Real Newb to Growing anything!

Hi, everyone! I am very new to growing any sort of plant. I grew a few back in grade school, lol. I jsut have some questions. I have four plants. I have 4 plants, 2 are in veg state and have been topped and 2 are a week or so away from veg state. The seeds were all planted into Jiffy organic seed starting mix. After they grew to about 2-3 inches I transplanted them into 1 gallon pots ( I know the pots are small, but have limited space, dunno if this will affect anything). The 1 gallon pots have a mix of 50% Miracle Grow potting mix w/ nute releasing balls and 50% normal dirt from backyard. I water them once a day right before I shut off the lights for 6 hours. One of my plants started to develop little yellow dots on the end of the leaves, I was told to cut off the bad part of the leaf since the plant would be wasting energy on something it can't fix, (cut them off 3 days ago, no sign of new yellow dots). One of the little ones in the end of seedling stage is starting to wilt and turn into a darker color. The other seedling seems to have nothing wrong with it (from what my limited knowledge can tell). The last and largest one is starting to turn a darker green. I do not add food for the plants since the miracle grow is suppose to feed them. I use a Sunflare 24 100 watt Fluorescence light and place it roughly 5-6 inches from tallest plant. There is also a box fan circulating air in the room, the plants are touched by the wind but do not bend. I just need to know if I am doing things at least a little correctly. Is the 50/50 mix bad for growth? Do I need to replant them into a more balanced and controllable soil/media? Am I watering them enough? Should I be adding food? The pics are uploaded, they are not the best quality. Please if you can tell me anything that might make my first grow successful, let me know please.

Let me know if the pics are not good enough, I can try and take better ones (phone camera fyi).

Welcome and good luck! My advice is to read, read, read! You will learn so much from your first grow

you shoukdnt be giving any nutes, your soil is prob hot and is burning the plant. I sprout in soil with very low nutes in it. Those little circle leavs contain nutes until the sprout is pretty big.

also growing with outside dirt isnt a good idea unless yousterilize it

zubey91 said:

Welcome and good luck! My advice is to read, read, read! You will learn so much from your first grow

you shoukdnt be giving any nutes, your soil is prob hot and is burning the plant. I sprout in soil with very low nutes in it. Those little circle leavs contain nutes until the sprout is pretty big.

also growing with outside dirt isnt a good idea unless yousterilize it

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Thank you! I wish I would of known about outside dirt and sterilizing it, total newb I know. I figured the miracle grow, even at 50/50 would be to strong for the girls. What do you recommend? Replant in a stable balanced media? I could of also shocked them quite a bit with replanting them. Or should I just go with it and see how they turn out? The lights are not too close right?

"I have 4 plants, 2 are in veg state and have been topped and 2 are a week or so away from veg state."
I'm confused, veg state is (for you) 18 hours of light 6 hours of dark. But plants all start in "vegetative/growing" state. You won't change over to flowering of 12/12hours until at least 4 weeks or more depending on how large you want the finished plant to be. 1 100W bulb is minimum for a single plant, so you'll need at LEAST 3 more to grow the four plants anywhere near their potential.
If you get dirt from your back yard you should bake it in the oven to sterilize it. (doesn't really smell up the house or anything)
Nutes pre-added into potting soil is never the best way to do things but I can't say it's for sure bad yet. Yellow spots from my experience but not seeing a picture is cal/mag deficiency.
Yellowing leaves that turn brown is either over-watering if it's happening all over, or possibly nute burn if it's happening from the bottom going up.
I wouldn't suggest trimming leaves on a plant this small though, pruning bad leaves is usually something you can do on adult month+ aged plants since it won't hurt them much, but since your plants only have 4 leaves you just cut off 1/8 of it's ability to take in light.
If I'm looking at red solo cups right now then you shouldn't have topped plants that small, and you might want to pinch* (look it up) the stems so that the grow a little thicker to support the weight of the plant. Also get a fan blowing on them softly to add to their future durability.

But overall you really need more light for those plants or they're not going to do a whole lot.
These are what you'll probably want for vegging. http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Spectrum-Lighting-Photography-daylight/dp/B0058KJNPA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378234323&sr=8-1&keywords=85W+cfl
2700k CFLs will be better for flowering
here's the best deal I found on those http://www.amazon.com/EarthTronics-4U65SW1B-65-Watt-Compact-Florescent/dp/B004WQPFCQ/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1378234607&sr=1-8&keywords=3000k+cfl

Hopefully you don't take anything too critically, just trying to be helpful.

firsttimegrower1993 said:

"I have 4 plants, 2 are in veg state and have been topped and 2 are a week or so away from veg state."
I'm confused, veg state is (for you) 18 hours of light 6 hours of dark. But plants all start in "vegetative/growing" state. You won't change over to flowering of 12/12hours until at least 4 weeks or more depending on how large you want the finished plant to be. 1 100W bulb is minimum for a single plant, so you'll need at LEAST 3 more to grow the four plants anywhere near their potential.
If you get dirt from your back yard you should bake it in the oven to sterilize it. (doesn't really smell up the house or anything)
Nutes pre-added into potting soil is never the best way to do things but I can't say it's for sure bad yet. Yellow spots from my experience but not seeing a picture is cal/mag deficiency.
Yellowing leaves that turn brown is either over-watering if it's happening all over, or possibly nute burn if it's happening from the bottom going up.
I wouldn't suggest trimming leaves on a plant this small though, pruning bad leaves is usually something you can do on adult month+ aged plants since it won't hurt them much, but since your plants only have 4 leaves you just cut off 1/8 of it's ability to take in light.
If I'm looking at red solo cups right now then you shouldn't have topped plants that small, and you might want to pinch* (look it up) the stems so that the grow a little thicker to support the weight of the plant. Also get a fan blowing on them softly to add to their future durability.

But overall you really need more light for those plants or they're not going to do a whole lot.
These are what you'll probably want for vegging. http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Spectrum-Lighting-Photography-daylight/dp/B0058KJNPA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378234323&sr=8-1&keywords=85W+cfl
2700k CFLs will be better for flowering
here's the best deal I found on those http://www.amazon.com/EarthTronics-4U65SW1B-65-Watt-Compact-Florescent/dp/B004WQPFCQ/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1378234607&sr=1-8&keywords=3000k+cfl

Hopefully you don't take anything too critically, just trying to be helpful.

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Lol. Anything critical is good to me, total newb remember. Those are not solo cups, they are 1 gallon pots. The two bigger plants (about 4-5inches high) had all sets of leaves, I cut off the very top set, which is what I thought is correct for topping. The two smaller plants have 3 sets and are growing. I will buy some more lights and see what happens. So I should not transplant them to a better media? The light I use have 4 bulbs, 24 watts each, it is 24x12 inches. So just keep watering them once a day and add more light and see what happens?

Oh then the pots are fine and topping was probably fine as well (and yes that's how you top). You might want to look into LST (light stress training) in the future to expand your knowledge at the very least.
You probably don't have to go through the trouble of replanting them, just know for next time, to sterilize to get rid of bugs bacteria mold and other plants. and avoid set in nutrients so that you can monitor them yourself.
You can potentially get rid of some of the set in nutrients by flushing the plant with water just running it through the soil (outside or in a tub or something)
You'll wanna read up on this https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/488004-guide-nutrient-deficiency-toxicity.html Because you're bound to run into one of these issues just like everyone else on here.
Don't water "once a day" just check them morning and night and if they're dry water them. (If they are constantly wet, they can get root rot)
Yeah, I would suggest those 85w for now to replace the 24w lights.
As for how close they can be, set them up and put your hand where the plant is, if it feel hot after 15 seconds move it away a little bit, CFLs don't get THAT hot, but I think 7-8 inches might be a safer bet. Maybe 12" or so once you get the 85W.

I personally grow with LEDs and love them so if you end up enjoying this and have the money you can get some of the nice LED grow lights (DON'T get cheap 14w LED off ebay or anything) Here are the cheapest high end (in my opinion) LED that would be worth the money,
http://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics®-TT-GL05-Theoretically-Germinating-Growing/dp/B005WFW7KO/ref=sr_1_3?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1378236593&sr=1-3&keywords=taotronics
or
http://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-TT-GL14-Fertilizers-Germinating-Growing/dp/B008MU049W/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1378236593&sr=1-1&keywords=taotronics
Those together would be good for 2-3 plants since they are more targeted light that hits certain areas, but they will make those plants freaking BOOM with growth.

firsttimegrower1993 said:

Oh then the pots are fine and topping was probably fine as well (and yes that's how you top). You might want to look into LST (light stress training) in the future to expand your knowledge at the very least.
You probably don't have to go through the trouble of replanting them, just know for next time, to sterilize to get rid of bugs bacteria mold and other plants. and avoid set in nutrients so that you can monitor them yourself.
You can potentially get rid of some of the set in nutrients by flushing the plant with water just running it through the soil (outside or in a tub or something)
You'll wanna read up on this https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/488004-guide-nutrient-deficiency-toxicity.html Because you're bound to run into one of these issues just like everyone else on here.
Don't water "once a day" just check them morning and night and if they're dry water them. (If they are constantly wet, they can get root rot)
Yeah, I would suggest those 85w for now to replace the 24w lights.
As for how close they can be, set them up and put your hand where the plant is, if it feel hot after 15 seconds move it away a little bit, CFLs don't get THAT hot, but I think 7-8 inches might be a safer bet. Maybe 12" or so once you get the 85W.

I personally grow with LEDs and love them so if you end up enjoying this and have the money you can get some of the nice LED grow lights (DON'T get cheap 14w LED off ebay or anything) Here are the cheapest high end (in my opinion) LED that would be worth the money,
http://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics®-TT-GL05-Theoretically-Germinating-Growing/dp/B005WFW7KO/ref=sr_1_3?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1378236593&sr=1-3&keywords=taotronics
or
http://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-TT-GL14-Fertilizers-Germinating-Growing/dp/B008MU049W/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1378236593&sr=1-1&keywords=taotronics
Those together would be good for 2-3 plants since they are more targeted light that hits certain areas, but they will make those plants freaking BOOM with growth.

Click to expand...

I would rather not "replace" the Sunflare 24's that I just bought a few weeks ago. I was thinking about buying some cfls and having them sit on the sides of the plants. So 100 watts from the top and some cfls on the sides to get the extra 300 watts I need. Also I thought of buying some white poster board to put around and below the plants to help get more light, think this should work?

Thank you all who are helping me

Alright I got ya, yeah just adding more lights means adding more cables and sockets and that can be a bit of a hassle but if you can handle adding a few more bulbs and dealing with all the heat then for sure just add them in, the more light the merrier. keep the temperature under 86 degrees F and your plants will thank you.

And the only problem with poster board is that it is actually 70% translucent with cloudy day foot candles(2500 lumens/square foot) which is less that the sufficient amount of light to grow, so it would be even brighter. By the way, I'm not an expert just had recent project that involved using white poster board and the amount of light that was transmitted through it.

But in a more positive direction. Try matte or museum board(matte board that is just the white paper the whole way through) Both are completely white, at least on one side(the white matte board sometimes has like a cream color on one side) but one nice thick coat of white primer makes it extremely white. Its quite sturdy as well, about 5.99 for a 36x48 sheet at almost any craft store. Go to the picture frame/canvas area.