Help us improve our next grow!

Hi everyone, newbie here. First grow after a long absence.
We (wife and I) have 13 plants in a 12 bucket hybrid system.
Pulled 2 males this morning.
We tried to kill these plants in 4 different ways in the first 3 weeks of growth.
Starved them, overwatered as sprouts, dried them out and killed 3 of them, had major pH issues and stunted them...I wish I was kidding. Hopefully they won't ALL be male..

Fed with Fox farms grow big, these are right about 5 weeks old. Insane amount of light, manufacturers ratings add up to 5000w of cheap Chinese LEDs at 30" above the plants (4' x 6' reflector with 5 fixtures in it to cover all 13 plants)
These males are medium sized for the group, some are taller, some are not. Not all are in preflowering yet either, and 4 of them are a week behind the others. A couple of the late starts are taller than these two thugs.
Temps are kept between 74 -80f during the day, rh is 55-60% due to evaporative cooling system ( don't yell at me, we live in the mojave desert!) night temps in the high 60s. Res is 35 gallon, chilled to 68f with a chiller.

Comments and suggestions are welcome! I'll use them to improve my next grow.

Oh, I am pretty sure these males are dream cookies hybrid. We also have OG Cheese in there.

When you say you tried to kill them....why not just snip them off at the stem with some scissors? I might be totally missing something here lol, apologies if that's the case. Humidity should be fine, or at least in my own experience. Mine is normally the same as yours indoors. Sounds like you've got a nice setup though, looking forward to seeing your harvest pics!

Haha, well, the attempted murder wasn't intentional. New system hiccups, and I've been away from growing for a while.

This forum is usually for plant problems. Do you have any questions that are more specific? What ppm and pH are you using? Is this DWC type with reservoir or aeroponic? I would think you'd have more than one foot of growth after 5 weeks.

Wow! Looking for some tips as well. Are you growing it on Indoor or outdoor?

Well that's the problem. Is the stunting permanent? Tips to avoid it next crop?
Thanks

Well, as a blanket-type answer, I would say the biggest part of avoiding stunting really is avoiding negative stress and too much positive stress (Too much of a breeze, too much pruning, too much light, etc etc). At what phase is it that yours got stunted? In that early veg stage that starts right after the seedling stage? This could be a result of transplanting unless you are starting the seeds in their permanent home from start to finish. Nutrients, especially in hydro, are often times the culprit for stunting or are at least antagonizing the problem. The good news is that, there is no such thing as a stunt in growth that's permanent (that I've seen). Now, it may not end up as big in the end because it sort of lost out on grow time, but any stunting should begin fading after about 1 or 2 weeks of the problem being corrected. If you're still having stunted growth, say, 3 or 4 weeks later, then there's another problem altogether. Hope this sort of covered some points...

Logan Burke said:

Well, as a blanket-type answer, I would say the biggest part of avoiding stunting really is avoiding negative stress and too much positive stress (Too much of a breeze, too much pruning, too much light, etc etc). At what phase is it that yours got stunted? In that early veg stage that starts right after the seedling stage? This could be a result of transplanting unless you are starting the seeds in their permanent home from start to finish. Nutrients, especially in hydro, are often times the culprit for stunting or are at least antagonizing the problem. The good news is that, there is no such thing as a stunt in growth that's permanent (that I've seen). Now, it may not end up as big in the end because it sort of lost out on grow time, but any stunting should begin fading after about 1 or 2 weeks of the problem being corrected. If you're still having stunted growth, say, 3 or 4 weeks later, then there's another problem altogether. Hope this sort of covered some points...

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It surely did. A few have gone into preflowering tho I'm going to veg them for at least a couple more weeks.

5000w of Chinese blurple ?

That is absolutely not you are running.
What brand.

It actually is. I'd have to go look at the makers, bit these things run about $80 each. Sucks they use cheap diodes...

Oo ee oo ah ah said:

It surely did. A few have gone into preflowering tho I'm going to veg them for at least a couple more weeks.

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Increase your light hours. Up to 24/0. Better 20/4.

May try that. Spent the day raising them 6" at a time to the point where the plants are just starting to reach for them slightly, we'll see how they react.