Stretchy Little Sucker? Tips for a newby?

[piglish]

Hi guys,

 

This is grow number one, not entirely sure what I am doing but thats half the fun right

 

2 plants (clones - 1 x white widow, 1 x chronic) both started off 4cm tall, grown in coco in a cupboard, hand watered using nutes every second day, water every other.

 

Now due to budget constraints, the poor little guys were grown 18/6 under your generic type outdoor flood light. One plant took off and the other did absolutely nothing - didn't look sick but just didn't grow?

 

2 weeks later, and the crazy plant has kept growing, but looks stretchy and too tall for the foliage it has, but the runt of the litter has come to life with good concentrated growth.

 

They now have a 400w HPS, and will have some decent ventilation by this arvo.

 

Any tips guys, should i be pruning the big fella back? Feel free to point out glaring obvious mistakes I'm sure I have made along the way!!

 

Cheers

[MongyMan]

hand watered using nutes every second day, water every other.

 

Are you watering them every day piglish? Soggy roots will kill them quickly, they are better a little dry than overwatered, and like to dry out a bit between waterings. The medium should be moist but not wet.

 

Now due to budget constraints, the poor little guys were grown 18/6 under your generic type outdoor flood light. One plant took off and the other did absolutely nothing - didn't look sick but just didn't grow?

 

The spectum emited by floodlights has very little light that can be used by plants to grow. They will survive, just, but thats it.

 

They now have a 400w HPS, and will have some decent ventilation by this arvo.

Any tips guys, should i be pruning the big fella back? Feel free to point out glaring obvious mistakes I'm sure I have made along the way!!

 

They should take off now . The smaller one I'd just let do its thing for now. The taller one I would cut the tip out to force side branches and it may come good but being in a cupboard it may still end up too tall. Once it has a few new healthy growth tips you could always take clones anyway and start again.

[bufo marinus]

Gday piglish I'd cut the big one back to the same height as the other one.

If your using coco it's worth reading up on Canna products http://www.canna-au.com/dhtml/index.php particularly the Cannazym and Rhiztonic for a healthy grow and also to safeguard against Pythium and other pathogens, which is a problem inherent with the coco as the shit is still decomposing

Beneficial bacteria is something worth reading up on too, do a search here through the Search feature and you'll find some useful threads on it.

I see you have your pot inside another pot... for drainage I assume, good idea.

I get what your trying to do with the water every second feed thing, and it's not a bad idea, especially when you don't own an EC metre ? just guessing...

What I've found using nutes with coco is that once you go past an EC of around 1.2 thats the point where nutrient build up starts, EC rises, and the roots end up damaged, resulting in severe leaf wilt. If you can mix up your nutes at or below that low level you shouldn't need to flush in between, it should remain stable.

Anyway, nothing like taking a bit of water up your nose to get the idea of how it works, good luck

[Shithappens]

I personally would cut them above what looks like the 3rd pair of leaves as the other one (once fixed up) will grow a bit before the branches start coming out from the one you cut. This will help them maintain a same size hopefully

 

May I ask what soil they are in man ?

 

Also what are you watering them with (are you adding any nutrients with your water?)

 

Just looks like you have some hassles there on the older leaves some closer images can help us help you out with this. Anything that help you get them thriving will mean more buds for you.

[Tom]

2 weeks later, and the crazy plant has kept growing, but looks stretchy and too tall for the foliage it has

This usually means your light is too high, to set the light to grow height, start at a safe distance above the plants and hold your hand palm down level with the top of the plant for a few minutes. If it feels too hot on the back of your hand the light is too close, if cool then it's too far away. If it's pleasantly warm and it feels as if you could hold your hand there all day then it's ok.

 

You also need to include an oscillating fan in there too, it will circulate the air and create a "wind" effect that will help strengthen up the stalks.

 

I would tie the plant over rather than cut it, you'll get more out of it that way.

 

[Shithappens]

Yeh true tom but I personally wouldnt tie it down without a tipping to make it branch asap

[Stoney]

if it was me i would do as tom said and drop the light to a good level

 

also with the big one start bending it over abit so that new tips start growing out of it this will bush it up abit and in the mean time will give the smaller one more time to catch up abit

 

cheerz :Dj:

[piglish]

Thanks for all the help guys, will have a fiddle with the current setup and post some new pics