What could be wrong with my plants?

I've had a bunch of plants growing for a little over two weeks now and I'm a complete noob. We started out with buying some mylar and raising the seedlings in 16 oz red party cups inside plastic containers under CFLs. Just yesterday we finally got our 400 watt HPS and the plants have been under that in a closet ever since (it is vented about as well as we can get it without messing up our apartment too much, and is hanging right around 83-85 degrees F).

I'm quite hopeful the plants will start to take off while under the HPS but I still wanted to throw a pic up of one of our plants to get your thoughts. After checking the GrowFAQ I'm pretty sure I've been over watering them.

This is the BIGGEST plant we have after over 2 weeks planted. We just started moving them into larger pots today. I am not happy with the growth at this point. PH is about 6.8.

What do you think, is it over watering?

kinda of a nasty lookin pic mabbe you could post a new one...how often did you water..

By the way I have a moisture meter. It was just a real cheapo one from home depot. I only water them when the meter says to but I believe theres a good chance I have been giving them too much considering they have been in such small cups...

well ease back on the water an see what happen's....i water when the plant's soil is mostly dry an the plant container is lighter than when wter'd

I think you have to big of a light for being a noob. Wait until your ready to flower before breaking out that bad boy. I like flourescents during veg. buy the moisture meter like the other guy said 2.

Hydro is easier.

ha...soil is better an easier....soil has a better taste...i say get some time down with that hps an start some more plants..grow 4-10 plants every couple months

your smoking something other than marijuana if you think soil is easier.

It's easier if you have the right equipment. I can get my nutes down to an exact ppm, and ph to a thousandth of a decimal. Can you do that?

SmokerE said:

your smoking something other than marijuana if you think soil is easier.

Click to expand...

couldn't have said it better myself

Take that stem away from the man and give him a bowl.

hydro has to many problems assostied with it...i habe nothing but soil an have very very minamal problems...i guess it's all in the teqnique..an even if it wasn't easier...soil still has better flavor...

Ok here is a higher resolution pic. As you can see the leaves are very droopy and the plant isn't as bushy as other 2-weekers I have seen at this site. The yellowness is a bit of nute burn i believe but it has almost disappeared since about 5-7 days ago.

I have read a lot of comments about how much easier hydro is however I don't have enough free cash to invest in the equipment right now, I will probably try it for my next grow.

Under the right growing conditions "maybe" yours tastes better. I only would believe this to be "maybe" true if you plants showed no signs of stress or nute burn, then maybe, just maybe I would concede. Then again you'd have to give me a bud to smoke for me to truly believe. It's cool though, once your done smoking what you got from your crop, i'll still be burning since I yielded more.

how close is that plant to the light..what kind of venting do you use..looks like the plant might be overheated..

its not hard to have a grow opp with little to no problems...the rule i live by is less is more when it comes to my nutes...so i dont worry of nute burn an since i use a mostly soilless medium so i dont worry of constant ph....also if something was to happen if i need to break down my opp...it would be alot faster an easier for my soil opp to be taken down rather than your hydro opp...

Down the toilet! What you gonna do with all that dirt?

the HPS is about 20.5 inches away from the top of the plant. there are 3 fairly large fans in the room on full power circulating the air thru the closet. the door stays open 24/7.

The only time it gets hot in there is when we are running the dryer while the light is on (its also our laundry room). The HIGHEST temp i have recorded since we have put them in there (which was yesterday) was 88.6, although it might have been hotter than that while they were in the boxes.