ok so i as of now have 4 marijuana plants, 1 monster kush and 3 autoflowering fast buds. i have them under a fluorescent tube light a couple inches away from them to help for the stretching of the pants. the 3 fast buds look like are getting wilted on the bottom leaves and the leafs on the monster kush are turning yellow on the 2 bottom leaves. they are 8 days old today and have them potted in hydrophonex soil. i will post pictures of them and please take a look at them to see what i need to improve and what i can do to GET and KEEP my plants in perfect condition.
#1 - That's not really enough light. Notice the stretching of the stems? Fluoro tubes are next to useless. Get a few CFLs. A tube has about 20W spread over 2 feet of tube and very little light in the few inches above a plant. By comparison, a 20W CFL has about 20W spread over 3 inches of tube. Much more efficient. Try for 100W of CFLs for the first plant, then 50W for each thereafter. A good starting point. Try not to go below this, but more will help, to grow a real plant. Being in Oz, I'm not familiar with Hydrophonics soil. (Sounds like a sound system.) Are there any added nutes? You really want as close as possible to 0-0-0 NPK ratio for your soil. Then you know what you're feeding them, without being thrown off by the slow-release ferts that many manufacturers add to the mix..
is there anyway i can stop it from streching? and help it produce more leaves and get a stronger stem i have a 600 watt grow light but everyone is saying to use the fluorescent lights so thats why i have a new 1 but i dont get how they can be streching but they aren't getting very much light i guess im confused and what are your suggestions about sticking them in the sun or on your porch or something?
Don't put them outside. That will just encourage/invite bugs to attack. CFLs, about 100W-200W worth, will be fine for veg. Just forget the tubes, they're only acceptabe for cloning, really. The stretching is 100% caused by lack of light. If you can't be bothered setting up CFLs, crank up the 600W light. You said it's for flowering, so it's probably a HPS? That's still OK for veg - try about 12" to 15" above the plants for starters. Check the temp at the top of the plant(s) with your hand. 1 minute, if its uncomfortably hot, move the light up.
I honestly just used some potting soil with like 1-0-0 kept my CFL's like 1" 1/2 away and kept misting them with water not "drenching", think of them as if they're your children but more like jolly green giant. Another tip put your hand face down about level with what your plants height is and see if the top of your hand gets a bit heated if so its a bit close. The bottom leaves will shrivel up I don't remember the scientific name for em starts with a "C" but they feed the plant almost like the yolk in the egg feeds a chick until it's supply is up.
They're called cotyledons. 1 to 2 inches away is perfect. Next point - avoid misting. It won't do much but cause occasional burns on leaf tips. Honestly, misting and even foliar spraying are best kept to outdoor plants, not indoor. Regarding watering, in a soil grow, best is to let the mix dry out to 1/2 to 2/3 the fully watered weight, or water when the top 2 inches are dry. More than that and overwatering is a problem in soil. Also, fungus gnats love soil with a moist top surface. Little bastards, you don't want them.
I just meant water no nutes while I misted. I've harvested my first 2 plants last month got a ounce off each. Just bag seed though nothing special still was better than the "Poops" my g/f buys lol.
^ All the same, as I've discovered, misting only tends to burn the plants, especially with bright HID lights or the Sun. An ounce each isn't bad - aiming for double next time? (I do)