Stunted Autos

[AcesSpades]

First time growet, read as much as possible befor I started. Due to budget I used what I could get my hands on. Built my own tent etc. I borrowed a cheap "full spectrum" LED from a friend and after 2 weeks had almost no growth.

Tossed the LED and went to 2x 85w CFL's. Now my plants are 23 days old, under cfl for 8 days and finally they are growing.

They are obviously stunted, but I dont want to give up on them yet.

What are my options to get them back on track? Will they start to flower even if they are this small?

** some leaves did get some light burn from the LED, and yes, I was within the supplier's distance range for seedlings.

[alltatup]

Hey Aces, welcome to the forum. They're sweet little things, but clearly they haven't been getting what they need in order to grow into strong plants that produce monster buds for you.

I remember that once in the 1970s I tried to grow a seed; I had no idea what I was doing and it died quickly. But three years ago, when I started growing for real, I had to learn the basics of what a Cannabis plant needs. I read just about everything (about hydro growing, not so much about soil or coco) over on GWE. Your plants won't grow well without:

• proper nutes in proper amounts (and amounts change regularly);
• proper light and proper darkness;
• in-range temps and humidity, both of which change from vegetating to flowering, just like the spring changes to summer and then autumn;
• proper training (for indoor plants);
• prevention of pests (more of an outdoor problem), mildew;
• healthy roots in proper conditions;
• and that's just for starters.

It depends on what you want to accomplish, but once you successfully grow your own, and it's dank, you'll never be able to smoke street weed again. You won't believe the difference and the infinitely superior quality of home grown.

[Farmall]

Man, that was so well summarized its’ like it came out of an encyclopedia on gardening. Inspiring and Perfect ! REALLY perfect !

[alltatup]

I was high...

[Farmall]

In that case...stay that way !!! I’ll try to catch up 👍

[homegrown]

Yes to everything alltatup said! Hey AcesSpades, new grower this year as well..started very much like you did, everything from scratch and whatever soil/pots/nutes i could get at box store. Can i ask how big your pots are? and what is the growing mix?(it looks very heavy and maybe too wet in pics. like more soil than anything else.) i did that too. Reason i think its too wet is i see a fungus gnat on pic #3 and they love wet soil for their larvae and their larvae like roots which may be slowing/stunting growth as well... Let them dry out really good and then just water the plant only and not very much. dont soak the whole pot.. Get some yellow sticky cards and see how bad fungus gnats are. Or better yet, just get some better growing mix and re pot those girls. they still look pretty good. i wouldnt give up on them.... homegrown

[AcesSpades]

Hi HG. Im running 11l (2-3 gallon) air pots with a compost, casting, coir mix.

Temps are spot on, hum sits at 60%.
Running 2x 85w CFL's (6500k) about 3" from the girls.
Extractor fan and fan blowing on them.
light schedule is 20/4

They are getting regular doses of nutes, EWC tea, kelp tea and are flushed once a week to prevent buildup.

The pics were taken directly after I watered them, hence the wet soil.

Saw the gnats a few days ago and started with organic insectiside. 90% are already dead (happy face)

[Farmall]

I could swear the gnats I had came from the soil but regardless, they were there and a dusting dose of diatomaceous earth on the top of the soil really did help. I must have 15 of those yellow sticky cards hanging but no gnats ... took about 1 week to eradicate them...

[homegrown]

Hey AcesSpades, im about out for ideas..hopefully someone else chimes in. I know nothing about growing with CFL's, i use LED. Only other suggestion might be to just feed it with Veg nutes for a while and dont do a weekly flush. Do you pH water before and after adding anything/everything? Maybe more light?? homegrown

[AcesSpades]

Yep HP runs between 6 and 7, depending on what im feeding them. Runoff sits at 6.4ish most of the time. As soon as I moved them over to CFL's the started to grow really good. Im just hoping that they dont go into flower while they are still this small. hoping to get at least another week or 2 veg before they auto into flower.

holding thumbs!

[alltatup]

Aces, I hope I didn't sound like I was on a soapbox above, and I looked at your original post above again. I've been able to get a stunted plant back on track, it just takes more time than one that's growing strong from the start...

[Farmall]

For those old enough to remember EF Hutton commercials: when Alltatup talks, people listen

[alltatup]

Farmall That is definitely not always the case. Some people think I'm full of crap. Ya can't please all the people...

[Farmall]

Nah! When we first met, everything you said was spot on and you’ve NEVER gone off course or let me go astray.... that’s ‘heavy’ stuff!

[AcesSpades]

Haha Alltatup, not at all. Any advice is good advice if it comes with backing!

They are looking better and better each day. Just hoping the wait a bit longer before going into flower.

Funny enough, the 3 leaf mutation is doing the best out of all of them!

[boone]

ive done 30 autos this year! Ace those don't look bad at all for 3 weeks from seed bud, Remember! Keep IT Simple Stupid! = K I S S . Some ladies just start the dance slowly. They will stretch soon.