First time home grow help/questions

[Gordon86]

Hello cannabis community!!

I will try keep this as short as possible however some questions may lead to longer conversation.

After many years of being a raging but functional pot head, I found a random seed on my tray and thought fuck it... I've always wanted to so why not.

I put the seed in the airing cupboard in a glass of water and it sprouted tap roots quite quickly, I immediately bought a few quids worth of stuff online and began to watch a lot of YouTube videos, most of the methods I've seen for small tent grow at home are fairly similar but sometimes I find contradictory things, like one grower will swear you have to do something that is critical and others won't even mention it...not sure if that's down to experience or whatever. Anyhow I got the fans, lights, nutrients, coco coir, PH testers, humidifier, heater...everything but the damn tent that I bought on Amazon but shipped from China.

The seedlings breached the soil after a few days and I knew I had to get it into light so it wouldn't stretch but the tent was lingering and the ropes for the light etc so I had to put it on the window sill for a few days and keep my room above 20c...that's all I knew how to do.

Now the tent is set up and I have just about got what I feel is "dialled in" it's on 18/6 cycle and sits about 24/25c with 55-60% humidity.

My main questions for today are....

The plant is stretched and the leaves are small for its size, and today is its second day in the tent in the right conditions but growth seems very slow. Is it worth carrying on or should i start with the other seeds I got (baring in mind the one I found could well be male). Could it be because my 250w HID light is too high? Or maybe because I've not given it any liquid nutrients yet thinking it was still a little young.

Also...is it possible for a plant to have a rough time all through the veg stage, let's say due to deficiency, bugs, or over nutrient etc, but be revived and have a great bloom providing the right things are added at the right time?

My last question promise...
I've bought canna coco A&B nutrients when I purchased everything else and it claims to be a "complete nutrient" for use in equal parts together in water bla bla. But this wouldn't be sufficient for everything right? Say the plant needs more nitrogen, or potassium...I couldn't just give it more canna coco could I? Is it safer to buy additional additives like cal mag, and others to fatten the bloom or whatever?

Im trying to hit the ground running but I understand this is a learning curve as well. This one plant is purely a tester to see if I can go the distance and get a harvest before i start my expensive seeds i bought. I'm just not sure it's worth me paying it so much attention if it's going to be weak from the stretch. I used soil for the medium with a bit of perlite in but when and if I re-pot this one I've got coco coir to put it in.

I know this is a long read but if you make it this far and you have good advice regarding my questions please reply. I will try tag a picture of the plant too.

[CaptainWiese91]

nice to see someone bought all the needed things from the start. props

FIrst of all, what kind of light are you using? Because the plant is stretching a lot after the light, which can be fixed with moving the light closer.
Good choice of nutrients brand - I use the same, just for soil. Are you applying nutrients now for the plant? I know coco needs to get filled with nutrients from the start because there is none in coco. PH range is 5,5-6,5.. And you need to add cal mag from the start also, there is none in coco.

Yes a plant can have a rough time in veg and bounce back. But its crucial that you dont flip light schedule before the plant is healthy again..

[YYCannabis]

Hi Gordon. Welcome to GWE.

i don’t do soil grows, but i can tell you that the roots will grow down before much of the plant grows upwards. Also, you will want to move that light down because your little baby is stretching to get more light.

[Gordon86]

That's really helpful, thank you!!

Yeah I'm not 100% sure what the light is, I bought if from Gardeners corner as a 250w grow light.

I have attached some pics of my set up although not finalised yet, I have a perspex cover for the window so I can run the exhaust hose through it so I can let the bad air outside without having my window open in -2 😉.

As you can see the light is high but the straps are due any minute from Amazon so I had to bodge it there yesterday with carabinas just so I could get it off the window.

And yeah I wanted to buy everything I could right away, spent over 300 in total with clippers, seeds, watering can, timers and all other bits. I had to buy 550mm tie wraps today from screwfix just to shackle the fat carbon filter to the frame. If you are like me and have been smoking for many many years then nothing less than the best will do...and its fucking expensive! I'm not in the growing game to sell but my plan was to make a nice weed good enough to sell a bit to recoup the money it cost me to set up and maybe a few months electric Bill in advance. So I'm eager to make this work hah.

The only reason it's in soil is because the coco hadn't came and I needed to get it out of the water. I want to move it over but I was scared to hurt the plant at this stage so wanted to let it grow in the soil a bit first. So would you recommend adding the nutrients to the soil now and buy calmag asap. Or rince some coco coir now and move it over, add some canna coco A&B and move the light down a bit when the adjustable straps come in a bit?

[CaptainWiese91]

Long message damn haha. Dont give it nutrients now if its in the soil. I thougt it was coco from the start.
the choice is yours when to move it to coco medium. but when you do, bury the plant longer down so the stem is not that that exposed. It will make roots from the stem if it covered by the medium. I think already now you should move the light closer if possible.
When you do move it to coco you need to feed it a light scale of nutrients, included cal mag. I bet if you search on the main site, under "coco" you will be able to find some coco feeding schedule you can follow.

[Gordon86]

YY thank you!! It was stretched before I got it under the light, I'm trying to save it. Could you recommend a height for the light from the plant at that stage? I've heard people in videos say 18"...but others say 24" at bloom for more intense light! So how low do I go? 🤣

[YYCannabis]

No measuring! Just watch what the plant is doing as she is the best indicator for light needs.

If she stretches, move light down.
If leaves wrinkle and deform, move light up.

[Gordon86]

[Gordon86]

Thanks captain that's good advice! I will lower the light tonight, re-pot into coco coir tomorrow and follow the canna light feeding schedule and let the plant do the rest...I was also thinking of burying it deeper! Good idea. Sorry for the long messages I try to be detailed so people get me ha. I will buy the calmag as well. Thanks again. I will let you know how I get on.

[CaptainWiese91]

No problem. English is not my mother language and I speak 3 other languages than English.
Don’t apologize for the long messages sometimes I’m just to high.
I hope you find some “coco” info on the main site. And I know there is a lot of coco growers in here who is happy to help you through the grow. People in here are very nice.

Detained info is better than non detailed info. I’m just a little slow on my English

[Rwise]

Do re-pot that girl into a bigger deeper pot, plant her all the way to the baby leaves being careful not to break the main stem!
One can work with a photo plant and recover it, grow it to a nice size, then make a good harvest. Even make clones along the way if its a great pheno.
Edit On the light put your hand/arm under it, if its to hot for you its to hot for them. And its not the time to get to hot with the lights just yet, seedlings are tender. I use LED lights so no help there. /Edit

[Cali]

Best advice being that you are learning is go on the main GWE site and read the tutorials. That is the best way, there you will learn how to test if the light is too close or too far. Also how to water transplant basically everything you need to know. Then you can come ask more questions and we will gladly help.

[dilvish]

With all that equipment you decided to only grow one plant? Curious. anyway yes it is stretching due to lack of light. at 250W I'd definitely move it to about 20 inches but i wouldn't re-pot it as at that length and age you could shock it. leave it be. keep an eye on it don't overwater and see what happens. if you do decide to re-pot it then wait until its at least 2 weeks old.

[Nepisiguit]

You've gotten great advice so far from people more knowledgeable than I.

Additional details on that light may help you get some guidance, is it an HPS or MH? I run LEDs so I can't offer much advice there. But I do think you can run it closer to prevent the stretch.

I'd suggest spending a few bucks on fabric pots (aka smart pots) I have had good results with them and they really make watering easier (or moreso overwatering more difficult ) and allow airflow to the roots and won't get get root bound. That is a good direction to go with Coco and when you transplant do as Rwise has suggested.

The main GWE page is fantastic for new growers. You can spend hours reading and learning from their articles and tutorials.

[Gordon86]

Thanks for all the advice guys! Dilvish I am only doing one plant as a tester because I found the seed on my tray. The tent can fit too. But I want to know I can grow this one seed properly before I start fucking up my £35 for 3 seeds.

Also...I've just rinsed a load of coco coir...I'm looking into buffering it so I will check the GWE main page first but if the issue I have is i only need to buffer a small amount of what i have just rinsed, will the rest be fine once it dries out in a few days?? And I can rehydrate and use later on since it has no nutrient properties on it's own?

[TOKABIGONE]

I'll throw just one more thing into the confusion for you. Did you use pHed water for your rinse? If not and you have not repotted yet, do iy again with water pH down to 5.5. I started out in coco with pH at 6.2 and struggled with nute issues until I got it down to 5.5. Even 6.0 was too high. Good luck. I'll be watching

[Gordon86]

Tokebigone thank you!!! That's why I joined this forum, for input like that.

I indeed did NOT, PH the rinse water. I use the hose in the back and did it in a wheel Barrow and used a 15" mesh bowl to strain it. Reason being I just haven't had the know how, patience or time to get everything I need like the big plastic containers to put it in and help drain it etc.

My problem is I'm only doing this one plant right now just as an experiment or test to see how it turns out, and I've got tons of excess cocoa coir....do I dry most of it and use it down the line, or do I leave the one plant I've got going on now to die or grow somewhere else being as its already stretched but now showing ok growth in its soil, and start 2 brand new ones. I got an OG Kush and sour orange for free from a seed dealer so I'm thinking now get them to germinate and start both of them in the correct PH buffered coco. I only have room for 2 plants max.

Do you know if you can reply to people individually on here on the comment? Or does it notify you when I reply?

[Gordon86]

Can I just make sure that my buffer soak is the right PH and I'm good to go? Or do i have to do a full rinse first again with PH'd water?