New Grower Needing Advice

Ok, a little back story first here. Both myself and my wife are medical marijuana patients at this point. We have caregiver assigned and one cultivation assigned at this point so have attempted to try to grow some plants though I am worried the plants are not doing well right now.

Overall the plans seem to have dropping leaves and seem to be changing color intermittently (will have good green color sometimes and others be all yellowish). They are being grown in potting soil with mostly just water at this time, though intermittently (about every other bottle or so) been using miracle grow with the plants. I will include images below but if anyone could give any advice. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is totally on a budget, as in walmart potting soil and planting pots budget kind of budget.

I would transplant into some better soil. make sure you give them 1/4 strength miracle grow when feeding.When do you plan on flowering.if soon transplant them into new soil in final containers.If you are using the cheap potting soil that stuff is junk.You would be better off with scott premium. It has nutes in it , but it has never killed or made a plant sick when i was using it. Also i see you used some peat pellets to start seedlings. they are fine, but here is a tip i have learn works well when using them. When you get them swelled up.Before placing seed in them .take a razor blade and slice the bottom open.Then place them into a party cup with soil in it. This will allow the roots to expand properly without having to work and force there way through thet mess stuff. I have noticed plant progress fasterthis way. By the way do you know your soil ph? how often and how much are you feeding them? Scotts premium soil is buffered for ph.It would get you through flowering with no problems.

Thank you for the information. I was not originally planning on moving them to new containers for the flowering which I had just started (already cutting back on the light per day to 12 hours or so). I will now though get them into some new containers with better soil as soon as I can afford to do so on next payday likely.

So for the feeding, are you saying use 1/4 strength miracle grow every time I water the plants or only every few days? I still have a lot of reading to do on these forums but I am starting to get a much better picture of cheap ways to attempt to grow to be able to supply my wife's and my medical needs.

I used MG at 1/4th strength and it really screwed up my pH. I would invest in a ph pen before anything else. A bag of Fox Farms Ocean Forest is around $20 for a bag- no nutes needed, perfectly pH'd. What is your lighting set up?

Use 1/4 strength of th recomened dose of miracle grow. Apply every other watering. I water once a week.You want to water till soil is soaked then not water again till soil has dried out. Also my rule of thumb is to always transplant right before flowering stage.

to answer what I can: pic #2 is of the wilting. the wilting that you are getting is from the bottom of the plant. The reason bottom is wilting is because of lack of light penatration. What is your light setup?? Pic 3 is described as small, not really sure what you mean by that one. Pic 4 looks to me like the start of nute burn. I'm guessing you were using more than 1/4 strength on the MG. Last thing is you see how the plants are tall and skinny? This is also caused by lack of light. Believe me I can understand the budget thing but you can make quite a few improvments without taking out a loan :) One of the biggest issues you have is light so to touch on that real quick, you can do amazing things with CFL bulbs. I have read quite a bit of what Bob has done in the past and would be a great mentor for you, sorry I live in Hydro. Not to knock KJ at all just never read anything of his/hers.

I totally agree with tiny. I would add some cfls. home depot has a socket for up to a 100watt ( which is actually like 30 watts) cfl for like 7 bucks. the bulbs you can get for about 5 each. I'm also on a budget with mine so ill tell you how i veg. i have 2, 4 foot t-12 shop light ballast from home depot (8 bucks ea) bulbs are 40watt (x4) 4500K. 3 "100" watt cfl's (5 bucks ea) with 3 100 watt sockets ( 8 bucks ea). So a rough estimate is about 70 bucks and I have had great success with veg. see attached pictures. Also you may run into some root bind issues with those smaller pots so maybe pick up some 1-2 gal ones. you can find them for about 1 buck a piece. another issue they mentioned before is also nute burn. through my experience ive learned that if you get good soil ( fox farm ocean) you dont need to add any nutes, just make sure pH is around 6.5 so the plant can absorb all the goodness from the soil. these pics are just to show you what you can accomplish from a cheap setup.
good luck

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Okay, make sure your potting soil doesnt say "9 months of food included!", because that overfeeds your plants and from first hand experience.... its very fucking annoying.

Make sure you get a "growers mix" with little to no nutrients included. and get a bunch of cfl's and get reflectors, like the single bulb circular ones that u screw the bulbs into, you can get them at hardware stores.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has taken time to help me out on this one. I will take a look at my options for funds for the immediate fixup based on your guys/gals advice accordingly. I am hoping to turn this one around, but at the very least know what I need to do for round 2 if it comes down to that :thumbsup:, thanks again everyone.

Keep in mind that growing is an ever learning adventure and keep an open mind. You will hear lots of things that just sound impossible but allot of it can be verified right on this site :)

Hey everyone, I waned to post back saying while I have been able to make only a couple of adjustments so far to my surprise the plants are still pretty dam hardy and are already budding. I really appreciate everyones input as likely growing our own medical mj is going to be our primary means of supply as we get the kinks out, thanks again everyone.

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Them looks like they male parts on that plant.... Got a closer pic???

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Your plants are overfed and have too little light.
Light is the only source of energy plants have to photosynthesize nutrients into usable food, so the less light there is, the easier it is to burn your plants with nutrients.
The more light you give them, the more food you can give them, the faster they can grow, the more they can yield (within reason)

Even if you are on a budget, you just DO NOT want to skimp on the light. 400w hps at minimum. You dont have to have metal halide to veg plants, so iff you have to buy one or the other go with HPS.

hope this helps

Yep, already know about the lighting issue and everyone has given great info on the available lighting options all they way down on the low end with just some shop grade floresents (don't think that is spelled right

Yep, already know about the lighting issue and everyone has given great info on the available lighting options all they way down on the low end with just some shop grade floresents (don't think that is spelled right) and some 100w cfl's to get by with. I wll definetely be switching to something better as soon as I can but right now even coming up with the $80 to $100 I need to get the better soil and lighting is not an option, even further away would be a high pressure sodium bulb and hood setup (around here looking at $300 or more for that, some said closer to $600). I stopped using any nuts at all a while ago now to help keep from over nut'ing them since the soil has built in nuts.

As for the plants if they are male or not I think a least one is which means they will all become male this time around. I will post some more of each individual plant today when the sun cmes up later so you can fill me in on how to tell for sure if they are going male on ke. I was thinking worst case if male this first time I will at least get a free reup on my seed supply. Too bad male plants do not really produce good buds supposedly.

Ok here are some close ups, if you could point out what are the signs of being a male plant.
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pic #3 you see the lil round looking things next to the stem in pic?? Those are balls. Balls = male plant. just because you have a male doesnt mean they all will turn into one. You have a couple options. 1) pull the bastard before the pollen from it gets to the others. 2) keep going with what you have and possibly end up with nothing but males and at the end of the grow everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, must be cleaned. equipment, room the whole 9 yards. Even if after your grow all plants are gone if there is any pollen left in the room that can effect future grows.

Thanks everyone, today I am fixing the light issue, already dumped the male plant (thanks for telling me how to tell them apart). I am going to switch to new soil without nuts in it and follow the feeding suggestions. Only 2 left from the 5 I started withbut alas for a first timer I think you guys and gals help well, will really help.

Ok, thanks to everyone's input. I have some new pics to show the new lighting setup plus a close up of the new crystals forming. One question though, I am seeing a increase in nats flying around. Any suggestions for dealing with them safely.

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