HELP! First Grow and with Clones not sure if I am on the right track

[Grateful22]

Hi Everyone! First let me say I am new to the forum new to indoor gardening, and I am so impressed with the knowledge and respect in this forum. I have browsed others and was quickly turned off by them...people can be so mean! I was under the impression that we all had a common goal, to grow some beautiful plants and share our experiences and to give and get knowledge and reap the rewards of some Indica and Sativa flowers? So THANKFUL I have found this forum, and thank you for taking the time to read this, and hopefully give some pointers. Keep up the great work everyone!! Okay here I go:

I have started growing clones my husband brought home for me. I am not sure exactly what each plant is, I believe they are some type of medical Kush that a sick friend gave him. (At least that is what he was told, his friend forgot to label them, I apologize for the lack of strain information! I am slightly irked by it too, LOL) When I received them they all had purple stems, stocks and and leafs (veins etc). Is this normal? I believe clones are different than growing from seed? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Anyway here is what I can provide for absolute certainty. I have them growing in a 6'Lx5W'x6H' room that has reflective mylar grow paper up (not on the ceiling or floor) with one 300W LED and one 450W LED 24" above them. Both lights have dimmable switches, VEG is at 100% and the BLOOM is at 25%. They have been in the room for 26 days as of today. I have had them for 33 days on total. Unsure of the exact age when I received them...however they were about 4"-6"tall.

They are in 3 gallon smart pots, grown in Fox Farm Ocean Forest blend. I have a 6"inline exhaust with carbon filter, and 2 oscillating fans, one is up high the other is down low creating a circular air movement pattern. I do not have a booster on the intake. The intake is a low corner diagonally opposite of the exhaust which is up high. I just used a heat return vent so I can control how open I want it. I put screen over the outside of it along with a commercial grade filter fiber blanket (its a particulate collector, love that the husband works on commerical sites! Really coming in handy for materials! LOL) to keep pests from entering. I also caulked around the seams of the intake, I know maybe paranoid, however I really didn't want to deal with bugs if I didn't have to! LOL

I transplanted the ladies after about 1 week of having them into 3 gallon smart pots, and didn't use any nutes, since the soil had everything they would need for the first month. They are growing well... like weeds! Nice thick stems, tons of new growth, and I have topped and done LST, still no nutes. Rain soil tests, pH is perfect, and N, K and P all are in the acceptable/ slightly low range. I have General Hydroponics Nutes, FloraGrow, FloraBloom and the Micro one. They came as a set. When should I feed and how much do you think? Will i need a ppm meter? Or should I use the chart on the bottles?


pH of pain filtered from the fridge is 7. I use the pH drops not the stick meter thingy (should I obtain one for a more accurate reading?) Run off of water is at 6. I am watering every 3 days or when the soil feels dry or they are lighter than they should be. I use 2 gallons of water between my 4 plants, and they start draining within a minute of watering. I would say the run off is about 20-30% Is this too much, low? Is the pH of the water to be in the 6-7 range? Should I lower it before watering? If so what do you folks recommend the number be? The roots are a nice white color and there isn't and rotting odor coming from the bottom (I know I am weird, old gardening habits, I always small the bottom of my plants to look for signs of root rot or any rot for that matter...it has carried over to my Cannabis growing...)

They are on a 24/0 light cycle, that is what his friend said to do, however I really want to change it to 18/6 soon, but I am not sure when I should do...most likely now huh? Thoughts? They are also covered in pre-flowers, is this normal? Does this mean they should go into flower now, or should I wait? The pre-flowers have been there for about a week to 10 days.

Temps are anywhere from 68 - 73 F and humidity is 65-68%. My concern is the humidity, is it too high? I have my exhaust fan on the upper end of the low setting. Should I turn it up to get the humidity down?

Some concerns I do have are, the newer leaves are kind of "canoeing" is this normal? I am also noticing some brown tips and brown edges on old growth. Is it like any other plant, leaves die, you cut them off, new ones form? I mean I would assume so...but again assuming...

I uploaded a couple of pictures I hope you folks can see them! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I just feel as though I am flying by the seat of my pants, and really do not know what I am doing with these ladies. To be honest, I am treating them more or less like a tomato plant...not even entirely sure if that is a good idea...I hope I have provided enough information for you folks as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope you folks have an awesome day! Happy growing to you all! Take it Easy!

[9fingerleafs]

Welcome grateful very kind words and great post. I can only say you are doing everything PERFECT and all your assumptions are spot on. About the humidity you may want to lower it when you flower. This can be at any time you want to since prefliwer already appered just switch to 12/12 again, any time you want. Consider they will grow a lot in the next 3 weeks from the switch. Keep treating it like a tomato and unless you see serious deficiencys is better not to feed until after the flowering stretch. From week 3-6 you want to provide P & K so your bloom additive will do just fine. Start around 1/4 strength and up to 1/2 strength of the bottle recipe. Never more. This nutrients are made to feed a plant with no soil so you just have to fine tune with a little bit to keep them happy. Congratulations they're looking great

[Grateful22]

Hey 9fingerleafs! Thank you for your advice and taking the time to answer my questions! I have a lot to think about in regards to flowering and size and your advice will definitely help with making a decision. I will post updates and questions as they come up! This forum is so great! Thank you again for your time, I really do appreciate it!

[bobsakamoto]

hi grateful, and welcome! this forum is so great and filled with such nice, helpful people.

i second everything 9fingerleafs said, except for the part that you asked about switching to 18/6 not 12/12. since you are currently on 24/0 you can switch to 18/6 anytime you want but switching to 12/12 induces flowering. meaning, it induces bud production. the general rule of thumb to use is to switch to 12/12 when your plants are half the total size you want them to be at maturity. so if you want to grow 4 ft tall plants then switch to 12/12 when the plant (including container) is 2 ft. since you are in 3 gal pots that will determine to a very large extent your final plant size, so be sure to take that in to account as well.

you also asked about humidity. like 9 said, you may want to lower that when you induce flowering but you're within healthy range so if lowering humidity will change other factors (temps being the main/obvious one) detrimentally then i wouldn't worry about it too much. growing these plants indoors i find is a little like a jenga puzzle--moving one piece almost always affects the other pieces.

i do not use that line of nutes so maybe someone who does will come along and comment upon that for you.

you asked about the amount and pH range of your runoff. 20-30% is good. and your range is good right now but you will want to have a look at the chart below to adjust pH in soil as you see fit, esp since when you start flowering you'll want less N and more K.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/sites/growweedeasy.com/files/pH-nutrient-deficiency/soil-ph-chart-marijuana.jpg

other than that, great post and great job caring for your "new" plants!

oh, and good job going ahead and caulking ahead of time as a preventative against bugs!

[Grateful22]

Hey Bobsakamoto! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my lengthy post, and for your advice. I will most definitely be taking it all into consideration regarding flowering! Very insightful! You hit the nail on the head with the Jenga analogy! It really is! Thank you again, it really is appreciated!