My First Grow/Fail?

[carpathian]

Hey All, Well I think I somehow fucked my first grow.

The worst thing is I dont think Ive learned the error of my ways. Ive asked a few people and they seem to have different asnwers.

Its been about 5 weeks now, first 2 weeks went awesomely, then bottom and middle fan leaves showed problems ( Brown edges and yellowing )

Tried to prune problem leaves and nothing ever recovered! got small back flys, got freckled brown dots on some bottom fan leaves, looked like mold or something.

AND NOW EVERYTHING HAS GONE TO SHIT!

 

Ive only watered them with tap water mostly, abit of rain water and only 1 watering with fertilizer(about week 3)

 

I haven been thinking I should start over again with only 1 plant, better soil mixture and a much larger pot so then the pot would hold enough soil and nut for a full grow.

 

Help me Ozstoner Kenobi your my only hope!

 

heres some of my grow diary, hope it helps.

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Germinating 14 seeds under 1, -44watt clf ( temp around light 28degrees. 3 inchs away )

8 in soil,2 in jiffy cubes,4 in damp cotton wool

-70%Germinated within 48 hours. some others coming up slower.

 

Second set of leafs coming thru, replanted in pots (6 pots) 7 plants left. had to cull them so my lights would be adequete.

Plan on culling down to 4 plants after another week

 

thriving under 2 lights in new pots, second sets of leaf r growing rapidly

some leaf curl and tiny marks on plants. adjusted height to add another inch. prob 3 inches away.

 

SuperPruned all weird/dead leaves, fertilized/watered added a 26watt cfl.

(44+44+26=114 watts)

got small black flies! got fly paper plus homemade splay.

sprayed the house outm it doesnt hurt the plants, its detergant,lil olive oil and water in a spray.

thats alot of trauma, just waiting now and letting the, recover and hopefully flourish.

 

problems, growth halted, slowly growing again, added egg shells to soil top for calcium, watered in. Think im over watering, might be the cause of all problems?

got 2 bottles of rain water and a ph tester.

got pc fan on for 1hr some days to strenghten stems.

yelling leavers, brown dots, curls , over watering. got it all maybe even some nut def:?

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[brick]

Do you have any air coming in or out? Is there any sort of ventilation? Looks like, imo it has been getting to hot in there and maybe a nute problem as well. Those fan leaves curl up on the edges when it is to hot, maybe light burn as well. Check out cannaversity. Nutrient problems with pictures. It should put you on the right track. You need to move air around your cab first though. As for the flys. Bunnings sell those hanging yellow sticky thingo's. They work pretty well. There is also a section in versity on bugs as well.

 

Oh! If you are using soil as in dirt from the garden. It will be full of bad microbes and needs to be sterilised. Good quality potting mix is the best way to go, unless the hydro growers can turn you to the dark side.

Edited June 13, 2011 by brick50

[El Gato]

try growing in coco mate. So so easy you will wish you started earlier. Try it before u get disheartened. Looks like u need more ventilation and less water. I don't like soil cos it holds too much water.

[Auntynorm]

G'day Carpathian.

 

Those little black flies are most likely FUNGUS GNATS, the bane of indoor growers. Now, if you want to get rid of them, for good, without using really wicked, expensive chemicals, no one likes to smoke that, go get some good, old fashioned mozzie coils. They work, I had a shit fight with the little mongrels and used 1 coil every 2 days, 4 times, so, 8 days all up and problem solved. The chemical in the coils is Pyrethrum, a natural organic pesticide that is harmless to people and pets. So there is no with holding period after their use. I also used old fashioned fly strips from the supermarket and they cleaned up a fair few. But I think because of the coil every 2 days, this killed them before they could breed, after emerging from the soil. I hope this helps.

[Pleb Scrubber]

yeah the filthy dirt is no place for such a beautiful plant

ventilation?

or is it just 1 pc fan for 1 hour per day?

 

you havnt ruined your grow, they will bounce back under the right conditions

 

Edited June 13, 2011 by Pleb Scrubber

[merl1n]

Hi Carpathian,

Agreed they are not looking well, but it ain't a fail, yet, and they do look pretty strong in their stem so don't be going 'Fail" yet.

I would have to agree with Brick and JJ, ventilation is very important, in and out, and circulation as well.

I've always had problems using soil, bugs, pH, water retention etc...and I went to perlite years ago and have stuck with it since.

Adding eggshells? That's a first, never heard that one before. I use a specific Hydro tonic, it is a complete plant food, nothing else needed. Easy

 

In short, change medium, flush, get some decent nutes and look at your ventilation. That would be my advice, which is basically the same as Brick and JJ.

 

Merl1n

[carpathian]

Hey Guys.

Thanks heaps for the responses

 

OK firstly i dont really have ventilation, I have a small hole in the bottom and a small hole at the top. My thoughts were to let cool air in the bottom and hot out the top.

I have 2 pc fans hooked upto a 12volt charger, of which ive been meaning to install in my grow room but to be honest since ive read opening the cupboard door will supply enough fresh air. I havent yet and to be honest didnt think it was that important ( I was trying to get other parts right firstly:)

 

heating issue?

the cfl`s I have seem to get to about 31degrees within 2 inches of the light, but the pots themselves only sit around 23degrees. So the top of the plant would get around 29degrees I reckon.

 

My soil is just 1 of the many random potting mix bags bunnings sells, its got fert and water crystals in it.

( I feel my plants were goin fine until they ate all the nutrients in the soil? hence the pots are small, maybe 2 small.)(eg: everything was perfect until maybe the 15th day ish)

 

I havent seen the fungus nats for about 1 1/2 weeks. hopefully there gone, fly paper and detergent,lil olive oil and water in a spray seems to have worked. I will try the coil next time AuntyNorm

 

Can these 2 plants I have left be saved? or should I just restart and maybe grow in coco as Token jj recommends

 

seems everyone is leaning towards ventilation issues?

 

What worries me is that this grow really hasnt taught me that much!

[El Gato]

I have heard of egg shells before but my understanding is it take ages for them to break down. If u use a complete range of nutes or nutes specific to that medium u won't need additives like egg shells. Don't know how much of the calcium the egg shells have that is available to the plant.

[Hotrod13]

"got pc fan on for 1hr some days to strenghten stems".......as a newbie myself that was one of my mistakes.......NEW RULE when lights are on the fan is on and more vent holes cant get enough AIR! Dont give up you should see my stunted plants!! as long as you learn from your mistakes

[Auntynorm]

G'day Carpathian.

 

One thing, the biggest containers you can get into the space you are growing in, is what you need, say about the size of a standard plastic bucket is ok, and then get some premium ROSE potting mix, whack in some beanbag beans, to open up the soil structure and some lime to sweeten the soil, but not too much, only a little. Yes Pleb, dirty old soil, I think most plants of any kind started out in it at some stage, but I may be wrong. I use a brew called Go-Go Juice you can get from Bunnings, most the stuff you need is there, and you will pay about $15 a litre for this magic stuff. It's a plant pro-biotic, I used it for the last couple of months on my last outdoor grow, and it was astounding what happened to the size of the plants. I'm using it on my soil based indoor grow and the results are as good. When they come into flower I use Growth Technologies Rose Focus, seriously bulks up the buds, it's the best I've found, and it's about $12 a litre at the 1 stop shop. You don't have to pay through the ring for nutes for your crop. The outdoor stuff will work the same indoors, if you are using soil. There is lots of good stuff out there, just do some reading and go have a look at what's out there. We are lucky to have such a wealth of knowledge as we have access to here, there are some real bloody switched on growers, and they only want what's best for your grow, that's a terrific thing to have. I'm still learing what not to do with this indoor grow of mine, it's my first, but I've been growing outdoors for about 30 years, so have a bit of a clue about soil growing, though there are any number of growers here who could leave me for dead. If it's any help you might check out my soil grow, Norm Goes Inside, in the Grow Diaries section. :guitar:

Edited June 13, 2011 by Auntynorm