Miracle Grow vs. Fox Farm soil..

Man I made a bad mistake but I hope my fix works. I germinated my seeds in the pods and moved them into some bs soil that I got from Walmart that was hard and made it very hard for the plants to develop any roots. So after about 10 or 12 days of zero growth, I transplanted them into the Fox Farm soil which is a much more airey - light, very nice soil and seems to work much easier. So I am keeping my fingers crossed but am not sure if there is anything else I can do for them? I also bought a High Output Flourescent Light System with 8 T5, 40,000 Lumens, 420V, 3.6 Amp - it is a 4 ft system. I am not sure how high I need to set it above the plants either.

sounds like the light i was going to buy, they are ment to give off very low heat so you should be able toget the light close,

closer the better (without burning ) if its to hot the fan leaves will curl at the sides or appear upraised on the edges

i've never used anyhing but metal halide and hps so im not sure how close you can get with t5's but literally must be 2-5 inches from top im guessing

just judge the heat with your hand and keep check on the fan leaves for any signs of heatstroke

you can put those t5s as close as you can get them as long as you have a fan to keep the heat from getting concentrated. i have grown with t5s for years. the heat in the air will burn the plants way before the actual bulbs will. t5 heat is very easy to control, but there IS heat. if you can afford one get a digital thermometer with a probe and put the probe as close to the plant "heads" as you can get it, and this will tell you if you are causing your babies any suffering. they have indoor/outdoor ones at home depot for about 15 bucks.

you can point a fan directly at the bulbs to keep them more cool also....
id start at 5 inches and get a litttle closer each day if everything is lookin good

As mentioned, keep it as close as possible, within 2", as long as you check on 'em at least once a day. They can grow pretty fast.I was running mine at 1/2", getting some awesome growth, but the damn things would grow into the light if I didn't move it mid-day, and once before lights out. I eventually backed the light off to 1", which worked great. Trust me, there's no such thing as too much fluoro light. They simply aren't capable.

That's cool, thanks for the help. I'm frickin with my iPhone now and I will post some pics. There are 12 seedlings in all that I transplanted yesterday and only 1 out of the 12 grew in that real compacted miracle grow crap

which stopped the other 11 from growing at all. I am hoping that the move into the fox farm stuff will make the difference. Some of the leaves have turned yellow I think from the last MG soil but I am working on getting

some pics up so you can see what I am talking about - a picture is worth a thousand words...LOL

Miracle Grow soil killed every strain of weed I ever tried to grow in it.When I first started growing , I went through around $200 of Nirvana brand strains , I remember I bought 12 packs of Nirvana seeds every one was a different strain back in 2007 when you could buy them for $15 a pack at Seed Boutique. After about 8 weeks I had no more seeds to germinate. In the Fall of 2007 I grew my first plants to harvest in FoxFarm soil, strains were Mandala #1 and Mandala Satori, I'm a big believer in FoxFarm Ocean soil, there's a reason why so many bud growers use it.

Leave that MG soil for tomatoes and vegetables.

Yea I see what you mean, see what it did to my plants, fricked them up quite a bit. I planted these on the 1st of this month and they didn't grow at all once I took them out of the cubes (except that one plant-of which I have no idea why it did so well when everything else was dying), but I hope the transplant into the foxfarm stuff I did last night saves them. I am figuring about a week or so from now will tell. Now, I only have 7 seeds left and since I just moved I can't get a hook up here and have no choice but to grow my own not to mention that I have to order online - oh and btw some of these are Nirvana seeds too!

Does anyone know if the yellow curled leaves is from over-watering, under-watering or the miracle grow soil?

it's probably nute burn from the mg soil,,that stuff is pretty strong for seedings and young plants. I have used it with success..Just always added plain water for about a month til it used up the nutes in the soil.

So what you are saying is now that I have them in the Fox Farm Soil to definitely not use any neuts until they recover and are what about 6 inches at the least? Also, any idea why I had that one Rouge plant that was good to go and had no problems and kept growing?

dr.feelgood69 said:

So what you are saying is now that I have them in the Fox Farm Soil to definitely not use any neuts until they recover and are what about 6 inches at the least? Also, any idea why I had that one Rouge plant that was good to go and had no problems and kept growing?

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fox farms ocean forest has nutrients in it just like miracale grow except mg prints what the npk of their soil is and with the ffof you get to pay extra for the bad ass graphics and no info. but you should feed straight water for the first 5 to 6 weeks. and it looks like you might be over watering causing all the yellowing. try to get a fan on those girls to help build up the stalks. it looks like the root of most of your problems are mistakes on your part and not the soil. good luck and happy growing!

^Exactly. IMO, FF OF is more potent than MG soil. MG soil just doesn't have the drainage qualities, and retains water too long. With enough perlite added, they perform damn near the same. Especially if you 'fluff up' the MG stuff after the first watering. From what I remember, it tend to get hard and compact after the first soaking, then not so much afterwards, if it's broken up, after that first session. OF gets kinda hard too, a crunchy crust forms after the very first watering. I break that up with my hands, and it's smooth sailing, from then on out.

I'd probably still be using MG, if it wasn't for those damn fungus gnats, that come pre-packaged.

OIC, can you give me some watering tips? The guy at the light store told me that when I transplanted them last night to fill up the pot with water until it starts draining and wait 2 -3 days and do the same thing. Is that still too much?

How long should it be before these start to turn around?

All MIracle grow here. From the soil to the fertilizer to the Bloom...It works/helps if you read the box.

HUMMM, you know what I am thinking is that I was over-watering?

dr.feelgood69 said:

HUMMM, you know what I am thinking is that I was over-watering?

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Everything in moderation. 1 teaspoon per gallon of water and at least 3 weeks into vegging. Well that works for me but I guess everyone is different

dr.feelgood69 said:

HUMMM, you know what I am thinking is that I was over-watering?

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Yep, that's what I was thinking. Everybody makes mistakes, so no worries. I still fuck up periodically, and as long as I learn from it, it doesn't bother me one bit.lol The best part, is that you can only fuck up so many times, before you have covered everything, and then it becomes easy. I'm getting there, but not quite yet. Mistakes? Bring 'em on!

I used MG organic gardening top soil. I used some organic ferts for the vegetation and MG Bloom 15 30 15 for flowering... not once through out the grow did my plants yellow one bit. That organic soil is very rich..and I ended up mildy burning the fan leaves during the flowering process with the bloom fert. I have never seen calyxes this fat on any of my previous grows I am really happy with the results with MG. I am now 1 week from harvest with 2 giant cola's relative to the size of the plant. And more importantly I sampled some of the small buds off the bottom of the plant and it got me all fucked up. I cant wait to cut this bitch down.

Thats one BAD MOTHERFUCKER, man I hope I can get there one day. No neuts during veg phase at all? Is watering every 2-3 days about right? And when I do water should I completely saturate the water until it drips through the bottom hole and then wait another 2-3 days? Thanks for the help guys.

Is there a difference between Miracle Grow Potting Mix and Miracle Grow Top Soil? Because I was using the Potting Mix and I'm now thinking that may not have been the right thing?