New grow - Need help!

Hello all. I'll point out first that this is only my second attempt at growing, first inside. I'm posting on here to get advise and to document my trials and tribulations. OK mostly for advise.

I have three plants started. One, in the black pot, came up out of the soil roughly April 22nd. The other two in the red cups, roughly 7 days later. My "setup" for lack of a better term, is pathetic. I have three CFL's focusing on these three with a total of about 6-7000 lumens directed at them at a constant 24 hour lighting. The lights are roughly 2-3 inches off the plants. They are planted in Miracle Grow Potting Soil. I have been watering them roughly a half cup of water every two days. Where I came up with this schedule is beyond me. I basically go by feel of how dry the soil feels. I gave nutes once and it was very diluted, so not sure how much that effected them. I gave them nutes about 2 weeks ago last. Here are some pictures from about 3 days ago..
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Now my problems..

What nutes should I be using at the one month stage, if any? And how often?

One of my plants is experiencing heavy yellowing on the lower leaves to the point of shriveling.

I just checked on them a couple minutes ago and there is some heavy wilting going on with the two that are in the red cups. One looks as though its dying actually, the tallest of the three from the pics.

Am I watering too much or too little?

My lights are all of the 2700k light spectrum. I know I should have the higher 6500k spectrum, but I can't find those available locally at the Home Depot, Lowes, etc. HPS is not an option due to financial concerns. Will what I have be sufficient?

I know there is most likely information I am leaving out, but its a case of not knowing the correct questions to ask, I guess. So I put my vastly inferior knowledge out here for your help. I will do what I can to make suggested adjustments as needed. I just wanted to get this started and get some help before they're too far gone.

I have done some reading, but obviously not enough. I don't have enough time in the day to read all I need to, what with a job, family, etc. That's why I'm here.

I'm a good listener if people have suggestions to help me. Go for it!

I'd ditch the miracle grow, get some plain potting soil (no nutes) with added perlite for aeration and some PH drops. your ph looks off but it could also be overwatering/underwatering. PH should be 6.5 in soil and watered when it dries.. but from the pics i'm leaning to underwatered

once you repot into a slightly bigger pot with some diff soil you need to start feeding them. What kind of nutes do you have? If your open for suggestions i'd try either botanicare pure blend soil or the fox farm line. I'm not much of a soil man but it should probably be water, water, feed, water, water, feed - with just a little runoff

I'd also shell out a little extra and build a box for them. doesn't need to be big or extensive for your first grow. but it will help tremendously especially when you go to flower them because they need complete darkness. It can be as simple as a wood frame with black plastic or a prebuilt small cabinet from walmart etc.

The CFLS are fine for flowering don't sweat that, spend the money on building a cabinet with good ventilation. i build a veg cab out of Styrofoam and a couple computer fans so it doesn't need to be fancy! shake built his from cardboard!
:D:rasta:

I think Greenatik got most of it :thumbsup:

Depending on which kind of MG it is, you can still use it through flowering. If it is a regular potting mix, the nutrients inside the soil will last about 2-3 weeks after each transplant. You can start feeding them liquid nutrients after this time. But, like said above, get something better if you can.

Stick with a nutrient package like Fox Farm or Canna, don't mix and match different manufacturers. The packages come with all the nutes you need (even some extra) plus weekly instructions, and you won't have to worry about double-dosing or missing doses of some nutrients.

Try to pick up some more lights... You have three lights now, so add 3 Y splitters to each socket (9 total), and now you can have 12 CFL's. 4x more light will make a big difference. Those 3 you have now will not take you all the way.

Also, about the watering... It's said cannabis needs wet/dry cycles. So, you should give them a good watering, with a little run-off from the bottom. Then you wait until the soil is dry to water again. I feed either once every 3 days or twice a week. Your plants will wilt when they don't have enough water, they curl when they have too much.

Whatever soil you go with, add 25% perlite for drainage and aeration. Yes, it is a must; and mix it in, doesn't help if it's just poured on top!

Good luck:jointsmile:

Hey guys, I appreciate the responses from both of you so far. The soil used was Miracle Grow moisture control. I picked up some Pro Mix organic soil that states it keeps the ph at the 5.5-7.0 level, so I think this should be better. I also have a bag of perlite that I will be mixing in. When should I look at transplanting? I heard a good rule of thumb was two to three times from seed to harvest from Stinkyattic, if I recall.

As for nutrients, I have not seen the Canna or Fox Farm brands around here. I haven't checked with any gardening specialty stores, just Home Depot and Menards (its the discount version of Home Depot). The only brand other than Miracle Grow I've seen on a regular basis is Schultz. I have several types of that brand nutrients with varying levels of each nutrient. What I have so far:

Schultz tomato food---17%N 19%Ph 29%P (I have been using this so far)
Schultz rose food ---18%N 24%Ph 24%P
Schultz bloom plus ---10%N 54%Ph 10%P
Schultz blood meal ---12%N 0%Ph 0%P

I don't know exactly which, if any of these I should be using and when. I've heard good things on this site in the past about Schultz, but they seem to lack clear directions for application. Basically only have directions if I was doing a large area with a watering can, so I guessed a bit. I put in a small amount, probably too small, and over the next few days I poured a little on the plants. None for about a week and a half though now. I'll start a more regular feeding program as you noted.

As for the lighting, I do plan on getting more lights, but not sure I can find a three way adapter for the lights though.

I have a rather larger roll of thick mylar wrapping. Not like regular mylar in that the backing is pinkish and its super tough. I also have the makings for a flowering cabinet with two black rubbermaid totes, based on an idea in one of the grow faq's.

It appears watering them a bit more is perking them right back up.
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Again, I appreciate the advice and I'll be checking back in.

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Originally Posted by Mingles

...As for nutrients, I have not seen the Canna or Fox Farm brands around here. I haven't checked with any gardening specialty stores, just Home Depot and Menards (its the discount version of Home Depot)

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Yeah you need to go to a hydro store for the nutes, or order them with a prepaid credit card to another address. Best to get cannabis-specific nutes and take out the guess work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mingles

As for the lighting, I do plan on getting more lights, but not sure I can find a three way adapter for the lights though

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For the lights, they are Y adapters, not 3 way adapters. Walmart, home depot, etc. has them. One Y splitter will allow you to put 2 bulbs into one socket. If you put 3 Y splitters together, you can put 4 bulbs to one socket.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mingles

I have a rather larger roll of thick mylar wrapping. Not like regular mylar in that the backing is pinkish and its super tough. I also have the makings for a flowering cabinet with two black rubbermaid totes, based on an idea in one of the grow faq's.

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I wouldn't worry about the reflection so much with cfl's. They do not penetrate very effectively past 4 inches, so any reflection from walls is really minimal.

Ok a little update. I have taken some advice from here and from looking elsewhere on the forum here. I have done some looking and either Fox Farms or Canna are not sold anywhere near here so I'm sticking with the nuts I have already. I would appreciate some advice as to how much and how often. I listed what I have for nutes above, so I guess if you could base it on those would be great.

I just transplanted tonight into bigger containers, each in an 8 inch pot. Not ideal, I know, but in looking at the roots, I thought they may be ready.
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I fed them last night prior to transplanting tonight. Wasn't exactly planning on that, but I had free time and thought it would be a good time. I fed them the Tomato Food nutes as listed above. Since their instructions on the package were pretty weak, I had to guesstimate how much to use. I went with less than the package said, being cautious I guess. There is still some yellowing and drying out of a few lower leaves, but I picked the dead ones off and left the slightly yellow ones on hoping they'll come back. Here's how they look after transplanting.

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I used the Pro Mix organic soil I found here locally mixed with Perlite. I am in the process of getting their room ready in the basement and should have that going this weekend. I also plan on buying more lights this weekend possibly adding some splitters if my outlet will handle it. I'll be looking for higher spectrum lights I think to mix in. One thing I'm still unsure of is how long to keep them in veg. I obviously don't think they are anywhere near ready, but trying to plan ahead on at least SOME parts of this grow. Any advice is once again appreciated.

One more picture of the three of them. I've been keeping the lights about 1"-2" at most off the tops of them on a 24/0 schedule.

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Ok I've moved my plants to the room I had set aside for this originally. Although not yet done, it is nearly so. I added 4 more CFL's all with the 6500k light spectrum to a total of 7 lights and around 5000 lumens per plants wth a mix of 2700k and 6500k spectrums. Hopefully that will help. Currently, I think they're looking good, but again, I'm no expert. All these were started the last week of April if that helps.

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I've started on a feeding schedule finally, too. Right now, I'm looking for comments on how they look 5-6 weeks in. Beingt my first grow, I'm not really sure if they look ok or not and then how long before flowering. Do I base it off how big they are or how many weeks old or what exactly?

I guess I'm just looking for answers from people smarter than me.

Yeah, they lacked space in those solo cups. You can only keep them in there for 2 or 3 weeks. Ive noticed it kind of slows the growth when they run out of room. They look better in the bigger pots. Mine are just over a month and I put them into 3 gal bags so I wont have to worry transplanting again

I had a bit of an accident while moving my lights around. I always read here about people dropping lights on their plants and thought, "wow how could someone be that stupid and clumsy?" Well, last night I was that someone. I dropped my light right onto my plants. One bulb busted. Luckily it was one of the older 2700k spectrum lights and not the new ones I just bought this past weekend.

\Anyway, speaking of new lights, these guys have really taken off lately. They've grown about 2"-3" since the last pictures 3 days ago. I've also started regularly using nutes instead of just watering so I assume that would be helping. I've been using the Rose Food I described earlier up the thread and thought I would try the Bloom Plus also noted above. So far, this is how they are doing. And there was no noticeable damage to the plants from when the lights fell.

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I still haven't figured out how long it should be before I see signs of the sex. And hints or ideas based on the pictures? Hoping for some feedback.

Plants are mature enough to flower when the nodes are alternating instead of in pairs. I think you may be able to sex them now but I couldn't tell from the pics. Look where the node meets the main stem (pic). I would only feed every 3rd watering and only water when DRY (pot will be pretty light).Don't use bloom food until flowering.

Well, its been awhile since i last updated. I've been so busy lately, I haven't had time to post. My girls are moving along quite well, I think. That being said, I'm pretty sure they're girls. I know for sure two are, but the 3rd is kind of unknown at this point still to me. I chalk that up to lack of experience in knowing what I'm looking at. I just started flowering this week. I think I waited a lot longer than I needed to or really should have. I hope it doesn't screw up things that I waited to start flowering so long. Its been roughly 3 months of vegging. They look huge to me, but then again, I'm fairly new to this. Any thoughts on how they look or if people can spot any problems?

I haven't added any more lights yet. I wasn't sure if more are needed. I know obviously more is better but I'm running out of room for my lights since they've grown so big. My lights are just about as high up as they will go unless I re-configure how they hang. I appreciate any comments and with them just starting the flowering, I expect more updates.