Very Newbie

Im very new to growing. Im growing outside. Looking at these pics, what stage is the plant? What do I need to do? Basically I don't know shite about growing. Please pump me full of knowledge. Thank you guys.



I'm , but I wanna be .

Hi Chief,

How long have you had this plant outside? And is it getting any sunlight where you have it? It is very, very stretched which is a sign that it hasn't had enough light. And have you thought about nutrients yet? It looks like it might be ready for some, but that will depend on it's age and the type of soil you are using etc. Can you give some more info please? The first thing I would do is support the plant with a bamboo came before it falls over and snaps. If this plant ever fills out and / or produces buds the stem won't be able to support the extra weight. And get it plenty of LIGHT! Also read the GROWFAQ which are a wealth of knowledge, especially BEFORE you start using nutrients. You don't want to overdo it. Good luck.

Thanks for replying....

Been outside for about 3-4 weeks. I just added a plant food "stick" to the pot. Soil is from store, has the little white balls in it. It actually gets light all day long.

what he said ^^^^

Wow, sun all day for 3 or 4 weeks eh? Only other thing I can think of causing the stretching is temperature. Does it get very cold at night where you live, I mean compared to the daytime temperature? That can cause stretching. On a second look the leaves look reasonably healthy albeit a bit on the small side. Are they just pale in the first two pics because of your flash perhaps? What are the little white balls in the soil? If they are slow release nutrients then I would recommend you remove the food stick for the time being. You still haven't told me the age of the plant which might make a difference. On the other hand the little white balls could be perlite or vermiculite. You need to check the package of your soil and see if it contains nutrients and let me know. Giving too many nutrients, especially when the plant is young, can cause a lot of damage.

Temps during the day right now are 85-90, and at night 72-77. The humidity here is normally pretty damn high, which I just read can cause stretching. Im not sure if that applies to outdoors though.

The plant itself is about a month old, and the leaves are very green, my camera didn't do the color of the plant justice.

Should I bring her inside at night to get some extra light? I don't have any fluorescents, how about under a regular lamp?

also, when will I know if it is a male or female??

Yes, if it is very humid that can cause stretching. Also if there isn't much breeze where your plant is situated this will not help matters - it won't help it to develop a thick, strong stem, and also the plant may not be getting enough CO2 as the air around the leaves tends to become "stagnant" as the plant uses up the CO2 in the immediate vicinity with no more CO2 coming in to replace it.

If I were you I'd try to make sure that during the day the plant is situated where there is a breeze if at all possible. Also bring it in at night and put a moving fan on it so it simulates an outdoor breeze. This will help to thicken up the stem. Finally I'd try to get my hands on a few CFL bulbs, the daylight (cool) ones, high wattage, and put them as close to the plant as possible (usually a couple of inches) without burning the leaves. They don't get very hot, just use your fingers to test the temperature at the leaves. Do this for a week or so and see if there is an improvement.

[I'm a great one for allowing plants to have a period of darkness as they need to respire sometimes in order to break down food etc just as we do, so I wouldn't recommend the 24 hrs of light for TOO long, but that's just me. I'd worry more about getting that stem thickened up at the moment.]

As regards, feeding, let me know more about your soil if possible. From the pics I don't see very many white balls in the soil, and they look very small, so it could very well be slow release fertilizer in which case I wouldn't add any more food just yet. Remove the food stick just in case, and try the light and fan treatment for a week and see how it goes. Just keep your eye on the leaves and make sure they don't start to turn pale green / yellow (don't worry too much about the very top shoots as they often go pale in strong sun), or develop brown tips, margins or spots. If so your plant is probably hungry.

Also does your pot have holes in the bottom? This is important so the roots don't get waterlogged. If it doesn't, you need to re-pot. If it does have holes, are there any signs of the roots coming through? If so, again you should re-pot to a bigger pot, at least 10 or 15 litres. All of this will help to make sure your roots are doing their job and getting plenty of food and water to the stem and leaves.

You won't know the sex until it starts flowering, not for another 4 to 8 weeks possibly. The FAQs have info on how to check.

Sorry this has been so long. Come back if you have any questions. I'm a beginner myself but you have to learn fast. If I don't know the answers I'll try my best to find someone who does.

greenb.

Thanks, I'll be bring the little lady in side at night. Until I can get some CFL's should I use the fan in the dark or with the plant under a regular light??

Sorry for all the questions, I just wanna get this right.

UPDATE:

One other thought has occurred to me with regard to re-potting. I'm wondering whether, ideally, it might be a good move to re-pot now regardless of the root situation. You see that little tiny what looks like a white, withered leaf hanging down from the left hand side of you stem in Pic 3? The really tiny one at the bottom? That looks like a cotyledon leaf which is dead. Under normal circumstances I would want the stem buried up to, say, just below the level of this leaf. This would greatly strengthen the stem straight away and would give it a much stronger base to work from with your fanning etc.

However, this is going to have to be done incredibly carefully so as not to cause shock to the roots, and I'm not sure how you would manage it without damaging the stem as it is. You are on the spot Chief and better able to judge the strength of the stem. Would it be possible to turn the pot over and allow the root ball (with all soil) to slide out, turn it back over again and place it in a new pot without breaking the stem in the process? You would undoubtedly need more than one person to do this in my opinion, one to hold the root ball and one to SUPPORT (not hold) the stem. If you don't think it could be done, then at least fill the existing pot to the rim with soil to bury as much of the stem as possible as a temporary measure.

If on the other hand you think you could do it then you need to bear this in mind. You have a long piece of stem there below the cotyledon leaf, plus your roots below that again of course, to bury in the new pot. And Marijuana plants like to send their roots deep. So I would go for a tall pot, preferably a square pot if you can get your hands on one, but not essential. And don't get a black one, as these absorb heat like crazy and fry your roots good. Go for white or terra cotta or something.

Secondly the transplant would have to be done very, very carefully. I see some people dry the soil out almost completely, which allows it to shrink and slide easily out of the old pot. BUT I can only see this working if you have a very large root ball in there to hold the soil together, which I doubt would be the case here. The method I use is to thoroughly soak the soil with water and then let it drain for a couple of hours. I then, very carefully, go around the inside circumfrence of the pot with a knife to loosen the soil from the side of the pot. On turning the pot up the soil mass usually slides out. Have your new pot ready filled with soil, with a hole in the middle the same size as your old pot. Then carefully turn over the plant and set the soil mass down into the new pot. This is normally where it will fall apart if it's going to do that LOL, so be prepared.

I believe doing this would greatly increase you chances of ending up with a strong plant as quickly as possible that might go on to produce the goods (if female of course). However, the decision is yours based on your assessment of all the factors mentioned above. If done very carefully, I think you might just get away with it, but again it's up to you. A bit of a cop out on my part I know, but there you have it

greenb.

Chief Green 1 said:

Thanks, I'll be bring the little lady in side at night. Until I can get some CFL's should I use the fan in the dark or with the plant under a regular light??

Sorry for all the questions, I just wanna get this right.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with a regular lamp as, if anything, that will just cause the plant to stretch even more as the light will not be the correct wavelength and won't be bright enough etc. That's why when you get your CFLs it's important to get the daylight (cool) ones and get them as close to the plant as possible..

Feel free to go without the lamps if you want, but I really think you need some serious foliage growth going on there for a while to get that plant feeding itself up.

No problem with the questions, as you can see I just hit you with a big dilemma regarding re-potting LOL. I'm sure you'll have more - no worries

greenb.

I think with my wife's aid we could pull it off. VERY carefully of course. Would a 5 gallon bucket do the trick?? I know I would have to poke holes on the bottom, I have some white 5 gallon buckets.

Im gonna get the CFL's in the next couple of days. When I have the CFL's, would I be better off keeping it inside under the lights? or outside during day and cfls at night, etc..

What's that about 20 litres? It's pretty big but I think it would be fine. You can argue that incremental size-ups are more beneficial for the plant in that it can more easily start to fill up a "smaller" bigger pot (does that make sense? LOL) thereby giving a more solid foundation more quickly, but on the other hand it may mean you have to re-pot again further down the road which means more risk of root shock etc. I have my plants in 10 litre pots at the moment and I don't think they're going to be big enough. But transplanting from 5 litre pots was bad enough - I definitely don't want to even consider trying it with a 10 litre. So yeah I think it would be fine.

Don't forget to measure your depths carefully before you start as the whole point of this procedure is to end up with your stem buried up to the cotyledon leaves. You don't want to set your plant too high in the new pot and end up back where you started LOL (I've done it so I know how stupid you're going to feel hehe).

Oh and you're going to need plenty of soil If you have to buy more, get good quality nutrient free (ie NO NUTES) soil and then go for liquid feeding. It's safer as long as you're careful not to overdo it. If you still have enough of your existing soil to fill 5 gallons then don't worry, just use it. You also want to have about 20 percent perlite mixed with your soil for proper drainage etc, so again if you are using your existing soil, check if there is any perlite in it (doesn't look like it). If not you'll have to get some.

Sounds like a plan. The procedure is scheduled for tomorrow........

When I get the CFLs, should I just keep it inside all day under the CFL's or what do you suggest?

Nothing beats the sun Chief. Breeze helps, but as long as you get the fan on them at night I would definitely prefer the sun during the day. Here is a plant of mine at five weeks - it was under lights at night / sun by day for the first week or so, and outside ever since:



The sun, and plenty of breeze, did that. So that's what you're aiming for. Glad you're going to re-pot, I hope it goes well and I wish you all the very best. Just go slowly and you should be OK. Make sure you give it a real good soak and let it sit for 2 hrs before using your knife and turning her over. Two or even three good hands on the soil mass, one or two supporting the rest of the plant. Just watch that moment when you turn her over again. As I said, that is when it can all fall apart LOL.

Right, I'm off to bed shortly (03:00 hrs here), but I should be around tomorrow off and on if you want to give me a shout. Good luck

greenb.

PS Thanks to you I'm now a "Marijuana Toker" - cheers for that

lol, no worries.....thanks for the help.

LOL - I'm away now. Speak to you tomorrow.

Well, have you guys done the dreaded deed yet LOL? I'm hoping for good news and some great pics of your newly potted and much happier looking plant.

Actually I really just wanted to direct you to this page which has some excellent info on CFLs GROWFAQ. Hope I'm not too late. I'm not much into lights, favouring the great outdoors, so I hadn't seen this page before. It's very well done.

greenb.