my closet grow! stunted plants?

1 square meter grow in closet using 600wt hps lamp with external ballast the plants are 12 inches away from light with one plant with possible burning but if it is only one it possibly isnt burning see photos 1 and 2. they are 14 days old, 5 plants at around 4 inches each with around 10 to 12 leaves each.

3 plants have thicker stems and less leaves but they are only an inch tall. are they female or are they just stunted?? i thought it could be the temperature since it has been reaching a max of 30c in some places but i can only get it to 26c and keep it there i have got it to 20c but it goes up and down all the time, i am trying to drop it to 20c. i have 3 exahust fans one with ducting leading out of the closet into the room but not going outside the room, two with no ducting so i have to keep doors open at all times i have one large fan blowing cooler air in from about a meter away.

i am watering with filtered temperature controlled water about 1.5 to 3 liters a day dpeending on how dry the soil is while still keeping soil constantly moist and warm around roots, i have used dutch fest hydro grow A&B only once and have seen no effects on the smaller plants but possibly on the plant in photos 1 to 3 but not in a good way. my growing medium is unfortunately only organic compost with lots of decomposing wood and things in it i have taken some out and replaced with premium grade potting mix (i used compost under the advice of an iddiot at a garden centre). my ph is at about an average of 5 to 7 around the roots but outer soil is around 7 to 9 alkalinity, my plants are in one gallon plastic pots. i added sulphur to help lower ph.


please let me know what you think the problem is with the plant in the first 3 photos and possibly why some are shorter than others with less leaves?

i would really really apreciate it if you guys could help.. i know there isnt much info but i wrote aobut 700 to 1000 words before and the website logged me out and i lost it all so if u have any questions please ask!

Don't mist them anymore under the HID. They don't need it anyway.

no worries ill start doing that now i removed the leaf as i thought it was caused by mold, in my horticulture book it said to do so. not sure if that was the right move but my guess is that this is a male plant anyway and it is quite large and i dont mind if it sets the growing back a week or so.

thanks very much for the advice!

How can you guess their male? Their far to young to tell.

i know i cant tell for sure. just beacuse three are much smaller i thought maybe they were female. apparently thats a way to tell. sorry i made a mistake before the bulb is HPS! stupid mistake ive just been reading alot about hids. should i still be misting them if the bulb is HPS?

Misting isn't really necessary when the plant is that small and while you may get away with it a couple times I wouldn't get into the habit of spraying with the lights on. When I'm at my bravest I may spray if needed under my leaves while the light is on but that's in extreme cases. If ph is up in the 7-9 u prol should knock her down a bit as cannabis likes a slightly acidic soil. Keep up the good work homie your on the right site for help and beyond with your plants.

I got hid spray mine all the time (foiler feed) and water no problems.. just don't soak themand there's no way to tell the sex this early just because ones bigger it doesn't mean it's male so I wouldn't treat one like shit thinking it's male.. good luck Happy growing!!

They really doesn't look too bad. From what I see your light is too close for there age, and your misting. What are you misting with? Do you use a wetting agent, if no your droplets on the leaves act like a magnifier thus burning the leaves

Stop misting, buy a grow bible and do some reading.

To get you started here's a link:http://www.kindgreenbuds.com/cannabis-grow-bible.html for one online.

Good Luck

hey beu Your exactly right about spraying with the light on i know that it can explode in my face so i have been very carfull and cut it out almost 95% and hoping for 100% lol if can control myself when im taking photos. i have def over watered them so im cutting that out for the next few days until the soil is very dry and the plants are about to wilt. i noticed the ph in the soil around the roots seems to be 5 or 6 but the outer soil is very alkaline 7 to 9 i only discovered this today when i did another test but when i first discovered the ph of the outer soil i added some sulphur powder and watered it in. YES more watering lol so hopfully in a few weeks i will see the effects of the sulphur. thanks beu for the advice i just hope from the pictures u can see that im not totaly fucking this up!

hey thanks big rake ill look into the foiler feed.

hey ganja i was originaly using a mist of rooting hormones when they were very young and also just pouring the hormones and water into the soil they started to go yellow so i stopped this and they quickly recovered and grew new leaves. well the reason the light is so close is because they were getting very skinny and tall so i slowly lowered it a ft a day until i got this close and i read that it had to be at least 12 inches away from the plant. i have used some water crystals in the soil in one section in each pot. so im sure im just overwatering them if so could this be the reason i have those much smaller plants?

thanks for the nice comment that it really dosnt look that bad i have been waiting for somone to say that it really puts my mind at ease!

thanks again

happy growing

Rule of thumb is about 18" away and even at that you will need to put your hand right over the plants for a while to test how warm it is

The main issue is a lot of them are in pots they are too small for just yet, So you're having to over water to reach the roots growing in the middle. Next time start them in 16oz solo cups and it will save you some water and time.


They look really good though, You've done a good job. Best of luck to you

Hey school man i started them all in solo cups and moved them into these pots when i saw the roots were strong i know they are huge pots but i wanted them to have room to grow and stress them out as little as possible transplanting them, i never thought about the watering aspect of it at all but ill need to let them get bigger next time. they may be stunted from that. but thanks for the good comments really helps the confidence of the grower inside lol

good luck to you too

cheers!