Need Advice

Ok so im about to get some money and be able to go buy better nutes and etc... if i could get any advice on what needs to be bought or what would help me alot i would appreciate it.

The reason im doing this is because my plants are over a month old and they are only about about 5 inches, so im thinking ive been doing something wrong this whole time to make them take this long... and with the amount of electricity im using up for them it makes this hardly worth it.

Heres what i currently have. 400 Watt MH/Ballast, Fan Blowing air away from light in closet. 2 Plants sitting 20 inches below light. Currently feeding nutes with 30 10 10 nute solution. Cut potency in half so its at 15 5 5. (Got my eyes on a 20 20 20 solution at the garden center) Soil im using is the expert gardener version of this Schultz :: Moisture Plus Potting Mix - 2038 - 20316 - 20325 - 20350
WHICH IS WHERE I THINK ONE OF MY PROBLEMS IS! Soil nutes are .10 .08 .06
If anyone knows much about that soil or why it would be bad let me know because im not sure if i should just get new soil and transplant into it. Im also not using perlite atm so that could be another thing that is slowing down plant growth. I had root rot on one of them but i got that solved. I dont have a PH meter but anyway here are some pictures of my setup and plants and any advice on what i can improve on would be greatly appreciated as it would make my plants much happier and grow much faster. Thank you for your time and here are some pictures to help everyones analysis.

first lower the light they are stretching too much you using a cfl light ?? if so lower it to about 2 inches above them .

as for nutes the debate can go on forever about what you think is the best

goto a head and grow shop look around and buy what is in your budget range thats my 2 cents on it

its under a 400 watt MH and thats the only shitty fan i have to keep it from getting too hot. cause that thing is HOT. ill see what i can do as for getting it closer, the soil im using is all by itself is well i could use some thoughts on that.

dont move it closer in that case id say just support the stems so they don't fall over and introduce a 12v pc fan to circulate air around them so the stems get stronger by themselves as for soil i like using worm humas or bat humas as its naturally rich in nutes but coco mix is ment to be good too

well what type of soil do you think i should look for? what type of nutrients because i feel the ones in mine are very low... as well as it holds water and releases to plants slowly... which i think adding overwatering led to root rot in my case. im thinking of finding a nice regular potting soil and just going half perlite for drainage idk... once you start getting into organic shit doesnt that mean you dont have to toxicate them with nutrients since your giving them natural nutrients?

I'd stop using that mulch you got there.. get a nice blend of 2 parts soil to 1 part perlite.. do your containers have drainage?

well buy nutes in a shop and follow the dosage thats all you need to do don't panic and don't overwater thats all you need to do i understand its like a baby and you prob check it 3-4 times a day to look at it but relax and just take it easy and your on your way

20-20-20 right? then i make it the right amount to where its 5 5 5 isnt that best for them?

any other suggestions?

Once those things sprout, they don't need any nutes for at least 3 weeks. They have all they need for right now. From the looks of it, they look as if they have suffered a bit of nute burn.

I don't think they are stretching, they look fine. You don't want to move that MH very close, especially this early in the game. If it's already hot in there, that will just make matters worse.

I like to veg for the first 3 weeks under some flouros. With those, you can get the lights as close as an inch away and this will allow them to get enough light and not stretch.

Get yourself a temp/humidity gauge and a PH kit. Right now all you need to worry about is getting your watering under control and keeping a proper PH. You can do a lot of bad things to these babies, but get that PH wrong and they will die.

**update**

Ok I looked again, wtf am I thinking? Those things are stretching bad. How far away is the light? That's weird that they are stretching under a 400 watt MH. Is it just me or did you do something to the light? It doesn't even look like it's on.

How much are you watering? How big are your pots?

You might want to repot them and cover all that extra stem up. Get a better fan on them as well. This will allow the stems to grow strong and support all the weight they are soon going to carry.

ya they are over a month old though? do you still think that is stretching or does age not matter?

my pots are about 2x the size of the plant... and the growth has been alot better since i fixed my overwatering problem, i think you just might be seeing the result of a couple weeks of overwatering

If they were over watered they would have stunted the growth a bit. Guess that depends on how bad it was.

They still look like they are stretched from that pic. Are you PHing your water when you water them?

no i am not phing water i will buy a ph kit tomarrow.... do those work for both soil and water? or do i need to do it just for the water?

You will probably also want to pick up some PH down. You can find this at your local pet store or anywhere they carry aquarium stuff.

You want a PH of around 6.2 if you are in soil. When you water, make sure you are giving it enough that you are getting run off. To get the PH of your soil, collect the run off you get from watering.

any other suggestions?

Robert911 said:

Ok so im about to get some money and be able to go buy better nutes and etc... if i could get any advice on what needs to be bought or what would help me alot i would appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Hi,

This is a bit of a copy and paste of some other posts I've written. Hope you don't mind, but I have a few suggestions on what to buy and how to get started. Some of this may apply to you, some of it wont. Just for the record, I don't know shit about growing. I'm only half way through my very first grow. But I've bumped my head a couple of times and think that I've learned a little to help someone who is just starting. Any of the links in this post are not recommendations of online sellers or anything. They are just examples. You can probably find stuff even cheaper.

Lessons learned.

Invest in enough equipment so you know what is going on with your plants and keep records of what you do and when. It's incredibly hard (for me anyways) to remember everything I've done and when. And it becomes near impossible for people to offer you the proper help online when you don't know what your PH is, temps are, humidity is, nutrient ppm is. Also, when did you water? How much did you water? Keep track of this stuff. Write it down here in your grow journal. Put a link to it in your signature. Then people can find out about the history of your grow and give you better advice.

1. Be patient! - This is at least a 4-6 month journey you are embarking on. You may get some great bud out of it. You may get nothing. Its the only way to learn though. All of your mistakes and failures are leading you to knowledge. Don't get discouraged and keep growing.

2. Mylar - $13 online Don't use tinfoil because it can create hot spots and burn your plants. Mylar was one of the first things I purchased when it was probably the least important to the plants thriving. It's not nearly as important as everything else in this list. So get this last, or just stick with white walls. They work just fine.

3. Temps/Humidity - $10 at Target This thing will record the min/max temp and the min/max humidity of your grow area. Too high/low temps will kill your plants. If the outside air changes with the seasons, then chances are your inside air will too. Too humid and you run the risk of moulds. You should know what your grow environment is doing.

4. PH - $15-25 online I started off with nothing to test my pH. I got this but it was a joke for testing PH, good for moisture, but can't really do PH properly. Actually, it can't do pH at all. Then I got something else to test my dirt. The dirt test would have been helpful before I started to grow or transplant. Once you have your plants settled into their pots for the long haul, it doesn't do you much good. I've read that your soil will adjust to the pH of your water/nutes over time. A digital meter is really the best and only way to go to see what pH you're feeding your plants. You should test and adjust the pH of your water, EVERY TIME YOU WATER, or after you put your nutrients in. That means that you should get some pH up and pH down. Some people don't like the organics for this (slime problems.) When the nutrients are in, depending what nutrients you use, the color of the water changes, so you can't use most pH tests that use color matching. Get a digital meter, get some calibration liquid. If your PH is wrong/off, then your plant may not be able to use the nutrients you are giving it. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing that I've learned so it should be the very first step/purchase.

5. Moisture meter - $5 at hardware Does what it says. You can see how moist/dry your soil is at the bottom of your container. Tells you when you need to water. Not good for testing PH, like I said.

6. Nutrients - $30-40 at ? I found mine at Longs Drugs for $30. Get these, follow the chart. It makes it easy for you and takes out a lot of the guess work. Chances are you won't over fertilize them either. I started off using "regular" off the shelf stuff (fish emmulsion.) The instructions on most off the shelf stuff is ambiguous, and I probably cooked my plants. Bad bad bad. This is probably the scond most important thing that I've learned. (The first is to test your pH, because if that is off, they plant may not be able to use those nutes.) At first it sounded like a lot of money to spend when I didn't even know if I was going to enjoy growing or have any female plants. But now, regardless of what happens, I sure wish I had started out with this stuff.

7. TDS/PPM - TDS/PPM meter $15 Maybe not absolutely necessary, but it helps you get a better picture of what is going on with your water and your nutrients. Let's you know how much stuff is in your water. Puts you more in the drivers seat. If you are seeing signs of burning, you can make more informed adjustments with one of these. Again, get some calibration solution.

8. Misc. - Get a oscillating fan or two to make the stems strong, cycle the air and help keep away moulds. Also, get big enough pots (3 to 5 gal), keep a close eye on them for pests (like spider mites) and be ready to react to pests immediately. Have your answer in hand or at least already know what you would use/where to get it. You may not be able to wait three days for something to come in the mail.

9. Read and Search First - Read the crap out of this website. There is a lot of good info in the GrowFAQ. Make sure to look there before you post. Do a search before you post. I can't tell you how many people post the same questions over and over and over when they could have done a 20 second search for the answer. People are going to be less inclined to spend the effort to help you if you demonstate that kind of laziness. And use your head. Don't trust or rely solely on everything everyone tells you (especially me.) People mean well (like me), but they often are just telling you something that they've read and not experienced themselves (sometimes like me.) It's just hard to know when you can't see, touch, live with the plants yourself.

I'm sure not everyone will agree, but that is what I've learned so far and believe to be true. I'm sure I'm wrong about some of it. However, I sure wish I had started with all of this info. It would have saved me a lot of headaches at this point.

Good luck man.