First time grower suggestions pleeeeease

[Nor]

Hi fellow smokers i have been lurking on this site for about 3 weeks trying to soak up as much information as i can and now i would like to ask some opinions on my first grow, would love some feedback or any information possible so i can cut out as many mistakes as possible.Ok so im trying to get some plants going and i am experimenting with 2 different grow mediums, i currently have 4, 1 month old plants sprouted from bag seeds from some awesome chronic that i smoked, they are set up in an average sized cupboard under 2x 42watt 6500k cfls 2x 18watt 4200k cfls and 2 x 10 watt 2700k cfls. The grow medium for 3 of the plants is a cheap 5 dollar bag of potting mix from kmart and 1 is 1/3 perlite 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 peat moss. Air intake is 1 small desk fan cut into the side of the cupcoard, venting is 1 standard 250ml bathroom extraction unit. i have Introduced nutrients 2 weeks ago at 1/4 strength and 1 week ago up to 3/4 strength, it is organic fertilizer called garden magic from our local nursery at 10-3-4. On one of the pictures attached you can see some leaf tips are discoloured and on another picture one of the lower leaves of the plant has a yellowish colour and seems much lighter then the other plants. Looking at some other posts it seems maybe my plants seem to not be growing as fast as they should does anyone have any suggestions as to why this would be happening? Also any other comments or mistakes you can see i have made form the pictures attached, any suggestions to improve my first growing experience would be much appreciated, thanking you in advance for an unreal site and for anyone who has any suggustions, bong on...

[MongyMan]

Hey Nor welcome to the site. A couple of suggestions. You can have fluros almost touching the plants without burning them, the closer the better. They look a bit far away in those pics. As for them growing slow compared to pics you have seen, remember they grow alot slower under fluro's than under HID lights. Other than the yellowish one they look ok for 1 month old under fluros to me, just about to take off. Are you going to change to HID lights for flower? The problem with cheap soil is they normally use allot of pine bark in them which is very acidic and causes problems. That yellowish one has an acid ph problem in the soil is my guess which is causing a nutrient lock out, nitrogen in particular. Ph can be hard to correct in soil in pots. Mixing a bit of wood ash into a bucket of water then watering once with that after filtering out the ash is one way I've found can help. The water will feel almost 'soapy' between your fingers because of its low ph. Hope that helps.

 

Peace MongyMan

[Nor]

Hi Mongyman

 

Thanks for replying to my post. I have now lowered my lights and they are almost touching the plants. Also put some reflection on top. Glad to hear they are not to small, I guess I should stop comparing the size of mine to others . Yes I will be putting them under a 400w hps for flower. I have the light but still need to set it up with vents etc. It will be going next to the setup in the pics. You are right about the PH. I bought a ph meter today and it was reading between 4.0 and 6.2 depending where I stuck it. I guess I was getting the lower readings when I hit a concentrated section of pine bark? I think I have learned a good lesson on soil. Now im really worried they are going to die from this. I will try your wood ash suggestion. Can you buy that stuff or do you just get a fire going a scrap up the ashes? Another question is do you think it would be worthwhile transplanting them into new soil altogether? If I pull them up carefully and dust of as much of the crap soil as I can then replant them in a perlite peat and vermiculite mix.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. This site is a life saver although im getting a sore brain trying to take in all the info.

[jimbojones5678]

I will try your wood ash suggestion. Can you buy that stuff

 

Yeah its called potash.

 

do you think it would be worthwhile transplanting them into new soil altogether?

 

If you do it's probably better to do it now rather than later, before you get a good root ball going. The better the medium the healthier your plants.

 

Jimbo

[everest]

i'd be up for a soil change tbh . vermiculite sucks , pete moss yea it suck too . all you need is a good potting mix with 30 or 40 % perlite , oh hi anyway

 

ev

[Reverend]

Welcome Nor If you do decide to repot get a potting mix with NO slow release, Yates organic with dynamic lifter in it is o.k.

[Nor]

Yeah its called potash.

 

 

 

If you do it's probably better to do it now rather than later, before you get a good root ball going. The better the medium the healthier your plants.

 

Jimbo

 

 

Thanks Jimbo

I think I will just risk it and go with the transplant. I don’t think the root ball should be too big yet. Do you think if a bit of the old crap hung on it would still cause probs? Or should I rinse the roots in water?

[Nor]

i'd be up for a soil change tbh . vermiculite sucks , pete moss yea it suck too . all you need is a good potting mix with 30 or 40 % perlite , oh hi anyway

 

ev

 

Hi Ev

They suck all round or is it just no good for my setup? Do the good potting mixes come with 30 to 40% perlite or do you mix it up yourself?

[Nor]

Welcome Nor If you do decide to repot get a potting mix with NO slow release, Yates organic with dynamic lifter in it is o.k.

 

 

Thanks for the welcome Gills

 

Sounds good. Maybe i can mix in some perlite to this like Ev suggested. Isn’t dynamic lifter a slow release?

[MongyMan]

Hi Mongyman

 

You are right about the PH. I bought a ph meter today and it was reading between 4.0 and 6.2 depending where I stuck it. I guess I was getting the lower readings when I hit a concentrated section of pine bark? I think I have learned a good lesson on soil. Now im really worried they are going to die from this.

 

I'd be surprised if they died so long as you fix the problem now and don't leave it. Cheap potting mix is crap 99% of the time. Any that contain much pine bark are usless for cannabis from my exp. and the 1% left are only good for bulking out custom soil mixes imo. You get what you pay for and soil is no different.

 

I will try your wood ash suggestion. Can you buy that stuff or do you just get a fire going a scrap up the ashes?

 

I just use ash from a wood fire.

 

Another question is do you think it would be worthwhile transplanting them into new soil altogether? If I pull them up carefully and dust of as much of the crap soil as I can then replant them in a perlite peat and vermiculite mix.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. This site is a life saver although im getting a sore brain trying to take in all the info.

 

If you are prepared to transplant them it would be the best long term option as others have said. When you say "pull them up carfully" I presume you don't mean literaly pull them up I'd go with a good quality potting mix over the mix you sugest above. Soil will contain the nutrients that are missing in the fert you are using. With the mix you sugested you will need different nutes.

 

Peace MongyMan