Trust me when I say I've been reading these threads for hours a day. I am a total beginner. For the first week, I saw great growth (or what I thought considering I have flo lights). The plants are really green and not drooping or anything. I just checked PH level and it is around a 7. My soil is Jiffy Mix combined with about 25% perlite. So now, the plants still look healthy but I haven't seen growth in a week. Is this normal? Are they going to take off soon or am I doomed? Thanks for any input; these threads have really helped me tremendously!!
Oh, by the way, I haven't changed anything since I started. They are in 16 oz party cups and have 2 sets of leaves. No nutes yet. Just water mixed with distilled water. I don't overwater or underwater (not that I am aware of) Thanks.
I have 3 CFLs One is 42W, the other 2 are 26W. I only have 4 plants and they are approximately 1-3 inches away from the light. I wish I had a digital camera so you can see but I'm saving up for one. Like I said, the plants look great but no new growth in a week!! Weird!!!
Glad the stuff here has helped, has helped me a ton as well. Are the first sets of leaves (little round cotodylons) dying off yet? If the plants have used all the nutes from those leaves maybe that is part of the problem. The plant feeds on them for 2-3 weeks. Are you keeping track of temp and humidity? those may have an adverse effect on growing also. As long as the leaves look healthy I would just let them run their course. Keep growin . . Gg
GonnaGrow, The bottom leaves (cotosomething or other) are starting to turn yellow. Are you saying I should starting with ferts then? It's only been 13 days since I started the plant. Thanks for your input.
They need nutrients. Give them nutes and they will grow! Its a very common mistake. As soon as you see leaves, start feeding very lightly. I start giving my seedlings 1/4 strength nutes as soon as the first leaves appear.
im not an expert , but ushually plants grow quick then stop growing for a while then they start growing quick again. thats what ive noticed from mine
Well I wouldn't worry about it much yet. Someone said that you can add 1/4 dosage of ferts. You can do this, but it isn't necisarry. Perhaps transplanting into bigger cups? They can only grow to the size of there containers.
Well, I added the ferts. Don't laugh at me. This grow really is an experiment until I get my HPS light next week. I was totally prepared for nothing to germinate and I guess I didn't trust myself. They all germinated and now I'm trying not to kill the 2 I'm keeping until I'm totally ready. Anyway, I didn't have any ferts yet but I found these fert sticks I had (don't laugh). From the search I did on here, nobody uses those. I stuck one in and miracicly it started growing again!!! Then, I realized I over ferted it so I flushed it. (I'm not sure I even did that right but it's not dead yet so...) This leads me to my dumb question. Is the goal to fert as much as possible without over ferting it? If so, is that like gambling? How do I know I'm using enough ferts unless I over fert? Does that make sense? I went to the local hydro store and I got talked in to buying PURE BLEND pro (3-1.5-4). The guy swears it is good. It's got all this weird shit in it (fish meal, composted sea bird guano, seakelp, soybean protein extract, bone ash, etc..). Sounds SCARY! Should I add it? At this point, what do I have to lose? It says and he says to add 1/2 ounce per gallon of water. That seems like so little!! Should I just mix that amount in with the gallon of distilled water I have? Should I use less? Should I wait? What is the meaning of life? I'm so curious to see what this shit is. But maybe I should wait. All I know is that my plant stopped growing, I added the fert stick and it grew at least 3 more nodes in a week. What do you think? Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!
Well the mix he was trying to sell you sounds like an organic mix, which from what I've heard tends to leave you with better tasting bud than chemical grows. The object isn't so much to maximize the nutrients without killing it as to give it as much as it needs.
Sounds GREAT! Not SCARY! Thats good shit man. Add it. How tall is your plant? Pics would be helpful. But sounds like its well along. I'd say give it half strength what it says on the bottle. So, put 1/4 ounce of Pure Blend Pro in your 1 gallon of Distilled water, mix well, and water your plant with it. Do this for about 4 days to be safe. Then, add Full strength. 1/2 ounce to 1 gallon of water from then on. Remember...Don't overwater!
Thanks to everyone who has been offering their suggestions. I really appreciate it!!! This may be the strangest post anyone has posted but here it goes... If you've read this whole thread, you see that I am trying to eliminate variables to see what the problem(s) are as they are occuring. The fert stick seemed to work. Now this is the weird thing... Does plugging in my lights to a strip cord and then plugging that into my cheap Timex timer decrease my light output? For the last week, I've had the luxury of turning on and off my lights manually on a strict 18/6 schedule. Now I replugged in the timer because of my work schedule. Call me crazy but I SWEAR that the plants don't grow as fast with that timer. Am I crazy?????? Any input would be appreciated!!
It won't decrease light output unless any one of the units can't handle the amount of energy the light is using. Your using fluros right? The timer and power strip should definately be able to handle a few fluros. lol I wouldn't worry.