Trying indoor CFL and dirt. Great Googly Moogly. Pics from the first week.

soil pH was over 7. It's down to about 6 now. I'm trying to get it down and keep it down. My water comes off the tap at 7.2 and getting it down to 5.5 was fun. The little one appears to be maybe perking up a tad. The big one has lost 4 of its big fan leaves. They went all brown so I trimmed them. There's a little blacking on the edges of the still green leaves and there's inter veinal banding happening on the top of it.

So it looks like the big one is in pretty deep nute lock and I might be able to save the little one.

keep in mind you are growing a weed they are very ressilient . A little stumble along the way may slow down or stunt the plant, but usually you can get them to come around. You have a nice looking set-up and you are looking in the right places for info you'll get it. Good Luck keep this thread going. The HPS light you got will help keep the plants short and stocky which is good in a cab grow

thanks for the encouragement. I can really use it about now. I'm a little obsessive about things and I don't handle it well when I begin to fail. Usually causes me to lose sight of the goal and redouble my efforts.

i have always heard that most people over-water when they are worried. let it dry out for a week. when the pot its in feels really light, water it. if you feel the absolute need to water, use half as much as you normally would. I have always grown outside, but i have attached a link to my first indoor grow. its going wonderfully and i have only been using a beer bottle or so worth of water every five to seven days. granted it's an auto-flowering so it's a little smaller. plus, like everyone says, its a weed, these things are resilient as hell. they will pull through.
https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/369726-easy-ryder-indoor-cfl.html

I'm going to try to not look at it for a couple days and hope for the best. While that's happening I'm putting together my 2nd setup. Thinking of walling off a bit of the garage with plastic sheeting and making a much larger area (6'x6' square-ish) that I can control temp/humidity/etc... in better and have a little more room to work in.

I'm assuming 3mil black plastic sheet (or better yet 3mil opaque white plastic sheet) is fine for the light barrier? Links to anything appropriate would be appreciated. Think teepee configuration inside a finished garage.

dont give up. My father and I grew a beautiful Silver Haze female with an open area in the shop, one all-purpose plant bulb, and patience. The plant yielded 1/2 oz. and that was with minimal time, funds, and effort invested. You could have stayed with the CFLs and it would have worked. I had a 400W HPS at the time of this grow and didn't use it because of the immense heat and the fact my pops germinated the damn seed before I could construct a grow box. MJ is very resilient and WILL recover if you just let it adapt to the environment and don't overheat or over-hydrate...it is a weed after all. That plant sag was almost definitely over-hydration. Go without water for a while and lower the heat. I like the knife by the way. That is one of my father's hobbies as well. He has a couple of damascus blanks, but has yet to use them to my disappointment. He has a wood lathe that he uses to make the handles. He uses wood that is exotic, but not endangered. I have one he made that looks exactly like a USMC K-bar. Like I said about the grow, don't give up. What strain are you growing?

they're chem-4's.

I put together a better constructed wardrobe box tonight and moved everything into it. It's got MUCH better heat management and airflow and the lighting situation is better set up now. I'll get pics in the morning. I cut off a couple of the really far gone leaves. I don't want it spending energy trying to save heavily damaged leaves when it's got a bunch more that are in way better shape.

My new box has the fan flush mounted to the case, 2 air exits (for a little swirl), and a big maintenance door. I also managed the cords and all that jazz better in this version. My HPS is set up with an adjustable mount so I can raise it as the plants grow. The fan and the box are also capable of being lifted so if they pop too tall I can respond appropriately.

The little one is looking sad but not in immediate direct peril. The big one really has be concerned. Now that I have the soil pH and water pH (flushed em yesterday with something properly acidic), how long on average should I expect to go before seeing some evidence that I've not got additional problems or a continuation of the same problem. I guess what I'm asking is what sort of response rapidity do we tend to see in them when coming out of nute lock and or overwatering (both of which are likely current conditions)

I had an issue with over watering (and over heating from a plant light) in my first grow and it took the plant about 3 days without water and that stupid bulb to recover most of the way. My leaves were completely limp and they came back just fine. But honestly, I know nothing about nute lock. :/ I know people say never to trim leaves, but I've always heard outside of growing MJ that if leaves turn colors, they're useless, so I think you have the right idea with that. Really hope things start looking up for you. Keep us updated.

The more I look at the plants the more I believe it's overwatering. Plants that droop like that but don't claw up or burn are usually overwatered. What soil mixture are you using?

there's some burn, striping yellowing, speckling and blackening edges. They're probably still overwatered at this point but the pH screw up was going to fully kill them.

The big one is looking still bad. The little one still looking like it might pull through. 1 of the big fan leaves on the little one picked up a bit. The new growth areas on the big one are still pretty good n' green so there's still hope. They've been getting a little foliar feeding but no other water.

New pics, mostly of the new box.
Elvis says what up.


peering in from the fan hole, tormenting my camera


more with the peering and torment


HID light elevation management and cable management such as it is.


Darkness falls on eden.


Temps are way down. Mid 70's now during lights-on time so only a 10 degree shift from "night" to "daytime". Much better than the 20 from before. The new fan setup also blows the plants about a bit. the other one lacked the flow efficiency. The little trap doors on the bottom close when the fan turns off and puff open when the lights and fan come on.

you are definitely doing the right thing by cutting the dying leaves. No need to waste energy on dying leaves. The plants will perk up after the excess water drains and the soil can replace the water with air. I did the same thing on my first indoor grow. I was living in coastal NC at the time and decided to take a trip to Raleigh for the weekend. I said, "fuck it, if they live they live and if not...I will start over!" I had the lights on a timer. I came back Sunday and the plants looked excellent. I think sometimes as a grower, we pay way too much attention to something that has thrived millions of years without our help. That is what I learned that weekend. Especially when you grow with soil. Alot less effort is required, but hydro and aero is a different monster. I had a batch of hydro that I screwed up by using too many nutes and it happened so quick that I had to transplant them to soil or lose them. Redneck you are doing well, so keep it up.

Plant looks like it needs a little more air, but it looks like you added some fans already.

Temperature in the low 80's should not be a problem. The PH level might be the problem here and your working on that too. Keep us updated

the downward slide continued and the big one was getting kinda crispy in places so I've taken a drastic step and re-planted them in a much better soil that's significantly drier. I used (yeah I know but please pass on the giving me sh1t thing for now, resource and time limits are in play) a bag of miracle grow african violet soil, it's pH balanced to about 6.2 right out of the bag. I mixed that with an equal amount of new miracle grow perlite with fertilizer. It's a much looser pack dirt than the previous stuff and there's 5x more perlite in this mix for better drainage. It's a slightly smaller container but I'm not so concerned about that right now as their basic survival.

Other than that I'm continuing to basically ignore them.

Pics when I get a chance.

Had a "consultant" help me out. Man was I bonin' the pooch. Suffice it to say that I had made a series of errors and that just goes to show that how you understand the directions is important. #1, they're not written for extremely literal sysadmins with an obsessive streak.

We lifted my lights, got a proper water pH'ing set and took a lesson on using it, and finally planted 2 new clones. I've got the other 2 older chem-4's still in there and they might just pull through but man, they're in rough shape. In the meantime, I need to make some level of production so we slapped in a very tall and beefy Mazar and a similarly tall and beefy MyDawg. They'll go for 1 week and 3 days then I'll make the decision to go 12/12 or let them go another week. After that though, they're flowering. I'll tie up the budding branches if necessary to support any excess weight.

Pics in the morning.

you need to learn proper feeding regiments for your plants because the 2 old ones are greviously underfed, thats why the stems are as red as they are....... you also need to find a good watering schedual that works for you and your plants, water once every 2-3 days but let the soil DRY out for at least 2 inches beneath the surface of the soil, this will take care of your over/under watering.

as for the lights: put your hand under the light, with the back of your hand facing the light and slowly move it away untill you can no longer feel the heat (usualy 3-5 inches) thats how far away from the plants the light should be (your external body temp is the same temp marijuana thrives in...26-27 deg cel)

Make sure there is a fan on your plants as soon as the clones are rooted, fans and air movment dont only help with exause it helps strengthen the stem of the plant.... the bigger the stem is the more nutrients they can absorb, and thus the faster the plant can grow..

and allways remember since your growing in a box.... you can allways top the plants and make them wider i've grown in my fair share of boxes and i know how hight can be an issue.....

I know... I'm working on that. I'm a computer scientist, not a botanist. Learning something that's more art than science takes time and I'm doing that but this isn't all about learning what does work. For me it's also learning what does not and why and how to recognize it. I might end up thrashing 2-3 more crops by the time I unscrew myself. Hopefully by then I'll have really practically learned what y'all are trying to teach me and I'll be a better grower because of it.

they're in dirt... so no feeding for now is the primary advice I've gotten (want 7 different opinions, ask 3 growers). Over feeding and over watering are part of how I got in trouble the first time (but bad pH was the magic bullet for epic failure).

This time, just going to let them sit and water much more sparingly, no nutes and I've backed my HPS as far away as I can so I can start "the dance" of moving it gradually down (probably not at all given the timeline before i flower them). The 2 new clones started out with magnificently thick and robust stems and good root systems so hopefully they're going to survive. I'm not going to veg them long though. I'll have them in there about a week and a half and then they're going 12/12.

When I get back from a short vacation then I'm going to do some work to the garage and make the big teepee setup. The box crap just ain't cutting it. Too confining.

Temps are down to 72 lights on and 65 lights off and the fan is going nicely. The new soil drains sick fast which I hope will help me with my tendencies to over water. I'm learning to go lighter on the water. BTW... pH'ing water is a BIATCH! that ph up and down stuff is gnarly strong. 1 drop at a time should definitely be written on the bottle somewhere.

New ones, and yeah, I know I could/should have ripped the other 2 out but at this point I just want to see if they live at all. As far as I'm concerned they're dead already. There's no bugs or mold so I'm not going to worry or care right now.

Ok, great news and ok news.

Ok news: The new clones look a tad wilty but I'm gunna leave them alone a bit. Color is still there and red lines on the stalk look like they're receding. I may have to toss come cal-mag in there as this appears to be a sign of a deficiency there. Not surprising given that they were sitting on a shelf in a club under florescent tubes and not getting the sort of regular attention that they needed being so big and still in rock wool. There's plenty of moisture in the dirt (it doesn't feel dry at all 2 inches down, just barely dryish on top) so not watering the soil. I'm putting a little water on the leaves during dark cycle.

Great news: there's new growth on my 2 old plants. Small leaves are popping up here and there and they're soft, succulent, 3D looking and very green. I've trimmed back most all of the dead loss on them and I'm hopeful that they'll spit out some big fan leaves and a few growth tips. Many thanks to you guys for the help on those. I'm not certain they'll live but they've got a much better chance now. Still planning on going 12/12 in a week and a half on them since they're in with the 2 new big ones.

Now a stupid question (and yes, I feel like a total a55tard for not realizing that the obvious answer is probably the correct one): After a harvest, if I leave a few leaves on the bottom, can I let this same plant grow again, ala apple trees or roses. I know that stripping off every leaf will starve the thing for energy and it probably won't live through that sort of trauma especially after having just put so much energy into flowering. Realizing I will have to be much more cautious about the method of harvest but I think if I don't kill it outright it'll just try again right?

Latest pic. This is just 2 minute before the lights go out. They've drooped a tad but I'm hoping that this is a sign that they're using energy for rooting. No nutes, just 5.9 pH water.

Temps went back up yesterday thanks to a minor heat wave out here. 100 degree days makes for 82-85 in the box but the nighttime temps were 75 (hot night) so the delta is still small. I've opened the access panel to let more air circulate during the heat wave. It's not light tight but that probably doesn't matter much during a veg cycle anyway.





And taking the advice of the previous poster I went ahead and topped the 2 new ones and did a couple super cropping pinches. Not going really far though... I'm backing down from yeild maximization to simply completing 1 veg/flower cycle regardless of the output. I'll keep learning and getting better. Can't thank you chaps enough for putting up with my inane questions.

nice grow man... im only two weeks into mine and i've been freaking about my ph for days... did you buy your ph tester in a store?

Get the pH-up/down kit. It's like 30 bucks. It's a bottle of up and a bottle of down and a testing vial and a dropper. Should be on the shelf in the hydroponics section of your local home improvement store. I have strips and an electronic tester too. The strips kinda sucked, the electronic tester is worthless.

I got my pH gear at Orchard Supply Hardware locally.

I took to doing some foliar feeding while the roots are developing on the new clones. The red lines up the stalk are continuing to fade and recede. Leaves are rising and falling throughout the day which I think is closer to normal behaviour. When I got home last night the leaves had perked up a bit. This morning just a minute before the lights went out they were a tad drooped but not curled. I'll know I'm on the right track if they're perky again when I get home. Pinched 2 more growth tips (super cropping) and leaned the branches over.

More pics:
this morning

this morning


yesterday or day before... not sure



I want to do a seed grow next I think that will be easier to do.

They were pretty perky when I got home which made me feel a little better. They're obviously ready for sleep this morning (below), the leaves laid down. We'll see if it's an aberration and I need to watch them closely still or a pattern and they're just fine. 1 of the larger leaves on each plant started to show a little sign of N deficiency. Is adding worm castings liquid to the water a correct fix for that? I'm going to the hydroponic store today so I'll ask when I'm there but thought I'd pose the query to y'all. Going to get some tips from the pros there and some additional gear at lunch.

Tested soil moisture last night. Came back pretty low. Did a full watering this morning with 5.9 pH'd plain water till water freely flowed from the bottom of the container. Tested my soil pH again too and it's at 6. I'm hoping this is all worth it. I've got most of the prep work done to get my spare garage space put together as a grow room.

Pics from this morning. I did their normal foliar watering (with a very light nute add in the mix for some micro's) right before the pic. The lights went off 2 minutes later.