experimental grow b4 real grow

Hello. First post on this forum and already done a ton of research and reading. Thanks to all for taking the time to share your experiences. I can't even explain how much I have already learned and the time has come to apply my research to some real world experience. So, that being said, I already need some direction. I figured it best to start small and get some of the rookie mistakes out of the way so I can get going on a real set up.

Please take a look at pix below and any feedback is greatly welcomed. I am buying a PH kit today and I think my problem at this point is Ph, not the best soil, and prob. a bit of overwatering but I am NO EXPERT.

Note: Leaving plant outdoors during day (which is why you see the cotton wood fuzz or whatever that is stuck to a couple areas of the plant) for about 6 hours and then it is left inside on the window ledge (in sun) for another 5 or so hours per day. Water every other day probably and was judging that based on dryness of soil. It is dry here in Colorado so I think I may have been overcompensating. Using few drops of miracle grow per quart of water with filtered water (just had it lying around, prob need some better nutes too). Again, this is a trial to work out the kinks for my next and more seriuos grow.

TIA to everyone for taking a look...

Smoke

Here are a few more pix. Still working on the settings on this camera so you all can see exactly what I am seeing... work in progress..

TIA

~Smoke~

well for one your light was too far away, that's why the plant is stretching like that and has to be held up.

another thing, and this is worse. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing signs of spidermite damage here...

Whatever you have tying it down needs to come off.
When this is indoors do you have a fan running by it?
This will also help bulk up that tiny stem.
Also mirice grow really hurts more than helps in most cases. I know it's easy to find if you don't have a specialty garden store near you. I personally use foxfarm but shultz 10-15-10 is also very easy to find at home depot or lowes, places like that, and I find its alot more effictive that miricle grow.
Nutrients are very important so I sUggest before the "real grow" You should try to pick some up.
Happy growing!!!

stop with the ferts for a little while longer if u can trans plant in to some good store bought soil and get her in to the sun it will take off.once it starts looking healthy then give it some nutes, mix it weak if using MG.the sun and good soil will cure everything my friend welcome to roll it up!!!!

Mystik said:

well for one your light was too far away, that's why the plant is stretching like that and has to be held up.

another thing, and this is worse. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing signs of spidermite damage here...

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Yes, I started it under the incorrect lighting and it def. stretched it. - Lesson #1 learned.

I hope that isn't spidermite but you could be right on that... Son of a...

Shylas...no fan... prob should invest. Money isn't a problem but wanted to keep trial grow at low cost and then invest in everything that I'll need for real grow. Def. getting foxfarm. Was thinking of doing PC case grow but that is a bit small... Not sure what I will end up with but def. nutes, fan, lights, etc. Want to do it right and still need the element of concealment as I am in an apt.

madcow... def. stopped the miracle grow, sticking with filtered water (less than before), and will look into some different soils when picking up my ph kit.

Thanks for the quick replies. I want to go a bit bigger than PC case but still need that element of concealment. Any ideas? Also, I keep reading of people testing ph. Can you test ph of soil? I know how to test the water before using it but how can I tell what the ph is of the soil? How can you flush a soil grow? Just stop the nutes and use filtered water for a bit to run everything through?

Gracias... Wow, so much to learn... I never would have thought! And, yes, I am striving for beautiful results. Eventually, I suspect, this will be something I'll take great pride in!

~Smoke~

yes you can buy ph test kits for soil...to flush a soil grow u simply pour water in to the soil till u have a nice stream coming out the holes in the pot ...yes a PC grow is way too small ...get her in the sun as much as possible!! good luck

madcow said:

yes you can buy ph test kits for soil...to flush a soil grow u simply pour water in to the soil till u have a nice stream coming out the holes in the pot ...yes a PC grow is way too small ...get her in the sun as much as possible!! good luck

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She's going to get as much sun as possible. Heading out to buy ph test kit for soil as well as some new soil prob. I'll post results after testing ph.

Thanks bro!

^^ NP my friend any time

ok...so....Tested PH of soil with bullshit $7 kit that allows me 4 tests until it is useless. Anyway, soil checked out. Ph is neutral, right about 7 maybe a bit under. I am using Scotts brand potting soil (said to be pretty good soil) and got to thinking that there are a couple factors that have recently changed in my neck of the woods... We are seeing more rain and humidity than this state has seen in several years. Humidity levels have been very high, temperatures in the upper 80's and low 90's and I have been leaving her sit outside between about 9:00a.m. and 1:30p.m. (not the hottest part of the day) and then she sits inside on the window ledge in the sun the rest of the time. I'm beginning to think that keeping the reg. watering schedule with the high humidity and I did mist the leaves a time or two may all be playing a role here....

I am posting some pix I took outside that more clearly show what the problem is. I've searched a ton and seen pix for common problems as well as individual (less common) issues and really haven't seen any that look like mine do. Thoughts? This happened within about a 2, maybe 3 day period and isn't getting better. I think it has slowed/stopped (maybe) but I def. don't want it coming back around or getting worse. I bought some shultz 10-15-10 yesterday and put about 5 drops in a quart of water and gave it a tiny bit of that solution. You'll notice in the third pic, it has moved up to higher branches... oh, how that pisses me off....

Is a hydro system more user friendly? I'm finding posts that people get away from soil after so many failed attempts and go to hydro with little hassle. Can anyone share their experience with the two different methods and make a recommendation for a first timer not wanting to fall on his face a whole lot (even tho it's probably going to happen anyway )

Thanks Peoples! Much appreciated....

~SMOKE~

first of STOP all nutes !!it to young for nutes... did u flush b4 u transplanted ??if not all that nasty stuff that fucked u in the first place is still there.and no hydro is way more hassle IMO.soil is simple and your making it hard that's why you fucked your little plant sorry dude..like i said good soil and lots of sun is all u need,anything else your doin at this stage is hurting it.you might want to start a new seed with your good soil and dont use any nutes till its at least 30 days old.

put it in a bigger pot fill it up with soil all the way to where the leaf growth starts u dont need that long ass stem and the more fresh soil the better.

sorry im in a bad mood and i dont know why and its my B day

madcow said:

sorry im in a bad mood and i dont know why and its my B day

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All good Madcow. HAPPY B-DAY!! I'll take a few tokes for ya when I get home from work. And, no, I am not sending this FROM work either...

Anyway, hope your day gets better... shit, it'z your b-day for cryin out loud.

Now, let me clarify a few things... I didn't transplant. I just identified what the soil was b/c I was unsure until I went and looked at the bag. Nothing with the soil changed other than I did flush it anyway just because I thought you were right about the nutes. That being said, however, this plant (believe it or not) is over a month old. It is about 2 months old and I think it is just growing very slow (limited light - not ideal conditions) and I have probably stunted its growth in some way shape or form as well. I will stop with the nutes... go filtered water only and let it get as much sun as I can. Just going to leave it for a bit and see if it comes back around.

Do you see the black lines in the leaves in that third pic? WTF is that? That is how it looks... it isn't just the camera making it appear that way.

Fingers crossed...

~Smoke~

Also, it's perfectly ok if I screwed this one up. That is why this is my experimental. Once I feel like I'm MUCH, MUCH closer to ready... I'll go out and spend the money on all the crap I'm going to need. It's a process but I'm sure well worth it in the end.

Wish I was past the trial and error point but gotta learn to crawl before you can walk and damnit, I want to RUN!!!

hey man thx...my day did get better ya i see the black things ive seen it before i have no idea what it is,but im sure someone on here dose...i think you should transplant it, i think that woud help it out alot

I would really appreciate it if I could get some feed back on what went wrong with the plant in the attached pix. As this was originally titled "experimental grow", it has been exactly that and I think the time has come to pull the plant. I fear it is going to die anyway and that it is just a matter of time. That said, I want to take a close look at the roots to see if I can possibly determine what went wrong.

The stats:

She was growin in soil with a fan on her about 18 hours a day. I stretched her initally under the wong light as you can see. Ph tested good (6.0) and it got regular sunlight from either sitting on the window ledge that gets almost a full day of sunlight every day or sometimes I would put it outside (directly in sunlight). I have a feeling that this problem was either due to over/under watering, too hot of temps while sitting outside (max temp probably 92 or so but wouldn't stay out there more than a couple hours at a time in that heat before I brought it in), or some sort of bugs/gnats got too it. I was feeding it the recommended solution of shultz 10-15-10 but not until it was probably at least 4-5 weeks old. I looked at the bag of soil and it had some weak (.05-.1-.05) mix or somethin like that already in the soil.

My order just came in. It was concealed in a CD case and I can't wait to try out one or two of the free ones they sent. I'm thinking that I may do one more experimental grow as I am finding out I have a lot to learn. If I can prove to myself that I can grow this beautiful sweetie, then I will work on some of the acutal seeds I ordered.

I am looking for any/all feedback I can get on what I should be looking for. I'm going to take a close look at the roots of this one to see what I can find out (but have no idea what I should be looking for). Also, any feedback from looking at the pix and considering the info above would be much appreciated too!

Thanks to everyone for any help and I hope to get a handle on this soon (or at least a better handle). I hate to tear this one down but I don't think it's going anywhere.

~SMOKE~

^^ Bump Anyone??? I would really appreciate some help. TIA

SMOKE

in the last pics it looks like slight under-watering and some sort of nutrient deficiency.... go the plant "problem" thread and look for "yellowing of lower leaves" and "yellowing of old leaves"

dude don't kill it.its alive...you didn't do anything i told u to do that's why the plant hasn't changed....transplant+sunlight =happy plant that simple good luck