Some hella NEWBIE questions *pics*

Okay, so let me make sure i understand this correctly. Or perhaps you can even dumb it down for me..
I am current using one of these for moiisture testing. It seems to be fairly accurate.. Currently and since i have potted the plants I have kept the soil in the middle of the meter. Not too high or not too low. You are suggesting i let it dry up quite some bit?


The soil i am using is a miracle grow Organic blend..

All my containers have numerous 1/4" holes in the bottom
not to mention 1inch or perlite, And a layer of newspaper.
I started following this E-book online. By SeymoreBuds.
But my plants are not even close to where the book says they should be.

My water is city tap water, UNTILL i can get some local rain. pH is 6.5.

If I am missing anything feel free to ask and i will follow up.

mcface said:

Okay, so let me make sure i understand this correctly. Or perhaps you can even dumb it down for me..

I am current using one of these for moiisture testing. It seems to be fairly accurate.. Currently and since i have potted the plants I have kept the soil in the middle of the meter. Not too high or not too low. You are suggesting i let it dry up quite some bit?


The soil i am using is a miracle grow Organic blend..

All my containers have numerous 1/4" holes in the bottom
not to mention 1inch or perlite, And a layer of newspaper.
I started following this E-book online. By SeymoreBuds.
But my plants are not even close to where the book says they should be.

My water is city tap water, UNTILL i can get some local rain. pH is 6.5.

If I am missing anything feel free to ask and i will follow up.

Click to expand...

That organic soil is definitely hot for some strains at young age, also its better to mix the perlite into the soil to make it more porous but not good to have layer on bottom of Pot IMO the soil stays very wet when you do this and yes the roots are at the bottom of the pot not sitting in water as its perlite but the soil above does not get as dry because the roots arent drinking or absorbing much of the water in the soil and if its not draining down into the perlite it will just sit and keep the soil very wet. As for the PH meter I dont use one at all as it would drive me crazy, if my pants constantly had issues I MAY think about checking. If your checking it means your always adding shit to change the PH and if you have to do this constantly then your using something wrong. I hate that MG organic as it sometimes has lots of bugs especially if Wal Mart or Home Depot kept it outside in the weather which most do. Bark with bugs sucks but once the plants get older its fine just not great to start with. Pro Mix is a clean soil less medium that contains Lime which is a buffer and keeps the soil roughly at 7 and will raise or lower to keep itself neutral. Better to add some D Lime if not already present as it will keep the PH right for you. Making sure the soil gets good drainage by adding more perlite is great and allowing it to dry a bit makes sure the roots get oxygen and not drowning with constant wetness. Get a fan on the plants too as this helps dry the top layer of soil as well as strengthen the stem and keeps the oxygen away from the leaves after its produced. I am not sure what you mean by using newspaper unless you mean under the pots. I would not use it in the pot at all and would not use the layer of perlite but just mix more into the soil and allow soil to reach the bottom of the pot not perlite alone. If you want to grow in just perlite you should look up Hempy Buckets which uses just perlite and vermiculite or perlite alone. I had the exact same look using the organic soil from MG as it was too hot and once I transplanted into a soil with no Nutes these plants exploded in growth but damage was already done and I no doubt did not get as much as I would have from them. Also sometimes its better to start off growing in a smaller container as its easier to allow the soil to dry out well and the plants can take off when introduced to larger container

So as promised here is a follow up.
These are pics of my 3 oldest plants.

The 1st pic is the same plant as then 2nd, just from some time ago.

as you can see it looked doomed from the start. The 1st set of leaves fell off quite early but it continued to grow.

The 3rd photo is another plant that well i touched, and after that it went downhill.

And the 4th pic is actually the youngest of the 3 plants, but i have not toucched it and i have been much more careful with it aswell.

I hope that all makes sense.

C - U tomorrow.

For watering, you don't want to trust that meter - they can be pretty inaccurate. When you water, do it slowly, and stop when water just starts coming out the bottom of the pot. After that - leave it alone until it dries out, when you can stick your finger about two inches into the soil and not feel moisture. Water then. You'll get to where you can tell when it's time, without doing that. If they start to droop, of course, water.

Hey Mcface, you may want to consider a more powerful light if you want you plants to grow abit stronger and faster, a 300w CFL Blue Spectrum lamp should be enough and they use very little power and cost very litte. It would be an investment in a much better crop for a small price. Also if you switch to 20/4 your roots will grow better,and more root = more buds

SensiStan said:

Hey Mcface, you may want to consider a more powerful light if you want you plants to grow abit stronger and faster, a 300w CFL Blue Spectrum lamp should be enough and they use very little power and cost very litte. It would be an investment in a much better crop for a small price. Also if you switch to 20/4 your roots will grow better,and more root = more buds

Click to expand...

Correct me if i am wrong?
I am currently using 3 x 65w(ballast wattage) 2700lumen bulbs, in the 6500K color spectrum.
Plus the 1 small fluro tube, PLUS, 2x 35W 3000K cfls.

Is that not going to produce the equivalent light source? or very close.

actually yea, sry i didnt read your original post about ur lights properly forgive me i was high :O

Have not really touched or bothered the plants too much, soil still has a damp feeling and seems moist.
The leaves seems to be developing well.
Lights are kept at a 20/4 schedule at the moment.

No nutrients have been added and the water that has been given is pH 6.4.

Anything else i should be doing?

Till tommorow.

does your soil have drainage issues? it kinda looks like it.

darkdestruction420 said:

does your soil have drainage issues? it kinda looks like it.

Click to expand...

It does not seem to have drainage, lat time i watered it all came out into the catch tray and then was absorbed within a hour or so.

the soil looks dark but is not soggy or evern 'damp' to the touch, but it still contains moisture.

Another update for all those who care.
I have pretty much left the plants untouched except for pot rotations in the last 3 days.
The soil is drying up nicely and is probably due for a watering tomorrow.

The lights are still on a 24/4 cycle and the fans are on continually whenever the lights are on.

The second pic is showing decent leaf growth daily. as far as height NONE of these plants are moving UP.

I have some concerns about the plant shown in pic #3. Its not as green as it should be, and leaves are minimal.

Any feedback is good feedback.

Until tomorrow,
Keep Growin'

I'd get new soil asap. that will ruin a grow on you easily. it should not all drain through like that, and leaving the plant sitting in the watr thats drained out can suffocate your root system. if youve got the lights close i wouldnt worry about it not getting much taller in those few days but i'd expect the branches and leaves to be growing nicely. dont worry, we'll help you through this bro, it can be scary at first. lol

Agreed. The first month or so, the plant spends more time putting down roots - you don't see much upward growth, until after that point.

Quick Update:

I gave all my plants a drink of 6.4ph water i took 1 gallon and mixed with 1tablespoon of unsulfated moleasses, tbh the water looks like pee.

i hope this dont kill the things, and only make them stronger.

I also wanted to add,
I know i should have a idea of this before begining however i dont, with soo many mixed reads i dont know where i am.

WATERING: i need a rule of thumb on how much to water when watering. (Perhaps 1/2 the pot size?)

Well, I use three gallon buckets, and I use a quarter gallon of water per plant when they are younger, and a third gallon when they are older.

Good morning to all,

I woke up this morning in anticipation. After giving the plants a drink with molasses.

BUT to my horror, not ALL went soo well.

As you can tell from the 1st picture alltho the leaves are getting darker green from the before light green, there are brown spots forming on 2 of the leaves. (AHHH is it bad doc??)

The other 2 plants seem to be getting a better green color to them aswell.

You can see yellowing on the TIPS in pic #3, but that has been present for a bit now.

Till Tomorrow,

Keep Growin'

Don't panic. Things happen a bit slowly in soil. Usually it takes a few days, sometimes longer, to see the effects of something you did. So this won't be due to what you did yesterday. Overall, I think they are looking better than they did.

I went in for a check, and opend the closet to this

the soil is damp but NOT soaked, and the other 2 plants are doing well. But this guy looks HELLA droopy.

ANY IDEAS?

BTW the previouis update pics were aked exactly 8 hours ago. Nothing has been done to them. This is the plant shown in the 2nd photo on the previous post by me.

did u stress it out? Heat, nute overdose etc...?