Sole Survivor

Sisters and Brothers,

In my closet, all by her lonesome, my six-inch tall daughter sunbathes. She is young, but has had a terrible life. All of her family, her beautiful Aunts and Mothers, have died 1,800 miles away, struck down in their prime, leaving no Seeds.

She is a clone, and she is alone. She is my only hope.

I do not know her genetics; she was clipped from her Mother-Sister 2 weeks before I moved, and managed only to grow the tiniest of roots by the time I had to ship out. But she has survived. [See picture OldGirl for her condition when she was transplanted after the 1,800 mile car-ride. That was 3.5 weeks ago.]

And so, she is almost six weeks old. I will get to my questions: She is young and tiny, and my set up, as you can see, is unenclosed. Is it possible to give her too much fluorescent light as she grows? Three 23 watt 5000k Daylight bulbs now massage her young suppleness 24 hours a day. I have read about the "50 watts per square foot" rule, but wasn't sure if the same idea applied to single-plant grows [in which case I would be flooding her with light, 69 (!!) watts for about a tenth of a square foot...] ? And when can start to apply vegetative nutrients to her waterings? Again, I've read "3 weeks" or so, but she is no normal plant, given her hectic child-hood.

Any observations from the pictures are also highly desired. She is the only Heir to the Kingdom of my Heart...

Kiev the G.A.


P.S.
{I was considering stealing a wealthy neighbor's garbage can, painting the inside FLATWHITE and hanging the lights into it. Legitimate?}

I start my clones on 1/4 nutes 2-3 days after I plant the rapid rooter in coco. I work that up to full nutes within two weeks.

1/10th of a square foot is an area approximately 3.5"x3.5" so your whole premise about the light intensity is wrong. In any event, it doesn't look like too much light.

The droopiness could be caused by overwatering. It's kinda strange because the plant is a healthy color and it's growing but it just looks lethargic. Could be it needs some nutes and less water. What medium are you growing in? How often do you water?

PC :smokin:

Perhaps I misunderstand 'grow area'. I just meant that, if you looked at her from a very low airplane, she would cover about .1 ft^2 ;but

I am never sure how much to water; I have been giving her box about 8-10 oz of water, probably half directed at her base, every 2-3 days. I mist once a day. Maybe I should wait on watering and see how she goes [these tonight pictures were 2 days after Water.]

There's a reason many growers like to transplant to progressively larger containers. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I know there's a reason. :wtf:

Seriously though, next time put the plant in a smaller container, let it root well, then repot, root more, repot. I go from an 18 oz. cup to a #1 (approx. 1 gallon) pot to a #3 or #5 pot, whichever I want to end the grow in. Essentially, right now, you are creating a little quagmire in a confined space around your roots and it is probably never drying out completely. I'm not really sure how you correct the problem - you need a dirt farmer to answer that.

Quit misting. It's not helping any. If you quit misting and the plant starts to look worse, resume misting. But at this point it is probably doing more harm than good. You want big healthy roots. The only way you are going to get big healthy roots is to give them a good environment (the soil in your pot) and to make the plant need the roots. If you're watering it throught the leaves, it doesn't need its roots as much. Make that little bitch work for her food!

Have you got a fan blowing on the plant? It looks like you could use some air circulation too.

It looks like your grow container (pot) is lined with a plastic bag. Does the pot have any drainage?

PC :smokin:

aha! You got me. No drainage. A problem I hadn't started grappling with yet, as I did/do not think her roots are significant enough to go to the bottom...

...she was planted under dire "just moved in, have nothing, she is dying" circumstances, as I mentioned. She's in a box around 4 gallons big, lined with two plastic bags. I put in about 2-3 inches of variable size rocks on the bottom before adding soil.

A replant wouldn't be a problem, but I thought replanting is generally frowned upon, due to replant stress? Then again, the soil is just a mix of SuperSoil and some Organic Potting Soil from Home Depot... I could probably get her some classier digs.

Have a fan on 'er, aye.

And a PS:

Any ideas on this freak leaf? Some of the newer leaves have a hint of similar twisting on the end.

It's now 5 days on, and she ain't no smiling dandy.

In fact, she's getting worse. Her leaves are dry. I broke down this morning and misted her a bit with her watering. She must have some puny weak roots. Don't know what to do about that.

More ! she has started to get yellow cancer seeping onto her leaves. And she's one droopy girl. [I would be too, if I was so thirsty and cancerous.]

Updated Pictures with Renewed Plea:

...well, she's not looking better. The lower leaves continue their decline into Yellow.

So, one more time putting this to the top, and then I guess I'll try prayer.

what is the pH of your soil? Have you done any pH testing? Using that stuff from home depot maybe part of the problem. Get yourself a pH tester and test the soil run-off water and if its not around 6.5 then that will be your problem.

Just start with a soil pH test.

I have been reading this log so far, good job, but yah, drainage is a prob. If I was you, I would repot the plant into probably a 2 gal. container, and make sure it is COMPLETELY sterilized. But I have one quick question for anyone following this thread: where do you get a pH tester, could you pick one up at home depot or whats the deal? But yah I'll continue to follow if you keep us all updated, Peace!

you can get a pH test at any pet shop, or you can go to Walmart and get one in the pet department. That will get you pretty close to where you need to be, but the best you can do is go to a hydro shop and see what they have. There are several that you can use where you just stick in the water and it reads the pH for you, no fuss, no muss.