PLANTS ARE GROWING SLOWLY, need help to troubleshoot the problem. (First Grow)

Hey guys, BlairWitch here trying to figure out whymyplantsaregrowing as slow as they are.

I have 2 WWxBB that I've had growing indoors for about 1.7 months and they're only about 6 inches tall! They look very healthy to me but the grow pace is what's concerning me. They're just starting their 4 major nodes now.

I'm using 4x75 watt fluorescent grow lights -
Lights of America 24" Fluorescent Grow Light Fixture: Decor : Walmart.com
Keeping myplants about 3 inches away from the lights. Somy wattage is at about 300 right now. I just don't know if I should get a different type of light?

FoxFarms Ocean Forest soil. The pH for the soil is a steady 5.8

Nutrientsare from K-Gro 24-8-12 something of that nature for npk ratio. Couldn't find any information about it online. I usually only feed myplants when the soil becomes close to completely dry.

I use a large fan in the grow room from time. The air temperture is a steady 65-70 degrees. Humidity has been about 45-55. Not sure if the humidity is too low?
Haven't really run into any problems that I can think of that would put my plants into shock. Every now and then I put them in the window sill to soak up the sun and they love it.
Here's some pictures of them. I've noticed small brown spots occuring on the green potted plant. Both of their starter leaves on the bottom have had these small brown spots on the leaves since they were small seedlings. I was wondering about these? Are they from cracking out of their seeds?

Your temps are a little cool. They are pretty underdeveloped for their age. Your mediums ph seems a little low. Maybe introduce a little lime in your mix. If your running fluoros you will be bummed out at the end. Yield won't be there. If you can keep the lights an inch or two away from the tops it will help. They look pretty good though! Maybe upgrade and get yourself a nice 400 watt setup. I've seen them for under 300. Good luck.

pH for the soil is a steady 5.8- Balance some new soil to the proper ph level for soil. Do a transplant into a bigger plantpot. Attempting to rebalance soil with the plant growing in it may place your plants at risk.

You are right about the transplant with some ammended soil. They seem pretty small for a transplant out of the pot they're in. I've added lime mixed with water at a very low dose over a few waterings and had no issues. But ,your idea of a balanced new medium is right on.

I know I keep my hydro water between 65-69f. just out of curiousity, what is the temps of your soils. I keep my moms (hydro) between 65-69f (room and water) and they do fine. With my moms I use either two 150's or one 400 to promote rapid growth in my moms so I get nice long thick shoots. Of course they are moms so the flouros are on twenty-four seven. I have never tried budding with flouros but if any of this info is helpful you're welcome to it. Hey Zack, you're a pretty smart guy

Thanks man. Pretty new to indoors but, have over 30 years doing the outdoor thing. Your pretty smart yourself.

Thanks everyone for your help, I appreciate it very much! I will introduce lime into my bigger pots when they're big enough to transplant. I also am going to get a 400 watt light as soon as I can. For the small room they're in, that light will surely raise the temps in the room. I will give another update on them when I get my light going. Thanks again everyone!

Found an easy way to obtain lime for my soil. We have an old rock quarry in my town where I used to fish at with huge piles of perfectly ground up limestone. They've filled out quite a bit since I last posted and I sense that they will need a transplant soon. They're still looking pretty healthy too. I topped them both about a week after I last posted, hoping they will become bushier with more growth. I'm also starting to get things set up for my 400watt light and will have one shortly, so I'm really excited When I go to transplant them about what ratio of soil to lime should I put in the soil?

I use 1 tsp per gallon of soil. The sooner you mix up your soil the better the results.

Alright, I finally got my 400 watt light now. It's working and looking great. Also transplanted my plants into bigger containers with lime (that is intended for gardening) not the stuff I was talking about before. I noticed as I was transplanting them that they were in fact root bound. I'm going to upload pictures of the plants later probably just so you get an idea of how different they look from before. I'm excited to see the difference with the new light and soil within a couple weeks.

Sounds good post some pics.

Sorry guys it's been a busy past few weeks. Have a bunch of wedding stuff going on. I'm posting pictures of what my plants looked like a week after I transplanted them. I also decided that it would be a good idea to start flowering them a couple weeks after that because of the space I'm working with. Decided to scrog them too to help with that. The pH in the soil didn't change a whole lot but it's more stable now. At about 6.0 pH or a little higher. Temps are about 80. I also have a picture of what they're currently looking like 2 weeks into flowering. Don't have too many detailed pictures so if you want more let me know. Let me know what you think and how you think they're progressing.

BlairWitch said:

Sorry guys it's been a busy past few weeks. Have a bunch of wedding stuff going on. I'm posting pictures of what my plants looked like a week after I transplanted them. I also decided that it would be a good idea to start flowering them a couple weeks after that because of the space I'm working with. Decided to scrog them too to help with that. The pH in the soil didn't change a whole lot but it's more stable now. At about 6.0 pH or a little higher. Temps are about 80. I also have a picture of what they're currently looking like 2 weeks into flowering. Don't have too many detailed pictures so if you want more let me know. Let me know what you think and how you think they're progressing.

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They look A LOT better. Nice going man. How big are those pots?

Thanks Gosh, I really am not too sure how big the pots are. I'd say they're about 12 inches in diameter and about 12 inches deep.

Those plants do look good. Good job getting them going. From the diameter of your pots that you gave us I would say you have close to 3 gallon pots. That was the size of the pots I used. Any ways can't wait to see the final outcome of your grow. Please keep us posted and lots and lots of pics too please.

ive heard of people falling in love with there plants... but a wedding>.< thats gonna make it hard to knock them down if a couple months


plants look great keep it up

Just a quick little update. Here are my plants after their 3rd week of flowering. Not much of a change to their environment since the last update. I'd like to apologize for the HPS pictures and hope they don't annoy anyone! If anyone was wondering the white spots on the leaves are from nutrients drying on the leaves due to my lazy watering technique I'd also like to thank everyone for their kind words and I'm really really glad I asked for help here! This community is one of the greatest I've seen online and everyone here just seems so informed/very smart.

very nice man i just fliped mine they were about 2ft tall about how much did yours stretch i still got like 3 feet of space but i was just wondering. and how do you like it sofar. mines been easy only gave nutes once and that was one 2 weeks after transplanting and 1 day before i switched to flower. very low doseage.

You said your nutes were 24-8-12 npk. An even 1-1-1 lineup would be better for veg unless you have grown these before and know them to be N gobblers

Mine really haven't stretched much but I'm thinking it's because I have them under the screen. I don't know though. I'm new to this all so I don't know what to expect lol. My nutrients are pretty weak I think and I don't know if they're good for pot plants. I found some fox farms nutrients from a local greenhouse recently so I think in my next grow I'm going to be using those. I don't do a very strong dosage of the stuff I have now. I'm glad they haven't stretched a whole lot since I don't have much more space but I'll be better prepared for the next grow for that matter. I like how they're doing right now compared to what they were like before though. Since I have better lighting now too it will be a lot different and will probably take less time during veg. I'm a patient person so it's alright But like I said this is my first grow and I have learned quite a bit from it. I do agree that I need to change my nutrients though.