Help! What are some tips & tricks to use during the 12/12 cycle of cannabis indica?

Hello! I'm a first time grower with 2 female indica plants. I don't know their strain because they were seeds from some bud that I had gotten. I barely begun the 12/12 cycle about 5 days ago, when I switched the light cycle one plant was 33 in. tall while the other was only 20 in. Now the little one is 22 in. & the taller one is around 35 in. Im using Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil & during the vegatative stage I administered Alfalfa meal, Blackstrap Molasses, & Earth juice catalyst & they responded very well to that. On the second day of the 12/12 light cycle I began administering Fox Farm Tiger Bloom Fertilizer with a NPK ratio of 2-8-4. I also had a gnat infestation not to long ago however I've used gnatrol to control it along with yellow sticky cards & now I don't have an infestation. Due to the infestation I had to postpone switching into 12/12 lighting for a couple of weeks allowing my plants an extended vegating stage. I was wondering if there are are other tips & tricks to cannabis during flowering? What nutrients have worked well during this stage? Also I have been looking into Fox Farm Beastie Blooms & Fox Farm Cha Ching, I can only afford to buy one & was wondering which would be better to use? Here is a picture of my ladies today

Looks like you need more light?

I'm getting another light soon to even out the light distribution

Let the soil dry out before you feed /water them each time. Leave them alone.

and place some books or something under the smaller plant to get level with other one

Darth Vapour said:

and place some books or something under the smaller plant to get level with other one

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Don't use books or anything else that can't be cleaned and could mold. Plastic cat boxes or pieces of rigid foam are a better idea.

Prune the growth closest to the soil first, looks like shes stretching towards the light.

Mad_Prophessor said:

Don't use books or anything else that can't be cleaned and could mold. Plastic cat boxes or pieces of rigid foam are a better idea.

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Milk crates from the grocery store work good too, or cinder block.

Ya it totally looks like theres a light issue from the stretch. Im guessing its a cfl grow and tjey werent kept within five inches of the plant, causeing like the above guy said, major stretch. You might want to lst that plant by tieing it down or breaking like three nodes down and then tieing it down. Tough to say without having a picture of both plants. It also could be strange bagseed genetics but it looks like its more likely due to grower error. No worries, its your first grow and the plants are a good color. They may be even getting too much food bit just keep going and watch for the "claw".

Aside from that theres two things i dont like, well three, that i see.
One, the floor. Its filthy. Bugs love dirt on floors and theyll nest anywhere they can. Gnats love water so standing water is no good and a wet pot of dirt with water under in a tray is also no good.
Two is your drip catcher is too small. If you have any type of runoff it looks like itll go onto the floor and make a mess going back to number one....the dirty floor. Get a better drip catcher. Theyre cheap and you can probably find one around the house for free but id go and buy a real one. Also, if you have a nice sturdy one, not a clear plastic flimsy one, its good for a couple reasons. With gnats your going to want to be emptying it after waterings, also, when you flush water and nutrients through, the nutrients will just reabsorb back into the plant if the pot is sitting in the runoff. I put two bricks under the plants if theyre in drip catchers and not drain to waste tables. Empty the drip catcher.
Third is that spray bottle. I dont know for sure if tour doing this, but a lot of new growers love to spray the plant with water, they say "but they like it", and theyre growing their first plant lol. No. They don't like it. It can cause powdery mildew and bud rot in flower. So if your not doing it disregard 3, but handle 1&2. And you and the plants will be happier.
Good luck and nice first grow so far.

Thank you for the advice. Yes I am using a cfl light as of right now. I water my plants 2 times a week on Mondays & Thursdays. I don't spray my plants, I use the sprayer to water the soil. I will definitely look into a drip catcher. Is there anything else I should or need to do?

Get more light or all of those boosters your throwing at them will be for naught. Save that stuff until later when your plants look better and have filled out. Go 1/2 strength on the tiger bloom right now and leave it at that. Aliens advice is sound, clean it up or the pests will be right back at em.

Most important item you will ever purchase as a grower is a hygrometer temperature is one of the keys to successful grows making sure your temps .nutes.lighting.medium are all dialed in good luck happy growing!!

Can I buy a hygrometer on Amazon?

Baby Bean said:

Can I buy a hygrometer on Amazon?

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Yea you can make sure you sqve a lil cash for batteries get the good ones that record day and night temps and humidity good luck

Protip #1: Don't set the house on fire.

Mad_Prophessor said:

Don't use books or anything else that can't be cleaned and could mold. Plastic cat boxes or pieces of rigid foam are a better idea.

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Small plastic garbage cans upside-down and sturdy tupperware or rubbermaid storage with lids all have served me well.

Thank you everybody so much! I appreciate the help. How long Does it take for the buds to begin forming