My plants are too close

[ookami]

Hello. I'm new to both this forum as well as to growing. This is my first attempt att growing cannabis. I wasn't sure about how I should do to germinate the seeds, and thought I had failed with most of them, but I planted them anyway. At the moment, three of them have grown about an inch over the soil, and it seems like there are a few more that will come up during the next 24 hours. Two of them are very close, about two inches apart, which I think is bad:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4397/tooclose.jpg
These two plants weren't visible at all 24 hours ago. I took this photo only 20 minutes ago. I think I could move one of them into another pot at this moment. But I want to make sure their roots haven't become entangled in each other already. Am I right in that assumption?

I have a 150W HPS lamp, which I haven't started using yet. I just sprinkle the plants with water from time to time right now. There are some other plants which are starting to grow up above the soil, and I expect them to reach the same stage next day. I suppose I should wait until they develop leafs before I turn on the lamp. Am I right about this? Right now, I can see they are starting to get leaves in close ups:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3409/closeup1p.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6176/closeup2z.jpg
For me, it looks like the leaves are still inside the seed shells.

ookami Reviewed by ookami on 09-29-2010. My plants are too close Hello. I'm new to both this forum as well as to growing. This is my first attempt att growing cannabis. I wasn't sure about how I should do to germinate the seeds, and thought I had failed with most of them, but I planted them anyway. At the moment, three of them have grown about an inch over the soil, and it seems like there are a few more that will come up during the next 24 hours. Two of them are very close, about two inches apart, which I think is bad: Rating: 5

[Rusty Trichome]

One plant per pot is the limit. The plants will compete for the nutrients, and all of them will suffer. Later on in life they'll need more elbow room anyway.

Prepare seperate cups or pots with soil and use a fork to carefully 'dig under' the roots of one plant at a time, and transplant into it's own cup.
Make sure to go easy on the roots, and that the soil is fairly moist.

[ookami]

Thanks for the advice! I have moved the plant to another pot which had failed to develop any plants. I have two other pots that developed single plants, so now I have for pots with one plant in each. The plant I moved, is actually the first to develop real leafs. The other plants still has to get rid of the seed shells. But I think it's only a question of time. I was a bit worried about the plant I moved, so I'm pleasantly surprised. Now I have turned on the hps lamp and an industrial quality fan to suck out air from the growing tent. I have a humidifier in one of the intake vents, so it wont be to dry. And I still sprinkle the plants at several times a day.

[Rusty Trichome]

How big are the pots they are in now? Just curious why you're providing the additional humidity and spraying. If the soil is drying-out too quickly, I'd water a tad more often and cut-back on the humidity and sprinkling. (unless the ambient (local) humidity is under 20% to 30% or so) It's usually unnecessary unless your HPS is too close for the youngsters and can cause a mold issue if overdone. Make the roots do their job. :thumbsup:

[ookami]

11 L/3 gallons.

I provided the extra humidity because i found that the humidity were about 30-40%. I think i can stop using the humidifier by now, because the plants seems to grow well now. All of them have four large leaves, and some very small leaves now.

[leftreartire]

Hello. I'm new to both this forum as well as to growing. This is my first attempt att growing cannabis. I wasn't sure about how I should do to germinate the seeds, and thought I had failed with most of them, but I planted them anyway. At the moment, three of them have grown about an inch over the soil, and it seems like there are a few more that will come up during the next 24 hours. Two of them are very close, about two inches apart, which I think is bad:
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4397/tooclose.jpg
These two plants weren't visible at all 24 hours ago. I took this photo only 20 minutes ago. I think I could move one of them into another pot at this moment. But I want to make sure their roots haven't become entangled in each other already. Am I right in that assumption?

I have a 150W HPS lamp, which I haven't started using yet. I just sprinkle the plants with water from time to time right now. There are some other plants which are starting to grow up above the soil, and I expect them to reach the same stage next day. I suppose I should wait until they develop leafs before I turn on the lamp. Am I right about this? Right now, I can see they are starting to get leaves in close ups:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3409/closeup1p.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6176/closeup2z.jpg
For me, it looks like the leaves are still inside the seed shells.

welcome to the world of growing. i am new to the site also but i am not new to growing. what i recommend that you do is get your self a few more pot/solo cups and fill them with dirt and the use a table spoon as a shovel and remove those gerninated seeds to other pot/cups and grow them up big and strong. place a few rocks/stones/hydroton on the bottom of the cups and them put a few holes in the bottoms of the cups to allow for great drainage. when they get bigger you can transplant them in to bigger pots and flower them to be good for your havest

[ookami]

Well, I don't have the room for anymore pots in my groving space. I have already throwed away the extra plants. I guess I have to see it as learning moneys (a swedish expression for the cost of beginner errors in case you don't know what I mean). Anyway, the four plants that I do have, are steadily growing.

[attachment=o257818]
This photo is taken on saturday October 16. The other plants have developed equally.

[ookami]

I think I could continue to post the progress of the plants.

[attachment=o258116]
This is the plant I have posted images of before. This is actually the most developed plant. The others are behind. This is not what I expected, since this plant is the one I replanted in an other pot.

[attachment=o258117]
This is all plants. One is hidden behind the largest plant. The hidden one seems smaller than it is. I discovered that the fabric I use to water the plant, didn't reach the water reservoir below the pots. I adjusted it by pulling down the fabric. It turned out that the plants roots had grown attached to the fabric, so the plant it self where pulled down into the soil by an inch or so.

Today I changed to a flowering cycle. I have read at the seed bank where I bought my white widow seeds, that it should be OK to start flowering after about two weeks of groving, and I think I have waited longer than that. That depends on how you count. I'm not sure if the first week counts, when the plants hardly hadn't got any leaves. But it is at least two weeks of vegetative growth now.

Tomorrow I will travel away for a week. I'm worried about how the plants will grow, but I think it will be OK. I have set up an automatic watering system. That's what the fabric into the water reservoir is about. The reservoir is supplied with water from a large bucket outside the tent. I have tested it during the vegetative period, and it seems to work fine. Today I added nutrients for flowering (HESI Bloom-Complex NPK-fertilizer). I have added less than the recommendation, because I'm afraid of overnutrition, which I understand is a bad thing. I figure that if it turns out the plants needs more, I can always add more later. I added the nutrient to the bucket outside the tent, because I figure it is good if the nutrient reach the plants succesively instead of immediately. HESI recommends 50 ml/10 litres. I added 50 ml to the outside bucket which I think I have filled with more than 20 litres judging from the weight of the bucket. There is still room for more water. I guess the bucket could hold about 40-50 litres. I don't know if there is a danger of the nutrient sedimenting in the supplying tube from the bucket into the reservoir below the pots, and therefore stopping the water flow. I guess it will work.

I can actually feel a small odour which resembles a little bit of cannabis now. I now this odour should appear during the flowering stage. It is very small, and then I close the tent, I can't feel it. The outgoing air runs through a carbon filter. To give a clue to about how strong the odour is, I have previously ordered mail order cannabis in vacuum sealed packages from Canada. When I have opened the packages, the mail order cannabis has had a much stronger odour. I guess the plants will have much more odour within a few weeks, but now it is probably only the first signs of a flowering stage. If I'm correct, that means that the flowering may have started already when I used the vegetative cycle. I can also see small outgrowths on the plants which I think could be the beginning of the first buds.

[ookami]

I'm back, and the plants have grown without any problem.

[attachment=o258692]

[ookami]

Now they are getting too close to the hps lamp, which I have raised about as high as I can:

[attachment=o259055]

I have installed a plastic net in order to try some kind of scrog. Maybe it is a little bit to late to start thinking about scrog this far into the flowering stage. But there isn't much more space for the plants to grow in now.

[attachment=o259057]
It looks like the flowering process is continuing as it should as far as I can see.

[attachment=o259056]
This leaf is close to the pot. There are a few more leaves down there that look like this. Most other leaves looks fine. I have given the plants nutrients at a much lower level than the recommendation on the nutrient bottle. Since the plants grow steadily and fast, I don't see any reason to increase the nutrients. But maybe I should consider lowering the nutrient level, or maybe simply stop giving the plant nutrients?