I'm a noob in need of advice

[LayedBack]

Finished Grow - Thank you ICMag family for the all of the help and advice, love this place - here's a few pictures. It's a great feeling to have good medicine. Next years plans include 1000 Watts (half fluoro half HPS) and some good genetics, Bagseed was still a success this year thankfully, but I want to try the real strains now!

I've had my eye on BOG Genetics for a while now and have seen only great reports of their strains. Would love to try some authentic Sweet Tooth or Bubble Gum, but I'd be fine with anything that's good for chronic pain. The Strains "Lifesaver" has me intrigued.





https://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=804403&ppuser=47584

Okay guys, this is my first indoor grow and I hate to say it but I already screwed up and have an important question to ask. If you want to skip to my question then go to where I highlighted!

First I'd like to say thank you everyone for sharing your beautiful grows, I only hope one day I can become as professional as many of you here. Cannabis is a medicine to me as I have chronic pain, so I'm growing this year to be able to have some medicine hopefully all the way until next years' harvest.

This is my second grow, my first was last year outdoors, it was a small harvest that was seedy because of male pollination. This year I have 6 outdoors in a secure guerrilla from last year, and I have 15 indoor plants. Using 2-4 gallon pots, organic potting soil, small mix of bone and blood meal. Unfortunately all of the seeds are picked from regular mid-grade cannabis.

The plants you see are about 2 and a half weeks old give or take a few days, I started them outdoors, but once I brought them in I screwed up pretty big. I started them using 'Halogen' lights, and now I realize what a mistake I've made. They have been indoors for about 2 weeks now, and obviously they've stretched quite a bit instead of growing normally.

Will be switching in 2-3 days to either fluorescent or HPS, my question is should I trash the plants and start over? This grow room is subject to winter cold. However it's still early in the season. Do you think switching lights will help correct themselves, or will the stretching really effect them to much in the long run? I'm willing to start new plants if it's worth it.

 

[ZZTops]

They'll fill out, so Keep On Truck'n...

 

[chemoboi]

Pictures would help, but in my experience you can salvage a plant and get decent weed faster than you can start over and have a CHANCE of getting good weed. You could rig CFLs (those compact fluorescent bulbs that have twisty-tube bulbs) or put up a proper HPS and they'll have warmth and good light. If you go with CFL, be sure you pick the ones that are 2700K color temperature (soft white) for flowering or 6500k color temp (daylight) for vegetative growth. Keep them about 6 inches from the plants for best results.

HPS is gonna cost more and use more electricity by far, but the results will show it.

If you're gonna grow, you might wanna read at least the main points in a good grow book. It'll save you hours in recovery time to give them what they want. Just a thought. Here's a free one: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13387/The-Cannabis-Grow-Bible

 

[LayedBack]

Thanks for the advice guys, yeah I actually just started reading the grow bible, and thankfully found out that I'm using the wrong type of lights.

However I think my soil mix is decent enough for now, I've done a lot of reading the past week.

So I guess I'll just stick with these babies, and hopefully they will fill out and give me something decent once I switch lights here pretty soon.

 

[DeoXy]

They sell these cheap 150watt hps kits for like $99
Online that come complete.. bulb, hood, ballast .. pre wired. If your on a budget but want a hps.. could also supplement with floros. For side lighting.

 

[LayedBack]

Cool thanks for the information, currently I'm disabled but don't actually have disability payments, so I'm pretty broke. But my partner (family) is going to try to get either HPS or fluoro today or tomorrow, hope we can manage to get a decent amount of watts though. Because once it's time to split the harvest we wouldn't be looking at much.

Thankfully I do still have that outdoor spot, which I'm hoping to get 3 females from, so with a little luck I could still manage to get some to conserve through next year.

 

[DeoXy]

Cool thanks for the information, currently I'm disabled but don't actually have disability payments, so I'm pretty broke. But my partner (family) is going to try to get either HPS or fluoro today or tomorrow, hope we can manage to get a decent amount of watts though. Because once it's time to split the harvest we wouldn't be looking at much.

Thankfully I do still have that outdoor spot, which I'm hoping to get 3 females from, so with a little luck I could still manage to get some to conserve through next year.

Can always go with a highoutput T5, 4ft 6-8bulb fixture.. they usually come with the bulbs, and don't run too expensive and give good watts per lumen output.. I think the one I have which is a 4ft 6bulb fixture(hydrofarm) uses about 54w per tube x 6 = 324watts.. they will give decent results used correctly..

another thing I would do to maximize yield per plant in same amount of space/light would be to veg longer and weave em into a SCrog before flipping... I just built one today.. bought a 3x3ft metal screen framing kit(for quick assembly & long last compared to wood) and a 3ft x 10ft roll of black thermoplastic UVB resistant mesh screen & a couple screws to affix it for under $8 @ the hardware store.. gonna place it above my 3x3ft flood n drain table to maximize yield per 600watt HPS... GL with whatever you choose!

 

[LayedBack]

Thank you for the advice! I plan on vegging as long as possible, hopefully when we get this new light in there, they will start filling up. I'm honestly still worried about how they have stretched early on.

I was just wondering about how much I could expect to harvest with a certain amount of light? I realize it's only a rough estimate -

1000w Fluoro

1000w HPS

If I grew 4 foot plants with each amount of light, do you think I could grow a half-pound+? I do realize the HPS would be much more effective, but it's probable that we'll have to stick with a fluoro this year.

 

[microbrewer9]

You will spend a little more, but I would definately put an hps and some kind of fan on them to strengthen them. Also, i woud start topping them soon, but Im not an expert or anything just done a few small grows.

 

[jd4083]

Thank you for the advice! I plan on vegging as long as possible, hopefully when we get this new light in there, they will start filling up. I'm honestly still worried about how they have stretched early on.

I was just wondering about how much I could expect to harvest with a certain amount of light? I realize it's only a rough estimate -

1000w Fluoro

1000w HPS

If I grew 4 foot plants with each amount of light, do you think I could grow a half-pound+? I do realize the HPS would be much more effective, but it's probable that we'll have to stick with a fluoro this year.

hp or more given the circumstances you have described is a pipe dream at best man. don't get your hopes up, aim low so you're pleasantly surprised...


edit- I was always under the impression that the idea of a fan "strengthening" a plant is a fallacy...anyone care to comment?

 

[teh_piper]

I get a pound every 2-2.5 months with a 600watt... perpetual. I'm flowering and vegging two seperate groups at a time

4 4ft t8 fluro tubes for veg in a 4'x4' room and a 600watt in a 6'x6' room for flower. Pretty cheap and effective setup.

 

[LayedBack]

So we decided to go with about 500 watts of Fluoro for this year, I reduced the number of plants growing to 6. Two of them are still looking a little funky but I believe they will look much better in another couple of weeks. The other plants look fine so I think everything is gonna be okay.

I was doing some planning, and I figure we could vegetate all the way through July which gives us 2.5-3 months. I'm planning on growing 6-8 plants, and maybe get a 150w HPS when they start flowering.

So with a little luck, I'm hoping to get 3-4 females, at 3-4 feet high, which hopefully will produce 6-8 ounces! Just hope one of my heady seedlings is a female! I'll post up pictures in another month or two, but any advice you have as far as how many plants I should do with this amount of lighting would be great.

 

[LayedBack]

As you can see, they have grown quite a bit under the Fluoros, however 3 of my plants are yellowing a lot. P135 I'm thinking of just killing and replacing with a new plant, because it's growth has been stunted and yellowed a lot, hard to see in the pic.

And 2 of my big plants are getting yellowing around the edges of the leaves.

I can say for sure that my PH is a solid 7.0, so I think it might be a nutrient problem? I put plenty of bone and blood meal in there in the beginning. 2 days ago I put more nitrogen as well as magnesium because the leaves were curling.

Can anybody offer me any advice? I'm really in need of help, pretty worried and going to be very disappointed if I'm not able to harvest 3-4 ounces of weed this year. Really need some medicine.

Perhaps those Halogen lights damaged my plants too much in the beginning.... I still have 4 plants outside, and I'm going to throw another 2 in a different spot as back up. Because I'm starting to lose faith in my indoor spot.

 

[crack-attack]

are you letting your plants dry out before you water/feed?

 

[LayedBack]

Well I water every other day, the top of the soil is always bone dry. I was assuming that I wasn't over watering, but perhaps I should wait a little longer??

Do plants look like this when over watered?

 

[crack-attack]

i always shoved a finger into the soil and if the soil was dry at the tip of my finger i would water. if it was moist i would wait a few more days and check it again. mine looked similar when i over watered. but could still could be a number of things. over watering is a fairly easy problem to resolve. so may be worth a shot. i have had some plants that i would only water once a week, and others i had to water everyday.

 

[LayedBack]

Okay guys thanks for the advice. I will start watering every 3 days and see if they start looking better. They are all still showing remarkable growth, but I'm very worried about the yellowing now. It seems like if this keeps up they might die, which is going to be very discouraging.

At least I have a back-up outdoor spot so I'm sure to get a little medicine this year heh.. Appreciate you guys helping me out.

 

[Fire On High]

My plants had that kind of leaf curl when my pot didn't have enough drainage.

you can REALLY neglect a plant for water before it does any permanent damage. You'll know when it needs water.

So yeah, I'd say back off on the water til it wilts then build back up to a better routine.

If it continues to yellow, or show other defs. consider a transplant.

 

[ErnestHemingway]

When watering I always go by the weight of the pot when I pick it up. I feel how heavy it is when I fully water them and also pick it up when they look dry. If the pot still has some good weight to it then there is still quite a bit of moisture in them even though the top is bone dry. The pot will be noticeably lighter when they are getting pretty dry.

As plants mature more roots develop and they will soak up the water at a more rapid rate. This is why you should stay away from predetermined watering schedules, like every other day or every third day. Like Fire on High said, the plants can really REALLY be deprived from water and still bounce back. I've had some mistakes in the past where it looks like I have completely killed the plant due to water neglect. The plant was bent over, leaves were crispy and extremely wilted but I gave her a good watering and you would never know she was on the brink of death.

Once you use the method of judging the amount of moisture by the weight of the pot, you will get pretty darn good at being able to tell when they need water. Even when I think they could use water I will sometimes wait a day anyway to give em a good feeding. Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

 

[BlazingSaddles]

When watering I always go by the weight of the pot when I pick it up. I feel how heavy it is when I fully water them and also pick it up when they look dry. If the pot still has some good weight to it then there is still quite a bit of moisture in them even though the top is bone dry. The pot will be noticeably lighter when they are getting pretty dry.

As plants mature more roots develop and they will soak up the water at a more rapid rate. This is why you should stay away from predetermined watering schedules, like every other day or every third day. Like Fire on High said, the plants can really REALLY be deprived from water and still bounce back. I've had some mistakes in the past where it looks like I have completely killed the plant due to water neglect. The plant was bent over, leaves were crispy and extremely wilted but I gave her a good watering and you would never know she was on the brink of death.

Once you use the method of judging the amount of moisture by the weight of the pot, you will get pretty darn good at being able to tell when they need water. Even when I think they could use water I will sometimes wait a day anyway to give em a good feeding. Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

Yeah what Ernest said. Go by weight bro rather than pre-determined schedule. Once u learn the "full" weight and the "empty" weights of any given size container your watering skills will improve exponentially. It takes a little time to work it all out but you'll get there. The whole watering thing didnt really click for me until near the end of my 2nd full grow.

Aside from that just relax a little and dont over love your babies man. Shits a weed it doesnt take much more than a good soil mix and adequate waterings to see good results. Keep it simple. Dont worry if they're not perfect no plants are! Sometimes some of the weirdest veg'ers turn out to be the best quality bud.. not always but sometimes! I notice u didnt mention dolomite lime in your soil mix you should definitely look into this go to organics thread theres a sticky on virtues of dolomite lime. Lack of this may be causing PH problems which could be causing nutrient lockout which could explain your early yellowing... However impossible to tell without further pics and info..

For stretchy seedlings just plant the stem further down into the soil when u transplant next.

And remember your using bag seed not quality genetics so expect a few mutants. It doesnt mean your doing anything wrong when they go weird on you it could jus be the seed. This is especially true when u have some healthy plants and some not so healthy plants all in the same soil mix.

All the best man
BlazingSaddles