Newbie Needs Advice

Hey, ive never grown or anything before so obviously im having some trouble..

Alright this is about 1 1/2 Months in and Judging by others pics something is wrong.



its about 10" tall with 8 Leaves. Ive got the light going around 18/6 to 20/4 Hours each day.

My light is just a regular 60 Watt Grow light with a desk lamp fixture.



Any Advice on helping it grow before it starts flowering (Its starting to grow white hairs near the top of the plant and at each node) I need to make it bigger before i start to put it at 12/12 so any advice will help.

The stretching is caused by the light being too far away.

Get a stronger bulb man. I feel you on the grow lights are expensive stuff. Haha but try & get at least a 100watter & your plant is stretching because the light is too far up. You gotta bring the light as close as possible to the plant without causing heat stress. Just place your hand between the lamp & the top of your plant. Too hot on your hand means too hot for the plant. But the closer the lights the better the growth.
The point is to renact the whole outside atmosphere. So the more light that is directly on your plant the better the photosynthesis process will go for your plant. Get a fan on her too. You wana bruise the stem with a bit of air swaying the plant so that the plant grows an imune to the "wind" & it thickens it's stem. Do not make it a constant rough direct hit of air on the plant either. You want to have air circulation but not a overwhelming stressing tornado.
So checkthe lights & the fan is a must also avoid over watering because it suffocates the roots. You can easily under water as it encourages the roots to grow out in search for water. Once a week is an ok watering schedule.

Alright thank alot for the tips.. Im gonna go out and get a 100 Watt light and i do have a small fan on it..

I recently transplanted it to a bigger base and the stem couldnt support itsself.. so i found a stick and used small wire to keep it upright.



What im pointing to is the stick fyi..

How exactly can i get the stem to thicken at this point.. I do have a fan on it.. but it cant even hold itself up without some kind of support.

What you wana do is just lower the light on it. & with time increase the air flow that it gets little by little so eventually the plant feels the air start to be stronger & she will eventually toughen up to it. The light close on it will also make it grow alot faster so it will heal alot faster to the air flow brusing. Please careful not to make it sway to much as you already mentioned it is fragile. So little by little increase the air flow.

This is were gadgetry addiction comes in. Buy one more thing to get one more gram....

that light is way to high up...

there are a lot of things I would have done differently.
I use a mixture of soil and perlite with 205 perlite. the soil is from the store in a sterile bag and its a local "premium" planting soil. the kind of stuff you put your cucumbers \ spearmint to grow in. then mix 4 parts of it with 1 part perlite. You can try to find out if anyone in here lives in the same country as you are and recommand you of a certain brand.
after we're done with the soil comes the pot. you want something with drainage holes. and a lot of it. simple cheapo planting pot should do.
ok, planted the plant and got lights. for vegitative state you need a CFL (compact fluorescent) in the color of 6500K (K stands for Kelvin). Its typicly called "Daylight" but not always. 60W should do well. I've got some great results with a 45W CFL at the right color lately, you can check on my thread - I've vegged under that 45w until 2 days ago. now I use the same light but sometimes plug in another 45W CFL with the same color.
got the right light? great. you want it to be no further than 5cm (2.5 inches) from the top of the plant. other wise the plant will strech for the light - like yours.
now you need air to move around for 3 reasons -
1. the plant uses up the CO2 around its leaves. if its not replaced it just can't perform photosynthesis - it won't grow much). in a closed room its important to have an outtake fan to keep the air inside fresh with CO2.
2. lowering the temperature. the heat won't build up around the light too much.
3. thickening the stem. the movement of the plant back and forth signals the plant that he needs thicker stems to survive.

next is watering. your not over\underwatering as it seems. you want to water it with water that stood overnight so the chlorine have been evaporated. after that you fix its PH to 6.3-6.8. some soil requier other PH, most aren't. You also want to use some fertilizers. always check your PH AFTER adding the fertilizer.


thats my basic guidlines.

in your condition I would recommend training - tying the plant down and deform it so that it is lower. that helps lower growth to get to the upper parts and so get enough light. you shuold tie the main stem down about 1 inch lower per day until it reaches the pot. it should be hard as your stem is very thin.



I write a lot lately.

first off that 60 watt "grow light" is worthless. its an incadescent bulb which produces little to no light that your plant needs. you need to at least get a CFL bulb on it. and as people have said, get it closer. you were right to think something is wrong, its your light. easily remided by a new light. although it is outragously stretched. do not feel bad for not knowing, when i first started i was using crappy flood lights and blue party lights and my plants were almost as bad as yours. your the second person ive saw on here tonight using "grow lights" asking about why my plant is so tall and just not growing right. check out the growfaq and hit up the lighting section. you will be enlightened.

i would probably start over. that plant will more than likely be more trouble than its worth. and new plants under decent lights will be farther along than that plant is in 2-3 weeks.

Anything else i need to know?

And Should i start over? It looks like a female.. So my question is.. Would i still be able to save this.. Or would i prolly get more out of a new plant?

Aistu said:

Anything else i need to know?

And Should i start over? It looks like a female.. So my question is.. Would i still be able to save this.. Or would i prolly get more out of a new plant?

Click to expand...

if your able to get another plant or seed then grow another plant. Keep both alive since now you can use the 1st plant as a test plant.
you should try & get as many lights as you can. As the plant gets bigger it will need more light for it to. Continue to grow. The plant is going to need high amount of light to keep it's photosynthesis process going strong. It's gotta get as big & healthy as possible because she eventualy does have I hold her fruit under her own strength.
So as of now I would try to get as many bulbs as possible on top of her. Place 1-2 on her sides so she's confused on which way to grow. (up or sideways) I do this with my flowering plants I place floros all over the sides of the flowering plant & she's grows out instead of up. Never the less she does continue to grow. It's the same as tying down the girl.
do keep in mind the amount of light she will need once she gets big. She has to be almost entirely covered in light.
you dnt have to give up on her. Just manage the lights & get her to absorb as much light as possible without encouraging her to grow a specific way.
your priority is to plump her up. Becareful with overwatering too. You don't wana stress your roots with wet dirt that can suffocate how your roots breathe.

I went out and got a 4 Pack of 60W CFL Lights and got another fixture..



Hows this look?

Aistu said:

Hey, ive never grown or anything before so obviously im having some trouble..

Alright this is about 1 1/2 Months in and Judging by others pics something is wrong.

its about 10" tall with 8 Leaves. Ive got the light going around 18/6 to 20/4 Hours each day.

My light is just a regular 60 Watt Grow light with a desk lamp fixture.

Any Advice on helping it grow before it starts flowering (Its starting to grow white hairs near the top of the plant and at each node) I need to make it bigger before i start to put it at 12/12 so any advice will help.

Click to expand...

lol thats not a grow light.... its a "Plant light" and it just makes plants look better... wow lol

MaNgOsRoCkWiThMaRyJ said:

lol thats not a grow light.... its a "Plant light" and it just makes plants look better... wow lol

Click to expand...

And that is *Exactly* why im posting on here for help, sir.

Cant learn anything if you dont try.

Thanks for the advice though.....

you can bury the stem until where the growth starts, it will make better support for your plant and after about a month all stem that is underground should begin to root. which may help to compensate for lost growth.


https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/186038-first-grow-any-input-would.html#post2401977

That seems ok. I know that if you place your hand between the maps & your plant you should feel very little heat. Correct? So get the lights as close as possible to your plant. You want as much light as possible directly on her.
I use 6 300watt equivalent floros & mine are like about an inch way from making contact with my plant & it causes no harm. Just make sure it's not extremely hot. (floros give off very little heat though)
& I hate to budd into your personal space but where are you growing your plant? When she gets big & you wana enter the flowering stage make sure you environment is completely light proof. (so dark you cannot see your hand a foot in front of your face) just a tip ahead of time.
A confined space also maximizes the use of lumens. Reflective material bounces light right back to your plant instead of it running off to the dark like light does.
So get the bulbs close to the plant. As close as possible do the hand measurement thingy. All the light directed to you plant will do it good.

Right now im just growing it in the living room *Away from windows lol* When and If i get it to the flowering stage i can move it into my Walk in Closet.. which is about 3x3.

And yes Ive used the Hand/Light thing and moved the lights as close as possible. about 1 inch from the plant.. Im gonna give it about 22/2 Light for the next few days to see if it improves.. I really hope so.. I dont wanna start over and get Male plants..

This is the First plant ive started and it is female.. I was mega happy lol.

Aistu said:

Right now im just growing it in the living room *Away from windows lol* When and If i get it to the flowering stage i can move it into my Walk in Closet.. which is about 3x3.

And yes Ive used the Hand/Light thing and moved the lights as close as possible. about 1 inch from the plant.. Im gonna give it about 22/2 Light for the next few days to see if it improves.. I really hope so.. I dont wanna start over and get Male plants..

This is the First plant ive started and it is female.. I was mega happy lol.

Click to expand...

Haha I personally hate sees. I can't stand the whole waiting to see if it's a girl stuff. 1good clone will get me stoned. 3x3 will be cool. I'm in a 2x4x7 grow tent & it's cool. Tons of good luck to you & I'm always online if anymore questions tickle your noodle

Aistu said:

Anything else i need to know?

And Should i start over? It looks like a female.. So my question is.. Would i still be able to save this.. Or would i prolly get more out of a new plant?

Click to expand...

what makes you think its a female, unless there are pistols popping that i cant see in the pic?

you should go ahead and start prepping your closet. and when its ready start a new plant or 3. just know that the more plants you have the more light you need. if your gonna use cfls you should engineer some kinda lighting rig to house them. from wood, cardboard, anything you can find to house a few light sockets. buy some Y adapters, and some 6000k temp daylight bulbs for vegging.

you should also check into the grow faq. and go through a few grow journals on here. if you want to grow proper it takes research, money, effort and time. be prepared.

I believe its female because at the top of the plant are 2 White hairs on each side of the node growing.

I did set up my closet thing but its kinda shitty.. I currently dont have a lot of money to invest so for the next 3 Weeks or so Its not gonna be very well set up.





When i actually can get some more money and stuff i'll start upgrading everything but for now its just gotta be the way it is.