complete newb to gardening, are my plants looking ok?

I'm new to the forums. I had two seeds I started from germination, just using a compost/sand mixture from my garden in the backyard. Originally it was stretched really bad (like 6inch stems) but I repotted them into small pots from walmart because its in a pc case so they need to stay smaller.

They are about 3.5 weeks old now, and I didn't have them in this pc case until last week. Currently I have 2 23w daylight cfl's and one 32 I think w soft white bulb to mix the spectrum as to what I read.

They seem to be growing slowly but faster now under these lights. I only water when completely dry which is almost every day, the high heat here and no humidity doesn't help that.

What can I do to help grow faster, more light? I'm using filtered water when I water them, water ph is at 7 where I live also have it on the 18/6 schedule.

What are you temps in the case looking like? She looks small as shit for 3.5 weeks. I'd look into getting some perlite/vermiculite added to your soil too. Using any nutes?

More lights will definitely help with growth but you need to be sure the conditions are right across the board first.
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I agree, they look tiny compared to what I've seen on here lately. The case is not sealed right now, but I have an intake fan 80mm and 120mm exhaust running 24 hours with it.

I do use foxfarm nutes right now grow big and the other one (I'm not in front of the bottle right now). I use it every other watering, sometimes every 2 watering at 1/4 strength. The first two weeks of growth I had them under a single cfl, so they've only been under these three this week.

Will some perlite help? I ad them in a real small, tall pot and had to repot them into these last week as well, c ould that be why growth is slow right now? The case temp I'm unsure of, but its maybe 80-85 degrees when running.

Oh also, this is from bagseed, one of my local growers, he grows outdoors using sunlight only. I'm not sure if that affects its growth. But it seems to take forever under those three lights

Gilboyto said:

Oh also, this is from bagseed, one of my local growers, he grows outdoors using sunlight only. I'm not sure if that affects its growth. But it seems to take forever under those three lights

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that's because you're not using much light. you can't expect too much growth out of that. I think it's probably root bound by now if you already moved it to a smaller pot.

very small you prob is it prob cant breath no perlite or anything to loosen it up a bit roots need oxygen you plant is stunted cuz its compacted roots and dont listen to the other guys you have plenty of light for right now you will need more when i starts to grow tho

Er sorry I may have confused everyone. I actually had both plants in a single pot that was skinnier and I moved them to these small ones and seperated last week. When I did the root ball was small, and I buried the stretched stem last week as well.

The root ball was maybe the size of a nickel when I did it. I think with my sand/compost combo from the back yard the soil is compacted too like you said. How much perlite should I mix in?

Lights are now above pointing down towards them, maybe 1-2" above the plants.

yeah man small for 3.5 weeks

Thanks guys for the tips. I noticed one plant was stretching a little so I put the lamps closer to it for now but the other one pictures above seemsto be doing well. Is it normal around this time for the baby leaves to be yellowing and coming off? The bladed leaves look perfect.

I will be going to get perlite today after working, what's the best way to mix this in soil without shocking the plants??

Took a moment to mix in the soil perlite and vermculite. Hope I didn't add too much to this but prior to I noticed my pots were drying out so fast, not even one day, but since I added this its been ~13 hours ago and they're still moist which is a plus. The stem I had buried before didn't have any new root growth, hopefully that changes soon!

Here's a new pic of it. I may try and find larger bulbs because I have 3 bulbs right now but lower wattage...

Not sure if anyone is still lookin to give pointers anymore. Lol. But I think I got a lot of the issues sorted out. I'm pretty sure it was getting hot as hell in my pc box. I added a faster moving fan up front to cool more, and a second exhaust fan. Its been growing better now....just slow because I'm only using like 5000 lumens total in this case.

Maybe I can get some larger wattage bulbs to grow faster?