slow growth?

i have 6 sour diesel seedlings that are around 2-3 weeks old. They are in a large cooler in 6 inch pots with a decent soil mixture. i have them under three 40 watt flourecent bulbs which i keep on 24/7 along with a small fan. i think i may have over-watered them in the first week or so but now i have an appropriate watering schedule. although it has been 2-3 weeks the plants are still small (about 2 inches tall and just a few small leaves.) most of them look healthy but they look much smaller than all the pictures i have looked up of plants around the same age. I have one whos leaves turned yellow. i fertilized 2 days ago with a diluted mixture of fertilizer and it didn't seem to affect anything. does anyone know of any factors I could have overlooked that would affect the growth rate of these plants?

I think it might just be the CFLs. Cfls are good for small grows but 6 plants requires alot of light. For the money HPS lamps are the best way to go when you look at Cost/Efficiency
remember a plant needs water, light and c02 to grow. It can only grow as fast as your weakest part of the three allows. If you have good water/nutrients and c02 but a 100 watt bulb it can only do so much. You have to give it all 3 in good amounts.

Lexluthor400 said:

I think it might just be the CFLs. Cfls are good for small grows but 6 plants requires alot of light. For the money HPS lamps are the best way to go when you look at Cost/Efficiency
remember a plant needs water, light and c02 to grow. It can only grow as fast as your weakest part of the three allows. If you have good water/nutrients and c02 but a 100 watt bulb it can only do so much. You have to give it all 3 in good amounts.

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thanks for the quick response. I should have said i have 3 flourecent plant tubes. I don't know too much about the lighting but aren't flourecent tubes different than cfl bulbs? Would tubes be better? and also do you know if I can purchase HPS lighting at harware stores or places such as lowes or the home depot or do they have to be ordered online?

yea man you will definitely need to get more lights asap. I have 40 watts on just one sproutling. You will want about 10000 lumens per plant, which could be up to 10 CFL's in ur growing area. But once it goes into flowering you should get an HPS light.

is hps halogen?

NYC Diesel said:

yea man you will definitely need to get more lights asap. I have 40 watts on just one sproutling. You will want about 10000 lumens per plant, which could be up to 10 CFL's in ur growing area. But once it goes into flowering you should get an HPS light.

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well my plan is to grow these to a certain point and then make cuttings off of them and transplant them outside so i wont go through flowering indoors. is it safe to just let them grow slowly and add more flourecent light because I don't want to invest in HPS when im going to do all my growing outside. The plants I have now are more of an experiment for when spring comes.

HPS stands for high pressure sodium

yea thats fine pack, im doin the same thing, starting cfl inside then transfer outside

High pressure sodium

What kind of soil are you using? Did you push it down when you planted? Describe your ventilation system.

AeroKing said:

What kind of soil are you using? Did you push it down when you planted? Describe your ventilation system.

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right now I am using a mixture of peat moss and a professional grade soil used for germination mixed with a just a little bit of sand. the soil drains well and clumps together when compressed. I tried to keep the soil as loose as possible when I transplanted into the pots... As for ventilation I have two 3-4 inch holes drilled in both sides of the cooler with a small fan placed directly in the cooler on the plant's level with the back facing towards one hole so it sucks new air in and pushes it across to the other side and out of the other hole. This whole setup is in a closet.

So, the soil has time release fertilizers in it? Any signs of nutrient burn? Are you letting the soil dry out between waterings? What's the temp in the room?

AeroKing said:

So, the soil has time release fertilizers in it? Any signs of nutrient burn? Are you letting the soil dry out between waterings? What's the temp in the room?

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i used a diluted dose of miracle grow. I don't know if that is time released fertilizer. there doesn't seem to be any signs of nute burn. the yellowing happened before i ever fertilized and now after it has been 4 days they look pretty much the same and maybe starting to get a little worse but at this point its not too bad. the soil is now dry completely and i am planning on watering today. In the beginning I wasn't waiting for soil to drain out before watering again (probably watering once every day or two.) but now for the past week or so I have been. I'd say the tempeture is somewhere between 70-80 degrees (probably around 75)