Been growing my plant for 3/4 weeks - just some questions...

hi,

This is my 1st grow attempt.

Ok well i have been growing my plant (from bag seed) in soil for just over 3 weeks now but i have a few questions...

1) Some of the leaves are getting yellow bits on the edge of them - what could this be and what can i do about it? (lol) - pic of one of the offending leaves included.

2) Its had quite alot of stress (I accidentlly knocked the cabinet over when i was drunk and it all came out the pot - i immediatlly put it back in and filled the soil back up then watered (this was over a week ago and it seemed to keep growing anyway) - so far so good - but when it was a young seedling - my cat managed to eat part of the only 2 leaves it had these seem to have been able to keep funcioning until it grew more leaves but then these 2 leaves started going brown and dying - and seemed to be spreading nearer and nearer to the plant so i decided to cut them off - will this have any effect now? (this was about 2 weeks ago) - it has quite alot of leaves now though with no sign of them dying.

3) the bottom 2 leaves (which were really the 3rd and 4th to grow - cos of the cutting the first 2 off) not including the very 1st 2 leaves (colonctions or something) are looking a bit limp and im quite worried they may eventually die as well :(

4) when the plant is near the bulb the top leaves seem to almost wrap themselves around the bulb (they cant because ive since started lowering it so it cant touch the bulb (like it was before) but i can see that thats what its trying to do - unfortantlly the lower leaves are getting all the light stolen from them by the top leaves - does this matter?

sorry i know its alot of questions and my spelling isnt great - but any answers would be good :) thank you in advance.

p.s. im using a CFL lightbulb to grow it (which seems to be going quite well - its growing about an inch a day) - included are pics of the plant :) and the leaf that is going yellow at the edge (this yellow effect is quite widespread - maybe 80% of the leaves have it)

As far as the yellowing of the tips goes -

What's the ph of your water, I assume you're not using any nutrients? You want your ph to be around 6.5 - 6.8 and if you ARE using nutes, you probably are using too much of a concentration for your watering schedule.

Don't worry about the stress, the plant is still young and it deals fairly well with stress such as you've described. Your cat could've potentially killed it though, you got lucky there.

The first two leaves browning and dying is normal, don't sweat it, it's just shedding old inefficient leaves

And you want to try and get your plant in an enclosed area with mylar or, white paper, or white paint in order to reflect the leftover light from your CFL to the bottom of the plant. Plants always reach closer and closer to their light source. Moving the plant / lights away from each other is something you'll always have to do

Word of advice my friend, next time you have a simple question that sounds like a newb would have asked it before, use the search bar on these forums or use google to search for your answers. You gotta do your own research man, that's what we all do.

SEE THE FUN IN READING!!! :thumbsup:

1) I have no idea, the plant look like healthy, it may just be a little burn, are you using nute ? How close is the CLF light from the plant? What is the temp of the room ? There a lot of possible reasons.

2) For you're little accident, I wouldn't be too worry about it, if there was no damage at the root system everything should be all right.

3) As for the bottom leafs it's normal at one point or another in the grow that they become yellow and fall as they receive less and less light and they use they stock energy to help the plant grow.

4) If you're leafs are curling it must be heat stress, what is the distance of you're plant and the CFL ? If the leafs under don't received light if not really good, this is the big problem with CFL, they are not strong enough to pass trough the leafs and you end up with having only light for the top. Try to add some other CFL pointing sides of the plant so it will have more light. Can you please tell us what is the specs of the bulb you're using, it might help us help you !

Well in general the plant look good, it's a little stretch, but nothing too bad, is this you're only plant ? Because if it is you have 50% of chances that it will be a male, you should at least grow 2 to be sure to have 1 female !

When you have a trouble you should me filling the troubleshooting form: http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-pro...anted-one.html
This help us a lot getting better answers for you. Hope this help you a bit...

thank you for the quick replies :) ... ok so now to answer these questions...

PH OF SOIL = 6.6/6.7 (Taken with a ph tester)

Not using any extra nutes yet (just normal soil)

Its about an inch away from the bulb

and the spec of the bulb is 20W

also im basiclly just using the bulb thats the normal one for the room (hence the high cabinet) and am unable to use more than one bulb in the one socket.

Plant looks green... which is good :thumbsup:

As far as the 20 watt CFL goes... that's probably pushing about 1000 to 1300 lumens, depending on manufacturer. Though having it as close as possible is great, that 1300 lumens isn't going to do much over time. What size is your cabinet? You want to shoot for 3,000-5,000+ lumens per square foot. For example, if :jointsmile: I had 1.8 square feet of space... and around 12,000 combined CFL lumens, I'd have around 6500 per sq. foot. What is stopping you from additional lighting? Even a Y-socket adapter? It's just that IF you stay with that throughout the entire cycle... I feel you may just be stringing a weak plant down death row. It's cool though. Growing is fun either way.

P.S. My math could be wrong, but there are other threads regarding sufficient lighting calculations :stoned:

its not in the cabinet - its on the cabinet so i can get enough height to make it be near the bulb lol - yeah granted that wont be enough light but i have a 1000W MH bulb that im gonna install in my new house - im moving so no point setting up a enclosure now really - yeah my main worry is really just those yellow spots and the fact that the light doesnt get to all the leaves - only the top ones as they almost wrap round the bulb (well they try anyway lol)

I see now. So it's like the light for the room that you are able to sit the plant under and I'm assuming you can't add on more light because it would be weird having like 8 CFL's hanging down as your (living room?) light? :jointsmile: Makes sense lol

I would guess that the yellowing is mostly due to no food supply for the maturing plant... and insufficient lighting. Just the nature of the beast. Even with adequate CFL lighting... they simply can not penetrate deep enough to supply the lower leaves with usable lumens. You seem to have some space between nodes... since this is kind of a "whatever's whatever" grow, try your hand at Low Stress Training. It will even out the canopy level and allow the majority of the plant to receive light... instead of just the top. It will also let you veg the shit out of it to get it to sexual maturity. What do you plan for the 12/12 light schedule? Hopefully not just shoving it in a box somewhere. You'll need total dark, but continuous air exchange.
But yeah... to (try to) answer your question:
You will need a food source to encourage more intense growth. You would need more light to somewhat eliminate lower leaf yellowing. You should also seriously consider training the plant... and planning for the flowering phase. If you just want to stick with what you have going... I wouldn't worry about anything at all unless the plant turns into a withering toothpick. I understand what you mean about setting up official equipment when you are just going to pack up and move. Although, even when it IS totally set up... it's really just starting. Anyway...
Shit's green... be thankfull! :jointsmile:

Your plant looks healthy but it is growing fast because it is stretching for more light. You need more. That's also a major reason you'll see low leaves yellow and drop- when they no longer have enough light to photosynthesize, they are consumed and discarded by the plant.
Adding light will fix your issues.

ok great :) so now at least i have an idea of what im doing - i mean yeah the light is far from great :/ but its really all i have for now :( - also it has been transplanted to a bigger pot already (to try to even out some of the stretching (it did that alot when it was a seedling still) weirdiest thing is - the top leaves have some of those yellow dots as well even though they are practiclly at the light - so just to confirm...

1) do you still think low stress training would help?

2) does it still need extra food (ferts?) (even though its been transplanted less than a week ago and has extra soil around the root ball) now...?

3) really at the moment the set up is.... tall cabinet - plant on top - light bulb above it - and thats it....

...do you think it would be a good idea to make some sort of home made enclosure for it and then make a home made reflecter above the light bulb so that it all goes down and loads of light isnt wasted? (my only concern then is heat issues?

4) Does it matter majorly if those bottom leaves do die? i mean would it end up killing the plant?

Thank you everyone for helping me on this - i really am quite new to it all - and altough i did do loads of research on how to grow it before i started it still isnt all that easy for me lol

--- and no i dont plan on putting it in some box :) he he ---

The new pot could help out. When roots have room to expand... growth tends to concentrate down there until the space is used up. Although now you run the risk of having areas of stagnant water, due to the limited root structure. Make sure you allow the soil to dry out before each watering. Not like just the first centimeter is dry... but when the pot is noticeably lighter (in weight, not color :stoned:)

Should you LST? Hell flippin yeah... :jointsmile: Why not? Like I said, if it's just for educational purposes (which all grows are really) you should try your hand at all techniques. Shit... I'd damn near kill the thing by trying out training, pruning, FIM'ing, topping, cloning, etc. Not at once obviously... but ya know :rasta:

The benefits of the soil depends on... well... the soil :stoned: Some have nutrients pre-mixed and some are fairly neutral. Give us some info on your dirt and we can figure that out quick-fast-like-style.

If you have the ability and opportunity to build a grow box... I don't see why you shouldn't. Especially for the 12/12 flowering cycle. You will need darkness. Not like the plant is in your living room with just the tv on... but like holy shit I just stubbed my toe and it's bleeding because I can't see anything... where are my hands... something just touched my leg...dark. Will heat be a concern in the box? YEP!!! Welcome to the club :thumbsup: If you have a small box and heat isn't a problem... you either:
A) Paid an insane amount for your exhaust set-up
B) Live in an igloo
C) Don't have nearly enough light
:stoned:

As far as lower leaves dying off? With CFL's it is pretty common. Like I said before... they just can't reach down there. It may look bright as funk, but the plants just don't get it. That is why LST is encouraged. Look at some pics of it. You will see how, if given adequate time, those lower leaves that would have died off, will stretch up to even out the canopy. It's pretty impressive. Honestly, even a baby monkey could try out LST and do at least SOME good to the plant. It's really that simple... as long as you are gentle!! And no, the dying lower leaves won't necessarily kill the plant. Monitor the new growth... and use that as your indicator for the plants overall health. That old shit gets used up and dropped off. Pick up any fallen foliage from the soil surface, because that just gives little bugs some grindage to much on.

And yeah... it's not really "easy." Remember, you are walking a living organism through it's entire life cycle. Why do you think parents stress out so much? I mean... kids get lice, chicken pox... plants get bugs and spots. They usually pull through though :thumbsup: