Hi, folks, brethren, sistaz. Here doth commence a grow for all to share. As I sit here smoking the fruits of someone else's, surely Asian in this case, labor, beneath my desk sits a tiny microenvironment of a surprisingly fertile nature. What a sense of accomplishment today, when I picked up the two recently sprouted seedlings of skunk haze and lowryder to see white wormy roots, and a mighty taproot, to boot, on the low slung one, and, no, AND, new growth starting on my four clones, the poor bastards. The clones are all daughters of the little lady I've got in the flowering spot (2 by 2 closet, good height, 250w hps put in Today! another little success) who's really had her share of woe, but who's battling back to bud up good now. Her strain is either: BDS Special, afgan (doubt it), pure power plant (doubt that, too) or master kush, my personal choice. Only female from bds indoor mix. She's suffered from: wrong soil, too packed, bad genes from the start resulting in weird leaves, bent stem, she had ph lockout for a while, too high, around eight, and when I flushed her she perked up and we decided to flower her. Everything dandy until she gets fed for two weeks by exceedingly nervous friend, who @$!s up her ph bigtime. When I get back, the soil is Orange. I flush, when I figure out what went wrong, and get her back to flowering under 500 watts of cfl reds. Recently, always jealous of the hpsers, I decided to jump on a digital ballast and 250watts hps setup. Jump on meaning buy of course, you got that, I mean we're stoned, not stupid. So she'll be ready to harvest in a couple three weeks, trichs looking barely cloudy, beautiful under the new light.

What I'm doing better this time around. I only want to put four of the little batch growing under the desk in the flower room, being characteristically
unambitious. I was thinking 2 lowryder deuces and then a coupla healthy clones. These guys are benefiting from the knowledge accrued over the last two grows, so they got the right soil/perlite mix, already fertilized for vegging and they're under a 200w cfl until miss is done. Then I'll put em under philips mh until flowering time for the non autoflowerers, the lwrdr 2 should be about ready to burst by then. Maybe they'll get an extra goosing when I go to 12/12.

Wow, that little Asian dude knew what he was doing, great buzz!

So that's where we're at; one under hps250 finishing up, lowryder2, skunk/haze and what may be master kush clones on deck under cfl200 and
showing spunk! Pictures to come, new camera this week. Peace everyone, thanks for all the invaluable knowledge, gv

oh! Couple of questions:

1) how long would you leave seedlings/clones under rooting dome under that cfl?

2) heat/distance issues with 250w hps?

3) for new seedlings, in case I need another lowryder, soak for 24 hours then germ?
Thanks, all

HI.. Or is that high..sounds like your well on your way... It would be awsome if you could post some pics of your Micro closet...but sounds like you know what going on ... I leave seeds or clones under the dome for a week to nine days.. depends on how well the strain clones.. seeds 5 to 7 days after poping... With a fan right on the light and plants I can get my 250hps within 12" or so.. but watch they dont grow right into it.... love LR#2.. I throw the beans into a little 9oz cup of water (check the PH).. when the bean pops .. into the dirt .. or rockwool it goes.. this is just me.. I'm sure that there are many other ways to go..good luck

Ah, thanks very much for the advice. I'm going to throw another lowryder2 bean to soak if the other doesn't pop by tmrw. I think I may see some roots poking out, though her sister's been up and growing for three days or so. Hardest part of growing for me? Letting nature take its course! The clones were well rooted in their cubes when I replanted them in small vegging pots, but they've sure taken their time to show new green groth, I tell ya. They've just sprouted new round leaves, we're talking a millimeter or two, I watch these babies like a hawk, so things should start moving right along. They're strong shoots, one of four main branches that didn't have access to the light, but great stem width and strength. I'm hoping they'll keep pace with the others, for height's sake. Thanks for the help, gv

Hi folks, things are going well with the seedlings. 3/4 are above ground; 2 lowryder2 feminized and one skunk/haze. On this grow, I wanted to have 2 lowryder, one master kush clone from the mommy that's finishing up now, and this little skunk/haze that was thrown in with my lowryder seeds. The first to come up out of her peat cube was the skunk/hz; she's now a week old and under 200w cfl with a lowryder girl born same day. They're looking real healthy, but as the lowryder's sister seed was not popping, I dug her out and put her with another to soak, figuring she was a dud but might benefit from a little CPR. 24hrs later both lowryder seeds had popped and I was going to now have three on my hands. Damn. That pushes the MK clone out of the closet. So, one lowryder came up today, a week after the first, and the third should be up any day now.

So, to recap; I've got three lowryder2s, 3 master kush clones and a skunk hz from seed all vegging happily together under 200w cfl. When Mommy finishes up, (less than two weeks, I think, she's cloudy all over but no amber trichs yet) I'll put the four seedlings under 250MH with the clones for veg, probably adding the 200wcfl vertically as I do for flowering w/ a red 250wcfl. When it's time to go to 12/12 for the skunk, I'll take the clones out and keep them vegging under the cfl, repot and leave the lowryder and skunk happy and hot under hps + cfl red. In a what is advertised as a very short coupla months, there should be tangible results, tangible for my lungs, I mean. When the lowryder is done, the clones will be happy to take their places. At that point, they should be begging to flower, and their own little clonelets will be under their glossy dome! I'll have to train the skunk for height, obviously, I wonder how it takes to it?

The couple of usual questions; how long for trichs to go amber from cloudy?
Skunk/haze, big plant in anyone's experience? Photos to come, and hopefully my USB microscope will arrive soon and we can dive into the juicy center of things!

For detail junkies; I'm growing in soil, npk fertilized Dutch stuff for veg, and unfertilized for flowering. Very good, breathable soil made for the task at hand. I use biobizz stuff for flowering, not out of preference to anything else, and like many newbies who overdo it, I've got it ALL: root stuff, alga-mix, flowering bloom stimulator, plant energizer, pistil waxer, injectable CO2, you name it, I bought it. I have to ph down the local tapwater, it's up around 8 and given me all sorts of trouble until I figured it out.

Lighting: for seedlings, 200wcfl, then into the cabinet under 250wMH plus the cfl if it's no longer needed for starting. For flowering, 250hps with new digital
ballast of which I'm awfully proud and which gets the most out of the bulbs, plus a 250wcfl red spectrum. I've flowered a bunch of plants under two red 250s, cfls, and had serious results. I do find that since I've replaced one with hps, the buds have started to rise and fatten like bread. It could be just this last stage of flowering, where plants are rumoured to gain a buncha weight, too. I don't see anything to get uppity about, so I won't.

One little thing that eats at me is that my timer has started wierding out on me, missing shutoffs, etc, to the point I don't know how to reprogram it, and the thing's new! It's got more juice going into it now, maybe 600 watts, but is made for much more vi checked the batteries, all's well. Dunno. Thanks all, for the continued inspiration. Peace, gv