Why are these plants so freaking small?

TheKramer

TheKramer

Well-Known Member
Okay, so heres the deal. This is like my third grow from seeds I cultivated from some bagseed I got, and the first two grows there was no problem, it was actually pretty good shit. These plants are about a month and a half to 2 months old and are only 3 and 4 inches respectively. I have 5 120 watt CFLs going 20/4 at 5500k each. The temperature fluctuates from 75-85 degrees and I got two fans blowin on em at all times. I started nutes about a month or so ago, gradually tapering up to a healthy level as I had done with my previous grows.

But heres the kicker, I live in Boulder and Commute to Denver for work, and I left monday two weeks ago and little did Iknow there was a blizzard fast approaching, and I was snowed in until Friday, where there was no watering for my babies. Sadly when I got back, 3 of them had wilted to sad little stalks and the remaining two have yellowing bottom leaves, are droopy, and still stunted.

Now I know the droopiness and yellowing is most likely heat stress, but the things, these plants had been slow growers before the blizzard as well, and I did everything the same as my two previous successful grows, watering once every three days or so with the same nute (not miracle grow) and the same soil (scotts).

So I guess I just want someone to tell me WTF is going on and tell me what I have done to fuck these things up?

P.S. Sorry for the long post, but I want to give appropriate info for diagnosis... BTW, the bottles in the picture are the yeast/Sugar homemade C02 makers that I started maybe two weeks ago. SO, any suggestions?
 

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desy

desy

Well-Known Member
wats up kramer im a noob but do u usally mist ur plants and it looks like heat stress also use one fan just blowin over the top of ur plants and in a small grow space like that my m8 has about the same two work with and he puts a plate of cold water in there it helps keep temps down
 
joker152

joker152

Well-Known Member
get those babies under regular watering again and try transplanting one of them, my plants were all searching nuets and stopped growing when they couldnt get enough and became rootbound, looks almost exactly like what happened to me. what kind of soil are you using?
 
tone702

tone702

Well-Known Member
have you checked the ph maybe its to low because even at 7 ph which tap water and purified would be at plants still grow, some soils sold at stores have very low ph which makes soil too acidic
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
If your plants were slower growing than normal before you were snowed in and you did everything the same as you did before I would say that points to genetics, which can be a pain when dealing with bagseed. If they weren’t slower growing than normal before the event I would say check your pH and then be patient because they will do what they will do and if shocked it is rather difficult to overcome it before they are ready. There are products that will help speed up recovery but it will not happen overnight.

Sometimes people will do one thing different that can seem to be very minor to them, maybe so minor that they do not even think about it, and it can make a world of difference. Think hard and see if you can come up with something, anything, that you might have done different. If so fill us in and opinions will follow if that might be the cause and if so what might be done to overcome it.
 
TheKramer

TheKramer

Well-Known Member
Really good input so far. One of two things I have done different is I have never used c02 before, and the other is I have been running a bit hotter than I normally do, but I didn't think that 85 degrees would be too high for them
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
TheKramer said:
Really good input so far. One of two things I have done different is I have never used c02 before, and the other is I have been running a bit hotter than I normally do, but I didn't think that 85 degrees would be too high for them
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CO2 should be a benefit and not a hindrance so that should not be a factor in slow growth. 85 degrees is a bit warm, around 75 is what I find to be optimal.

If everything else has been done the exact same as in previous grows and it worked well before giving much faster growth I almost have to believe it is genetics.

I cannot say you have the perfect system by any means but comparing results is still a valid yardstick to use. It is not a comparison to what is best but instead to the best you receive from your setup and any radical alteration in results without any alteration in your setup/system would likely then be genetic in nature.

Again though at times changes can be made that are not thought about or not believed to possibly be a problem in the making. Normally I would grow in 7-gallon pots and used a thick heavy ceramic drip tray. One time I switched to 5-gallon pots and I did not have thick ceramic drip trays and did not feel like driving an hour to where I knew they could be purchased or ordering them online and waiting so I hit a local store and purchased some cheap thin plastic drip trays.

My plants grew slower than molasses running uphill in January and I could not understand why. I kept telling myself that nothing had changed, everything was done precisely the way it had been done before when my plants would take off faster than an Ethiopian who just heard there is a free all you can eat steak and lobster buffet in the neighboring village.

Later I thought and thought and thought and finally came up with what I believe was the difference/problem. I was growing in a close on the ground floor and the floor was cement covered with vinyl flooring. While standing in the room barefoot one day I thought, gee the floor is cold and that is when it hit me. I believe the cold floor was drawing off warmth from the pots through the thin plastic drip trays and when I used the thick heavy ceramic drip trays they would insulate the pots from the cold floor and since roots do not like cold soil that is likely why pervious grows grew fast and following grows grew fast but that one grow grew very slow.

I used quality genetics and every single other thing/step was the same as previous grows and following grows that had much better growth. The drip trays were the single difference and there is no other explanation to be found.

If my belief is accurate it is an example of how very minor changes can be made that seem to be unimportant and so unimportant that someone will believe that no changes have been made but they can still be enough to have a negative impact on plants.

So possibly there is still some very minor alteration that was made that has not come to mind yet and it may be the key factor. If not I say genetics is likely the cause.

In the future try buying some quality genetics online. There are many quality strains from quality breeders that are not expensive, less expensive than a bag of seedy pot that will not give you as high grade of genetics as you would receive purchasing your beans (unless you only purchase a VERY small amount of seedy pot and then the cost will likely be comparable), so it is really the best route to take.
 
winkdogg420

winkdogg420

Well-Known Member
just give them fresh ph'ed water with no nutes till new growth. if your re-using soil the nutes may be raped away so nothings left...but the nutes in the water should help?? if they dont grow in a week chuck'em and start fresh ones untill you get some vigerous sprouts so you know they will grow at a good pace..
 
TheKramer

TheKramer

Well-Known Member
winkdogg420 said:
just give them fresh ph'ed water with no nutes till new growth. if your re-using soil the nutes may be raped away so nothings left...but the nutes in the water should help?? if they dont grow in a week chuck'em and start fresh ones untill you get some vigerous sprouts so you know they will grow at a good pace..
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Thanks Ill give that a go. I also just rigged up a better temperature control method so im sittin at 75 degrees where normally I would be at like 84 right now. I never reuse soil so I don't think thats the problem. However, I will continue with watering with properly ph'd water and no nutes per your suggestion.

And to everyone else, thanks for your input so far, ill keep yall updated (if anyone still cares...)bongsmilie
 
winkdogg420

winkdogg420

Well-Known Member
i find when plants are small they really dont need much ,when i first got started i slowed down all my plants by over watering and over ferting ..as soon as i let them dry up and switched to good phed water they grew in one week what took then the whole first month!
 
S

sammybeardashing

Member
TheKramer said:
Okay, so heres the deal. This is like my third grow from seeds I cultivated from some bagseed I got, and the first two grows there was no problem, it was actually pretty good shit. These plants are about a month and a half to 2 months old and are only 3 and 4 inches respectively. I have 5 120 watt CFLs going 20/4 at 5500k each. The temperature fluctuates from 75-85 degrees and I got two fans blowin on em at all times. I started nutes about a month or so ago, gradually tapering up to a healthy level as I had done with my previous grows.

But heres the kicker, I live in Boulder and Commute to Denver for work, and I left monday two weeks ago and little did Iknow there was a blizzard fast approaching, and I was snowed in until Friday, where there was no watering for my babies. Sadly when I got back, 3 of them had wilted to sad little stalks and the remaining two have yellowing bottom leaves, are droopy, and still stunted.

Now I know the droopiness and yellowing is most likely heat stress, but the things, these plants had been slow growers before the blizzard as well, and I did everything the same as my two previous successful grows, watering once every three days or so with the same nute (not miracle grow) and the same soil (scotts).

So I guess I just want someone to tell me WTF is going on and tell me what I have done to fuck these things up?

P.S. Sorry for the long post, but I want to give appropriate info for diagnosis... BTW, the bottles in the picture are the yeast/Sugar homemade C02 makers that I started maybe two weeks ago. SO, any suggestions?
Click to expand...
well, one of the VERY PRIMARY THINGS that is OBVIOUS (i mean OBVIOUS) is that the CFLs are WAY too close to the plants. It already doesn't help that you were unable to tend to the plants for a bit, and it is known that having your lighting too close to a plant will stunt the growth... Your conditions seem to be optimal, but try to lower the intensity of the photosynthesis, it isn't helping...It is too much on the plant to have to produce that much glucose. You are supplying wind, water, light, and CO2 all in too high of a degree... Trust me when i say that your plants have experienced shock as well. The first time grow i had fucked up because i took my plant that had been living in a half shaded area to an open field, and the energy it took for the plant to reach homeostasis was too much for the plant to handle...
In short, raise the lights up higher (if its not too late), and perhaps the CO2 could be okay. Just use trial and error my friend () ()
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