Alright, i need some hlep from the experts. Brief background I started my first grow as an experiment just to see if bagseed could grow (i had not researched at all before i did this). after germinating 2 seeds for a little over 30 hours both of them had sprouts. one was about an inch, the other was about 1/4 of an inch. At this point i had to hastily throw together a grow room. so i know my current conditions are not ideal but i'm not sure if thats the problem or if i'm doing something else wrong. The HVAC room in our basement is shaped like an "L", so i took one section and hung plastic wrap from teh ceiling. i then used the wrap all over teh interior of the "room" trying to make it as close to a clean room as possible for both odor and light control. I used 2 24 inch flouresents (total of 38 watts) to sprout my babies. after that i used a 250 watt MH light. Unfortunately my lack of ventilation made it hard for me to regulate tempurature and my temps got as high as 89 so i had to take down the MH light and set up 4 desk lamps each with a 27 watt cfl bulb with a color temp of 6500. i have 2 lamps on each plant with teh flouresent hanging above both of them. the floursent is probably way too high to get any real light to the plants but i figured its better than nothing (its about a foot from the plants) Anyway, my plants are very small and one of them is starting to get some very yellow sickly looking leaves at the bottom. The following is the pertinant info with pictures soon to follow as soon as they upload. Starter soil - Ferry-Morse Organic (no details) Transfered to "Fafard Organic" with a N(.10%) P(.05%) K(.05%) mix I started out using distilled water only. i then began to mix "Techniflora's nutes" in for the seedling stage after i transplanted them into the regular potting soil. I mixed "sugar daddy" and "root 66" at 1/4 the recomended levels. Since then i have been using 1/4 a tbsp of nitrogen rich guano mixed in with a gallon of distilled water and using it every 3rd watering. as for the nutes, i have not actually watered the plants with the nutes, but i used a spray bottle and wetted the plants between watering. could this be the issue? i never saturated the soil, i just sprayed down the plants themselves. chemical burn? Here's a brief timeline. germination on 3/24 transplant into seedling soil 3/26 transplanted from seedling soil to regular potting mix on 4/7 i did make a mistake in transplantation that may have damaged or "shocked" the root system of the smaller of the two plants but the larger plant transfered with no problem. Although i will admit there was way more root growth than i had expected, i think i left them in the original containers too long. I'll post pics up in a second. but for the record. "Plant A" was the one with the longer tap root. this plant started off strong but in the past week has started looking very sickly (yellow droopy leaves). "plant B" had a much smaller tap root. it has always been the "runt" of the two. even though it is smaller, the leaves look much healthier. more uniform in color and perkier. but this plant is half the size and has half the leaves of plant A but has been raised in teh exact same conditions with the same nutes, water etc..... i noticed that plant A has yellow leaves but only on the bottom. is that a sign of chemical burn since the bottom leaves would be the first to recieve the nutes? i'm a completel noob at growing and this is the first plant of any kind i have ever grown so i appreciate any help or feedback you guys can give me. i really think a major problem is the air flow, which there is very little of. i do use a fan to blow over the plants but that is more for circulation and strong stems, i dont currently have a system bringing in fresh air. But i still feel there is an issue other than ventilation. either way i have a few inline fans on the way and should be arriving tomorrow. in addition i will be building a grow box in the next week so i can control everything easier. anyway, i will add pics in a second. Thanks again for the help!
Plant A this is plant A. the first pics were from about a week ago and the last few were taken earlier tonight
Plant B here you can see plant B is much smaller but has a perkier healthier look. either way, it seems way too small for its age. the last pic is a pic of Azure's grow at 23 days, only a few days older than mine, and the difference is huge. help please!
A few questions for you: 1. What kind of airflow do you have in your grow room. If you have no ventilation whatsoever, that could be an issue. Plants need fresh CO2 to grow and thrive in the same way that we need oxygen. Without enough CO2 growth will halt entirely. It would explain your slow growth. 2. What temperatures are you running in your grow room? 3. When you water your plants, do you water the soil directly, or does some of your water get on the leaves? Water on the leaves can concentrate the light you are providing causing burn spots on leaves. When it comes to watering, here is what I do. Once a day I stick my finger 2 inches into the soil. If there is any moisture, I wait another day. If it is bone dry, then I water. If you can answer those questions I may be able to help some from there. I am still fairly new to growing (only one successful grow under my belt) but I will offer what I do know!
It sems like you answered your own question with your O.P.. First, you heat stressed them... now you're not giving them enough light (too far away), slowing the growth. Just a few things: A) Provide enough light in the right spectrum, close enough to the plant. For CFLs, this means 3-5 inches. If you have real "light saturation" with many points of light, you can afford to have them slightly farther away. B) Provide a comfortable temperature/environment. That'd be 70-80 or so, with 75 as your sweet spot. Relative Humidity is less important, but should be at least ~40%. If it's lower, water more. If it's higher, you'll need to water less. Listen to Azureblue: soil bone dry? Water. Soil moist at all? No water. C) Provide a suitable medium, and nutrients for your plant. Looks like you did good with "organic" soil... but you have to follow up with that. Check your soil's pH level, you could be locking out nutrients (causing yellow leaves). As I've been learning, organic soil pH doesn't really matter IF and only if you have a suitable microbe-army, to digest and allow the plant to uptake those nutrients, even in extreme pH ranges. If you're using tap water though (with chlorine), chances are you've killed your good bacteria, if there were any to begin with. Conversly, you can use synthetic nutrients and pH buffers/adjusters to get the job done. Either way, you want to make sure the plant has enough food available to it... And the moral of the story is: Search button! Really. And search by title. You'll find lots and lots of people with similar setups/situations/problems, etc. Your questions have been answered before, many times! And better than this, too! I'm just repeating what I've heard
I really do think fresh air is the main issue. i have a fan blowing over teh plants and lights to promote a healthy stalk and maintain temps, but its hard to get fresh air in. I've been opening a little trap door (use to be a doggy door we boarded up) and putting a fan in front of it every few days but i may need to start doing it multiple times per day. i have a few inline fans coming in the mail soon. once those are in place my air circulation should no longer be an issue. the point you made about growth stopping withlack of co2 is a good point though. i wish the mail was faster! by the end of next week i should have a nice grow box 7x5x4 full of lights and multiple intake and outtake fans and a carbon scrubber, all hidden within a compartment on the outside of the box. i'm hoping this will help. i just need to keep my plants alive until then and hopefully it wont be too late to revive them as for temperature, with teh MH lamp and poor ventilation i was hitting temps of 89 or 90. it usually stuck around 85 but would sometimes go up. once i get some fans i plan on using that bulb again. until then i've been using flouresents and cfls and the temps are around 78 consistantly, dropping downt to the mid 60's during teh off cycle (i am running 20/4 light cycle) I never knew about water concentratig light but it makes perfect sense. i usually just water the soil but i do mist the plants occasionally, which i guess i need to stop doing as for watering, i water generously, then wait 3 to 4 days to water again. i test the soil about 2 inches down. if its moist i dont water but if its "damp" i water. basically i dont let it get as dry as the surface soil but i dont keep it saturated either. Anyway, i really appreciate the time you took to read my post and give some suggestions. thanks alot dude!
as for light, i have 2 lamps with 27 watt cfl's on each plant around 3 inches from the leaves. then above that is the flourescent. the lamps are saturating the plants but the floursent is about a foot from teh plants. i know thats probably too high to get any real light to them but i figured even if it was just a little its better than nothing. i have it as close as i can get it without moving the lamps. temps are ok from what i've read on the forum but you're right, for about a week i had a MH lamp that was keeping things too hot for them. hope the damage is reversable.... that shouldn't be a problem once i get the rest of my gear in place but right now i'm playing the waiting game and its KILLING ME! fortunately if i lose them they are just bag seed so its no real loss. i was expecting to make these kinds of mistakes with my first grow. for water, like i said above, i never let the soil get bone dry but i dont water if the soil is still moist, i wait until it gets damp. I only use distilled water so i dont have to worry about the tap water's PH and chlorine levels but i think my ph tester is a shitty one. its the kind you take a sample, mix it with water, then put 2 prongs in for a minute and it give you the PH. its always around 7.5. hell, i even tried orange juice and still got the same reading as i get with distilled water. so i need to get a descent ph kit. anything in particular you recomend? I used the search button for about everything else on this board but i never did search teh "sick" section. guess i should have. either way, thanks for taking the time to respond and share your knowledge and not flame me like so many boards are famous for. I really do appreciate the help. you guys rock! keep on keepin on man!
Glad to help man, I know I appreciate easy/direct answers sometimes. That gets to be a problem, though, because just listening to one or two people can get you in trouble. Basically, read all you can. The more knowledge you gain, the more success will follow... Sometimes it's best to hold off on what you think is best. For instance, it sounds from your response that you haven't really absorbed what was said to you; twice. Azure has real experience, he just told you to wait until your soil was dry to water. I seconded that notion... but from your response it sounds like you'll continue to water when your soil is damp. Your call, no teacher like experience! As for your pH meter; a simple aquarium tester will give you a good idea as to what's going in, and coming out. Assuming that distilled or tap water is a certain pH is a mistake. Keep using that search button; customize your searches for more specific results... you'll get it. That's all I've got dude, you're on your way!
actually i heard what you guys said loud and clear. in the past i would water when the soil was damn because i didn't think you were suppose to let it get too dry but after reading what you guys said i'll let it get good and dry before i water it from now on. Thanks again for your time and help
Again, glad to help! It sounds like you are headed in the right direction. If you can get a nice intake/exhaust setup going it should solve a lot of your problems. It will make a dramatic difference in your growbox temperatures and it will also keep a constant flow of fresh air (and CO2) going at all times. This is another area to do some research. In my own opinion and own personal experience the pull-through exhaust method that I have mentioned in my 1st grow journal is the way to go. It has served me well and I have been very pleased with it. Try adjusting your watering as mentioned if you'd like - see if it works for you. If it doesn't, you can always switch back. The MJ plant is very resilient, and it originated in a very dry, arid region of the world. They do not struggle like some plants when the soil is dry for a time. Good luck and keep up the good work!
well i work in the audio visual field. so i took the liberty of helping myself to a few fans from broken projectors. They are much like computer fans except put out MUCH more air since projectors get extremely hot. so i have 4 projector fans that i have been able to get running due to your computer fan diy write up (that helped alot btw) and one 4 inch inline fan. if the inline fan is quiet enough i'm gonna use it for the exhaust and then use 2 of the projector fans for intake. if the inline fan is too loud then i'll use 2 fans for exhaust and 2 for intake. if i'm gonna use that MH light again i'll need alot of air flow to keep temps down.