Hi folks, recent lurker, finally signed up and decided to post.
I started a grow back in late June. Initially I threw some seeds in some MG garden soil and in about three days I had some seedlings. I did not have any lighting or anything at that time, I just put them on the window sill.
Naturally they stretched out so far they fell over in about a week. I ordered an LED grow light, and ended up buying four 24w florescent grow lights.
Since my seedlings were falling over, I rigged a little support system for them so they would be propped up toward the sunlight until I could get my grow lights up and operating.
Since my plants were getting very...well...tall, I decided to repot them in large buckets with regular soil. I went out and purchased several large bags of cheap potting soil, three bucks a bag. I poured the potting soil into buckets and replanted the plants.
Around this time I discovered this forum. I was immediately dismayed at my choice of technique, soil and lighting. Nevertheless I was determined to make this grow work, so I started trying to remedy my errors.
First, I went out and bought slightly smaller containers, and a lot of perlite. The soil that the plants were in were like concrete, and although they had grown slightly in the buckets, their roots were still very tiny. I took the soil and mixed about 1:3 perlite to soil combination.
All was going well for about a week or two (even with the LED and florescent lighting), and then I noticed, with the terror of doom, some nutrient burn on a couple of the plaints. The problem was I couldn't figure out where the nutes were coming from, since I was using regular soil...and then I looked at the bag of MG Perlite..."With MG nutrients added".
I flushed the two worst looking plants, and the rest are showing some minor signs, I'm not too alarmed about them.
My main concern right now is this is turning into a very long grow (compared to some of the people I'm reading about on here). I'm almost two solid months in and my biggest plant is only 10" - 1' tall. With most of its size being stem (from the early stretching). They show pretty good vegitative growth at the top with new leaves coming out all the time, but they're...really, really short.
I am going to get something usable out of this grow, I don't care if I have to smoke the stems...it's going to happen, I would just like it if I got something worthwhile.
Also, for a small 5' x 5' area, if I was going to invest in a HPS / MS two stage system, will 400W be enough light?
Please also keep in mind, I do not have regular access to any kind of grow shop. I kinda live in the middle of nowhere, and it would basically be a weekend for me to drive out to the nearest grow shop and buy soil and equipment...so please don't be too harsh on the "buy Fox Farm etc.", I just can't get that stuff.
Thanks!
I started a grow back in late June. Initially I threw some seeds in some MG garden soil and in about three days I had some seedlings. I did not have any lighting or anything at that time, I just put them on the window sill.
Naturally they stretched out so far they fell over in about a week. I ordered an LED grow light, and ended up buying four 24w florescent grow lights.
Since my seedlings were falling over, I rigged a little support system for them so they would be propped up toward the sunlight until I could get my grow lights up and operating.
Since my plants were getting very...well...tall, I decided to repot them in large buckets with regular soil. I went out and purchased several large bags of cheap potting soil, three bucks a bag. I poured the potting soil into buckets and replanted the plants.
Around this time I discovered this forum. I was immediately dismayed at my choice of technique, soil and lighting. Nevertheless I was determined to make this grow work, so I started trying to remedy my errors.
First, I went out and bought slightly smaller containers, and a lot of perlite. The soil that the plants were in were like concrete, and although they had grown slightly in the buckets, their roots were still very tiny. I took the soil and mixed about 1:3 perlite to soil combination.
All was going well for about a week or two (even with the LED and florescent lighting), and then I noticed, with the terror of doom, some nutrient burn on a couple of the plaints. The problem was I couldn't figure out where the nutes were coming from, since I was using regular soil...and then I looked at the bag of MG Perlite..."With MG nutrients added".
I flushed the two worst looking plants, and the rest are showing some minor signs, I'm not too alarmed about them.
My main concern right now is this is turning into a very long grow (compared to some of the people I'm reading about on here). I'm almost two solid months in and my biggest plant is only 10" - 1' tall. With most of its size being stem (from the early stretching). They show pretty good vegitative growth at the top with new leaves coming out all the time, but they're...really, really short.
I am going to get something usable out of this grow, I don't care if I have to smoke the stems...it's going to happen, I would just like it if I got something worthwhile.
Also, for a small 5' x 5' area, if I was going to invest in a HPS / MS two stage system, will 400W be enough light?
Please also keep in mind, I do not have regular access to any kind of grow shop. I kinda live in the middle of nowhere, and it would basically be a weekend for me to drive out to the nearest grow shop and buy soil and equipment...so please don't be too harsh on the "buy Fox Farm etc.", I just can't get that stuff.
Thanks!
