Stunted Plants!

[Augustus Gloomp]

Mr HotRod, I am a noobie to the cultivating of cannabis, and I learnt one thing well - get the fundamentals as close as possible to their 'highest performing values' and you get continuous good growth. Even if one fundamental goes wrong you notice setbacks. Now what I mean by the fundamentals are

1. Temperature. 24-25C daytime. 20 at night. I live in Melbourne and my plants don't get this one perfect but I get 27C at height of medium and around 29C at plant top. Over night it drops to between 10-15C. Certainly far from ideal but it seems to be OK. So most of the day, my plants aren't too uncomfortable.

2. Humidity. 40-60%. Nice numbers to hit because the plant struggles to breath below 40 and above 80. My 600W HPS blows the moisture too well out of the air. I often notice at the end of the day it drops to between 30 - 38% after starting the day around 85%. Most of the day my plant can breathe.

3. Light. I have found just a 130W CFL to provide plenty of light (and a small amount of heat) for vegetative growth. I stepped up to 600W (for 1sqm) for the end of veg and flower. When those lights are on the plants can get photons a plenty. For night my plants have been thrust in pitch black and rarely I have I woken their little hormones from their diurnal rhythms with something like a nearby light.

4. Medium. A slightly moist medium will do. It is best if it's not soil. Full stop. I used 100% perlite for my first grow and 50 perlite, 50 coco for the second grow. My seedlings suffered a bit from too wet jiffy cubes and I noticed as soon as this dryed out - a spurt of gowth.

5. Nutrients. I use Nutrifield Hydro stuff and stick pretty much to the recommended amounts.

6. Ventilation. A small fan should blow over your plants from about the 5 or six day of germination for a seed. You should also have a way of taking good fresh air in and expelling the 'used' air out. I started my seedlings in a humid basement that was poorly ventilated. Again - when these were corrected -more daily growth was observed.

 

Well their the main factors I found. I did 24 hours to crack a seed and then a week after, then 18/6 for about 6 weeks, then 15/9 for about two weeks, and then 12/12. And I know I made some fundamental errors and planned to rectify them for the second grow. I have just about the most fuss free way of growing pot you could imagine. Timer takes care of lights, I go into the basement to turn fans (intake, exhaust and big circulatory) on and off daily. I have a good check (I find it a real thrill when I do well). I water about every fourth or fifth day. I only measure ph (with a color drop test) in order to set the nutrients and water right on a nice yellow-orange.

 

Keep it simple with the basics down pat and you can't go wrong.

 

 

 

[Pleb Scrubber]

going in daily to turn fans on and off is not fuss free... just plug them into a timer?

but I agree that the filthy dirty soil is no medium for such a beautiful plant...

and get the basics locked in and your pretty set

 

i wouldnt let my plants get down to 10 degrees... thats gotta stunt their growth?

[nitram]

hi.......

would the cold affect them?

.......................... yup ..................turn ya fridge off -

Nitty.

[Psychonaut]

 

i wouldnt let my plants get down to 10 degrees... thats gotta stunt their growth?

 

Yeah that is not good, should try and keep your plants 20+ at all times, although not that easy this time of year if you are south

[Wrangler556]

I think Augustus is on the right track with advice..... but....

 

I personally think it not a case of "My growroom conditions are alright most of the day, so they'll be fine" - no offense mate...

 

Its the fluctuations that hurt plants growth. To grow decent plants you need to try and keep your values constant, and as close as possible both through the day and night cycle. Particularly in cold places like melbourne in Winter.

 

Unless you have tons of cash to spend on all the timers and automated controllers to look after the values, its up to you to observe, adjust, and continually keep them in the "Ideal range"

 

Unfortunately, there aint a simple answer for everyone, everyones grow room conditions are different, the area you live in, the weather outside, the type of house you have, level of insulation, size of room, strength of ventilation, other heat sources within the growroom(such as ballasts etc) type and number of lighting, all change what it takes for you to achieve maximum results.

 

It can be hard to figure out how to get it dialled in, its a learn as you go process............... then in 6months / summer, everything you need to do to keep the same values will change..... there is no "If I follow how someone else has is set up, it will work for me" Unless you happen to live in the exact same location and have everything pretty much identical, even down to the type of house etc like I mentioned.

 

 

As for your stunted plants Hotrod, I'd say its a classic example of what I just mentioned. Reading through your grow diary, you've had heat problems, changing light cycles, possibly poor ventilation, and "Propergation mix" doesn't contain a lot of beneficial properties past the first couple of weeks, and yellowing/stunted growth could either be overwatered(I couldn't see how often you were watering them), or underfertilised which can easily happen in seedling/propergation mix.

 

Some basics/ideas for maintaining conditions:

 

1. If it gets above 27-28C during the light cycle - remove/shield other heat sources(ie ballasts) Increase airflow, add cooltubes, add aircon, run lights during the night.

 

2. If it gets below 18C at night - reduce airflow, add a heater, run lights during the night.

 

3. Humidity can be a real bitch to control. General laxed rule, don't stress about it too much during Veg, but in flowering, it is quite important, especially during the night cycle, anything above 70% and your asking for mould/fungi problems. Basics that can help - If to low, decrease ventilation, add moisture to grow room, hang up wet towels, lay down bowls/buckets of water, add a humidifier.

 

If to high, increase ventilation, add a de-humidifier.

 

4. Ventilation- Plants need a contant supply of fresh air, they dont like stagnant locked up spaces. Ideally you need to draw fresh air in from another room in your house, and expell the used air completely out - to the outside of your house prefrably, or into your roof space. The stronger your ventilation/ if its running constantly, the harder it is to control all the above values, so keep that in mind. Ideally you want to control the temp of the incoming air to help, which means heating or cooling the room from which you are drawing it from...... you can also adjust humidity of incoming air with either a humidifier/dehumdifier to make things smoother.

 

 

 

Moral of the story= It isn't easy at times to keep things in balance for your plants, and takes a bit of $$$ to get set up properly, as well as experience, and learning how your grow room works.

 

Anyhoo, i'm rambling on, just ignore me if you already know all this stuff, just trying to help

 

Wrangler

Edited June 8, 2011 by Wrangler556

[Hotrod13]

Thanks for all the info & help everyone I think the problem has solved itself firstly I got rid of the fridge in the garden shed.....too many temp variations, things have realy started happening since I moved to the wardrobe in the laundry, I run the light at night stips the cold and off time is during the day temps are more stable in the laundry I was trying not to over water and only giving them a small drink every 3 days maybe not enough water on those days as soil was a bit dry anyway they seem to realy getting going now I germinated anoyher 3 seeds to do a comparison test now that the others seem happy so it will be interesting to see the difference between the old fridge crew and the month behind wardrobe crew. getting some camera battries tomorrow so I will put fresh pics up by the weekend.

[Hotrod13]

Heres a pic I promised pf one of the stunted terrisists heres the biggest cracked in the 4th of mat but reaky started ti get it ib ib the kast 10 days since the transfer to the wardrobe more pics n info in my diary

[dani]

hey hotrod,

"My mix is black n gold potting mix and searls propergation mix".

wondering if this may be contributing to any problems??? i don't grow in soil so this just my opinion and not based on any expertise, but if i were growing in soil, i would want the best quality soil i could get.. the soil in your pic looks very barky and rough ..

 

[jaikai]

No 1 issue is yer medium mate. Easiest way out would be to wash the plants clean and get em in coco or a perlite mix of sorts.

 

JAIKAI

[STONEDAJ69]

Get some brunnings Rose planting mix from BigW it's $4 per 10 Ltrs, and of a fairly decent quality