First grow, 2 weeks in, need opinion on what's wrong

D

donbond

Active Member
Hi all,

I'm new to the forums, and to growing, but after doing a lot of research I finally decided to start 2 weeks ago.

However, I've hit a snag - one of my plants is doing great, while the other four appear to be stuck doing nothing. Here's a photo: http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7889/plants.jpg

Each seed germinated at the same time and was placed into Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and put under a 150W HPS (all I can afford until flowering) immediately. I used 24/0 for the first week, and moved to 18/6 the next. The temperature goes from 86 F peak during the day to a low of 76 F at "night". Humidity is stable at about 33%, and I water ~every two days (whenever the soil is no longer moist an inch down or so) using filtered water from the fridge, ph 7 before, and ph 6.8 runoff. No nutes yet.

Here's some more info on the setup: five 1-gallon pots in a 18"x18"x42" box, 12" intake fan near the base and 10" exhaust near the top. The intake fan blows across the light, and the box is covered in mylar.

Now, I'm not sure what could be causing the size discrepancy. The seeds are all the same strain (THC Bomb), and have all been subject to the exact same treatment and environment. The healthy plant is much more green, while the stunted plants are yellowing slowly, leading me to believe it could be nitrogen deficiency, but I can't write it off as such on my own.

I was planning to log this grow, and still may, but just haven't found the time. Any advice you could offer is greatly appreciated, and I'll try to answer any questions you may have as well, and can provide more pictures if necessary. Thanks for stopping by!
 
mustbetheganja

mustbetheganja

Member
hmm, im no expert but it looks like those pots are pretty excessive for the plants in such an early stage... maybe the roots haven't matured or grown deep enough and arent getting enough water? looks like far too much soil to keep moisturized for such little roots

that's just my guess...

the one that's growing more may of just gotten lucky and got enough water
 
D

donbond

Active Member
mustbetheganja said:
hmm, im no expert but it looks like those pots are pretty excessive for the plants in such an early stage... maybe the roots haven't matured or grown deep enough and arent getting enough water? looks like far too much soil to keep moisturized for such little roots

that's just my guess...

the one that's growing more may of just gotten lucky and got enough water
Click to expand...
Yes, the pots are excessive, but this saves me from having to transplant from a dixie cup or something later. I'm not sure how deep the roots go, but the soil around the base seems damp days after I water, so really if anything I was concerned with overwatering. What I should have done is water one more often than the rest as a constant, but I guess that would just confuse me more right now. Thanks for your thoughts!
 
phil le b

phil le b

Well-Known Member
donbond said:
Hi all,

I'm new to the forums, and to growing, but after doing a lot of research I finally decided to start 2 weeks ago.

However, I've hit a snag - one of my plants is doing great, while the other four appear to be stuck doing nothing. Here's a photo: http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7889/plants.jpg

Each seed germinated at the same time and was placed into Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and put under a 150W HPS (all I can afford until flowering) immediately. I used 24/0 for the first week, and moved to 18/6 the next. The temperature goes from 86 F peak during the day to a low of 76 F at "night". Humidity is stable at about 33%, and I water ~every two days (whenever the soil is no longer moist an inch down or so) using filtered water from the fridge, ph 7 before, and ph 6.8 runoff. No nutes yet.

Here's some more info on the setup: five 1-gallon pots in a 18"x18"x42" box, 12" intake fan near the base and 10" exhaust near the top. The intake fan blows across the light, and the box is covered in mylar.

Now, I'm not sure what could be causing the size discrepancy. The seeds are all the same strain (THC Bomb), and have all been subject to the exact same treatment and environment. The healthy plant is much more green, while the stunted plants are yellowing slowly, leading me to believe it could be nitrogen deficiency, but I can't write it off as such on my own.

I was planning to log this grow, and still may, but just haven't found the time. Any advice you could offer is greatly appreciated, and I'll try to answer any questions you may have as well, and can provide more pictures if necessary. Thanks for stopping by!
Click to expand...
wen u start them u should put them in a small pot cuz they got so much room they r thinking they do not need to grow i use 3diffent size pot 1 for each month of the plants life and don keep the light to close to them for 1st few weeks
 
D

donbond

Active Member
phil le b said:
wen u start them u should put them in a small pot cuz they got so much room they r thinking they do not need to grow i use 3diffent size pot 1 for each month of the plants life and don keep the light to close to them for 1st few weeks
Click to expand...
I didn't know the pot size affected growth. I thought if anything it would be good for the plant, having so much room to grow.

Regardless, there's still that one plant that hasn't seen detrimental effects and I'm not sure why.

Also, I keep the light ~20" above my plants right now. According to my thermometer, the leaf surface is 83.4 degrees F, with a slight discrepancy among the five plants. I think these are good, but I could be wrong.
 
D

donbond

Active Member
It's been two more days, and there is still no change whatsoever in the four "stuck" plants. The healthy plant continues to thrive and put the rest of them to shame. I need some more ideas on why this is happening, because I was planning to move to flowering in 2 weeks, but may have to postpone that now.

It's been one week since I've seen any growth whatsoever on the other four plants. Can anyone help?
 
snyder007

snyder007

Well-Known Member
Don I personally believe you did the right thing by going with the largest pot you could when you started. Pot size has absolutely zero effect, in my experience, on plant growth unless its too small. The less stress a plant endures the better off it is. Look at nature for Christ sake. Think about it.

Your pH is too high. It should be around 6.2 - 6.5. Does your soil have any pre-added nutrients? If not that could be part of the problem. Your temps are also a bit high. Not dangerous but not optimal. Get it down to under 78.
 
D

donbond

Active Member
snyder007 said:
Don I personally believe you did the right thing by going with the largest pot you could when you started. Pot size has absolutely zero effect, in my experience, on plant growth unless its too small. The less stress a plant endures the better off it is. Look at nature for Christ sake. Think about it.

Your pH is too high. It should be around 6.2 - 6.5. Does your soil have any pre-added nutrients? If not that could be part of the problem. Your temps are also a bit high. Not dangerous but not optimal. Get it down to under 78.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. The soil I use claims to be 100% organic, and Fox Farm seems to have garnered a loyal Internet following, since I see them recommended in many forums.

I'll be taking steps to lower both the pH and the temperature. I'll pick up a pH Down solution later today, as well as another fan - for now I'll aim for an even 80 degrees F, since it was a struggle to hit 85. If you have any other pro tips on how to achieve ideal temps, I'll be listening :)
 
snyder007

snyder007

Well-Known Member
I have poor circulation throughout my apartment and I refuse to run the AC if its under 90 degrees outside.

I set up 3 box fans. One in my living room window, one to the entrance to my bedroom and one in my closet inside my bedroom. I basically push air through my apartment and my closet never goes above 80 now.

I didn't read the fox farm part until I posted my message. I am familiar with the name but not the product itself.

Your soil also looks compressed. Is it or is it a trick of the photo? I have read that compressed soil can play havoc with our plants.
 
D

donbond

Active Member
snyder007 said:
I have poor circulation throughout my apartment and I refuse to run the AC if its under 90 degrees outside.

I set up 3 box fans. One in my living room window, one to the entrance to my bedroom and one in my closet inside my bedroom. I basically push air through my apartment and my closet never goes above 80 now.

I didn't read the fox farm part until I posted my message. I am familiar with the name but not the product itself.

Your soil also looks compressed. Is it or is it a trick of the photo? I have read that compressed soil can play havoc with our plants.
Click to expand...
I'm close to the equator, and now that summer is approaching I keep the AC on all the time (set on 77). My grow box is in the closet, but even with the doors open (and even with the box door open), the inside temp never seems to budge. I'm sure investing in another fan will see a big improvement. I hope I haven't been heat-stressing my babies, my original temp was 91 before I installed the exhaust.

I actually bought just under the right amount of soil needed for the 5 pots, and only lightly packed it initially. (If you look closely you can see the middle pot has a bit less in it.) When I water, sometimes it looks like air pockets are forming near the surface, so I press it down some afterwards, and the result could be what you're seeing.

I'll be sure to let you know when/if there is change - if things get back on track I still intend to log the full grow.
 
snyder007

snyder007

Well-Known Member
Another fan to pump that cold air into the box will definitely help you out. Other then that I think your doing everything fine so far. Just fix the issues we covered and let me know how it goes!
 
B

bblazed

Member
I always have a few that refuse to grow and it can drive you to insanity trying to get it to grow. Give it 1more week and if don't grow get rid of them and work on the one you got growing. Hopefully someone does know why it happens and can explain what to do to get them going.
 
D

donbond

Active Member
Hey guys. It's been a few more weeks now, so I'll get to what's new:
Despite my best efforts, including adding another fan, the four stunted plants slowly yellowed and began to wither. However, that still left me one plant, so I began dedicating all of my attention to it. It was only a matter of time before I started noticing the same yellowing at the base of the plant - right at about 3 weeks. This seemed to halt the plant's growth entirely, so I got pretty worried - at 4 weeks, even though the plant was 6" tall, I moved it into flowering lighting, and started adding some nutrients (1 tbsp/gal FF Tiger Bloom). At last, I saw my plant perk up!

Today is the 5 week anniversary (oh boy) of when I received the seeds and began germinating them. This final plant is now recuperating, and after 1 week in flowering the top is just beginning to develop its first cola.

Also, the plant is beginning to show its sex - the initial pistil-like wisps are beginning to emerge at the branch bases. Fingers crossed for female, otherwise I'm off to experience the clone zone.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pics of my meager first shot at growing so far! Maybe in a couple months I'll get a 3g yield! :mrgreen: lol. Keep smoking all, hope to report back soon with more pics :blsmoke:

I had some problems with the forum image uploader, so instead:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/8070/plant513.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6562/plant64.jpg
http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/3928/plant65.jpg
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/5454/plant66.jpg
 
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