New improved gorw box but plants growing slow :(

[wangman]

Hi all

I posted a few weeks back with my homeless style grow box that ended up getting binned due to concerns over safety etc

Anyhow I created a new one

The thing is it seems my plants or more so plant... is growing slower than most of the other people who post on here

Heres some information that will help

I dont have a thermometer inside the the box but the outside temps in my area have been between 16 and 30deg C

I'v just used regular potting mix see the pic

I'v also every now and again splashed some of this liquid nute stuff in the pot, mixed of course a little weaker than the directions state

Light is 3 x 23 W CFLs all are 6500K

Plants have been inside the box for 3 weeks i think

I pinched the node about 2 weeks ago

Lights are running 24hours a day

Also as you can see from the pics the older leaves are looking somewhat unhealthy

I clipped off a couple of the old almost dead first leaves

thats about it

Any suggestions?

wangman Reviewed by wangman on 05-07-2008. New improved gorw box but plants growing slow :( Hi all I posted a few weeks back with my homeless style grow box that ended up getting binned due to concerns over safety etc Anyhow I created a new one The thing is it seems my plants or more so plant... is growing slower than most of the other people who post on here Heres some information that will help Rating: 5

[wangman]

other pics

[mikey420budd]

just wondering, u no how u have ur pot, then ur saucer at the bottom? do u fill that saucer up? or how does that work?

i have it like that too, i have a large bowl instead of a saucer, but yer, i find that theres sometime little tiny bugs on the resovoir, (where the water is) and i need to change it almost everyday, please, advice....


and btw, if thats foil u have in ur box, u might wanna get it as flat as possible, no crinkles, koz they generate hot spots and its a fire hazard. ive gone with white office paper, sounds like more of a fire hazard i no, but it works really well, reflects a lot of the light back.

hope i cood help, nd hope u can help me

laterz

Mikey

[Hazeus]

Do you have an intake fan for the box? If you don't, this is easily remedied by installing an intake fan as close to the bottom of the box and as far away from the exhaust fan as possible. Also, the intake needs to be drawing in at least the same amount of air as is being pulled out by the exhaust.

The last I remember, fluorescent lights didn't emit too much heat energy, but I'm not sure about CFLs. Aluminum foil also won't help your situation because it really isn't that efficient of a light reflector and reflects quite a bit of thermal energy. You could always paint the inside a flat white which should be a cheap and effective solution.

Finally, I'd say minimize the distance from your plant to the lights as much as possible. If what I remember about fluorescents and heat is correct, then your lights should basically be hugging your little plant. Remember that the intensity of light decreases with increasing distance due to the inverse square law (Intensity ~ 1/d^2 where d = unit of distance). CFLs don't have a high enough lumen/watt ratio to be effective any further than a few inches, so keep 'em close!

Just my 2 cents, but I hope it helps!

[TxChronic1]

the intake needs to be drawing in at least the same amount of air as is being pulled out by the exhaust.

You could always make a passive intake untill you can get another fan. Also like Hazeus said CFLs dont put off much heat at all so you want them close to the plants as possible. If you add more light then they will grow faster. After I added 2 cfls to my cab I saw a big diffrence. They sell Y shaped splitter things where you can have 2 cfls in the place of one.

[wangman]

just wondering, u no how u have ur pot, then ur saucer at the bottom? do u fill that saucer up? or how does that work?

i have it like that too, i have a large bowl instead of a saucer, but yer, i find that theres sometime little tiny bugs on the resovoir, (where the water is) and i need to change it almost everyday, please, advice.....

I just have the black plastic tray thing to stop any water leaking out into the box after i water the plant

I have a small bowl in there as well which is filled with water to try and keep the humidity level up and i have also noticed tiny bug things like to grow in there.... I guess its something that lives in the potting mix and likes the water so I just empty it every couple of days to get rid of them, I'v never seen any bug things on my plants thankfully

As for the foil vs office paper my 1st grow box was lined with office paper and it did a great job however considering the whole box was made of cardboard my partner got paranoid about the house burning down so i had to scrap it and went with foil in my plastic box.... the lights dont generate much heat so im not worried about the fire aspect as the box never gets hot to the touch however i'll put some more foil in it and try to get as little crinkles as possible

[wangman]

Do you have an intake fan for the box?

The last I remember, fluorescent lights didn't emit too much heat energy, but I'm not sure about CFLs. Aluminum foil also won't help your situation because it really isn't that efficient of a light reflector and reflects quite a bit of thermal energy. You could always paint the inside a flat white which should be a cheap and effective solution.

Finally, I'd say minimize the distance from your plant to the lights as much as possible.

Just my 2 cents, but I hope it helps!

Cheers for the reply

Might look into some flat white paint

When the lid is on the box the plants are pretty close to the light

You could always make a passive intake untill you can get another fan. Also like Hazeus said CFLs dont put off much heat at all so you want them close to the plants as possible. If you add more light then they will grow faster. After I added 2 cfls to my cab I saw a big diffrence. They sell Y shaped splitter things where you can have 2 cfls in the place of one.

I think I'll get another light today

Unfortunately i cant find any y adaptors here in the land down under... and when i called up some lighting and electrical specialty shops people were like huh what isnâ??t that dangerous...?

I might go with the passive intake hole for the moment heat isint a problem however will the plants benefit by having the extra air going through the grow box?

[wangman]

Updated pic looking a bit more happy now

any idea on what strain this might be? grew from some bag seeds

[keeko]

well i guess ill be the first one to say (unless i was to high and missed it) that by the looks of the picture of the soil element content it looks like it is pretty high in nitrogen, phospherus, potassium (N-P-K). a little too hot when the plant was younger (lower growth burnt). I would feed water only for the next couple waterings. :twocents:

[wangman]

well i guess ill be the first one to say (unless i was to high and missed it) that by the looks of the picture of the soil element content it looks like it is pretty high in nitrogen, phospherus, potassium (N-P-K). a little too hot when the plant was younger (lower growth burnt). I would feed water only for the next couple waterings. :twocents:

Im mixing 1 cap full 10ml to 1L of water shouldent that be weak enough?