Newbie 150W HPS Closet Grow

yup you got a nice bit of room there mate if anything.. i would say move your light a tiny bit closer and aim the fan at the top of the plant!! but dont have it on to strong cause it can give your plant wind burn..
i have my 250w hps about 25cm/10 or 11 inches away an i could have it closer

thanks. if you look at some of the other pictures/posts though, the edges on some of the plants were curling, and I was afraid it might be heat stress so I moved them away.

i just dont want your plants to reach for the light.. because with a 250w if they get 2 tall they dont get much light at the bottoms an u wana keep your plants as small an bushy as poss
jus a heads up mate cause thats what happens with my 250

Yeah I know....I just had to take the lesser of two evils on this one. I'm probably going to do some LST with any of them that get too tall anyway. But hopefully they don't stretch too much.

you thought about slapping some foil or anything up to reflect that light abit?

yeah, I don't have any currently, and I got white walls, so hopefully I'm not losing too many lumens. Plus it's only four plants, I might look into it when they get a little bigger.

I moved the plants up six inches too so hopefully they'll get a little more light but not stressed out.

Tem421 said:

yeah, I don't have any currently, and I got white walls, so hopefully I'm not losing too many lumens. Plus it's only four plants, I might look into it when they get a little bigger.
I moved the plants up six inches too so hopefully they'll get a little more light but not stressed out.

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sweet mate sounds good...
im about to catch up to you as my last grow went south so i started from seed again lol

All the plants are about 4 and half inches high, maybe a little taller, I just guestimated. They are all also in the process of growing their third leaf set.
The temp. has been staying pretty consistent in the high seventies to low eighties (F) during the light hours, and lower to mid-seventies during the dark hours. Humidity has been fluctuating a little bit because I need to open the door to my closet a lot to let out the hot air and let fresh air in, but it has never dipped below 40% and never really gets any higher than 60%.

I'm going to transplant the plants, when they all develop their third leaf set, to their larger containers sometime during the week.

Their first leaf sets seem to be a little stunted, but I was still kind of learning their needs and how to maintain equilibrium in their environment. All their new growth looks really nice. Hopefully it continues this way. They have been on an 18-6 light cycle for about week now, and seem to be enjoying it a lot more than the 24 hours of light I was giving them before.

I've begun to suspect that the plant in the right foreground is a dude. Although they're still vegetative it has been growing much faster and larger than the others, and just seems a little butch overall. Hopefully this is not the case, but I'm keeping an eye 'her.'

Other than that, the plants seem really healthy to my unexperienced eye. I have no way to tell the pH currently, so I'm going to take it easy on any fertilizers yet and try to use them as minimally as possible because I can't afford to have my soil get all acidic on me. I'll post another update as soon as I transplant them to their new home.

Hey lets get some feedback here folks...feel free to write all over my journal, I need all the assistance I can get.

The lower older leaves on my plants have a weird sickly look to them, some of them are curved in a weird way, and there is a little bit of a purplish hue down the center. They also have a weird texture on them, looks kind of scabby. Did they maybe just suffer some heat stress? Anyone seen this before?

All new growth looks great, and they seem to be very happy in general. So I'm not sure what the deal is. I need some experience up in here.

lol dont sweat it mate all my first true leaves go bad on me 2 or if they dont i pull em off..
just chillax an keep reading journals mate then you can see what happens an at what stage an not ave to worry

I suggest to wait with fertilizers. Some say, that it`s best to start them fertilizing, when leaves go yellow, some say, i`ts best, when cotyledons die. It also depends on, what strain You have - different strains need different conditions. It`s best to start a bit later and with smaller amounts, to understand, how much plant needs. Overfeeding will do more harm.

yeah, I feel like they might have a phosphorus deficiency or something though. But I have been playing the minimalist and so far its worked so I'm going to stick with it. I feel like I may have been underwatering them a bit too, because through this website and others I developed a serious fear of overwatering.

Whatever though thanks to both of you for your help. +rep for everyone.

Tem421 said:

yeah, I feel like they might have a phosphorus deficiency or something though. But I have been playing the minimalist and so far its worked so I'm going to stick with it. I feel like I may have been underwatering them a bit too, because through this website and others I developed a serious fear of overwatering.

Whatever though thanks to both of you for your help. +rep for everyone.

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I doubt it`s deficiency. More possible that the pH is too high or too low. well, I`m also new to this, but it`s obviously that correct pH is a key to healthy plants. Browse through the forum and You will see the difference between people who control pH and who don`t.
For my next grow I`m also gonna control the pH, because I had many small problems during current grow.

Does anyone know how long I should wait until I can prune some of the leaves off? Some of the older, lower leaves are just sickly looking, and I feel like if anything they are sucking energy away from healthy leaves.

Well my plants have been growing for about 21 days now, I'm going to let them get a little bit taller, hopefully it will only take a week, and then send them into 12-12.

My water is pretty hard out here, very alkaline around 8.0. I feel like that is what has been giving me the leaf trouble. If anyone has any suggestions for a good (cheap) pH down, let me know. I need to pick up some fertilizer and some odor control as well, not sure about what fertilizer to get, but I'm definitely getting odor sponges, I've heard they work great.

Here are the updated pics, they grew three whole leaf sets during this week + a bunch of tiny leaf sets out of the older branches, I feel like they are maturing very quickly. Thats all I got for now, any comments and/or suggestions welcome.

Tem421 said:

Well my plants have been growing for about 21 days now, I'm going to let them get a little bit taller, hopefully it will only take a week, and then send them into 12-12.

My water is pretty hard out here, very alkaline around 8.0. I feel like that is what has been giving me the leaf trouble. If anyone has any suggestions for a good (cheap) pH down, let me know. I need to pick up some fertilizer and some odor control as well, not sure about what fertilizer to get, but I'm definitely getting odor sponges, I've heard they work great.

Here are the updated pics, they grew three whole leaf sets during this week + a bunch of tiny leaf sets out of the older branches, I feel like they are maturing very quickly. Thats all I got for now, any comments and/or suggestions welcome.

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I use vinegar. But you need a ph test kit and very little vinegar. I am talking drops. Does not take much. I ph my water to between 6.5 and 6.0

Leftyy2k4 said:

I use vinegar. But you need a ph test kit and very little vinegar. I am talking drops. Does not take much. I ph my water to between 6.5 and 6.0

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thanks for the input. i heard natural pH adjusters like vinegar and lemon only work short term though. I was thinking something like dolomite because supposedly it will keep the soil in the correct range for a month. I have no experience in the matter, thats just what I heard.

Tem421 said:

thanks for the input. i heard natural pH adjusters like vinegar and lemon only work short term though. I was thinking something like dolomite because supposedly it will keep the soil in the correct range for a month. I have no experience in the matter, thats just what I heard.

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I dunno. I ph adjust the water every watering. Which right now is every 3 or 4 days. I have a moisture meter I use to tell me when to water. I have had no issues so far.

Tem421 said:

i heard natural pH adjusters like vinegar and lemon only work short term though.

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i use them both i think the advice is more for hydro growers..
im not worryin bout it!! its more healthy than my normal water p.h of 11.0
its gona take ages to build up crap if ur ph is right..
an at the end the soil gets chucked away...

UKcyrus said:

i use them both i think the advice is more for hydro growers..
im not worryin bout it!! its more healthy than my normal water p.h of 11.0
its gona take ages to build up crap if ur ph is right..
an at the end the soil gets chucked away...

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yeah, but the leaf tips are curling a little bit, and looks like they're not getting enough phosphorus.

If you like I do, associate personalities with your plants, they've seemed a little "moody" for the past week or so.

I feel like pH is my only problem. And I want to grow the stickiest of the icky, so I'm going to do everything i can to spoil them.