First time grower needs some help

Hey everyone, popping my posting cherry here. I've been lurking the forums here for a little more than a month, and I've gotta say that this place has really impressed me with the wealth of knowledge and great advice of its members. My hat's (or bandana) is off to you folks.

Anyhoo, I'll skip to the details. I've got two plants from bagseed in potting soil (it's enriched with an 8-12-8 nute blend) in 18oz red cups. I started them out on a windowsill about a month ago (I live in a secluded place), and up until recently they were receiving erratic watering. The growth definitely seemed pretty stunted, especially when I compared it to the stuff I see in the grow journals here. As I live farther up north, this time of year isn't the very best for plants, especially when you regularly have as crappy weather as I do.

A few days ago I finally wised up. I've jury-rigged a growbox out of a rubber maid and a pair of CFLs (26watt 5000k, I couldn't find any 6500k or 5500k at the local home depot ). At the moment, I've got the growbox lined with aluminum foil, but I'm planning to replace it with mylar (or at the very least some reflective white paper). I started them on an 18/6 lighting schedule but I'd like to bump it up to 24/0 if it will help improve growth. I also just picked up some soluble nitro fert (30-10-10 blend) and started the plants on at 1/4 strength.

But.... while I think what I've done has definitely gave the plants a better environment for growth, I dunno if I'm doing enough. As you can see, they only have a single developed node on each (the bigger one has started to develop the second node since going under the CFLs), and the leaves are a bit messed up (edges curling under, and the smaller one is showing a few yellow spots). The stems also seem pretty weak, and the plants were on the verge of falling over when I first put them under the CFLs. EDIT: I should note that they've been like this since a week or so into sprouting, which includes all throughout the time they were on the windowsill.

So, what are your thoughts? I'm pretty sure my neglected babies are savable, but I have no idea what I need to do to get them growing normally.

Thanks

PS: If it helps, I'm considering picking up 2-4 more CFLs soon.

For starters that Schultz soil is not the best thing, especially for seedlings. Those soils have who knows how much nutes and different kinds of them that it is likely not doing your plant any good. If available, I recommend Fox Farm soil. Your seedling just needs ONLY water for about 2-3 to maybe 4 weeks, depending on growth.

Definitely a wise idea to get more lights, more the better. To help prevent stretching also, make sure and keep those CFL's within inches of the plant. They don't produce a lot of heat so shouldn't be an issue.

Again, get diff soil (organic) and get them on just water for a few weeks and I bet they turn around.

Thanks for the reply! I'll definitely look into getting some fox farms. How should I go about transplanting when I make the switch in soil? The Shultz's is mostly composed of peat moss, so separating the plant from the soil shouldn't be difficult but I'm worried that I could damage the roots (they probably aren't too strong given the state of the sprouts ).

Is ventilation an issue I should be worried about now? I wanted to get a muffin fan or two (as well as DIY carbon filter, probably the cheap walmart one found in the ultimate odor control thread), but I need to keep the cost down at the moment.

You do need to change your air every little bit. Ventilation is a good thing for the plants. If you can't afford a good duct and vent system, at least have a fan blowing the air around within the plant's environment, just not directly at the plant. CFL's don't get very hot at all so you won't have the heat issue to deal with at this moment. Also, probably won't need a carbon filter until you are closer to flowering or actually in the middle of flower. That's when they really start to smell.

Given the small current size of the plant, I would recommend watering the plants 1 day before transplanting so that the soil doesn't just fall off when you remove them from their current containers, taking the roots with it. Once you have it out, lay it on its' side and knock the loose soil off, leave anything else clinging to the roots on. It's not worth it at this stage to try and get all of the soil off of the roots or you will just probably rip the roots off and kill the plant.

Hmmm... I've got a couple small house fans, so I might be able to work something out with one of them. That or I could probably go pick up one of the muffin fans and install that. Improving the air circulation might also help the stem issue too.

I just watered earlier today, so I'll see if I can pick up some organic soil tomorrow. I'll update this soon with the results of the transplant. Thanks for the help!

Not blowing directly on the plants? Why? Doesn't that help them build strong stems?

I made that mistakefor a good few days probs a week i had a fan blowing directly on my 9 auto plants i got going now,not a good idea,wind burn,the air just needs to be well circulated,nothing more,best is a fan ABOVE the plant tops,i have to make do with mine on the floor of the tent because i have no damn clip on one yet,as long as the air circulates well,all should be good

Yeah, I'm kind of with bluemax on this one. My plants are pretty weak at the moment, and I'm worried that having a fan directly on them might be too much. I've been opening up the grow box every couple of hours to hopefully allow for some circulation, but some ventilation holes and a fan will probably work better.

Slight update folks - I woke up this morning to check the babies and sure enough, the smaller one is now showing signs of nute burn.

Good call on the nutes yblek83. I went ahead and flushed, and I'm gonna try to get both of them fox farms by this evening. Wish me luck...

Went out and bought Fox Farms' Ocean Forest today and ph meter (Sunleaves Three-Way, measures ph, moisture, and light). I transplanted the plants almost without a hitch, but I think the large plant may have lost a baby root in the process. From the look of it, both plants had really underdeveloped roots. Hopefully the FF stuff will get them going. The plants have been watered in and are back under the CFLs, so hopefully in a few days I'll have an update about their recovery.

Attempts to get a decent ph reading have so far failed (that is, the meter doesn't move) ; it was a cheap one, around $12, and it doesn't use batteries or anything. Since the moisture meter seems to work fine (but the light meter is pretty useless in general), I'm gonna try to shine the tips up a bit with some steel wool. Unless it ends up working (the chances of which I think are probably slim), I'll probably look for a new meter. I know it's a bit off-topic, but does anyone have any suggestions on a good (and hopefully somewhat cheap!) ph meter?