Slow growing seedlings?

Hello all

I have 5 seedlings (just entering week 5) under constant light (125 envirolight and 90w LED triband) in my closet setup. The things is they seems to be growing very slowly and I'm probably being very impatient but wondered if there is anything in particular that could be causing them to grow slowly or if there's anything I could do to speed them up. Started using nutes 2 weeks ago, they're not overwatered, and look pretty healthy in all other respects and have good plentiful foliage.

The strain is THC bomb, which according to what I've read is a short plant anyway, but these are only about 6 inches yet, should I worry?

no thats perfectly normal this is the slowest hobby in the world. thats why its good to have sevaral strains/ages going at once.

Ahh thanks. This is my 1st attempt, hence my having to reap the beneift of all you lovely people's experience

These are my 2.5 weeks old plants.


There was nothing special with them - plain potting soil and a bit of compost for most of the time.
given plain tap water.

In another 2.5 weeks they should grow about x3 the size.

You can get them to grow much faster under optimum conditions but the FIRST things to take care of is:
1. temps. I was running around 32°C which is not ideal. you want around 26°C at this stage.
2. air cirulation and movement. they need to shake gently pretty much always.
3. Light. They should have enough and not too much.
4. Humidity. 60-80% is the goal for this stage. If needed - add a dome.
5. Enough root space.
6. Don't give them a reason to do problems like overfeeding.

Thanks so much. What would you consider to be too much light in a 1 metre by 1 metre closet for 5 plants?

Redmist said:

Thanks so much. What would you consider to be too much light in a 1 metre by 1 metre closet for 5 plants?

Click to expand...

2,000 watts HPS/MH would be pushing it, but 1,000 would be about perfect. I'd love to be running 1,000 watts per square meter.(especially with CO2) The number of plants, is irrelevant, it's the area of coverage that matters.(in reguards to your question)

I was just curious about your plants mcfonz, did you start from seeds or did you start with cuttings? Mine are about 2 weeks now, but I started from seeds and started them in jiffy pellets which I now took apart and have them in regular soil. They are doing much better in the few days since I took them out of those damn jiffy pellets. The biggest one is probably only 4 inches.

for a square meter I would use a 600W or a 1000W. If you grow TALL plants I'd get 2x600W while one is beneath the canopy.
Getting plants with a 600W closer than 5" is too much light. 7" with 1000W. 4" with a 400W.

MiracleStash, 14 are from seed and 2 are clones that were put in later than the seeds.
I've started in Jiffy as well and when roots popped I got them in soil. In the last few days I'm transplanting them to bigger pots.

This run I use the more expensive genetics (the 14 seeds are from subcool and the clones are subcools JTR and DinaFem Sweet Deep Grapefruit) and they do grow faster than some cheaper genetics I've tried.
Also, I know a thing or two (and not much more than that) about organic mixes and so far the plants in the picture suffered from no deficiency so far. The only issue they had in slight overheating and slightly rootbinding.

My first grow took a month to get to the same stage I'm at right now.

I love jiffies

how many sets of leaves do they have they should be pretty big at 5 weeks. once the fifth node is visable they enter vegitative growth and should be putting on a half to 2 inches a day.

Once a plant pops through the soil it should take about 1-3 to start taking off. I use Fox farm ocean forest or roots organic greenfields and distilled water for 1 week.

Below are pictures of my seedlings at 1 week. I find that after a week my plants under 24 hours of light almost grow a new set of leaves everyday. Of course practice makes perfect so that is the key. Keep your light as close to the plants as possible to maximize growth. Just place the light above them and kick back, watch a movie, and keep checking them. If you see slight heat stress move the light up 1 inch. As for watering... I always do a couple 2inch pokes around the top of the soil. If all pokes are dry, its time to water.

Good luck

Thanks to all for the info, may well need to invest in more lights I think! @ Lovemug, the 5th set are now visible and from the looks of things they did grow about half an inch last night, woo!

And here they are as of today.

Looking good!

Aw, thanks let's hope they stay nice and healthy....was thinking of taking them off constant light and 12/12-ing them next week so fingers crossed for some mega growth this week!

Just a quick recap, it looks like I was being over-anxious after all, mine are 4 weeks into flowering and are doing really well now. Thanks to all for the kind advice

Mine are almost 4 weeks into flowering as well

Cool stuff McFonz here are a couple of pics of my buds so far...