First grow, 5 plants, one does not keep itself up. Help, see pics

[bengt]

Hi guys. I have a big (not marijuana) plant and vase at my home. Last month I got some potent and nice tasting pod, that had about 7 seeds into it. I tossed them into the big vase just for fun, and added some water. About 3 days later, I got 2 of them growing, and a week later 4 more! One broke down itself (!) and died. Now I have 5 siblings.

I thought that they wore so beautiful and green... that destiny wanted me to grow them.
The thing is, the first 3 or 5 days I didn´t do anything. The first plant did get big quickly, and from the start it could not keep itself up. It is alive and developing the second set of leaves, but it is not strong enough to get UP. So it lays down... I´m trying to help with a stick, but I am worried. The last two pictures are of the weak one, the other ones are OK, and I am posting pics of every one of them here

SETUP: for the moment, I am using a high quality blend of soils and a fertilizer that is NPK 13-13-15 (both wore brought originally for the other big no-marijuana plant) and during the day, I let them get the strong Rio de Janeiro sun about 12 or more hours a day, and for the rest of the night, a 40W fluorescent light. They get about 4 hours per day of no light or weak moon light, since the sun goes down when I am at work and I turn on the 40W when I get home.

Thanks for any help!

[Sparky73]

Your source problem is your lights. One 40w light isn't going to work for 5 plants. There are various options for correct lighting, mainly HPS and CFL. Of course the HPS's are the better option, but they will cost you at least a couple hundred dollars and create a lot of heat. For an inexpensive lighting system, CFL's are the way to go. They create little heat, don't effect the electricity bill, and are easy to work with since they screw right into a normal light socket.

Now, because your wattage isn't high enough, and you probably have the bulb too far away - your plants are stretching. They have to stretch out to get closer to the heat source. With either of the above two light methods, this will not occur.

Now, what to do with the plants, right? You chose the right thing to do propping them up like that. Now what you will want to do is either add soil so you bury some of the stem OR if you have no more room (container is already full), you'll want to replant into a larger pot. Bury the stem up to the bottom of those first set of leaves. The plant will be fine, and will eventually spout roots from the stem.

After that is all done, you should be all set. To keep the plants from having weak stems, have a fan blowing on them at all times. Don't have it blowing hard enough to damage the plants, but enough for them to shake. This will harden the stems a LOT.

Any soil with fertalizer in it is very bad for sprouts and small plants! If I were you I would get flushing the soil soon. Plants cannot take the chemicals at such a small size. Most plants starting out with fertalizer do not make it. The ones that do usually get burns on the leaves.

Hope this helps!

Happy Growing!
-Sparky

[bengt]

thanks for the help!
The idea of a fan blowing I though was unnecessary because the air circulation here is very good, but the information that it could "exercise" the steams and eventually make them stronger is important, thank you!

Probably a PC fan will be enough for the moment. I will buy one and implement the idea tomorrow.

For now, here are some photos of mine "night" (CFL) setup and my "day" (natural strong sun light) setup.
Notice the plastic bag on the day setup. I put it there so the soil doesn´t get too dry, since the sun tends to evaporate the water in about 1 hour. The piece of bags help keep the soil moistened.

Any suggestions about the lamp, should I go with another 40W one, or go strait to HPS? HPS lamps here in Brazil are not that expensive (about 60 US dollars for a 400W one).

[Sparky73]

The 'circulation' fan is actually used for 2 things. One being exercise for your plants, and two being something to cool the bulbs off. Whatever type of heating/lighting you use, your going to produce heat. I am running CFL's in my box and temps are reaching a scorching 100 Degree's F.

With your soil, the sun may not be drying it out as much as your think. Does the soil feel moist under the surface? Easiest way to check is to stick your finger about 2" in and see if the soil is still wet/damp. It may appear dry on the surface, but really still be fine. You don't want to over-water, trust me .

For your lights, I would either go with CFL's OR HPS, don't mix them up. If you decide to go with CFL's, I would get at least 1 more. You could also use the CFL for Vegging and switch to HPS for Flowing, a lot a people do that. A 400w HPS is going to produce a LOT more heat, so you might want to do a little research on how far away to keep your light fixture.

HTH,
Sparky