New Grower - Is this normal?

Hello. I am a new grower. This is my first time growing in a tent and only my second time growing period. So far I think the plants are doing well, but I am not skilled enough to tell if these are signs to be worried about the plants nutrients, or if its just lower leaves perhaps dying from not getting enough light? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I plan on re-potting them into 5 gallon containers for their final homes. These 1 gallon pots were a home made soil made with bone and blood meal, wood ash, plain Epsom salts, and then peat moss with perlite. I am unsure if I want to do that again or if I should get something more nutrient heavy (or lighter?) I think that is part of why I am looking for guidance here.

These are the plants currently:

Oops, I forgot to share the worrisome parts:

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They need to be repotted very soon (and should have done already, ideally). They’re a bit stretchy (light too far away, perhaps) and also have outgrown their pots, and so might be having trouble getting the nutes they need from your medium. Just some thoughts. They will use up the nutes in the soil, especially a small pot like you’re using. You should be adding at least some dry ammendment to make up for this as you go along. Good luck!

DeadHeadX said:

They need to be repotted very soon (and should have done already, ideally). They’re a bit stretchy (light too far away, perhaps) and also have outgrown their pots, and so might be having trouble getting the nutes they need from your medium. Just some thoughts.

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I did move the light up, because they were getting quite close to it and the leaves were beginning to curl. I have been trying to keep the lights a foot to a foot and a half away. Is this a mistake?

DeadHeadX said:

They will use up the nutes in the soil, especially a small pot like you’re using. You should be adding at least some dry ammendment to make up for this as you go along. Good luck!

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Do you have any recommendations for amendments or a good resource to read for that? I think that is what I have struggled with for proceeding. would it be okay to just add like half a teaspoon or maybe more of the wood ash, blood meal, and bone meal? Should I be adding something else then? I haven't found any good information on the nutrients to do plants. I don't have much background with plants and I feel I really struggle with how to figure out the feeding. I think the original pots the saplings were in had too much nutrients added to it so I was more careful with these ones, possibly too careful haha.

Thank you for the information though. Knowledge is power

Sly Lycan said:

I did move the light up, because they were getting quite close to it and the leaves were beginning to curl. I have been trying to keep the lights a foot to a foot and a half away. Is this a mistake?



Do you have any recommendations for amendments or a good resource to read for that? I think that is what I have struggled with for proceeding. would it be okay to just add like half a teaspoon or maybe more of the wood ash, blood meal, and bone meal? Should I be adding something else then? I haven't found any good information on the nutrients to do plants. I don't have much background with plants and I feel I really struggle with how to figure out the feeding. I think the original pots the saplings were in had too much nutrients added to it so I was more careful with these ones, possibly too careful haha.

Thank you for the information though. Knowledge is power

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To second the above from @DeadHeadX they are stretched out and could benefit from a re-potting.

The leggy-ness and stretch are a little hard to reign back in. Is the light dimmable? Perhaps bring the light down (or raise the pots up on a riser) and dial back the intensity to see if that’ll even you out.

If you’re in soil, feed what you’d like, but remember that organic compounds take longer to break down and become plant available.

GL!!!

Coots Soil Mix Explained – ClackamasCoot (clackamascoots.com)
Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners | Grasscity Forums - The #1 Marijuana Community Online
Dr Earth dry amendments..

Sly Lycan said:

I did move the light up, because they were getting quite close to it and the leaves were beginning to curl. I have been trying to keep the lights a foot to a foot and a half away. Is this a mistake?



Do you have any recommendations for amendments or a good resource to read for that? I think that is what I have struggled with for proceeding. would it be okay to just add like half a teaspoon or maybe more of the wood ash, blood meal, and bone meal? Should I be adding something else then? I haven't found any good information on the nutrients to do plants. I don't have much background with plants and I feel I really struggle with how to figure out the feeding. I think the original pots the saplings were in had too much nutrients added to it so I was more careful with these ones, possibly too careful haha.

Thank you for the information though. Knowledge is power

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I have been using Dr. Earth dry amendments recently. Inexpensive and easy to find. Dr. Earth Homegrown and then Flower Girl. If you repot, new soil will likely have some nutes built on also.

DMChiz said:

To second the above from @DeadHeadX they are stretched out and could benefit from a re-potting.

The leggy-ness and stretch are a little hard to reign back in. Is the light dimmable? Perhaps bring the light down (or raise the pots up on a riser) and dial back the intensity to see if that’ll even you out.

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Is leggy-ness a problem btw? The light is not dimmable sadly. I am currently this budget light from Amazon. It was like $40 at the time. Eventually I want to upgrade to one of the AC Infinity ones. So far I love their products and more importantly their customer support. The lights were a little lower and the pots were on risers, but the leaves were all curling pretty badly. I kept having to raise the lights every so often.

DMChiz said:

[...] and could benefit from a re-potting. [...] If you’re in soil, feed what you’d like, but remember that organic compounds take longer to break down and become plant available.

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I do intend to re-pot them. I am currently reading though the link provided by HydroDan and figuring out the most affordable place for me to source the various bits and bobs. For the slow release of the nutrients, would it help to just have a large batch of the soil premade and let it set to give the organic compounds time to break down, or would that cause the medium to become too rich and thus detrimental to the plants? Edit: Should have finished reading more of the thread before adding that bit. Is there a way to better fertilize it in the short term? I don't have enough prepared soil currently to re-pot all six plants into the 5-gallon containers I have planned. I have been looking somewhat into liquid fertilizers that I might be able to add to the plants, but that is a whole separate level of overwhelming. I didn't realize growing in a tent and actually wanting to pay attention to all the detail would be so much of an information overload aha.

HydoDan said:

Coots Soil Mix Explained – ClackamasCoot (clackamascoots.com)
Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners | Grasscity Forums - The #1 Marijuana Community Online
Dr Earth dry amendments..

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Thank you very much for this link. I have read a lot of different soil recipes, but I actually really like this one, and its super well written. Thanks!

Edit: After ruminating and rewriting it into a format better for me, I can't thank you enough for the link to that post. It was a treasure trove of information that really set me on the right path for looking into that. Thanks ever so much! And I just realized it was two links. I only looked at InTheGarden's post. Oh boy.

DMChiz said:

The leggy-ness and stretch are a little hard to reign back in. Is the light dimmable? Perhaps bring the light down (or raise the pots up on a riser) and dial back the intensity to see if that’ll even you out.

Click to expand...

I lowered the height of the lights this evening when I went in to check on them and make sure the humidifier was topped off. I realized afterwards now, would you recommend I remove some of the lights? They are in series and it would be hard to cut them down by half or some amount. There are 6 individual lights. Do you think they would benefit from having only 3 or 4 lights? 2 lights? I can also easily change their orientation. This is what it looks like now.

Are those fluorescent lights? Is so, they can be very close to the plant as theyre not very hot (or powerful, though you can grow with them). What are the lights?

Sly Lycan said:

This is the light I am using. It is 6x LED lights.

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Ok, thanks. Not to be too negative, brother, sorry if that’s the case…but these are seedling lights, for starting plants rather than flowering them. I don’t think they’ll generate enough light for effective flowering. Also helps explain the stretch in your plants. Can you move them outside for the natural light, or can you get a more powerful light in your grow space? It’s not too much light, but rather not enough. These are demanding plants!

Maybe tie the branches down. LST (Low Stress Train) those plants to get them lower. Not much room in the tent with 6 plants though.

DeadHeadX said:

Ok, thanks. Not to be too negative, brother, sorry if that’s the case…but these are seedling lights, for starting plants rather than flowering them. I don’t think they’ll generate enough light for effective flowering. Also helps explain the stretch in your plants. Can you move them outside for the natural light, or can you get a more powerful light in your grow space? It’s not too much light, but rather not enough. These are demanding plants!

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Think we found the culprit. Based on those specs, @DeadHeadX is correct that there isn’t enough light to carry them through to a robust flowering. Certainly explains the stretch and growth pattern.
If you can swing a more powerful lighting setup that would be ideal. Not certain about your whereabouts and legality, but outdoors is an option if you have the space. GL!

I'm in the poor light group....op needs something with a better spectrum....I don't see any red at all in them.

1-Get bigger lights, 2-train the plants down so they are growing horizontally and then top all laterals growing vertically, or alternatively (better idea)..take a heap of cuttings, root them and fill the space with with a dozen or 18 plants and flower them at half the height and top so they bush out.

Mumbeltypeg said:

1-Get bigger lights, 2-train the plants down so they are growing horizontally and then top all laterals growing vertically, or alternatively (better idea)..take a heap of cuttings, root them and fill the space with with a dozen or 18 plants and flower them at half the height and top so they bush out.

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This is great advice. First I’ll give credit for growing them that big with those lights but you will suffer shortly. Agree first with need better lights. Then clone and grow more. Unsure about one of the previous comments, you have plenty of room. In the interim, while waiting or getting a new light I would top/clone/train to get them shorter after replanting and lower the lights as close as possible. If that’s a pain, see if you can find something to put under the pots to get them as close as possible, I think with those 40W T8’s they could be touching the leaves and not hurt them!

DeadHeadX said:

Ok, thanks. Not to be too negative, brother, sorry if that’s the case…but these are seedling lights, for starting plants rather than flowering them. I don’t think they’ll generate enough light for effective flowering. Also helps explain the stretch in your plants. Can you move them outside for the natural light, or can you get a more powerful light in your grow space? It’s not too much light, but rather not enough. These are demanding plants!

Click to expand...

DMChiz said:

Think we found the culprit. Based on those specs, @DeadHeadX is correct that there isn’t enough light to carry them through to a robust flowering. Certainly explains the stretch and growth pattern.
If you can swing a more powerful lighting setup that would be ideal. Not certain about your whereabouts and legality, but outdoors is an option if you have the space. GL!

Click to expand...

Mumbeltypeg said:

1-Get bigger lights, 2-train the plants down so they are growing horizontally and then top all laterals growing vertically, or alternatively (better idea)..take a heap of cuttings, root them and fill the space with with a dozen or 18 plants and flower them at half the height and top so they bush out.

Click to expand...

Mattgrows said:

This is great advice. First I’ll give credit for growing them that big with those lights but you will suffer shortly. Agree first with need better lights. Then clone and grow more. Unsure about one of the previous comments, you have plenty of room. In the interim, while waiting or getting a new light I would top/clone/train to get them shorter after replanting and lower the lights as close as possible. If that’s a pain, see if you can find something to put under the pots to get them as close as possible, I think with those 40W T8’s they could be touching the leaves and not hurt them!

Click to expand...

No, that is fine! I rather know whats going on now, rather than later down the line. I especially feel like I should know before I tried flowering them. I will just move along some of my plans and put the light on credit, no worries since its pricey enough I won't have to pay interest. Wooo!

I think I would prefer to handle them inside. Its been over 110 degrees fahrenheit every day here. I have minor temperature issues in the tent, but it doesn't usually surpass 90 degrees, other than that most of the stuff works pretty well in there. Do you think moving them outside would be too much of a temperature shock?

I have a net I can use to help push them down, would that be enough to do something similar to LST, or should I get something to actively tie them down? We have a plant limit here, and while I think of that more as a suggestion, I prefer to not have them all in one space and obviously flaunt the fact I disagree.

I can very easily lower the lights, no pain at all. I always try to set anything up so that it is modular and easy to fiddle with. I like to tweak things and optimize too much, and making it easier to do that is always in my benefit.

I think my goal will be to purchase this light from Amazon. My tent is 60x60x80, do you guys think that this light should be sufficient? It says it is 3 foot by 3 foot. Should I get something the size of the ceiling?

As always massive thanks to everyone for the advice and help!

Others may have a differing opinion, that is a good light but not for a 5x5….. unless you plan to move the plants closer to the center. The issue is you lose so much in a big tent as it doesn’t reflect off the walls. You can find cheaper decent lights that will work for a 5x5 and allow you to expand your grow later if wanting to keep it a minimum number of plants now. I don’t have the best advice on those lights though!

what I do know, I have one veg tent that is 4x8 and I run two mars hydro TS3000 that they say handle a 4x4 flower, 5x5 veg and it’s just enough. That might be a better light for you, but I’m a big Mars Hydro fan. Have like 15 of them.

for the scrog, give it a shot if not cloning. Would tie them down for a bit first as you can gauge how far you can go and each day or two can bend a little further. Can’t really move a screen down easily