My First Indoor Grow Challange

Hi,
My 2 small seedlings seem very slow growing. I sprouted the seeds using the paper towel method and they quickly spouted up in the soil after I had planted them. But they have not seemed to have progressed. The first one actually bent over so I had to put more potting mix around them as it looked like they had got too tall for their size. What is stopping them from growing faster? I thought they might be over watered so I stopped watering them, not sure it was that? I also have changed the light position from higher to lower and vice versa plus tried opening up the box to let in more air. It looks like they are going to survive, only just which is good as I thought they might die.

These two small seedlings are about 5 days since potted while the larger one is about 2.5 weeks and the first week it grew under filtered sunlight inside from the window.

As for the larger one, this has gone well although it has always been slightly bent so I just propped it up with tooth pics to get it straight. It seems to be a little light colored and I thought it should be a darker green. Maybe it is a nitrogen deficiency?

I plan to get a PH Kit in the next few days and I will get a reading on the potting mix. The two smaller seedlings are using a premium mix while the older one is using a basic organic one.

I'm using 2 x 48 watt cfl cool lights + 1 48 watt natural cfl (the one in the dark holder) plus there is a 15 watt one on there as well.

These are in a temporary Box which is lined with tin foil and it has quite a bit of ventilation in holes and I leave the door partly open. The average temperature is around 20 - 22 Celsius.

I have just purchased the materials to build a large plywood box and I plan to build that this coming week...

I will update this regularly and I would appreciate any tips and feedback.

It's quite important I get this right as I have only these three seedlings and no more seeds

The guys/gals who can help are gonna want to know a few things:

How many plants you got going?
We've established you're in soil, what are you feeding, if anything? What kind of soil are you using? You pretty much have to know the pH of A: your tap water, and B: the run-off water from the drain trays.
You got fans on 'em? A breeze will stiffen up those stems.
Seedlings will need more water than an adult plant, seedlings won't need to be fed until they get their first set of true leaves (+ or - 3 to 4 weeks)
While you are waiting for a response, try reading the FAQ, or google growing pot. LOADS of info, oft times informational overload for the newbie. Good luck, and hang out.

Well you should def use a fan to stiffen the stems. As far as growth goes, they are young. Often in the first stages, especially after replanting, they will invest a lot of energy into establishing a root system rather than foliage. Id give it a little time. My guess is, unless you've screwed something big up, they will spring into action before long.

Ok I will get a fan in there soon and that sounds like good advice. I'm planning to have an exust PC fan and passive inlets with a fan blowing air in my new box I will be buidling this coming week.

How many plants you got going?

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Just these 3 seedligs and this is it, I have no more seeds and I don't know anyone around here to get more plus I'm not able to import them. So I really hope to get at least one female out of these I can clone and then get seed as well.

what are you feeding?

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Nothing, just tap water (not too cold) but I plan on using feeds when they are a little older.

What kind of soil are you using? You pretty much have to know the pH of A: your tap water, and B: the run-off water from the drain trays.

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Just potting mix. I went to a few shops to buy Perlite but it's not easy to find here but I will try another garden shop this week and I plan to put a mix together and tranplant them but I will wait until they are a bit stronger. The older one could be transplanted soon I guess.

Seedlings will need more water than an adult plant

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Ok I will keep an eye on the water thanks!

Id give it a little time. My guess is, unless you've screwed something big up, they will spring into action before long

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ok that sounds good, I will keep this post updated with pics etc on the progress...

I ended up picking up a PH kit from my local garden center. I found it just shows a lime green color on both potting mixes I have which going by their chart would mean a PH around 5 - 6, it's a little difficult to know exactly. So I guess I would need to add lime to make it higher. I think I will get a digital meter as well and will then be able to measure the water etc as well and hopefully it will be a bit easier to get a true reading.

I also purchased a bag of Perlite, a bag of vermiculite, blood & bone and some organic seaweed liquid fertilizer. I was going to also buy some coco but I don't think they sold it.

The older plant is going quite well still although the leaves still looks a little light and have a slight curl and I think I might start giving it some seaweed in the water once a week. The two young ones have hardly changed size and they are very small so I thought I could replant one of these into a mix of 30% potting mix, 40% Perlite, 20% vermiculite, 10% organic compost and a handful of blood & bone. How does that sound for a mix? Is there anything I need to know for replanting this seedling? I will also replant the other two plants later if this shows positive results.

Here is an update:

The two small seedlings really just did nothing for several days and the small one nearly died while the larger, older plant powered ahead.

I then decided to change the soil as I think it had too much bark in it and it looked to be stopping the seedlings from growing. I used a mix of around 35% Perlite, 20% vermiculite, 20% potting mix, 5% blood & bone and 15% organic compost. I kept the small plants in the same containers for now and I put the older plant into a larger container which has quite large holes at the bottom (pre done).

I gave them a good watering with some seaweed mix. It has been about 5 days now since then including another watering and I also put the seedlings out into the sun for a few hours yesterday and they have picked up well (considering they were nearly dead).

The older plant is looking quite good and it is very bushy with sprouts coming out in all directions, is this normal and ok? It seems to be growing a new set of leaves every few days. One interesting thing I noticed with that plant is that once I repotted it, the color became a lot better and there were no more curly leafes etc. Also, before it had a strong skunky smell but now that has gone.

This older plant also has a slight light streaking in some of the upper leaves nearer to the lights. Would this be from the lights been too close? They are several inches away and I thought they would be ok.

The main 3 lights are 48 watt CFL (true watts) so they would equal 240watts each. The two closer ones above the plants are cool 5000k while the one in the dark lamp holder is a 48watt natural 3000k and then there is the small 15 watt house light in there as well. I will be looking at buying a few more of these 48 watt bulbs for my new box (more on that later...)

I have attached some pics and you can also see I have added a PC fan today just to blow some air into the plants to make them stronger. The temperature has actually risen since I added the fan which is interesting, I thought it would cool it down. The temp is now about 28c (82f) where before it was around 24c. I also added a bowl of water in the box a few days ago to raise humidity.

I have also finished painting my new large box today. I decided to use an old closet that is quite large with 3 growing areas, it is about 6 foot high. I will add one more coat of white paint in the morning and then drill my holes for my fans etc. I hope to have that ready to use tomorrow.

Feedback and ideas welcome, still a noob here!

edit: I forgot to say the older plant had lots of good roots that had already outgrown the old container so I think moving it to the larger container will help. Also this plant is a lot bigger than it look in this pic as it wasn't a very good angle. It is also a fair bit darker green and the photo is a little over exposed. it only has a few lighter colored streaks in some top leaves and the photo looks a bit dramatic. Can someone please tell me what those streaks of lighter colour could be?

thanks to fdd2blk for moving this thread here to CFL after I requested it.

finished most of the painting of new box today and tommorow I hope to get all the fans and inlets drilled etc. I think it will be another 2 days before it's ready.

The fan I put in broke so I found a good quality Zalman fan and replaced it with that, it's also nice and quiet. The plants seem to like the air and they are looking great today. More soon.....

Ok I have some new pics and updates. First thing is my new wardrobe is ready and I put my plants in it last night. Well, it is an old 3 partition wardrobe that I painted and repaired. It has the 2 main compartments which is actually one large open part with 2 doors and then on the right I have a single compartment which I will use for flowering or cloning etc. I still need to tweak a few things and finish the fans in the flowering partition plus I need to make the whole thing light tight.

The 2 smaller plants have picked up a lot since I changed the soil as I wrote previously and the older plant is powering on and looking good.

There are 3 X 48 watt natural (5000k) cfls above the plants plus one 28 watt natural above them too now. I also have the one 48 watt Warm white (3000k) in there as well which is the one in the stand.

There is an exhaust fan at the top which is a 120" PC fan and I have the one smaller fan at the bottom right as a blower to cool them with air which are powered by a 12 v adapter. There is also 3 passive inlets running along the bottom which are covered with breathing masks cut to size and taped in place. The exhaust fan has some ducting taped to it on the outside and that will be going into my house wall air vents and that can be seem in the pics.

I have one question, how does my lighting look, should I place more lights in there? I purchased more 48 watt lights and a bunch of 28 watters a few days ago if I need them.

Any feedback and comments appreciated!

Keep those lights as close as possible around 2 inches that will keep your plants bushy and keep them from stretching just watch for the leaves to curl up (HEAT ISSUE) if that is happenining move them away a little and as for more lights???? THE MORE LIGHT THE BETTER!!!!! Just as long as you don't have heat/temp issues get as many as ya can in there dude!!!!

And your plants are lookin good BTY!! Good luck friend

[QUOTE="SmokinForever";2743539]Keep those lights as close as possible around 2 inches that will keep your plants bushy and keep them from stretching just watch for the leaves to curl up (HEAT ISSUE) if that is happenining move them away a little and as for more lights???? THE MORE LIGHT THE BETTER!!!!! Just as long as you don't have heat/temp issues get as many as ya can in there dude!!!![/QUOTE]
Ok I moved them down a little although I don't mind if they get as tall as the box will let them and it is nearly 6 foot in there i think. I'm planning to keep the large plant in veg as a mother plant for quite awhile and take clones off her (if she is a female). The temp is around 25 c and I will install another small blower fan on the other side near the smaller plants. I will also get some more light holders and run some of the other cfl's bulbs I have.

thanks a lot for your feedback SmokinForever!

No problem bro keep postin pics cause i'm gonna watch your grow!!!!

[QUOTE="SmokinForever";2745387]No problem bro keep postin pics cause i'm gonna watch your grow!!!![/QUOTE]

thanks, here are some new pics and I'm about to start a new thread in the Plant Health forum soon as well as I have some brown tinging on the tips of the leaves on the smaller plants. edit - here is that thread: https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/216009-heat-stress-nute-burn.html

Otherwise they are going well. I took a few bottom leaves off the older plant as it was a little crowded and I needed something to put in my vapourizer, nice smoke for leaf too.

I have nearly sealed off the doors etc leaking light using electrical tape. I also put another 48watt (natural) light in there too.

I plan on transplanting the smaller plants into large containers tommorrow as well...

I decided to flush my plants yesterday as it looks like salt etc was getting to them. I also found out my water has a PH of 7.8 pH and my nutes take it up over 9 and I wrote about that here.

So I gave them a feed of nutes & water earlier as the leaves were going a very light green after the flush so I thought they might be needed some nutes again. Just after that I found out about the high PH in water & nutes so I then gave them a second water of water & vinegar at around 4.3 PH.

I'm now going to boil a few jugs of water every few days and let it sit so I will have distilled water to feed them. I will now make sure the PH is at a good level for each water by bringing it down with Rice wine vinegar and I will keep a close eye on how that works. If ivinegar doesn't work well I will look into other PH changing methods.

I might also hook up a drum or something to my garage roof to drain the rain water into.

I think I added another 48w light the other day too. I also added another small fan close to the smaller plants to blow more air from that side. I did notice the temps rose up to 29c after that which is interesting as I thought it would have brought them down but it might have been from shifting the temp gauge slightly? I'm probably going to add another exhaust fan in there soon to.

rite on man, lookin nice, plants look healthy and very bushy. so what are u planning on using to flower?

NeoAnarchist said:

rite on man, lookin nice, plants look healthy and very bushy. so what are u planning on using to flower?

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thanks, since I don't have anymore seeds and it would be hard for me to get some I thought I should try and clone the large older plant and keep it in veg as a mother plant. It seems to be growing quite rapidly as are the others, yesterday morning the plants were 30cm, 8cm and 5 cm high each. Today they are 38cm, 9cm & 7cm each.

I have to work out the best stage to start taking cuttings from this large plant, if anyone knows anything about cloning etc it would help.

watchout tho man, the ones that have the most growth are usually males, i wouldnt doubt it if it was. clone it asap and flower the clone after it roots and see.

ok, I'm going to get them all healthy and then I'll take some clones. I gave them their first proper Ph Watering today and after I added some nutes I got the water to PH 6.8 and gave them a good drink. I also repotted one of the smaller plants into a nice large pot. The roots were stretching the small pot and I will also repot the others as soon as I pick up some more perlite and vermiculite in the next few days. I also added another 120 PC exhaust fan yesterday. More pics soon...

I forgot to say that I'm still hoping this older plant will be a female but we will find out soon... It has grown quite fast but it might be just from good care and it is several weeks older than the other two plants which were very stunted (as in earlier pics) for weeks. This older plant to me from my outdoor growing experience does seem to look like a female as it has a very strong trunk and is quite bushy, not stretchy, high and weedy like a lot of males I have seen. fingers crossed but then again I would like one male out of these 3 plants so I can get some seed for future planting so I don't have to keep taking cuttings.

ya, hopefully it'll be a female and those 2weeks made that difference, i just know in my experience that the ones that grow the most are the ones u need to watch close. but then again i have pretty good ratios goin, first grow with bagseeds was 5/5 were females, and the next time was 1/3 were males.