New Grower needs some help/advice!

[naybo013]

Hey everyone! This is my first post and my first grow! It seems like my baby girls are doing good, but I'm just not sure what I'm looking for to make sure the turn out big and beautiful. I'm about 5 weeks in and they are about the size of my palms. They are really starting to grow quickly, I check them once every 3 days or so and they seem like they are getting bigger exponentially. I have only 2 big concerns, 1. How and when can you tell whether your plant is male or female? 2. My girls' stems are looking very skinny, almost to the point where they can't support the leafs, is this normal? If not how can I thicken them up so they have more girth?

I'll post pics in a bit, just need to get the photos off my camera.

 

[Runbyhemp]

Hey naybo013, welcome to the site.

1. How and when can you tell whether your plant is male or female?

If you wait for alternating nodes the plant will start showing pre flowers, or reducing the light to 12 hours light will trigger flowering.

2. My girls' stems are looking very skinny, almost to the point where they can't support the leafs, is this normal? If not how can I thicken them up so they have more girth?

Keep the light as close as you can to the plant tyo prevent it stretching, flouros are best for this. Get a little desktop fan gently blowing on it. This will simulate the wind in nature and toughen the stem up. Airflow also prevents mould, diseases and deters bugs from laying eggs on your plant.

Good luck

 

[Growdude]

Welcome
What type of lighting are you using?

If you want to tell the sex now you can take a clone and put it under 12/12 lighting and within a couple weeks the clone will show its sex.

 

[naybo013]

I'm using two, two foot floro grow lights (70 watts each). and actually since I posted the stems have started to really thicken! Here are some of the pics I've got so far.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Your seedlings look fine. You'll need to work your way up to between 3,000 lumens to 5,000 lumens of light per/sq ft of plant canopy. Figure an absolute minimum of space of one square foot per/plant, probably more.

An oscillating fan blowing lightly across the plants will help strengthen the stems.

No nutes that young. Wait until they're about 4 weeks old and use 1/8th strength nutes then.

Good luck man!!!!

 

[naybo013]

So, I'm guessing that I'm not using enough light? I'm not sure how to tell how many lumens I'm using. What kind of lights do you guys suggest to minimize costs? And I hate to sound uneducated yet again , but when you say nutes, do you mean nutrients?

 

[Stoney Bud]

So, I'm guessing that I'm not using enough light? I'm not sure how to tell how many lumens I'm using. What kind of lights do you guys suggest to minimize costs? And I hate to sound uneducated yet again , but when you say nutes, do you mean nutrients?

Yes, nutes = nutrients

I would suggest to you that you go to the "stickys" at the top of each area, starting with lights and read them all. Then, go to the main page of this site, HERE, and read the growing information there.

It'll take you a day or two, but you need this information for your grow.

You have lots and lots to learn and since you've got plants already growing, you need to learn very quickly.

During your reading, if there are things you need more help on, just ask in the appropriate area of the forum and you'll get lots of help.

Good luck on your learning.