autoflower northern lights blue is growing so slow. any ideas why?

I have 1 northern lights blue going. I have her in good soil, she was started from seed 2 weeks ago. I have her in a small grow box. I am using 4 26w CFLs for lighting right now. I have them about 3 inches away. I will be using a 150w HPS for flowering. She is a very nice green color with 2 sets of true leaves. The water is PHd at 6.5 and the temp is at 73-78. I have not gave her any nutes just water. I water her about every 3 days. So the problem I am asking is. She is 2 weeks old but only about 2 inches tall. So should she be taller by now or is this normal? any help would or ideas would be great.

Patients. What's not growing on top, is growing down below. Tap root could still be wondering around building a nice root structure.. or just a stunted bad seed. Lol

Mhogs said:

Patients. What's not growing on top, is growing down below. Tap root could still be wondering around building a nice root structure.. or just a stunted bad seed. Lol

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ok thank you for the reply.

you might have been given her too much water.. i don't even water mine in the 1st two weeks... i just mist the top of the soil...

I've got roughly 8 - 10 grows under my belt at the moment. There's some strains that will sprout, grow a bit to increase photosynthesis production (converting sunlight into energy) and push out a few leaves and then they will go into a state of stopping all vegetative growth on the top (leaves) and heavily invest all of the plants energy into producing a strong root system (normally 1-2 weeks) then after they'll burst with growth. I've had this happen on a few occasions and plants have grown in "bursts" normally 1-3 hours before the light is turned on (or sunrise) and they'll push out up to 1-2 inches of stem growth.

I've also had a few strains just continue growing. Once they are 6' - 8' tall, they should be growing 1 inch a day if not more.

OzGrower87 said:

I've got roughly 8 - 10 grows under my belt at the moment. There's some strains that will sprout, grow a bit to increase photosynthesis production (converting sunlight into energy) and push out a few leaves and then they will go into a state of stopping all vegetative growth on the top (leaves) and heavily invest all of the plants energy into producing a strong root system (normally 1-2 weeks) then after they'll burst with growth. I've had this happen on a few occasions and plants have grown in "bursts" normally 1-3 hours before the light is turned on (or sunrise) and they'll push out up to 1-2 inches of stem growth.

I've also had a few strains just continue growing. Once they are 6' - 8' tall, they should be growing 1 inch a day if not more.

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Thank you for the reply. I have grown a few autos before and they explode in growth. This one is 2 weeks old and so small. She is starting her 3rd set of leaves now.

She'll explode in growth soon. You'll wake up one morning and be like "woah!" before you know it. After they get on their 4th set of leaves i suggest you switch to the HPS as this is when the growth explode happens and adding the HPS will only make it grow faster.

Make sure you have good intake/outtake and if you can, add a Co2 generator in there. (plenty DIY tutorials, can make one for <$3) and it'll increase the plant growth by as much as 5% - 10%.

OzGrower87 said:

She'll explode in growth soon. You'll wake up one morning and be like "woah!" before you know it. After they get on their 4th set of leaves i suggest you switch to the HPS as this is when the growth explode happens and adding the HPS will only make it grow faster.

Make sure you have good intake/outtake and if you can, add a Co2 generator in there. (plenty DIY tutorials, can make one for <$3) and it'll increase the plant growth by as much as 5% - 10%.

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ok thank you for the reply. I seen the Co2 before, does it really work?

texastiger707 said:

ok thank you for the reply. I seen the Co2 before, does it really work?

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Theoretically speaking, it does work. Co2 is heavier than air and you'll need a tube going from your bottle (yeast + sugar + water) going directly ontop of your plants. Plants absorb Co2 through their leaves (about 70% through leaves) and 30% through roots. The Co2 needs to run ontop of the plant itself to be effective, many people make this mistake of just leaving the Co2 bottle to produce Co2 without having a tube to get the Co2 to run directly on-top of the plant.

I've personally seen overnight growth increase by as much as 20% when adding Co2 to a 2 week old seedling. Plants need Co2 to convert the sunlight energy into sugars and energy, adding more Co2 only hyper-speeds this process.

I've also seen, not sure whether it is correct, but I've seen people claim that Co2 can also kill certain pests and protect the plant. There was a lot of debate about this on another forum and nobody has found conclusive results.

Also make sure you have no direct airflow on the plants (such as a fan) as this will simply blow the Co2 away. 1 bottle of Co2 will last you about 2 weeks.

do you pick the pot up to water it or are you just watering ?
just from what ive seen over watering and soil being to rich is the main reasons for slow growth / stunting issues
could just be a slow starter

My plant is ak47 auto from attitude seeds. Its 13 days old and appx 2 inches tall. I have it in a 5 gal bucket under 8 26w 6500k cfls. I watered with plain water 6 days after planting and again yesterday which was the 12th day. Does she look healthy and growing normal?