My room

Hey there

Just signed up now, mostly because I wanted somewhere to share my growing experiences and maybe get some input on a thing or two from more seasoned growers.

I'll start of with the specs of my operation then;
Lights used will be CFL lights, for three reasons; first , my electrical bill is supervised, and second I'm really curious to know if it'll at all work to flower under CFL. Third, I need to be stealth, which means large low-speed computer fans, and that also means I will get too much heat build-up if I use HPS lamps in such a small space.

"Generic" CFL lights are really easy to come by these days, but getting the ones with the right colour temperature and standard socket was somewhat of a bitch. Finally I found a supplier (in Sweden, PM me if you want to know) for 30W Leuci lamps that came in both 6500K and 2700K temperatures giving about 2700 Lumen each. Price was descent too.

Plan is to have 1 veg chamber with mom(s) + seedlings under 3 x 30W 6500K CFL lights and 1 (smaller) scrog-like bloom chamber with 3 x 30W 2700K CFL lights.

Veg chamber is quite "big", 60x60x70 centimeters, bloom chamber will be smaller, like 60x65x30.

The strain I'm growing will be one out of 2 Grapefruit seeds that a good friend nicely handed over (for a nice cut of the end result I would guess =).

Both seeds were put in small grow-cubes and germinated for about 1.5 weeks before getting in a big pot and under the lights. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this, but the first one to pop out died for one reason or another, but the second got under the lights about Aug 29, and the first picture is just a day or so after that.



Now, about 10 days later, we're looking alot better:


While this progress is very nice, I'd like to get my flower box ready. I want to run this as a hydro system (Bubbler), and my first question is what Nutrients etc to buy? I guess they're all pretty much the same, but if you have any experience with growing Grapefruit with any kind of Nutes I would like to know..

Will try to keep you posted on my progress, and please, comments! =)

Peace!

 

.. but things are really progressing with the Grape girl! Since early yesterday morning when the pics above were taken, it has grown tremendously!

Just take a look for yourself:

 

Very Nice. Growing quite fast.

 

New updated image, can't stay away.. =)

 

I plan on having this one as my supermom and cut seedlings regularly and start next to her. At what size etc do you recommend start taking seedlings, how many at a time, and how long inbetween cuttings? Would be great with some pointers here..

 

almost another week now, and MAN is this girl growing!




So, almost 200 people read the thread, but noone has a clue about cloning?

 

Looking sweet!!

 

That's just plain sexy... It makes me want to start in my closet sooner!

 

Looking great there. I can't help you with the hydro, but I can give you props for a healthy plant. Nice job man.

 

are those rocks ?

 

Made the first cut yesterday evening and put one clone in some rockwool with a dome onver it. An hour later it looked sad enough, but this morning it was standing proud again. Reckon I'll let it grow roots for a few days and tehm flower it to make sure we got a female before bothering cutting more clones.. wish me luck =)

 

Hey bud plant is looking great! Sounds like you took your cutting with ease. Its quite simple usually and sounds like you got a hang on it so i wont bother ya with my rambling about taking clones. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

 

I heard regardless of sex the cuttings you make (clones) are automatic females...

 

Scorpius: that's just not true. Whoever told you that should read a book or something.
The cutting, or clone, is the same sex, and is genetically the same, ie shares the same DNA. So if your mother is a male, so will your clone be. Always.

From a definition (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clone)

"..organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived."

 

Back on topic. About my clone: I'm a but concerned, it's been what, 5 days since I cut my clone, and it's been looking quite healthy in it's rockwool under the hood. Since yesterday it's been starting to show some symptoms of I don't know, where the lower (quite big) leaves are starting to wither and curl at the tips (not really yellowing or nothing).. It's quite far away from the lights now though and not getting anywhere near the amount of light the mother plant gets.

I guess since it's been able to stay alive 5 days it's got atleast some roots (I did dip it in Clonefix), so it can pick up nutes and water that way.. I spray it twice a day and give it an "airing".. The rockwool is wet, a little more than moist, and I it "under the hood" at all times.

Anyway.. Should I move it so that it gets more light, take the hood of, give it nutes, transplant it, what? Pointers more than welcome.. I'm leaning towards more light and/or hood off..

Allrite, thanks for the feedback so far, I'll try to get a picture of the "sick" puppy up asap too for you to take a look at..

 

Hey bud, i this sounds normal. Sometimes clones take up to 2-3wks to take a good root. usually 2 wks tops. Sounds like your doing everything right. Make sure the rockwool doesn't get soggy, just evenly moist. Its probably getting plenty of light....i've seen journals where clones were rooted with a 12 or 14w cfl 6in above dome. They really don't need a whole lot of light. Keep the hood on, but maybe start letting them air out or breathe more frequently 3-4 times per day, leaving the hood off for 10-15min each time. Keep misting them like 2 times per day. Definately don't give it ANY nutes yet. Like a guy on another MJ forum says, "you don't feed a baby a T-bone steak!" It gets plenty food from the water and cloning solution. As soon as you see roots coming out of the rockwool, transplant it and put it in some decent light. Still not as much as the mother is getting but a good bit more than it was getting when rooting. As it grows just gradually introduce it to more intense light. HOpe that made sense......i clone in soil so its a bit different then this method. I hate trying to answer cloning quesions.....i always confuse myself.

 

Here is my 2 cents

1) Soak the cubes in pH 6 water for a couple hours - squeeze them a lil under water to force air out (rockwol holds 18% air).

2) Take your cuttings (be sure to trim the fan leaves of tips) as normal and dip in clonex (<- good stuff)

3) use a nail to enlrge the hole in the cube (so as not to scrape the clonex off when inserted)

4) use the nail to gently push the rockwol around the stem and hole (to get contact)

5) Use Antiwilt spray. <- It is worth the money and yes you do not need it.

6) keep the cubes moist - they can dry out depending on humidity. Water in the tray is fine and will keep any roots moist until transplanted.

The reason why I recommend antiwilt spray is that it will force the cutting to develop roots. The humidity dome is ok but as Maniac said it has to be weened off. The spray eliminates the need for a dome if applied correctly. The dome can keep cuttings alive for weeks and weeks and you will not have roots <- yep no roots. You will eventually get curious tug on a stem and poof it will pull out of the cube and have a gnarly brown stem.

100% sucess ratios! You should see lots of nice white roots in 3-4 weeks.

 

Thanks a bunch guys. I haven't seen any major deterioration in the state of my clone since y-day, and when you talk of 2-3wks I get a little more confident. Will try to keep the hood off few times a day for awhile to let it breathe (I do this already) and I keep it 40-50cm from the lights (still the mother shades the light a little bit too)..

Since mom is getting so big (goddamnit this was a good seed, I tell ya, femaleseeds dot com my friends), I'm probably going to construct a bigger mini-greenhouse and cut 4-5 more clones this weekend, since I'm much more confident now..

PeAcE!

 

hey bud, any chance of a pic update? That thing must be huge by now, 'twas growing quite fast. Keep us posted.

 

You asked for it =)

Since mom is getting so HUGE, i can't take it out of the growbox any longer without bending things like crazy.. Indeed this is not a great place to have the box, but hell, it's stealth (not considering my place literally stank of pot when I got back last night, which got me thinking of a filter-design for my flowering box =)

Anyway, my gallery now have two more pictures, one of the mom in the back corner of the space with my 2 other bagseed skunk aswell. The other pic is of the clone. It's not looking great, but it doesn't seem to die off so I keep my hopes up for another few days I guess.. All pics taken yesterday.