First time grower- need some experienced insight- troubleshooting guide included

[chenman07]

Greetings everyone. I am a first time grower with five plants i grew from seeds i picked out of some nice bud(do not know the name).

My setup is obviously not a high quality garden since I do not have the funds to buy better lighting ect but I am having fun growing my first plants and getting some experience.

I have a few questions concerning the health of my plants.

Are my plants a normal height for approximately 30 days old? They all seem to be a bit shorter than I was expecting.

Some of the tips are slightly yellow and curling downward. I know this is a symptom for many different problems and it is a bit confusing. I don't want to treat them for the wrong problem.

I checked my plants this afternoon and noticed a few leaves had small white dots on them. My first concern was spider mites. I have included a photo close up and was wondering if i really do have a problem or if it may be some dried fertilizer that may have dried on the leaf.

Any other comments on the health of my plants would be appreciated. I am doing my best to learn more about proper growing but it is not as easy as I had originally thought.



H=Answer if you grow hydro or aero
C=Answer if you grow coco
S=Answer if you grow traditional soil
L=Answer if you grow soilless other than coco (Promix, Hyponex, SunshineMix)
R=Answer if you grow in RockWool
T=Answer if you grow in HydroTon
D=Answer if you run any type of automatic drip system, including into soil or soilless
E= EVERYONE needs to answer lol!


E-indoor or outdoor- Indoor
E-soil, soilless, coco, aero, or hydroponic- Soil
E-specific medium- Miracle-gro Potting Mix(.21,.07,.14)
CSL-Soil type/brand- See above
HCL-Hydro/aero/soilless system type
SCL-Anything you have added to the soil
SCLR-Soil or slab runoff pH
E-Water source- Pur filtered tap water
E-Source water pH- Cheap ph meter i bought at lowes says about 7 but I am not sure if i can trust it.
HRT-Source water EC (if hydro)
E-Age of plant- about 30 days
E-Type of fertilizer-Peters All purpose plant food (.24,.8.16) I have only just started using fert. at a little less than .5 tbsp/gal. The instructions suggested 1tbsp/gal.
E-Rate of application (if hydro, this is your PPM number, preferably after each component is added)
E-Lighting source and distance from plant- 6x40watt florescent tubes in shop fixtures. About 2-3 inches from the top of the plants
E-Air temperature (both day and night if you are running a dark period) Around 80 degrees depending on what time of day it is and how intensely the sun is heating up my house.
HD-Reservoir temperature
E-Air % Relative humidity- I do not know yet
E-Lighting schedule- 24hrs
E-Type of ventilation your room has-a fan or two directed at the lights and partly at the plants.
TR-Did you pre-soak your media in pH corrected solution?

[stinkyattic]

Your plants look just about perfect.
I can't see the dots you speak of, or any significant tip curl.
You can get in the habit of misting lightly with neem or coriander oil to prevent pest damage, and don't forget to re-pot on a good schedule since that is a peat-based soil. And go easy on the nutes since the soil is already prefertilized- you might start to see some fert burn at some point; just be aware of the brown tip symptom and be ready to flush if you see it.

[GreenLeaf420]

Those plants are nice and tight:thumbsup:

They are short but they are nice and tight... No stretch at all. Are those the 8" Grey pots they sell @ Home Depot? If so and they have been in them for a month Pop em soon @ Stink said. If you are looking to get some stretch back off on the lamp a bit. I'v been playing with Fish Mix and boy does that stuff give them a nice jump. On the bottle they say use NUTES as usual. Try like a Seaweed,Fish Mix, Some Foilar sprays ect.. may also be good.

Nice looking plants:thumbsup:

What lamps are you using?

[chenman07]

The dots i was referring to can be seen in the first picture of just the leaf if you zoom in a bit. I am be just over reacting but it seem better to be safe than sorry right :).

When should i think about re potting them? They are 5-6 liter 8 inch pots sold at Lowes. I transferred them from their original seedling pots about 2.5 weeks ago. How can you tell when they need to be replanted. Slowed growth and root problems are not something my eyes are trained to spot yet.

The lights I am using are just household 40w flor. tubes. I do not quite have the cash to buy hid or hps setups one my first grow. The flors seem to be doing an acceptable job although I am not sure how much it will affect the yield by using them throughout the whole process.

Thanks for the advice stinky and green!

[phatsesh101]

ive noticed seedlings need alot more space for roots than clones if you dont see any new noticable growth after a day or two transplant theyll stop growing or slow long before they get rootbound transplant wait a week and then watch growthtake notes and measures if they are from seeds which i will assume at this point, id transplant now and if they havent grown much watch out sometimes they like to take off aftr u tranpklan

[stinkyattic]

Okay, those should be good in those pots for 2-3 more weeks no problem.
Spots- I see them now and don't recognize them. Preventative misting with SMC leaf wash is never a bad idea. It forms a protective barrier against insects and pathogens. Neem oil does too, but you need to be very reserved in your spraying it; mist lightly, allow to dry, repeat as necessary to maintain shine.

[GreenLeaf420]

The lights I am using are just household 40w floros. tubes. I do not quite have the cash to buy hid or h.p.s setups one my first grow. The floros seem to be doing an acceptable job although I am not sure how much it will affect the yield by using them throughout the whole process. Thanks for the advice stinky and green!

Wow I really never seen a full grow W/ Floros although I see a lot of threads on Cann.com w/ peeps using them. I normally pass them up just because I feel like the time people invest they do not (Yield) reap the rewards (Full Potential).

I know it is your first grow and If you want to really see development I would suggest 1 investment which most of the times is just the beginning. Here is a link to a cheap 400watt H.P.S. Just from what you have in plants your yield should easily pay for the lamp.

I mean yeah you can put all your time into it and in the end maybe walk off with a few G's a plant. At least with a H.P.S and a few plants you should get a Q.P. That is just my opinion. I have seen the CFL grows and they are pretty cool. IMHO if you can afford a few bucks on a lamp I don't think you will be sorry and your plants will be happy also..

Looking at the leaves they have a little twist to them which is normally from over Nutes or they need transplant. Being that you just recently Transplanted I would not be to concerned.

What have you been hitting them w/? (Nutrients)

Do you have a PH and a TDS meter? If so what is your PH?

You have some real happy looking plants Keep up the good work:thumbsup::thumbsup:

GL 420:jointsmile::jointsmile::jointsmile:
Hydroempire, Organic Hydroponic Nutrients, Indoor Grow Lights and Supplies - 400 Watt HPS & MH Advantage Mini System - $279.95$239.95 (http://www.hydroempire.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/15/products_id/719)

[chenman07]

I am defiantly going to look into better lighting but like i said spending money is not abundant at the moment. I would really love to have some sort of hps system though.

One question I have about flours, is it better to use the 4' tubes or cfls?

As for nuts I have not started them on anything other than a very slight mixing of some general plant food into their last watering. The soil i bought came pre-fertilized so i do not think i need to amp it up yet for fear of over fertilizing them.

I bought a cheaper ph meter from lowes but i don't know how reliable it really is. Can anyone recommend a good but cheaper meter?

I have also started to spray all the plants with a light coating of neem oil mixed in warm water to prevent any possible pest problems. Thanks for the advice stinky.

My last question for the moment is about clones. I would like to get a start a few clones but am waiting till i can figure out the gender of each plant.(would hate to clone a whole bunch of males >_<). They are currently in their 5th week, how much longer until they will start showing signs of gender?

[stinkyattic]

Depending on your goals and style, tube flouros can be GREAT- you have to keep your plants really close to the lights, like 2" or so. I have vegged under T12s for years but prefer T5s, which are AWESOME but can be more expensive.
CFLs are good for cramming a lot of light into a tiny space, like a small cabinet or bin. They are small and bright, but run a bit warmer and can scorch plants that touch them. You just have to monitor growth.
If it is a metal probe pH meter that is not going to be a lot of help. Those give only a gross estimation of pH and don't work if the soil is dry. Try liquid drops.
Cloning for sex is a way to go. Your plants are pretty squat; yolu might even want to encourage a little stretch before cloning. You take cuttings and root them, then put the cuttings in flower and throw away any cuttings that show male, and the donor they came from.
Don't overdo it on the neem. LIGHT is the key.

[chenman07]

Why at T5s better than T12s? I know the t5s are smaller in diameter. How much of a difference does it make to switch? I am running 6x40watt t12s. I was slightly worried about not having sufficient light to grow properly but it seems I may need to start moving the light further away to encourage soem vertical growth. Is there a happy medium for enough light and growth with floros?

I was also wondering if it would be better to focus on growing the 5 plants i have now(probably less after establishing sex) or clone and try doing a SoG or ScroG.

With cloning, which method of rooting is preferred? I have some root hormone powder and was going to use the previous seedling pots i have but recently read about rooting via water and no soil. Is there any to using just water?

[stinkyattic]

T5s give a lot of lumens per watt. There's no other reason not to use T12s. LOTS of growers use them in veg, myself and my local friends included, and I have seen some really nice results- big, healthy, flat mothers trained short and wide are ideal.

You will want to keep at least one mother for future use no matter what. SOG is very efficient, but you need a healthy mother to do it repeatably.

I have only had good success using rapidrooters and dip-n-grow. Don't re-use pots though, unless you have run them through the dishwasher and then sterilized them (microwave, or place over a steam bath in a large pot). In my donkey dick log, there is a whole section on cloning, and also one in the link in my siggy.