New to growing

[DubthaWs]

Alright so let me start off with, i have watched countless videos and did research and even got a notebook full of notes. Currently I have 8 plants indoor growing. just started. its been a few weeks but here is my current grow. advice is welcome!

I started them by germinating for 4 hours till the seeds sank. I planted them in healthy soil in red solo cups. sprout date was 3-29-23
I have a heater set to 74 in my grow room which is roughly 3ft by 3ft.
I also have a can light hung, with a GV full spectrum growing light from Walmart.

I'm lightly watering them every 2 days. i have copper wire keeping them from falling over. (That's the first issue I know I can acknowledge even though I'm new. my plants are to tall.)
I've kept the light from 4 to 6 inches (originally 8 to 10 but plants kept growing like crazy) from the plants with my fan blowing air around them. (I know I will need better equipment, this is a newbie grow after all.)

Any advice?

[kingfish]

Intro: Learn How to Grow Weed Indoors

You will never grow anything worth harvesting with those lights.

[SoOrbudgal]

I've seen your posts from outdoor last year. Are these something you plan on putting outside? Man i don't think these are worth caring about. I grow on the cheap with my seedlings a curly CFL an a small T5 $25 total been using both for years. Gotta get them 3" from the light and not your light they'd fry perhaps? If you get serious cause starting out it's gonna cost some money for a good set of lights and a tent. I use bag seeds but also i buy feminized seed good genetics cause i want great weed like those dispensary charge you for.

[DubthaWs]

The bulb itself is an led growing full spectrum bulb, so there's very little heat. keep in mind I didn't buy these seeds. they are what I just had on hand. i have a closet with thick plastic stapled to the walls. its a closet eh. then i have a slit for the door. I know at some point I will have to upgrade. and I'm waiting for that time. but at this stage I'm only looking to compete the grow. nothing fancy other than puling males and tending to the plants indoors. this is my learning grow. my outside grows unfortunately died from *plant septoria*. (essentially plant plague, almost impossible to cure. extremely good pruning skills are required for this due to contact spread. this can be prevented by enacting a daily pest and health control. copper fungicides are a natural safe organic fungicide.). sorry had to leave that for anyone who comes across the same issue. it was real bad rainy the weekend prior and it ended up contracting the fungal disease.

The bulb itself doesn't get hot, and the thing is, most of these plants shot straight up as soon as they sprouted (I assume bad seeds). I do have 2 however that seem to be rather normal. they are centered under the light. No, these will be kept inside. I understand that they may be less likely to contract something, when they do get something it can get heinous very quickly. In fact the bulb itself is what brought on these results. Surely as a learner, I threw out makin sure the right bulb was the right bulb. and well, they shot straight up into a very hot over the sink bulb... so now i have a controlled environment, even though the seeds sprouted before. This still didn't change the fact that most of the plants shot straight up. keep in mind the 2 normal size ones I have, sprouted within 24 hours of the other 6. They seem to be doing normal and good size. I walked in the other day and noticed the room was close to 60 degrees F. so i stuck my auto heat tower in there set at 74 F. It turns off once the temp was reached. My fan itself is kind of an issue. its noisy and even the lowest setting is still 6mph. however my lady and I started saving for the equipment I'm going to use to regulate air.

[Bluey]

For a pretty decent light look for anything that you can dim with Samsung LM301B or LM301H LEDs. You need more than 200W in a 3 x 3 in flower. Often recommended is 30W/ft² so minimum 270W. I keep recommending the brand I use but do your own research..sales on on some lights atm.

[Rwise]

Those plants have stretched as there is not enuf quality light for them to eat. You need a real grow light to stop them from reaching for it.
You may be able to save these plants with a larger pot, take off the baby leaves and plant them deeper, all the way to the first set of real leaves. But without good light, this will not help. mars hydro and spider farmer both have good reviews (I like my MH LEDs)
Good luck, all it takes is money and knowledge.

[golfnrl]

Your plants are tall and wiry because they are not getting enough light. If you can change the light you should. If not it might be best to start over when you can grow with better lighting.

[DubthaWs]

ill be getting bigger pots and moving them. I understand I need to put them deeper at this point and even shave a side or two for root growth, but then that leaves the light issue again. its looking like i'm going to have to upgrade the light at this point.

[AGH]

Welcome to growing and the GWE forums! You're in the right place for a ton of information but it's definitely up to you to do your due diligence in deciding what advice to follow as different things work for different people.

Understanding your current limitations, it sounds like your head and heart are in the right place which is a good spot to start! Everyone has said it, but I'll say it too...you will need to get actual grow lights. You can skimp and DIY lots of other areas if necessary, but light is food for the plants (not the nutrients you put into the soil) and cannabis eats a TON of light! Nebula regularly updates her light reviews and has different categories, one of which are budget lights so you might find some good affordable suggestions there.

Not sure what soil or grow medium you're using and if you're planning on going organic/living soil or if you're going to use synthetic nutes, but what you currently have doesn't look like it's going to have sufficient drainage. You'll also want to poke some holes in your solo cups unless maybe you already have some on the bottom that aren't visible in the pics.

To sum up the above, garbage in, garbage out. And that's not a judgement or saying you've got garbage, but just to say that your outputs can't really be any better than your inputs.

For moving forwards there is really one big thing you need to manage: the environment. Managing the environment will prevent most of your problems. Focus on the following listed roughly in order of importance: temperature/humidity, watering regime, ventilation, circulation, and nutrients (think of these more as a multi-vitamin instead of food). If you successfully manage those things, then you'll likely come through with a good harvest. It's actually to manage those 6 things that we use things like tents, good exhaust fans, monkey/clip fans, and good lights with lights being one of the most important pieces.

Love that you're DIY-ing your set up and grow! That's part of what makes homegrowing so fun and individualized. If you meet 100 different growers, they're all going to have 100 different environments that they grow in and you'll find 100 different ways to manage those environments. But what you'll find is that they all manage their environments by using different tools and techniques.

I'm also glad to see that you're doing this as a 'learning' grow with low expectations. That means you can experiment as much as you want and not cry too much if you don't get to harvest. In my world, as long as you learn something, it's not a failure! You'll be able to learn a lot more with a good light and a setup where you can manage your environment. Then you are learning how to dial in your environment instead of learning that you need good lights or a tent.

Keep us posted with how things are going and keep up the awesome attitude! We all start somewhere and we've all f***ed it up at least once so you're in good company!

[Mollisol]

Hey man lots of good info above. I would really spend some time reading through the GWE (growweedeasy.com) site. If $ is an issue and believe me I understand that. I think you would better off with a bunch on CFLs. That will get you through Veg. Good luck!

[DubthaWs]

I have went through the website a bit, however like the person before you said, each grower and grow has individual tactics and methods. I'd hate to not know trying several methods that might actually go against each other. I understand for general info i can hit any of the forums but for more precise learning, my post here has my progress and people can point out where im short or over doing and so on. Thankyou though, I've already been through the site a few times.

[DubthaWs]

So after reading everything here. My light specs are posted here. They grew tall in the window before I got my light. However it doesn't seem like this light helped the issue. As I said before, I have one plant that isn't abnormally tall. In fact it seems o be doing the best?

[StickyNugsAZ]

Do not be discouraged on your road to growing good cannabis. Every single grower is always learning.

This bulb is just not good enough. Even to germinate seeds you are much better off with a curly CFL.
Also, a quality light with a decent known name is probably your most important starting point. I just returned a cheap made in china one that claimed a certain spectrum and output but was horrible for my plants and WAY too hot. I didn't even want it to germinate seeds with. You dont have to spend a ton of money for one around 100 watts actual watts (not equivalent) for a 2x2ft flower area.

https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-grow-lights-whats-the-best-size

best of luck

[SoOrbudgal]

Best of luck with growing

[Rwise]

you need more like 300 watts, this bulb is to sell not grow under.

[Mollisol]

If you go with the CFLs. I recommend twelve 45watt (actual watts) highest Kelvin you can find. This is the MINIMUM bulbs you will need for Veg. Here is a pic of how I set mine up.

[SoOrbudgal]

Yep those are great Mollisol i use the same.

[DubthaWs]

So here's my plants now. I'm getting more pots this week and will be moving them to bigger pots. It seems now they can stand up on their own. I have successfully started 8 plants. After I move them I need to get a better light and start enacting a daily pest, health, and watering control plan right? I know lavender spray is a natural insecticide, and copper spray is a natural fungicide. Anything else natural I should be using?

[Bluey]

Just get a better light or a 20' high tent in the alternative.

Your water control you can automate from a tank, same with your light/s. Get a little fan to circulate air and create a bit of breeze on those. They will fall over soon if not.

[Mollisol]

I had this buddy that asked me how to grow. I started telling him how to get started. He told me he was going to use incandescent light bulbs. No matter how many times I told him it would not work. He insisted on using them.

[DubthaWs]

no they arnt they are staying inside

[DubthaWs]

Here it is my guys. i got me some "pots". I'm broke and just trying to complete my first grow. *Please Do Not Start ranting me with using cheap things. I'm aware that I need better stuff, so you emptying your checkbook for me?* Using information from my first attempt and research on how to grow. I realized that this soil might not have the proper nutrients. that is why I have 2 plant foods. one full of 24% nitrogen and the tomato plant food contain 3% calcium. I'm also aware that I should give the calcium when flowering stage starts.

[DubthaWs]

Alright. So i moved them over to their new pots. Don't worry I havn't added any plant food or spray yet. I understand trans"planting", lol, the plant is stressful for it. So Today Post this message they will receive time to adjust. I did transferred them in a low light environment.

[SoOrbudgal]

Now lets see them

[Rwise]

Did you add a bunch of holes in the bottom and up the sides of those "pots"?

[DubthaWs]

yes i did. made sure i did that.

[DubthaWs]

Here they are guys. Their first move into bigger pots.

[transcend]

Did you end up getting upgrading your light?

I know you aren't interested in people ranting and are trying a grow with what you have on hand and minimal extra spending, but indoors the light is probably THE most important thing (as well as nutrients, temps/humidity etc) that dictates how the grow will turn out. The specs for the bulb you posted earlier show that it just isn't powerful enough. It says it's a grow light, sure, but it also states that it's suitable for germination of seeds and supplemental lighting. More suited for houseplants that might be in a shaded part of the house and need a bit more light.

You come across as being a bit reluctant to research on the main site but I strongly suggest you go over the articles regarding grow lights and what cannabis requires in terms of light intensity and spectrum etc. It might seem boring/unnecessary to you (I don't know), but it really is required knowledge if you want to grow indoors.
Your bulb is only 8 watts, so even with an optimal grow at 1.5g/w you're only looking at harvesting around half an oz from those plants (all up, not each), and that won't happen because the PAR the bulb puts out is only 2.95 umol/s. To grow decent buds you need WAAAY more than this - I think it's like 700 minimum.
So persisting with this bulb will probably give you a handful of popcorn, frustration and wasted time and money on soil, treatments etc.

Sorry if I sound preachy, we can cheat nature as indoor growers but only to a certain limit, the plant still needs what it needs and those things we can't change/hack without diminishing the results.

[DubthaWs]

It's not that I don't want to buy lights, I'm simply trying to get what I need to keep them growing, and lights are next on the list