I've been thinking about why my girl is growing so slowly. Most growers one month old plants a two-three times bigger than my one at the moment. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this, as a good old google search didn't help much.
What I've been able to come up with:
Moisture: the air is very dry in my cabinet. The humidity gauge just says Low, which means it's probably around 10%. The problem is, a lot of people have mixed feelings when it comes to the importance of humidity. Some (and I believe them, because this was in my biology class) claim that low humidity causes the stomata to close in order to preserve as much moisture as possible. That impedes the intake and outtake of C02 and 02. While this could be the problem, A LOT of growers dismiss this and claim, as they have fantastic results regardless of RH.
Now I have been trying all the tricks to raise the humidity (towels, cups of water, air bubblers (closest I'll get to hydro atm) etc.) but none of them seem to work. I thought that maybe my humidity gauge was broken, but that's not the case. I might just have to spend some dosh and get myself a proper humidifier...
Over/underwatering: probably not the case. I water every few days when the soil is dry inch deep. My girl has never shown signs of stress from that.
Root bound: I can see the roots growing everyday, but none of them seem to be poking through the holes yet. It's not that cramped in there. Too early to transplant?
Lights: I've been having doubts on whether or not this could be causing the growth. Dual spectrums are loved and hated by growers. Some claim that there is not enough blue light for the veg, while others state (and I have seen their journals) that dual specs do their job as they should with no problems... again, 50/50 when it comes to opinions. Generally everyone agress that MH lights beat dual specs, but only slightly, and pure HPS are not for vegging.
Temps: they stay around 25-30 celsius so that's fine.
Air: the fan is good enough for my cab, the cfm's all add up. I allow lots of fresh air to enter the whole room everyday.
Nutes: the all mix is loaded with nutrients and some growers say that you don't need anything for well over 4 weeks. Possibly.. but to completely eliminate this problem, I'll add some nutes when I transplant, starting off VERY lightly and see if that helps.
Genetics: if this is the case, I'll never fully know, but Biohazard Seeds seem legit.
Apart from that, I can't think of anything else. As always when something is wrong, I am a little concerned, as I would love to fix all issues before I introduce my new plant in it's hydro setup.
The only things I can do at the moment are transplanting in a few days and adding nutes after transplanting. If that doesn't help, then it could be moisture.
I'll keep everyone posted....
The enviroment is not the best when it comes to humidity, I think it's very low. But the temps are spot on. 70F.
