First grow panic mode - the stems are getting really long - help :(

[RedAdmiral]

Hello fellow growers!

This is my first grow and feeling a bit nervous. It feels like the stems are super long and thin and it is not developing properly. I am reading ton of information everywhere and sometimes those bits of info are well... not the same So I decided to come here on this forum and ask for help.

My setup is

Tent: 100cm x 100cm x 200cm
Light: MasterGrow 300W
Air humidifier: Medisana UHV (adjustable)
Air outtake: Garden High Pro Extractor with 2 speeds - running on lower speed od 220m^3/h
Air circulation: 2 fans one towerfan running on speed two out of three to make sure that the ladies dance delicatly and a sec fan much smaller one to help move the air in the tent.
Pots: Fabric pots 19L 29cm\
Soil: Cellmax Coco + Cellmax Bio + Cellmax Terra each of 33% Final PH - 5.9
Water PH: 7.2

So... before I started I really read a lot and this project is for my husband. Why he is not here... well he is autistic and suffers from strong anxieties. I am trying to help him learn this and set it up to help him do something he is passionate about and makes him feel better ( and luckily we live in the Netherlands so it is ok to have up to 5 plants for personal use ). Also to repair the budget since when he went into depression and lost his job he started to smoke much more and literally melted our savings behind my back. I am trying to recover it and help him through this difficult times and this is one of those thing we work on together. But that is not really relevant we all have our problems right ? My point being is I tried to prepare my self for this project as much as I could but I feel like I am or missing something of importance or doing something wrong. Please help

Anyway:

All 5 seeds germinated beautifully - paper towel method.

This is day six and the stems got around 5-7 cm long.

I keep the RH around 50 - 65%

The temps are kept on around 21-23 Celsius

The extractor creates just a bit of negative pressure.

The lamp hangs 60 cm above the plants ( following brand recommendation )

I am trying not to over water to encourage root growth

So why do they get so leggy and look so weak? Is something wrong? Or am I overreacting and should just try to chill and observe? Thank you up ahead for all the help. Really appreciated. <3

 

[CaptainWiese91]

Welcome to the Forum.
and nice description on your whole setup 👍🏻 We don’t see that often.

Try to move your light a little bit closer. They are stretching a little bit after the light. Your temps and humidity is fine 👍🏻

is it a coco medium ? Or a coco medium supplemented by some soil?

 

[RedAdmiral]

Hello Captain! : ) Thanks for such a fast response! About the description - I just read what info is best to give. Trying to follow the guidelines not to make a mess on the forum.

As for the light - won't bringing it closer stress them? They are getting long and leggy because they are trying to reach it right? It will try it but what do you recommend? From 60 cm to 50 cm?

The soil:

Cellmax Coco Soil Mix contains:

• 100% Coco Peat
• pH (H2O) 6.2
• Electrical conductivity (EC) 0,9 mS/cm
• Water retention capacity: 7.4ml/gr
• 50L EN12580

Cellmax Terra Soil Mix potting soil contains:

• Brownpeat
• Sphagnum peat
• Milled peat
• Coarse perlite
• pH (H2O) 5,0-6,5
• EC 1.19 mS/cm
• Organic/Mineral fertilizers NPK 14-16-18. Contains micro nutrients.
• Water retention capacity: 600 ml/L
• Volume: 50L EN12580

Cellmax BIO Soil Mix professional Organic and Sustainable soil for horticulture.

The new Cellmax bio potting soil is one of the most sustainable potting soils ever made. This potting soil has been developed with sustainability as a starting point without sacrificing great results. All ingredients are carefully selected from the best sources and therefore we can proudly say that this potting soil mixture, is one of the first to consist of more than 50% renewable raw materials. This unique potting soil blend consists of: controlled bark-compost, green-compost, untreated coconut fibre, certified wood fibres, fermented peat plants, natural minerals and a minimum peat content.

In addition to these basic raw materials, Cellmax BIO potting soil is enriched with:

• 100% Vegetable fertilizers for 4-6 weeks
• Fulvic and Humic a natural byproduct extracted from drinking water.
• Organic soil improver, as a residual product from the wine industry.
• Biostimulants
• Natural Rock Powder & Rockphosphate
• Seaweed lime
• pH (H2O) 5,0-6,5
  
  I hope this helps And I hope I have chosen the right soil mix haha

 

[CaptainWiese91]

It stretched to that point because it’s where the light was reaching by it best. Try even just 5cm for a start. I don’t know your lamp and how intense it is for the plant - but I’m sure to say it stretched because of light was maybe little to far away. Remember you can always will soil around the seedling until it’s covered again. And it will grow more roots out of the covered stem.

Never seen that soil before. Doesn’t have to be bad just because I haven’t seen it before. It sounds pretty good. I was wondering if this is a “coco” medium or a “soil” medium. Or a “50/50 coco/soil medium”I’m thinking of the Ph levels, they are different from soil to coco.
I know one one will answer me on this later, there are certainly some people on here who knows that 100%

 

[RedAdmiral]

Lamp lowered a bit. Now observing like an eagle haha

Covering the stem? Huh that is interesting! But just covering or should I take the plant out dig a bit deeper hole and then plant it back? This is an auto flower - Crystal Candy XL - if the information on the internet is correct auto flowers don't like to be bothered and stressed? Is that true?

Thank you for the tips!

 

[CaptainWiese91]

I can see you are filled with the soil to the edge.
Then I wouldn’t stress it more. Just lower the light and follow carefully.
Sometimes my seedlings to this also and I don’t lower the light because I’m lazy, and they turn out fine, a little more cm from the first branches to the soil, doesn’t matter that much. It looks healthy that the important

 

[dphipps1020]

Looks like CaptainWiese91 has you covered. One thing I will add is those types of lights are not the equivalent of what they say and the heights are usually wrong. I had some of the cheap "1200W" blurple LEDs like that and I ended up having them less than 12" away. With yours, probably will need to be even closer than that.

 

[CaptainWiese91]

Im not good at lights. Thanks for covering that 👍🏻

 

[Farmbuck]

I agreed with Captain and if you can try to maintain your PH around 6.5. Welcome to the family and good luck..!

 

[RedAdmiral]

Wow what a nice welcome! : ) Thanks guys! <3

Anyway tomorrow I will provide some pics but it seems like my ladies don't want to stop growing vertically :| dphipps I know that my lamp is possibly some chinese crap but oh well beginners mistake. What would you and other people recommend? I am on a tight budget max 200-300 euros and it will hurt but if that will help with better grow and harvest so be it. Honestly I don't even know can I get a good lamp in that range. Or perhaps it is possible to finish this grow with the current lamp and upgrade for the next one? I am growing 5 plants on 1 square meter. I am open to suggestions and tips

 

[CaptainWiese91]

300 euros you can get a decent lamp. I know you can get a decent viparspectra, it’s a good beginner lamp. Maybe you can afford a Mars hydro on their EU site.
5 plants is much for that “Chinese” lamp. When they all are flowering they need one more watt maybe.

I know there is some good LED online shops in Europe because I live in EU also. They all come up if you google some grow lamps names.

And if it keeps stretching lowered it 5cm more down

 

[dphipps1020]

You can finish with that light but you won't want your plants to be very tall because the buds will be smaller the farther down they are. Either way you may not get very high yields unless you get more light. Not saying those lights are terrible, they just have to be really close and a lot of times you need more than one. Not sure what's available to you but I got some Mars Hydro lights and I love them so far. Just be sure to pay attention to the light's footprint. I think for your tent either the TSW2000 or the TS3000 from Mars Hydro would be perfect. The TSW2000 would work and it's the cheaper option but you may lose a little coverage for flower. The TS3000 would cover a little more than your tent size I think and would be the best option of the two. So really I believe either would work.

 

[DaGreenBlazer]

If it's any help - 1 thing that helps both with seedling stretch and promoting thicker stem growth anyway is you can fan train them - have a fan (preferably oscillating though no matter if not) blow a light breeze onto seedlings that is enough to sway them gently without it being too violent a blow - if need be, face the fan towards a wall and bounce the airstream back off it towards them to soften the gust - ideally after 4 or 5 days they have stopped swaying so much and them concentrating on thickening stem to steady themselves will have slowed down the stretch abit.

​​​​
Also to test at what distance any light is too hot to stress plants, you can just hold the back of your hand under it - if your chosen distance feels too hot or uncomfortable for you then it will be for them; if it just feels a nice warm to you then seedlings and upwards will be fine with it too. I'm guessing you've got an LED unit from your pics, and generally they're meant to be ok for putting close anyway. Best of Luck!!

 

[JeffInCanada]

Hi RedAdmiral
If you need to support them from falling over it is ok. Do it carefully. They should stand up on their own eventually (not my photo, just a pic I found on the net).

 

[RedAdmiral]

Wow! There is something majestic about this plant haha <3 Thank you for the tip!

 

[RedAdmiral]

Hey hey! I have there an oscillating fan but still very valuable info thank you! I lowered the blow a bit to weakest setting I had it on 2 out of 3 and perhaps it was a bit to aggressive. As for the lamp I adjusted it once more keeping my hand there to feel the warmth. Thanks! <3

 

[RedAdmiral]

Good morning everyone! So as promised some pictures! This is day 6. In about 2 days I will water them again and then measure the PH from the water that drained through the pot. Thank you everybody for your warm welcome and help. I have to say this growing in the tent is super fun! ( even when a bit nervous sometimes - am I doing it right? )

So reading through your posts I lowered the lamp from recommended 60 cm to 37 cm. I used a suggestion of one of you to keep my hand where the plant is and feel for the warmth and at that height it felt nice and cozy. I will be keeping a sharp eye on things.

Sadly, because of that one of the ladies gets a bit less light Lowering the lamp covered 4 of them much nicer and with slightly more intensity but I am afraid that, that one will suffer from it.

In my opinion me and my husband should have grown 4 plants for even distribution but my husband was like fiiiiiveeee it has to be fiveeee! Haha

In my eyes 4 plants with good yields are better than 5 with average. Time will show. For this moment I am researching for other lamps and you pointed me on MarsHydro. Time to read some more! <3

 

[RedAdmiral]

Ok guys I have to say I am reading up on the led lamps and I am overwhelmed with the amount of info haha

I watched some vids about it and found this page: https://kwekenmetled.nl/led-kweeklam...334c28f9e5598c

Honestly I am getting dizzy from all those brands and specs.

I read a lot about Mars Hydro and it definitely has some good reviews but also noticed some shady marketing practices. As an example I will give the ip65 water resistance which is not true. On one site it says it has it on other not. They also don't specify what brand leds are they using? Samsung? or some unknown stuff?

I also found Maxsisun and Spider Farmer and those also look good.

I understand that I made a mistake with HOPING that that Mastergrow 300W lamp would do the job properly and I want to make my husband happy. Can you fellow growers say what lamps do you use and what kind of experiences you have?

I feel really conflicted as I have to be careful with my budget but on the other hand maybe it is worth the investment and it will return it self faster.

The Mars Hydro 3000 TS power usage ( 450W! Yikes! ) also scares me tbh.... that's a lot of energy ! this project started to save money so also a straight forward question: How much can I save considering that buying is 7-10 euros per gram?

Other thing... fertilizers. Some youtubers say use it some say don't. How is it in the end? Should I get something for this grow? I understand that I wont gonna make it perfect ( lack of skills, experience and lacking in equipment ) but if I can help out my little happily wiggling ladies I would like to do that.

Thanks in advance! <3

 

[CaptainWiese91]

Are you giving 7-10 euros for a gram? That is way expensive, really much for Europe.
All the lamps you mentioned is good lamps. A lot in here use Mars hydro and their plants love them. I’m even buying two here next month.
Fertilizer isn’t a must, depends a lot on your soil, but it’s nice to have in hand if something or deficiency is showing up.

I’m using lumatek lamp, but they are really pricey so this I why I didn’t mention that company.

I’m using 680Wattage in all right now. And it’s still cheaper than buying weed. It will be a lot cheaper than buying it for 7-10 euros, it’s for sure.

 

[RedAdmiral]

Yeah! Usually it is 10 euro per gram sometimes even a bit more. Depends where and what kind of quality. As for lamps a read and read and I am getting drawn more and more to Spider Farmer brand. Anybody grows with that? : )