMoreBuds guide on the medium (Miracle Grow potting soil) and discovered that there is a hydroponics store within a few miles of my house! I purchased two pH testers: one for the soil (which I think is NOT working) and the one to balance pH in the water used to irrigate the plants. I successfully manipulated the pH in the water and gave the plants their first drink. We HAD to move the plants inside finally because they are getting to be of noticeable size and you can tell what they are from ~ 10 yards or so.

I haven't cobbled together the lighting fixture yet, but will do so probably later today. Until then, I have them under my "Quick Start" fluorescent fixture, but that isn't enough light for all 9 plants. In fact, the supplies I got for building the fixture won't be enough either.

I didn't want this to cost too much since the seeds are just regular stuff that I've collected over the last few months from cleaning my stash.

I'm using 6.0 pH water since I can't really tell the soil pH. I prepped the soil the way the tester said to, but the indicator isn't really moving.

I am going to use SMB's CFL setup and got six (6) 6500k 42w bulbs, fixtures, extension cords and other refinements, but I didn't get the reflective hoods.

Once I get them fixtures built, I forecast the FUN level of this project to increase immensely.

To measure the pH of the soil, just measure the pH of the runoff when you water. This is a good indicator of the pH of the ambient moisture still in the soil. If it's too high/low, adjust using the water you add to the soil.

Those soil pH tester are crap. Use the water pH tester on the runoff, always.

brick weed !!!! as in actual weeed seedy stuff thats been compressed, >?//?? im not sure if that stuff buds or not bro,,,,,,anyone know if the sensi buds or not, that brick weed is leaf :S

vh13 said:

To measure the pH of the soil, just measure the pH of the runoff when you water. This is a good indicator of the pH of the ambient moisture still in the soil. If it's too high/low, adjust using the water you add to the soil.

Those soil pH tester are crap. Use the water pH tester on the runoff, always.

Click to expand...

great tip; thanks!

Yeah; like I said, this is just an experiment to see if I can grow stuff successfully. If it turns out to be all male plants or doesn't bud up, that's fine; I just want to try it before investing in good seeds.

I also bought my first power tool! w00t! Jigsaw for cutting some wood to build those SMB fixtures for the CFL bulbs!

heh, when i started it was an experiment too. i had a bag of really killer bud. and i was in walmart, saw the jiffy greenhouse things and went from there. its been on since. you will come to love and possibly hate growing. here lately for me it seems MUCH more like work...

Ok . . . so I built the light fixture that SMB provides the instructions for using scrap wood, extension cords, basic light fixtures and 42W CFL bulbs. It is really kinda pieced together right now, but I've got the timer set to go for 20/4 to keep the plants vegetating; if they haven't been shocked enough by our moves inside then outside then back inside the house. I finally picked out a corner in the basement that conveniently had white walls. I've got a small (but relatively strong) fan to keep the air moving.

I hope that they weren't forced into flowering mode by the constant light changes we've put these little ones through over the past few days. Hopefully, my rig won't fall apart or anything and they can get some consistency.

I just took the four strongest looking plants and put them in the grow area. Since these are just run-of-the-mill seeds, it seems to be an unnecessary risk to try and keep all 9 plants alive while trying to keep them out of sight.

The fixtures were easier to build than I thought; especially given my limited mechanical skills

If they survive the next several days, I'll post more pics of them.

BTW: if I am using the pre-fertilized MiracleGrow potting soil, will I need to add any more nutrients?

you will need to add more later in the grow. that soils should be fine for at least a month. maybe longer.

Its been nearly a week since the plants were placed in their current location under timed lights (18/6). I am using pH 6.0 water to keep their thirst quenched.

One of the plants developed what looks to be mold on the surface of the soil. I scraped it off today and placed used coffee grounds on the top of the soil of the four strongest looking plants. The mold developed when the fan I had in there was removed by my GF after a day or so of high temperatures for use elsewhere. It gave me the change to purchase another (new) fan for use in the space which I put in there Thursday.

The plants don't seem to look any different than they did a week ago; I'm impatient, I know

I got in close for a couple of photos. Some of the leaves are turning yellow and others have spots on them here and there.

Any thoughts?

I put my plants into flowering a week ago and one of them is growing at an alarming rate. All three appear to have buds appearing at the top of the cola and it is very exciting to see these ladies at their current state considering they were germinated bag seeds!

I plan to get the 2700k bulbs very soon, but finances have prevented me from getting them. Got kids visiting this week, too, so not sure how much time I can invest.

Pictures, anyone?

Hmmmm...Are you sure they're female? This is the best shot I think and....hmmmm?

lets see a close up where the branches meet the stem. pre flowers appear more towards the top of the plant right?

like its growing said, there is only one pic that really shows a little bit of plant genitalia, and that kinda looks like balls. the other things you might have thought are pistils are actually just new leaf growth i think

i wish i had been following this thread earlier to warn you of this little statistic i realized

the plants that tend to grow faster, taller and heartier, are also often males and the runts are usually females and the best smoke. so i wish i was around to tell you to keep the runts

put up a few pics when you can of any pre flowers you might see

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