First Dresser Grow~

Hey guys, so this is going to be my grow thred... Im on my first grow so im still learning. My setup right now is a 600w MH light, two 120mm case fans stacked ontop of eachother as the exaust fan, along with 2 very high powered fans circulating fresh air. The temp it at about 90, but since its summer it can spike to 100 in the box, so then i just turn up the fans. Humidity is about30-35% and 50% maybe a bit over when lights are off. Im currently useing Advanced Nutrients 3 Part System... they dont seem to really be boosting my plant growth, as my plant is still very small. Im growing in soil... Just some Organic Mirical Grow soil that i picked up at Canadian Tire... it has super small amounts of food in it, 0.5 and 0.10 of somthing... i dont have the bag, so im not sure of the exact chart. I mixed in a shit ton of perlite so its roughly 3 parts soil 2 parts perlite. Currently in 6 Gal pots. The Main Plant is at roughly 3-4 weeks, also i trimmed off all the lower leaves because they were practicaly dead... Any info or Advice is great, Cheers World!

i cant see the pics without a grasscity membership but have you been letting your plants dry out between waterings?? thats one i thing i was messing up on. If you water too often your roots wont need to grow and search for water and your plants wont grow as well as it could. Now i wait until the pots are really light and have a good watering schedule worked out. It will be different for every growing medium though

haha sorry about the pics... i was too lazy to pop onto my laptop to upload them. I usually water every 4-5 days or so. since they are in such big pots. Hopefuly from the pics you can get a better understanding and when i say my plant is small... its small for its age,

did you start feeding with advanced nutrients right away??

the reason i ask is because i have heard lots of people who use miracle grow get nute burn on their seedlings so if you starting feeding too early (before 2 weeks) you may have a nutrient lockout that would explain your lower leaves dying and the fact that your plant isnt growing. Im not sure exactly how you fix this problem in soil (ask people in the organic section??) but i do know that you shouldnt flush like you would with a hydro medium or soil-less mix since the water can just make more nutes avaliable to your plant

Im thinking about switching to a coco mix... or a soil-less mix, people say the roots get more air and its better for the nutes and shit to get to your plant. And as far as feeding goes, i gave it 1/4 strength after about 1 week as it was all i had left. Literally... My pluming shut off xD. I just flushed my plant afew days ago, so maybe flushing again isnt super smart? Im still thinking switching to a soil-less medium might help. Not 100% sure if its really worth it or not.

I did a 2 part peat moss/1 part vermiculite/1 part perlite mix and the plants seem to love it, Drains nicely but hold enough to go a few days before needing more water. Im also doing another plant in coco to compare the two mediums im doing a comparison journal and so far they are both doing really well. Im about 3 weeks from planting so i will be posting the journal up pretty soon. No one cares about the first few weeks so im waiting a bit to post it lol

http://www.progressive-growth.com/proddetail.php?prod=21025 This is the stuff im thinking about getting.

progressive growth is where i got all of my equipment! not the medium but my lights bulbs and nutes. that stuff looks pretty good. if i remember correctly you can fix lockout in soil by GENTLY removing the plant(especially one that young and small) then you can repeatedly dip the roots in clean water or GENTLY spray them with a spray nozzle to get the dirt off the roots and clean them up then gently replant it in new soil or in that soil-less mix (i personally would go with the soil less mix) then use 1/4 strength nutes every second watering to get it back up to speed

Progresive growth is the shit brotha haha! But yeah now i gotta look and see if soi-less is better than that stuff... and you mean when i take out the plant for transplant, spray the dirt with water untill the roots just show, then place it in the mix?

yep or just gently dip it in water till the dirt dissolves. I know it sounds harsh but plants are strong and if your locked out just transplanting wont help all that much. That stuff in the link is soil-less and it looks pretty good. here is a pic of one my babies in the 2/1/1 mix i was talking about,day 20 since i planted the seed and 16 days since it popped up above ground (just before i transplanted it into a bigger pot and switched to hps)

and just so you know, you can buy everything i used to make my mix at can tire too. i think a small cube of peat moss is like 2.99 and then a bag of perlite and a bag of vermiculite (7-12 dollars each) depends when you buy cause everything at can tire goes on sale at some point lol. also you should add about a table spoon of dolomitic lime per gallon of mix. i dont think i found the lime at can tire but if you call around you should find a garden center that has it. i think i spent about 30 dollars but if you can get that mix for 35 id go for it since its probably already PH balanced and tried and true.

Your plants look great for their age... *slaps head* Mine is soo small! Gah!! Well... I think im just going to get the soil from Progresive growth. Alot easyer... ^_^
EDIT: Ok so i think i just proved i have nute lockup... Because i veged this plant for atleast 3 weeks under 2 T5's adn 2 26w CFLs and apparently I've had this new 600w light for about 2 weeks... Making this plant over a month old... and at the size its at... I dont understand. I've been having SUCH bad luck with growing.... first it wasnt enough light, now i have all the light in the world and its still smaller than my bong... Seeing your plant and alot of other people 'first grow' they got their plants all bushy and big.. mine is just... Noodles. Giving up on growing: 70% complete.

Small update... I flushed my plant with... almost 100L untill the water was clear... So obviously i had alot of nutes stuck up in there. Once it dryes out and needs a watering, im going to feed it some 20-20-20. Does this sound like the right thing to be doing to get my plant jump started again?
EDIT: Just wondering... do i feed the plant 20-20-20 once it needs a watering... Its a stupid question but i dont want to feed it with 20-20-20 tommorow and have it backfire...

Another Update... Yes, there are alot, but shit keeps happening... Some white spots have appeared on my plant... only about 4 little blotches just.. appeared. Salt Build up?

I wouldn't use MG soil for starters but if you do use something with more nutes like there regular potting soil. Organic MG is not a good choice for cannabis. The soil you are currently using prolly has a crazy PH so when you feed it nutes the plant doesn't receive them. Do you ph the water with the nutes before dumping it into your plant?

Can you get any Fox Farms soil where your located? I would highly recommend it if you can. I always use FF with perfect results.

thirdgen4me said:

I wouldn't use MG soil for starters but if you do use something with more nutes like there regular potting soil. Organic MG is not a good choice for cannabis. The soil you are currently using prolly has a crazy PH so when you feed it nutes the plant doesn't receive them. Do you ph the water with the nutes before dumping it into your plant?

Can you get any Fox Farms soil where your located? I would highly recommend it if you can. I always use FF with perfect results.

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Well first... yeah i Ph my water to about 5.8-6.8. And being in canada i dont have Fox Farm... Im thinking about transplanting them into coco, but then im wondering how will i get them in coco... from soil?
P.S. When i tested my runoff when i was flushing, it was just above 5. Im useing the general hydroponics PH tester...were you fill up a small vail and put some solution in it to give you a color to match, so i dont have perfectly accurate Ph.

I have that exact same ph test kit and its far from accurate. Milwaukee makes a ph tester for $20 and is a pretty good meter.

Dont give up, go buy a cheap bag of soil less mix you can get it at almost at garden center or use coco if you want. carefully dig around your plant dip the roots in clean room temp water till most of the dirt is gone and replant then i would wait a day or 2 for some recovery then start feeding on a cycle of 1/4 str nutes and plain water and slowly work your amount of nutes up if you feel like the plants are reacting well

also what strain is it?? Dont want to be negative or anything but you might want to just give up on it if its at 5 weeks... since your right in the metropolis of BC (i used to live in Richmond and Langley and when i was in high school i would visit Kelowna every summer) you should be able to pop by a shop and pick up some single seeds or a nice clone. Stay away from miracle grow and it sounds like you've already got the proper lights and other equipment for a successful grow. However it also sucks to give up on something you've worked on for that long and its always a good learning experience if you can bring a dying plant back to life