First Grow - Northern Lights with 400w

Thats odd! That 400w shouldnt make your plant unhappy unless its too hot! I have two seedlings that just popped yesterday! Yes they are 4:20 plants! But have them under a 400w bout 30in away and they seem to be doing great!

Looks like heat issues, get a oscialating fan blowing on that area. Other thing it could be is over or under watering. Make sure your letting the top 2-3 inches of soil dry before watering again. Subscribed.

I thought maybe the amount of heat was causing the plant to be underwatered, but I just watered yesterday and now I'm starting to think you are right gunjabs... might be overwatering I'm gonna let her dry out for a few days and hope things change for the better...

Pic of todays further droopiness...

So after a long and arduous week of trying to figure out what was wrong with my plant/gardening technique, I think I figured out what the problem has been. I never watered enough so that it would flow out the bottom of the pot... that in addition to the dr schultz plant food I fed the plant multiple times I believe created a block in the roots, maybe by having an accumulation of nutes. Yesterday I watered a good amount more and started to foliar feed the plant with epsom salt. I think she's looking quite a bit better and I'm crossing my fingers she bounces right back to where she left off last week.

So I think its time to put my baby back under the 400w. She's perking up a bit and I trimmed some lower fans that were yellowing. I'm noticing she still did some stretching while under the CFLs, but I think its ok. Also a few seeds I just sprouted of Jock Horror which are in the CFL box at the moment. Will probably start another grow journal for them...

i currently have 10 northern lights goin. they are almost a month old and all under a 400w mh. i just finally gave them their first feeding of 1/4 strength nutes.
maybe what you should do is transplant to a better soil mix. 50/50 is kind of risky i think. usually shot for 20% perlite in your soil mix.
my soil mix is 2 cups potting soil, 2 cups promix, 1 cup perlite. giving around 20%.

i have pictures but i am waiting til i start flowering to start my grow journal.
i subscribed to yours and will watch and see if we can help each other seeing as we have the same sort of thing goin on

gunnjabsgrow said:

i currently have 10 northern lights goin. they are almost a month old and all under a 400w mh. i just finally gave them their first feeding of 1/4 strength nutes.
maybe what you should do is transplant to a better soil mix. 50/50 is kind of risky i think. usually shot for 20% perlite in your soil mix.
my soil mix is 2 cups potting soil, 2 cups promix, 1 cup perlite. giving around 20%.

i have pictures but i am waiting til i start flowering to start my grow journal.
i subscribed to yours and will watch and see if we can help each other seeing as we have the same sort of thing goin on

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Cool... you should start you journal now! would love to see your progress so far.

I just started my seeds in a 4 parts MG potting soil to 3 parts Perlite... but now that you mention it I might have too much perlite. Having said that, the NL I have going now is about the same mix and it was fine for a while... also I notice the potting soil really retains the water alot.

Topped her today...

i think your light might be a bit too close the tops are a bit tooo golden green almost yellow theres defiantly a deficiency there the color of the lower leaves is good and the color in your prof. pic is really nice. i noticed you just topped today but try stepping off the lights a bit looks like there burning did they feel like rough paper are you ph ing your water and also do you leave your tap water out at least 24 hours before using it? what kinda nutri's are you giving it maybe back off a bit for a week and see note the changes. best of luck too ya. i just popped three nl#5 my self over the past weekend 3 out of 3 wicked but now i just hope at least one is female lol. from what i have read they are a kinda short & stalky plant meaning around three feet but could b more or less scent should not be crazy either sine they are known to be a low odor strain. i usually start in mg also for the first 2 3 weeks and then go into a larger pot with coco but for these nls i will go from jiffy pods to coco directly since i have noticed the big difference in pests. mg is not washed or sterilized so theres lots of little things living in it that you defiantly dont want, but that s just me theres plenty of guys here that stick by mg all the way as peple say what ever floats your boat. read as much as you can watch as many videos that you can and ask as many questions as you can the guys here are more than eager to help out.

opps im subbed and should be starting another journal soon.

macrael said:

i think your light might be a bit too close the tops are a bit tooo golden green almost yellow theres defiantly a deficiency there the color of the lower leaves is good and the color in your prof. pic is really nice.

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Good looking out my friend... sorry about the pic, its really not that yellow, just bad exposure, here, I'm uploading a more accurate shot of the plant. I just stopped by the hydro store and picked up some coco and foxfarm ocean breeze soil and a 5 gallon pot. I'm gonna flush this plant one more time then transplant her into a new pot. Hopefully she will like the new soil (the old mix is not great). I backed of the nutes for about a week now, and have ph'ed the water and soil (both around 6.5-7.0).

Still a bit droopy... god knows why...

bring your ph down even more guys in hydro try to maintain around 5.8 me i try to keep in low 6's at max 6.5 usually when they curl under its watering and when they curl up wards and sometimes twist is because of the heat do you have a fan blowing on it? it could be that the leaves are just too heavy they look very healthy is it cold by any chance where you are when the lights go out as far that i can see there is no deficiency i might be wrong but is that a clay pot? if it is they keep moisture in a lot longer then normal plant pots.here s something else you can try cut the watering down to half wait a day and then see if its still moist on top if not then scatch down about an inch or so and check moisture there if it is dry water again. there is also the possibility that you might not be watering it enough due to your mixture the best way to find out is scratch down an inch to find out . about an hour after you water the leaves should perk up if my last statement is correct. when you get it trans planted or re-potted pick it up a few times to get a feel for the weight of the pot when its wet or should i say damp (i dont add water for a day or two after i re pot in fresh soil because i water the plant before i re-pot) this also helps you to read your plant and see how it reacts its also good to let the soil air out a bit meaning letting the pot get almost bone dry 3 4 times during the whole cycle . i also like to add bat guanno in to the soil mixture but you can also make a tea bag and let it soak in water then add nutri's but keep doing what you are doing is the best way to learn its the way i did im starting my second batch soon the babies have been veggin for a while now i want 6 mini trees for the next op lol then i should b ready for my nl hope fully if all goes well should b a month before shes ready to find out if shes a lady and then anothe two months too train again its abit over kill but i like it hahaha keep up the good work the plant is looking a bit droopy but i am sure when you re pot it will perk up have fun gud luck too ya

I figured the roots of this baby needed some extra space so I picked up a 5 gal container and some new soil (Fox Farm Ocean Forest), and some Coco for the base. I also used a little ZHO root inoculant at the base of my transplant to help the roots a little bit.

After pulling her from the previous pot, I can see I was right and the roots need more space. I hope I wasn't too late... are these roots ok or way overcrowded, and dare I say it... root bound? well regardless, theres more space for them to grow now.

macrael +rep for the very thorough analysis... thanks for the help buddy

bonuslazer said:

I figured the roots of this baby needed some extra space so I picked up a 5 gal container and some new soil (Fox Farm Ocean Forest), and some Coco for the base. I also used a little ZHO root inoculant at the base of my transplant to help the roots a little bit.

After pulling her from the previous pot, I can see I was right and the roots need more space. I hope I wasn't too late... are these roots ok or way overcrowded, and dare I say it... root bound? well regardless, theres more space for them to grow now.

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Looks root bound to me... also notice the way they pool at the bottom and don't run up the sides much. That tells you 2 possible things.
1)Your watering too consistently a little bit each time (like daily) or
2)Your not fully saturating the soil, allowing it to dry for 3-5 days then repeating (ideal)

That's probably the source of all your droop. Definitely do it earlier next time, but all you can do now is hope she recovers...she should.

someguy:
I hope you're right... I guess all I can do at this point is wait...
I'm gonna take your advice on watering, and I think the new soil will help promote good root growth...

EDIT: I watered a little in the new soil to try to match the dampness of the plant soil that was transplanted in... gonna wait a few days for it to dry out though before next full watering

at least you know your plant is really healthy i have seen worse and i think your plant will love the new pot i think the only reason all your roots went straight down was because of your mixture you had b4 was basically a hydro and the roots go down and you will have a nice thick stem also the only bad thing about this is you are going to have to water more often which is actually a good thing. in my first set up i would water once every two days so in a week i would get maybe 2 3 feedings you would get 3 or 4 in a week which is better feed one day water the next feed the next and so on... and dont forget to keep checking the weigh by lifting the pot to see the difference of wet and dry. you might want to invest in some,big bud ,sonic boost,jurassic bud, ton o bud,brix plus,sugar daddybasically something to help with a bit of mass and resin , would also reccomend getting away from mg fert for budding for now its ok as you can see with your roots. gud luck on your journey.

I think my plant is happier already... I trimmed off some of the yellow lower leaves to allow more light to the undergrowth and I think most of the rest of the veg is coming back... a little delay there, but I have some other seeds sprouting right now so it gives them a chance to catch up. Good call on the watering... I think you might be right... I had way too much perlite in there to begin with.

I'm having more fun now that my baby is happy again! Its always so disheartening to see a plant in distress! Thanks for the help

oh and I just purchased some biogrow organic fertilizer... should I feed her soon, or wait till shes more adjusted to the new pot?

Looks like my baby is recovering now... trimmed a few yellow leaves near the bottom to allow more light to the undergrowth, which is coming in quite nicely. Not a whole lot of width but the wilting took its toll I suppose, and I'm optimistic about the growth near the base.