Need some advice if anyone would please

Hi: As you may have guessed I am a new grower to MJ. I have grown plants before throughout my entire life, but never MJ. I would like to think I have an understanding of how to take care of this plant, but clearly I don't. First off let me explain my setup:

1- 3x3x6 grow tent
1- 400W MH BLUE Hori Light w/ 400W Digital Ballast
1- 6" Inline 340CFM fane to push the heat of the HID light out with 6" venting attatched to the cool hood
1- 6" Inline 340CFM fan to exhaust hot air out of the tent
2- 6" oscilating fans, one hanging up atop blowing the air up top around and around, and 1 over the plants at an angle blowing over them, in addition to 1 6" turbo blowing air around the plants and off the cool hood.

I have a fan on the intake valve blowing air that falls from my open window which is quite cool in the PNW. I have a humidifier in there keeping humidity 40-60%, though on occasion it drops to upper 30s% due to water running out and me being at work. I have an extech humidity reader/thermometer with a sensor that hangs below the lights slightly above canopy level.


Ok, that is my setup. I am having some huge issues and as a new grower I am prone to over thinking over analyzing and I want to get some solid advice so I can grow some beauties. I started growing on Feb 25th and I planted 4 freebie seeds from Attitude ( NLxSkunk, PineapplexSkunk, OG Kush and Super Cheese). The all popped within 3-5 days and I had them under a 125w 500k CFL for about a week. I then moved them under my MH and kept the light 16-25 inches away, and had fans blowing gently, across from several directions. What has been happening is they never really took off. I germinated them in 100% Light Warrior in Red Solo cups, and I used tap water to water the medium and feed them. I only watered them 3x in the first two weeks and that was when the medium was dry. Sure they grew, but it has been a month now and they are just not enjoying life at all. My OG kush is just now getting her first true 3-bladed leaves going, while the other 3 have 3-bladed leaves but they all lack vigor, yet have a healthy green color to the new leaves at least. I ended up transplanting them into a 5" peat pot at 2 weeks because they didn't look happy, and I figure it was due to some stressor I was causing them but I just don't know what. I was hoping to have some help analyzing this since I decided to start 2 new seeds to compare to the 4 already going.


As of now the first 4 are one month old and they are Stunted with a capital S. My Red Dragon seedling that has popped is a week old (from popping up) today and in her .3L air pot. I used 70%LW 30% Super soil organic mix I make myself, and I gave her 1/2 a teaspoon of jump start scratched into the soil and watered her an hour ago since she was almost bone dry. What I am afraid of is, I am causing some stress to my plants and my newest seedlings will also not grow. I realize we all start somewhere and I have accepted the fact my first four probably won't amount to much, but I am trying to nip the issues ASAP to ensure my plants form here on out are going to be happy and healthy.


Anyone that is willing to help , I can post some pics. I thank you for your time.

pics would help, but .3L does not sound very big to me. Your plants can get root bound pretty fast and growth will be slow. In my experience the younger babies seem to do the best with minimal effort. Its when you start doing too much stuff that you have problems. As plants get more mature then they seem to have more needs, but are less vulnerable to mistakes in treatment.

Sure I will post some pics. The pot is an air pot for germination stage. I have 1 gallon pots on the way by the end of the week. I ahve seen people use red solo cups and get plants 6-8 inches, that is why I am a little worried as to whats going on. Anyway: Here are some photos of the current situation:


I put the peat pots into their last containers so I wouldn't have to touch them. The last picture is my Red Dragon at age 7 in the .3GAL airpot, not .3L sorry bit of a difference.

I had a couple freebies from the tude that I kinda neglected. I started them in Light Warrior also. While this is a good medium, it is just that.. a medium. It has very little nutrition for developing plants and quickly runs out of anything to offer. I transplanted my 2 week old stunted seedlings into 1 gal pots in happy frog and feeding and within 2 weeks they were 10-12 inches tall. They want to live, they just gotta eat.
Remember they're weeds, they suck everything they can out of the soil.

That's really encouraging... . IF all I screwed up was not feeding them in Light Warrior, then I can fix that since I have Jump start fert and can use it on my red dragons in LW (just did after 7 days).

They shouldnt need soil nutes. Are they getting fresh air (co2)? Temps 65-90f? Enough water? Too much water (root rot, a fungus)?

My plants dont need supplemental food until week 5, and thats in pure peat moss which is an empty soil. Ive tested it.

Get you some fox farm ocean forest from germ to young your plants will take off when I start my next 12/12 I'll use ocean forest an happy frog fruits an flower an the nuts along with big bud but just follow foxfarm feeding schedule an try some super thrive an white shark I think it's called for thicker stalk in veg an you'll be aok

When you changed lights it stressed them, next time you do this DONT put them directly under the light from the start, do it slowly put the plants in a darker corner of the room where light is much less intense and they have time to adjust or put the light up to about 4-5 feet. Slowly move them in under the light over a week.
They should recover but could take weeks, in the mean time no nutes and very little watering as they are not feeding or drinking atm.
Get them back under the cfl as this will speed up recovery.

Ya i'd let em dry up personally make the roots reach for h2o with good humidity can you tag into your humidifyer resi? run a seperate tank with a trasfer hose few fittings for the days your stuck at work... i made my roots reach once buy using a 4'' sriynge stabbed it below the plant and watered below it roots shot and plant also did just my 2 peninies.....OFTR

Well, I go in the room for several hours during lights on and the window to outside is open drawing cool air in. I also open the door to the room when I am at work and the door on the balcony to get the fresh air from my floor. This actually gets a lot of air movement in my condo and keeps it cool, or so I think.... I was also under the impression that MH didn't matter as long as it was about 12" away and had good air flow and was cool. My other seed hasn't sprouted yet, when it does I will put it into my seedling tank with a heat mat, 2 23W 6500K T5HO bulbs and 1- 105W 5000kCFL. I hope these are the only things I am doing wrong lol.


The humidifier is a 20 dollar honeywell one. I could tap a hose into the top and keep water pumping from outside. I do have aquarium pumps.

mh is better than fine, but imo a waste of energy during seedling stage. i really think the soil is your issue. the roots arent working right, becuase theyre either thirsty or theyre rotting from staying too wet.

I can see that. When I first watered the first four, I gave about 1/4 cup for the first week and another the next. I could see how they aren't getting enough water in the beginning. I will try to pamper my newest seedling. I just watered her last night b4 lights out. She had a very minute dose of Jump start scratched into the top soil and watered down the airpot. She was bone dry after 4 days in that thing , even with 50-60% humidity. This is something I will watch out for from here on out. Does anyone recommend a moisture meter? I can tell by weight when my plants are drying out, but still it wouldn't hurt right?

Just stick your finger in the soil. If its moist in the top inch then it doesn't need water. If its dry it does. Do that along with feeling the weight and you won't over or underwater.

Thegreatgatsby4 said:

I can see that. When I first watered the first four, I gave about 1/4 cup for the first week and another the next. I could see how they aren't getting enough water in the beginning. I will try to pamper my newest seedling. I just watered her last night b4 lights out. She had a very minute dose of Jump start scratched into the top soil and watered down the airpot. She was bone dry after 4 days in that thing , even with 50-60% humidity. This is something I will watch out for from here on out. Does anyone recommend a moisture meter? I can tell by weight when my plants are drying out, but still it wouldn't hurt right?

Click to expand...

oh yeah they need water everyday or every other day, seedlings are not drought resistant like grown plants!

they just dont need to be soaked as much as established plants do, cause itll take longer for them to dry out, since they dont really drink a lot.

its a balance.

killachris said:

oh yeah they need water everyday or every other day, seedlings are not drought resistant like grown plants!

they just dont need to be soaked as much as established plants do, cause itll take longer for them to dry out, since they dont really drink a lot.

its a balance.

Click to expand...

True.. I have to say I am happy with my plants. Having gardening experience and farming experience is fine and dadndy but, growing indoors is totally different. I noticed today once my lights turned on that Nothern Lights is sprouting a lot of leaves, shes just not getting bigger yet. But her new growth is dark green and her old growth has no new spots or spreading of spots and yellowing. Pine chunk is growing now, and OG and Cheese too. In a few weeks I bet they will all be 6-12" tall and ready for flowering.

I will pickup some Ocean forest and LW on thursday and transplant my RD seedling into a mix of OF, perlite and LW. This should get her growing nicely for another 2 weeks until I can transplant her into my Super Soil mix. I will start a grow journal on her here soon !