Newbie with a couple concerns

So whats up all new to the scene and looking for some advice as well as would like to get some advice on my setup good and bad.
First a friend gave me a few prestarted plants range from 8-10" high. Strain is unknown. Soil medium i believe with a bunch of white like granuels. They were started with shop lights at his place and i am using eight cfl's down facing. (If i can figure out how to upload pics i can show you the pics and setup). The lights are 5000k 100 watt equivilant 23 watt CFL's. They are no more then 4" away from the tops of the plants they were about 1.5-2" from the top but ive noticed the upper leaves curling and some are drooping down as opposed to them originally sticking firm straight out. Havent started any nutes yet (any advice is welcome). Please feel welcome to comment and give any advice as well as ask questions.

This was the original set up

After two days of reading and researching i made this setup.

The white granules you see is Perlite. It is used to keep the soil broken up, loose, and aerated.
They look like healthy plants. I don't know much about the numbers and all when it comes to lighting, but you might need more than that.. wait for someone more knowledgeable to chime in.

The drooping can be many things: not enough light, soil too wet, the list goes on but those are the two most common problems.

How much are you watering them and how often? Do you plan to give them more light because you will probably need it as they grow. If a plant doesn't get enough light, it will stretch and become weak and spindly.

Edit: oh nice. The second photo hadnt' been posted yet. Looks like a cool little set up for a first time.

Well i guess my first question for you is what do you expect to get out of the grow... From there on, questions can be answered by many accordingly.

Nietz--okay perlite is what i thought good to know. Im pretty sure it is getting plenty of light (maybe not any one chime in ) and i watered them when i got them 3 days ago the soil is still pretty moist.

Snake-- Not sure how to answer your question its pretty global i would say i want them to grow up to be big healthy mommas that produce as much of that sweet sticky bud as it can hold.

Your second set up looks great, you should have a nice grow, treat them right and they'll give you a good harvest, I'm not a soil man but I'm sure someone will chime in and help, good luck with your grow, btw welcome.

grow them for another 10 days or so under the cfl, then chuck the straight under a 600w hps . just keep the light quite far away for a few days, then feed them a light nute aim for an EC reading of 1.2 and your well on your way!

Leaves curling - First thing to look out for (it's everybody's first mistake) is over-watering. If I have any advice, it's to learn about correct moisture levels before anything else, it can look like a whole mess of other things like mg or ca deficiency and cause a lot of running around when gotten wrong.

Welcome and hope you get a forest of DANK

KuskKrew has got it right I think, in that it sounds like over watering. That could be why you soil is still moist because you plant has stopped drinking. Use a small fan and gently blow across the top of the soil to evaporate some of the water. If it is really wet, and has been a few day's like that, you need to repot soon, like now. Peace

Jimdamick said:

KuskKrew has got it right I think, in that it sounds like over watering. That could be why you soil is still moist because you plant has stopped drinking. Use a small fan and gently blow across the top of the soil to evaporate some of the water. If it is really wet, and has been a few day's like that, you need to repot soon, like now. Peace

Click to expand...

The fan really helps indeed, but just be careful not to do what I did and wind-burn them, man I kicked my own ass about it for days... Just an oscillating one kinda breezing over it every few seconds works great.

I also saw some advice on a different thread about waterlogged coco coir, the suggestion was to squeeze the side of the pot a bit till the coco or soil cracks up slightly, it will let some air in and 'unseal' the soil/coco allowing moisture-exchange with the air again. Never tried it myself but it seems like sound thinking to me, as long as the substrate isn't packed too tight roots should deal with it OK. But make sure, a moisture-probe was one of the best investments I made, it cost me ZAR 120 from the local agri store, that's less than 20 USD... That's a good deal for peace of mind I think.

'Measuring is knowing' like my Guru keeps saying...

Thanks for all the advice guys really appreciate it. Here is the up curling and drooping i was speeking of.

Another

One more see how the tops are curled up this one was about 1.5" from the lights and the other two were 2-3" from the lights. Dont get me wrong this all might be normal and i have a case of newbinoia. I just want to make sure. Also last night when i posted that they were still wet... Yeah i was wrong just dark medium so i watered accordingly with a 20% runoff.

Any thoughts on the new pics

OK I know that look. You see how the one leaf has got lighter patches? You can see it on the second pic, the fan leaf sticking out to the right.

You've got a tiny bit of moisture stress but your medium is coco and it's holding back your Ca. Take my advice, get some Mineral Magic by GHE, and even more important, some Cal/Mag to add to your nutes.

In the end it is hard to tell without measuring, get a soil moisture probe and learn how it works, and also a soil pH probe, they're pretty cheap for basic ones.

I'll also suggest reading as much about growing in coco as you possibly can, you'll find most of the info on it in the 'drain to waste hydro' sub-forum under Hydroponics. There are a few basic and fundamental differences between coco and pretty much everything else.

Be patient, don't do anything to the plant for a day or two until the coco is dried out a bit, then dose it with pH 5.8 nute solution, get your EC to about 1.3 to start and push it to 1.5 using Cal/Mag, if you sprinkle Mineral Magic around the base of the plant I bet you'll see a difference within hours of that feed...

Wait till the top layer goes a bit lighter in colour and the pot feels quite a bit lighter. Whatever you do do NOT top up water bit by bit in coco, it just doesn't work out well ever.

Okay so lets talk about nutrients. To be honest I haven't added any because the guy that started me off with all of this told me that he doesn't add any until about a month in. Mine are about three weeks old. Also i use the water from my water cooler that is spring water cause my well water sucks. As much as i hate to say it i have never monitored my PH( smacks forhead). Now as far as the nutrients where can i get them and fast. Are there any local stores that i can get them at ive invested to much to have them die on me.

Also as a previous post suggested i waited till the plants were dry and i squeezed the sides inward to break up the medium and then watered it. Only about half as much as normal though.

Some of the leaves

Weird almost burn on the edge