get your opinion?

hey all. i've grown before and had plenty of success, but i've always had problems at this stage of growth(single true leaf with 1st 3 leafers beginning to show). they always really slow up on me about now. i think much of my problem has been soil compaction which i'm working on.what are your opinions about these pics? 72-84deg day, 65deg night. water ph=6.5, soil ph about 7. 2 fluorescent 40watt tubes about 1 inch from top of plants. should be plenty of light for this stage of growth. about right for 5-6 days? thanx for any input.

Sounds like ya got everything good! Dont know why they start off so small fer ya, tho!

They will grow so much quicker in a loose, airy soil. Mix perlite in at about 1 cup perlite to 3 cups soil and it will make it easier for them to root.

I've used those 40W tubes for decades and they work fine.
Personally I'd get the plants closer (using shims).
For best results w/tubes, I suggest 24/0n.

thanx for responses. yeah always had this nagging problem. ph used to be issue and i fixed that. even giving nutes at an extremely low rate of .11 EC., total of .31EC with .20EC beginning water to make sure it has proper nutrition. its gotta be soil compaction. for some reason i have tried to do this without perlite. i'm gonna have to give in!!

there is nothing wrong with perlite Give IN!! LOL. It will make the difference in speed of growth in soil. I have even seen people use it 50/50 mixed with good results. It makes it near impossible to over water this way too. I now grow in 100% perlite and hydroton.

hey someguy. do you use hydro sys. or do you just hand water over perlite and hydroton? if handwater, do you water more frequently with the fast drainage this must achieve? regardless, gotcha on the can't have too much perlite!!

lemmis said:

hey someguy. do you use hydro sys. or do you just hand water over perlite and hydroton? if handwater, do you water more frequently with the fast drainage this must achieve? regardless, gotcha on the can't have too much perlite!!

Click to expand...

I do hand-water. I use hempy bucket setups, I just dont use vermiculite in my mix (100% perlite). Also, I use hydroton in the res area or lower two inches of the bucket. There is a whole thread or 12 dedicated to hempy on here. I water every other day to every third day. I use fox farm hydro nutes and supplement with cal-mag. It is pretty much as easy as soil with much qucker growth and without all the mess.