I finally set up my first real grow room after many half-ass cfl attempts that I never commited to. I'm going to at least try to successfully harvest before I drop wasted money so I started out with just a 150watt HPS to try to grow one plant at a time. I bought an autoflowering afghan kush seed but I decided to test some mid bag seed out just for 2 weeks first so i dont waste my good seed...Good thing i did that. I have 6 all at a solid 2 weeks and this is what they look like. They have been curling every new set of leaves basically, this is just the soonest I could post on GC. I water them till I see it drip out the bottom then let it stop dripping, then water 2 days later. Anybody have any ideas? Or need more info to help me, thanks. 150hps/bagseed/miraclegrow seed starter mix This seems to be "the eagle claw" ??
What are the temps inside your grow room? Is there good air flow and exchange? Whats the humidity inside your groow room? All of these factors need to be considered for your problem. My first guess would be over watering. Every 2 days for such a small plant seems like a lot. I cheap trick you can do to test for soil moisture is to take a sharpened pencil and stick it 2/3 of the way down into the pot. If the tip comes out wet then hold off on the water. If temps get above 85, the can start to look dry due to heat stress. If the air isn't exchanged with fresh CO2 rich air, the plant can show stress like that.
all good info. there are just many, many variables that can cause similar problems which can make trouble shooting difficult.
Wow I forgot to include my humidity and temp info. My bad. My humididity stays constant at 41% and my temps range from 77-84.
Theyve still been young so they are in solo cups. I watered them every 2 days. I wish there was a better watering guide on gc somewhere. And that high end temp is 10 degrees less than it gets outside, why wouldn't natural 90's hurt plants yet my low 80's would?
its not that bad. just not as ideal as you can make it. when you water, how are you watering? do you have drain holes in the bottom of the cup? little plants like more frequent watering of not as much water so they dont get flooded/drowned.
Yes. Each cup has 5 drain holes. I'm about to start germinating my kush seed and am definitely using a small pot instead of a solo cup when I move it to soil. I feel as if it doesn't drain efficiently. I thought the dramatic curling might be the hps on the new babies. So ive had my light 10 inches away instead of the recomended 6-7.
Are the leaves forming a reverse taco, or just curling down at the ends? Do you have a fan on them? Are you using the HPS now? Plant looks a tad stretched but that's not your issue. One of my leaves is doing the reverse taco, but it's behind a fan so it's getting too much breeze. Where are you measuring the temperature? On the floor or at leaf height?
PS - you should let the plant dry out before you water it, then give it a good soaking, but don't let it sit in the runoff for more than an hour or so. To tell if the plant is dry, lift the container to feel its weight. It needs a bigger container now. Ditch the MG soil and get something good quality like Fox Farms Ocean Forest. Are you feeding nutes yet?
No nutes yet. I'd love to order some fox farm. Maybe soon. Heres a pic of the only one of the 6 I kept as of now, they were testers anyway. Ive lowered the ph of my water and moved 'her' to a bigger pot. Looks better in my opinion now.
The fan I use to cool my light faces directly down on the light, so it might blow down on the plants a bit. I have a separate fan blowing on the plants. It runs half of the day. Could the fan facing directly down be causing the leaves to curl maybe? Or maybe not since they aren't doing it as badly now.
Watering is more of an art than I science. There is no "water x oz. every x days" because there are too many factors. Different soils hold moisture differently. Different plants take water differently. Heat, humidity, airflow, size of root system, etc. all influence it. How I do it is I let the top of the soil become a lighter color (dry). Sometimes I wait an additional day just because I have my plants in 3 gallon pots and there is a lot more soil below the surface. Just think about this as if it were outside in the mountains or anywhere pot grows. Does it rain every two days? No, of course not. Plants can deal with too little water a bit better than too much. Too much keeps roots from taking up oxygen and can lead to root rot (like wearing the same socks for a week can do to your feet). Trust us, cut back on water, and maybe hit them with 1/4 strength nutes (to start out so they adjust). And MG soil isn't that bad. It's the time release nutes that can give you issues and they don't ph the soil consistently but I have used it and been fine once I got past germination. I have switched to FFOF though and it is pretty nice.
Hey there I think I can help you out a bit.. A rule of thumb.. 100 watts for the first and 50 there after.. With only a 150 if you wanted to get better results you should have started just one or two and kept those in the area.. I haven't grown an auto myself, but I've heard size of pot can affect when she will flower.. When the roots hit the bottom she will switch to flower.. Not sure if it is true, but it sounds like a sturdy statement.. Is the fan directly blowing on your girls or is it oscillating? Also for watering.. A very simple way to check.. Lift her up after you water her and feel her weight.. Don't water until you lift her up and she feels light.. You want to let it dry out a bit to make her roots want to grow..
It could be it outgrew the solo cup...but more likely over watering. I see you transplanted so you should be good.
Ive always heard the 100 watt for first plant and 50 after that. And yes, for adult plants. But 6 solo cups with seedling take up less space than a large pot, So the light rule is not always accurate ive been told, seedlings can fit way more than 2. Id never flower more than 1/2.
The fan you use to cool your lights should face up, or towards the exhaust. If it faces down then you are blowing hot air towards the plant/s. But I'm not sure if I understood you correctly. She looks good in her new pot. Good luck!