3 trees, all growing differently in the same conditions.

[wild95cat]

I'm a 1st time grower. I live in Northern California (Bay Area).
I got a few clones from the local medical Mary J club 2 weeks ago. They were all roughly 5 inches tall when I purchased them. One is doing great(Bubba Kush, Indica), one has only a couple leaves drooping with the rest of it looking fine(Super Silver Haze, Sativa/Indica), and the other is slowly turning yellow and dying(Blue Dream, Sativa).
For now, because I'm ill-prepared becuz of $, I'm using the 5 cfl's that are in my bathroom. They're 4 feet from the tops of the trees. They're on at all times for the vegetative stage. My walls are painted glossy white, so reflection is better than off of dark walls, but I'm pretty much just using the bare bulbs, which are 15 watt = 65 true watts each. There is consistent fresh air becuz of the in-n-out to the bathroom while home and the vent/exhaust fan is on while at work. The bathroom itself is approximately 5 feet wide and 10 feet long by 8 feet tall. The temp has been right around 80-85 degrees lately. Should I open the AC vent in the bathroom to decrease the temp? As for the humidity, I'm not sure how to measure that, but it's generally not very humid in Cali. Although it is a little humid in the bathroom after a hot shower...

I'm using large containers from the start so that I don't have to transplant them later and risk shock. I've got 2 trees in a 5 gallon square container with soil that's 10 inches high, and 2 more (one's trying to rebound from a puppy attack...lol, I'm not including that tree in my discussion) in a 10 gallon square container with soil that's 12 inches high.
Both contain the same makeup of soil. The bottom halves of the containers are filled with Miracle Gro garden soil. The top halves are filled with an organic gardening soil comprised of fir bark, forest humus, peat moss, perlite, worm castings, poultry manure, bat guano, kelp meal, oyster shell and dolomite limes (ph adjusters). Then I dug holes 5 inches deep and 4 inches in diameter for each tree, and filled them with a blood/bone meal fert, which is what I WAS TOLD BY THE CLUB GROWERS to do.
I'm watering ONLY when soil is dry (finger test 2 inches deep), using tap that's been siting for 24 hours to evaporate all possible chlorine. I give each tree roughly 1 cup of water per watering...(I've read that watering slowly and generously once per week is best. I do that for my peppers too. Is this recommended by anyone with success???) I've also misted them once a day with water only, at different times in the day(foliar feeding). NEVER put in full sun when misted either! Just started putting the trees in the living room during the day to get sun, but was told not to do so becuz of the magnifying power of glass. So I put them outside in the sun today for the 1st time, and one of the trees, super silver haze, limped over after 30 minutes. The other 2 did just fine in full sun at 95-100 degrees, INCLUDING the yellowing tree. Gave the SSH some water and put it in the shade, and it sprang back up after 20 minutes.
I've just tested the water for the 1st time. It measured 6.0, which I've read is perfect. I have NOT checked the ph of the soil becuz it costs WAYYYY too much $.
I tried for the 1st time today giving the yellowing tree a feeding of nutrients. I bought an all-purpose 'Colorburst' plant food with an NPK ratio of 3-1-2...24% Nitrogen, 8% Phosphate and 16% Potash. I did a roughly 35-40% solution. I've not added anything else, no teas, nothing.
No signs of any insects either. And I don't believe it's an auto flower strain.

Picture 1: Bubba Kush
Picture 2: Super Silver Haze
Picture 3: Blue Dream (problem tree)

Thanks in advance to all who respond to help. MUCH appreciated.

wild95cat Reviewed by wild95cat on 09-28-2009. 3 trees, all growing differently in the same conditions. I'm a 1st time grower. I live in Northern California (Bay Area). I got a few clones from the local medical Mary J club 2 weeks ago. They were all roughly 5 inches tall when I purchased them. One is doing great(Bubba Kush, Indica), one has only a couple leaves drooping with the rest of it looking fine(Super Silver Haze, Sativa/Indica), and the other is slowly turning yellow and dying(Blue Dream, Sativa). For now, because I'm ill-prepared becuz of $, I'm using the 5 cfl's that are in my Rating: 5

[EnhAnceD]

1. well i would have to say number one u dont have enought light. I gave each plant about 2-3 23watt bulbs for the first month, then bumped up to like 4 per plant.

2. Ur lights are not close enough. Esp if ur using 15 watters, 4 feet is WAY TOO far from the plants. cfls do not have the penetrating power of hps of MH lamps. I kept mine about 1-1.5 inch from the tops of the plants. CFL do not produce alot of heat so get them as close as u can. I found that rule of thumb was if its burning ur hand or too hot for ur hand, its too hot for the plant so test it, one inch from had is not warm/hot use one inch and so on....check out my last log.

3. Dont be affraid to transplant. I would say no more than 2-3 transplants into same medium will not affect ur plant or stun them. The reason is to get the roots to grow to the point where they are filling in the space in that size pot. Then when they are getting close to a root bound state or sooner u can put them into a bigger pot and they will purge out into the next size and fill in all that space as well. I think its a good idea that you have such a large space for when they are big b.c the bigger your root system the better your plant will be, stronger, greener, bigger buds, but when they are only a few weeks old keep them in smaller pots. this leads me on to my next point.

4. temps. Go to a hardware store, i got canadian tire where I am, and get an elictric thermometer with temp and humidity levels. 80-85 degrees is not bad, but 78% is the optimal temp. You want the atmosphere in your bathroom to be a neutral feeling, low humidity 20-40% if u can get it and like i said 78-88degrees is ok. Try not to let it get into the 90s thats a bit hot and they may get heat stressed, leaves will curl inward. Also get urself a small desk fan and put it on rotate and have the air blow on plants directly or aim it at the wall so at least there is air circulations, the air circulation will vibrate/shake the plants and simulate wind and get ur stems nice and strong, by two weeks my stems were almost as thick as pencils and they were shedding like a snake does, but i had air blowing right on them, lol had little stilts to keep them stright.


4.Watering. I will let u know, in that size of a pot/container, 1 cup of water a week is in no way way enough, even with the "random spraying", and i wouldnt recommend spraying water on your plants as once you move the lights closer, like you mentioned about being in your living room the sun will magnify and burn them, I had that a couple times from little water droplets, lamps burnned a little brown circle on a few leaves, so just save yourself the time, unless you want to spray haha go for it. If u get mites or something, u will need to spray with some sort of bug gone b.c the bugs are on the outside, the water needs to be on the roots, the leaves are only good for obtaining light. Honestly I found that, and this goes back to the size of ur container, I found that by using smaller round or square pots you can base your watering on the weight of your pot. Again if u look at my pics in my log ull see the size of mine, I used probably 3 cups of water or until a few drips would come out the bottom(another plus of using real pots, they have holes in the bottom so the excess water will run off so you dont flood ur roots and you have the oppurtunity to check your run off PH which you will have to do.)...Back to watering, basically this is where every grower has to make their custom watering. Water your plants until some runoff and lift the pots to get a feel for what they weigh right after watering, then each day after, lift her up to see what shes weighing, this will give u an idea of the water comsumption per day and help you learn when is best to add more water. The first time you do this, wait 3-5 days so you really know when there is no water, so you can tell what "out of water" feels like lol. Dont use that bull crap stick your finger in 2 inchs shit to see if its dry, you will be able to tell when it needs water by the fact that u can lift the pot with one hand or just can tell that it is much lighter. Another thing that may happen if you wait to long to water is the leaves will droop like they lost their backbone, they will get flappy sort of, like the one u left out that drooped. I once had a 2 week period where i watered every 2 days b.c she just used it so much. \

6. root development. You want ur plant to search for water at points during ur grow as well. When the roots arnt getting water they will go look for it, good rule of thumb, when checking if it needs water and your not sure b.c it feel light, and maybe you watered only a day or two ago, just dont water. your girl isnt going to die. My mom watched my girls for a week during my hunny moon, she forgot to water for 5 days, came home and they were about 1.5 feet tall at this point, they were droopy, the pots were wayyyy to light, so i watered 5 cups, some ran off and they were fine as could be. So, ya I would honestly suggest putting them in smaller circular pots, easier to lift, no scare for u in transplanting down the road, just be carefull and your roots will develope a lot faster. Also, I could be wrong but I think u want a dark surrounding for your pot. like a green pot or black one, urs is clear, and I get this from the idea of a bubble cloner, you have to tape the outside of the container with reflective tape so that it is light proof, ur roots dont need light, the leaves and such do, but u have alot of dirt in there so not sure how much light is getting threw now.

7. I used the same soil as ur bottom soil. I use 3 different kinds of miracle grow, starter soil, soil that had slow release nutes and a soil that had some perlite/humus/just normal soil. Then i went and got some perlite, nice bag and put in half of that. good amount of perlite will alow air and easy movement of roots. Iv read that mg soil is bad to use, I had no prblems with it, now I didnt use any veg nuts b.c they did so well, I did use a flower nut about 3 weeks into flower and only for 3 weeks, added 1/4 strength and that seemed to be ok. At the end of my grow, 2 weeks till eta of crop i flushed her with like 12 ltrs of ph corrected water, just water her and let all the runoff just run off, like a super over water, they say two times the amount of water ur pot will hold, but ya I used my brita water filter, britas remove the chlorine and they soften the water, my tap was at 7+ with brita it was at 6. and ya basically u want to do this once a month, and at two weeks before crop date, then 1 week before crop date stop watering. She will dry up, leaves around the bottom will yellow and then middle one will start, the plant is using the nuts from within the leaves, this will help your plant to dry faster and to give it a better taste faster as the nutrients will have been used up.

8. I might suggest as well that you turn your lights off for 4-6 hours. 24 hour light is ok, but scientifically your plants need night time. During this time the plant converts sugars into energy for the next day, they do this at night by breathing threw the tips of their leaves, again, 24 light is ok, but I would have to say that I have noticed more growth on a plant from the time the lights go out to when they turn on then from when on to off.

8. Lasy bit of advise i would suggest, when they get a bit bigger, ull notice that a lot of the fan leaves will get big, and stretch out, making it harder to position ur lights, if u had a hps u would not have to worry about this but the cfls will cause some amount of stretch, DONT CUT OFF UR FAN LEAVES. Just dont do it, even if someone else tells you it will be fine. You can tuck the fan leaves under and behind or u can snip there finger nails off lol. You know the 5 fingers, cu each finger in half or so, just like your hand, cut off your finger tips with the nail and thats what im saying, but on the plant you do really need to do alot of research before you get into this head on, google some techniques like LST training and FIMM or TOPPING training. This will alow u to utalize the light output for maximum even foilage and bud development. Man I should save this, Iv been writing for about an hour lol i started smoking and read ur post haha. Good fun. Good luck dude, I actually just got my seeds in the mail an hour ago. 5fem jack 47 and 1 L.A woman reg. They are germinating as we speek. You should set up a grow log in the growing section that way all people with indore growing experience can help u out as you go along. Good luck bud.

:rastasmoke: