A couple problems

[Faddenator]

Ok. i added a picture (its A LOT brighter than that in there i promise). the plant on the right is growing fine, no problems. however, the two to the left seem to have stunted growth, and definitely have some curly, not very sexy looking leaves. the one furthest left also has some yellow/brown cripsy edges. this is the only plant with this problem. so what can i do? I have 5 plants under three 27watt (100 watt equivalent) daylight cfl's. it sorta looks like overwatering, minus the crispiness of course.

i feel like i should share my plans for the future of these little guys (well, girls hopefully). i have a large box i plan on moving these to once i transplant, which i'm thinking of doing soon. each plant will then have its own 100watt cfl, and i will be installing two 4' flourescents for some extra "encouragement" on the sides.

please give me your thoughts on fixing problems as well as some tips for making the new setup better! thanks!

[Rusty Trichome]

For starters, likely time to transplant...and you're overwatering them. Cannabis seems to prefer a moist and dry cycle.

Beyond that, try filling out the troubleshooting form. (The link is below) :thumbsup:

[Faddenator]

This is my second grow.

Your Equipment:
.1) four 100 watt CFLs, two 4' tube flourescents. (about 11,000 total lumens)
.2) approx. 8''-10'' from lights
.3) white hood reflectors for tubes, and a ghetto foil hood for the cfls
.4) It's in a closet, so the air is as fresh as i can get it in that situation.
.5) I only have a circulation fan.
.6) all cfl's = 27 watt (100 watt equivalent) tube flours = 32 watts each. they are on a 16/8 cycle right now.

Your medium:
.7) I started with scotts premium potting soil, which the roots are now bound in. I transplanted to miracle-gro potting mix, its less muddy, and worked well for my last grow. I also added perlite to make the mix about 75% soil, 25% perlite.
.8) 16oz solo party cups for containers
.9) plastic bag method was used for germination, planted all 6 seeds when two taproots emerged, 5 grew, one did not.

Your nutrients and water:
10) tap water. Ph is almost exactly 7.
11) i used test strips with color indication charts. so, i hope its accurate.
12) I haven't done any ph adjustment other than letting the water sit out for a day or two before using it.
13) Im using schultz 10-15-10 plant food, but only using a 25% strength solution. (each quart of water calls for 7 drops... i used 7 drops per gallon
14) i have been watering with the the 25% strength solution every other day. (im thinking this is too much :/)
15) no additives.
16) im not sure if the ph fluctuates. i can't really tell with these stupid test strips
17) ingoing ph = almost exactly 7. runoff ph unknown, but i checked the ph of wet soil and it was a little lower, in the 6.5 range.
18) i dont foliar feed... but i read somewhere to spray water in the air to keep humidity up and it get on the foliage.

Your growroom:
19) Indoor grow.
20) using a storage tub at the moment, moving to a 3.5 foot length, 1.5 foot width floor space with 3.5 foot walls.
21) temp is approx. 80 degrees F with lights on, humidity is pretty low... winter in this area sucks moisture from the air. temp with lights off is about 70 degrees F.
22) no insects that i can tell.

Your strain:
23) a few different strains: one was called green frost, and i was lucky enough to find a seed in my bag of romulan :) others are unknown.
24) all from seeds.
25) none of these should be autoflowering.

this whole thing is pretty low budget. if theres anything i can do for VERY CHEAP to improve, please let me know. and if im being an idiot and doing something completely wrong, tell me! thanks!

[Rusty Trichome]

Sorry, I lost this thread somehow. Weird nobody else offered help. You still having issues?

Couple of things...

Try to keep the fluorescents as close as possible without burning. Effective range for tube fluoro's is 2-4". 4-6" max with the CFL's. You must find a way to provide fresh air and to vent the heat away from the plants. Cannabis doesn't like hot, stale air.

Nutrients are a wise investment. You'll want to eventually get something with more versitility, like the Fox Farms trio, (Google) or something similar from one of the other major manufacturers. 10-15-10 isn't the best you can use. Especially during the growth stage. IMHO, even Miracle Grow All Purpose would be better for veg.

Instructions might be for a two week feeding schedule. If any questions, you could e-mail Scotts.

I personally feed half-doses twice a week with plain ph'd water in between (if necessary) to release salts and such.

If limited in headroom, you'll want to find a method of stunting or training to keep 'em short. You can check growlogs (use the search function) for info on your strains. If anyone's grown 'em, there should be some good info.

If you can get ahold of a freshwater aquarium ph test kit, ($6.00 US) it might be an improvement to the test strips, but you still couldn't accurately check runoff.

Letting water sit doesn't change ph.

Have you got pots for transplanting?

[Faddenator]

Thanks for the reply.
I actually ended up transplanting (3 gal pots) and easing up on watering a bit (thanks to your suggestion :D) and they are already looking a hell of a lot better. I read somewhere about trying to keep negative pressure in the space, i guess meaning a lot of exhaust and a bit of circulation- i think.

now for your new suggestions:
I'm going to lower my lights a bit. I already did a little, but they could stand a few more inches. the water i use is damn close to 7ph, and the soil is around 6.5 as far as i can tell, so i guess ill leave the ph alone (?).
I will certainly look into better nutrients, and luckily enough i already have miracle gro plant food. ill switch today. I'm also going to add a fan for exhaust today, as i only have circulation.

One suggestion of yours sparks a question. I have plenty of headroom (6 feet), but how big should i expect these to get under my conditions? and assuming the best and 3 of these end up female, what kind of yield can i expect? I'm a very patient person, so if time is the issue in regard to this, then awesome.

Thanks again, I'm eagerly awaiting more info! :rasta:

[Weezard]

Aloha Faddenater

You are in good hands here.
R.T. is "cogniscent of his excrement"

I'll jus' add a tad.


"Letting water sit doesn't change ph."

True dat!
But it's good to wait a bit after adding the nutes as it will take a while to stabilize.
It's also a good idea to test PH after the airstone saturates the water with air.
It does drift a bit.

Only thing I'd add, is;

Do not let your water "sit" for hours unless you have an air-stone in it to replace the air that will outgas.
Once that happens anaerobic bacteria an' all kine nasties can infest it.
More importantly, flat water will drown your roots!
You were prolly told to let it sit for the chlorine gas to dissipate.
Outdated wisdom, that.
2 things wrong with it.
Most water suppliers have switched to Chloramine to disinfect.
It is a compound and will not outgas.
Not to worry, it is not only harmless to plants, it is actually good for them because it kills slime molds and harmful bacteria.

Jus' 2 cents.
Aloha, Weezard

[GetThisOrDie]

This is my second grow.

Your Equipment:
.1) four 100 watt CFLs, two 4' tube flourescents. (about 11,000 total lumens)
.2) approx. 8''-10'' from lights
.3) white hood reflectors for tubes, and a ghetto foil hood for the cfls
.4) It's in a closet, so the air is as fresh as i can get it in that situation.
.5) I only have a circulation fan.
.6) all cfl's = 27 watt (100 watt equivalent) tube flours = 32 watts each. they are on a 16/8 cycle right now.


When you say four 100w CFL do you mean the 26-27w with 100w equivalent?
If so then you will want to add some more CFLs if you can. Once they get taller the lower portions of the plants wont get much light unless you add CFLs around it or train the plants somehow.



Plus that whole Chloramine thing is pretty cool. I didnt know that...

[Faddenator]

Yep, Im using 100 equivalents. i believe they are 27 watts a piece. so four of those plus two 32 watts flouro's is about 172 watts total. ill definitely consider getting some more for when they are bigger. I already was planning on adding at least one for flowering... i should switch to soft white at that time, correct? would be be harmful to leave the 6500k daylights on for flowering and ADD the 2700k soft whites? or should a do a complete switch?

again, thanks a ton for the suggestion. I cant stress how much you guys help. :jointsmile:

oh and btw, ill be putting up some post-transplant pictures really soon. hopefully the visuals will give you guys a better idea of what im dealing with.

[Rusty Trichome]

Glad to hear they're doing better. Looking forward to the pix. :thumbsup:

If you can pull it off, a nice 400w HPS would be great. But barring that, the orangish lighted soft whites (SD on the Walmart Bulbs) for flower.

Some folks think any lumen is a good lumen, but with CFL's I stick to one end of the spectrum or the other.

Different animal and subject altogether, but some growers use a full spectrum HPS throughout the grow.

Experts used to say 3 times the lumens from veg to flower (for example: 12,000 lumens in veg, minimum 36,000 lumens in flower) I havent kept-up on new lighting stuff as my old stuff is still working, but I imagine it's the same basic ratio. Safety and heat being your main concerns with packing-a circuit full of lights.

[mainegrown]

is there a top end of the increase... i think i am at more like 5-7 times more..
is that bad?
-J

[Rusty Trichome]

is there a top end of the increase... i think i am at more like 5-7 times more..
is that bad?
-J
There is a point of diminishing returns. (overkill) But I have yet to find it. Honestly, I've never looked. I go from CFL's to HPS. Doubtful there is an upper-limit with CFL's, but heat would be the major concern. With HPS set-ups, you risk heat stress and bleaching, but I believe that varies with bulb, distance, ambients, (heat and humidity)....

[Faddenator]

First of all, i'm posting a picture of the plants before coming onto this site.
i also included three pictures of how they look today (light setup, fan setup with plants, and just plants). The difference is pretty ridiculous. They still aren't very big, but very healthy looking. I also had to pull a male. one more question for now: I think the plant I have elevated is a hermie... it has two sets of tiny pistils, but a couple of what look like tiny little seed pods on a different node. can i just pluck off the pods and hope no more form? or should I get rid of it? Thanks guys!:jointsmile:

[mainegrown]

looking much better...
i would continue to add as much light as you can before you hit heat problems...
and why are you getting males?? are they that old? or are they under 12/12??
-J

[Rusty Trichome]

If the small plants are the ones you are refering to, it's too young to sex 'em. (they're from seeds, not clones...right?)

I'd leave 'em alone for now. Sometimes calyx's are late in pushing-out the pistils, and can easily be mistaken as young nanners. Even on the same plant. I'd wait till you start to see little bunches of nanners,. (will usually look like a small 'bunch' of grapes) before doing anything drastic. Keep an eye on the 'nanners' though. But, worse case scenario is that you're right and they're hermie. Pluck-off the offending nanners asap, if possible. But don't panic till the plants are mature enough to really tell.

[Faddenator]

I'm not sure why they're already showing sex. But i GUARANTEE the one i pulled was male. it was covered in pods. i even split one of them open to make sure. it was filled with tiny banana shaped things. so yeah.

The one i think is hermie has a set of pistils on the top two nodes, and starting getting what looked like seed pods on the third node. i plucked them off already. two of em dont have anything, pods or pistils, and finally there is one with just four little pistils right on top :)

Im adding another cfl today, right smack in the middle. ill keep you updated.:thumbsup: