First CFL Grow w/pics and problems :(

veryblah420

Active Member
I figured I kept asking so many questions I might as well start a journal and just keep them all in one place.

Here I am so far:

Setup:
4 5500k 23w CFLs (for veg)
4 2300k 40w CFLs and 2 2300k 23w CFLs (combined with 2 5500k for flower)

They are in a grow box I designed out of an old tv cabinet with two passive intakes and an active exhaust, but I keep it open and a fan circulating on them most of the time. As you can see temp is around 70-80 from day to night and humidity fluctuates quite a bit from low 30s to upper 50s depending on if I have the window open.

So far I am two weeks after potting and have had slow growth and sever yellowing of the leaves. The soil, which I thought was my problem on a previous failed grow, is Expert Gardner Organic and has nutes similar to MG. I flushed the soil like 8:1 over a few days before potting and tested it with a nute kit and there is barely any traces of nitrogen left though. Then I thought it was the ph, since the plants grew very fast for the first few days and then started dying. The soil ph is about 7.5 and the tap water I used was almost 9!!!! I am now using water phed at 6.5 and hoping to slowly lower the soil ph this way. So far the one plant (first picture) is responding well and you can see the new growth in the middle is green, and there are 4 small new leaves growing. The second plant had an accident and most of its roots got severed. I'm hoping it will survive but it doesn't look hopeful.

If anyone has any other suggestions or insight as to why my plants are growing so slowly it would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I'll keep this updated and hopefully things will start getting better :)
 

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princesspeach

Active Member
hm.. it sounds like you're doing everything right but i do agree with you & i think the water PH might have been the problem.
 

bigd921

Well-Known Member
they look pretty beat up, hopefully you correcting the ph will help them bounce back... the ph was most likely the cause of all of your problems, if they dont make it just start over with the new knowledge you have gained..... also keep in mind soil is the slowets medium to grow in imho..... you want a simple fast method try Hempy buckets... you can do a search or check my journal for details....good luck
 
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