New to growing; sativa dom. help, weak lighting?

Hey what's up rollitup! I'm a couple days new to the site and just recently started growing. I have three strains vegging from seeds: G13 Feminized Pineapple Express, Arjan's Strawberry Haze, and Bubba-Yum. The latter two I bought b/c they were cheap. I was told by someone who grew Arjan's Strawberry and a diff. Pineapple express seed company that Arjan's strawberry has bad genetics and the pineapple express he grew did not come out well for him.

(skip this part if ya want)Anyway- 2 of 3 seedlings died in the beginning (bubba and strawberry) Days later I soaked two new seeds for 4 hours (bubbayum and Arjan's Strawberry Haze) and put em in one coca cola bottle with light soil on the top. they both germed and sprouted some days later and as I tried to transplant one- I ripped out the root but it has still refused to die so far. I mixed some honey with water and applied to soil; and hope it might produce roots.

Now- The pineapple express sprouted on January 4th so it is 13 days old as of now. How does it look? I have been growing like this consistently: 4-7 hours of sunlight (depending on when I wake up, LOL i need an alarm but I be tired) from my window; sunlight dissipates around 3:30 and then I place them in my light and heat reflective (heat is handy at night) grow box with two 23w 6500k daylight CFL bulbs for a total of only 3200 lumens for 9-10 hours. min. 13 hours and maximum 16 hours. Yea I know it's weak, but I'm short for money.

1st Picture I shot today near my window sill; I just began LSTing her by taping down one leaf for height control and stem strength.
2nd pic I shot around 1:00 at midnight on Jan. 15.
3rd pic are the bubba-yum and arjan's strawberry haze sproutlings- I do not know which one is which because I grew in same container and didn't mark em with strong enough ink. I hope the bigger one is bubba-yum though!
4th pic is my grow box; which I have just received my 12v 120mm intake fan for it and need a power 9-12v supply to run.
5th pic is what I'm growing with- miracle-gro potting mix, it says on the back .21% total nitrogen .11% available phosphate and .16% soluble potassium (potash).

I need tips for growing sativas, height control & stem strength, light recommendations and more. Only problems I've faced is what looked like powdery mildew on tip of bottom sprout leaf I noticed two days ago, most likely from lack of aeration at night, so I cut half the leaf where it was located. Questions: where can I find and buy at least one 12v power supply/usb charger (pref. into wall-outlet) for under 10 bucks (pref. not online)? How can I maintain this sativa hybrid's height? Is the alternating light situation bad? How much will I have to change lighting now, or during flowering stage for at least minimum to medium growth? What am I doing wrong/right? Anything helps, thanks!

Looking great, your plants look healthy
Dr. Jekyll

Miracle Grow sucks, well sort of, it can work if you are careful but too often rookies love to over feed and fry their plants
Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde said:

Looking great, your plants look healthy
Dr. Jekyll

Miracle Grow sucks, well sort of, it can work if you are careful but too often rookies love to over feed and fry their plants
Mr. Hyde

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Thanks Dr. Jek, yea I keep hearing how miracle-gro sucks but it seems like my Pineapple express loves it and I definitely do not overfeed it, the nutrients in the miracle-gro are good enough. Do you recommend any light changes though? Cuz when they start flowering there could be difficulties transitioning from sunlight to my grow box!

im not sure taping down a leaf is going to do much good. you could top them and tie down branches and then add more lights (and you can get those little cfls u have within centimetres) when you can but they look good so keep it up

Sweet. Looking Great! IMO it seems Sativas always need less nutes from what I have seen. Good Luck. Happy Growing. And Welcome too RIU.

i dont wanna agree with the reputation of mirical grow soil but you get what you can afford so its better than nothing.

maybe some extra perlite mixed into the soil might improve it for your plants.

all plants can live off the soils nutes for the first roughly 2 weeks. an then your need to look into introducing nutes. now nute adding can be questionable. However keep in mind more is often better than less with nute adding.

so when you begin using grow nutes, DONT add the full recommended dose of nutes ! work up from a lower dosage (quater dose is an ideal nute adding starter point) and then slowly increase it nutes as your giving the plants a change to warm upto the nutes being used and this gives you the chance to learn from your plants when they are handling the nutes an if there struggling in any way.

grow nutes = vegging period
Bloom nutes = Flowering nutes.

and now for the idea of watering with nutes mini guide.

week 1 water ONLY
week 2 water only
week 3 water/nutes mix
week 4 water only.

thats the best easy way to explain nute feeding to a grow without sounding techinal or confusing as feck as even i have days when thats why i see when techinal growers an experince steps in an blows the newbies into WTF did they just sayville.

good luck with your grow though.

curiousuk said:

i dont wanna agree with the reputation of mirical grow soil but you get what you can afford so its better than nothing.

maybe some extra perlite mixed into the soil might improve it for your plants.

all plants can live off the soils nutes for the first roughly 2 weeks. an then your need to look into introducing nutes. now nute adding can be questionable. However keep in mind more is often better than less with nute adding.

so when you begin using grow nutes, DONT add the full recommended dose of nutes ! work up from a lower dosage (quater dose is an ideal nute adding starter point) and then slowly increase it nutes as your giving the plants a change to warm upto the nutes being used and this gives you the chance to learn from your plants when they are handling the nutes an if there struggling in any way.

grow nutes = vegging period
Bloom nutes = Flowering nutes.

and now for the idea of watering with nutes mini guide.

week 1 water ONLY
week 2 water only
week 3 water/nutes mix
week 4 water only.

thats the best easy way to explain nute feeding to a grow without sounding techinal or confusing as feck as even i have days when thats why i see when techinal growers an experince steps in an blows the newbies into WTF did they just sayville.

good luck with your grow though.

Click to expand...

hes not going too need many nutes at all if any it says on the package it has time release.

inless hes growing trees of course

its down to trial an error. and no problem at all.

I would hold off on nutes with that MG soil... Most time's it causes burns but IF YOU WANT TO ADD NUTES add 1/4 what they recommend and WAIT for around 2 weeks as one post here says. MG has slow release nute balls in the soil, usually green, that last 4-8 weeks and some times more. Read the bag for this info... Less is more... Less is more... remember this. Let the soil dry out between waterings. I pick up my cup/pot and feel the weight. After you water get a feel for how it weighs and you won't have to dig your finger in the soil to test moistness and shit potentially ripping roots. This method is the best thing I have learned and does me wonders. Also, when transplanting, saturate the soil slightly (you don't want mud consistency so add water slowly) and squeeze the pot to compress the soil then make a "V" with your finger and place them under the first set of true leafs. Flip the pot upside down and then slap that bad boy a few times till you feel the soil and root ball break free from the pot. Then plop it into your new pot. And as always, good luck on the grow!

you don't need to be tying anything down yet I just meant when it starts branching out and getting bigger that's all. good luck bro

BSD0621 said:

I would hold off on nutes with that MG soil... Most time's it causes burns but IF YOU WANT TO ADD NUTES add 1/4 what they recommend and WAIT for around 2 weeks as one post here says. MG has slow release nute balls in the soil, usually green, that last 4-8 weeks and some times more. Read the bag for this info... Less is more... Less is more... remember this. Let the soil dry out between waterings. I pick up my cup/pot and feel the weight. After you water get a feel for how it weighs and you won't have to dig your finger in the soil to test moistness and shit potentially ripping roots. This method is the best thing I have learned and does me wonders. Also, when transplanting, saturate the soil slightly (you don't want mud consistency so add water slowly) and squeeze the pot to compress the soil then make a "V" with your finger and place them under the first set of true leafs. Flip the pot upside down and then slap that bad boy a few times till you feel the soil and root ball break free from the pot. Then plop it into your new pot. And as always, good luck on the grow!

Click to expand...

Thanks alot for the extra info man! if anything I will add nutrients some time later, and if I do it would be extra nutes that miracle-gro doesn't provide like amino acids or something so she doesn't lock up absorption due to too much or too little of one thing (I think that's what happens, right?). Lol, best of luck to you too!

LetsGetCritical said:

you don't need to be tying anything down yet I just meant when it starts branching out and getting bigger that's all. good luck bro

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I was assuming you meant I should tie her down whenever but she almost seems about that age to start and the whole reason I'm doing so young is that I am a little bit concerned about my plant growing too tall b/c not only is she a sativa but I have only two lights atm and they are CFLS which don't penetrate so they'll immediately start shooting upward that's why I started doing the tape thing in the first place for a cheap LST method!