Help! I don't know what is going on with my plants. They sprouted on 8/2, and I veg'd them until 8/22 (20 days). These came from bag seed, so I didn't want to veg them for weeks and weeks without knowing if they were male or female. So, on 8/22, I gave them a 24-hour dark period and changed the light cycle to 12/12. So, it has been 13 days, and still no signs of showing sex. They are still showing good growth, and I know that they are not root-bound because they were transplanted into larger pots the day before they received the 24-dark period. This is past my scope of diagnosis...being my first grow. Can anyone help? Here is a link to my grow journal / thread: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1243239-first-time-grower.html Current pictures are attached. Should I turn off the veg switch on my LED light and just run the red?
There are issues with your plant(s) that could be causing them from growing at all. Damaged, twisting leaves could be a pH issue. There also seems to be a little nute burn on the edges of the leaves. You probably want to get those issues fixed before your plants will respond better and continue growing. Also, if you're in flower, you definitely want to switch your light mode from veg to flower. Good Luck!
Patience, theyll show soon. The poster above me is correct, your plants are exhibiting K/Ca deficiency. This is most likely due to salt buildup in your soil or pH. Fix before you flower. Poor conditions will slow down growth and produce crap bud.
You should flush your soil. I think you have an excess of Ca or Mg or both...causing K lockout. Thats why youre losing lower leaves too. Check your pH, very important.
My pH is reading between 6.5-7.0. I have only fertilized them 2 times, and both feedings were at 1/2 strength of the recommended feeding schedule that Fox Farm published. Still possible salt buildup?
Hey, quick question. I haven't flushed yet because the soil was still very moist and I didn't want to overwater them. Growing with LEDs doesn't evaporate and dry out the moisture in the soil as fast as with grow lights (because of the cooler temps). So, I thought I would wait until tonight to flush the plants. My question: Would it be ok to take them outside just for a little while to give them some real sunlight? The heat from outside would help to dry out the soil faster so that I don't have to deal with overwatering stress issues when I flush. OR, will the different light spectrum confuse the plants and stress them out more? There has been some growth since my last post, but still no signs of sexing. It's not rapid growth, but it's growth. Also, when I flush, is it best to flush at the beginning of the photoperiod or just before lights out? Thanks for everyone's help. I'm learning! This is more challenging than I thought it would be, but a lot of fun.
I flushed each plant with 2 gallons of water that was pH'd at 6.2-6.5. I think I have two that are showing some pre-flowers on the tops. I don't see any hairs around the nodes yet. Just waiting. It's been over 2 weeks. Hoping for some females. I clipped some of the burned leaves. Still showing signs of growth each day, but not vigorous growth like I hoped. Added a couple of 2700k CFLs in addition to the 100watt LED light. Anything else I can do to help them? Do I just wait now?
You've done pretty much all you can for now, I think you need to just wait it out a bit longer. Be careful with the FF nutes, if you feed them at full strength you're probably going to run into problems with nutrient burn. Try half-strength for a while, and use plain water a few times between each feeding.
They haven't reached maturity yet. That's a pretty small veg time, and from the size of your plants and what I can tell from your setup, 20 days probably isn't enough. The plant can't flower until a certain maturity anyway, even if you start from 12/12 from seed it will still take 2-3 weeks to bud. From this point on I would just keep growing it and make sure you have no light leaks during the off hours. Besides not showing any signs of sex, has it shown other normal indicators of 12/12? Like, has it begun stretching, alternating growth nodes more etc. EDIT: I just now looked at the second set of pics, and it seems like there are definitely some preflowers developing, hard to tell what kind from the last pic, but the 2nd picture I think I can see a small calyx. Keep in mind too, that males show earlier than females do, so the longer it waits the more your chances are in your favor in terms of male/female. Regardless, you will know in a matter of days for sure if there's no growth stunt.
Thanks! I haven't noticed a lot of stretching, if any. There is new growth each day, and they are getting taller. I'm trying to LST the larger colas so that the undergrowth will get more light. One question: on my light, the veg switch has several red spectrum lights in it...even though I'm in flower, will it stunt the plants at all if I leave the veg switch on, too? It seems like I'm losing half of my lumen output if I only have the flowering switch on. I guess what I'm asking is...are half of the lights on my 100 watt light enough to take it all the way to harvest? Or should I be growing with full spectrum right now through to harvest?
That little thing looks like it got in a tussle with a weed eater. WTF your gonna get like a eighth if your lucky. Save yourself the headaches and spend $50 and grab a sack Others look tastySent from my LGL86C
Well, I ended up with one male and two females. So, that's good. I think my DS100 LED light is perfect for two plants, but not more than that. It's too bad, really. Out of the 3, the one ended up having the best structure and LST done to it ended up being male. The two females are SO bushy that it is hard to get in-between the nodes to train them. Thanks again to everyone's help on this! I transplanted the females into 5-gallon containers and lined the bottom with 2" of perlite to help with draining (since it takes longer for the soil to dry out under LED lights). Also lowered my light to 16". Will post pics on my journal. Link is below if you want to sub http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1243239-first-time-grower.html I guess this thread can be closed. Now sure how this works.