HELP! first grow

[YourRegularNoob]

Hello everyone,

a while ago, I was used to buying my weed from all different kinds of sources. Problem is, It's so damn expensive!!! so I was thinking.. what if I grew my own? and I thought yeah fuck it, gotta stop dreaming so much and actually do it. so 3 months later I got everything together. a growspace, all the equipment, seeds, soil, etc. it has been 17 days since my seedlings have sprouted and in my opinion they are pretty big already. btw I got northern lights seeds if anyone wondered and topped them today. but I have one problem that is really concerning me... plants look ok to me but the one on the right has a little droopy leaves on top. does this mean that i overwatered the plant? or maybe underwatered? please help me because it would really suck if i screw everything up after all this

(bad photos, kind of hard to see it. sorry for that. also the edges of some leaves are starting to point up ?? )

[OzBud]

Plants are looking great so far!
Could be a slight bit of over watering but hardly any droop that I can see so I don't think it's anything to worry about.

What size pots are those?

[YourRegularNoob]

Thanks !! I have 16 liter pots (4.2 gallons i think) they have been in there since germination. When I water the plants nothing comes out of the holes on the under side of the pots. I don't know if that has to do with anything but ok

[9fingerleafs]

I agree with OZ those are very healthy plants and yes pretty big for a couple of weeks. That droopines is nothing to worry about and probably they look better before watering. First things first. Are you keeping track of the ph? That's the #1 suspect for everything. Second. Get used to the weight of the pots before and after watering to know when the plant has used the water. Happy growing man

[YourRegularNoob]

Thanks man , i was really stressed out about overwatering. I started adding nutrients to the water today, so i am now also keeping track of the ph. But only the ph of the water I give them. Ph was 6.7 , phd it down to 6.3.. There is no water coming out of the bottom of the pots so i can't keep track of that

[OzBud]

at least every now & then you'll want some water to come out of the bottom so you can check the pH of the runoff water. Even if you water at the correct pH the pH in the actual medium itself might not be in the right zone due to leftover nutrients, salt build up, or other unseen things going on behind the scenes.

The exception to this is if someone is using super soil, then you wouldn't want any runoff as it washes away some of the nutrients in the soil which should ideally last the whole grow without adding more or having to adjust the pH

[YourRegularNoob]

Woke up today and checked my plants.. looking so much better then yesterday. realized i used supersoil so no need for any water to come out of the bottoms. also I was thinking about scrogging but I'm not sure when to start doing it

[NebulaHaze]

Here's more info about ScrOG if you're interested in reading more about it

[bluecanoe]

I'm on my first grow and am using Northern Lights autoflowering, for the medicinal properties. I'm not one to keep track of time, I do know that I counted 10 weeks when my plants went to veg stage so I think I have about a month before I can begin harvest, I hope. I have two plants and they look totally different from each other, and I have no idea why.
I have some buds starting, and I didn't fertilize until yesterday, used good organic soil, with some perlite but the next batch will have better drainage. I knew about drainage but must have forgotten. I've been a gardener for years and just didn't think about it. My next grow I am making my own soil and will fertilize from the veg state. I plan on having a perpetual grow and hope to keep improving with each one.
I've over watered, and under watered and had clawed leaves, brown leaves, and just about everything you can think of. I would go on the sites to diagnose a sick plant and it would tell me it had nitrogen toxicity when I hadn't used any extra nitrogen, or bad ph so I learned to check the ph myself using baking soda and vinegar, not together, just putting the soil in two bowls, one with vinegar and one with baking soda...if it fizzes on either side you have a ph problem. I guess you could check the runoff water the same way, not sure. Some sites told me to turn off the lights to force flowering, I have kept them on 24/0 the entire grow. So I did and they protested big time, they like the light on all the time.
One person said if you have changed anything, and then you have a problem, change it back....it was good advice. I water when the soil is dry two knuckles deep and then watch for some drainage and dump the drainage out of the catch tray.
Yesterday I watered one plant with yeast water by mistake. It didn't kill it. I'm glad it's a weed. That won't happen again though, just another freak out.
I figure as long as it grows and does what I need it to do when it's harvested it's okay, so I'm not going to sweat it. Your plants look great, good luck to a fellow newbie.

[OzBud]

so your auto has been growing for 10 weeks with at least 4 more to go? I know there's long growing super autos, but That's a ridiculous amount of time for an auto.

Different plants from the same parents can look different due to different phenotypes. Just like human siblings/twins/triplets etc won't always look the same. I'm growing 3 plants of the same strain at the moment. two have maxed out at 0.75m, the other is almost 1.1m tall.

[bluecanoe]

no. When my plants went from seedlings to having real leaves I counted 10 weeks so they have actually only been vegetative plants instead of seedlings for about 6 weeks. I was told by the company I bought the seeds from that 10 weeks was average for maturity and mature height would be approx 24-30", perfect for my little grow area. One of my plants is short and bushy, more slender, darker leaves and with tons of little budlets (don't know what else to call them, because they aren't true buds yet, but will be soon) all over it, the other one is tall and lanky and has wider, more indica looking leaves and has some budlets but you have to really look for them. They've had the same temp, light at the same height, water, air circulation, everything. I had 3 seeds but only got 2 that germinated, and wanted clones but the clones aren't looking great. I figure I have nothing but time to perfect my technique.

[NebulaHaze]

Unfortunately autos are usually not a great candidate to clone because the clones will be on a similar "schedule" as the mother. As a result, they often start flowering right away, so they never get really big. Sometimes they just have a really hard time rooting. So you may be cloning them well, but the strain is sabotaging you! It also might not work to ScrOG auto-flowering plants because you don't have a long enough vegetative period to "fill the screen." Some people top their autos, and some people stick to just bending and tying them down to keep them flat and wide, because there's less of a chance of stunting the plant

[bluecanoe]

I was reading on another site that sometimes cloning from plants that have gone into flower yield bigger buds. I don't know, this is all new to me. I've cloned other plants, just regular indoor plants, and had success so I thought I'd try. I think mine have not done as well because I underwatered them, so we'll see after a few days if they straighten up and start to act right. If not, they get tossed and I start over. I'm curious enough to pull them up to see if they have roots and did just that and one had tiny little roots so I put it back in the soil. The other one was iffy to say the least. I've got nothing but time.
OzBud, I only started to prune larger leaves that were preventing light and air from getting to the inner leaves. I'm not big on pruning or training either. I figure let them do their thing and they'll be happy and eventually I'll be happy. It's how I treat my garden plants.

[NebulaHaze]

Hey, there's more info about re-flowering here, if you're interested. http://www.growweedeasy.com/re-veg-monstercropping

Some people call it "monstercropping." I personally have found that it works really well for some growers, but seems to be really inconsistent. With some strains and growers you get really terrible yields and poor-growing plants, even if the first harvest went beautifully. I think it may be partly a plant-by-plant thing.

[bluecanoe]

Thanks Nebula, I actually ran across this site one night while reading up on how to do things. After watering last night my clones looked better today, early, but started looking rough toward the end of the day. I'm patient enough to wait on the clones to grow roots, and will go back and check on the light schedule clones prefer so I can get the best results. I'm a sponge for information.