Someone PLEASE Help!

Hi everybody. This is my first grow and I'm having trouble with the growth rate of my plant. I planted on 1-26-09 and its now 2-5-09- the pics were taken today. So its been 10 days since i planted it and it is taking forever to grow. Not only that, but the stem is just sooo weak.

I have been thinking that the light and the soil could be the culprit here. The soil was dug out of my backyard and mixed with cow maneure. And I just got this blue 60W Gro N Show plant light from walmart yesterday. Does it help? It doesn't say what spectrum of light it puts out but I can only guess it would be 6500. Also, I have been watering every day- could that cause this problem? I am going to cut down to maybe 3 times a week. Would that be reasonable?

So I got like $12 floating around in my wallet- what should I invest in? I really do think the soil may be the problem here. I have planted 2 other seeds after this one and both of them ceased to sprout. Please help.

This looks like a funny icon lol

sorry i left out the pics

i think soil would be a good investment that soil looks compact your roots need air. i would also fill the cup to the top to bury those stretched stems and get some air movement on them to strenghthrn them up. thats where i would personally start anyway.

ok it looks like the soil is fine just add a more but it is drooping because its overwatered, i would suggest letting the little guy dry out until it seems recuperated then just remeber to stick your finger in the soil and when its fairly dry 2-3 inches down water you plant. and with the bulb all you have to do is go to home depot or whatever and get a compact flouescent (cfl) they're those new twisty energy saver bulbs, at least a 20 watt bulb should do nicely for your veg cycle; remember to hit a hardware store for that not walmart because they wont have a high enough wattage.

Good Luck!

I already have a CFL tho. In fact i used to have it in the place of where the new blue bulb hanging down is now. I also have a 65W flood light that would work in there as well, but the problem is that I can't put in any more bulbs because I have nothing to screw them into. I should probably go to Home Depot to pick up something that splits one socket into two. And the reason I'm not using any of the other two right now is because they are both warm lights. What do you think?

Thanks man.

canadianmade said:

i think soil would be a good investment that soil looks compact your roots need air. i would also fill the cup to the top to bury those stretched stems and get some air movement on them to strenghthrn them up. thats where i would personally start anyway.

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I have a Walmart and Home Depot nearby. What soil would you recommend? I hear a lot of people advising to stay away from miracle-gro.

sorry these are all screwy lol, yea miracle gro soil is bad i jus made my own mixture out of bark compost perlite and peat moss or use super soil but add perlite and bark for better air flow and water retention

Go to www.foxfarmfertilizer.com they have a place that will show you places in your area that carry their products. Get the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.

w00t w00t blzbob! I left to go buy some cheap soil at Home Depot or something minutes before your post, but got distracted and turned back home for a sec and checked back on this thread. I saw your reply and found the closest place selling Fox Farm soil. I just got some really good soil (not Fox Farm, but still some good stuff).

Thanks for the suggestion. This soil looks really nice. I got it for cheap too.

im personally using pro-mix from the local hydro shop. you could mix your own but on your budget i would buy premixed. the bail i bought was about $20 and barely fit into my trunk. i guess its up to you buy soil that has nutes in it? or no nutes then you have to buy nutes too? everyone does things differntly i suppose were all experimenting good luck hope this helps

The kind of soil I have is by GreenAll and its organic potting soil. Its got earthworm castings, bat guano, kelp meal, feather meal, and greensand. Is that sufficient? I also have some maneure laying around, is it a good idea to mix it in? Hopefully with this soil I won't have to add any fertilizer- or do I?

NO MANURE it will mess up your plants, just use the stuff you got. You will have to add nutes but not for a while. Then use the fox farm nutes, on their site they also have a feeding chart for soil and hydro just pick the soil button and it will show you what to use and when. Good luck with your grow.

your stretching ur plant pretty bad how far away are you keeping your bulbs from the top of the plants. keep your bulb like 2 1/2 - 3 inches away to make it grow wider and more bushy

blzbob said:

NO MANURE it will mess up your plants, just use the stuff you got. You will have to add nutes but not for a while. Then use the fox farm nutes, on their site they also have a feeding chart for soil and hydro just pick the soil button and it will show you what to use and when. Good luck with your grow.

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Thanks for the advise. I think that is another big change that will ensure my plant's life. I took the little plant out of the hard chunks of what I used to call soil and into my new potting soil then watered it. Some long roots broke off but they will redevelop right? I'm surprised how nicely the water just runs out of the pot now. And a feeding chart was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch man. I will smoke my first hit in the name of beelzebub.That deserves a +rep.

KittenKiller said:

Thanks for the advise. I think that is another big change that will ensure my plant's life. I took the little plant out of the hard chunks of what I used to call soil and into my new potting soil then watered it. Some long roots broke off but they will redevelop right? I'm surprised how nicely the water just runs out of the pot now. And a feeding chart was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks a bunch man. I will smoke my first hit in the name of beelzebub.That deserves a +rep.

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Thanks kittenkiller if there is anything else we can help you with just let us Know.

Ya I got another issue- tommorrow will be the third week since I planted this one. Doesnt it just look too small for it's age? I think there might be something slowing down its rate of growth. Not sure what it is though. But since I havent watered it a few days ago, I saw the first change in a while- the newest leaves on the top formed. Am I still doing something wrong?

I also see that one of the newer leaves has some yellow on it. What does that mean? I recently transplanted it into some really good soil and know its still alive.

Oh yea, I also came across something called Flourish Excel CO2 plant supplement. Heres the link to it: http://www.amazon.com/FLOURISH-EXCEL-Plant-Supplement-100ML/dp/B0002A5WQU/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1234075057&sr=1-45

Is that a good substitute for a CO2 tank?

Thanks again all.

No your plant is fine, those two little round leaves always yellow and fall off, The plant only needs them for two to three weeks.
You have new growth which is good but you just transplanted to good soil a couple of days ago give your plant some time,after the two round leafs fall off you can use your nutes at half strength to give it a boost. About that Co2 supplement that is for use in fish tanks with plants not for soil. You should really give your plant a couple weeks to bounce back, it had a ruff beginning(lol) don't over water it wait till it needs the water.

Update: Saturday 2-14-09

Heres a pic of my setup as it is now. i also got a red-spectrum 65W floodlight and 20W CFL laying around because i have no more sockets to put them into.

also, im wondering if it is a good idea to have my fan blowing directly at the plants or not. How many times should I be watering it now?

saving up for a 600W hps for my next grow

thanks

it sounds like your plants are stretching for light. Those bulbs may not be the best to use, and probabaly arent close enough either. put some more soil in loosely and try not to water too much!! too much water will kill your plants! Stick your finger into the soil an inch or so and if its moist, dont water it! this early on the plants should not be getting watered every day. Dont forget that an extra light or two wont hurt

So it's been a while now and heres how my plant looks like.

The first is a pic i took yesterday to show that it had become root bound for a while. I transplanted it into a large (probably 5 gallon) black pot as the next pic shows. this plant is actually 1 month old.

Its growing slowly (i admit i fucked up early on by overwatering it) but the reason for this post is because the leaves are seriously drooping down and I just cut the first couple of fan leaves that grew because they were completely yellow. what am I doing wrong?

The last pic is of a plant just a few days younger than this one but looks like its only 4 days old. wtf? do you think its not growing bc the container i have it growing in is too small?

also gimme some feedback on my closet grow setup.

thx all