Plants don't seem to be growing fast enough..any thoughts?

Hey everyone. I'm in week 3 of veg and someone from my grow journal mentioned that they seem like they are lagging behind...so i'm curious as to why that may be...i'll throw some stats up here so hopefully you can be better informed...

I started out in MG Potting mix switched to Fafard 4p for transplant
had 8 cfl "day light" lights on them...the 23w 6500k kind
temps are hanging around mid to high 80's...debated about adding a co2 bottle...
grow space is roughly 4'x4'x2' with 2 intakes and a DIY AC Cooler...

anyway, the leaves are green and they look great, but for the 3rd week they may be a little shorter...they're roughly 6-7" now


here's some pics too... haven't gotten a chance to get a pH meter. I will this weekend however...and I'll be adding a 250w hps in the next few weeks as well.... let me know of any feedback or your guys' thoughts. Thanks

-mud

Dont do anything until you find out what your pH is. Any problems youre experiencing could be caused by a nute lockout or whatever- caused by a pH problem. Step one in diagnosing a problem should be finding out what pH youre watering with, and what pH your runoff is. I bought a digital pH meter on amazon.com and it works perfectly and was not expensive.

dude your plants look fine. they are at a normal height for their age and they dont lokk stretched. i wouldnt change what your doing. i the next month or so your gonna see a lot of growth so dont get impatient. i like how your using daylight bulbs too. most people dont know the difference and they just buy the 42 watt sof-white cfls. the 6500k are great for veg and once you have your hps you can have two grow rooms, the cfls for vegging and the hps for flowering. you could have fresh weed ever two months!!!

forget two months! set up a perpetual and get bud every two weeks!

Co2 for veg.....?

Add garden lime,for ph balance.Are you feeding them,if not,feed um.Thats why its always better to use clones,faster harvest.Also good quality seeds grow faster.

yeah i haven't started any nutes yet...i've been meaning to go out and grab some...any suggestions...basically what I have around me is Home Depot,Lowes and Walmart...i don't trust the MG shit but I'm thinking that's mostly what I'll find

At home depot I picked up Shultzes 10-15-10 for flowering. They also have Shultzes (which is liquid, and water soluable) for vegging. Most of the other nutes at home depot of lowes is slow release, which isnt what you want. Whatever you get needs to be water soluable. Try something like 20-10-10 for veg (IE more N than P or K). And for flowering, more P and K than N.

i have a couple in veg same set up and there same size, i will mix garden lime and perlite next time to the MG mc, the ph of soil is just too high like a 70/15/15 mix should do it

You don't have enough light to make good use of CO2. I'd say def check/correct ph, then step 2: more light = more growth, but you'll have to get that heat in check first.

SenorSanteria said:

At home depot I picked up Shultzes 10-15-10 for flowering. They also have Shultzes (which is liquid, and water soluable) for vegging. Most of the other nutes at home depot of lowes is slow release, which isnt what you want. Whatever you get needs to be water soluable. Try something like 20-10-10 for veg (IE more N than P or K). And for flowering, more P and K than N.

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Sweet, I'll probably pick some up today.

Kingb420 said:

i have a couple in veg same set up and there same size, i will mix garden lime and perlite next time to the MG mc, the ph of soil is just too high like a 70/15/15 mix should do it

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i went out and got some fafard 4p. It's basically the only soil i could find that didn't have any added nutes but the drainage sucked on it so I had to add that mixture to it and it works fine...plants seem to like it a little better than the MG...atleast my smaller seedlings seem'd to grow alot faster.

AeroKing said:

You don't have enough light to make good use of CO2. I'd say def check/correct ph, then step 2: more light = more growth, but you'll have to get that heat in check first.

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definitely...going out to get the nutes and a cheap pH meter today... i'd really like to add a 250hps and just have the other cfls for the under canopy....i might have to resort to getting one of those window shaker AC units to try and get a handle on the room temps...the electric bills going to be fucking crazy i already know it..lol. it's funny though, just my arranging the lights differently and spreading them around a bit you can change the temps atleast by a few degrees. last night they were hanging around 87 and today they're down to about 83

They sell a 150w HPS at e-conolight.com for $20. I bought two of them (well, actually four, but I traded two or halides). But theyre dirt cheap, and work great. I paid $50 total including shipping for two.

Do you have an intake and exhaust for the room? Both of these are vital for controlling your temperatures. Exhaust is most important.

SenorSanteria said:

They sell a 150w HPS at e-conolight.com for $20. I bought two of them (well, actually four, but I traded two or halides). But theyre dirt cheap, and work great. I paid $50 total including shipping for two.

Do you have an intake and exhaust for the room? Both of these are vital for controlling your temperatures. Exhaust is most important.

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I seen a 250w hps with reflector at insidesun.com for like 70 bucks so i think im going to check that one out. seems like a good deal (sucks i have to wait til the gov. gets me my tax money) But as for my box i have 2 exhausts, 1 intake that is hooked up to my DIY portable cooler ghetto-fab, makeshift AC that has a fan inside of it that blows the cool air into the other fan then that blows it into the box...THEN inside the box I have another 6" fan as well as a 12" oscilating fan...i wonder if it's a bit of over kill since plants don't really sweat so I don't know how much it's actually cooling the plants down, y'know?

Whats your humidity at?

it hangs right around 40-50%...which i think is suitable right? Ive read so much different shit on it but I thought as long as it stay around 50 then it's all good

The soil switch possibly shocked the plant and slowed it down, but it'll will jump back up.
That and maybe it's just an pure indica strain, those don't get very tall at all.

Yea id have to agree. Everything appears to be in order, and the plant looks healthy. anything above 40% humidity for veg is acceptable. For flowering, youll want to lower it to the 20-30 range. Now would be the time to top that plant though, which i strongly recommend doing.

dude, i'm so nervous about taking a razor to it...but yeah you're right, it's time to either do that or LST or something