New grower - my first plant's development (growth) very slow

[mij]

I'm a novice grower and I'm concerned that I must be doing something wrong. I planted my 1st plant 3 weeks ago and see the pics please. The plant is still so small. The 1st week or so everything looked ok. Just the stem got too long because my light was too high and not sufficient. I've fixed this problem and hilled up more soil around the long stem.

Then the growth almost stopped. I thought the roots got restricted and so I transplanted it into a big pot. But it hasn’t helped. From the second week, I‘ve started adding some plant food into water. Maybe I should increase the dosage?

 

The only bad thing with my grow place I'm aware of is that the temp is too high. I have to water the plant every day. But there is nothing I can do about it.

 

Any help, tips or recommendations will be appreciate, thanks.

[Ozzy420]

If watering daily she may be a lil to wet try every other day.

 

And the medium you are using can be apart of it as well, it like most things in life u get what ya pay for.

 

If it is a poor quality it will show in the plant...

[Naycha]

What size pot is that, what are you growing in, and what are you feeding it? What are the temps and do you have good airflow?

 

More nutrients is probably not the answer but it's hard to say much without a bit of extra info.

 

As Ozzy said, unless the soil or whatever that is dries out quite a bit before you water again you may be watering too much. Sometimes I will wait till the plant starts to wilt just so I can get a good idea of how dry the medium can get.

 

The plant doesn't look that bad really, what light are you using?

[mij]

Thanks for your quick replies guys.

Here are some details:

Soil: Osmocote Professional Seed Raising & Cutting Mix 10L, Composted Bark, Sphagnum Peat and Coir

The pot size is 10L, cca 3 gallons

Food: PowerFeed for Tomatoes and Vegetables 1 litre Concentrate

Air flow is ok now, but the temp is around 36C because of the lights

 

My lights are 4 ordinary, energy saving bulbs, altogether some 5000Lm and 1 industrial lighting 20 000Lm but generating A LOT of heat, that's why the high temp.

 

I know the leaves look ok but the size and the slow growth disappoint me. It's Dinamex Autoflowering, Indoor flowering period: 75 days. Eh, in 75 days time the plant will be still tiny..

Edited December 19, 2015 by mij

[Ganjatron]

Hey mate. I'm quite familiar with the Cfl lights and my first few grows were with them. A plant that size doesn't need 4 bulbs. 2 cool daylight 23w bulbs will be good for now. Are the bulbs the cool daylight or warm white? Cool daylight are perfect for the veg stage and warm white for the flower stage. The seed raising mix is quite good and the power feed is quite good for the price also.

The power feed raises the ph of your water massively. Last time I used it was measured at around 9.5 which is waaayyy too high.

I have never run an Auto flower strain before but from my understanding they are quite finicky and aren't real good for the beginner grower.

How is it looking at the moment? Have you done your research into growing for beginners? Have you got a ph pen?

With the knowledge I have gained over the years, here is what I would do if I was you.

Invest in a ph pen. Go to your local hydro store and pick up some coco coir, perlite and coco specific nutrients. Get a bottle of ph down.

Get a pot that holds around 15l of medium and mix a ratio of 75% coco and 25% perlite. Now fill your pot with the mix and then add your seedling.

Canna Coco A+B is a very simple nutrient to use. Now follow the directions on the back but instead of using 4ml per litre use 1.5ml per litre. Give you seedling a good soaking so that you have about 15% runoff out the bottom. Then I would just leave it for at least a week and see how she responds. Make sure you adjust your nutrient solution to between 5.8 and 6.2.

Another thing is don't panic. Beginners biggest problem is they mess around way too much with their plants trying to make them grow faster or water them way too much or add too much nutrients.

If you keep things simple for now you can move on to bigger and better things with more experience.

Anyway good luck and hope it works out for ya!!!

[mij]

Thanks a lot for your detailed response. I posted the original query about 3 weeks ago and the situation has changed quite a lot. The plant is still very short, around 13 cm, but it has grown in width massively, the diameter is some 34 cm. So it's kind of "fat dwarf" . I don't think it's supposed to be like this, I guess I must have messed something up, maybe the pH thing. But it's my first plant so I'm learning as it goes.

 

I can't check the pH yet, I'm still waiting for my EBay delivery, pH meter, lux meter, thermostat etc...

 

Is coco medium some kind of hydroponics thing, isn't it? To be honest, for now I prefer to stick to soil because I think it's easier to manage for a beginner.

 

At first I bought 4 normal, household lights (I know, stupid idea), altogether around 5000 Lm. Then, I realised that it wasn't going to be enough and so I got (for free, obsolete stuff from a factory) some hps and mh lights. The problem is, that my grow space is really small and the heat accumulates, around 30C.

 

Anyway, these are some pics from yesterday. And just for fun, take a look at my "grow space" made underneath of a desk...

Edited January 4, 2016 by mij

[Ford Fairlane]

Plant looks good, nice tight internodal spacing. Imo soil is much more difficult than hydro, so you are going fine

[Naycha]

Plant looks fine and if you are using the MH you don't need the cfl's. If the MH makes it too hot just get rid of it until you have proper airflow or a space large enough to handle it.

 

Also you should remove the plant and rootball and fill that pot up properly. What you have created there is a nice little oven to cook your plant in, even more so with the bulb heating up the side of the pot.

 

p.s you'd prob be better off with the MH as those cfl's look dodgy as (wiring). We don't want our members to be crispy fried.

 

p.p.s just one MH should be fine, you don't really need 3 or 4 in that space. Get a new globe.

[Stiritup420]

Yeah I think that seedling was over fed and or PH was way high.. I have done the same thing using Powerfeed and soil.  You really need to give next to nothing for the first 2-3 weeks, just plain potting mix, it will live of the water leaves just fine.

 

Coco is a basically a hydroponic medium, Its very finely shredded coconut husk and I has no nutrient in it at all.. It retains water yet drains perfectly and holds about 30% oxygen around the roots.. Its very hard to over water in Coco. If you have your nutes and PH correct its definitely easier than soil.   I agree with Ford Fairlane Hydro is easier than soil in my opinion.

[mij]

Also you should remove the plant and rootball and fill that pot up properly. What you have created there is a nice little oven to cook your plant in, even more so with the bulb heating up the side of the pot.

Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head with this one. When I was transplanting, I ran out of soil and that's why the top of the soil is so low . But I think I'll have to leave as it is because I'm scared I'd damage some roots if I tried to remove the plant again.

But anyway, shouldn't warm air move up and cool air move down? In such case, there shouldn't be any acumulated hot air inside the pot. But you're right that the side of the pot adjacent to the bulb gets pretty hot. I'm just wondering that it happens because I don't have any glass or clear plastic cover on the light. Now, the radiated heat has easy access to the plant and the pot. I reckon if there was something in between, part of the heat would be stoped there.

 

Thanks again for the info about coco. I'll have a look at some details about it again.

Edited January 5, 2016 by mij