New to the scene.. Need friendly advice and tips

Hello guys I'm new to the scene, I read about doing 12/12 from seed and thought it was a no brainier so I'm reppin 12/12 all day!! Now I've had my tallest plant in veg for about two months before putting in my seedlings, they also grew for about two days in veg, then I switched them over. They have been on 12/12 for a month now, the seedlings are growing at a normal pace I guess, but my tallest one has been slacking. Over all the tallest one has been alive for three months but is no where near as nice looking or as developed as others I've seen. I also tried FIMing it, but nothing happened, and I defoliated some leaves (maybe too much too soon) and the leaves that tried growing from where I cut just stopped growing, but the top of the plant is still growing like it has.To me the seedlings growth is going at a normal pace. But I've read around and saw that a lot of other people have had significantly faster growth, and their plants showing sex earlier.


My set up is three 100 watt cfls, the temp in the area is some what on the warm side like 75 max, I used miracle grow organic soil with part perlite mix. i also use phd water ( general hydro up and down ) with Schultz nutes. I know it's a contradiction to use the nutes when I'm using organic soil but it's my first time and I read on the soil bag that it only feeds for 3 months.


my question is, why am I not seeing better results? Ie faster growth.
And also what's good with my tallest plant?


Btw, all of these plants are from bag seed, my tallest plant is Hairy marry, red solo cup is Ak-47, and the seedlings are a mix of LA and Tropical Kush.


please understand I'm a complete noob, thanks.

brother you need to bump your light schedule to 24 hours daily or 18 on 6 off. the 12/12 is for flowering and not vegetive.
there are very few plants that will react positively to the 12/12 from start maybe autos is about all and i would still recomend more for them as well.
also how far away are the lights from your canopy? keep them as close as possible without hurting them from heat.

Plants only show sex when they are either forced or they are mature enough during veg which is usually about 5 weeks. Your tallest plant is stretched because the light is too far away. CFLs have to be basically on top of the plant. Your not getting better results because a. Your using 2700k cfls b. your flowering.. And c. You need more and/or better light....

For veg you need 100 watts per plant of 6500k spectrum cfl.

For flowering you want more light then veg and 2700k spectrum.

Miracle grow soil has nutes in it already so be careful when watering because it releases when you water. No more nutes will be needed until 3-4 months maybe even longer. If your seeds are bag seeds, their name is bag seed not the ones you got listed. If you bought the seeds, then they may be the names you listed. I think I covered everything any other questions just ask.

edit- your using clear containers it looks like.. You need to cover the sides cause roots die when exposed to light.

Hi CSC,

Welcome, It is my understanding that you don't want to take leaves off the plant until at least the fourth week of flowering. The fan leaves are the solar panels. Some sativa's will stop growing when you take just a few of the leaves. Is the first pic of your 2 month grow?. The little one's look great by the way, the genetics you picked sound great.

miracle grow organic soil

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Not for dope plants. Use coco fed with quality hydro nutes, not some random soil mix that salt will build in stunting and yellowing plants.

They are going ok, the plan now should be picking the biggest female for a mother plant.

Yeah, this is pretty much the equivalent of giving a newborn baby a delicious healthy steak and baked potato and wondering why it's not enjoying them.

As said above, move back to at least 18/6 light cycle and get your lights fairly close. Don't go back to 12/12 until you've got a good 7 or 8 nodes on your plant. The "immediate 12/12" stuff might have been referring to clones. It can be done with clones since they're cuttings of a mature plant and are the age of the mature plant even if the clone itself is 2 inches tall (even then, it takes a nominal amount of time for rooting before you can throw it into 12/12). You're seeing firsthand what 12/12 to seedlings do.

It may not be too late to save them, and you can use this as valuable experience to add to your knowledge of growing. And be nice to the tall one, talk nice to it and say you're sorry...that poor fella has taken some abuse

Hi, like others havesaid you need to change your light schedule to preferably 12/12, or if notatleast 18 on 6 off. 12/12 is for flowering only and will not do much for yourplants. You shouldnt ever cut the fan leaves in the veg stage as they are the solarpannels of the plant and are used to soak up all the light to make them grow.Cutting these is almost like chopping the bud off and throwing it :S youwouldnt do it right? Personally i never cut any leaves off my plants ever. Notat any point in my grow. If you want light to get to more areas of the plantadd more lights down the sides of the plant or use string to tie the fan leavesout the way if need be. Hope this helps. GW

Those "100" watt cfl are 100 watt equivalent? Not 100 true watts?

You have several issues.
1. Get rid of the aluminum foil.
2. Don't use clear cups, roots like darkness.
3. The older plant, is basically just screwed at this point. You might get a gram or two max from it.
4. Why do you have so many?
5. Do you have light-leaks?
6. Miracle Gro is a veg based product. The reason people say don't use it is because when you switch to flower you still have veg nutrients being released. This will delay flowering.
7. Do a lot of research on grow room design.
8. Do you have drain holes cut in those cups? If not water will sit at the bottom and rot your roots.

The reason I'm doing 12/12 from seed is because I have limited grow space. I read everywhere that it's the way to go for a stealth grow. So far it's working out ok. My lights are about 2 inches away from the plants and tallest one is still growing, so it's not completely done for. I did completely screw up by cutting to many leaves off, the tallest one is the one that is two months old. I also just finished painting the containers black so no more light to the roots. My grow space also kept in complete darkness, it's in my closet with a timer. After 7:15pm the door to my closet doesn't open until the following morning. So I know 100% there is no light entering my grow space. And my containers have holes on the bottom so they are being properly drained ( I also have a inch and a half of perlite in the base of every one for extra drainage.

I have so many seedlings because they were all bag seeds given to me at the same time, I'm just trying to better my chances of getting a female.

In regards to the soil, will I be able to flower with the same soil ? And how will it effect my yields ? Should I stop giving them nutes ?

I also just finished apologizing to my 2 month old plant, and in doing so I noticed white hairs on top!!! Super excited, I fucked up big time but she's going to flower! And to think I found her in a blunt I was about to roll.

An updated picture of my first girl. She's been through a lot. But she's going to be taken good care of from now on. Little white hairs on the top next to the newest growth are hard to spot in the picture but it's there!

CerebralSpaceCadet

They look cute and rather healthy, keep on trucking
Dr. Jekyll

Them tiny plants won't produce much, couple of grams each if everything goes well
Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde said:

CerebralSpaceCadet

They look cute and rather healthy, keep on trucking
Dr. Jekyll

Them tiny plants won't produce much, couple of grams each if everything goes well
Mr. Hyde

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That was an epic come back Jekyll and Hyde. Yea I expected as much, I'm not trying to get oz off my plants, I'm growing mainly for fun and obviously personal use. Like harvest and smoke that bud, and have other bud growing in the mean time. A stoners circle of life if you will. A couple grams per plant is ok for me.

once you see those white hairs thats the very soonest you should switch to 12/12.
if space is a real concern training or topping may help. then you can keep the plants in veg under 18hrs or 24 and they will develope faster and also show their sex faster. not to mention have denser vegetation and more bud potential.
play around with training your plants, they will take some abuse and grow just fine. or even look into growing under a screen in your next grow. then you may keep at a small height and also make the best of less light. you could however use more light like the guys above have stated.

stop cutting the leaves off damnit, never do that again!

only time you do it, is if you accidentally stretch a seedling, and want to re-plant it down when you go to a bigger pot. This is usally done when the plant has like 5 nodes and is in a dixie cup, you can go from a dixie to something like 3 gallons
when you bury the stem down past where you cut a few of the bottom leaves off, it gives the plant a focus for extra roots to pop out, some growers even dab a little rooting gel on the cuts before its buried under, I don't bother though

a longer light cycle will help. when the plants are 1/2 the height restriction, go to 12/12 cycle
if they stretch too much during the stretching phase, you can train them to fit in there

maybe do survival of the fittest removal as you go so that you can do a couple big plants instead of worrying about a bunch of small ones

Ok guys thanks for the feedback, but I won't go back to any other light schedule, I'm doing the 12/12 from seed on purpose because of my grow space and in the time frame i want to get buds in. I understand it's not orthodox but so far it's working out pretty good. Even when my first seedling ever grew on 24/0 it didn't grow nearly as fast as my new seedlings on 12/12. I can't FIM or Top any of them because they are in the flower stage, the only thing I'm considering is Scroging.

Will post pics later on today with how the seedlings look now, but in a few minutes I'm going to a doctors appointment with my fiancé to see the sex of our baby. I think I wished so hard to have a female plant that I just might have a baby girl... The only time I would rather a boy lol. Wish me luck!

Be back soon.

Your not going to get much maybe a gram or two judging by your last pictures.

fir3dragon said:

Your not going to get much maybe a gram or two judging by your last pictures.

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Hey it's my first one I thought it was going to be a male for a bit, but I get it's only going to be a couple G's. So your saying it won't grow bud from the very first node from the bottom? I know I cut the leaves off but shouldn't it still grow there? Or will it only grow bud from the top to the third node down?

btw everyone I'm having a baby boy, I'm sure no one cares but I'm fucking stoked!

Congrats on your son I have a 6 yr old boy ...he is Awesome! As far as the light I never heard of doing 12/12 from seedlings I do a lot of cloning and once they hit soil it is 18/6....but to each his own. I am looking for a much higher yield per plant. I don't switch until mine hit min of 2 feet.

Ditch69 said:

Congrats on your son I have a 6 yr old boy ...he is Awesome! As far as the light I never heard of doing 12/12 from seedlings I do a lot of cloning and once they hit soil it is 18/6....but to each his own. I am looking for a much higher yield per plant. I don't switch until mine hit min of 2 feet.

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I appreciate it bro, babies are a blessing.

12/12 from seed is kindof in the dark for other growers, the first place I read it at said most growers will laugh at you and or talk shit about it. But it's given a lot of people good results, so I'm game. It's more for the stealth growers that don't have a huge grow room, like in a computer desktop case, or in a small corner of a closet. A couple grams per plant is fine by me, it's really the experience and to be able to smoke bud that I myself grew is good enough for me. I'll probably fuck around and make my own strain, give it a cool name and seed it maybe to save or sell give them to friends.