HELP! First time grow not going well.

[Idlers_dream]

This is my first time growing and it's certainly been a learning experience. I have 2 plants that I grew from seeds found in a nug...so probably not the best ever, but no worries, this is just for fun. Here are the details:

- 8" self-watering pot with organic potting mix for each plant
- All purpose nutes, slightly less than recommended on -container (mixed into soil, not water)
- 7 weeks old
- 4 CFLs, 800 lumens each (see pic)
- fan on them
- watering every 3-4 days, as needed
- using distilled water
- ph meter is reading a little over 7
- average temp is 80 during light cycle and 65 during dark.
- low humidity due to region and how dry my house is. It's usually at 30% but always goes to about 40-45% for a few hours after watering.
- FIM'd once last week with no noticeable growth since
- 20/4 light cycle
- super smelly (the whole grow room smells super weedy, which luckily is not a problem)
- Plant 1 (pictured) has been droopy forever, so I think it's the strain. It doesn't perk up when I water, and the green leaves feel, smell, and look great.
- Plant 2 is much shorter, but it looks healthier with only a few small brown spots on the leaves. No drooping like #1, but it hasn't grown out, just up.

See the pics to view the problem: crispy brown spotted leaves. The plants are very short/lean for how old they are. I realized a month in I had the wrong bulbs (soft white) so I think that stunted them. The brown crispy nonsense is rising. These grew a few inches during weeks 5 & 6, but before and since they've been stagnant.

I want to switch them to grow, but their poor growth and obvious health issues have kept me from it.

Any suggestions about the leaves, growth, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I have identified a number of issues from GWE's site, but I'm not sure how to fix them.

Cheers!

[Newf]

It looks like your older lower leaves are yellowing and dying which usually indicates a nitrogen deficiency. The first thing I would recommend is getting the pH corrected (over 7 is too high) and then if still having trouble consider changing nutes. (Which all purpose are you using? Is there a N-P-K ratio on the package - that would be helpful to know.) Now that you have better lights your plants may be trying to get more nitrogen to grow and "stealing" it from the lower leaves. As usual, I defer to the more experienced folks though if they have other thoughts.

[PRIMO]

First off welcome to the game. It looks like some changes are in order. you really need to shoot for a 6 on the ph, the soil looks like it could use more airation think 40% perlite. If it was me if would get a bag of quality soil and 3-5 gal. smart pots mix in the extra perlite repot the little darlins,and lower those lites right down on em, 3-4 inches.Water them til you get a good run off,hold off on the neuts. The spots on the leaves could be wrong or fluxuating ph lower leaves can get pretty funky looking on an otherwise healthy looking plant. You got your seeds out of a nug, rest assured you can grow weed as good and in most cases much better. Light, ph,and airation in the soil are most important. Try to raise the humidity, 50-60% for veg and get larger cfls. Don't give up you can do this.

[Idlers_dream]

Thanks Newf & Primo; I appreciate the feedback. The nutes are 15-9-12. The plants are about 2 inches below the lights, but I can move them no problem. I think I just need to bite the bullet and buy some Fox Farms offline (there are no sellers within 60 miles of me). My big concern is transplanting them. How do I safety get them out of their current home and into a smart pot without major shock? I transplanted them once from their peat pot to the larger pots and they suffered for a few days but ultimately did better. To transplant - do I wait until they're dried out, then try to get as much as I can or just a few inches down/around into the new pot? Also, and this is only because I have no experience here, how do the smart pots drain? Do I need to keep a drain-plate under them? I've read that people keep egg crates under smart pots to help with drainage, but that seemed unstable.

Thank you again for your help, this has been a fun project for me and my first time growing plants indoors successfully (I once had a basil plant...but we won't speak about that travesty).

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Hi Idler

You've only got 52 watts of CFL there which is not enough, you'll need at least 100 watts per plant to really get things going.
Are the nutes time release? Most people mix their nutes with their waterings so they can adjust feed to feed to best serve the plant. Using distilled water can create issues too as most nute systems assume some mineral content in the base water. Some CalMag should help.

Smart pots don't necessarily need anything underneath them, but it's never ideal for your pot to sit in standing water. I use plastic tubs from the 99c Store with pantry organizer frames and it makes a nice contained unit to pull in and out of my tent.

[Bikerstonrr]

Hi idler. Some good advice so far. If you have not transplanted before read this article http://www.growweedeasy.com/transplant. I have found that usually the main site has very good info. The problem is my understanding the info. That's when I bring these kind folks in for their ideas

[NebulaHaze]

In addition to what the others have said, your plant looks very droopy which is a sign it's being overwatered or has "wet feet" which can cause all kinds of symptoms including deficiencies like you're seeing. A happy plant has leaves that are almost reaching up toward the light. It's possible your plants need water less often, or less water at a time. They're in big pots for their size which can take a long time to dry out until they get older.

I also agree you need a lot more light. They'll grow faster and be a lot harder to overwater when they're getting plenty of light.

You also mentioned your pH is a little over 7. Cannabis plants need slightly acidic soil to prevent nutrient deficiencies. In soil the pH should be between 6-7, which many growers leaning closer to 6 than 7.

I know it's been a few days. How are they looking now?

[Idlers_dream]

Thanks for the ideas, Nebula. I moved them to these pots a little too soon and you're right about the slow drying, so I think for sure the smart pots will help with that. The Ph was just right until about 2 weeks ago, so again I'm sure changing the pots, the soil/purlite mix, and the nutrients will help with all of that. The really droopy one has been droopy forever. I'm definitely not overwatering - if anything I've suffered from underwatering (scared from all the warning about overwatering!) and seen the telltale rising after watering. I started with more frequent, smaller waterings and that was too much, so about a month ago I switched to more infrequent, deeper waterings and I've seen marked improvements. My droopy darling is obviously suffering from a few things, and will improve with better aeration, light, and nutrient absorption. What's interesting is that my 2nd plant (same age but smaller due to a near-death experience right off the bat) has just started rising, spreading wider, and growing bigger in the last few days. Each plant has identical care, so I'm pretty sure it's their individual strains that are creating those reactions. My smart pots are set to arrive Monday, so I'm going to switch everything over then and see how it goes.

I haven't had a chance to change much yet - I ordered a few new things and I'm waiting on them to arrive. I appreciate all the feedback and I'll post pictures once the changes are made and again when I start seeing results (good or bad...but hopefully good!)

[NebulaHaze]

It sounds like you're really getting everything dialed in! Let us know how they're doing!

[Idlers_dream]

Hi Everyone,

I changed...everything. Fabric pots, better soil w/ perlite, fox farms nutes, more light, better fans, and a light timer (my own time management skills are hardly as effective). They've about tripled in size, spread more (the one that's really bushy had most of its older leaves fall off), and generally seem a lot better. I've done 2 nutrient feedings with one non-nute watering in between and the tall, bushy one has gotten reallllly dark with some clawing. I'm not sure if I should further dilute the nutrient water or just water with plain H20 for a bit.

I think I might switch them to flowering really soon. I don't want them to get much bigger in veg since I don't want very big plants.

I'm hoping for the best since, big surprise, using the better supplies made them grow better. Plus, I'm super antsy to see what happens and I have nothing to lose, haha.

Thanks for all the advice and of course keep it coming if you want. Cheers!

[Newf]

Sounds like things are going much better. Congrats.

[NebulaHaze]

They look way better! Have you topped them (removed the very tip of the main cola, so it splits into two main colas instead of one)? Whether you do that or not, you can bend all the new growth to spread out the plant instead of letting it get tall, though you'll have to bind it down to prevent it from growing up again. It's difficult to bend old stems, but they're really easy to bend when they're brand new. If you can get them a little wider, but the same height, it will increase your yields in the flowering stage since there will be more total bud sites.

[Idlers_dream]

Hey All,

Just a quick follow up with some good news - I switched to 12/12 a few days ago and one of my two plants is sprouting some white hairs! They've been through a lot of stress, so I've been super worried that I would end up with hermies, but I'm not seeing any sign of pollen sacs or bananas. Fingers crossed! The other plant isn't showing anything yet - it's been through a little more stress and it's not as big as the other one, but I'm keeping my eye on it just in case. Pretty terrible picture is attached, but whatever - tiny hairs! Here's hoping in a little while I have some beautiful buds. For my first grow, things have pretty much gone wrong everywhere they could, but everything has been seemingly fixable. At this point, I'm just trying to stabilize the Ph and knock out some clawing that's showing after my first watering with the flowering-stage nutes. I'm sure once they adjust and I give a little flush, they'll be good.

Nebula, to answer you question (sorry for the long delay), I did top them earlier on but I didn't bend very successfully, so while I have a few strong colas, they're pretty tall. No worries though, my set up can handle the height and I'm just putting some lamps at mid-height in addition to the overhead lights.

Hopefully my next post is showing some fat, glistening buds!

[OzBud]

it's unfortunate that you ran into so many problems in your first grow but problems and mistakes are a perfect opportunity to learn and you'll be better equipped for future grows.