Does this look right?

Well, I'm doing my first grow a sort of practice with some seeds I had laying around. However it seems that my plant is much twiggy-er then other peoples plants. I'm not sure if it's my set up, or the soil, or just the plant. I'd love some advice and input.

The lights:

15-Watt Plant & Aquarium T8 Fluorescent 18" Bulb

• 1 inch diameter bulb
• 3100K color temperature
• Medium bi-pin (G13) base type
• Contains a combination of phosphors that produce light rich in reds and blues

As well as :
The Ultra Sun is a 6,500K high intensity trichromatic full spectrum daylight lamp. With a CRI rating of 98, it provides excellent color rendition for optimum viewing of your freshwater or marine fish and live corals with a balanced full spectrum of visible light and UVA. Ideal for all freshwater and marine fish as well as reef tanks.

The Soil: Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix

• Lightweight mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite
• Enriched with Miracle-Gro Plant Food to help build strong roots fast
• Also ideal for establishing root and stem cuttings
• Feeds for up to 3 months

We keep the room at about 73, and have nothing special for humidity.

The plant has been growing for about a month now.

I have no idea what strain/species/type of plant it is, We're assuming it's a sort of "dirt weed"

Its on a 18/6 timer

The Plant:
A few days ago:


The plant Today:




I'd really love any help anyone can give!

First thing that strikes me is she needs a much bigger container. She is in def need of some leg room. Unless you are trying to keep it stunted. Height at one month not bad but believe you will be shocked when you transplant. Leaves show just a wee bit of nute burn but nothing real bad. Light may be a little weak but I'm not sure. If you can get some Fish Emulsion..............but it's almost too late. You'll be swithing to 12/12 in two weeks I guess. Remember you plant should double to triple in size during bud.
Really I just think you need to transplant. I have a Papaya plant now 34 inches high at 6 1/2 weeks from seed that was about 8 inches high when I transplanted at 4 weeks. I use five gallon nursery bags.

Hey sparce, thanks for the reply. When I transplant, should I just mix some fish emulsion into the dirt? I'd like to do what I can to make a good plant since this is my test run for high quality seeds.

Do you just cut a hole in the bag and stick the seed in? That's how it sounds or do you use a 5 gallon pot?

are you planning on flowering under that lighting? Your going to be pretty disappointed if so. That plant looks pretty good for the low amount of lighting you have, im kind of confused by what you mean by "twiggey-er", do you mean it looks sort of stretched? if thats what you mean its because of your lighting.

Grab a 67 watt cool white bulb from home depot and a 300 watt or equivalent flood light lamp which is typically near the outdoor section. It's a 300 watt equivalent for less than $27. Grab a couple of them if you wanted for that price. The more light the more bud. If you are not going to grab a hps give them plenty of lumens from fluorescents. Speaking from expierience. The leaves are fanning so far away from the plant because it is searching for light. They would be a little bit tighter with the bud leaves, budding branches coming out directly above those fan leaves. You want alot of these budding branches with 2-3 nodes coming off each branch before you want to start budding. It will massively increase yield.

B-dub & Dark, Thanks for the help on the lights, I'll grab a couple more, but you did notice I had that 18" bar light going across the top? I realized it wasn't very clear in the pictures. Should I still transplant as per the advice of Sparce? I'm trying to grow in my closet so I don't want it to get to huge, but I also don't want to make it unhealthy..

that 18 inch light is weak, the distance from the plant is really far too, unless im seeing the pics wrong, it should be 1-2 inches from the top of the plants. It wouldnt hurt to keep it as side lighting but imo that light is far too weak to be the main overhead light source. heres what i would do, get 2 lightbars(should be able to get both for under $10), 8 outlet to socket converters, 8 y splitters, and 8 26w 6500k cfls(or anything over 23w if you cant find 26w, under 23w isnt worth running imo for the amount of heat made compared to their low light output levels. try to get the highest wattage cfls you can find and afford) and 8 26w 2700k cfls(same deal w/wattage as the 6500k). Now take 4 outlet to socket converters and put them in every other outlet on the lightbar, now take 4 y splitters and screw those into the converters, now put 1 6500k and 1 2700k in each y splitters, make it so that the bulb color alternates in each row.Now do that with the other one.
you could go down to 3 outlets and 3 y splitters and 6 cfls a lightbar if you have to.

Dark I'm a bit confused by what you mean. My light bar has little prongs on either side that the 18" light slides into, so I'm not sure what you mean every other outlet on the light bar.

I was actually talking about something like this, they are called lots of things, lightbar/powerbar/power strip/etc. I should of been more clear, my bad.

LostDove said:

Hey sparce, thanks for the reply. When I transplant, should I just mix some fish emulsion into the dirt? I'd like to do what I can to make a good plant since this is my test run for high quality seeds.

Do you just cut a hole in the bag and stick the seed in? That's how it sounds or do you use a 5 gallon pot?

Click to expand...

No the Fish Emuslsion is a liquid. About a TBS per gal. of water. It a "natural" nitrogen and it's harder to burn up your plants.
As far as the Nursery Bags http://www.atlantishydroponics.com/Nursery-Pots-and-Self-Watering-Planters/Sunlight-Supply-5-gallon-Grow-Bag.asp?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=comparsionshopping&aff=5108

Cheap and easy to use. I take a trash bag and put the nursery bag inside it to control the mess made by runoff. Nursery bags come with hole in the side and bottoms for drainage.Make sure you use lots of Perlite in your "soilless" mix to help keep the soil loose. You can also use old Kitty Litter buckets if you have or knw someone with a cat.

Wait! Was thinking about this on way to work this AM. I am guessing since you are 4 weeks along you are going to bud in two weeks. You want withhold nitrogen a week or two before budding. From here on out it's all P&K. I'm using Montys joy juice 2-15-15 root and bloom. From Southern States farm supply. Cheap and no burning. I'll post a few pics foryou latter as I am at seven weeks total from sprout now. Like I said you will be shocked by the next few weeks growth.

waheyyyy nicee healthy

Thought I'd give you an idea of what to expect. The plants on the left are at four weeks. Sorry the colors are bad. HPS light playing games with pics. At four weeks, back center is Papaya. Two Bubblicious on outsides turned out to be males. Now I am down to 1 each, Bubblicious, Giant Papaya 37" as of today, Afgan shorty, and troublesome but second biggest Northern Lights. Second pic same plants (minus the two males) are just turning 7 weeks tomarrow.

Thanks so much for the help, I stuck a few lights in there and moved it closer to them and it's starting to fill in well. The bottom leaves are still a bit yellow, but the new growth down there and elsewhere looks fine, so I think it might have just gotten burnt by the light when it was starting out.

Thanks for the pictures, the ones on the left are huge!

Jungle, Thanks Maybe I just worry to much.

Is this plant still growing?