story so far...... this is my first ever attempt at growing. the back 3 plants and front left have been grown from seed the front right came to us as an ophan. i have 2 tents in a shed in the garden. can some one please take a look at my pics and give me some advice. all 5 plants are 7 and a half weeks into veg 18/6 the 3 plants at the back for the last 5 weeks have been under a 400w light. this light is a yellow/orange light. the front left is the same strain (white widow/big bud) as the 3 at the back and i dont know the strain of the front right one. these two have been under a 250w light since the begining of their life and this light is what i would call a white light. i have fed and watered them all the same feed as and when required. and i have watered them with plain water and then a feed, bio bloom, alternately. the 3 at the back have turned a yellow colour and have grown quite tall and the two at the front are a healthy green colour but shorter. do you think this is because of the lights? or could it be something else? i would also like to ask when should i turn them to 12/12? also when i check the ph of a plant do i water plant with plain water and catch what runs out of bottom of pot to test? to be truthful with you i havnt checked the ph level as i was not sure what to do has anyone got any solutions or is it too late to save the yellow ones?
Howdy partner! Plants look beautiful, I think they are just a little hungry is all. The even yellowing (without spots) on the leaves looks like a nitrogen deficiency, which is usually the first sign they show when they need more food. I have a few answers for you below, but since you are off to a great start you should be able to pick up on the other stuff very easily. Please don't think I'm trying to be a prick or anything by saying this (I mean well, trust me I do), but my best advise is to read up on growing - the stickies in the beginners section are golden. You are past the easy part - it gets a little tricker from here and knowledge can save you a lot of headaches later. Sounds like a high pressure sodium (HPS), this is the correct light for flowering This is a good regime, the only issue I see is that you are using bloom nutes and that has less nitrogen than "grow" or "veg" nutes. This is most likely the cause of yellowing. Bloom is for flowering (keep it handy!) It's all up to you, I would have flipped about 3 weeks ago but I like my plants a little smaller due to growing indoors. You can seed a plant under 12/12 so there's no real set time, whatever works best for your grow is what to aim for. Plants usually double in size (or more) after going 12/12... There are two ph's to check: 1 - ph of your runoff. This tells you if your feed is in range. Capture some runoff, you want it between 6.5-7.0 ideally. If it's off then adjust your nutes/water going in so that the runoff is in this range. 2 - soil ph. This is slightly different - use distilled or purified water and pour enough into your plant to get some runoff. This will tell you the soil ph, which again should be between 6.5-7. If it's lower than 6.5 then you might want to flush because most likely you have builtup salt deposits from the nutes. I can tell you that your ph looks fine, but it's crucial to keep an eye on it. Hope this helps some!
opps just checked on my feed and it is actually bio grow not bloom....i have bought bloom for when flowering. BTW thank you very very much for your comments and advice....its must appricated. (i am actaully quite proud of what i have grown,....i usually kill any kind of house plant i get given!!!) you say that the Plants usually double in size (or more) after going 12/12...OMG is there any way of stopping them growing too tall as i havnt got much space left in the height of the tent....didnt realise they grew that tall!!!! lol re lights.....do you think that moving foward (i have take some cuttings from these plants) that my next lot of babies would be better 'veg'ing under the 250 light and then flowering under the 400w light? wheni water them i sometime think i am not watering them enough. i am a bit frightened of over watering them.....do i need to pour enough water in each pot until it runs out of the bottom every time....this makes the pots very heavy yes? and then i wait for the pots to be light again and dry soil on top before i water again? i have found that i need to water about every 5 days or so. does this seem right? as for the yellowing of the plants do you think that i need to give them a good feed of bio grow and turn them to 12/12 and get them flowering while i still have room.
No problem, I'm always glad to help a fellow grower trying to bring some beauty into this world LOL I agree, you should be proud as those plants are beautiful. There are a lot of other growers with experience that have a hard time keeping them pretty for that long, so good job! If you are using the right nutes then you may just need to increase the dosage a bit. This is not always the case, but yeah double is pretty common for most plants. There are a few things you can do, like topping (my recommendation). This will get the branches going. Supercropping is another technique, though you have to be careful with it and it's a little nerve testing the first few time You can use a screen too (scrog), this is the most effective way to keep them level but it has a few things to watch for. A scrog can really increase your yield if done correctly. Yes I do. Your 250w sounds like a metal halide (MH) - which actually has a lot of blue but does indeed look white. Blue light is proper for vegging and keeps growth more compact than red spectrum and also encourages females in regular seeds. For flowering I'd run both if you can, but if you split your grow definitely use the MH for vegging. Lifting the pots before and after watering is the best way to go IMO. Just keep doing what you have been, runoff is not needed but it doesn't hurt anything. 5 days sound OK, the plants will really increase their water consuming as they grow and flower. Bigger pots means less watering, smaller pots need more. I would flip to 12/12 right away. Keep feeding grow nutes until you have some flowering, then switch to bloom (some people may disagree here and say use bloom at 12/12 flip, but this leads to early yellowing in flower). You should see some preflowers after a week or so, you probably have some already. Check them daily! I consider flowering when you have clusters of pistils up top. It's like porn, you'll know it when you see it LOL