Do my young plants look healthy ( with pictures! ) ? Feedback requested!

Hey everyone, this is my first post on Rollitup.com.
I've been lurking for a while now and have learned a ton from all the journals and posts I've read. I am really grateful for the wealth of knowledge that is available on this site

This is my first grow.

My set up:
4x 23W 6500k CFL (bulbs are about 1-3 inches away from the plants)
1x Northern lights special (regular)
1x California special (regular)
1x Swiss cheese (regular)
Floral premium potting mix (free of ferts, ph of aprox 5-6.3) Contains Humus, sphagnum moss, perlite, lime. (I believe it is a 'local' brand available here)
Temperature is approximately 22-27C (71.6 - 80.6 f) and i have a fan providing a gentle breeze to help my plants grow strong and cool things down a bit.
I haven't started nutrients yet.

My plants are currently 12 days old from seed.

I was wondering if you guys think my young plants look healthy? Are they the size they should be at this stage? I have a feeling I'm just being paranoid and overly eager





northern lights: (one of the first leaves was burnt because of it touching the CFL by accident, but the plant has successfully recovered since!)
Is this plant too limp?



Swiss cheese:
Is this plant too small for being 12 days old/ too pale / do the leaves look healthy?


California special:

Do the leaves look healthy?



Thanks for all the help and feedback. I really appreciate it

- sailormoon

are they that light or is it just the cam to me it looks like there staying wet to long are you letting the soil dry before you water

grorite said:

are they that light or is it just the cam

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It's hard to tell what you're seeing because different computer monitors have different color calibration.. The Swiss Cheese and California Special are both light-greenish which has me very worried. I am not noticing any yellowing though. What are your thoughts?

Also, I think it's easier to see the color difference in the first photo of the three because the Northern lights is noticeably darker in my opinion.

i think you may be watering to much but wait for more answers im on my first grow 2day is second day flowering

I doubt it's from over watering because I stuck my finger in the soil yesterday and noticed the top 1.5 inches were bone dry. I gave them a good watering last night with dechlorinated tap water (I use seachem Prime liquid that I use for my planted aquarium). I haven't noticed any changes since (maybe too soon to tell, it's been about 12 hrs lol)

Good luck with your grow Your plants look awesome!

They look healthy to me man GJ +Rep

Here are mine at that age



Oh wait you said 12 days

Here are mine at 12 days after coming up



So Compared to my first grow I say they are growing absolutely fine

Thanks man! Means a lot

Do you think I should start fertilizing if they're pale-ish green like that?

I would, With like a 1/4 strength nute, Preferably high in Nitrogen. Remember Start very very low...After about a week or 5 days everything seems well and they look a little better, bump it up a smidge, That's what I like to do. I slowly push my plants to their limit. You'll notice a big rush in growth when you hit their sweet spot and they get plenty of nitrogen.

Also a rooting additive always help for maximum growth potential. You cant grow big plants without big roots

Love the pics! Your plant looks so lush!

Thanks for the advice I just watered them yesterday so I think I'll wait until the next watering to administer nutes. I am going to be using Schultz liquid plant food which is 10-15-10 for the veg stage.
What do you think about waiting that long?

I'd wait a week on nutes..plus they will have new soil to use at transplant about then. What nutes do you plan? Start weak when you do and see how they react. Mine are good until transplant but thats my soil..not yours. Sailormoon huh..I hope your a chick as my kid used to watch that..lol edit: I think that nute has the wrong balance..I go for N dominate for veg. oh and welcome

Hey everyone,

Update on the plants today. Things are looking like they might be slowly getting worse.
Here are some 'close-up' photos. I am going to be testing the ph of my soil based on water run off next watering.

I was thinking of doing some VERY low-dose foliar feeding. Thoughts?
I'm not sure how to proceed because these symptoms seem like they could be a variety of deficiencies and I don't want to kill my plants by unnecessarily stressing them.

Swiss cheese with some strange coloration on the young leaves and tips




California special with some slight yellowing on the younger leaves and pale green leaves




Northern Lights Special looking limp. First large leaf yellowing some more.



Family photo!


I would love some feedback, i don't know what to do!

watch yer water................

scroglodyte said:

watch yer water................

Click to expand...

In terms of ph or frequency of watering?


My tap water has a high ph of 7.6 (after testing it). Could this be causing the problems?

I just tested the runoff from the soil I'm using and it comes to about 6.0-6.4.

test the soil itself by makin a slurry of soil and distilled water. test that. that is your ph.
i meant watch how much you water. one pic looked over-watered.

sailormoon said:

Love the pics! Your plant looks so lush!

Thanks for the advice I just watered them yesterday so I think I'll wait until the next watering to administer nutes. I am going to be using Schultz liquid plant food which is 10-15-10 for the veg stage.
What do you think about waiting that long?

Click to expand...

Waiting is fine, it wont hurt anything. Worse case, the plant will just get more pale or yellow, a week should be fine, when you feed it, it will take up all it needs and regain it's sheen. That Nute is fine too. High P counts promotes root growth which is what your plant is growing right now anyway ROOTS. It is true you want high N but 10-15-10 Completely fine. Don't let anyone tell you that you CAN'T or SHOULDN'T use that nutrient. You can get better, or nutrients more geared towards growing marijuana but if you don't want to complicate things for your first time, Stick with what you got it will grow your plant without problems.

Coho said:

I'd wait a week on nutes..plus they will have new soil to use at transplant about then. What nutes do you plan? Start weak when you do and see how they react. Mine are good until transplant but thats my soil..not yours. Sailormoon huh..I hope your a chick as my kid used to watch that..lol edit: I think that nute has the wrong balance..I go for N dominate for veg. oh and welcome

Click to expand...

^^ I would take the bit baout waiting a week with a grain of salt, You can give plants nutrients at a week old and still be completely fine it just depends on the specific plant. If you want it to grow fast I say give it a very small amount like he said but whenever you want Now, a week, it doesn't matter.

Also There is nothing wrong with that nute it is fine. If you have nothing else and don't want to spend more money that will work fine. Just because the N isn't dominant on the bottle doesn't mean there isn't enough. That is actually a good ratio for a tiny plant like that, High P promotes rapid root and shoot growth which is what you want at this stage in plant development.

Just in case you didn't know, sailor, here ya go

NPK rating (or N-P-K) is used to label fertilizer based on the relative content of the chemical elements nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) that are commonly used infertilizers. The three elements promote plant growth in three different ways. In simple terms, these are:

• N – nitrogen: promotes the growth of leaves and vegetation[SUP][1][/SUP]
• P – phosphorus: promotes root and shoot growth
• K – potassium: promotes flowering, fruiting and general hardiness

Unlike the N number, the numbers for P and K do not reflect the amount of elemental phosphorus and potassium in the fertilizer. Rather they represent the amount of oxide in the form of P[SUB]2[/SUB]O[SUB]5[/SUB] and K[SUB]2[/SUB]O that would be present in the fertilizer if all the elemental phosphorus and potassium were oxidized into these forms.

That is a very basic explanation, just summing it up. You can find a lot more about what each element does if you do more research.

Those plants actually do look overwatered. It could be that your soil is staying wet for too long after watering. Let it dry out and water it lightly and see if that does anything.

And if the soil is making the runnoff pH that low then your soil pH might be even lower. Mix in some dolomite lime for an easy fix.

The only one that is looking over watered to me is the NL special in the blue cup. Others look great


Well retract that great comment, They look okay, They actually are looking like they need to be fed soon. let them dry out then feed them very very lightly see what happens

Edit again... Didn't account for you PH issue, Fix that ph issue before attempting to feed... I have never had a PH issue with soil nefore

Hey guys, thanks so much for the feedback. You're all so helpful and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the advice!

Should I add the dolomite gradually (to prevent PH shock) or should I just mix some in to my soil when I re-pot them?

Also, I'm not sure what's going on with the NL. Before I watered it the soil was bone dry (it was slightly wilted).. Gave them a good watering with my standard dechlorinated tap water and it won't bounce back for some reason :/

I just did a diluted foliar feeding. Hoping that it'll help my babies!

Thanks Jpeg666 for the feedback about the nutes. I did some research on Schultz' plant food before purchasing it and found quite a few forum threads where people were describing using it for veg phase without any problems. I would eventually like to invest in some high-quality fertilizers but since this is my first grow I'm expecting everything to go wrong so that's why I'm starting out with the more generic/cheaper/basic stuff

I'll keep you guys posted!