Showing off my first girl

First: thanks to everyone here for all the information you post. Without this site I'd still be baking seedlings to death in a tin foil closet oven, planted in shitty wal-mart compost, and wondering why I can't grow a damn weed.

After learning here I finally have some success!

Short version: bagseed, soil, combo of CFL and window sun - 18/6 for 50 days, a 36-hour dark period, now 7 days of 12/12.

Here's my only confirmed female so far out of three plants. Day 58 overall, day 7 of flowering. She showed definite sex barely 5 weeks into veg. Her name is Charlene.

I beat the hell out of this plant and she never stopped growing like a champ. Bad soil, 5.5 pH, n00b LST manhandling, n00b nute-feeding, and just about everything else a n00b does. She boomed right along, now in her third different soil mix in a 3 gallon pot. I really hope the two clones I took off her a couple weeks ago work out (they seem ok so far...) because I love her!

The LST job was more even before I took the clones. I'm still working on getting the middle colas to catch up, but I count about 18-20 of them total.

Thanks again to everyone here....

That is by far one of the best NOOB grows I have seen in awhile! What I like is all the green veg you have on her. Lots of leaves for the buds. Good lst job, you didn't get carried aaway you just opened her up a little.
When you see flowers setting in start giveing her 2 tbls of Molases per water/feeding. After the flush, keep with the Molases.
+reps Nice Noob Grow

Thanks. ;D

Already got some molasses waiting to go... I will definitely be following that advice.

She’s Beautiful!!! Good job…

I have not thought about growing weed since the 70's. I am an old fart! lol I agree, I am on my first grow and I would have been lost without this site. So many good knowledgeable growers on this site. I think you can get too complicated though with all the technology available today. Depends on your goals. I did not have a clue. If you read, gain some knowledge, use common sense, listen to what your plants tell you and go for it, these plants will licking and keep on ticking!!! The key is and what everyone hear seeks to know is what is the best overall easiest technique to maximize your harvest, best quality and in the shortest time! Grow and learn bro! Mine look great but I see know if I did thing just a little different, I just imagine how good they would be, so man I can’t wait for my next grow with more knowledge and good seeds!! I can’t wait to burn some bud from my own two hands!!!

You made me laugh...I know what you mean. I love mine to...I really enjoy growing these wonderful plants…But I enjoy watching anything grow that I have planted.

Hey skeeterleg I tryed to read you post but those dam flys kept me laughing in tears. Reminds me off a long time ago when I was just a lad and me and my cousin would get stoned and play atari. Well anyways we got stoned and he got a hold of a fly swatter and went on a fly killin adventure. So there I sit on the couch STONED and watching him chase flys, he all of a sudden see's 2 flys doin the Dirty (hence your avatar) He draws back him arm, flyswatter in hand, crosses his red eye's and Hollars "SINNERS" and swat! that was that.

combo of the sun and cfl how does that work out? very nice grow and extreamly healthy plant

Agreed .... Looks very nice. Glad you've made all the n00b mistakes on bagseed.

chitownsmoking said:

combo of the sun and cfl how does that work out? very nice grow and extreamly healthy plant

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Thanks for the support, all.

By combo I mean it's a semi-stealth grow (can't put them outside or in full view in windows), so I am using as much sunlight coming into a few windows as I can, then filling out the rest of the photoperiod and the dark time in a closeted growbox with a 3-outlet light fixture full of y-adaptors and CFLs.

In a couple days I'll be changing the 26 watt 6500k CFLs (yeah, I know... they are weak) to 42-watters in the warm white range. I'll try to get a pic of the CFL setup posted soon...

keep those 26 watts to an inch of the plant!! i would get more light. depending on how your house is positioned you could follow the sun from one side of the house to the other. ive done it before. one window for morning and one for the afternoon depending on were the sun is shinning

this plant is absolutely beautiful

good job your plants look lovely!!

looking good so far

keep us posted!!!!

chitownsmoking said:

keep us posted!!!!

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Will do. ;D

The compliments on Charlene's beauty make me proud. I'm starting to realize it will be a sad experience to harvest her. But, she's already in flower and cloned, so...

Speaking of which.... good news, everyone! /Farnsworth

Both clones showed roots today (peat pellets, rooting powder, humidity dome, heating pad, and H202 spiked water) so into 16-ounce cups they went.

I might be able to turn one of them into a mother now, so Charlene can live on in Charlene Jr.

Edit: And about the lights, yeah, I have been keeping them as close as I can without burning (which actually happened once when a plant grew an inch overnight). But the 26 watters won't be used again - I made a n00b mistake and thought that lumens stacked. Wrong! I know CFLs have crap for penetration, which is why I did LST - but now I know I need to be using at least 42-watters, or upgrade to a MH/HPS.

Very nice lookin girl you've got there! Doesn't look noobish at all. You are flowering with cfl's as well?

MR GOODSTUFF45 said:

Very nice lookin girl you've got there! Doesn't look noobish at all. You are flowering with cfl's as well?

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Thanks ;D

Yeah, going to try flowering with 42 watt CFLs and as much sunlight as I can ninja. I'll try to get pics up of the light setup soon.

Ok, here's a quick shot of the light fixture in my homemade box. It's pretty handy, as all those mounts swivel and tilt, so when you start adding y-adaptors you can get a nice little matrix of movable lights going. This has helped me keep lights really close to the plant, which I LST'd for practice, space limitations, and because I knew CFLs won't penetrate a canopy.

I rigged up 12-ounce soda can reflectors from an idea I saw online (probably here). They save a LOT of spilled light, and really helped those 26-watters to be worth a crap. Those bulbs will be retired from growing (which they are barely good enough for) in the next day or two. replaced by 42's. That's just a backup thermometer seen hanging from the lights; I have another one that's digital and displays relative humidity, too.

charlene is lookin very good ha just dont rush the curing Nd your gunna be rollin in the green

GoldenGanja13 said:

What I like is all the green veg you have on her. Lots of leaves for the buds. Good lst job, you didn't get carried aaway you just opened her up a little.

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Meant to comment on this before. I have tried very hard to take as few fan leaves as possible - just removing the ones that end up underneath a stem so badly that they have to wrap around it to grow up.

I read a lot of debate about fimming, topping, etc., and decided I would do with the method of giving the plant as little stress as possible. I wanted to leave as much healthy plant as I could to draw in light and to feed the buds come late flowering time.

I learned about all this here on RIU, mainly.