How can I make my plants veg faster?

[coolguy122333]

I'm dosing general hydroponics fertilizers every other day, and in between those days I dose water with silica boost. I Have lights on for twenty four hours a day but I just recently changed them to an 18/6 light cycle. I have about two plants and 200 W of light. Half LEDs half CFL bulbs.

[OldManGrower]

Agriculture is not for the impatient, they will grow as they will. If you get too proactive, you may do more damage than good. Too much fertilizer is worse than not enough. I am not a light expert so I cannot address that but no matter what, It always seems to take 8-9 weeks.

[Farmbuck]

totally agree..!

[Smerft85]

Mine are in week 21, about 3 weeks till harvest, hopefully.

[ChadWestport]

Patience is something that separates growers. A plant will only grow so fast if you have the ideal conditions. Make sure your conditions are good and then watch it grow.

First, it starts with genetics. Some plants have very vigorous growth, other strains like the popular M.A.C. have a very slow veg period.

Second would be the medium. What medium are you using? Medium with compaction, no perlite or lack of aeration will not give the roots the oxygen they need and this will stump growth. Over watering will stump growth, too many nutes to quickly will stump growth.

Third would be your light. What you described will grow some plants, but you shouldn't be comparing your growth against a person running 1000w HPS or big fancy LED lights. Your plants aren't getting the maximum amount of light that they need.

Then you have environmental controls. Temp, humidity, airflow and Co2 will all effect the rate at which the plant grows.

Anything stick out to you there or is it just a matter of wishing they grew way faster? I'm guilty of wishing they grew faster too, but they are what they are.

[coolguy122333]

Patience is something that separates growers. A plant will only grow so fast if you have the ideal conditions. Make sure your conditions are good and then watch it grow.

First, it starts with genetics. Some plants have very vigorous growth, other strains like the popular M.A.C. have a very slow veg period.

Second would be the medium. What medium are you using? Medium with compaction, no perlite or lack of aeration will not give the roots the oxygen they need and this will stump growth. Over watering will stump growth, too many nutes to quickly will stump growth.

Third would be your light. What you described will grow some plants, but you shouldn't be comparing your growth against a person running 1000w HPS or big fancy LED lights. Your plants aren't getting the maximum amount of light that they need.

Then you have environmental controls. Temp, humidity, airflow and Co2 will all effect the rate at which the plant grows.

Anything stick out to you there or is it just a matter of wishing they grew way faster? I'm guilty of wishing they grew faster too, but they are what they are.

I'm currently in week nine or ten of veg and they're only about a foot tall. I have some decent branches from LST but still, the plant is very small for how long it's been alive. I have ocean forest soil as well as a fabric pot so aeration is not an issue. I have solid lights, but I think if I had more then I'd have faster growth. I'll look into that.

I feel maybe my nutrients can be lacking. I'm using hydroponic nutrients for soil. Could that be an issue?

[ChadWestport]

Fox Farm Ocean Forest comes heavily amended with nutrients. It's common to not feed that for the first 3-4 weeks because it already has so much food I it. LST and other pruning techniques can (but not always) cause a slight growth delay of a few days to a week for heavy pruning. I'd agree with you, for their age, they aren't as tall as one would expect.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Without any pics to judge from, I'd have to ask what size fabric pots you have them growing in . You don't need so much light in veg (but it never hurts) as HID or more powerful LEDs put out. I've grown to harvest OK under T5 fluorescent lights. Are you testing the pH of your runoff when watering? Nutrient lockout will slow growth but usually it also causes other obvious symptoms you haven't mentioned. Something has to be your limiting factor even if it's just crappy genetics.

[coolguy122333]

Without any pics to judge from, I'd have to ask what size fabric pots you have them growing in . You don't need so much light in veg (but it never hurts) as HID or more powerful LEDs put out. I've grown to harvest OK under T5 fluorescent lights. Are you testing the pH of your runoff when watering? Nutrient lockout will slow growth but usually it also causes other obvious symptoms you haven't mentioned. Something has to be your limiting factor even if it's just crappy genetics.

I have five gallon fabric pots. I used to have a pH problem but I fixed it. I don't measure runoff but I ensure everything that goes into the soil is pH of 6.0 - 6.5.

I feel like nutrients might be an issue? As I said earlier I have old hydroponic nutrients. Should I try new nutrients?

[Tersky]

If you want them to veg faster, grow in coco or hydro. It takes about 6-8 weeks to veg and train the plants i have depending on genetics, health of the plant, pot size ect. Hydro and coco is always faster than soil, however the margin for error is much smaller. The pants grow faster, but also show issues much quicker. GH Trio should be ok for soil, but you can def experiment with whatever you want. Growing anything worth harvesting takes time. You could do SOG which has many small plants instead of a few big plants but then you have to deal with caring for 15-20 plants instead of 2-4.

[coolguy122333]

If you want them to veg faster, grow in coco or hydro. It takes about 6-8 weeks to veg and train the plants i have depending on genetics, health of the plant, pot size ect. Hydro and coco is always faster than soil, however the margin for error is much smaller. The pants grow faster, but also show issues much quicker. GH Trio should be ok for soil, but you can def experiment with whatever you want. Growing anything worth harvesting takes time. You could do SOG which has many small plants instead of a few big plants but then you have to deal with caring for 15-20 plants instead of 2-4.

My substrate right now is ocean forest. Also I've legit been in veg for nine or ten weeks and my plants are tiny. Like I said earlier. I might just flower them soon and try to harness that final stretch of growth before flower. Thoughts on that?

Also my nutrients are about six years old and are old bottles which could be another issue.

[Tersky]

Do they show deficiencies or do the leaves look healthy? If no deficiencies and the plant is still small for its age you are probably doing something wrong. Cant tell you what as there is not much to go on. Many things can stunt growth from overwatering, bad drainage and or airflow, heat, cold....the list goes on. Also i dont know if GH has a shelf life but try getting new nutes and see if they perk up.

[Shankemdirty]

i Agree that they are small something is up i grow soil with General Flora trio and by week 9 to 10 my recent fem plants are 3 to 4 feet tall with manifold which slows growth.

[Shankemdirty]

These are my plants they are on week 9 manifold and they are 4 Feet tall so if your plants are small something is up pictures are from last Thursday

Soil General Hydroponics Trio / Calimagic

[coolguy122333]

Could it be that my lights are too far away from the plants? The're about two or three feet away. Also I'll start watering less.

[ChadWestport]

that is fairly far away for CFL bulbs, I typically run them within 10" of the canopy. Not sure about your LED, but it could go closer too. If you see discoloration (no green / lack of chlorophyl) on your new growth, then they are getting light burned from the intensity. If your upper leaves start to taco up, they are suffering from to much heat and you should back the light off. Definitely move them closer, light strength is dictated by inverse square law.

[Xena]

I don’t know much but you say you’re watering every day. I’m in soil with 3 gal smart pots and I water twice a week. Mine are pretty stunted too because of mistakes earlier, I’m right at 4 weeks and maybe 8-9” and I just watered about an hour ago and I probably won’t give any more until Thursday.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I checked out your earlier posts looking for clues. It could be that your girls got stunted early and may not fully recover. I have a Sweet Zombie that was plagued by a pH pen out of calibration (my fault) and a thrip invasion early in its life and is now the smallest plant I've ever switched to flower. I might get one small cola from it.