plants lookin sad and dry

hey fellow smokaz,
so im brand new here and i am in the start of my new grow (straight up newbie). im havin some issues with my plants and im hopin for some help. both my plants are starting to turn yellowish and looking like they just stopped growing all of a sudden, the leaves are curling in and upward. im watering every morning and have 2 60w cfls on each. they were both planted from seed the bigger one on Jan 11 2009 and smaller Jan 15 2009, i have not given them any fertilizer yet but i have 20-20-10, will that work? or is it too soon? is my lighting okay or are they too close?

When they are little like that they will yellow a little normally. It's just the roots getting set and using the nutes in the leaves to power the root growth. I think it's time to use your 20-20-10 at about 1/4 the recommended strength at most. Then it's water, water, 1/2 strength nutes, water, water, 3/4 strength nutes, water, water, full strength and so on. You'll know when to water by picking up the pot. If it feels light and you stick your pinky into the dirt to the second knuckle and it's dry, water it. Under watering is better than overwatering. The lights are actually a little high. They should be about 2" above the plants as they don't put out much heat and being florescents they don't penetrate from top to botom to well. Put your hand between the bulb and the top of the plant for a minute and if it's ok for your hand, it's ok for the plant.

okay ya that helps me out alot, i think i maybe underwatering defintely, okay i will give it the 20-20-10, is that watering schedule you mentioned a daily thing like water now with the fertilizer, then water tomorrow and the next day without then water again with more?
thanks alot for your help as well

Ditch the aluminum foil, bad hot spots, flat white paint is better than that. Poly is good Mylar is best.

I would not suggest watering everyday. Plants like to go through a wet and dry cycle.

What kind of soil is that it looks like wood chips and probably doesn't drain well. You need some Pro Mix or Fox Farms soil with added perlite 2 parts soil/1 part perlite. Since you only have 2 plants I would suggest buying gallons of distilled H20 this will help you alot. Most good soils as mentioned above have enough nutrients to sustain growth for at least 2 weeks and I wouldn't fertilize until then.

The aluminum is not as big of a problem as that soil right now.

MostlyCrazy said:

When they are little like that they will yellow a little normally. It's just the roots getting set and using the nutes in the leaves to power the root growth..

Click to expand...

Where do you get this idea from? It is completley not normal for this to be happening and is a sign of something wrong.

Really, DDub, you've never had that happen to you? Your right with the soil, it should be better. That plant is reaching for the light, needs to be watered ( not everyday use the pick up the pot indicator) and nuted right away. DDub, you think it would survive a repotting. I say get it stronger here and then repot.

MostlyCrazy said:

Really, DDub, you've never had that happen to you? Your right with the soil, it should be better. That plant is reaching for the light, needs to be watered ( not everyday use the pick up the pot indicator) and nuted right away. DDub, you think it would survive a repotting. I say get it stronger here and then repot.

Click to expand...

Nope, never without it being a sign of a deficency of some sort.

About repotting, its actually the total opposite. If let to grow in this soil under these conditions it will only get worse not able to get better or stronger. As they are now you could get all roots out of that soil but if they expand it will be a biaatch. The weaker the plant is the less chance it will survive, so repotting soon is important before they get worse and believe me they will.

Don't repot until soil is dryed out pretty well. Flip pots upside down in your hands and pat the bottom while cuffing the baby stem in between two fingers. Everything should fall out of pot and gently seperate the roots from dirt. Then Repot in better soil and water immediatley after repotting.

so i gave my plants a lil shot of that 20-20-10 this morning and it looks like it has helped with growth already within the past couple of hours. i am using just an organic miracle grow potting mix i got at home depot i read in jorge cervantes book that organic mix would be good but i suppose that one isnt good enough, where is a good place to get better soil? im using bottled water is that just as good as the distilled? and sorry for the noob question mostlycrazy but what do you mean by nutes/nuted? i also have another set of cfls should i use them? and ddub i have the aluminum foil all around the bottom top and sides and also made kindof a make shift door that hangs over the opening to keep light in, should i remove all of the aluminum and leave the door or take that out too? thanks so much for the help so far!

dude, unless yer in flower, any color other than the good ones (green, purp, etc), are a bad sign!!! Green is good, yellow aint!

yea i figured that much im just looking to reverse that problem

pokesmotsrh said:

yea i figured that much im just looking to reverse that problem

Click to expand...

Good, cause this guy-->MostlyCrazy is gonna lead ya wrong w/his whole yellow is good thing!
i

Where in the hell am I? said:

Good, cause this guy-->MostlyCrazy is gonna lead ya wrong w/his whole yellow is good thing!
i

Click to expand...

Look up transplant shock and see what it says. I've been growing in soil for 25 years and as long as you don't overreact things are fine. The plant will tell you what it needs and in this case it needs to get over the shock.

MostlyCrazy said:

Look up transplant shock and see what it says. I've been growing in soil for 25 years and as long as you don't overreact things are fine. The plant will tell you what it needs and in this case it needs to get over the shock.

Click to expand...

Not tellin him to over-react, but thats way more than transplant shock!! I've had some MILD yellowing and severe DROOPINESS fr trans shock, but his is somethin diff!

pokesmotsrh said:

so i gave my plants a lil shot of that 20-20-10 this morning and it looks like it has helped with growth already within the past couple of hours. i am using just an organic miracle grow potting mix i got at home depot i read in jorge cervantes book that organic mix would be good but i suppose that one isnt good enough, where is a good place to get better soil? im using bottled water is that just as good as the distilled? and sorry for the noob question mostlycrazy but what do you mean by nutes/nuted? i also have another set of cfls should i use them? and ddub i have the aluminum foil all around the bottom top and sides and also made kindof a make shift door that hangs over the opening to keep light in, should i remove all of the aluminum and leave the door or take that out too? thanks so much for the help so far!

Click to expand...

Soil - Try a local nursery or garden center. You can also buy off the net but with soil being heavy the shipping gets expensive. Things get more available around springtime. I was thinking also that a better idea may be to grow in what thy call a Hempy pot since your new to this. It's 3 part Perlite ( look like little styrofoam balls) and 1 part vermiculite. Look it up on the net. It's pretty simple. Get some better liquid nutrients. I use the General Hydroponics Flora series. I'd get rid of the foil and paint all the surfaces a flat white. It's the cheapest and is certainly good enough for a first attempt. More light is always good and if you think you have enough on top, through them on the side. this helps a lot when you get to flower as the think top growth will shade out the smaler stuff underneath but the side lights fill the gaps. Watt "color" are your lights - Cool, bright, warm, soft?. 6500K are better for the grow and 2700 are better for flowering. It should be labeled on the base/ballast.

Where in the hell am I? said:

Not tellin him to over-react, but thats way more than transplant shock!! I've had some MILD yellowing and severe DROOPINESS fr trans shock, but his is somethin diff!

Click to expand...

I think it also needed to be watered. It was not only using the stored sugars in the bottom leaves it was sucking them dry to get some survival water and can't process nitrogen until it gets some water. When he added the nutes and watered it was probably the water they needed as much as the nutes. Now you stand back and see what happens.

MostlyCrazy said:

I think it also needed to be watered. It was not only using the stored sugars in the bottom leaves it was sucking them dry to get some survival water and can't process nitrogen until it gets some water. When he added the nutes and watered it was probably the water they needed as much as the nutes. Now you stand back and see what happens.

Click to expand...

Okay!!!!And thats NOT SHOCK