First time grower, first post ever. Few questions?

[Traplife]

Hello everyone this is my first thread ever on any Cannabis forum, and i am also growing for the first time ever. Although, i did not go into this blind, i had done some extensive research and readings on forums like this one so im familiar with most terms.

so lets skip to what I got here
First off, im growing in my closet, no i dont live with my parents, i dont have any other room or place to put a tent i live in an apartment in downtown by the beach.
the space is about 3x3ft maybe a little more.
I purchased two clones of "Blue Hogs Breath" supposedly a sativa hybrid as claimed by the dispensary.
Ive had them for about 2 weeks now bought them on Nov 15th (pictured in rockwool), had them under a few CFL's my girlfriend happened to have a part of a AeroGarden indoor herb farm BS.
4 days ago i got a MarsHydro 600w LED panel with 120 5W LEDs, and they've been about 30" under that since 24/0 .

Theyre in 3gal pots with drainage, i used organic potting soil w/ no synthetic fertilizers, and i am using the Kyle Kushman "Vegamatrix" nutrient starter kit with each watering. so far about 1 liter a week give or take.

However as of yesterday, 1 day after their last watering with nutes, i noticed some of the larger leaves were starting to get the "claw" as caused my nitrogen toxticity i have read. I may have over measured the amount of "grow" liquid as i am still waiting for my more accurate syringes to come in the mail so i can measure by the .1ml. It doesnt look like overwatering to me, the leaves are a darker shade of green and only the tips are curving downward or sideways, however the newer top leaves seem to be fine.



okay done ranting, i probably sounded like an idiot somewhere in there. if anyone would care to give me some advice as what i should do or be doing or stop doing it would be much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[$bkbbudz$]

Welcome Aboard!

I have never heard of the nute system you are using so I cannot speak to it's effectiveness or shortcomings. In my experience though, regardless of the nutes, I always start at 1/4 strength and build as so....feed, water, water, feed, water, water, feed 1/2 strength, water, water, feed, water, water, feed 3/4 strength and so on.

The best suggestion I can offer is to read, study, research and then read some more.

 

[AfgooCBD]

What are the hangers for? Look good to me. Do you have a fan in there?

 

[dopeleader]

welcome to RIU,
I strongly advise you to buy a Nutrient Truncheon/PPM meter whatever you want it to be called, it will measure the strength of your nutrients into a more available reading rather than simply 6 TBsp or whatever you think you put in.
It would seem to me that you have perhaps overwatered a touch with some nutrient solution that is a touch strong.
If your soil is dry then water your plants, if the soil is still partly moist give it a few more hours.
Don't get sucked into thinking your plants needs daily watering, because a young plant wont guzzle litres per day without growing some serious height per day.
Also just look it up the ideal plant height from the LED lights as I do not know the OPTIMUM distance from the canopy for that variety of light, I do however know that even 2 inches further away or closer than the ''sweetspot'' and you could be adding too much intensity or losing as much as 50% of your potential footcandles (watts).

 

[jesus of Cannabis]

foil isnt a good idea and duct tape has something in the glue that makes it toxic to plants

plants look gr8, keepit up

 

[Traplife]

Welcome Aboard!

I have never heard of the nute system you are using so I cannot speak to it's effectiveness or shortcomings. In my experience though, regardless of the nutes, I always start at 1/4 strength and build as so....feed, water, water, feed, water, water, feed 1/2 strength, water, water, feed, water, water, feed 3/4 strength and so on.

The best suggestion I can offer is to read, study, research and then read some more.

Here is their website http://purelifeveganix.com/ I only bought it because a friend of mine who goes to Oaksterdam recommended it to me.

 

[Traplife]

What are the hangers for? Look good to me. Do you have a fan in there?

The hangers are my ghetto temporary way of keeping them growing straight lol. And yes i do have a small oscillating fan in there, thankfully the LEDs put out little to no heat.

 

[Traplife]

welcome to RIU,
I strongly advise you to buy a Nutrient Truncheon/PPM meter whatever you want it to be called, it will measure the strength of your nutrients into a more available reading rather than simply 6 TBsp or whatever you think you put in.
It would seem to me that you have perhaps overwatered a touch with some nutrient solution that is a touch strong.
If your soil is dry then water your plants, if the soil is still partly moist give it a few more hours.
Don't get sucked into thinking your plants needs daily watering, because a young plant wont guzzle litres per day without growing some serious height per day.
Also just look it up the ideal plant height from the LED lights as I do not know the OPTIMUM distance from the canopy for that variety of light, I do however know that even 2 inches further away or closer than the ''sweetspot'' and you could be adding too much intensity or losing as much as 50% of your potential footcandles (watts).

I will definitely look into buying one of those, this started out as a small experiment and has dramatically grown into this large project lol. Basically these "Veganics" nutrients come with a schedule on how many ml per liter of water to use based on the age of the plant veg or flower. http://purelifeveganix.com/nutrient-calculator/
I have been watering them roughly once a week, 1 liter of water + the nutes. i think i may have poured a little too much N a couple days ago causing the Nitrogen toxicity, if thats what it is for sure.

 

[dopeleader]

try less water more often, because if your nutrients are too strong once per week and your giving your plants a litre of water at a time its going to smash them about.
I only give my flowering plants about 600mls per feed.
I just checked the chart you have out, it does specifically have nitrogen bottles does it?
Surely its just a growth/bloom nutrient solution with a part A+b?

 

[Traplife]

try less water more often, because if your nutrients are too strong once per week and your giving your plants a litre of water at a time its going to smash them about.
I only give my flowering plants about 600mls per feed.
I just checked the chart you have out, it does specifically have nitrogen bottles does it?
Surely its just a growth/bloom nutrient solution with a part A+b?

Yes the bottle used mostly for the veg state called "grow" is 5-2-3
im pretty sure i probably just put too much in, the cylinders i have now only measure to the 1ml so my measurements were probably off

 

[dopeleader]

go to the chemist and get a baby plunger if you have nothing else, I use my daughters old Panadol syringe to measure my nutrients.
You cant specifically give a plant nitrogen Tox unless your nutrients are far too strong, because you arnt focusing the nitrogen on the plants its a balanced diet basically.
Take the info from the chart that you have and give them doses of half strength, if they don't show signs of nutrient deficiencies or slow growth there is no need to up to full strength nutes.
Funnily enough not a lot of people actually use full strength nutrients, because it often just isn't needed aslong as you keep an eye on what your doing.
Also try the lights at 8 inches from the tops of the plants, basically you want your lights as close to the tops of your plants without them burning or curling or anything.
If you watch your plants every few hours after adjusting the height you should be able to make sure you find the right height without doing MUCH damage, and even then the damage is repairable aslong as you don't leave it for a few days at the wrong height.

 

[dannyboy602]

You don't have "Claw" which is from too much N as you said. Claw looks like this

The rate you feed your plants may be for plants with well established root systems and that is the reason many plants will burn. Mature plants with established roots will fare better if you over feed.
Your plants looked pretty good to me. Tight internodes tells me you have adequate light. I see you have trimmed off some fan leaves. How come? Try not to unless they are in real bad shape.
Since you have limited space have you thought about a pruning method? If it were mine I would LST the shit out of those bad boys so as to keep them short and bushy. Bend, trim, bend and trim.
There's nothing wrong with synthetic fertilizers. Going all organic is not always possible. Considering you're in a closet (haha better you than me) you need all the help you can get. Fresh air is important for photosynthesis and so you need to replenish the CO2 in there with air intake and exhaust. The limited CO2 in the closet is used up quite fast so figure out a way to get stale air out and fresh air in.
Otherwise you're off to a good start. Hit me up with questions if you like, I'm always into helping out a new grower...growing is easy, fun and addictive, you'll see.

 

[Traplife]

try less water more often, because if your nutrients are too strong once per week and your giving your plants a litre of water at a time its going to smash them about.
I only give my flowering plants about 600mls per feed.
I just checked the chart you have out, it does specifically have nitrogen bottles does it?
Surely its just a growth/bloom nutrient solution with a part A+b?

 

[Traplife]

You don't have "Claw" which is from too much N as you said. Claw looks like this

The rate you feed your plants may be for plants with well established root systems and that is the reason many plants will burn. Mature plants with established roots will fare better if you over feed.
Your plants looked pretty good to me. Tight internodes tells me you have adequate light. I see you have trimmed off some fan leaves. How come? Try not to unless they are in real bad shape.
Since you have limited space have you thought about a pruning method? If it were mine I would LST the shit out of those bad boys so as to keep them short and bushy. Bend, trim, bend and trim.
There's nothing wrong with synthetic fertilizers. Going all organic is not always possible. Considering you're in a closet (haha better you than me) you need all the help you can get. Fresh air is important for photosynthesis and so you need to replenish the CO2 in there with air intake and exhaust. The limited CO2 in the closet is used up quite fast so figure out a way to get stale air out and fresh air in.
Otherwise you're off to a good start. Hit me up with questions if you like, I'm always into helping out a new grower...growing is easy, fun and addictive, you'll see.

Interesting, i thought it was the claw even if it was just the tip bending. I pruned a few leaves off because they were starting to turn yellow at the tips, curl, and block light to lower, newer leaves. Ive read on threads about pruning that at a certain point a leave maxes out and uses more potential than it produces, not so sure the strength behind that argument though. And this is a large two door sliding closet, one side of it is usually always open if not the side with the plants, i keep the temperature in my room pretty consistent, not being hard living off the california coast. But yeah i have a fan constantly blowing air into the closet

 

[Traplife]

better view of the setup

 

[Traplife]

Also if someone could recommend how much longer i veg before switching to 12/12 given the amount of room/light i have! thank you!

 

[dopeleader]

you got what 5-6ft above you?
Flip them at about 4-5 weeks veg it doesn't matter when you flip them really it only affects the size/yield.
You don't have enough space to pull a large amount of dope off them so veging for 7 weeks or so isn't required, I would say get them to around 60-80cm and then flip them to 12/12 that way they'll finish at around 4 ft, still gives you room to move inside the grow area.

 

[Traplife]

thought id update this, they arent curling anymore and getting taller everyday! thinking about switching to 12/12 in a week . anyone recommend a better way to support them than my coat hangers?