Hey guys, I have about 10 plants growin in my closet and its about the 10nth day since I started germinating. They germinated and broke surface within the 3rd day, and were growing pretty quickly. Then for the past 3 days they just about haven't done anything. Their leaves have got a tiny bit bigger but thats about it. I am using 2 23watt cfls, 2 26 watt cfls, and 2 13 watt cfls. There is a fan that blows over them almost all day. The soil I am using is rich in N, and I water when it gets crusty, but with no nutes. Could you guys look at some pics and see if you know whats going on? Thanks guys! oh yeah, the right plant in picture 6 has some purple and a little yellow, but i don't know whats up with that. so yeah, i guess just let me know if these guys are doin ok or what the problem is. Thanks again.
The first two look a little crispy. How often do you water (ever day? every other day) and what are the temps in there?
I water about every 3-4 days probably... i just water when i stick my finger in the soil and it feels dry. the temps usually stay around 83, but can get a little cooler and a little warmer because it is fairly warm where i live.
Get the temps down to mid 70's. If they still look crispy, water more often and see how they work out.
my room is upstairs so its natually kinda hot... is there any way i can get the temp that low without running the ac all the time?
I think your plants might be doing what mine did. Are you using topsoil? I used topsoil and all my plants grew to about where your plants are than just stopped growing. I waited a month and they didnt grow past the size of yours. Is your soil really heavy and clumpy?
buy yourself a small 20$ "cool mist" humidifier from wal-mart, it will get your humidity up to around 50-60% which is good.. make sure the lights are close as you can get w/o burning your fingers while you hold them under the lamp between the lamp and plant. I got a temp reader from radioshack that has a little cord that I can stick under the lamp right next to my stems to check the temp under the lights.. you do not want the temps to be at 83 degrees or that will halt the growth... I noticed that.. keep the temps below 80. If you are in a closet or something make sure the room next to it has a window open with a fan pulling air in, FRESH AIR, and you open the closet while the lights are on for a few minutes at a time, getting fresh air.. good luck
I'm not sure if its topsoil.. but this is the link to what im using bodyCssClass=scotts+blade+product+general+en&tabs=general&navAction=push&bodyId=product_general&proId=prod70504&itemId=cat60018&id=cat60018. It is fairly clumpy though. Is there anyway I can buy new soil and try to change the soil they are in?
Link does not work but it looks like the soil is by Scott's? I don't like them. They are in the same category as Miricle grow which I generally don't like.
ok so i opened up one of the containers to see what was going on and i saw that the roots had grown all the way to the bottom. Is it possible that if the roots have grown to the bottom that they just need more room, and that meant that the growth was stunted? Also, I saw that some of them have some mold growing in it, what effect does that have on the plant, and how do i get rid of it?
Yes rootbound will stunt growth. If its mold like on the top of the soil you can just mix it in/ aerate the soil. Neem oil helps with mold/fungi as well as bugs.
From what I have learned in my limited experience is that they are ok. From the pics, I dont think you have any real heat issues. Some of them have that "crispy" look because the leaf probably got stuck in the seed husk a little longer than normal and now they are a bit mishapen. The new growth will be normal. After they reach a comfortable height the stem stops growing up and the leaves get bigger. Then after a while a new leaf set will grow then the stem will begin to grow up again and get thicker. It is normal for them to stay at the same height for periods of time. Your lighting situation is not good. You need to get at least 42w (150W equiv.) CFL's. That will be ok for now but it wont be near enough when they get larger. Ideally you need like 7000 lumens per plant/square foot or something and you are around 3500-4000 in that 1 square foot or so area you are lighting in that 1st pic. They are surviving right now but they need more. If you grow only with CFL's, to get the proper light you need you will use more wattage with then than if you broke down and got a 400w or 600w HID lamp. I also recommend from my experience (and a lot of help from the GC crew) to get a better soil or build your own. I used a generic potting soil and added, perlite, peatmoss, bonemeal, bloodmeal, a large grit sand and composted manure. I let it sit for about 10 days and turned it over every other day. So far its going better than it has in the past few weeks and I started out doing almost everything that I could wrong! They are not rootbound. Those cups will work for you for about2 weeks then they need to go into something larger like 1 gallon milk jugs cut in half or something. Then from there I would put them into at least 3 gal. pots or if room allows 5 gal.