Nutes for a poor newbie

I just started my first grow with 2 plants, each in a 3 lb coffee tin. One is definately skunk by the pleasant skunky aroma, and the other is unidentified except for the smell of chlorophyll. Both are babies, only 7 weeks old, planted on Aug 5 and living indoors by a window under natural sun 4-6 hours a day and 40w flourescent bulb another 4-6 hours. Both look healthy.

My question is, I'm using Miracle Grow liquid plant food 8-7-6. I've been following the directions carefully with only 10-20 drops food to a quart of water. I know this is a weak solution, and I'm wondering if I should increase the mixture or leave it alone?

I'm sure to get replies that I need XYZ food/nute fuel, but I'm just too poor to go out and buy the quality stuff. Can I safely increase the number of drops per quart of water to make it stronger, since it's only 8-7-6?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

nobail

HEY NO...

brace yourself...

YOU HAVE way biggerproblems then NUTRIENT feeding... aplan that is 7 weeks old is NO fooking baby,, unless you are planting outdoors in NAPA california and it is MAY or JUNE..

an indoor plant with LITTLE or no lighting needs to be flowered in the first 10-20 days after germination..

I suspect that your plant is super duper stretched.. more than 1 inch between nodes.. correct..?

A plan that is vegged for 7 weeks under proper or even DECENT lightig will be 2-5 feet tall and so fooking thinck and bushy that it can not be seen through and could give 300 clones..

so.. what are you going to do...

I recommend taking 5-10 clones.. then let your poor lady grow for another 3-5 days after the cloning...

Then FLOWER.. make sure you give your PLANT 12 hours of UNINTERUPTED darkness very24 hours.. DO YOU GET THIS! and ALSO make sure it gets 12 hours of direct lght.. with a cfl being less than 1 inch from the foliage...


iloveyou

and if you have to feed.. go ahead and USE any fertilizer and dilute it to 1/5 the recommended dosage...

good luck and post a picture

iloveyou


ps - if you believe in prayer, you should stat praying foryor plant

Thanks Garden Knowm. I was quite surprised that you said the plants should be 2-5 ft tall by now. It's fall in Oregon, and the amount of light per day is only about 10 hours. I'm concerned by the look of all the pics of beautiful bushy plants, so I took your advice and snipped a few nodes and have them in a clone state now, floating in water with some plastic wrap on top of the container. You were 100% correct that the nodes were 1 inch or more apart, and the main stem is skinny. I feel so helpless... I want some bud! Thanks for your help. NoBail.

Can I really force flowering by limiting the plant to less than 12 hours of light? I'm wondering if a black plastic bag would do it.

lol.... just put your lights on a timer.... read everything knowm said hes smarter then us all

also remember a weed plant is still a plant and will grow. But what we are telling you here(like knome) is how to maximize your grow. be patient and do your best to remedy this and I am sure you will be fine


good luck~

Thanks for all the helpful information folks. I have a "High-Times" grow book and it says to induce flowering by giving the plants MORE than 12 hours of total darkness. I'm going with ~14 hours of total darkness to see what happens. It's autumn here and the days are getting shorter, but there's still too much ambient natural light to carry the plants to 12 hours darkness, so I'm using a black plastic garbage bag to cover them to provide >12 hours darkness. This is the first day I've done that, and I understand it will take 1-2 weeks before they begin to flower under these conditions. True or false? Comments?

sounds good


good luck and keep us posted~

humbolt, you have some nice plants can you start a thread so i can ask some questions? I want my plants to be small like that ..

Well... here are my two "underperforming" plants. They are the product of the only 2 seeds I could scavenge from a friend. I planted them about 8 weeks ago and put them in shock after about 2 weeks by soaking them in Miracle Grow. Major stoopid. I flushed and haven't been using MG ever since. The plants survived after a couple of weeks of non-vegetative growth... so these are death-row survivors. I'm going to continue with lots of TLC. I'm attempting to start flowering by putting them into ~14 hours of darkness and 10 hours light according to "High-Times" grow book on northern latitudes. Remember it's autumn here in Oregon, and we've already had a couple of freezes. I keep the plants indoors. Any comments based on appearance? They are only 10" and 6" respectively. - nobail from Orygun

Humboldt, If you were a "dumb ass" before you learned what you were doing wrong does that now make you a smart ass?

Humbolt I respect your experience and will stop trying to induce flowering until I get more vegetative growth. I'll just be patient I guess, but days are getting much shorter here (45th parallel, 1/2 way between equator and north pole). Theres already only about 10 hours of light a day, and I've only been giving the plants as much "window" light as I can. I have one of those curley-cue flourescent lightbulbs but stopped using it. I can't afford fancy lighting. Should I resume using the light bulb, or is it a waste of time?

Thanks but I'm not experienced by no means, I'm only sharing what helped me and what I've learned so far.

If you had already started the flowering process and then put it back to veg it is quite possible that you'll put them in shock witch could result in your plant turning herm, me .. from seed I wouldn't start flowering for at least a month, right now I'm pushing two months it may be two and a half months before I start flowering because I want them to get as big as they can get also I want to know the sex.

Theres already only about 10 hours of light a day, and I've only been giving the plants as much "window" light as I can. I have one of those curley-cue fluorescent light bulbs but stopped using it. I can't afford fancy lighting. Should I resume using the light bulb, or is it a waste of time?

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I'm not sure what you mean by curley-cue, if you are talking about an energy efficient compact fluorescent, then it would depend on the wattage, it would not be a waste of your time to use cfl's in fact you probably would be saving your plants by putting them under permanent light now, take them out of the window seal, the more light and the higher the watt is better.

Oops... too late. My two (and only) immature plants are flowering already. One is 7" tall, the other is 4" tall. I don't use any interior lighting. Both are in one gallon containers. I see VERY distinctive white pistils at the tops growing daily! I move these plants around the house every day to catch as much sunlight through windows as possible. I live in a northern latitude and daily sunshine is down to almost 11 hours. I've heard that the plants will grow 2-3 times bigger during the flowering stage. I'd like to move them to 5 gallon containers, but I don't want to induce shock. The root balls are small (2") since I transplanted them from babies, so I would think a 5 gal container would be huge compared to what they are in now. I realize that yeild will be small if I leave them where they are ... I just want to produce a couple of small buds for now, and apply my experience in the spring. In closing... MAN this skunk smells good.

TimBeeno said:

humbolt, you have some nice plants can you start a thread so i can ask some questions? I want my plants to be small like that ..

Click to expand...

I agree.. that light set up is FOOKING awesome.. I would love to watch these babies GROW...

If you start a thread and post pictures on a regular basis... I would love a pm with a link to your thread..

Did I mention, I love your pictures!!!

Well... here are the two distressed plants I've been talking about. Regardless their appearance, both appear healthy. Again, no interior lighting. I just rotate from window to window during the day. Notice the pretty flower growing on the left. The right has tiny pistils that aren't visible yet except under magnifying glass.

The left is one tall stalk with a nice top. I had to use a bamboo skewer to keep it straight because I'm afraid the weight will eventually exceed what the stem will support.

These are definately 2 different species. I don't know what they are except the right smells skunky and the left one with the flower smells of chlorophyll, no skunk.

I'm embarassed to post this shot because they look nothing like the other beautiful plants posted on this site, but I'm determined to get at least one small bud per plant. Next year I won't wait until August to germinate. Comments please?