Just want to know if my gal(hopefully) is looking okay?

I feel that all is well with her, but I’m hoping that those of you who probably know what you’re looking at way better than me can help me be sure. I’m a seasoned gardener (veggies), but this is my first of her kind. She’s a black jack plant, and came from a package of organic, unfeminized seeds.

She’s four weeks old. Using fox farm ocean forest and the wholly mackerel fertilizer. I’m feeding her every other day, alternating between nutes and pure water. Not much, not measuring what I pour. Just trying to keep her soil moist, but not too wet.

I hope to mainline her in the next coming weeks. May wait a bit since she is only barely at 5 nodes atm. I have six 40 watt sylvania fluorescent bulbs on her 24/7, and have just moved her inside permanently this past week (I’d keep her outside in the sunlight and move her inside when the sun left to give her as much natural, direct sunlight as possible in her early stages).

Anyway, just hoping to get some insight from anyone in regards to how she’s looking overall. Thanks a lot, y’all.

Here's my 5 week old plant using a simple 2 ft t5
Hopefully you've added drainage holes to your bucket. I've even drilled holes in the side. But cloth buckets ftw.

She will grow better under lights.
The sun hasn't got as much power at this time of year.thats why most plants if not all harvest October time.
Lumens from the sun drop as well with the change in the Suns degree angle.
Get her in put her under some lights and she bush out a bit better.
I don't know where you are in the world but unless your Southern Hemisphere this is the only way to grow this time of year.
It could be 30 degrees where you are but intensity has faded from the sun.
Everyone knows you sow in spring and harvest October.

I'd pay closer attention to how much nutrients you're adding. Too much can stunt growth and cause problems down the line. You're showing some N toxicity and the structure of the plant overall seems small for 4 weeks.

Try letting the container dry out more than 1 day to promote a healthy root system. This will also promote top growth as well as a strong structured plant, roots are important! I'd recommend you try out the lift method to determine when to water. Basically all you do is let the pot dry out completely for a few days and then lift the bucket to get a feel for it's weight when dry. Then water until runoff and lift it again to feel the weight after watered. After a few times you'll start to notice when to water by eye.

Overall you're doing a really job and I think you'll start taking off with her in no time. I'd like to hear more about your setup (or plans) for indoors as well. Fluorescence are great for veg but I wouldn't be happy to flower under them.

I’m definitely somewhere warm, I’m in Texas. Up until recently our sunlight was still big and bright, with temps in 70-80.

But man, she sure doesn’t look like that one bushy plant. :/

I’m planning on getting another light, just one t5 LED bulb to suspend above her so that she can have light coming at her from every angle.

I made sure to pound some holes into her bucket before planting her in it, too.

Do y’all think there’s still a chance for her to get a bit bushier? Ever since I moved her inside, her growth tips have begun to really show up like they never have before. I’m not sure if that’s a sign that the lights are actually helping, or if it’s just what ends up happening at around this stage in her development.

Does this mean my plant is stressed or not doing so hot? Other than getting a fifth bulb , I was considering setting up tinfoil in there to help reflect what light she already is getting. Is that a good move?

Thank y’all a ton!

n0thing said:

I'd pay closer attention to how much nutrients you're adding. Too much can stunt growth and cause problems down the line. You're showing some N toxicity and the structure of the plant overall seems small for 4 weeks.

Try letting the container dry out more than 1 day to promote a healthy root system. This will also promote top growth as well as a strong structured plant, roots are important! I'd recommend you try out the lift method to determine when to water. Basically all you do is let the pot dry out completely for a few days and then lift the bucket to get a feel for it's weight when dry. Then water until runoff and lift it again to feel the weight after watered. After a few times you'll start to notice when to water by eye.

Overall you're doing a really job and I think you'll start taking off with her in no time. I'd like to hear more about your setup (or plans) for indoors as well. Fluorescence are great for veg but I wouldn't be happy to flower under them.

Click to expand...

Oh no, fluorescents are the only lights I have currently...

I was thinking of getting another T5 LED bulb with 2000+ light lumens here pretty soon for supplemental lighting, do you think that’ll do the trick during her flower? Along with mainling her?

And I have a real amateur set up, haha. Literally have six, 4ft long T12 sylvania 40w fluorescents surrounding her in a decent sized closet closet, with a small LED bulb with 1500 lumens shining on her, too. As you can tell from the photo, I also have a small fan in there circulating the air and propped up on its box and a few coffee cans. So, in short, a small mega amateur set up.

And thank you for the watering tip! I’ll lay off watering her for a day or two and go from there. What are the signs of N toxicity that I’m not noticing?

Thanks again!

HuckNelson said:

I’m definitely somewhere warm, I’m in Texas. Up until recently our sunlight was still big and bright, with temps in 70-80.

But man, she sure doesn’t look like that one bushy plant. :/

I’m planning on getting another light, just one t5 LED bulb to suspend above her so that she can have light coming at her from every angle.

I made sure to pound some holes into her bucket before planting her in it, too.

Do y’all think there’s still a chance for her to get a bit bushier? Ever since I moved her inside, her growth tips have begun to really show up like they never have before. I’m not sure if that’s a sign that the lights are actually helping, or if it’s just what ends up happening at around this stage in her development.

Does this mean my plant is stressed or not doing so hot? Other than getting a fifth bulb , I was considering setting up tinfoil in there to help reflect what light she already is getting. Is that a good move?

Thank y’all a ton!

Click to expand...

The more light the better, but if you have so many lights why not convert to 1 light which has the same power as all the lights combined.
And like the post says above that floros are no good for flower, it's recommended to have a more powerful light in flower.
Buy a cheap 600 led and get the t5 as well for the additional light for flower period.
The nodes you are noticing are as standard it's just usually me and possibly others notice this earlier.
She's behind on schedule and the light indoors should help her, get the lights low to her about 6-8 inch.
And yes make sure you don't over water and lower your feed base nutrient. She is looking abit
nitrogen rich.(dark green leafs)
She should get bushier.
Nitrogen and calcium are 2 very important building blocks for your plant, and some people tend to think the more I give the bigger she will be. This is not the case, all strains are different and it doesn't work like that.

auto1dwc said:

The more light the better, but if you have so many lights why not convert to 1 light which has the same power as all the lights combined.
And like the post says above that floros are no good for flower, it's recommended to have a more powerful light in flower.
Buy a cheap 600 led and get the t5 as well for the additional light for flower period.
The nodes you are noticing are as standard it's just usually me and possibly others notice this earlier.
She's behind on schedule and the light indoors should help her, get the lights low to her about 6-8 inch.
And yes make sure you don't over water and lower your feed base nutrient. She is looking abit
nitrogen rich.(dark green leafs)
She should get bushier.
Nitrogen and calcium are 2 very important building blocks for your plant, and some people tend to think the more I give the bigger she will be. This is not the case, all strains are different and it doesn't work like that.

Click to expand...

The lights that I have I was gifted by my local hydroponic store for free (someone dropped them off who no longer wanted them) so I decided to make use of them since lights can be really expensive. The lights were the scariest part for me as far as getting the plant growing was concerned, because of the price. As it is, they have a two foot t5 LED bulb that I can purchase (ready to go, ballast and reflector hood ready) for just over $42. When I do get that, should I just use that when she’s in flower, or should use all that I have?

Thanks again!

if you insist on using t5s to flower with, the more you can cram in the better. you can go to amazon or ebay, either one, and pick up a 400 or 600 watt light that will run both MH and HPS bulbs. buy a 4 inch extraction fan and some ducting to get rid of heat, and you have a much better set up for around 250 bucks.
use the t5s for veg, and the hid light for flower, and you'll get so much better results.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

if you insist on using t5s to flower with, the more you can cram in the better. you can go to amazon or ebay, either one, and pick up a 400 or 600 watt light that will run both MH and HPS bulbs. buy a 4 inch extraction fan and some ducting to get rid of heat, and you have a much better set up for around 250 bucks.
use the t5s for veg, and the hid light for flower, and you'll get so much better results.

Click to expand...

Like I said, I sort of stumbled across the lights I currently have serendipitously because they were free and went from there. Would it be bad to use them and the t5 LED I mentioned during flower? I’m desperately trying to stay under $50 if I possibly can, and definitely under $100. I know it sounds bad, but from a thrifty perspective, is this a generally unusable idea on my part?

Any advice for a first timer?

no, you can grow flowers under t5s, but the few members here who do so use some pretty expensive bulbs, color corrected, at least one UV bulb in the mix....GOOD t5s aren't cheap.
heres my experience.
i started off with t5s and cheap led flood lights from ebay. i grew some weed, and it wasn't bad, but yields were shitty. i got bigger led flood lights, 300 watt ones, and it got better, but it still wasn't what i would call good yields. then i got a 400 watt hps, and everything got better, quality went up by a good bit, yield went up by more than a good bit, it almost tripled. now i flower 4 plants at a time in 10 gallon totes, in a 4x4 tent, under a 600 watt hps. best quality and yield i've gotten yet.
cobs and quantum boards give good results as well, usually a slightly lower yield, but as good or better quality, and they finish a week to ten days earlier than the same pheno under hps.
so, yeah, you can do what you're doing, but your plants will never live up to their potential with the equipment you have.
do this grow with what you have. see how it comes out. let us know. i'm sure a lot of people here will give you good advice when you decide to upgrade

oh, and did it ever occur to you why you got those lights for free?............................because someone tried them, then decided to upgrade.......

robbieladner said:

Any advice for a first timer?

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more lights, closer. its hard to say from that pic, but it looks like you have spider mites as well.
its hard to see what you're growing in, but w/e it is, doesn't look like it has any perlite in it. weed likes a light, well draining medium to grow in.

all I see is a bunch of cuts I want to take lol.

looks like at least 20.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

oh, and did it ever occur to you why you got those lights for free?............................because someone tried them, then decided to upgrade.......

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I figured that was why they had given them up, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have grow lights for free. Especially since my budget is ridiculously low.

HuckNelson said:

The lights that I have I was gifted by my local hydroponic store for free (someone dropped them off who no longer wanted them) so I decided to make use of them since lights can be really expensive. The lights were the scariest part for me as far as getting the plant growing was concerned, because of the price. As it is, they have a two foot t5 LED bulb that I can purchase (ready to go, ballast and reflector hood ready) for just over $42. When I do get that, should I just use that when she’s in flower, or should use all that I have?

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

Use all you have for now they will be fine for veg and when t5 comes put that on as well.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

no, you can grow flowers under t5s, but the few members here who do so use some pretty expensive bulbs, color corrected, at least one UV bulb in the mix....GOOD t5s aren't cheap.
heres my experience.
i started off with t5s and cheap led flood lights from ebay. i grew some weed, and it wasn't bad, but yields were shitty. i got bigger led flood lights, 300 watt ones, and it got better, but it still wasn't what i would call good yields. then i got a 400 watt hps, and everything got better, quality went up by a good bit, yield went up by more than a good bit, it almost tripled. now i flower 4 plants at a time in 10 gallon totes, in a 4x4 tent, under a 600 watt hps. best quality and yield i've gotten yet.
cobs and quantum boards give good results as well, usually a slightly lower yield, but as good or better quality, and they finish a week to ten days earlier than the same pheno under hps.
so, yeah, you can do what you're doing, but your plants will never live up to their potential with the equipment you have.
do this grow with what you have. see how it comes out. let us know. i'm sure a lot of people here will give you good advice when you decide to upgrade

Click to expand...

So I may have found a 600watt ge bulb and ballast for $90 at my local hydroponic store (the owner is cutting me a deal). Is that a sufficient light for my plant during flower if I just have one? With my fluorescents to supplement?

yeah, you can flower 3 or 4 under a 600 watt light. check and see if its a digital ballast, and if its dimmable. if its just a ballast and a bulb, you'll need some kind of reflector to put it in. i'm partial to a 6 inch cool tube hooked to an exhaust fan. look for hps light kits on amazon, just to see what usually comes together
you shouldn't need the flourescents actually, the 600 should be enough on its own.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

yeah, you can flower 3 or 4 under a 600 watt light. check and see if its a digital ballast, and if its dimmable. if its just a ballast and a bulb, you'll need some kind of reflector to put it in. i'm partial to a 6 inch cool tube hooked to an exhaust fan. look for hps light kits on amazon, just to see what usually comes together
you shouldn't need the flourescents actually, the 600 should be enough on its own.

Click to expand...

It’s just the bulb and ballast... could I maybe make some sort of reflector myself with tinfoil?