Six 3-litre airpots under 220w PL-L -My first grow

[Respawner]

Hey!

Been lurking around for quite some time now and since I recently got my first grow going I thought It would be nice to share it and maybe get some tips from experienced growers on my Mandala #1 plants.

My cab is a closet so I could have gone 250w HID without much problem but since I got my aim on going micro in the future I thought I'd just start with micro-friendly gear like PL-L lights right away. I really don't need monster crops anyway since I don't smoke that often so it wont be much of a loss for me.

It's getting late and I have to go to bed now but I will post more on the setup and some pics of it tomorrow. For now I'll just put up pics of some sort of weirdness going on with my babies that I really hope someone can help me diagnose.

Woke up this morning and noticed some yellowing going on on one of the babies:



Its been around 9 days since it popped up from the soil and has been in an 8cm square pot all of its short life. I thought it was some kind of nute deficiency so I decided to transplant them into their final homes, the 3 litre airpots, when I discovered that it was alot dryer in there than I thought it would be. Could it be that the plant couldn't take up the nutes properly due to underwatering or maybe the soil simply was emptied from nutes?



Well, 9 hours after transplanting the plant it looks even worse:



And another plant is also starting to feel sick:


I have not fed them anything and I have my water PH checked but not my soil since I didn't think it necessary as I am using a soil brand that is widely used (and always recommended by experienced growers) for growing herb. Any ideas what this could be?

 

[micro420guy]

Im not sure why your plants are sick, i"m new to this too. Although those roots look healthy. Are you over watering? Thanks for posting, i would love to see a pic of your closet setup.

 

[Reverend Mojo]

Any ideas what this could be?

Looks to me your babies needed re-potted for sure . Well done!

Most likely your soil is a little hot for your plants or they are taking a bit to settle into the new enviroment ph wise.

Either way, if you just transplanted, I see no reason to add additional fertilizers on top of whats already in the soil mix as it may burn your plants.

I bet you that they will be doing fine in a few days.

Watch for overwatering. Remember cannabis likes a moderate damp to moderate wet soil alternatively.

best of luck brother.

 

[Respawner]

Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement guys! I'm pretty sure I'm not overwatering them.

However, when I put the seeds in the dirt almost two weeks ago I managed to over water them so only 3 of the 6 planted survived while the remaining trio drowned in their cradle after having sprouted. As soon as I decided they were dead to the world I planted 3 more with much less water and they all did well. So the small ones in the pic is 5 days younger than the bigger ones:



I First vegged under 2 55w 6500k PL-L's but now I've turned on 2 4000k aswell. The grow space I use i one half of a 2-door closet which is d46 x w61 x h153, cm that is. The other side is containg ballast, wires and stuff, and will also hold a ventilation system
when I get the time to make one. For now I'm just having the door opened a bit. The cab is in a locked room in the basement where noone will be so stealth isn't a problem at the moment. I think it will be perfect for my intended 6 airpots.



I made a wooden frame for the lights which I fit to the sides so that I have some room in the ceiling for attaching a carbon filter later on. Came up with a really simple way to make it height adjustable and didn't even have to drill holes in the closet for the loop-screws which I could just twist in by hand to the premade shelf holes



The two sick plants are now 10 days old and looking worse but they have at least continued growing:


The third 10 day old plant is looking better which is kinda releiving and makes me feel I havn't screwed up totally...... yet

 

[Respawner]

Well... It seems like It's my soil thats burning them. For the earliest planted seeds I sort of made a vertical tunnel in the pots after I had filled them halfway with regular potting soil and then filled the tunnel with light seedling-soil to put the seeds in. So one theory would be that they started getting too much nutes when they reached out of the light-soil-tunnel into the hotter soil but since I planted the younger three plants directly into the hotter soil wouldn't they get burned too then? Maybe they only start getting burned after having developed a big enough root system that can suck up too much nutes...

So, if it indeed is my soil that is too hot, then what do I do? I'm considering maybe just waiting idle until they are bigger and can handle the nutes and hope they don't get burned too badly before that.

EDIT: After reading up on my soil brand from other growers saying it can burn some strains I'm sure It's the soil thats burning them, most likely because Its uneavenly mixed with chunks of manuer (or just chunks of artificially over fertilized dirt), and thats why they are so differently affected. Will this affect yield of plant or sexing? And should I stick with my plan to do nothing?

 

[Respawner]

14/9 days update

14/9 days update

At 14/9 days of veg things are looking good I think. There's some serious bushing going on and the stems of the older plants have gained much thickness since repotting, thanks to my daily massage therapy I assume. I'm not sure yet which method I should use for this setup but if I go for LST I might best be starting soon before I have little oak trees in there, and I have a feeling the bushing ain't going to makes it easy either. Any tips on which way to go is most welcome.

 

[christoph'sbud]

wow man, those plants have really come back the lower leaves are starting too die off, is pretty normal for first time grows, eventually, you will figure out the nutes.

unfortunately, its impossible to tell how much nutes they are getting with pre nutriented soil. also, nute burn, and sever under nutrienting, look quite similar in my experiance.

i love the pl-l's they are looking very great.

and as for lst, ide wait untill the fourth or fifth node comes in, fully, and then what you do is decide what way to bend them. next step would be to bend them over slowly, dont snap the stem, be very carefull, and take some string, or pipe cleaner, and tie them down. make sure that the very top is lower than the main stem, in order for the plant too think that the side is where it wants too grow tops. i hope this can help you out man. another suggestion, that im not sure off, is if they are too bushy, you would have too cut off the fan leaves on the side that will be facing the dirt.

take it or leave it man, but please visit my thread too, its in my sig

christoph.

 

[feral]

looking good. use PLL's myself and love em. good luck

 

[Respawner]

unfortunately, its impossible to tell how much nutes they are getting with pre nutriented soil. also, nute burn, and sever under nutrienting, look quite similar in my experiance.

Yea that sucks. I've been looking forward to soil growing and later organic soil because I´ve read it gives the tastiest buds, but know I'm not sure I wont go coco or something in the next grow already because I wonder how the hell I am going to dial in a pheno when I have no idea what its sucking ups its roots in that unreliable soil.

and as for lst, ide wait untill the fourth or fifth node comes in, fully, and then what you do is decide what way to bend them. next step would be to bend them over slowly, dont snap the stem, be very carefull, and take some string, or pipe cleaner, and tie them down. make sure that the very top is lower than the main stem, in order for the plant too think that the side is where it wants too grow tops. i hope this can help you out man. another suggestion, that im not sure off, is if they are too bushy, you would have too cut off the fan leaves on the side that will be facing the dirt.

Thanks for the advice! I not sure ifI will lst though. At least not until I know how many women I've got. And in the future when working with clones in that cab I've realized It's going to have to be a sog if If I keep 6 plants like I have now. Its too small for anything else I believe.

looking good. use PLL's myself and love em. good luck

Thanks mate! Good to have you here. Say hello to the cat from me, hope he enjoyed your M#1s

 

[Respawner]

Well.... Feels like its going straight to hell now. Iv'e uploaded my sick plants here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50526372@N08/

And started a call-for-help-thread here: http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=174481

My hopes for even a bad yeild seems crushed. It might be much worse than bad...