Hey guys. Ive been coming here a while now, and this site has gotten my growing skills to a point where i felt ocmfertable enough to start growing. Its a bag seed grow, 1 plant i started about 2 weeks ago, maybe 3, shes been kept under a 150w flouro until yesterday, when i put her under a 100w daylight flouro. The 3 that just sprouted are now under the 150w flouro. The big plant is in a pot with alright drainage, not that good, but it drains...and the soil is Scotts. I dont really know if this is good soil to grow this plant in, but I dont really have a choice now. And Im just going to keep her in that pot, I dont need her to get that tall or yeild that much, If shes a female, shes gunna be a mother. The other 3 are backup. I have pictures to better explain everything that im talking about. The camera is crappy, so the pics arent that great, but you can see the leaves and how they look...and how far along they are. There are a bunch of pics, ive been taking daily pictures throughout the process for my journal. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../First%20Grow/ Now then, I bought 3 2 gallon containers and saucers for the 3 that just sprouted. I have them in a soiless mix, schultz..and in litte peat pots. Once they have good roots, im going to plant them into the 2 gallon containers filled with the soiless mix. Right now, Im using ( probably a terrible fertalizer actually ) , its called Jacks classic Orchid Special with micronutrients 30 - 10 - 10 Im not sure if I should be using this fert...but my grandma had it laying around, and i figured since it had a lot of nitrogen and micronutrients, it could help me out untill i find some good nutes for it. I heard any tomato fert is good, but ive heard miracle grow is bad...should i get a tomato fert that isnt miracle grow? Oh, i put a little more than a half of a tablespoon in a gallon of purified water. I fed that to all the plants, and i sprayed a little bit of the fert and water on the plants...
Interesting problem you have there. Whenever there is plant trouble the first thing that needs to be checked is PH. What is the PH of your soil? Second, your Scotts (or Shultz for that matter) soil is no good. This is why I tell people to stay away from those. Notice how your bag of soil says "added phosphorus"? Your plant does not need fertilizer for at least the first 3 weeks of life so stop fertilizing it. I am not sure if you have fert burn or not. I am actually leaning towards an iron deficiency for a number of reasons: (1) you say that drainage is not great (which I know to be the case with Scotts & Shultz) which can lock out zinc (2) over watering can also cause a zinc problem and this goes along with #1 (3) you have soil with added phosphorus which can also lock out zinc. Please check your PH and get back with us on what it is. Next, when you transplant into your 2 gallon pots do yourself a favor and get some generic potting soil that has vermiculite, perlite and peat moss already added WITH NO NUTRIENTS. This can be found at your local nursery. Stay away from Miricle Grow, Scotts and Shultz. Also, take a look at the roots and make sure they are ok. I recently saw a root rotted plant that presented with a similar looking yellow. I know you are not trying to harvest a one pound plant but, you want something that smokes nice and doesn’t taste like shit. Otherwise you might as well just go out on the streets and buy the weed. I am on the fence with your orchid fertilizer. Does it say on the box "for acid loving plants"? I am not a plant expert but, aren’t orchids acid loving plants? If it says that do NOT use it. Pot is not an acid loving plant. Tomato fert is better. Finally, I see that the temp in your room is about 74. This is good. Have your yellowed plants always been at that constant temperature more or less? Ok that’s all for now. Good luck.
In the pictures, i have a pic of a Ph tester in the soil, and its at 6.5 And yeah, I know the soil isnt any good, i found that out after i bought it and transplanted it into that pot. I bought some soilless mix, and a bag of shultz perlite...i was gunna mix 20% perlite with the soilless mix for the other 3 that just sprouted. Id like to put the big plant in that soilless mix too, can I do this without killing the plant. I dont know much about this yet, so I dont want to go and put the plant out of the pot and try to stick it in another medium and watch it die. Ill stop giving it the nutes, thanks for the heads up. And I dont think it says its for acid loving plants...because i added it to the soil yesterday ( for the first time ) and today it still read 6.5 The temp gets up to about 80 degrees sometimes too...is this too harmful for the plants? And nextly, this is my test grow, first grow...whatever...so im just trying to get a successful grow with good buds...not necissarily awesome buds...but i want them to be alright. Thats why im just going to run with this soilless mix and tomato fert until i get my 400w hps light , and then i want to do everything right. I was thinking about buying fertalizers over the internet that are specifically for the veg stage, and the flowering stage, and micronutrients for pot. I checked insidesun.com....but maybe i just suck at searching for shit...especially when i hardly know what im looking for exactly. oh, and those flouros i got hooked up, can they be brought closer to the plants? it does get the plants warmer, but is that ok? i was thinking i might have had the lights too close before, because the leaves that are curled up feel dry. Im high, im going to bed now. Thanks for all the help.
Yo man. Sorry, I didn't notice your ph tester in the pics. 6.5 is perfect. I think you can transplant the plant into the soil-less mix without a problem. Your temperature is also fine. You can get the flouros to about 3 inches from the tops of the plants. When you do, just put your hand over the plants for a few minutes and if your hand does not get hot then your plants will be fine. Burning from the lights is of course seen at the tops of the plants closest to where the light is. As long as you have a fan blowing towards the plants and the lights, they should be fine. Maybe Unoit or Stich will come along and offer some more help on your yellowing issues. Oh and perlite is good to mix with the soilless mix and especially good in the Shultz.
I put the 3 plants that were in the peat pots into the 2 gallon containers with the soilless mix and perlite. My big plant didnt seem to get damaged from the fert i put in. Ill wait another week before i start feeding it. and I wanted to say that the leaves arent yellowing. I have one flouro that isnt a daylight one...so it has more of a yellow glow to it, rather than the other one that i have hooked up, which is a daylight, and has more of the blue look. Id really like to know how I should transplant this plant...I really have no idea, and searchin it didnt help at all. I just need to know how I should transplant this big plant into the soilless mix. and by that i mean, should I pull the plant out of the dirt and try getting the dirt from around the roots? and then plant the plant and roots into the soilless mix? I have a feeling that would kill the plant...but i dont know how else to put the plant in a different medium.
Gently shove a shovel down the sides of the pot to detach roots that are against the wall of the pot. This will allow the roots to be pulled out of the pot easily. Then you can let the old dirt fall off away from the roots so that nothing is left but the roots (you might have to shack off the dirt). Then plant it into the soilless mix.
Hey. Thanks man, im gunna go ahead and do that as soon as i get some soilless mix. i have a couple more questions though...cuz i have decided that im going to take the closet that i have and section it into 2 parts...with a wall inbetween. its the only way I can cut holes into wood and hang fans..I live in an apartment, and its easier to build a wall and cut holes than cut holes on the apartments wood and such. anyways. I need some good fans. The grow space will probably be...ill go measure it now. Im going to have it 3 1/2 feet deep, 4 1/2 feet wide and 7 feet high. so if im right, ill need fans that go 110 cfm, and i want both of them the same right? ive looked around a bit and these fans all seem to be 100 bucks or more..i really dont want to pay 200 bucks on ventalation alone...and yes i know, what you put into it is what you get out of it, but i'm just wondering if anyone has a less expensive way of pushing their air around. at any rate, this gives me the opportunity to have a carbon filter, before..i planned on using an ozone generator. So im gunna search around on how to build a good carbon filter. in the area, i figure i can put about 12 plants. And I have 7 feet in height, so i figure with the lights , i have about 4-5 feet of room for them to grow tall. My plan was to get 2 400 w hps bulbs, because i wanted high quality bud. But with 12 plants, im not sure how much light i should have over them. let me know.
I am not sure about your fan question. Maybe someone else can help you on that. I do know about your light question though and 800 watts of HPS light won't quite cut it for 12 plants. For 12 plants, I would go for the 1000 watt HPS light instead.
http://www.insidesun.com/index.php?action=item&id=77&prevaction=category&previd=2&prevstart=0 this one look good? and ill only need one?
Yeah that looks great. If you can get the 1000 and maybe a 250 you will have 12 kick ass plants. Wait a minute. You live in apartment right? Thats a lot of watts for an apartment. Don't want any red flags fired up. Maybe if you change all the regular light bulbs in the apartment to CFL's, don't use the dishwasher, change your A/C filters regularly etc, you can conserve electricity in other areas.
1000 watts might be to much huh? i was wondering about that, cuz im going to have the two lights running, and 2 fans running...and then the rest of the stuff int he apartment running. what exactly happens if an electrical company sees a jump in watts like that?
What state do you live in? It's hard to know. In my opinion 1000 watts is starting to get a little fishy but, it is just an opinion and I don't work for the electric company. Like I said, there are other things that you can do to conserve on electricity. Also, maybe if you were to turn the lights on a little at a time instead of going right to 18/6 it might be a little less noticeable. Worst case scenario they can get a warrant based on excessive electricity use. There are a number of threads on this on GC but, of course all the talk is just speculation.
well, thanks for all the help man, but i got popped by the cops yesterday. and they snatched my plants. so, im germinating...back to the beginning i guess.
I use the scotts soil and its great, it really has a low amount of added phous, i've never had problems using the soil, even when its not mixed. Its alot better to add about 25% verm and 25% perilite to your mix, MJ like soil that drains easily. The amount of phous is so low that you will need to eventually add a bit of nutrients to your plants, i perfer the shultz with micronutrients, i use a 20-20-20 for veg, a mix of veg nutes and flower nutes for transition period, and flower nutes i use is the shultz bloom 5-65-5, and a bit of epsom salts during flowering. If they look like they need some more N in flowering i use a bit of fish emulsion. You look like you could use more lights aswell.