First time grower. Shiva Skunk (northern lights #5 x skunk #1) Any thoughts?

Hello everyone. New member and first time grower. This forum is very helpful and I want to thank everyone for answering questions and sharing your knowledge. This is my first attempt at growing marijuana. I bought Shiva Skunk fem seeds from Sensi Seeds and i'm growing under CFLs in a DWC system. I keep res temps between 60-68 and change my water and nutes(Fox Farm) every seven days. Lights are 18/6 and air temp is around 75. I am really liking what i'm seeing. Its about a foot tall/21 days old and i'm going to veg for another 2-4 weeks depending on growth. Feel free to give me advice as I am a rookie who has only researched the subject. But me and Mary Jane got a thing going on so it was only natural to try

Leaves are cupping and new growth is twisting. Read that it could be a magnesium defficiency. Anyone know more?

Get more lights, use Y sockets and double up! Top that sexy bitchhh

What is topping and it's benefits?

Topping is cutting the top off where there are 2 new nodes. Then u will get 2 tops = more buds when using cfl.
https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/694443-197w-cfl-grow-4-weeks.html I just topped my White widow. See the last pic.

Thanks for the help Jay. I winded up topping my plant last night. Do I need more light. I'm running 200 watts on one plant which im hoping is enough for a decent yield. My electric bill was really expensive so hoping this light will do. Also changed res last night and brought nutes to about 0.7 ec with some extra cal/mag. Twisting and drooping looks to be cured

For cfl's I try to at least run 600w at a minimum. But I do more than 1 plant at a time. More light = bigger buds. It wont raise your electric very much. The cfl's I use are the 26w and 55w's from wally world. They should be GE and are supposed to save on electricity. Honestly my set up will raise my bill roughly $10 a month. No big deal. I would double up on wattage if I had the space but cfl's take up quite a bit of room and those 2700k get damnnn hot. Also, top again in a week or 2. I top 2-3 times but no more. I've tested many plants and topping 2-3 times significantly increases yield

Okay. Should I top in the same spot as the first time?

You can but it depends on the stability of the plant. The reason I don't top more than a few times is because when 8 weeks of flower rolls around I have giant buds slouched over on one another. I end up having to lean them on other plants for support or tie them to a stick that's stuck down in the medium so they're facing up at the light and not down at the floor. It can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Do a little research and compare it to your plant. You'll see, once you top the first time loads of nodes should shoot for the top trying to beat on another to the light. So even if you topped once and are expecting to only get two main cola tops that doesn't always work. Some of the under branches may end up just as tall as your main colas. Look for a tall sturdy branch and top it when it looks time to do so. When it's time to do the second topping I'll usually top two branches instead of one

Topping does work well, make sure later on to trim the lower tops/buds when you switch light cycle if you wanna get those giant buds he's talking about but really cfls can only make so bigga buds I have 418 watts between six plants and my biggest cola top dry weighed 7.3 and that's with eight weeks veg nine weeks flower. My next grow I will for sure up my game with metal halide and hps but cfls are cheap I got maybe 100 bones invested and they did alright

SeedlessRyda said:

Topping does work well, make sure later on to trim the lower tops/buds when you switch light cycle if you wanna get those giant buds he's talking about but really cfls can only make so bigga buds I have 418 watts between six plants and my biggest cola top dry weighed 7.3 and that's with eight weeks veg nine weeks flower. My next grow I will for sure up my game with metal halide and hps but cfls are cheap I got maybe 100 bones invested and they did alright

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Yea definitely trim lower 1/3 of plant, known as lollipopping. Gd advise seedlessryda. Works great! You just need more light. I know it can be a pain in the ass and uses a lot of space but I guarantee you if you only had 2 or 3 plants to the 418w that big cola would weigh twice as much. If you can get 700+ watts for 6 plants u should see larger yields. I don't use MH cuz of the heat problems and I can't cut a hole in the wall for venting air so cfl's work great. They also use more electricity so higher monthly bill. Thought about getting a MH w/ cool tube tho

I checked my little girl today and she was twisting and drooping with tips curling down. I'm thinking I need to get a bigger res now that my roots are abundant and thick. Could not enough room for the roots be the issue? Maybe not enough oxygen? What do you guys think about h202? Want to add some to res for oxygen and root health. Oh and I went a little wild and did some trimming of the bottom fan leaves that were blocking all the growth below them. Hope she's alright

Do you think I need to flush? It's been three weeks of constant nutes. Should I give it just ph'd water for a few days? I am probably over thinking but I love this girl and want to do all I can to keep her growing strong.

Sorry for it being upside down. I'm trying to do this from my phone. Does this look like lack of oxygen. Please help, she is struggling big time

I do soil but when tips curl like that it means they've been over watered. So for hydro it could be lack of oxygen then but I'm no expert in that area. Just thought I'd share that lil bit of info

Thank you, it is much appreciated. Ill be moving to a bigger res today to give the roots more room. I also think the plant was in a bit of shock from topping and lollipopping but it looks to be recovering. The advice from everyone is great and it's nice to see a community of people who take their time to help others=)

Im thinking it might be a fluctuating ph and I hope the bigger res will regulate that. Also added 4 lights hoping to get a bigger yield. That pic is from 2 days ago and I think she's looking okay. See anything? Let me know, thanks all

So she isn't looking so hot today=( hope i can figure out the issue and get her back on track. I didnt know I could like a plant so much, really hope i can save her