So here's the one plant I didn't give away. Light deprived for her early life, then started putting her outside to get natural light and almost froze her, poor girl has been thru a lot. She's now 6.5 weeks old and 15" tall, getting natural light in the greenhouse during the day and coming inside at night till it stops freezing out. Bag seed, growing in a mix of fishy peat and perlite. Started her on some cal-mag once a week a few weeks ago and at the last watering (4 days ago) gave her some Grow Juice veg. I was gone all weekend so she didn't get any greenhouse time, just sat in the window but it doesn't get near the light as the g-house does. 2" of growth yesterday in the greenhouse compared to 2" over the 3 days I was gone and she was just in the window. When should I start seeing some staggered nodes? She looks nice and healthy, probably a bit small for her age but I'm no expert. What do you guys think?
I would have expected more for almost 7 weeks veg. I think it's a soil issue, what is in your soil and in what ratios?
Soil is just a fishy peat mixed bagged and sold locally, and perlite. I don't have one of the bags to get the nutrient info off of, and I went thru some pH issues and had a lock out issue for a while. Also, when I say light deprived I mean seriously light deprived, first few weeks i had 6 plants under 3 par38 led flood lights (each @15 actual watts/75 replacement), then switched to 12cfl's (23 true watts each) for a week before just letting them get natural light, they were all very stunted and this one was the runt when i have the others away. Just a week and half ago this plant was only 5" tall. I've over watered, over transplanted and almost frozen her so she's been pretty stressed. Also, I only started giving nutes on this last watering 4 days ago. I know she's small for her age, but I think for what she's been thru she's doing nicely. This was my first grow, and I really didn't expect to get this far, I've learned tons so far thru this experience. How tall would you expect her to be at this age, given proper care?
I mean your perlite to soil ratio. People greatly underestimate how much perlite cannabis needs to thrive. I'm sure the lighting played a role too, but you'd be surprised how much vegetative growth you can get out of a couple of bulbs. It's the flowering phase that takes the most energy, you could grow a thick green forest with minimal light. It's just my opinion, but most of the stunted plants that get posted here are due to poor soil drainage. I've been through it, took me a while to figure out that lots of perlite (I use about 35-40% perlite, or 3 parts perlite to 5 parts soil) can greatly improve growth rates. I will post some of my results when I get home from work, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Nice but as you say its a bagseed so you will never really know the contents of this package..? best to start with seeds you know will grow and make you happy ..as its never a good idea to get attached to bag seed good luck
I'm right around 40% perlite, the first transplant (solo cup to a pot just under one gallon) the mix was a lot less perlite and I had drainage issues bad, so the next transplants I bumped the ratio up. Drainage is now good but might have been an issue in the beginning.
Didn't want to spend a bunch of money buying seed to just kill the plants. I'm not positive the strain, but I know it smoked well and if it turns out to be male it's OK as I really didn't expect to get this far. This was a test and a learning experience, I live off grid so I had to figure out what works and what doesn't and what my cost was going to be, thus the reason I've cut the artificial lights off and gone to natural lighting. Once I feel confident I can make things work, I'll order some seeds, for now I just needed to see how green my thumb is and how much greener I could get it as a gardener. I can't even smoke for another 3-4 months because of work, but I can during the winter so if I can grow my own over the summer it'll save me $$ during the off season. Growing is legal where I live, so my only concerns are making sure I'm clean during the construction season.
I was thinking about topping this plant, for one once rooted the clone could be put into flower to confirm sex, and also wanted to see some more branching. Should I wait until it starts staggering nodes or does it look big/healthy enough to top now? Figured I'd ask here first so I don't have to upload the pic again.
Good size for clipping the top, plenty of nodes below it. Must be nice to have a greenhouse and be legal to grow, do you do a lot of gardening being off grid?
Not yet but I'm working on it. My greenhouse is a temporary that I put up specially for this plant, too small for doing garden starts. I have rhubarb and last year had potatoes. I did a bunch of garden starts this year in the cabin, but I started them too early so I gave them to a friend with more room. Hoping to have a true greenhouse up this year, and planning a good size garden outside once it stops freezing at night. It's nice to be able to grow and not have to worry about getting busted, that's for sure. My current "greenhouse" is big enough for maybe 2 plants, and I'd have to scrog or something cause it's not very tall, just needed something to allow this one plant to get natural light and not get too cold.
Also Also keep in mind as far as height, I've buried some of the previously exposed stalk cause humidity got a little high and I was getting root bumps up the stalk, figured why not it's just gonna add to the roots anyway right? Probably close to two inches, the first set of nodes are actually right at the top of the soil.
Love it, you'll have thick healthy gardens in no time. I'm setting up a 4x8 raised bed in the only part of my yard that gets 8+ hours of direct sunlight. Maybe a small cold frame down the road. Cheers!
How much light is it getting? It looks awful stretchy. Like it's stretching for light. Provide much more light and lst and top and you'll be ok! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Not sure of your budget but u can get a decent MH and HPS magnetic ballast and bulbs and hood combo 400watt 600watt 1000watt for around $130 for 400watt upto $250 for 1000watt Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Can spend much much more too but those would get u by nicley!!! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I'm off grid, so that would mean running the generator for a massive fuel bill to run the lights. Right now she's getting about 16hrs of natural light a day, most of that in the greenhouse once it warms up a bit. As far as budget, about zilch until after the summer construction season gets under way. I'm planning on buying some good led panels once I can afford it, those I can run off batteries and inverter and my generator will only need to run a few hours a day to charge batteries. It's still freezing overnight on some nights or I'd leave her in the greenhouse.
Out of curiosity, I've considered running some cfl's while she's inside to give her some more light am I doing any good? Right now we have sixteen hrs from sunrise to sunset, and she's in the greenhouse about twelve of those hrs getting really good light. I'm usually up late, watching TV and running my generator for several hrs. If I use five 23w cfl's during this time my generator is already running how much good am I really doing? This would give her around 20hrs of light total. Would it just stress her to have her light cycle change, and I can't guarantee she'll get those extra hrs of light every night or the same timing, sunrise would still be natural and I'm usually up a few hrs after and put her in the greenhouse. I just don't want to stress her out and cause any problems. And she's showing girl parts, tried to get a pic but it just comes out blurry.
This is how I was going to set it up, two doublers hanging beside her so four lights and a single in the reflector.