Really new to this (w/ pics) Need advice

Okay, new to growing and looking for general advice. This plant is about 1.5 months in and as you can see it had a bit of a stretching problem at the beginning. It is running under 2 fluorescent lights: One 24" 75w Growlight, and one 18" 15w aquarium vegetation light. There is a fan in the room and currently using 30-10-10 plant food. How long before it should be flowered?, anything to make it grow more out instead of up? Space isn't much of an issue, just seems like it has grown too tall too fast. Also, the bottom set of leaves seem a bit yellow (Not the water leaves). Basically, what should be further done to maximize yield/plant health?

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh299/Randomtoke/1.jpg

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh299/Randomtoke/2.jpg

Get a 5 gallon bucket and plant that with some better soil up to about 3 inches from the bottom set of leaves. Flowering is not really a choice unless you want less then a gram just be calm and do your reading. It is a nice little plant and for you i would keep it just that dont try growing anymore plants than that unless you start researching. Just do the basics and you should have a fairly decent grow. Happy growing

wow...that plant looks really skinny and sad. How close are your lights?? i'm not an expert, but it looks like you should add a lot more lights, especially around the sides. What sort of soil? i don't see a whole lot of perlite or other ammends in the soil, so maybe it's locked up? The soil needs to be "loose" so the roots can stretch and breathe. (Not "loose", per se, but certainly not tight and compacted.) How often are you watering, also?

If that's your only plant, try to bush it out with some lights and pray it's a girl. There are a lot of grow guides and helpful threads on this site, it may do ya well to check em out. Hope this helps!

Also focus the light more on the plant. If you dont have anything (not aluminum foil) use some basic white printer paper taped to the light in the way that is focused more on the plant.

The 75w light is about 2 inches above it and I have the 15w light beside it to give more light under the top canopy. The soil is Miracle Grow (I know not the best option, but all I had available at the time). Also, I like the idea of the printer paper, but wouldn't that be a fire hazard?

Maybe what you should do is replant it and put a lot of that stem deeper into the soil (hopefully you can buy better soil?) and kind of get a fresh start. The thing is, with the plant looking like that, i don't think you should concern yourself with flowering anytime soon.

*edit* silly me, Lancer said the same thing. Should have read before i posted. :/

Cfl's are amazing with the respect of how much crap you can do to them. If you scared of fire get a power strip with a breaker. Fire isnt a problem really unless you start throwing lighter fluid and water on your lights

As far as transplanting goes, can you recommend a good guide for that? I checked out the GrowFAQ but didn't see one though I may have overlooked it.

wow dude that plant soo needed a CFL cuper close to it as soon ans it was out of the ground. hoe your not going to use it for a mother plant because its way to streched for now now. and I wouldrecomentd getting some more CFL lights for it

demonicus said:

As far as transplanting goes, can you recommend a good guide for that? I checked out the GrowFAQ but didn't see one though I may have overlooked it.

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a rule of thumb is 1 Galon pot for 1 foot of growth

Get a bigger planter, fill it with soil and make a hole the size of your old planter, and then gently turn the entire plant, planter and all into your hand. Try to catch as much of it into your hand without spilling, and be careful with the rootball. Then bury that plant up to the last set of leaves.

let the soil dry a bit so it comes of the the pot easily and put it in a bigger pot its really not rocket science dude just be careful that the stem doesnt break since its pretty long

Any special care I should give it afterwards? More light, less light? Nutes, plain water?

How old is your plant?
How high is your grow space?

I use 20-20-20 plant food, to much nitro at the start can lead to nute burn CFL lights is better then Tube Flo because the light is not spred out through out the hole lenght (ie 4 feet)

It's about 1.5 months old. Currently using 30-10-10 food because I heard higher nitrogen would stop the yellowing in the leaves

i would certainly advise more light--you can find the good CFLs almost anywhere now, and they're cheap. Get a bunch of those and rig them all over.

demonicus said:

It's about 1.5 months old. Currently using 30-10-10 food because I heard higher nitrogen would stop the yellowing in the leaves

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yes but also to much Nitro will start to burn your plan, I use 20-20-20 and I've been giving my girls 1/4 food every 3 days and they grow but I might have to up the food