Question about a Porch Light and Vegging

Hey I'm new to the forum and this is actually my first grow so I will probably end up asking plenty of seemingly stupid questions, but here goes nothing.

My plant has been growing for a while, but compared to what I've seen online it seems to be lacking major growth. I wonder if maybe it has to do with the amount of light it's getting. I try to keep it in direct sunlight from 10am to at least 6pm. I have a lot of trees on the property so it requires me to move the plants container around quite a bit. I'm wondering if I move my plant under a porch light at night if it would encourage more growth by simulating light even while it's dark. My main concern is making sure it gets light. Especially because there are rare occasions when I have to keep it in the dark for a day sometimes two (I had a couple bad rain storms). My question is, will the porch light have any effect at all? Are there negative effects to it? And after 5 weeks, shouldn't my plant be much bigger by now? (It's about 6 or 7 inches). I'm afraid that maybe I screwed up somewhere along the lines and it's too late to fix it. And yes I made the mistake of watering too often and have since changed my methods.

Just too add also. Sorry if this turned out to be a loaded question, I have strange damage on one of my leaves. I suspect it may be spider mites. Can anyone confirm this?

Hey my friend,

Could you elaborate a bit more on your growing information? It's kind of hard to tell what exactly is going on if we do not have ample info. The porch light will not be much help, it's nothing compared to natural sunlight. It will probably be detrimental if anything to your plant. Get rid of the terracotta pot, use a light colored plastic pot. She looks a little dry. Again, need more information, is she an auto? A photoperiod? Or even a female???? She does look small but has nice color.

Hope this helps.

Sherman420

It's about normal size for a 5 week seedling. IMHO you should of started it earlier. The porch light will not increase growth but if directly under it and the light is strong enough it will keep it awake so it won't go into flowering. the worst thing you have done is keeping it in 24 hrs of dark for a couple of days at a time. It looks like it could use a little bit of food too.
your leaf damage is not mites but maybe a caterpillar or a bug. get some safer garden spray.

What kind of soil are you using?

It's difficult to answer those questions only because I had gotten the seed from a bag I purchased. It was very good bud and I was told it was Blue Dream. I figured it isn't often that you find a seed in good bud so I germinated it and it planted it.

My soil is relatively organic, I use half and half miracle grow and top soil from my own yard that has been composted with all types of raw vegetable pulp from my juicer. I had very little preparation time before I planted, as I was already a bit off schedule when I planted it (June 13). I was also warned about the terracotta pot from someone else so I have transplanted it to a plastic pot since then.

Next year I'll be much more prepared, but I would still like to see this grow through to the end. I'm looking at it as a learning experience mostly for next grow season.

Thanks for all of the info so far also, I really appreciate it.

I did pick up Natria insecticidal soap. It's a pre-diluted spray that is supposed to be safe even up until the day of harvest according to the bottle. What are you guys using for pest control?

Bt and spinosad for caterpillars. Neem oil for spidermites and pretty much everything else. I use captain jack's deadbug brew for spider mites too though, which is a product containing spinosad.