First Ever Grow! Please opinions, tips and ideas.

looks like minor problems resulting from heat stress. the 600w seems to be doing more harm than good with these temps. and i'm currently out of ideas

 

Hey there - Couple of thoughts for ya.

1 - If I understand and have read properly (I did some skimming..lol) you're starting seeds under a 600W HPS. That's some pretty intense light for seedlings man, that and your causing yourself a bunch of heat issues that you would not have if you used some sort of Fluorescent for seed starting (CFL, T5, etc.). I'm not saying you can't use the HPS, you can, but you'd want it WAAAAAY high up and possibly diffused for the babies. In my humble opinion your costing yourself money running the HPS that you don't need to be spending to get seeds started.

2 - Your temps, I know you know they are out of range. For around $100.00 you can get a 6" ducted hood and exhaust that extra heat from the bulb much more efficiently. If you're going to flower in that tent as well, invest in proper ventilation (exhaust and fresh intake). Your plants will thank you.

3 - I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but your hygrometer is also showing your humidity at 99% at times..this is also WAAAAY high and invites a whole host of new problems. Humidity is OK to be in the higher ranges during vegetative growth, higher being...55% - 70% range. I do not let mine get above 55% in Veg, flower never above 50%. That much moisture is going to lead to mold, gnats, mildew, etc. Proper ventilation will help if not fix this problem. If you get to flower and have humidity issues like the one's your seeing now, your gonna cry when you go out to your room and see moldy buds.

4 - Watering...your plants do seem to be over watered from the images you posted here and in the infirmary. I read somewhere earlier in your thread where someone told you to let the first half inch of soil go dry, then water thoroughly. If you do that, your going to over water every time. Water when the top 2" of soil is dry. If you aren't sure and the plant looks fine, wait another day. They aren't going to die, if they get a little too dry by the next day they might look a little saggy, but a watering will perk them right back up. I see you've transplanted to dixie cups now, I use those and they make watering easy...you can 'feel' when the plant needs water by the weight of the cup. Hold it when it's dry, then water it until you get run off. You'll learn the weight of your cups and know just by picking it up if it needs a drink.

5 - Someone else already stated that you had a LOT of light for that small tent. I'm not sure how many or how big you want them to get, but a 400W HPS should more than cover what you can grow in that tent, keep your heat problems in check, etc. If you want to stick with the 600, make sure you really get that ventilation issue worked out.

I hope that info helps you out man, that's a nice op your setting up and you should be able to pull some nice dank nugs with proper setup and care.

Peace!

 

I would go for the T5, you can see how well they work in my thread if you have doubts. I use a 4', 8 lamp T5 for veg and keeping my mom's going. It kicks ass.

55% humidity is still too high, you want it under 50% for flower or your chances for problems increase. Who knows, you might not have issues. I try to mitigate risks as the investment made in successful grows is not chump change to me, I want my shit right, I don't want to grow ragweed so I mitigate risks.

I water my dixie's on average every other day, sometimes every 3rd day if for some reason they didn't use it all..lol. It looks like your using a good amount of perlite to help with drainage so I would think, especially with your temps in the higher range, that you would be watering every other day.

If you can control your environment with the 600watter, don't' change it until you can afford it. It's not going to kill you, it's just overkill for that tent and makes it more of a pain in the ass to keep things within optimum operating temps.

Hope this helps. Once you get your environment dialed in the rest is gravy man

 

Don't follow that schedule...lol.

Schedules are designed to sell nutrients...Cut the formula by at least half to start. I cut in thirds (although I do not use Fox Farms anymore, I started with it, but I use Botanicare now) with Fox Farms to start. If you have good soil, your plants really aren't going to need much nutes in the beginning. People going hydro start nutes earlier than in soil because there's nothing in the water. Soil plants, I almost never feed full strength (with the exception of my moms) in veg. I feed if the plant asks for food, if it's kicking ass and growing nicely without nutes and no deficiencies are starting to show then I do not add nutrients. If you are using RO water, I would suggest picking up some CalMag to add beneficial minerals back into the water that get stripped during the RO process.

Will check back in soon and see if I missed anything, it's the end of the day for me at work and I'm looking forward to getting da fook outta here!

 

Reverse Osmosis...If your buying distilled, go to the .35 a gallon water things outside most stores and buy RO water...distilled is expensive!

 

If the ambient temperature is ~89 degrees, then your tent will be at least 89 degrees no matter how good your ventilation. The lower wattage lights will create less heat, so yes it will make a difference, but not enough to get you below the 80s range.

 

Everything looks good. Have you tackled those temps yet?