Time to transplant these babies?? Also, leaf question!

Hi all New to the forums. I have been reading and researching on here a while and this is my first grow. I planted two mystery strain bagseed about 16 days ago. My setup includes a 2ft x 3ft x 3.75ft closet, T5 HO 2ft 4 bulb 6500k 96w (24w / tube) light fixture, 'Root Organics' soil with a bunch of natural nutes, and FoxFarm BIG GROW (will start feeding in 1 week). My pH runs consistent around 6.0-6.5 and I haven't started to use additives yet for nutes or pH ups and downs. I keep my light about 3-4 inches away at all times.

My question is, the pots seen in the picture, are they ready to be transplanted? The taller plant (name: Kona) has had explosive growth since switching from a 150w HPS to the T5 for veg, about 10 days ago, and hasn't slowed down since. I'm pretty sure this is where she should be at this age? The other plant (name: Lauren) I'm a little worried about. She is SO SHORT and very bushy. The only reason I worry is because she can't get her leaves past the rim of the pot and some of the leaves aren't getting light and are crashing into the walls a little bit. I've had to prop the pot up to keep her equal to the light as Kona. Also, I have a close up picture of some of the leaves, the sides and more towards the stem the ridges curl up a bit. Is that normal or maybe a pH problem, heat, or something of that sort? I've been able to keep my temps between 76-85* somehow, and I had to buy a humidifier which has kept it above 50% most of the time.

A little advice on these problems and maybe something else you can pick out. Like I said, this is my first grow and I would apprieciate ANY input from experienced gardeners

Thanks!

** Picture Info **
1) Lauren on the left, Kona on the right
2) Same as above
3) Kona's top leaf set
4) Lauren, example of the terrible node spacing and bushiness
5) Kona's stem system

Looking good.

These plants do not NEED to be transplanted yet, but you can if you WANT to. Remember that the more times you transplant, the more shock you will do to your plant's roots. Try not to do it more than twice per plant.

Curling up leaves is a heat issue. The plant is basically trying to conserve water by bending it's shape upwards. Yours don't seem that bad. Make sure air can circulate in your grow room.

Nutrient Tips: Keep it simple and don't overfeed.

RoF said:

Looking good.

These plants do not NEED to be transplanted yet, but you can if you WANT to. Remember that the more times you transplant, the more shock you will do to your plant's roots. Try not to do it more than twice per plant.

Curling up leaves is a heat issue. The plant is basically trying to conserve water by bending it's shape upwards. Yours don't seem that bad. Make sure air can circulate in your grow room.

Nutrient Tips: Keep it simple and don't overfeed.

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Thanks for the quick reply!

I've actually raised the lights about an inch to start with and I'll go from there. I do have pretty good circulation, and I will be putting an exhaust fan at the top of the closet to suck out hot air. I have my humidifier pointing on the back wall and the fan pointing on the lights and on the front wall kinda creating a votex I'm hoping.

As for transplanting, I'm set on only transplanting once. I planted in these pots and the next pot will be the last until harvest, so I'm just trying to make sure it's the right time.

Sweet! That will do the trick.

The great part about having small pots is how easy the plants are to manage. As soon as you transplant to bigger ones, plants are a pain to lug around.

RoF said:

Sweet! That will do the trick.

The great part about having small pots is how easy the plants are to manage. As soon as you transplant to the bigger ones, plants are a pain to lug around.

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Ya this being my first grow, I don't think I'll mind the hassle haha. I've taken quite an interest in the plants very quick. I thought it was just going to be plant, feed, grow, harvest. But it turned into plant, watch, watch, watch, feed, watch grow watch grow, make sure everything is perfect, etc..

I can't wait to see how the turn out!

At just over 2 weeks, do you think this is about the growth they should be at, given the type of light I'm using? Regardless of the few small problems I've had, they seem to look very happy and very green. I was kinda wondering why they aren't as shiny and waxy looking as most?

Yeah man they look good for 2 weeks. I stare into my plants too.... hahah for hours. It actually becomes really natural after a while to just sit there and adjust the fine details.

Whether they are shiny or waxy or thin or rough mostly depends on the genetics of your seeds. That's the problem with using bagseed. You have no idea what you're getting. That's why I use seedbanks - I mean, if I'm going to sit there for hours and hours on end tending to these things I might as well know I'm working for something I want right?

Plants look good and can be transplanted any time now. The plant needs to be rooted to the sides and bottom of the pot then it is ready for transplant. The larger the final pot size the larger your plant will grow. With this amount of foliage you should have well rooted pots by now.

pointswest said:

Plants look good and can be transplanted any time now. The plant needs to be rooted to the sides and bottom of the pot then it is ready for transplant. The larger the final pot size the larger your plant will grow. With this amount of foliage you should have well rooted pots by now.

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Ya it does look like they have quite a bit of foliage for 2 weeks. I'm just having problems with the short one. The side stems arent growing out, and it doesnt seem to be stretching very much but the other one has great node spacing and it able to utilize the light for all its leaves (I'm using everything the same for both plants). Hopefully it will stretch out soon!

As for transplanting, how do I know when the roots have developed throughout the pot? Is there a way to find out if the roots have reached the bottom and all sides to keep the soil in a ball? The soil I'm using is very light and has lots of different nutes, perlite, and organic compost that I'm afraid it will just crumble if the roots haven't grown enough to hold it all together...

Maybe I'm just analyzing too much, but I want the best for my ladies! =]

Btw thanks everyone for the help, it's much appreciated!

I had to laugh... I sit there and stare at my plants too. I call it "sharing karma"... Your plants look good. Look like Indica. Don't worry about the details unless it's a problem. Some plants are short and stubby and some are taller of the same strain. I'd wait a couple more weeks to transplant. I usually do it the week before going into flower. Gives them a week to settle in.

Welcome to the Club!

DawgMountain, Awesome, that sounds like a plan. I'm definitely going to wait at LEAST another week or two. I wanted to wait about a week after I started feeding my FoxFarm Big Grow so I know for sure they've have a nice burst of growth and root development before transplanting. I've been watching for slowed growth due to being root-bound and I haven't seen any. Maybe a bit on the shorty and that ties me into my next problem. See below.

Update: They've grown about 1/2 inch overnight and I took the pH of my soil. Some areas are reading 6.5 and others are reading 7.0. Is that too high? Whats the best organic way to lower pH just a little bit? I flushed them both about 5 days ago and plan to again in about 5 days. Should I be flushing more often / less often? Also, the pH meter that I have is the kind that has a probe that you stick into the soil. Let me tell you, I HATE IT!!! I am SO scared that I'm going to poke into a root or break one or disturb something. Does anyone have some advice about this? Are these safe to use? I just have a hunch that one of these times I'm going to poke it in and snap a huge root vein and totally F*CK something up haha.

from my experience the taller and faster the plant grows it's more likely to be a male but maybe not, sweet plants btw. also WATCH OUT with the nutes you really want to start easy and slowly progress. on my first grow i was a month into flowering and fed my poor baby's for the last time before harvesting unfortunately, when i woke up i realized that that it really was the last time i was going to do anything with them they were all crispy and yellow it really was a heart breaker but lesson learned. good luck and happy growing...

UPDATE!

New pictures are up They're growing great, still seeing some upward leaf folding (from the heat I'm guessing). Although, the only plant that's having the folding leaves is Kona, the taller, faster one. Lauren seems to be perfectly fine. Makes me wonder if it's really the heat...

I also posted a picture of the undergrowth, it's nothing special, I just found this picture totally rad just because I could see myself as an insect size man sitting on one of those bright green leaves, tokin' on a long sherlock pipe I WANNA LIVE IN THERE!!!

Ok so... As I was typing this I was looking through the pictures and noticed it's only been like 1 day since I last took pictures. Time DOES NOT fly when you're watching a plant grow. LOL. I think its time for me to pull up a chair and roll a big one. Next time I post a picture you'll be seeing some incredible buds...

Btw, I forgot to ask... It is ok to mist my plant when they are under the light? Obviously I would pull them out and mist lightly and put them back under not to spray the light. But I've heard that the water bubbles can act as magnification and burn the leaves. Although in my case I'm only using a 2ft 4 bulb T5 HO fixture and I wouldn't think it'd have the power to burn, water or not... I'm interested to know!

Edit: And I'm also still wondering about my last question, about the pH probe being stuck into my delicate soil. WELCOME ADVICE!

kostonn760 said:

DawgMountain, Awesome, that sounds like a plan. I'm definitely going to wait at LEAST another week or two. I wanted to wait about a week after I started feeding my FoxFarm Big Grow so I know for sure they've have a nice burst of growth and root development before transplanting. I've been watching for slowed growth due to being root-bound and I haven't seen any. Maybe a bit on the shorty and that ties me into my next problem. See below.

Update: They've grown about 1/2 inch overnight and I took the pH of my soil. Some areas are reading 6.5 and others are reading 7.0. Is that too high? Whats the best organic way to lower pH just a little bit? I flushed them both about 5 days ago and plan to again in about 5 days. Should I be flushing more often / less often? Also, the pH meter that I have is the kind that has a probe that you stick into the soil. Let me tell you, I HATE IT!!! I am SO scared that I'm going to poke into a root or break one or disturb something. Does anyone have some advice about this? Are these safe to use? I just have a hunch that one of these times I'm going to poke it in and snap a huge root vein and totally F*CK something up haha.

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I never check pH on my soil. I use nothing but Fox Farms and trust their mixtures. I do check pH on all my water. I go for 6.0 - 6.5.

Be careful with your nutes. Don't over feed.

So I've decided to just test the pH of the water and keep it at that. I also went out and bought 5 gallons of distilled water for when I start adding nutes. Does distilled water have a default pH of 7.0? Just for the first few waters (to test how they respond) I mixed a measly 1 teaspoon to a gallon of distilled water and I'll be watering tomorrow. I'll probably start by just one nute water this week, then 2 the next, and I'll add more nutes and so on... I watered yesterday and I didn't want to water the nutes today because the pots still feel a bit heavy. Would it be better to feed now when they are a little more moist, or wait till they dry out?

Also, is it ok to lightly mist my plants while the lights are still on? I'm running a 4 bulb 2ft T5 HO lamp with all 6500k bulbs. I think they are about 8000 lumens, and I'm going to be adding 2 23w 5000k fluoros to light to side of my plants, and give my small T5 an extra umpf

im sure you are safe to mist your plants only a high power light would burn ur plant like a hps as for nutes u can but take it easy or you will regret it...