Is my growth stunted?

[klondike_bar]

tin foil? on the walss as reflectors or over the soil?

dont cover the soil, its stupid, pointless, and could starve it of oxygen

[daihashi]

on the walls. I figured the soil still needed air flowing over it of some sort.

Again, dull side of the aluminum foil is facing the plants. Soil is not covered.

[daihashi]

Ok. Plant that I showed the picture of is looking better. It's standing further straight (leaves pointed even more upwards) Yellowing seems to have stopped, and I think it may have grown 1-2mm. I don't know for sure because I didn't measure it before, but even a little growth is good growth.

My other plant that's having problems is still drooping really bad. Leaves are dark green and lush looking (still only 2 sets of leaves). To be fair I kept watering this plant on the schedule I had going (once every other day). I did this so that way I would know for sure that it was the watering (watch one get worse, watch one get better).

I will leave the main plant completely dry for a day or two. I suspect there's still some moisture in there (going to buy a few meters and a soil test kit today).


I also had an idea. If you look at my pictures below that's my current setup. You can't tell from the pic, but the shelf is about 6 feet across. The lower shelf is 2 feet high. The upper shelf can go all the way up to the ceiling if needed.

If you look at the picture you'll see 2 ballasts with 2 40 watt cool lights in them each.. 160watts of light. I also have a third ballast that I have not hung because it just didn't fit in the lower shelf.

What I was thinking of was drilling a small hole on the side of the ballast (there's a lip that curves out to the side similar to a reflector) and hanging the ballast side ways to face the plants. Then I can use my third ballast to do the same on the other side of the plant.. effectively hitting it with light from 3 directions.

I know I'll only be able to do this for a short amount of time, Until the side leaves grow out to be < 1" away from the lights, but my idea is that this would kind of act as a sort of LST without having to tie it down all the time.

Really my concern is using fluorescents and the lumen output, but for me heat is an issue I'm trying to avoid since the closet is in such a small space and it would be hard to vent so I can't get MH (when combine with HPS I will use for flowering the heat may be too much for me to control cost effectively). Currently there's 6400 lumens shining from the 4 40watt lights (by my calculations). And it's not direct light, only 3200 of that is direct.

By my calculations 160watts of flouro's put out aboe sideways that would be 9600 lumens hitting the plants directly. Still not alot I know, but it's better than nothing at all. Sort've like an LST but without having to actually tie anything down?

Thoughts on this?




http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6069/img2311ql1.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2262/img2312ej9.jpg

[stinkyattic]

Your lighting is just fine. No need to change it. Keep the lights less than 2" from the plant tops.
Aluminum foil really is kinda pointless in a grow area. If you want to increase light, add mylar emergency blankets, or put up white card or paint.

[daihashi]

Your lighting is just fine. No need to change it. Keep the lights less than 2" from the plant tops.
Aluminum foil really is kinda pointless in a grow area. If you want to increase light, add mylar emergency blankets, or put up white card or paint.

I keep the light about 1 inch away from the tallest plant top. I am just concerned that since a 150 watt MH would produce about 19000 lumens, that my 160watts of fluoro's aren't making enough light for them at a mere 1/3 of a MH bulb does, a total of 6400 lumens.

I'm going to home depot now actually. I'll see if I can find some Mylar for a good price.

[daihashi]

Ok, I think I found the problem.

Bought a few things today. Digital humidity/temp guage. Soil test kit, and moisture meter.

Well the moisture meter I bought was a total piece of crap. I put the thing in a cup of water and it only read level 2 on the guage.. the guage goes up to 4.

That aside. The ph of my soil appears to be about 6.8-7.0. Also I'm letting my thermometer sit in the room for an hour before I take a reading to post up here, but after sitting in there for 10 min the tempature was 77.5F and the humidity was at 55%.

Now the following is where I'm pretty sure my problem lies. I did a nitrogen test just to be sure. Even though my bag of potting soil didn't have any nutrients listed on the bag.

Well this test doesn't tell me the actual amount of nitrogen in there but it appears to be between "Nitrogen Adequate" and "Nitrogen Deficient" which means that there are some nutes in this soil.

Again I did not add these nutrients. Are these plants too young to be transplanted into new soil/plants?

Does anyone have a particular brand they'd like to recommend that I can just go pick up at Home Depot/Lowes/Walmart?

Thanks.

[daihashi]

Temp/Humidity guage has been in the room for over an hour. Final Temperature in there is 82F and 43% humidity.

[daihashi]

Ok, I want to transplant these plants, but I don't want any of the soil to go with them. I want to put them in fresh soil that I've PH tested and NPK tested. I've read the transplant threads on here but they all seem to be about transplanting while keeping the soil around the roots.

How would I go about it if I wanted to get rid of the soil around my roots. I was thinking about doing it in a dark room, with room tempature PH balanced water and picking most of it off (roots can't be that large yet) and using the water to wash off the rest... Then using the rest of the steps from the "Stress Less Tranplanting" thread with the rooting hormone and super thrive, Using water to fill the dirt in around the roots.

Again all this in the dark with as little air movement as possible.

Does this sound feasible. I'm about to head out in the freezing rain to attempt to find some nute free soil.

I just found the real nursery around here that is worth a damn, hopefully they'll have something good there for me.

Any input on transfering a plant while removing the existing soil would be appreciated.

Thanks

[PharmaCan]

Ok, I want to transplant these plants, but I don't want any of the soil to go with them. I want to put them in fresh soil that I've PH tested and NPK tested. I've read the transplant threads on here but they all seem to be about transplanting while keeping the soil around the roots.

How would I go about it if I wanted to get rid of the soil around my roots. I was thinking about doing it in a dark room, with room tempature PH balanced water and picking most of it off (roots can't be that large yet) and using the water to wash off the rest... Then using the rest of the steps from the "Stress Less Tranplanting" thread with the rooting hormone and super thrive, Using water to fill the dirt in around the roots.

Again all this in the dark with as little air movement as possible.

Does this sound feasible. I'm about to head out in the freezing rain to attempt to find some nute free soil.

I just found the real nursery around here that is worth a damn, hopefully they'll have something good there for me.

Any input on transfering a plant while removing the existing soil would be appreciated.

Thanks

You will probably kill the plants doing this. You would be much better off just flushing the pot. You need to get something to test the pH of your water - a pH meter, liquid test kit or litmus paper - then properly pH the water then water with 3x the volume of your pot. As the last of your flushing water is draining from your pot, save some and test the pH of the runoff.

When you get back to normal watering, don't water around the base of the plant. Water a few inches away from the plant - make your roots grow to get the water they need. Next time you grow, start your seeds in smaller cups. Then, when you water, let the soil dry more in between waterings. The top soil will dry first and so the roots will have to grow to chase the water. Starting in a smaller cup is not absolutely necessary and some people use only one pot all the way through the grow. But something just isn't right with the way you are doing things, so you might as well get a little more basic and eliminate any problems you can until you figure out exactly what it is you're doing wrong.

PC :smokin:

[daihashi]

You will probably kill the plants doing this. You would be much better off just flushing the pot. You need to get something to test the pH of your water - a pH meter, liquid test kit or litmus paper - then properly pH the water then water with 3x the volume of your pot. As the last of your flushing water is draining from your pot, save some and test the pH of the runoff.

When you get back to normal watering, don't water around the base of the plant. Water a few inches away from the plant - make your roots grow to get the water they need. Next time you grow, start your seeds in smaller cups. Then, when you water, let the soil dry more in between waterings. The top soil will dry first and so the roots will have to grow to chase the water. Starting in a smaller cup is not absolutely necessary and some people use only one pot all the way through the grow. But something just isn't right with the way you are doing things, so you might as well get a little more basic and eliminate any problems you can until you figure out exactly what it is you're doing wrong.

PC :smokin:

I've already ph tested everything, as well as nute tested everything.

The new soil I got is about ph 6.8 with no nutes in it.

The ph of my water is about 6.8-7.0.

I will begin flushing the old pots as you suggested. Going to search the forums to see the proper way of doing that.

Thanks. I would've killed these plants otherwise