Microgrow - short plants w/ many small leaves - not enough room?

Hi there gurus!

I have 3 plants (Unkown strain) in a ~26 sq. foot area (20cm(W) X 40cm(L) X 52cm(H)). they are somewhat cramped together under 5 CFLs (32w-6500K).

The reason they are packed is that I am waiting to determine their sex and eventually keep only one female.

They were planted (after germination) on August 1st. meaning they are vegging for about 5 weeks now.

They still haven't shown their sex yet. Do i need to move to 12/12 cycle in order to see that?

The plants aren't very tall, about 12cm (reached half height of the case, but I plan on LST). Also they have a lot of small leaves and many small branches. Is the cramping causing that?

Average temps are a bit high - about 30c and sometimes they were under close to 40c (Summer+Lights!!).
Humidity is fine (I believe) - 30-50% (+ I am misting them at least once a day).

I need advice - move to 12/12 cycle nevertheless?

any other advice will be most welcomed.

Here are some photos so you get the idea... (They were tempered to help anonymity)

The roots are probably cramped, the soil probably lacks required nutrients. I had this problem once. I planted the plant outside and its still pretty small. I started again really. Try give their roots some more room if possible and I would replace the soil.


lower the temps to mid 30s max. Get some good venting. (plants can tolerate higher, i think its best to try to keep the temps the same 24/7 or at least just in the day time)

humidity is fine. But I prefer higher 45-50%

You will need to start flowering to get sex, unless its an "Auto-flower" plant.

also, what is the soils PH?

I would probalby see if you can fix this prior to flowering, as this will achieve maximum bud production.
OR just flower just to get them out of the way for a new batch.

The soil is a mixture of 10% Sand 20% Worm Castings 60% Premixed soil (plain gardening soil) and 10% Tuff (small rocks). I don't have a PH meter to check it. The consistency is fine and the drainage is excellent. I guess if there was lack of Nuts i'd see signs on the leaves but only mature bottom leaves are yellowing (I trimmed them). Cramped roots could be it, But I know people grow fine large plants in 16oz cups (which is about what i use now).

So I guess i'll move to 12/12 cycle to show sex and then once it's determined i'll repot them in large pots (0.5 gal). hopefully quickly enough as to not harm the flowering stage.

Anyone else?

I read somewhere that plants can show their sex while vegging, so I am considering waiting maybe another week before moving to 12/12.
Anyone?

5 weeks veg in that space? your gonna run in to problems!!!! i would advise anyone to go 12/12 from seed in that size box dude.

they would have showed sex at around 3 weeks going 12/12 from seed and would stay contained well but i can see 2 weeks after you switch to 12/12 they will be too big.

so yeah put them into flower right now and good luck with the grow.

what are your temps like?

Thanks!

No one else said otherwise so I guess I should move to 12/12 anyhow...

temps are around 30c.

try cloning then put the clone into flowering

i wonder what kind of flower pots could lead to your possible identification...

mistaphuck said:

i wonder what kind of flower pots could lead to your possible identification...

Click to expand...

That you'll never know...
let's just say I'm simply not taking chances...

Cloning? I want to see the Sex before I do that, also I don't want to veg another plant... I wanna smoke!! )