First Time Indoor Grow Please Help

[TommyTwoTokes]

Hello, I got 3 super silver seeds from a friend. I planted them in MG Organic soil with 50% peat moss mixed in with it. I have them in 5 gallon buckets doing the double bucket method to catch excess water. I have them under a 600w MH with digital ballast for now until I switch over to the HPS bulb I have. Is this 600w ballast good for 3 plants or should I get another one?

I couldnt figure out why the soil dries out so fast, then I looked at the soil bag again and see now that it says not for potted plants. What can I do at this stage? Is it safe to transplant them to new buckets with different soil? Or Can I just amend the current soil with vermiculite that I have and whatever else I can go buy without disturbing/stressing the plants out? The root growth is so aggressive that its all over the pot and coming out of the holes I drilled in the bottom of the bucket. It has been exactly 1 month today from seed germination and the 2 plants are about 18 inches tall, the third plant is a few inches smaller.

Is it possible to tell sex at this stage even though im still vegging at 18/6? When do you guys usually switch to flowering? Id like to do it gradually to sort of mimic the natural sun cycle. Does anyone have their own personal schedule that works for this?

I have the light about 4-5 inches above the plants. The light is in a reflective hood that has a protective glass shield that absorbs most of the heat. But am I burning the tops of the plants? The upp leaves are kind of curing in and th emiddle of the leaves are light green and outer is a little darker. I have pics I will post.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Im not sure if you can tell the sex yet at this stage?

 

[ShOrTbUs]

first things first. no live links are allowed on this forum, unless the link is to a page on the forum itself. you must upload picture to the forum, and post them that way.

i cant find the thread about posting pictures. i'm sure someone will chime in get it for u.

ok, back to the plants. pull the light back a few inches. this will fix the upward curling problem. they're curling b/c the temp at the top of the canopy is too hot. #1 rule of mj growing, don't use miracle grow. it is not formulated to grow mj properly. fox farms ocean Forrest is a really good soil for mj. its good to add some vermiculite or pearlite to increase drainage though.

first thing i noticed when i looked at your pics, they look very hungry for more N. if your plants have been in the MG for about a month, then the plants prolly used up all the nutes within the soil and are in need of a feeding. the reason your lower fan leaves are becoming necrotic is b/c the plant is beginning to feed on itself due to lack of nutrients. ffof will give you about 4 weeks of food for your plants. after that you will need to feed them often to keep them growing healthy. do you have any synthetic or organic nutes to feed your plants?

from what i saw, they're not showing sex yet. also, if your going to continue to veg a little longer i'd suggest going with a 24/0 light schedule.

i'd suggest buying some FFOF soil & FF synthetic nutrients. transplant them into the new soil, and in about 4 weeks start them on a feeding schedule.

edit: forgot to comment about your lighting schedule. how many plants you have does not define how much light you need. you need 3000lumens per sq ft in veg and 5000 lumens per sq ft in flower. those are your minimums. so with a 600w ballast. i'd suggest a room no larger then 16 sq ft. 3' X 3' or 4' X 4' would be perfect.

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

Thank You, I will rectify the issue with the pics. The Miracle Grow organic soil doesnt have any added fertilizers from what I have read, I could be wrong. I am using a nutrients line called General Organics. I only started using those nutrients last week, so I think thats why I had the deficiencies like you said. I didnt have the nutrients to feed them as soon as I thought I would have or I would have fed the soil/plants sooner. I am also using water thats coming from a stream since I live out on a mountain top. I dont know if that would cause any problems or add any benefits. I am not adjusting or toying with PH just yet.

Is it wise to leave the lights on 24/0 for another few weeks? will it stress them out? I want the plants to get atleast foot bigger before I flower it if that is a good idea.

What do you think of gradually dropping the lighting to trigger flowering? Will pre flowering start on its own under 24/0 or 18/6 or does that happen as soon as its dropped to 12/12? Do you think it will help at all to gradually change the lighting schedule or make a difference?

Could I just add the new soil/vermiculite mix ontop of the current soil and let it soak/travel its way in with every watering? Would that cause them to mix instead of transplanting?

 

[ShOrTbUs]

what is your watering schedule like?
whats your temp in the room?
humidity?

if the soil is drying out really fast, then either its too hot in the room or you have a very low RH. vermiculite will only make it dry faster.

has the plant been 5 inches away from the light since it was a seedling?

edit: i also noticed that u did not partition a space for the plants. build reflective walls around the plants to increase the amount of light the plants are getting.

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

I have been watering every other day or every two days depending on how dry it feels when I stick my finger into the soil about 2 -3 inches deep. The temp in the room is about 74 - 76 degrees. Not sure about the humidity. The light has been kept 5 - 8 inches since seedlings. I also plan on changing the area that the plants are in to a more confined refletive environment very soon.

 

[ShOrTbUs]

honestly you have a lot of questions & i'm not exactly an expert when it comes to soil. i've just taken up soil myself recently. all my experience (which isn't much) comes from a hydro standpoint. but i will do my best to answer what i can.

if you only want the plants to grow 1 more ft then i would suggest start flowering right away. go straight to 12/12. considering its 18" tall after 28 days, i would even top/FIM or pinch the 2 taller plants so that the canopy remains even throughout flowering. but that is a secondary issue that can be addressed later.

you NEED to be ph'ing your nutrient solution before you feed them anything. u need a ph pen, and ph up & down. when you mix your nutes to feed the plants. you will want to let the solution sit for 24 hrs so u can buffer the ph. then check it with the pen and adjust it to the right ph.

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

Thanks for providing the info you have, I wouldnt mind letting the plants get bigger as I have a good amount of space to have them in width and height wise, so I was using 1 foot as a loose figure, I dont care how tall as long as they arnt 9+ feet . How much should I expect them to continue to grow once flowering?

from what I have been doing with the soil, I chose a totally organic mix and I am adding veganics / as close to organic nutrients as possible since I dont have a perfected organic soil mix with the nutrients already in it. From what I have researched before I bought these nutrients is that they dont need to be PHd and cannot sit or the microbes will die off and must be used right away within an hour and they shouldnt it at all. From what I have been reading there is little to no PH adjusting within organic gardening. Albeit Im not working with the ideal organic setup, I want to have a living microbial environment within the soil and was oen of the reason I chose the nutrients I did. I have read some skepticism about it but I will learn from this first try as I go along with whatever I can learn from the forums and what I have been searching.

 

[ShOrTbUs]

alright, well i'm all for trying out new things, so i'm rooting for you. how much the plants continue to grow when flowering has begun is strain dependent. ohh and forget everthing i said about the FF nutes. they're synthetic.

if height isn't an issue, then i would say keep vegging them 24/0 untill they become sexually mature or have reached a height your happy with. u'll know thwy're sexually mature when pre-flowers appear.

 

[nouvellechef]

Sounds like you got a plan. Post pics thru the little "manage attachment" icon when you type a reply down below. You can batch size your pics and label what you want using picassa(free to download). Just takes a little practice.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Getting your space smaller is important. When your plants are in a big room, the light disburses throughout the entire room. A 600W is only good for a space about 4 x 4, so you can see how having it in a big room is wasting light.

Did you buy the entire General Organics line? What exactly are you feeding them now? You also should test the water you are using to water them with. Some streams have a lot of dissolved solids in the water.

It is also a bad idea to use 1/2 peat moss as it is really quite acidic. I would check the pH of your run off. I wouldn't worry too much about using the MG organic soil even though it said not to use it for potted plants (but I would use something other than MG next time).

I would run the lights 24/7 until ready to flower. Marijuana is in a class of plants that does not need a dark period--it will grow all the time there is light. So running your lights 18/6 actually just prolongs vegging and encourages stretch. Some plants will show preflowers while in veg, so others need less light to show sex. Most plants will show around 4-6 weeks, so you may be getting close. There is really no benefit to slowly decreasing the light--we are not trying to mimic the sun (we simply can't do that indoors) We are trying to optimize all conditions. When you switch to flowering, just go 12/12.

Tell us about your ventilation. It is almost as important as your lighting. Have you checked your temps at your canopy?

Please try and post up some pics when you can. I picture is worth a thousand words

 

[ShOrTbUs]

Please try and post up some pics when you can. I picture is worth a thousand words

he had the pics up last night, but they were links to imageshack

from what i saw, other then the fact that the plants were a pale green. they look extremely healthy and happy

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

These are the pics from Yesterday

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

More pics from Yesterday No preflowers / Sex Signs yet?

 

[Locked]

They don't look bad...lil hungry it seems. It also doesn't look like you have alternating nodes yet which would indicate they are sexually mature. They seem just about ready to start producing alternating nodes now....you should start seeing preflowerssoon as well. Jmo

 

[TommyTwoTokes]

I just fed them. I tested the spring water from the stream that comes down hill and it was a little acidic. I need a more accurate test kit though. I was using these cheap test sticks. Even a gallon of poland spring read acidic but my well water tested from the kitchen sink read borderline Neutral to alkaline.


Canopy temp measured today with the light now moved to 13 inches away is 96 degrees. This is with the fan off. I will be moving them to an enclosed area that will be 3 1/2 feet x 3 1/2 feet with a better fan and ducting with a fan in that attached to the light fixtures air 6" duct blowing it out of the house.

I bought the General Organics GO kit for $35 and this is the third time feeding them as per their feeding doses ml/per gallon.

 

[BackWoodsDrifter]

Mighty green and nice lookin pilgrem wish yual good harvest

BWD

 

[Locked]

If you are not running a strictly Organic grow you will need to get your water and nutrients ph'd between 6.3-6.8. I always ph everything to 6.5. If you don't keep everything in the proper ph range now that you are feeding them you will wind up with nutrients getting locked out. I buy all my ph pens and meters from
Eseasongear.com.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yeah those look real good. They do look a bit hungry. I would suggest you get some dolomite lime and sprinkle about 1/2cupon the soil around the plants and take a fork and work it into the soil. That will help keep the PH where you need it. I would also recommend getting some Zho or Mychorrizae suppliment and put in with them as that is the microbes for working an organic setup. I wouldn't change out the soil at this point, just feed them.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

When I was talking about testing the water, I was referring to the ppms, not the pH. I had a buddy that wanted to use water from a stream on his property, but the ppms were over 400.

 

[ShOrTbUs]

if the top of the canopy is 96 degress then u need to get some air blowing on those plants soon