Shabby '13 - 233w

Hello all, this is my first grow on riu, third in total.. two of which never made it to harvest due to technical / apartment difficulties and overall general paranoia.

I sprouted 6 seeds (1.0) from random bags collected and 6 from seeds (2.0) that were from a previous grow. I kept them in the sprout house for about a week and then planted them in the little brown pots eventually pictured below. I started with 12, gave 4 away and a couple fell victims to my cats. I kept the strongest looking ones. That's my intro.
2ftx1ftx2ft space with height being adjustable.
Lights: 4x 42w 27k and on 24/0 as I am in school and working f/t. Also my timer never seems to work..?
They are watered, ph 6.5, every 5-7 days and have temps of 72-77. For now I have a clip fan blowing across the top and box fan blowing in the general direction.
Soil is generic topsoil and perlite.

Edit: They were showing some slow growth and slight yellowing so I waited it out and made the choice to give a light, light feeding of MG.. only high N I could get my hands on. I don't plan on using it again. Any suggestions on veg nutes are welcome. But the dose seems to have done the job for now.
Will post pictures asap.

The stretchy seedlings
About a week later..
1. Are the 3 of each seed kept, 2. are the 2.0s.

And some more on the way. Any input/advice is appreciated!

1.1, 1.2, 2.1 as of today. Side and top of each with a setup shot - second set of lights.
View attachment 2791074View attachment 2791075View attachment 2791076View attachment 2791077View attachment 2791078View attachment 2791080View attachment 2791082

So I've decided to try my hand at topping for the first time. Pics are 1.1, 1.2, 2.1. I plan on topping either of the 1.0s once more for the hell of it. Gotta learn somehow.

Click to expand...

This should be day 20 from the first potting.

Day 21:

Topped the three yesterday. Set the timer for lights out 12-6am. Woke up at noon and the lights were still off. Can anyone suggest a reliable timer? I've had issues with this one in the past. Woods one socket 24hr pin timer. Thanks, pals!

The middle plant looks a bit yellow. Maybe N deficiency. Try a Noma timer. But I really think you just have a faulty one. I've even bought at $ store with no issues.

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Gave them a low first dose of nutes a few days ago as a precaution. The middle plant has been slightly yellow for over a week now and has had some slow growth compared with the others. As for the timer, I'll definitely pick a new one up. Going west for a week on vacation sooo it'll have to wait. Thanks bud!

So I returned from my trip to find some seriously ratty looking babes. Pics incoming. Stretched, really yellow leaves, some dead. Truly a sad situation. But alas, I've been giving them 100% attention and an almost full dose of high N nutes and they seemed to have sprung back. I also trimmed some of the hopeless fan leaves.

Also, made the switch 4 days ago. Fun times.

hey sauce, how close do you have your lights to your plants?

also do you have a way of measuring humidity?

Herro Fogo, I have them at max 1 inch away from the plants (norm is closer) but I got my roommate to gardensit while I was away. She works all the time too so she upped the lights to be on the safe side and I think that's what caused the stretch. I used to have a hygrometer but it was lost in numerous moves. When I did have it (same setup) it was always sitting around 40% so I assumed it would still be around the same. It's on the 'list.'

In other news, my favourite plant is, or was, a man. Usually have 3-4 going into flower and the healthiest, most vigorous plant is always the male. Needless to say, balls were cut at the root and I'm down to two.

Also just gave the soon-to-be ladies a nice drink. I'm sure I'll have pics eventually. As always, tips are appreciated.

I'm thinking I might need to transplant soon.. possibly pot-bound happening. Believe it or not, they're actually looking a lot healthier than when I got back.


As always, feedback is welcome. Also, cracked 5 more seeds in case these two frig off hard. That is all.

Good news! I've got two ladies now

Sorry for the poor quality pictures - best I can do.

They're still not 100%. As a precaution, I gave them a good flush about a week ago and am currently snooping around shoppes for some decent blooming nutes. That's pretty much it.

Day 5 or 6 of 12/12.

nice recovery!

Thanks, md! The girls are coming along -- slowly but surely. Probably going to pick up some buckets from work this weekend to do a final transplant. Shouldn't stress them out too much at this point right?

So I've been reading up on deficiencies and whatnot over the past week or so. I think the issue has been narrowed down to a deficiency of boron, which in turn leads to either ph, nitrogen or potassium being off. So I ph'd at 6.5, gave a half strength dose of 22-10-14. Fingers crossed.

<<The possibly boron issue>>I've seen worse and I've seen better haI have x3 40w and a couple 23w as side lighting - moved as the light was blinding myself and my camera

And the worst guard dog ever. >>

doesn't look terrible for all the stress they've been through lol. good work bringing them back man!

haha thanks! as i've said before, hopefully i've fixed the problem and they start to get back to normal within the next week or so. other news, picked up some rooting powder tonight.. going to try my hand at taking some clones.

It seems that that dose did the trick. Both are just shy of that beauty shade of green. Pics at some point.. possibly.

from the top
lady one
lady two
both plants' fatter tops.. reinforced the ties with screws in the sides of the pots as these shoots kept popping. Going to have to tie down again today. Lastly, starting to see a wee bit of frosting; key word 'wee'. Over and out.