Am I doing this right?

[kayanow]

I'm from the old school when we grew only during the summer using found land, so this indoor stuff is all new to me. If we did grow indoors it was with a fluro in a wardrobe or cupboard and the plants were always sickly.

 

I have planted 8 seeds in perlite only with a simple gravity, ( ph adjusted, nutrient) water flow to the small pots sitting on sponges. - with a 400w 3 ft above the pots. I pretty much dropped the seeds on the surface and they slid a little through the perlite. There just seems to be too much airspace for roots to take hold, should I have mixed the perlite with any indoor potting mix? It's only been 24 hrs, so nothing has sprouted yet. Does the perlite alone give enough support for (a) seedlings? ( a mature plant? I'd appreciate the information. Cheers.

[godonacid]

personally i use a potting mix pearlite mix, but i don't grow traditional hydro as i use modified self watering pots (hold a little more water) sitting on heatpads to keep the water from being to cold and water through the soil.

i find this the easiest and cheapest and least amount of things and space required to grow what i consider a good smoke.

many will disagree and say to go the full recurcliating hydro setup (water storage, pump, heater for water, pipes, ect..) but as far as ease of everything goes i like my method above.

[kayanow]

Thanks, that sounds better than my setup -- I knew it just didn't seem right. I just called a hydro shop and they told me to use rock wool and a fluro for germinating the seeds kept 10 cm above the pots, and to use the 400w (I guess )after they are 4 eeks old. I have some fluro's at home, but forgot to ask the wattage?

[Tom]

Seeds will start fine in perlite but my personal preference is for soil then transplant them into the perlite hydro system after they get their first serrated leaves, I don't bother soaking the seed or anything first either. They don't want any nutrients at this stage either, just PH corrected water. The 400w is a bit close and bright for them too, CF's are all you need unless it is their for its warmth that is.

 

[fsagertyaef]

yes you can keep plants under floros for the germination no problem a lot of people like to

 

i had a few but i had to kill them all weird story behind it

 

but yeah i had 14 plants un 2 floro fixtures 2 bulbs per fixture about a inch off of them

 

the good thing about floros is they wont burn your plant

 

i had mine touching it and they were fine

 

i grew mine up to about 5 inchs average (some were 3 inches biggest was 7 inches)

under the floros and once they all hit the 6 inch mark i was going to put them under the 400 watt bulbs

 

but then i had to kill them all and since they were bag seed it wasn't really a loss

 

dont know if this helps at all but yeah this early in the grow id say just stick it under a floro 18/6 light cycle and rememebr to keep the floros as close to the plant as possalbe and it most likly wont matter if they touch unless they are really fucking strong floros

 

 

also yeah id add soil to you mix a 50/50 works kinda well but its all upto the grower see what works for you try a varity have some in perlite some in soil and some in both see what you like the most and report back and tell us how it goes

 

just make sure your waters the right ph and your set at this point i think unless tom has something else to add

 

id say do a couple of indoor grows with bag seed and move on to genetics once you ahve it down happy growing man :smoke

Edited July 30, 2005 by fsagertyaef

[Tom]

Just because it's deal seed doesn't mean you will grow crappy plants.

[kayanow]

Thanks guys I really appreciate your advice. Sorry i took so long to get back - mainly because i forgot which forum I belonged to, then I forgot the password, etc. Anyway now I have 5 plants that are 3 weeks old and i've taken them out of their fluro grow box and put them under a 400x hps which is approx 3 ft above them in a small bathoom.

 

Anyway I just realised i was adding 10x more ntrient than I should have. I thought it said 40ml per litre but it's 40ml per 10 litres! The edges of the leaves were drying up on some. I just switched to the 12/12hr cylce and am readjusting the nutrient, using Bloom, 5 ml per litre -- does that sound about right?

 

I can't believe I was feeding them 10 times the correct amount and they didn't seem to suffer too much -- except for a few dried ends, which i thought was because they were too close to the fluro's.

 

BTW does anyone one know how much it costs to run a 400w 12 hrs per day for 8 weeks? i heard it's about $4 per day -- does that sound right? (Australia).

 

Let me know about the correct nutrient ration and cost of electricity. you guys are great, thanks for helping out.

Cheers, KN

[Tom]

i've taken them out of their fluro grow box and put them under a 400x hps which is approx 3 ft above them in a small bathoom.

To set the light to grow height, start at a safe distance above the plants (approx 45cm for 400w, 90cm for 600w, 120cm for 1000w), hold your hand palm down level with the top of the plant for a few minutes. If it feels too hot on the back of your hand the light is too close, if cool then it's too far away. If it's pleasantly warm and it feels as if you could hold your hand there all day then it's OK.

using Bloom, 5 ml per litre -- does that sound about right?

that's about the usual amount, I mix to the directions printed on the bottle.

BTW does anyone one know how much it costs to run a 400w 12 hrs per day for 8 weeks? i heard it's about $4 per day -- does that sound right? (Australia).

Phone the power company and ask them how much it costs to run, tell them you have a couple of 200w aquarium heaters in a large fish tank or something and want to know how much they cost an hour to run, $4 sounds like a lot to me.

 

[kayanow]

Thanks Tom - so being only 3 weeks old and around 5 inches is not too early to be under a 400w if it's the height you reccomended? Or should I switch them back to the fluro grow tubes until they are like a foot tall? They've only been under the 400w for one cycle 18hr at this point.

 

Also I decided not to switch to bloom cycle yet as it seems they are too small for that., right?

[Lab-rat]

Kayanow, 400 watt light cost very little to run even on 24 hour cycle. $4 a day is like $360 extra on a Quarterly bill, i would say its more like $2-3 per week I personaly dont believe the plants benifit from 24 hour light cycle anyhow. I run 20 hours a day during veg and spray the leaves with a week nute solution when the light is off ..

 

You want them under the 400 watt as soon as they loose the water leaves and have a few roots. Just have the light about 1 meter away for a day or two and slowly bring it down over 4-5 days to about 30cm from top of plants. Then raise the light as the plants grow keeping it at about 25-30 cm from the top of plants.

 

Be carefull of "home made nutes" from hydro shops! always by brand and use what it states on the bottle. From reading your posts i would say that you need to right this off and start again with a new growing mediam, i would say you soil is toxic. With a bit of research on this board you will have no problems you may even locate some fresh clones from another board member. I personaly DONT grow from seed unless i have to. My three week old clones are 2 feet tall , 2 1/2 feet wide and about to go on 12/12 . I am going for 12 oz from 4 plants in 65 days.

Edited August 21, 2005 by Lab-rat