Please look and see if my plants are ok...

[Amateur Grower]

Hello all,

I've just started my very first grow. I'm like a new father. I'll try to give you all the pertinent info without going into too much extra stuff.

Ordered White Widow seeds and germ'd them in wet paper towels. Went perfectly. Moved them to organic potting soil in peat pots and put under flourescent lights 18/6. No fert. so far, just added some worm castings to the organic potting soil.

These pic's are after 1 week-I became worried after looking at someone else's one week pic's on this forum. Their plants were short and already had their 2nd set of leaves. My plants are 2 inches tall (much taller than his) and only have their 1st set of real leaves. Do mine look normal?

AG

Ok, so when I press the MANAGE ATTACHMENTS button, nothing happens. I'll keep trying to post the pics.

 

[donkey942]

well im waiting and short plants in my opinion are the way to go because when the get switched over to flowering they stretch like crazy,so lets see your babys.

 

[Herm]

I think you 20 posts to post a pic (not sure)

If your plants are stretching you probably need to have your light source closer to them but its hard to tell without pics.

 

[Amateur Grower]

I still can't attach pictures to this thread, but I was able to upload some into Galleries under the name Amateur Grower. If you guys have the patience to look and find them, any advice would be appreciated.

AG

 

[Herm]

It looks like your plant is streching, what kind of light are you using and how far away is it? Do you plan on keeping it indoor its entire life or moving it outdoor?

 

[Amateur Grower]

I'm using 1 flourscent fixture with 2 of the newer, 15T bulbs, I believe. They are 34 watts each. I had the lights about 2 inches from the plant tops. Based on your 1st observation, I've already moved the light much closer to the plants-almost right on top of the leaves. I am going to do this first grow all indoors in soil.

So it seems that I was unable to upload pics before because I was using a proxy server to try to remain anonymous. So, here they are!

 

[Herm]

Make sure that its not going to burn the leaves. You can do this by seeing how close you can hold the bulb to your hand.

 

[thedonofchronic]

that plant is lacking light hard.
and put a fan on in the room, so the plant is waving slightly in the breeze, the wind gives the plant something to resist against, itll make that week stem into something fat with nice support. other then that dont fiddle with it.

 

[HippyInEngland]

Hello Amateur Grower

Lift them out of the pot and bury them deeper, bury them until just the leaves show (you have a lot of stretch caused by lack of light, caused by the light being too far away from the seedling at the start of the grow)

Then lower your lights down to about an inch above the seedling.

Leave the light on 24/7.

eace:

 

[Amateur Grower]

Thanks, Hippy and Chronic, for the advice. I have a Metal Halide light setup ready-should I just go ahead and transplant the babies into my 4 gal. pot now?

 

[thedonofchronic]

if they still look like they did in those pics
then no let them grow for a while, put them under the MH
and do proper waterings. get a fan on them
get mylar and put it on all the walls. it will make the best use of that light.
you might want to think about getting an hps setup for flowering.

 

[Amateur Grower]

Thanks Don-Yes, they look the same. I took those pic's just before I made the original post. I've already done what you said and put the flourescent light about 1 inch from them and put a fan on them. You think I should go ahead and move them from flourescent to MH now?

I did a lot of reading beforehand, and bought a 400 W switchable ballast and a MH light as well as a HPS light. I hope I can get them to that stage without killing them!

 

[thedonofchronic]

yes yes throw em under that mh.
use mylar, you want all the lumens that light gives off to go right on your plants. put that MH about a foot over the plants for week or so
then lower it as close as you can put it without hurting the plants.
they should really like the change to the mh.
they will love the hps also

 

[DirtySouthernAfficionado]

Now you're on the ball.
Definately lacking light...
Use that MH asap. Get it as close as possible, but not to close to burn the little ones.
You'll want to have that HPS for flower anyways, so good buy there....

 

[DirtySouthernAfficionado]

I wouldn't go out of my way to replant them now and bury the stem deeper, but once they have grown for awhile and it is time to move to a bigger pot, then it is more then fesible to bury it up to the first set of leaves. Helps control your hieght a bit.
Don't worry so much. Just get your lights as close as you can and get em going, they'll work it out.

 

[the pale rider]

Does any one know if it is cool to switch back to 18/6 after 12 and 12 for flowering. will it hurt the buds any, or will it make them bigger in a shorter amount of time.

 

[blancolighter]

Does any one know if it is cool to switch back to 18/6 after 12 and 12 for flowering. will it hurt the buds any, or will it make them bigger in a shorter amount of time.

Not its not cool, it will stress your plant out like crazy, stop the budding process, and make it hermie.

 

[DirtySouthernAfficionado]

Does any one know if it is cool to switch back to 18/6 after 12 and 12 for flowering. will it hurt the buds any, or will it make them bigger in a shorter amount of time.

There is such a thing as revegging your plant after you harvest the majority of the bud, if that is what you meant. And, IMO, the time to reveg and reflower does not seem to be worth it for the payoff of a double harvest from one plant.
Otherwise changing the light schedule of a budding plant is not a wise move.
On a side note, you really should open your own thread instead of posting in someone else's... just a friendly thought there.

 

[Amateur Grower]

So here's what I did-I potted the 7 lanky plants that were growing tall in peat pots into the same kind of soil in 1 galllon pots up to their leaves (or close). Moved the 400 Watt Metal Halide real close, to within 12 inches of the tops of the leaves. I could hold my hand there indefinitely without discomfort. Watered real good and they are all look much better. Even my littlest one, who was the last to germ, is looking good.
I'm using a switchable HydroFarm-XtraSun-ValueBrite ballast and reflector, but they gave me a GE Multi-Vapor Metal Halide lamp, which I'm guessing is not putting out as many lumens as the bulb made for this ballast (my reasoning is that I shouldn't be able to put my plants or my hand within 12 inches of a 400 W MH lamp running continuously).
Here are pictures after repotting. Thanks to everyone for their advice.
AG

 

[Dillan]

in my room i can get my plants to within 4 or 5 inches of my 400 with no trouble so that's normal i'm sure your bulb is fine.