Hello, I'm a first time grower having multiple issues. Hoping someone can offer some advice or tips. Vegging in a cupboard lined with mylar, 7 plants in plastic party cups, miracle grow potting soil and a cheap 1000w LED light (around 12-16 inches from canopy). Watering with tap water (Ph 7.01) at room temp every 2-3 days, misting every 2-3 days aprox also. Rh is between 40-50% and temps are between 68-72 degrees. Last couple waters I added 2-3 drops of Ph down thinking that was one of my issues. Getting yellow discoloration on leaves, dry leaves, leaf curl and drooping plants... Topped the plants yesterday at the fifth nodes, watered today. They have been on a 24-0 light cycle. I know I have a nat or fruit fly issue because I don't have a cpu fan for ventilation in the cupboard yet, the bowls of water seem to help with RH (cause I can't fit a humidifier) and fruit flys. Please help!? I was going to transplant them into 3gal smart pots and move them into a bigger grow tent (with a honeywell fan, 1000w LED, humidifier etc.) soon but they are looking like they need some help. I'll try "Upload a file" to add pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
I'll transplant them tonight. Thank you guys very much for your advice, it's greatly appreciated! I'll post update pictures in 2-3 days to show how they are doing. I'll also replace the mylar with leftover panda film when I can to avoid hotspots. Do you think 3gal smart pots will suffice throughout flowering? or will I need bigger pots (5gal)? Also, I have hydroponic nutes (grow a&b), will the miracle grow soil be enough till harvest or should I start adding nutes to water slowly (or wait till flowering)? (I'll flush the plants for 2 weeks before harvest) Any other tips/advice or questions? Cheers, Zen
I have terrible results with 24/0. Mine thrive better in 20/4 or 18/6 in veg. If ur soil has time released capsules ur going to have to veg for ages to get the N out of it or it’ll cause issues in flowering, get better soil. Time to uppot also, I like cloth
Update: I have transplanted my ladies into 3gal smart pots. I also moved them into a bigger space and put the fan on low (it's ashame that the fan doesn't osolate)… Little harder to control temps in the bigger room but I'll try to manage, floating around 66 degrees right now. Thank you guys for your continued support. I love these forums already. Should I lower the light? I want it to hit all the plants evenly so I figure it's good there for now. Edit: I'll try to change my light cycle to 18-6 with my new round of seedlings, starting them tomorrow! And I'll look for some cheap organic soil tomorrow (any easily available suggestions?).
Hey man, so it looks like you transplanted them which is great! However, we need to create those micro colonies of fungi and bacteria so they can mine the vitamins and minerals your plant so desperately needs. I would recommend buying some Great White mycorrhiza on Amazon, or anything with "mycorrhiza" in the name so you can get those plants going. We need to breathe life into that soil, microbiology is what feeds our plants. Any good dry earth amendments like Dr Earth's 4-4-4 will also help a lot. By adding either of these two products (about 20 bucks for both) I promise you the plants will green up, start praying, and you'll get that nice neon glow of fresh growth coming in.
Thankfully, I bought some Myke off amazon (cheap off brand but I'll look into great white, heard about it before). I added some to each depression in the soil before transplanting. (aprox 1+ tablespoon each) Should I sprinkle some on top of the soil also before next water?
some at the top soil level wont hurt at all, I did that just a few hours ago myself. I would recommend the dr earth 4-4-4 dry amendments too. they're like 10 bucks. It's all organic kelp meal, bone meal, ect.. just super soil amendments that wont burn your plants but you'll notice them thickening
I built it with 2by3 framing ($30 with tax for 13 pieces 8ft long) and a 25ft roll of panda film off amazon ($38 with tax). It measures just over 3 feet wide, almost 5.5 feet long and 6.5 feet tall on the inside. Thank you, I'll look into the dr earth tonight or tomorrow. My veg cupboard was basically free because I had mylar etc. only had to buy a 1000w LED light that came with temp/rh monitor, digital timer, uv glasses and wires/ropes for $127. Ended up buying two. Plus I had a friend give me over 100 seeds free, 4 different strains but I don't know the names.
Keep the light where it is at for now, let the plants recover from transplanting first before bringing light closer to them. They don’t need that many watts of power in veg so those blurple lights which are probably only 185 actual watts will be ok but you will need more wattage for flower aka qb boards,cobbs, hps.
Okay, I found a 1500w 5 Cree COB LED light online for $96. I'll add that to my 1000w LED grow light for flower. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Your light is your most valuable piece of equipment. Look on Alibaba for a Kingbrite or Geeklight qb board. You can get the earlier v1 versions dirt cheap or spend a little more for V3 or V4 versions.
Just found the size of your grow space 5.5x3 You could fit two 240 watt qb boards in that space or possibly a 320 watt and a 240 watt qb board depending on their heat sink length.
I'll check into qb boards on Alibaba/aliexpress thanks for the tip! Here's an update, the transplant was definitely required. Plants are a lot happier now, thankfully!
Question: Will 3gal smart pots be big enough for flowering? or should I have ordered some 5gal pots? Also, I topped a few days ago, when should I do my second and third tops? Cheers Zen
Mars hydro Ts1000 not a better light out there for the buck and the amount of light per square inch. Be around 140 bucks and its a light board. Great for new growers