URGENT!! Correct light position?

I have 4 auto flower and 1 regular seedlings in 5 gallon pots, growing inside my 4x4x7 foot grow tent (I'll be moving the regular plant in and out of the tent during flowering). I have a six in fan connected to the bottom left side of the tent that brings air from the outside, into the tent. Another six inch fan is on the right side of my tent toward the top, blowing air out of the tent and into my room. One eight inch clip-on fan is inside the tent blowing air onto the seedlings. My lighting consists of a 600w MH with just a regular reflector hood. I'm currently 9 days into my first grow (regular seed started around 4 days ago) and have already had a plethora of problems. Recently some seedlings started curling up on the tips of the leaves due to heat stress. I'm a total noob and am unsure on how to position my light to get the full potential without cooking my poor seedlings. The tent itself is always kept between 72-78°F, so I know it's heat stress that is affecting the seedlings due to the bulb being too close. At the beginning, the light was too far away and the seedlings started falling. The stems on most of the seedlings are still pretty poor. They got MUCH better than they were a few days ago (two were laying directly on the floor at one point) but they haven't gotten any better since. So my question is, can someone tell me a good position for my 5 gallon pots and light? (The light hangs on a clip that can be moved to anywhere in the tent)I mostly only care about the 4 autoflower seedlings, the regular seed is second priority and should be getting less light than the autoflowers (although I'll probably setup a couple little cfl's for it). An example for what I'm looking for would be something along the lines of, "place the four pots in a square, blank inches apart from each other. Place the bulb blank inches from each plant." Also, I noticed that most of the light comes from the middle of the bulb. Does that by any chance make it warmer toward the middle than it does on the ends?


I know it's gonna come up, I understand that the seedlings don't look healthy. As I said, they've already been through a ton of shit they starting out with terrible stems, then the leaves went haywire. For about the first 3 days I was overwatering (again...noob status) and some leaves started dropping dropping down. I watered again at around day four (which was still too early, I'm retarded) and now I havent watered for almost a full four days and the soil is just about dry. I watered one that seemed the driest this morning to make sure it was ok to water again, which was about 12 hours ago. Part of me was hoping I was wrong and underwatering was actually the problem, but unfortunately there's been little to no improvement of the freshly watered seedling's health since this morning. I have no idea what's wrong with them, my guess is it's a combonation of things causing the problems but I also thought it was a good idea give them a shit of of water so....

Basically, some leaves point up, some down, no discoloration as far as I can tell, two seedling have a combined total of 3 leaves with spots on them (very small, shown in pictures that have my hand in them), some stems are good, some stems are bad, and to top it all off the regular seed has a reddish maybe purple stem. I work 70 hours a week and have spent all free time/breaks/lunches scavenging forums, grow guides, and videos for possible solutions. It is INCREDIBLY important that this grow pulls through so I've been just as stressed as my seedlings. For around the first days I couldn't even stay asleep for more than an hour without being worried enough to get out of bed and check on the temp and overall conditions of the seedlings. If anyone had any idea on what this could be, Id love to know, but seeing as I've already posted numerous threads on multiple websites asking about the symptoms my seedling are displaying and haven't gotten any solid leads/solutions.

Everything I'm using includes:

4x4x7 ft grow tent
Two six inch duct fans
One 8 inch clip on fan
600w MH (connected to timer)
Fox farm soil, 20% perlite
5 gallon buckets
Thermometer, moisture meter, ph meter
Feminized Autoflowers: (2) White Widow, (1) Pinapple Express, (1) Anastasia
Photoperiod: Sour Diesel or Nicole Kush X Moroccan (accidentally mixed up the seeds)

Ive searched forums a ton and see so many threads with great responses but I never seem to get more than a couple responses on my threads (many of which are useless like, "too much light, good luck"). I know you guys are out there and surely some of you might have an idea so PLEASE, if you have any possible solutions, take a moment or two to write them down. I'm desperate, stressed out, tired, and clueless. I'd like to take this moment to apologize for writing this so terribly, I don't talk too well when I'm high...and I'm always high...so I guess I just don't talk well.Thank you SO MUCH for your time, and any help is MUCH appreciated!

I seen that paperclip b4?

to my blog: https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/12-week-grow-sceneario-by-jorge-cervantas.30164/

Um,,,You got drain holes in those buckets?

If not, you'll be overwatering soon.......

Dr. Who said:

Um,,,You got drain holes in those buckets?

If not, you'll be overwatering soon.......

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Yes, I have drain holes on the bottom of every bucket. Drainage definitely isn't an issue either.

David Fisk said:

Yes, I have drain holes on the bottom of every bucket. Drainage definitely isn't an issue either.

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why are the buckets so big ? its easer to take care of plant if the are in the right size pot for the plant

The plants with more curl...are they closer to the fan? You want a gentle breeze.

to me it looks like they are having root oxygen problems, is the soil mixture dense? also could be over watering , kinda looks drowned.

Thanks for all the responses! I'll try and answer all the questions in this one post. The buckets are so big because they are auotflower seeds which are not supposed to be transplanted. The fan is damaging the plants either. Only enough, the dropping leaves don't seems to have much of a pattern. Different seedlings are drooping on different sides of the tent, none are at an equal level of severity, and I don't recognize any pattern of drooping leaves on particular sides of the tent. And as I said in the original post, they weren't watered for four days which was when 1-2 inches deep was dry. This morning I noticed that the Pineapple Express had some leaf tips turning orange, any ideas?

David Fisk said:

View attachment 3920449 View attachment 3920447 Thanks for all the responses! I'll try and answer all the questions in this one post. The buckets are so big because they are auotflower seeds which are not supposed to be transplanted. The fan is damaging the plants either. Only enough, the dropping leaves don't seems to have much of a pattern. Different seedlings are drooping on different sides of the tent, none are at an equal level of severity, and I don't recognize any pattern of drooping leaves on particular sides of the tent. And as I said in the original post, they weren't watered for four days which was when 1-2 inches deep was dry. This morning I noticed that the Pineapple Express had some leaf tips turning orange, any ideas?

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soil too hot, looks like a burn.

Yodaweed said:

soil too hot, looks like a burn.

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Are you sure? My soil meter says its 80°f. I'm mean, that's high but that doesn't seam like it's enough. Still, I thought the same thing this morning and raised it a little bit. The bulb itself is 12 inches from the highest point of each seedling. When I raise it more they start stretching and dropping.

David Fisk said:

Are you sure? My soil meter says its 80°f. I'm mean, that's high but that doesn't seam like it's enough. Still, I thought the same thing this morning and raised it a little bit. The bulb itself is 12 inches from the highest point of each seedling. When I raise it more they start stretching and dropping.

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That's not what i mean by hot, in gardening terms hot means it is too rich in nutrients, too much nutrients will burn the plants.

Oh, my bad. I haven't added any nutrients to the soil. The grow medium is made up of 80% Ocean Forest soil and 20% organic perlite. I heard great reviews from fox farm, are you sure nutrient burn is causing it trouble? And if so, how can I fix it? And could that be why the other plants have such odd behaviors as well?

David Fisk said:

Oh, my bad. I haven't added any nutrients to the soil. The grow medium is made up of 80% Ocean Forest soil and 20% organic perlite. I heard great reviews from fox farm, are you sure nutrient burn is causing it trouble? And if so, how can I fix it? And could that be why the other plants have such odd behaviors as well?

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fox farm kinda known for burning seedlings, that could be your problem right there. As for fixing it, my advice is to just let it run it's course, if you start flushing you gonna kill it , pretty sure theres some time release crap in that fox farm so when its flushed its all released and your plant burns bad. I'd just keep giving those a little water every couple of days and keep an eye on them, make sure you don't give any fertilizers or they might burn up bad.

Ok, thank you so much! How long would you recommend until I start using fertilizer? Or should just just not use any at all this grow? And as for watering, could you give me an amount of water I should use on each one? Like "x" amount of cups. And should I water around the entire pot or just the center since it's so big?

David Fisk said:

Ok, thank you so much! How long would you recommend until I start using fertilizer? Or should just just not use any at all this grow? And as for watering, could you give me an amount of water I should use on each one? Like "x" amount of cups. And should I water around the entire pot or just the center since it's so big?

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Ok so to tell if your soil is dry, stick your finger into it, about 1 inch in, if it feels dry , water it, if it feels wet, wait longer, plants that size all them probably use a gallon or less of water combined, i'd check every 2-3 days to see if they are dry. Do not use fertilizers for 8 weeks, or until some of the leafs fade a bit.

As for watering...try to start water at the base of the plant and around it, wait till it absorbs the water then give it a little more, if it comes out the holes in the bottom stop and clean up the extra.

Also how high is your light above the plants? It should be 10-12 inches away when they are that young they don't need much light.

Ok, thank you so much. Do you think this is the cause for my other seedling looking so shitty as well? It's growing far slower than others and the wilting is slowly getting worse. His leaves are all over the place, some up, some down, some bent in the middle, some bent on the sides, some bent down at a sharp angle.

Yodaweed said:

Ok so to tell if your soil is dry, stick your finger into it, about 1 inch in, if it feels dry , water it, if it feels wet, wait longer, plants that size all them probably use a gallon or less of water combined, i'd check every 2-3 days to see if they are dry. Do not use fertilizers for 8 weeks, or until some of the leafs fade a bit.

As for watering...try to start water at the base of the plant and around it, wait till it absorbs the water then give it a little more, if it comes out the holes in the bottom stop and clean up the extra.

Also how high is your light above the plants? It should be 10-12 inches away when they are that young they don't need much light.

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And the bulb is 12 inches away from the highest point of each seedling.

David Fisk said:

View attachment 3920480 Ok, thank you so much. Do you think this is the cause for my other seedling looking so shitty as well? It's growing far slower than others and the wilting is slowly getting worse. His leaves are all over the place, some up, some down, some bent in the middle, some bent on the sides, some bent down at a sharp angle. View attachment 3920479

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not sure but it could be , i don't use fox farm products but i have heard they can be hot on seeds.

Start with ferts after week too. Maybe just use Alaska Fish Emulsion for the first couple feedings. It's 5-1-1. Not strong enough to burn your ladies at all, especially if you cut the dose a bit. Plus, it's chock full of good stuff for your plants, besides N-P-K.

If you wait to start with the ferts, those autos will suffer. Think about it, you will be starting flower soon. You should try to maximize that stretch as much as possible, and how are you going to do that when your medium is half of what it was when it was a baby lol? Same with the building of buds. Makes no sense to wait until you have a problem, just to fix it. Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Also, I have popped many seeds in OF and never seen burn. It may be strain dependent though.

David Fisk said:

Ok, thank you so much! How long would you recommend until I start using fertilizer? Or should just just not use any at all this grow? And as for watering, could you give me an amount of water I should use on each one? Like "x" amount of cups. And should I water around the entire pot or just the center since it's so big?

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i would try to only give the plant the water it needs as you want it to compleetly dry off befor watering again. water befor feeding and always use less then what is said on directions. https://www.alchimiaweb.com/blogen/water-marijuana-plants-soil/