Advice needed - first grow - what am I doing wrong?

Morning beautiful people!

Right!...any advice is greatly appreciated. I will say this now, I am a girl, I have been looking into growing my own cannabis for a while now but never seem to have the money. By a miracle I now have pretty much a complete set up!...but I need help! I'd like advice on what I've got and what bullshit I've been told!

My little tent is only 1.2x1.2 but perfect for the space I have. This is my house so I have no issues with keeping it top discreet although I do have visitors so it's kept out of the way! I have a 400w bulb set up with 400w ballast, complete extraction system, & 4 x 15" clip on fans for circulation! Now...is that okay? Completely wrong? My light is at its highest point at the minute, I'm hoping to grow around 4-5 successful plants at a time, is this too ambitious for my space? Should I have less?

My tent when on stays at an average of 25-29c and from what I can gather the circulation is 31% (RH) is this also related to humidity? Do I need a separate metre reader for that I've currently just got a standard max min thermo- hygro? Do I need to up humidity and invest in humidifier? Would that cause problems to my plants being that low?

Now I started my little beauties in a propagator with Rockwell(or what ever they are called please correct me so I can learn!) and popped straight into small 3" pots with coco soil, I water them once pots are placed in the propagator with room temp adjusted pH water(6.0-7.0). But how much should I be watering? I'm worried this is where I go horribly wrong! Should I be adding any nutes at this stage or not? I pop the lid on and close the vent.

I leave in a warm well lit (but not direct light) room. After 3-4 days they sprout..is this too long? About right? After about the 7-8 day they have a couple of little nice sets of sprouting leaves, i start opening the vent around this stage too! I water around the 10 day stage again with room temp adjusted pH water but even then the soil is still damp! Should I be doing it less or more frequently? Once they've established around 8 nice looking sets of leaves I transfer into a larger pot with soil. Should I have some sort of drainage material in bottoms of my pots? Perlite? I find the compost isn't drying out like other posts say it should. Is this where I'm going wrong?

After the 3rd week -4th week I put them in there final pots. And this is where they die. My timers are on 18/6 for the veg stage, I start with canna coco A&B in pH adjusted water, should I adjust pH before and after mixing nutes? Is the pH in l draining water that comes off your plants the vital key to what's going on in the soil? I haven't got a decent pH reading kit so what's the best to buy? Uk based possibly?

The nutes I was advised and bought ; canna coco A&B, cannazym, boost accelerator, PK 13/14, and Superthrive.
Should I avoid any of those? Or add any too that? I use coco soil, been reccommended bio bizz is this better? Any better uk makes? Should I invest in perlite or clay for drainage? More fans? Humidifier?

Id really appreciate any help and advice, and if anyone's good at explaining it in lamens terms, I'd love you even more! Please help me identify how much I've got wrong! Xxx

Explaining not examining! X

I also forget to mention I do have a complete extraction system too. Whoops.

Ok you said your tent was 1.2x1.2 - Is that 1.2m?
4 x 15" clip fans?? I've never seen a 15" clip fan. I own a number of 6" clip fans.
You could use 4, or just buy 1 16" wall mount fan.

29C is a bit warm. Try to keep it around 23-25C. 31% RH is decent. Could go up a bit,
but not worth sacrificing space for a humidifier IMHO.

RockWOOL, not rockwell. Also, 3" pots?? Coco soil? Is it soil, or coco? Is it soilless mix? What exactly are you using?

3-4 day germ is just fine. I have beans pop in 2 days sometimes, but I soak them in R/O water for 12 hours and
then do the paper towel method, then right into root riot cubes.

Your soil mix: What is the name of the product you're using? Coco fiber holds a lot of water as does heavy compost.
If it stays wet too long your roots can drown. They need water to breathe, but only because they take O2 out of the water.
Too much water will make them droop and die. Also, if you're in straight coco/slightly amended your pH should be ~5.8.
Soil grows run at ~6.5-6.8 pH. What symptoms are your plants exhibiting as they begin to die? Wilted leaves? Crispy edges? Yellowing?

I'm not familiar with the Canna line, but you shouldn't need the PK13/14 til flower. Might also want a Ca/Mg nute, like botanicare/GH
CalMg+ or CaliMagic.

What type of extraction fan are you using? 4"? 6"? CFM rating?

How close is your light to the canopy? It seems like everything is pretty solid, but without more precise info/pictures it
will be hard to diagnose your problems.

I agree with just about everything LivingCanvas has mentioned. Pictures could give us a better idea of what happened. Overwatering and overfertalizing are probably the two biggest mistakes new growers make.

Yes 1.2m! Sorry! I'm English so assuming everything is metric when I write it! It's called coco soil, it's an actual make highly reccommended with the establishment of root although I did it very dense and damp, which is why I'd like to try the bio bizz or something better reccommended!

I don't know what planet I was on this morning yes I do mean 6" fans! How do I keep temp even lower?

I will take photo once my camera on phone is working again, but I left them where they were to carry the damage on to see the final outcome!

I think a big factor for the failed attempts is over watering / root rot maybe/ too high heat!

I will h e I find out the name and type of extraction as I had it all put together for me, I just gave somebody money and they came back with what I have! I've struggled as I haven't got the funds to buy what I want but want to just produce a nice little grow to saved own pocket! I'd love it to become a hobby!

How low should the light start off once I'm into veg stage? Once the lights go on to 18/6 (or would you recommend 20/4?) how far ffrom the top of the plants to the light will the distance need to be? I think this is a
major factor to why I went wrong, I started with the light right at top of tent, which resulted in stems growing but no leaves so I quickly worked that out when ruining them, but of I put it closer than 5-6 inches it's very very hot! Even with the 2 fans on light and 2 fans doing general circulation. I have a feeling I need to invest in an air con system to lower my room temp, that wwill lower my tent temp im hoping!x

Newbie90 said:

How low should the light start off once I'm into veg stage? Once the lights go on to 18/6 (or would you recommend 20/4?) how far ffrom the top of the plants to the light will the distance need to be? I think this is a
major factor to why I went wrong, I started with the light right at top of tent, which resulted in stems growing but no leaves so I quickly worked that out when ruining them, but of I put it closer than 5-6 inches it's very very hot! Even with the 2 fans on light and 2 fans doing general circulation. I have a feeling I need to invest in an air con system to lower my room temp, that wwill lower my tent temp im hoping!x

Click to expand...

with a 400watt it should be about 12 inches away from the tops