Okay so i germinated 5 afghan seeds all of them germinated then i planted them in black gold potting soil in cups to start out with. I was using a 120w agro-lite and at first it seemed to be they were stretching after about the second day when i had them about 4-5 inches above them so i read up a little bit more and from the info i got i should move the light down a little bit so i moved to down to about 3 inches and all the plants shriveled up and died.... So i will be starting another grow here shrtly because i have 10 more afghan seeds left. But not until i learn to do it right and get the right equipment needs and stuff like that so please help me anybody whos reading this.
That is odd I have my lights about an inch away from my plants and no shriveling, are you sure you did not overwater/underwater them??
what time of light is that? compact fluorescent or incandescent? agro-lite comes in both styles. you need a CFL, then you shouldnt have that problem.
I had the exact same thing happen to me on my grow. Did they die BEFORE the leaf's fully opened up? Mine died before it fully opened up. Heat might have killed them thought. Here's what killed my first grow attempt. A - Too much nutriments. So my second crop, I flooded the soil before planting. B - Planted too deep C - Soil was still a bit dry (i didnt soak it enough last time). 1 out of 5 seeds lived to grow So, second grow. A - Plant in flushed soil B - Plated barely half an inch deep C - Soil was obviously well wet, but not too wet (as per "A") 5 out of 5 lived to grow. Also I added a small fan. Dont know if it helps.
Hey! Welcome to growing.. We all make mistakes, no worries. We're all in this together Sucks that you lost your seeds though, do you have any more for a 2nd attempt? Sounds to me like you've got a watering problem there. Either you over watered and they died from root rot, or you under watered and they died of dehydration. There is a chance that your humidity level in your grow area is so low that they could not cope with the heat off of your light. What is the Relative Humidity of the grow area? Temperature? Did they yellow up before dying, or just shrivel up? Adding a fan is key.. it'll keep the temperatures lower around the seedling and it will promote a stronger stem and whatnot which is vital for the plant later in life. I put a fan on mine almost immediately after they sprout. Be sure that it's only blowing very gently though. I'd advise perhaps next time to keep the seedlings covered with a clear plastic bag as to retain moisture during the seedling stage. ~Experimentalist
My temperature stays atr about 70 degrees day and night. yes i have 10 more seeds to attempt my next grow hopefully i can get atleast 5 or 6 plants out of them. My light is one of the philips plant light 120w agro light. thats what it says on the box. im pretty sure its flourescent though. the plants just shriveled up but my first set of leaves already appeared and my light was running on 24 hours but i do have a timer to change that if needed. hopefully that answers all questions and i can get a little bit more help thanks to all and please keep the replies coming obviously i need all the help i can get.
you'll need a LOT more light. While that might not be the cause of your dying seeds, it will be a big problem on your next successful crop.
I don't know much about his light but a single 120W bulb can grow decent pot. 100W per plant minimum. I would say that adding more light would help, but isn't absolutely necessary. ~Experimentalist
Okay.. I just did a quick google search on your light type and the FIRST result returned was someone posting a warning against using this type of light for the exact same problem you described. And yes, it's incandescent and will NOT work for growing. Sorry you wasted your $$ man. ~Experimentalist
Thanks for the replies again. What kind of lights and how many of them should i get then? and how much money do you think it will cossst im kind of on a budget
If you wanna grow five or six plants, or more, then I'd recommend a HID light like a HPS light. If you wanna scale down your grow, I'd recommend CFL bulbs. CFL will be the cheaper way to go, but you can definitely get some good bulb from CFLs and a lot of people use them, but for a larger grow, I gotta recommend HID. You're looking at $150 or so for a 400W HPS kit. I got one for $180 offa eBay that came with a 400W ballast, a Metal Halide Conversion Bulb, and a High Pressure Sodium light, timer, etc. from HTGSupply. Works Great! ~Experimentalist
So i was thinking i will down grade my grow a llittle bit to 3 plants could i go with a cfl for 3?? and if so how many watts? where can i get them? and how much?
You would need at least 100W for the first plant and an additional 50W for each other plant, minimum. If you were to use 23W (100W equiv. CFLs) you'd need 10 or so to cover three plants. They run like $15 for a pack of four or five in any hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. I recommend that if you do get them, to buy power strips and then get the little plug in lamp outlets that can go directly into the power bar, then get a 2-way lamp splitter for each and put two bulbs in those. Remember too, you'll want the 6200K bulbs for vegging and switch them out to some 2700K bulbs for your flowering. Good Luck! You can also use the search feature here to find dozens of other grow ops utilizing CFL bulbs. ~Experimentalist
My pleasure. If you need any more help or have some specific questions, don't hesitate to ask! ~Experimentalist
Just out of curiosity, what is your budget? You might be able to do better than lighting 3 plants with 10 bulbs... Edit* I've personally never had more light fixtures than plants, might be interesting to see.
I agree, go HID if you can afford it. Just research it before you buy it, so you dont get another 120W incandescent ~Experimentalist
my budget right now is 40 dollars but on friday ill have 80 if any other light set ups please let me know i would like to experiment with anything