What Can I Learn From a Stalk?

[Johan Liebert]

Now that three of my babies are starting to stand up several inches tall, I'm trying to take notice of every little change. One thing I noticed, is that one plant is about 5 inches tall and has a reddish stalk. Another plant, which popped up one day later, has a green stalk. And then another, the youngest of the three, and smallest, has a red stalk as well.

What, if anything, might I be able to learn from this? Do any of these traits indicate something? Would it help me tell if it was a sativa or an indica, or something pertaining to the health or maturity of the plant? Is there absolutely nothing at all, and I'm just wasting breath?

I just want to know as much about my children as I can

 

[statik]

When they are young like that, stems will pop up a reddish color. Don't worry about it much. I believe that later in life though, if you see the stems of fan leaves or the stalk turning reddish like that it can be a sign of Phos...but not always:

When your plants are deficient in phosphorus, this can overall reduce the size of your plants. Not enough causes slow growth and causes the plant to become weak, to little amount of Phosphorus causes slow growths in leaves that may or may not drop off. The edges all around the leaves or half of the leaves can be brownish and work its way inwards a bit causing the part of the leaves to curl up in the air a bit. Fan leaves will show dark greenish/purplish and yellowish tones along with a dullish blue colour to them. Sometimes the stems can be red, along with red petioles that can happen when having a Phosphorus deficiency. This isn’t a sure sure sign of you having one though, but can be a sign. Some strains just show the red petioles and stems from its genes.

Don't worry about it. However, what kind of lighting are you using and how close is it to the top of the plants?

EDIT: Kudos for wanting to know this kind of thing right from the get go. Keep up with that kind of attention to detail and you will be fine.

 

[super2200]

There is nothing to tell at this point what you can do however is bury the plants stalks up to the foliage. get the lights closer and start blowing a fan on them so that stem comes up thicker and stronger. Its reaching for the lights now but you can still bury the stem all the way to the foliage and it will turn to root. Also when you transplant into larger pot do the same thing if there is any stem, you can even trim bottom set of leaves when you bury it on transplant to make sure you keep it as short and thick as possible. Some stems turn red due to strain so don't judge anything by stem color now sometimes they come up red right from seed.

 

[super2200]

I am assuming this is bagseed since you dont know if its indica or sativa. No biggie you can definitely make the plant way better than it was to begin with as you will give it love and care it may not have gotten the first go around

 

[Johan Liebert]

I love this forum. Right now they're under a 26w CFL and two 17w Cool White CFLs. I've been told on 420chan /grow/ that the cool whites are doing nothing, which is evidenced by the little fellas reaching, but I have little income so I have to get the bulbs one at a time. I'll pick one up tomorrow. I'll definitely take that advice about burying them up to the foliage.

 

[Johan Liebert]

I am assuming this is bagseed since you dont know if its indica or sativa. No biggie you can definitely make the plant way better than it was to begin with as you will give it love and care it may not have gotten the first go around

You hit the nail on the head. I didn't want to do my first grow with expensive seeds, for obvious reasons. I have definitely been dreaming about harvest day with what you said in mind...hopefully this will be a good smoke because I will be giving it love and care. It came from pretty unpleasant beginnings.

The stuff was damn-near brickified, dark and dirty in color, rather soapy tasting. To see these green, thick, thriving leaves does my heart good

 

[statik]

CFL's can be within a couple inches of plants dude. Get those lights closer regardless of spectrum right now. It WILL help.If you can, at least try to get your hands on some grow flouros (blue lighting). Check on Craigslist in the for sale section. Depending on where you live, you may find what your looking for in no time.

 

[statik]

You hit the nail on the head. I didn't want to do my first grow with expensive seeds, for obvious reasons. I have definitely been dreaming about harvest day with what you said in mind...hopefully this will be a good smoke because I will be giving it love and care. It came from pretty unpleasant beginnings.

The stuff was damn-near brickified, dark and dirty in color, rather soapy tasting. To see these green, thick, thriving leaves does my heart good

Brick Mexi?

I have always wanted to see someone grow the seeds out of that crap properly. Right on man. Def gonna have to check out your journal.

 

[super2200]

Brick Mexi?

I have always wanted to see someone grow the seeds out of that crap properly. Right on man. Def gonna have to check out your journal.

For sure the plant was just grown in a field somewhere and probably wasnt even ready while the rest of the field may have been. mexicans dont have time to look at every plant like you will be so it will come out better than it was. Still the strain is what it is but it was not grown one at a time and was not done right for sure in first place. Good luck man, good idea to practice before buying some good seeds so you can get a feel for what your doing.

here is a cheap light to start with

http://www.dchydro.com/product/2775/150-HPS-Sun-System-Complete/

less than 100 but if your doing one plant this can make a huuuuuge difference

 

[statik]

I've always said that if someone just took the time and put the love we do into good seeds, they would wind up with some decent smoke from a mexi seed. Nothing spectacular of course, but way better than what it came from. Some people forget some kick ass old school strains came from those regions. Acapulco...Michoacan..for example.

Honestly I am too young to have had the pleasure of running into these first hand when they were around, but I am mature enough to appreciate an era I missed out on.

 

[Johan Liebert]

CFL's can be within a couple inches of plants dude. Get those lights closer regardless of spectrum right now. It WILL help.If you can, at least try to get your hands on some grow flouros (blue lighting). Check on Craigslist in the for sale section. Depending on where you live, you may find what your looking for in no time.

I'll re-arrange them and keep a better light in mind. I should hopefully be bringing home a better CFL (more like the one that is in the middle of the fixture now) today, and then I can pop the two of them on the outsides of the fixture, allowing the light to spread more evenly. When they get too big I can simply move the shelf down one slot.

 

[Johan Liebert]

For sure the plant was just grown in a field somewhere and probably wasnt even ready while the rest of the field may have been. mexicans dont have time to look at every plant like you will be so it will come out better than it was. Still the strain is what it is but it was not grown one at a time and was not done right for sure in first place. Good luck man, good idea to practice before buying some good seeds so you can get a feel for what your doing.

here is a cheap light to start with

http://www.dchydro.com/product/2775/150-HPS-Sun-System-Complete/

less than 100 but if your doing one plant this can make a huuuuuge difference

I'll definitely keep that in mind. I don't have any experience with HPS though. How hot would this unit get? Bearing in mind this is a compact stealth dresser grow, and I'd like to try and get two LST'd plants in there. I am planning to put some PC fans in there regardless, but like I said, I have no HPS experience so I don't know how hot it might get or how much of a fire hazard it could potentially be in such a small space.

 

[statik]

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stoner

Just stay with the CFL's for now man, less chance of heat issues. Get this grow under your belt then upgrade to HPS (might have more room by then too, who knows). The hps light will take up more room for sure, and you need all you can get. It would help your overall harvest weight for sure, but in your case I think some proper CFL's or tube flouros are best suited.