First grow need some help

This is my first grow that i have kept going after like a month. I have been growing this plat for 7-8 weeks as of 11-12-09. I am growing just some regular plants, nothing fancy just yet. With my set up i am using organic dirt a custom blend of organic miracle grow, perlite, blood meal, and some other things. I am growing with a six inch pot so its about a gallon. So i'm looking at getting my plant around 2 feet so i can take clones from it. I still dont know if its male or female. My room im using is about 2ftx2ft with a height of 8ft. My light set up is 3 shop lights and 1 under cabinet flurescent light. I have four 4ft T8 32w each daylight flurescent bulbs also two 4ft T12 40w each daylight flurescent bulbs and two 2ft T5 4w each with warm (they have like a red/orange glow) bulbs. I have a 3 day water program;
Day one i use Fox Farms Grow Big Fertilizer mix to 1 tsp per gallon of water also i put in a diluted mixture of Bio-Tone Root Growth the reccomended mixture is 1.5oz. to the same gallon of water but i just mix about .5oz in to the water. Then the plant gets fed twice. The first time i pour enough to make a layer of water about 1/8th in on top of soil then i water it 45min-60min later slowly till water starts to drip from the bottom.
Day two i use tap water mixed with Bio-Tone Root Growth 1.5oz to the gallon. Watering the same as day one at the same time.
Day three I use a diluted miracle grow tomato plant feed/fertilizer diluted to half so i use .5 tsp per gallon mixed with Bio-tone Root Growth diluted down to .5oz per same gallon. Watered the same as day one and two.

The light cycle is on at 7am and off at 1:30am. I have a non-oss desk fan thats on every 3-5 hrs during the light cycle for half an hr each time its on.

The problem im having is that the plant is slowly growing its so far 4.5 inch tall with a 12.5 inch diameter at 2 months. It has 16 main branches/fan leafs and there are 2 more about to branch out. There are 13 node branches, and there are 4 more that are going to be branching out shortly. The bottom 8 main branches/fan leafs may need to be cut soon just because they are dying off because the plant is so bushy and they cant get light. The nodes are pusing them down and away from the light.

The lights are vertical to the plants kinda like a TeePee with the plant in the middle. i have the lights as close as possible with out touching because i dont want the plants to strech.

I also will be starting to add CO2 to the mix by Dry Ice or Fermentation.

If anyone has any idea or suggestions i would be glad to hear about it. I will need all the help i can get. THANKS

how is your air exchange in your closet?

Honestly I was reading and thought you had everything and saw you were having problems and was really surprised.

The air exchange in my opinion is very good when i open the door the air isnt stagnant or anything in that nature

with a plant that old,you should be using 2-3 tsp/gal of the Grow Big,also,as much as everyone hates stretch,move the light away to 6" from the plant to give it room to grow.It sounds like the plant is Indica,which means a short staure anyway,so the movement of the light wont harm it.just a couple of obsevances.

your plants will grow a bit slow due to the lights you are using. but they will work, so its all good. try and stick some cfl's around them and that should get you a bit better results. get the daylight cfl's 6500K. they work wonders! not as good as a hps, but they work well for short plants.

look up super cropping and low stress training. training your plants by tying them down will keep them short and you can keep them all at the same height. it also allows for the lights to be closer and more light to get to the whole plant, rather than just the tips of it. in my opinion when growing with fluorescent lights, its the only way to go. you will get a much better yield and the plants will grow quicker because they will get more light. remember the name of the game, especially with fluoros is to keep the lights as close as possible!!! with more cfl's you will also get much better results! good luck and happy growing!!!

and one more thing. with the cfl's you dont have to just put them over the plant. you can put them between plants, over plants, under plants or surround the plants with them. i mean your set up will work, but the more light the better, just be safe and make sure everything is sturdy and wont fall!

ok thanks eveyone so far. I am adding some cfls and i'll be add a couple pics in about 25 min.
thanks again

With a good small cfl you could probably put one under the plant to put light on the leaves that dont recieve light from the top

I dont know how to add my album pics to here but i did put up like 10 pics in my plant album if you can check those out and give me some feedback on the plant that would be great. or if you could tell me how to put them on the thread that would be great too.
thanks

grow4med said:

I dont know how to add my album pics to here but i did put up like 10 pics in my plant album if you can check those out and give me some feedback on the plant that would be great. or if you could tell me how to put them on the thread that would be great too.
thanks

Click to expand...

I too was suprised you were having problems after reading the entire post.. seems like you're very much on the right track...

You have a 3 day water cycle, i may have missed it, but do you go days inbetween the 3 day cycle without watering? If not, you may be drowning the plants and maybe causing root rot (ewww...).... From what i've read, it is ok to mix different nutrients as long as you keep it at the recommended dosage (or 1/4 to 1/2 strength at first).. Maybe consider watering less often, in larger ammounts.. I'm 2 months into my grow (vegged for a month, flowering for a month now) and i regularly go 3-5 days without watering and they seem to show no signs of problems.. they may start drooping a bit after day 4 or so, but once you water them, they perk right back up...

Let me check you're pics out....

grow4med said:

I dont know how to add my album pics to here but i did put up like 10 pics in my plant album if you can check those out and give me some feedback on the plant that would be great. or if you could tell me how to put them on the thread that would be great too.
thanks

Click to expand...

They look good, but w/ the lights standing up like that, you're not really using most the light they are putting off up at the top... That's probably why they are a bit undersized for 2 months old... No worries though, they do look healthy all things considered...

I know you've invested probably a decent ammount of money into the 4' fixtures and bulbs, but if that's the only area you're going to be able to grow in, you may consider going w/ like some 2' flouresents if that's all you can afford, where you could get more of the light right on top the plants.. That or add A LOT more CFL's around the plants.. the small CFL's (23, 40, etc..) can be kept pretty close to the plants, like an inch or so...

You may consider switching over to a 12/12 lighting cycle at this point.. Just make sure you change out any 6500k bulbs (blue spectrum) w/ 2700k bulbs (red spectrum) for flowering... Once you enduce flowering, those babies will take off quick... That's one good thing about having the lighting setup the way you have it now.. Your plants may triple in size, and they will get large ammounts of light on the sides... Just make sure the top of the plant gets enough light as well.. i'd make sure you got some sort of light hanging from the top of the room to give the top colas some light..

As far as posting pics, just start a new post and scroll down past the box where you type in your message.. there's a button (beneath the smilies) that says "Manage Attachmenets" click there... should be able to figure it out from there...

You're on the right track... keep it up! use RIU, it helps... A LOT...

I am kinda new at this stuff i really dont know what RIU is.

roll it up... in other words...this website

wow i am retarded

I would start to flower but i need to wait so i can get some clones. Thanks for all of that its really helping

Thanks here are some pics if you"d like to see them