First Garden...start indoors, move outdoors...wish me luck!

[greenheart]

Start Date: May 5, 2006
Starting Method: Planted in normal seed starter kit in soil cubes
Seeds Used: Bag Seed (Strain unknown?)
Growing Place: Start indoors, move outdoors
Location: Big corn and bean area
Capable harvest time: Mid September to Early October (watch for frost as you approach October, maybe even in September. Just depends on the whacked up world and our sweet ever changing ecosystem.
Preferred Harvest Time: September


DAY 1 May 5, 2006
Seeds Planted: 36 Marijuana seeds at 6:30 pm
Container: Seed starter kit with 36 holes
Watered: Watered each cube until wet as well as put water under the tray (around evening time, maybe 8 o’clock)
Light: 18” Fluorescent Tube (unsure of output)
Light Cycle: Once light was on, left it on 24 hours a day
Notes and Comments: I’m pretty excited. My first time growing marijuana. I guess you could say I’m a noob, but I think I can handle it. I really can’t remember where I got these seeds as I took them out of a stash I’ve had for a while. I think there might be some seeds of the KIND bud from 2 years ago. Maybe… only time will tell. I am hoping to split it down the middle, maybe 15-20 plants germinate and sprout. Maybe 5-10 plants will be female. Maybe 2-3 plants will be extremely healthy ”sensimilla” pot. The supposed ratio of female to male marijuana plants is 1:1. I really hope this works for me.

DAY 2 May 6, 2006
Watered: Added a little water before I went off to work (mid-day I would say, around 2)
Light: I was dicking around outside and found two “heating lamps” that my sister used to use. I put a fluorescent bulb in one and there was a regular 60 watt bulb in the other. I put up aluminum foil as well, maybe to help reflect light at these babies. So now I am up to three lights, the 18” fluorescent tube and two heating lamps with different bulbs, on either side of the fluorescent tube. For keeping the plants inside a week or two, I really think this light combination will work for me. Especially if I keep the lights reasonably close, without burning the plants.
Light Cycle: They remain on for 24 hours.
Notes and Comments: No sprouting yet

DAY 3 May 7, 2006
Watered: Maybe just a little bit. Put some in the pan as well.
Light: Same three lamps.
Light Cycle: 24 hrs on
Notes and Comments: I was really hoping to see some sprouts on Day 3 but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

DAY 4 May 8, 2006
Watered: NONE, I read today that the plants should be moistened once put in the soil and this moisture is enough to last for the first few days. I decided not to water them today, maybe tomorrow if they’re dry. The sarans wrap remains on. It’s nice and warm and moist. Yeeaahh, that’s nice. Still hopeful for some sprouts soon…

Light: Here is a diagram of how I started things off…

/ ===== \

-------------
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

(‘/’ are small flouresc bulbs in the lamps; ‘==’ is 18in flouresc. tube; the bottom try thing represents my seed starter)

Light Cycle: 24 hours on
Notes and Comments: The soil was very moist. The germination process could take up to 10 days so I am still hopeful since NOTHING’S SPROUTED yet. I’m not really a patient person so I hope that is what is causing me to worry. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I just want to see one sprout, that first green stem poking through the soft soil those first two leaves, those first two leaves of my growing career. Oh, the anticipation!

DAY 5 May 9, 2006
After 85 hours (3.5 days actually w/ full light) at 8:00 a.m. this morning…
…IT HAPPENED!
Watered: 8 oz. of water was added to the entire tray today. One has finally sprouted and it is clear that somehow I may have almost done something right so far and I hope to goodness I do more right.
Light: Changed the regular light bulb to a fluorescent like the other. Since there is some sprouting and evidence of more potential plants, I thought it would help.
Light Cycle: GIVE THEM LIGHT!!! 24 hrs on
Notes and Comments: I should have been just a tad more patient, I’ve got my first baby. Only one so far, but this check was done at the MORNING. Soon (next few days hopefully), the majority will have germinated. This is an exciting time! I hope the short week or so they spend inside goes well enough. I want to put a little bit of a fan on them when they are a few days old to give their stems a little beating, toughening them up for the harsh weather outside!

Key Point on May 9: Plant #1 has sprouted, his name is Spike…marked with one pen mark on tooth pick in his tray
- will potentially be my first ever marijuana plant
- could be a male and be used as hash
- could die
- Oh, the possibilities…

Will post pictures soon enough!

I will update this every week or so with all the new happenings Any comments positive,negative, or otherwise are encouraged! I want feedback on what I'm doing right, wrong, or could be doing better....

(keep in mind Im trying to do this as cheaply as possible (that's why Im growing them outdoors), easily as possible, and most of all, MAKE THE PLANTS AS GOOD AS I POSSIBLY CAN IN WHAT CONDITIONS I HAVE! Which really are pretty good conditions... Besides, marijuana is a WEED. It WILL grow. Just make sure you don't REALLY overdo or undero anything to kill it, that's what I say!)

Thanks in advance folks!

[DaMan15]

take the foil down it will burn the plants paint what when kind of grow box you have them in white

[greenheart]

They are in my garage on a work bench. The 18" flouro tube is mounted on the work bench for light obviously but it just so happened to create the perfect place to start them.

Its big enough for the two heat lamps with compact flouro bulbs on either side as well, all three lights shining down on the plants. The back and sides of the work bench is white tile so that helps too. There is one open face and thats the front, hence the foil. I just remove it when watering and checking on them then put it back.

Any ideas on household items I could use to replace the foil? Or anything I can use instead of it to close off the front of the workbench?

Also, when should I remove the saran wrap?

[Stygian]

these heat lamps you talk about... are they actual heat lamps? the ones that are white, yellow, or red and you can feel the heat off of from 4 ft.? or are you just using compact floros? i hope you are using the CFs cause the other is harmful.

yes, definately ditch the foil. foil wrinkles and distorts the lights, which will cause the light to hit certain areas in multiple places at extreme amounts. it will burn you little babies to death. try a poster board (cardboard) thats flat white. you dont want glossy. that should work great for $1.50 or so. hell, if you have a cardboard box layin around, cut it up and use it. but flat white color will help refelct light better.

as of now, you say the only open area was where you have the foil hanging. so both sides and front and back are blocked off leaving only the top open? well even if that isnt the case, you may want to get some ventilation going on. ceiling fan near by? turn it on and leave it on. got a small fan? find a way to get it blowing in lightly and upwards to carry fresh air in carry the other crap out past the lights.

sorry, cant help you with the saran wrap. never used it.


good luck

[greenheart]

I'm not 100% sure Stygian. I've "always" just called them heat lamps because when we used to have chickens my dad would put some special bulb in the lamp and use it to keep the babies warm. I however, put a compact flouro bulb in them. I don't think heat is a problem with them using compact flouroescent light bulbs. I also went out and bought 30W compact ones, which produce 2000 lumens so that should help when I get home (tomorrow).

I already had my mom replace the foil with a piece of white cardboard, but thank you

It is only the FRONT that is open, not top....

************]
*.....[ ] [ ]
*
*
*
*...\----------/
*************
*......................*
*......................*

those two squares represent my lights... \------/ is my seed starter tray... and the open spot is the FRONT of the work bench.

Once they are a little bit bigger (there are 3 now, but I was hoping for me at this point ) I am going to place an oscilating fan, gently blowing on them. One for ventiliation, two for strong stems so I can move outside!

[jackel]

put a peice of plywood in the open area

[greenheart]

I've finally moved back home so I have taken the seed starter up to my closet. I am using the two lamps with the 30 w flouro bulbs. I hung the lamps about 4 inches from my plants and I can raise them as needed while they're still inside. (I know these two lights won't get me very far growing them, I just want to get them off to a decent little start before moving them outside)

I have a quick question though...I put the back of my hand where the plants are right now and it was warm. Not hot, warm. Is this alright for now? I know if you keep your hand there for a minute and if it is HOT after a minute they're too close, but how warm can it be until it's "hot?"

I know I'm being anal, but hey..it's my first time and I only want the best for these babies!!

[jackel]

its fine.

[greenheart]

Thanks, Jackel! It's great knowing I've got a little "tech support" system here

An update...
no more plants have sprouted, it's still three. They are almost equal in height (about an inch, inch and a half). All three have four leaves now.

The third one to sprout, one of his first two leaves is neon yellow with a green tip? This neon yellow leaf is the biggest of the 6 "first leaves" of the three plants which I thought was kind of strange. This plant also has what looks like a sturdier stem up to this point? Strange....

[hill9125]

good luck with everything.. about the yellow plant, go to one of the other theads in the growing section it has a link (from jackel) to a thead on another site that has common problems with plants... in might have why that one is yellow...

anyway BE ANAL... im learning too and it is nice to follow along with all aspects of growing from the water to the light... it is really educational... so keep it up, this thread and your jornal might end up being a good format for growing... be anal, and include much detail, i know i appreciate it and im learning alot...

[hill9125]

This is the link i found it:

http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/ ... php?t=8778

[van]

why do you keep saying be anal?...

if you want to look at some more grow diaries theres hundreds here

[greenheart]

anal in this case would mean that I am being overly worried, overly concerned, having the insatiable urge to make sure things are correct.

"anal retentive" meaning obsessive about something...

aka, my plants

[greenheart]

First off, sorry about not updating my thread in a while. I was really bummed out after only 3 of my darned 36 seeds came up. I came to the conclusion that popping them into soil was probably just a dumb idea. I wasn't about to put in months worth of effort for potentially 1 female out of the 3 plants I had (could have been 0 if I was super unlucky). But I will also have you know I am not a quitter. So what did I do? I called up one of my best friends/smoking buds and asked him if I could have some seeds since he doesn't grow and has no interest in it really. He gave me a ton. I chose ten of the nicest looking ones to germinate. 9 out of 10 germinated for me. I popped those puppies into some soil and voila, all 9 sprouted!

So just for a quick update, I had 3 plants already growing and 9 more that sprouted. So I'm dealing with 12 plants now.

I've pretty much simplified my "diary" technique....here's how....

Water: When the soil is dry, I water it. Simple as that. I am being extremely cautious when it comes to overwatering them. If I'm ever in doubt, I give them about 12 more hours and then water them. How much do I water them? Until I think it's about right. I'm not keeping track of 257 ml of H20 on plant A with 195 ml on plant B because the soil looks a little drier on plant A... I just make sure they don't get too dry and water them as I see fit...

Light: I think I mentioned before (pretty sure actually, but too lazy to check) that I had bought 2 4' flourescent light fixtures with bulbs that produce 3500 lumens each. I made a make shift grow box out of plywood and painted in white on the inside. I have the two fixtures pretty much hooked together, basically to make one 4 light fixture that happens to have two power cords to plug in. I make sure to take the plants outside whenever the weather allows me to. If it's storming out (which it has been more than usual around here) I just leave them in their box instead of taking them out. But by george, when it's sunny out I take those puppies out for some primo light. When the sun sets and the plants aren't getting any more direct sunlight, I move them all back inside under the Flouro's for the night. So basically, I keep them under 24 hrs light with getting them as much natural sunlight as the weather allows....which seems to work pretty good!

I transplanted the three plants I had growing into larger containers for now since they were in tiny little seed starters to begin with (will transplant one more time into 5 gallon buckets when they outgrow their new containers). The seeds I germinated I put into containers that were a little bit bigger than those little seed starters so the plants would have a little more to start with. I plan on transplanting these plants only one time, into the 5 gallon buckets when they are of decent size.

So far, everything has been working for me (thanks to reading a lot on here and some other message boards and my sister visited, who has had a few grows under her belt, so she gave me a few pointers and checked it all out for me).

One thing I've noticed is that the plants in the smaller containers basically need watered every day. The soil in the small containers dries up pretty fast with 70-75 degree heat, natural sun, and wind blowing on them. The three plants I have in larger plants get watered every 2 to 3 days, depending on how the soil is looking.

FINALLY...I have pictures to share with everyone! So please, comment on anything you see, don't see, or think I should do to make these babies grow to the best of their ability!

I germinated the new seeds using the wet paper towel method (which worked way better obviously). The seeds basically all looked like this when I dropped them into soil...


I found some square plastic containers that were perfect (I thought) to start them in. I only had 5 though, so the rest went into some plastic cups. Here's what they look like... (btw, the one plastic container in the bottom left corner looks like nothing sprouted but the camera isn't close enough (or good enough maybe?) to see that there is in fact a little baby popping up in there, he's just not all the way through the soil yet...



Sorry that this one is kind of blurry. But this was an attempt at a close up of one the sprouts. Im not sure if you can see, but the two leaves sprouting are a brownish/purple colour. When my first three plants were at this stage, the new leaves coming in looked the same way. Now that I've noticed they all seem to do it, I don't worry as much. But if anyone knows why it's like this, or if this is actually a problem...I'm all ears!


These are the "Three Stooges." The original three. The chosen ones, whatever. These pictures were taken exactly TWO WEEKS (14 days for you slow people out there) after they sprouted from the seed starters. The one in the middle is "Curtis." It's not completely obvious, but he is definitely taller than the other two. It was more evident when they were a wee bit younger though...


Obviously, this is one of the three I had from the first try. I named this one "Curtis" because at first he was more stringy than the other two and he is definitely taller. Curtis was the name of a "homosexual" at my college that lived on my floor, and since this poor little plant was all skinny and spindly and just weird compared to the rest, I thought it fit him well. He is by far the tallest of the original three plants...and I don't know if it's too early to make this assumption, but I think he might be getting way taller quicker because it's going to be a male. Time will tell...


This is "Silas." I guess Silas was the albino in the Da Vinci Code or some such nonsense, so that is how he got his name. That really isn't the lighting, one of his first two little leaves was bright yellow/almost white... But obviously that doesn't stop him from growing much...


All hail SPIKE! He has no story, he is just SPIKE! I guess you could call him my "Bitchin' Bob'" It's not the tallest, but the vegetation is most developed on this one and it looks the best of the three original plants. I took a side shot so you could see distance between nodes just so I could get some input on that...




That is all I've got for now! Now that I've got access to a camera and a new found hope that I will end up with a decent personal crop, I'm going to keep you guys updated a lot better than I have been the last 2 weeks.

ANY and ALL input is welcome and encourageD! Let me know what you guys think so far

- GREENHEART

[jackel]

first, u prob want to name them girl names, since u want girls not guys. but thats jus somethin to think about..
also, those cups and those milk jugs, did u poke holes in the side/bottom? cuz it looks like u didnt.. if u poked them in the bottom, repoke em on the lower side. (hard to drain water out the bottom when theres ground there)..