New to this

[joenikkles]

Wassup everybody? This is my first time here so please bear with me. I have 3 plants growing. Im not high tech, just a grow light, some 8 inch pots, and miracle grow soil. With this setup my plants grew from seedlings to about 9inchs tall within 2 weeks. I "was" impressed, but now they seem to be lacking something. ??? The stems are fat up twords the top, but by the base they are smaller. Is that a nutrient problem? Also they seem to have slowed down alot.
Before I had the grow light I had them in direct sunlight 12/12. The whether haas been overcast in cali recently and I started them on a 18-6 schedule and I think they dont agree with me. Also I stopped watering twice a week to only once, thinking that would fix my problem... some one help me and my ladies. :(

[midwestbluntman]

joe man do ya have a digi cam?seeing them would help considerably.Give us the low downs man,whats your temps humidity and all the goodies man.my gues is that they stretched for the sun light and that made the stems weird out on ya but a piccy would help alot .

[joenikkles]

im working on that now

[joenikkles]

oops

[joenikkles]

<a href="http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=74574775ks0.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/8031/74574775ks0.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/8031/74574775ks0.th.jpg (http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=74574775ks0.jpg)

[CB]

think ya phone cam is stoned :p

[joenikkles]

:D

[midwestbluntman]

That piccy does suck,but you can see that there is a good space between nodes.So im going with my first guess bro.not to woory get them some good light as close as possible without burning.just hold your hand above the tops and see what the heat from the light feels like.

[joenikkles]

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/7227/62913765sn9.th.jpg (http://img412.imageshack.us/my.php?image=62913765sn9.jpg)

[RedEyezzzzz]

Yeah, I'd like to know what kind of light do you have? Might be time to consider putting them in bigger pots too.

[Shadows]

Yeah, I'd like to know what kind of light do you have? Might be time to consider putting them in bigger pots too.

Agreed on the light man. I've seen in the past, people say they got a grow light when all they got was an incandescent light with a coated bulb. Purely a BS grow light.

Go to the store, most all have them now, and look for the twisty type screw in flourescent bulbs. 5-10 bucks each, and buy the biggest one you can. If you can only get a 22w or similar, buy 2.

How are you controlling the climate around that plant?
is a fan blowing towards it, but not directly on it?
How far away from your currrent bulb is it?

[Thoth]

Hey Joenickles. Welcome to HGB bro.

No worries about first grow, it's always a bit confusing and maybe disheartening. I say, it's hard to know how to do something without doing it first. In the picture the plant is green, so it's not as if it's dying or anything. But it is kind of skinny and stretched, probably wants more light.

Like everyone else asked: What kind of light are you using? And, Shadows is completely right. I don't know why they call those incandescent bulbs "Grow Lights" when a fluorescent light works much more efficiently.

grow on-
thoth

[joenikkles]

Im going to try what Thoth suggested with the fluorescent light. I just started with the fan also.

[Jr. Greenthumb]

Hey joe....

Welcome to HGB. I seen you left "Karma" for me from the basic grow guide I wrote a while back so that is the direction I would have pointed you in anyway. I guess you beat me to it.......

ANyhow bro, when I started growing indoors I didn't have a clue what the hell I was doing. I had grown outside many times and then I always used Maricle Grow too. We refer to it as MG alot if that confuses you. not Mg, magnesium..... Anyhow.

My forst grow I started off with a couple flourescent light bulbs, the 2' ones in a cabinet. Actually one of the lights was a black light fixture I put a regular bulb in and the other was an aquarium fixture I put a regular bulb in. I say regular I mean kitchen bulbs. Like my lil grow guide says you have 2 main growing light colors; Blue which is 6500k and red, yellow, orange whatever you want to call it but it is typically 2700k. The whiter colors that are for kitchen use sometimes are 4500k and aquarium bulbs are generally 10,000k. Regardless. I just got lucky, the only reason I used them was because I remembered my uncle told me years ago, when I started plants in my bedroom to put out in the fall, NEVER use a regular lightbulb. Always use a flourescent. He was a weed growing hippy from the 60's. He's passed on now but that is where it all started for me.

I guess the whole moral of the story is, it is a weed. it may not grow the best in the world for you the first time and you may get real frusterated but hang in there and learn from your mistakes and don't give up. I started out from that little cabinet in a dingy basement to what I have now. a $2500 hydro grow chamber..... I couldn't sell it for that but that's what I have in it now, with all my gadgets and shit. I still use that cabinet I started with it has just been upgraded a few times or so.

I now use in that cabinet a few screw in bulbs and I only use it for seedlings and clones for the most part but it could grow a couple plants if you flowered them early and possibly did some LST. (read up on that, Low Stress Training)
I am currently growing some plants in that little cabinet and going to take them up thru the stretch phase of flowering so I can clone the females then I will go back into my main cab. Anyhow, below are a few pics that will maybe give you a little more insight. I know I am sorta rambling on but I keep getting interupted every 5 minutes here. 3 kids and a wife that'll happen huh.

one more thing, try to ditch the MG if you can. Find something a little more suited for MJ. If that isn't possible, be VERY carefull with it, use it very sparingly. If the leaves are dark green they don't need fed. If the are light green then they MAY need fed. I grew with MG so I am telling you from experience. I cycle was: water, water, feed, water, water, feed, water, let dry out really really good till it starts to wilt a little, Flush, feed, water, water..... so on. Basically I fed every 3rd time and flushed every other feeding. using MG you need to flush alot.

Hopefully I didn't confuse you any. If so ask and I'll try to explain a little better.....

Oh, and be careful with the fan. Don't let it blow too hard on the plants that young. If they Over transpire you can run into more issues. Just let it have a gently breeze in the room so you can see the leaves gently moving. If you have to point the fan in a direction away from them to get the airflow to bounce back that can be very helpful too.

Jr.
Good luck

[joenikkles]

that was helpful, thanks alot 4 taking the time to explain things 2 me. i read the basics which was awesome. I looked @ the 3rd pic u posted of the babies, and i think thats more or less where i expected my plants to look like, but instead they are way stretched. 14" to be exact and it seems like all the pics and vids ive seen have shown plants growing horizontally at this stage instead of vert. I guess Its safe to say what do i expect from my first grow. maybeill have better luck next time, 4 all i know the could be 2 males. but thanx 4 the info.

[thecowboy]

[QUOTE=joenikkles;
Before I had the grow light I had them in direct sunlight 12/12. The whether haas been overcast in cali recently and I started them on a 18-6 schedule and I think they dont agree with me. Also I stopped watering twice a week to only once, thinking that would fix my problem... some one help me and my ladies. :([/QUOTE]

This seems backwards to me ...you veg your plants on 24/0 or 18/6 then flip to 12/12.
Put them back on 18/6 for another month or 2.
Hope she don`t hermie on ya joe.
cowboy

[ice#1]

hey jr. are those 2 bulbs in the center of the first pic the 135 watt clfs blue i like the little suckes got 4 of them in my flowering room to light up the corners and add a little extra blue to the room make the strawberry cough realy dense when i put them an inch or so from the bulb

[Jr. Greenthumb]

No Ice they are actually cfl's from walmart. I have a light meter and I got to testing the different bulbs I found to see which laid the best light on the plants and the regular bulbs, I have 4 in there, spread more light to the sides than they do onto the ground so to best get light I need to mount them sideways. The other bulbs, the twisty ones I have 2 of, put down most of the light straight down to the ground. I think they were designed for ceiling use rather than lamp use like the others. But they are actually 35watts, I think they were supposed to be equivelent to 125 incondescent. Sorry for the spelling, were drinking some good margerita's.....