First Grow, 4weeks in, help please :)

Hey guys so I've been growing these girls indoors for 4weeks now from seed, with absolutely no funds but I'll give you the details and you might be able to help me

So these are just bag seeds, the light setup is 1x18watt 6400k and 2x18watt 2700k bulbs, i know its shit but it's all i got in the funds department atm, also I move the plants outside into sunlight when possible. I started the first few weeks on 24hr light because i didn't have a timer. I have since got a timer and on 18/6 now.

The soil was originally some standard organic potting mix which had massive nut deficiency or so i thought? All the new growth comes out white and brown and dies off so i transplated them into some cow manure with pearl lite nearly 2 weeks ago and they seemed a little happier but still problems, I've been using the canna coco range of nutrients a friend had from many years ago from growing, i have the A + B and the Rhizotonic (although not much left of this).

Anyways still had heaps of problems with old leafs going yellow and even newer stuff dying off so i managed to get a really good quality ph meter and the run off ph was 7.58 so across the last two waterings I've got it down to 6.3 yesterday which is probably changing it too fast but we will wait it out and see how they go, I'm thinking the ph being so off has been giving me all the nutrient problems? I have a fan blowing on them to keep the air moving around also. Pretty much i want to keep the veg going until i can get the plants growing happy.

Also the bigger girl has burnt leafs as of today got too close to the damn bulb my fault!

Oh yeh i had some spider mite things eating the underside of the leafs and i used seponin from Quinoa in a spray bottle and picked them all off and they seem to have left them alone

How can you know that they're girls? Yeah the ph atleast was way too high...That cow manure may also cause some problems at some point because the growing medium isn't sterile.

PS. Don't overwater...

Not looking too healthy. You could plant some news seeds in better soil while you experiment with those one. New ones will probably overtake them and you'll be happier in a couple of weeks.

So they are both looking much much happier already with the ph in better balance, good growth and the pots seems to feel much lighter compared to what they would normally for this amount of time since watering so they are drinking more imo. They both look female to me I'll put some better photos up soon to show

I hope they're girls! You have some hard bitches there coming through that abuse!
Bring those babies back to health and +rep comin from this way...Let's hope the smoke's as hard!
Subbed.

Ok here are some updated photos two days after getting the ph sorted,

Picture quality not the best, but they look like girls yeh?

Going to try and sort some more light out also

Oh and should i cut all the dead foliage parts off or just leave?

..........

Cheers! Love getting that out! lol!

Can't tell if they're girls, I need a shot of the nodes to check for pre-flowers.
She's really bouncing back though, nice one!

Here's a diagram of male/female pre-flowers. Unmistakable once you've seen them once...

View attachment 2380910

Ok so i had a look, def no signs of sex on either plant as yet, thx for the diagram very helpful for a newbie like me

So it won't show any signs till i put them under 12/12 unless its some auto variety yeh?

Going to start looking into cloning if they keep doing better

I'll put some more photos up as they change

Day 3 since fixing the ph, the pots were feeling very light so i watered them again, run off ph 6.7 this time. Both starting to get a darker green especially on the lower foliage. So across a different ph range they will uptake different nutrients so i kinda want this to float up and down week to week yeh?

That's what I do. Vary between 6.5 up to 7.0 ; back and forth...

God damn these plants were so terrible for so long...i swear a proper accurate ph reading would help so many people out there! Soo happy now i just need some damn funds to upgrade my light setup! I'm praying they turn out to be girls...when should i put them over to 12/12? Also any idea what strain they might be?

Thanks again!

"No Eyed Deer" what strain..indica type though.

Flip whenever you like, longer you veg the more you harvest generally. 4-6 weeks for me, usually.
This clone is just about as small as I like in my 1.6m/5ft tall tent.

Ok so i went out and sourced a moderate cfl setup, which consists of 5x24watt (1550 lumens) 3000k bulbs in anticipation of 12/12. So i have a total now of 120watt or 7750 lumens.

They have grown heaps i was a bit naughty going into the last watering and gave them even more nutrients but they seem totally happy, all that white and yellow leaf thing seems a distant memory now.

I want to switch to 12/12 now so i can workout if we have girls or not. I have setup the new lights with two on the top canopy and the other 3 on the sides to encourage the underside to come on through.

A few more questions sorry!

Where i live finding good genetics or seeds is near on impossible so if these workout I'll want to clone, i know the whole clone and see the sex from the clone thing but being my first grow i don't really want to start hacking them up/ they are sorta small. So are their any major disadvantages taking a cloning from a flowering plant once they have grown a bit more?

Secondly by giving the plants a 3000k colour spectrum can i just keep them on 18/6 to find out their sex but they wont start flowering? or will they only really show their sex once 12/12? or pending the genetics it's really a bit of column A & B... If that makes sense!

Thanks again! I'll go and take some photos of them soon once it quiets down a bit around here

Oh and yes i think I'll make a grow log as this thread is getting on a bit

4days since fixing ph

If you keep on growing them , soon you should see "pre-flowers"

View attachment 2383364

Failing that, flip to check.
I'd forget about cloning during flower, it's a pain in the arse/ass. Infact most people will tell you it's not done.

Bad photo, ill put some better up later, they have really responded to more light. Still on 18/6 even though using 3000k light.

Still, they are really fleshing out nicely, the main stems have thickened heaps. Def look to be the same genetics...thinking both might need bigger pots soon. I think I'll stick with the perlite and cow manure mix it seems very happy and i have a fresh unopened bag so bugs shouldn't be a problem.

This is fast becoming another hobby lol!

Ok better photo,

I couldn't stand looking at all the dead leafs anymore so i trimmed them off, i figure i need as much good real estate from the cfls so trimming will encourage the underside to come through, 3 of the 5 cfls are actually on the side, going to try and make them grow across, other 2 bulbs are focussed on the top canopy

Yeh, if the leaf is dead Dead, it's probably better getting rid of it. I'm sure the plant appreciates the light more than it dislikes a trim

Update, built this stealth box out of an old tool box, painted it white and put a fan in to suck fresh air onto the plants, and has another hole for air to escape. Pop riveted a piece of shaped metal to block light escaping. Will look into making some carbon filters to go over the fan holes when flowering. Currently only running 6a the fan can take upto 12a but it is a real screamer so probs will just get two quiter pc fans for in/out and another internal fan to move it all around. ATM soil temps around 21 and foliage up top is around 25 degrees. One of the lights fell onto the little girl and snapped one of the 4 main branches, its barely attached and id say the branch will die off but im leaving it incase it recovers in the interest of topping. Showing a little bit of nutrient burn, just gave another watering 6.78 ph, 1/3rd strength Canna Coco A&B to last watering. Was aiming to go lower using an initial ph of 5.2 for the watering, will try and get the ph down to 6.3 or so next time.

Transplated both into bigger pots, the big girls roots were completely bound all over the bottom of its pot. I decided to use terracotta rectangular pot as its not any deeper but gives about 4x more real estate. Also i added shite loads more pearl lite to the mix when transplanting after seeing the roots struggle to push through the dirt areas. Also the little one smells a little potent compared to the big one, someone said somewhere this could be a early sign of a male, will have to wait and see.

Plan is to just get a good sized root ball going and then i will bend them into a SOG setup

Just a quick update, its day 36 of vegetation since seed. The adding too much nutrients thing hurt them a little, I read a thread about EC of tap water so I'll be backing off the nutrients a bit still. Across the last two days I've trimmed all but the top fan leaves to promote the underside to come up through, and tying them down as they keep wanting to kiss the lights. Because the bulbs are so close the plants don't stretch a lot which is a bit of a problem for cola sites so i went very aggressive on the trimming. Starting to look like weed bonsai plants if you ask me lol.

Been 4days since i last watered, pots feel light, think i should hold off another day or two before watering? Or just give them a good feeding with out any nutrients and try and get the ph down to 6.3 or so. Last watering a ph of 5.2 got me to a run off ph of 6.8. Was thinking i'd balance the water with just Rhizotonic + some citric acid to get the ph down to a ph of 5 for watering and see where we end up?