I am trying to start a grow journal. Not exactly. I had a thread in Absolute Beginners and was advised to do it here. These plants were germinated on April 1 to April 12 so they are a month old and hardly look it. They were light starved and the soil might be bad. They're all runts but getting better. Damn the camera stopped working so I dont know if I will be able to continue. Ill post the few pix I got.
Woops here are the pix. Didnt get them all but got the important ones. Blue Widow popped on 4/7 Haze popped on 4/9 Roadrunner on 4/11 Unnamed on 4/1 White Widow on 4/2 White Widow 2 on 4/12 All seeds purchased from Attitude. All seeds produced by Dinafem. Only one seed failed to pop of about 15 germinated. Each plant is named for its seed. Unnamed is from quality stock. I lost track of its name and heritage. I have germination down now. Seedlings are my problem. I germed the seeds. Then I got sick. I hadnt finished positioning them in the window and the plants all got stretched and stressed out. To try and save them I switched to CFLs. It started as a Window Grow but the sun seems to have become an auxiliary light source. I added a good many CFL lights and have nearly 100 watts per plant and its more of a CFL grow now but everybody is coming back. So Im back on it!
I have just read in a post from a respected member that plants only see the cool light (5000K) in CFLs when vegging. They ignore the red spectrum (2700K). If this is true, the amount of CFL wattage that I am presently using is totally wrong. Among my many different lights, Ive got a 5500K light now and it looks white. Hell, there werent separate colors a few years ago. Does anyone know the truth? This is clearly a spectrum issue. I just dont know.
One can veg effectively with 2.7K or 5K or 6.5K CFLs, because they're all full-spectrum lamps. The difference lies in their emphasis. Same goes for MH and HPS. For example, I veg seedlings/small clones under a mix of ~3K and ~6K T5s (don't remember the exact values). Why? Because I see more vigorous grows with the same short internodal distances than using ~3K exclusively in this application. Good luck. Simon
Hmm, maybe post a pic of the cfl's you are using? Maybe its the soil? Im a noob, but i really hope your girls perk up! Good luck brother.
May 12, 2011 Somebody gave me some Peat and Perlite. Decided to transplant 2 of the plants though I dreaded it. Very surprised to find that neither runt had grown through the peat plug. Transplanting became very easy. I buried them up to their necks. Took out the stretch. Will watch carefully. The first seed I planted grew its root straight down and pierced the net without trouble. Neither of these runts even tried. So I may have soil problems but they are definitely not the cause of my problem. Light was the main problem. Now using 5000K bulbs mostly. Will count wattage soon. Going to do pix if the camera allows it.
May 12, 2011 Here are those pix of my Window/grow room and the two plants I transplanted/buried up to their necks to reduce their perception of the stretch. 1- Haze 2- Unnamed 3 - Window 4 - grow
May 13, 2011 Got some peat from amazon. Quickest thing I ever saw. Ordered at 8 pm delivered 3 pm the following day. They only guaranteed 2 day delivery so I gotta wait on the perlite until tomorrow. Finally got a plant that looks like a plant. This one is Unknown - I dont know her origins (but I do know she is a premium brand recently purchased) nor do I even know when she was born (though I know it was the last week of April) so I'll leave her unknown. She sat on the side, mostly ignored, as I fretted with her other brothers and sisters. I also took more pictures of Haze and Unnamed. They seem to be getting along well after being buried up to their necks.
May 14, 2011 Running late. Bad Yankee game. Back again. Repotted 2 more plants. Buried them up to their necks. pix follow.
The young ones as they are tonite. You may have seen Haze, Unknown, Unnamed, and Roadrunner. Diesel and White Widow are just before I buried them up to their necks. Couldnt take pics after, the camera wouldnt allow it.
Sunday May 15, 2011 Restructured the plants and lights. Added new 33 watt daylight bulbs. New. Higher tech. Smaller. When I replanted the two plants last night, I was surprised (again) to find that they didnt even bust through the plug. Transplanting was easy. Burying them up to their necks was easy. But how can these plants have no roots. I am thinking of repotting my remaining 3 plants tonite. I use a mixture of 75% peat and perlite. Its much lighter. Im also thinking of pulling em all up and to start all over again. They've all been too stressed in their youth. Im too stressed as well. Is this a useless enterprise.
I am very frustrated. Finally found the problem. I think. The potting soil was too rich in soil and not enough perlite and peat. I have repotted all my plants into a perlite/peat mixture and buried their poor stretched stems up to their necks with dry, lightened soil. They all responded immediately. AND THEY LOOK GOOD NOW Problem is they are about 45 days old. The Autos oughta be maturing. The period plants should be finished vegging. But theyre all babes in arms. Seedlings. I cant kill em. Should I go on with them? How old are they. Really
You know, too be honest I would keep growing. now that you got specs down, You should be good for the next grow. But it wouldnt surprise me if the shock of stretching and lack of light for so long would reduce your yeild, But that wouldnt stop me from finishing the grow. the main thing you should be shooting for is experience. And it seems like you've gone through the shitty end of the spectrum. So head down, and finish the grow out. You never know, they might go beast mode on you and have a huge yeild. Never know.