First grow, tiny cab w/CFL's

[eclurker]

Superhemp, you wont have to actually fertilize your plants until the round leaves begin to die. They actually feed your seedlings until they develop a strong enough root system to begin absorbing nutes on their own. I base it on the weight of the pot. As your grow more you will be able to make very accurate educated guesses as to when but for now, after a watering pick up the pot, and get a feel for what a fully watered plant feels like. then pick it up once or twice a day. When they are small they use very little water, so it should take a few day b4 you need any water. As the plant gets a larger root ball it will use water, but by then you should have a pretty good feel for what kinda weight you should expect. Experience will teach you what we can only explain. Keep up the good work, and I got my fingers crossed for girls!

 

[SuperHemp]

Thanks eclurker. I am gonna try to get a feel for the pot lift technique but these pots are very small plus terracotta is heavy so there's hardly any difference in weight between wet and bag-dry soil.. It'll get easier with bigger pots right?

I got in some new lights today, two more 34W CFL's, 6000k and Ra of 95%.. Now running one 34W daylight CFL over each plant and a 85W warmwhite in the middle of the plants. The light is intense.. two hour eye burn after ten minutes of fiddling in there. I need some sunglasses..

Also thanks a lot for the tip on the round leaves dying i have never heard that before but that's a real good and handy indicator. The first "real" leaves have grown quite a bit today too (they're a bit bigger than the round leaves now) and the stems appear to have beefed up some, no significant growth in length today. So far they are looking really good, I'm trying not to get my hopes up but it's hard.

I have a stong feeling one is a girl and the other one is a male.. just my gut playing tricks on me.

 

[SuperHemp]

Ok help guys one of them is struggling..







As you can see one of the round leaves have fallen off, that's okay i guess, but the tip of one leaf has died and there's some yellowing going on.. A few days ago i noticed the tips had turned lighter in color but i didn't give it much thought.. just watered with plain water. Saturday i thought the very very tips of this plants leaves showed some slight yellowing.. but it's hard to see under that light so i didn't think it as a problem.


Is this a nute deficency.. It matches the descriptions for a lack of P pretty well, and my "grow" nutes (I've fed them once) has no P. Should i give it some P nutes? light burn?

Also they might have been too close to the lights yesterday, and i have a table fan running which might be too much stress for the younglings? I added the supports to make it easier on them.. the burnt plant is the one closest to the fan.

From friday







Here's the good plant. It's in the same soil and has been fed the same water and is just as close to the light.. tips of leaves are paling though..

 

[moses224]

You might be getting to much heat. Go easy on seedlings once they have some structure to them put them cfls right on the. I always have large plants in center and seedlings on outside so they get light but not heat. Just a thought could be nutes just as easy.

 

[SuperHemp]

Ok thanks.. Is there a specific temperature i should be aiming for? It's at 70 now in there. I have raised the lights a bit..

Okay after reading some it's probably a P def or heat/light burn.. i have a feeling it's the last one. I'll be more careful with the lights..

 

[eclurker]

I could be incorrect here, but I do not think you have any kind of nute def. Its pretty early in the game for that. At first I was thinking perhaps it was on the other spectrum, being a nute burn, seeing as how your seedlings are only a few days old and you had already fertilized them. As a rule of thumb, put your hand between the light and plant, and if your hand doesnt burn your plants should be ok. Make sure that and nutes, you do decide to feed your babies are properly ph'd.

 

[wishbone420]

i would make a bat wing reflector. other than that looking like they are on the way. don't feed anymore for awhile.peace

 

[SuperHemp]

Thanks guys, i have a DIY reflector planned actually.. Don't think it could've been nute burn? Because I only gave clean water the last three waterings before this happened. The burnt one doesn't look as good as the unburnt one, because the biggest leaves are smaller on the burnt plant. The newest, freshest leaves are the same size and color though so i think it'll live. The first "real" leaves (not the seed leaves) on the healthy one are a bit bigger though.

They don't seem weak or wilting. It was probably the lights since i got new lights in there on friday and the problem started on saturday, and the burn was visible monday (they grew about 3 inches closer to the lights from friday - monday). I have raised the lights, put the plants away a bit and removed the 85W yellow bulb to help with the temps so the only bulbs in there are two 32W 6000K CFL's.


Anyway does the growth seem kind of slow to you guys? Well maybe not it's actually only been a week since they've come up of the soil, it just seems longer.. heh.

Also what temperature should I be aiming for. Is 80F too high. Outside is 0F right now, the room is about 72F and inside the cab it's 80F or so, should i try to drop this 5 degrees or so? Also the humidity is low overall, is this bad? A humidity mister would be too much for this small cab maybe i need to get one of those aquarium heaters and put it in a bowl of water to steam some water in there?

 

[eclurker]

80 is not the ideal temperature. You should shoot for day temps of about 72-75 and night at about 10 degrees cooler. Anything outside of those parameters is less than ideal for your growth and could cause plants growth to slow. If you introduce higher levels of CO2 the higher temps are fine. I would try to lower your temps though for right now. Humidity should be about 60-70 percent during veg, and 40-60 during flower, again for idea conditions. I use a humidity dome for my seedlings and clones, after that I forego worrying about it unless its too damp for my buds. I have grown seedlings in dry areas without the humidity dome, and had positive results.

 

[Luckygreenhand]

so i have a similar small set up, but what do you have tied to the cfls to hold horizontally? I thought about doing that, and i had a little reflecter made and dont have it on now cause im switching it out, but thought about using something to manipulate the bulbs more untill i buy, mount, and wire some hardware exactly how i want it! I love your little plants though, mine arent much bigger and suffered bad nute burn early, plus transplant shock, and kitty shock. (When cat ate half of the best one while i was transplanting) But they are doing good now too ill have pics, i just want better control of my lights like you before i make a new hood.

 

[SuperHemp]

80 is not the ideal temperature. You should shoot for day temps of about 72-75 and night at about 10 degrees cooler. Anything outside of those parameters is less than ideal for your growth and could cause plants growth to slow. If you introduce higher levels of CO2 the higher temps are fine. I would try to lower your temps though for right now. Humidity should be about 60-70 percent during veg, and 40-60 during flower, again for idea conditions. I use a humidity dome for my seedlings and clones, after that I forego worrying about it unless its too damp for my buds. I have grown seedlings in dry areas without the humidity dome, and had positive results.

Thanks, I know it's very dry here in the winter. I bought a mini mister and some RH meters on eBay just now it should help. Also I'm leaving the window open, temps are 75 now, good?

Also the plants are looking fine but the burnt leaves have stopped growing, does this mean the plant will be bad, i.e. should i just pull it ? The new leaves (new set appeared today) looks good on both plants and they're the same size on both plants but the non-burnt one looks a lot healthier overall with the bigger bottom leaves and all.

 

[SuperHemp]

so i have a similar small set up, but what do you have tied to the cfls to hold horizontally? I thought about doing that, and i had a little reflecter made and dont have it on now cause im switching it out, but thought about using something to manipulate the bulbs more untill i buy, mount, and wire some hardware exactly how i want it! I love your little plants though, mine arent much bigger and suffered bad nute burn early, plus transplant shock, and kitty shock. (When cat ate half of the best one while i was transplanting) But they are doing good now too ill have pics, i just want better control of my lights like you before i make a new hood.

Well It's just a piece of hemp string, one loop tied around the base of the bulb then I pull it over the shelf on top of the cabinet and then down to the bulb and tie it around the tip of the bulb. I adjust height by tieing a small loop on the string, and if i want it down again i just untie the loop. Full adjustability and no money spent.

 

[SuperHemp]

They are looking pretty good now, shooting out one leaf pair a day. Should the soil be completely dry before i water, and can i ruin the plants by going one day too long before watering? I put my finger in and it's still moist in the bottom inch of the pot, this is good to make roots right?

 

[SuperHemp]

Pics from today..

Burnt plant first.

Bottom leaves have stopped growing.. new growth seems fine


Now the other, it looks a lot better than the other one today, seems to grow faster..






Some yellowing going on.. i don't know what it could be. My water ph is 8.2, soil runoff is about 7 or 6.9.. I'll check soil ph properly once the soil dries out a little

 

[eclurker]

Things seem to be progressing for you pretty well. Soon you will be out of the woods. Once you get the feel for your plants, and their secondary growth starts, they are much more forgiving. Out of curiosity what are you using to measure your pH with? Most prong style meters require the soil to be moist at the time of the test to get an accurate reading. Your water seems a little acidic, which is fine if you have the proper soil buffers in place (lime) lol. If I am being over informational tell me so, I dont want to be a bother Well anyway happy growing, and thanks for the sweet picture updates. Keep em coming!

 

[SuperHemp]

Things seem to be progressing for you pretty well. Soon you will be out of the woods. Once you get the feel for your plants, and their secondary growth starts, they are much more forgiving. Out of curiosity what are you using to measure your pH with? Most prong style meters require the soil to be moist at the time of the test to get an accurate reading. Your water seems a little acidic, which is fine if you have the proper soil buffers in place (lime) lol. If I am being over informational tell me so, I dont want to be a bother Well anyway happy growing, and thanks for the sweet picture updates. Keep em coming!

Thanks there, I am using a regular but cheap digital pH meter, it gives me an indication of the pH, i also did a two-point calibration so it should be in the ball park on the correct pH. I have managed to get the temps down to 75 and I've put in a bowl of water which evaporates 8oz a day..

I have not measured the soil yet just the runoff when watering. Is 8,2 pH a little acidic?? Lol i thought it was pretty alkaline.. i thought optimum soil ph range was about 6.5 right? I think there's quite a lot of lime in my soil.. there's visible white spots in it and says it's been added lime to the soil on the pack. Soil seems pretty crappy though i found some roots and even a few small pine cones in there.. what the.. even though this soil is recommended by the seasoned growers in my area..

Anyway I put some more soil in the pots today.. took them out to see if there's any roots going on but couldn't find any without digging too close to the plants for comfort. I think I've been watering too much the soil smelled pretty damp.. I'll make sure to be greedy on water from now on, water every four days i think instead of every three days.

Oh and since hooking the table fan up to the light timer the stems have beefed up a lot. I am not even blowing directly on the plants i have directed the fan to the back wall..

 

[eclurker]

I have not measured the soil yet just the runoff when watering. Is 8,2 pH a little acidic?? Lol i thought it was pretty alkaline..

You are correct, I dunno what i was thinking, sorry! I guess you can tell that I dont measure and or worry about pH lol

 

[SuperHemp]

I think i have found the problem. I went to check on them and they had not grown anything at all.. so i checked the soil and it was sand dry almost.

BUT, when i watered, i just added a slight amount and I'll be damned, it just runs staight through, and the soil is just as dry after watering as it was before! This sucks. The biggest plant eventually got watered throughout after more water but the small burnt one was worse, i had to spray the topsoil with water and mix the soil lightly, then water some more, then mix some more, then water.. and so on..



How do i avoid this problem in the future? I don't want to do this when they have proper roots as stirring my finger in there would probably harm them, don't you think?

 

[eclurker]

Im not sure I understand what is happening. Are you saying that when you water your plants the water runs straight through, and your soil mix has no water retention properties? If that is the case, which is very odd indeed, you need to change to a different potting mix that has more vermiculite, or some form of water retention. If the water is just passing through to quickly you can try placing your pots in a small pool of water in a larger pot, and water them from the bottom, like a wick system. Im not sure if this helps, but let me know.

 

[SuperHemp]

It's okay now i just need to water a little sooner, so the soil doesn't completely dry out.

Anyway I repotted them today. I don't know if it was too soon but i had to do something, they are growing so slow and i don't know what is causing the slow growth There were a lot of roots in the pots though but they were not completely covered in white like some of the pics on this site, but there were a good deal of roots all the way to the bottom. Hope they pick up. The roots did look healthy though, white and almost transparent looking, so i don't think they've taken too much harm from my early feeding (i have not fed in quite a while though). I have burnt a few houseplants before with nutes and their roots went brown.

I just hope the lack of rootspace was the cause of the slow growth, I've heard you should repot when you see roots at the drainage holes and i had lots of roots down there.