Well my first grow isn't going great, had a spot on a friends property where I was planning on moving my plants once they got a little bigger but am no longer able to move them there so they've been suffering from short light hours in the carport (only have a front yard with no fence so this is the only place I can keep them out of sight). I also wasn't really prepared, no ph tester, no proper nutes, not enough knowledge etc, etc. So far I've made plenty of screw ups, planting four seeds in one large pot, adding slow release NPK (and too much as well), getting leaves wet while watering in the sun, overwatering, repotting too soon in fear of roots getting tangled, then adding more slow release (about 1/10th compared to the first time) to the new soil, inconsistent ( and short, around 6-7 hrs a day) light hours, not paying any attention the whole time to ph. All this and probably then some have left me with about 4" growth on the healthiest one in nearly 2.5 months! Since I realised it wasn't going so great I've been doing a lot of reading, and learnt from my mistakes. I know I can probably expect hermies at best but I'll be happy to keep them for my first grow, at least give me some more seed to play with while I'm learning and a bit of hash is better than nothing if I don't get any decent nugs. They have all had yellowing/dying lower leaves, most of these I've trimmed off figuring they weren't coming back or doing the plants any good. Also they have in the last few days gotten some brown rusty coloured spots on the top leaves. Both these problems I think have come from ph not being right and or nute burn. Can't really see any of this in photos, pretty crappy camera. Setting up some lights for my next bagseed grow, got 2 20w cfl in there so far and will be adding 4 more of these hopefully next week. For now I've been putting the two larger sick plants in there when not in the sun, and they're definitely liking it, grew more over the first night than they had in the past week. But since being in 24hr light the bigger one has gotten a lot darker, not sure if this is genetics or something else, the lighter one is looking slightly more indica-ish than the rest I think. Since being under the lights all the new shoots have brown tips, and on the darker one some are curling badly, really need a new camera but got the best pic I could. Would this curling/browning in the new shoots be from the lights? I had them a bit closer not expecting them to grow so fast and you can see the burned tip on one of the upper leaves where it touched the bulb, but even one cm away isn't hot at all, just warm. Not going to go to too much trouble fixing the nute problem with these ones, just letting them do their thing and see what happens. Get them as big as I can under 24 if they don't die and take them down to a nearby creek to fend for themselves. Having started in short light hours, then moved to 24, will they begin to flower as soon as I put them back in natural light? its mid winter here so would be close to 12/12. Haven't decided if I want to do the same with the next lot or build a flower box as yet gotta go and check out the spot first. Any of you do this? Veg indoors and flower out? Sorry for such a long first post, I promise my next one will be a little more interesting!
Don't bother posting pictures, I can diagnose your issue for the most part as is. planting multiple plants in one container is not inherently a problem. rule of thumb is 2-3 plants per 15 thru 35 gallon container. They will get reaaly big in the 35. as far as your current plants, I would cease and desist ALL fertilization, and focus on feeding your soil food web.... Not your plants with a NPK formula I would take advantage of mid-winter by beginning to mix soil and working with soil and the redworm, once you know how to keep them worms happy, you don't have to fertilize your plants or do any PH measuring, simply mix a good soil and plant the weed! it's a fuckin weed it grows in the cracks of a sidewalk.... now imagine how well you can do with a water-only regimen in a big container full of your independent local nursery's organic soil mix... correctly grown organic soils will feed plants for over a year and can be re-used with increasing yields You will have choices to make before you start to grow. You can go hydro or soil. If soil I would start mixing it up now, germinate seeds for selection, and do lots of cuttings. When spring rolls around you'll be ready with clones and your homegrown soil... then it's smooth sailing from there. good luck , and Welcome to the City.
Lower leaves dieing, turning yellow or brown is most likely from not enough light. Ive done it on purpose and ended up with a plant (well 3 now) that have nothing but stem for over a foot and a half than a bud on top with its bush of leaves around it. Problem is light is 3 feet away and its a CFL. (not really a problem since I did it on purpose to see what happens) I cant see any of your pictures. Lots of people start indoors and move outdoors, I dont know where you live or the sun cycle there but if its 12/12 and temps are ok, they should be fine. Curling down or up? Heat or no water can do that as well as a multitude of other problems depending on direction of curling. I agree with poster above me, no more nutes Ive done a whole grow with no nutrients other than what came in the potting soil, plants yellowed towards end, but thats normal and expected anyway. They should start to flower when their light cycle is more standardized and not so short or random. I have no clue with the PH, I use tap water and never check my PH. Most likely because I have never ever had any issues related to PH so I dont understand growing with soil how it can happen. 120watts is maybe ok for 2 plants. Are you able to buy some of the 26 watters or higher? Good luck on the grow man, Ill check back in sometime if you update the thread with progress
Thanks for the advice, pics wont upload directly for some reason, did a search and it had been suggested to someone else to upload to the gallery and link it from there using insert image but guess thats not working for me either. For me they are showing if I right click and open in new tab, thought it was just my shitty internet connection. Yeah not planning on doing anything else with this lot of soil, never grown a thing in my life other than cactii so this is a big learning experience! Hope, what do you mean by soil food web? get some compost going with worms? The soil they're in is some cheap potting mix, with some compost and dried cow shit thrown in. I think it would have been fine if I hadn't added the fert. Chaotic, the new growth is curling down and browning on the tips, its only been happening since they've been under lights. My first thought was heat as I had them pretty close to the bulbs but its continuing since they've been moved away more. They have plenty to drink, I was over watering for ages untill I started reading a bit, now they get a good soak when the soil dries out about 3/4 of an inch down. I haven't been able to find anything over 24w here in australia, unless I want to step up to 105w from a hydro store. There's 2x20w in there atm, 1 6500 and 1 2700 as I had these laying around the house. will be aiming for at least 6x24w before I start any more. As I said I'm not too worried about these ones, have a big bag full of seed to try again with and can only get better at it! I would be really pleased if these even turned male and survived considering how I've tortured the poor things! Was looking at a pictorial of deficiencies and pest problems, and this mentioned and gave an example of rusty coloured spotting on leaves from ph problems, but yeah I realize the biggest fuck up i've made Thanks agin.
Unless a CFL bulb is touching a plant leaf or something it will not burn it. Even more so if you have any fan or open door letting a breeze go by. Right now I have about 7 CFLs within 1/4 of an inch of my plants, they dont burn at all. (no fan breeze on about 3 of the lights) Im using the 50+ watters that are huge as well as smaller CFLs, neither affects plant. No burn, no curling no discoloring. They recommend changing out your CFL lights after every grow and not to use - used ones. (I do, just to add more lights) food for thought though! Dont know if I am allowed to link outside but Grow Marijuana FAQ, Cannabis cultivation - marijuana growing tips & photos is the best diagnose chart ive seen yet. It should help you diagnose any problems easily. You may want to flush your plants to remove excess nutrients. Sounds like too much is why your plant leaves may be acting that way. (Then again the curling could be from over nuting and the spots from a deficency of a specific nutrient, but flushing and restarting nutrient regime isnt too bad or hard) I dont know if this helped, Ive been up for over a day and that makes me ramble. Maybe a Target, Woolworths, Myer, Big W or K-Mart would have the higher wattage CFLs. Congrats on keeping em alive so long Ive done some funky things growing my plants testing if it would work (6 months in a 3 inch pot with never flowering, revegging a harvested plant for a 2nd harvest and a few other nifty things, these plants just do not die unless you over-love them because neglect doesnt seem to bother them!)
I would also take this time to read all the stickies at the top of the forums...great information there and google grow guides. Growing is ultra easy but takes some knowledge. Every grow will be different but theres no reason except for success with each grow especially with the availability of information via the internet today.
Cheers guys, if I had have joined up here or even done any reading on the subject first they'd be a lot healthier I'm sure. I've read else where to get the bulbs as close as possible which is why I did, the one leaf that did stretch up and touch the bulb is burnt so I now have them a little further away. I don't have a fan blowing directly on the bulbs, just an exhuast, this is enough to pull cigarette smoke in through the cracks around the door from an inch or two away, so I'm pretty sure its not getting too hot in there, although I don't have a thermometer as yet. The bulbs are cool enough to hold onto without burning so really don't think heat is any problem. The NPK I used where little pellets of various colours which are now all through the soil, so don't think flushing is going to help much, and not even gonna bother trying to repot with the state their in. Other than the new curling/brown growth they seem to have perked up a lot since they've been in there, so think I'll just keep watering as usual and see how they go. Thanks.