Skinny Plants??

Hi everyone,

Can someone take a look at these pics - I bought a bag of reg Durban Poison and got them started on 7th Jan - It's an outside grow in full equatorial sun (temp 30 - 34C) with about 7 hours of full sunshine. They are in small pots (soil, perlite, with a handful of guano, worm casting at about a 60 / 20/ 10 / 10 ratio and get watered when dry every two days.

Do these look alright for 28 day old plants? - My inclination is they look very skinny - They stretched really badly when they popped out the soil. The little fella at the back had it's head chopped off by a bird.


Anyone got any suggestions as to what i can do to make them a bit more comfy and grow a bit better??

Help would be greatly welcome

They look very nice, soil looks like it may hold water a little too well still? idk I see no problems with them from the pics that I would be concerned with at all. Except next time you use that soil base add a touch more more perlite.

What about when you first started the plants..did they get good sun that first week outta the soil? I say this as to your stretch concern - stretch is usually caused by not enough light or not enough hours 7 hours or sunshine is simply not enough..

With the statement of your plants only getting 7 hours of light they may are probly trying to flower?

hic said:

They look very nice, soil looks like it may hold water a little too well still? idk I see no problems with them from the pics that I would be concerned with at all. Except next time you use that soil base add a touch more more perlite.

What about when you first started the plants..did they get good sun that first week outta the soil? I say this as to your stretch concern - stretch is usually caused by not enough light or not enough hours 7 hours or sunshine is simply not enough..

With the statement of your plants only getting 7 hours of light they may are probly trying to flower?

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my plants did this when there was something shading them during the days sun. if you have them in direct sun as long as you can you'll literally have no stretch. if they get shadey here and there an hour at a time, everytime the shade starts, they start to stretch for the light. its not that they are not getting enough light its just maybe shade comes in at bad times, so like 4hour sun, then some shade, then more sun, more shade.

i say eliminate all shade and have them in 12hours of direct sun. youll have tight nodes

Yeah, they only get 7 hours a day direct sunlight, but it is pretty intense sun, for the rest of the day it's slightly shaded as the sun rises in the sky. Along these lines;

6 am sunrise
6:30 - 9:30 sun at the front of house
10:00 - 18:00 full sunlight until sunset

Given the orientation of the house, the garden and neighbors, don't see how i can fix getting extra sun, unless i go to an indoor grow, but i can't imagine 12 hours of artificial light beating 8 hours of equatorial sun in terms of energy.

If i was to switch to an indoor grow [Metal halide and HPS are very hard to find in this country and wouldn't be an option] - would half a dozen cfl's suffice?

I'll add some extra perlite when i repot.

Thanks for your help and advice

TokeSmoker420 said:

my plants did this when there was something shading them during the days sun. if you have them in direct sun as long as you can you'll literally have no stretch. if they get shadey here and there an hour at a time, everytime the shade starts, they start to stretch for the light. its not that they are not getting enough light its just maybe shade comes in at bad times, so like 4hour sun, then some shade, then more sun, more shade.

i say eliminate all shade and have them in 12hours of direct sun. youll have tight nodes

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Shade is not getting enough light.. any way you want to say it.

u should get some smoke but for a month they look pretty rough brotha

freakishlyyellow said:

u should get some smoke but for a month they look pretty rough brotha

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Dude that's my thoughts exactly. For a 1 month plants they look so small. I'll leave them out and see. Maybe i'll start the next lot under lights until they get some size.

ya they look likke there not getn enough light or there root bound

just get them n the sun dont get down they will double if not triple when they start to bud so just transplant b4

Your plants are just reaching for the sun, that's what they do. When they stretch like that it is almost always because of lack of light in my experience. Your right your 8 hours of direct light is far better that any other light. The plants don't need all that light, you might want to put 1 or 2 in a spot where they get say 5 hours of direct light and the rest in the shade and see if the stretching stops. Just a thought...

woodsmaneh! said:

Your plants are just reaching for the sun, that's what they do. When they stretch like that it is almost always because of lack of light in my experience. Your right your 8 hours of direct light is far better that any other light. The plants don't need all that light, you might want to put 1 or 2 in a spot where they get say 5 hours of direct light and the rest in the shade and see if the stretching stops. Just a thought...

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I've decided to leave them in the spot with the highest amount of light for about a week. In retrospect they were in a fairly shady spot when they sprouted and stayed there up until 25 days ago. Hopefully by now they have got over the shock of more light and will start to show a burst in growth. Thanks for the relies guys, it's good to get a bit of well needed advice (and also reassurance)

For a sub tropical country these little plants have been given me a lot of headaches. I thought they would have loved it down here.. Ahhhh well growing is half the fun!!

Man dont worry be happy, make yourself a Scarecrow lol for the birds thatll take care of them lil f&#KeRs. As for the plants, i would personally replant them up to an inch below the bottom nodes. wont hurt to try aye what have you got to lose

hic said:

Shade is not getting enough light.. any way you want to say it.

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completely wrong, a plant only needs 5hours of direct sun a day, anything less and it will be VERY lanky. if you have it 12hours direct sun, it wont stretch, u can easily give a plant 9hours direct sun, but if it shades in between for long periods, the plant will stretch, therefore its stretching with adequate light just cause of the way its receiving light.

Well, it's been nearly a week and since i repositioned the plants to a new more 'lighty' place - boy they have shown a lot of growth, starting to look more like the plants I was hoping for Height wise they are tiny, but they are starting to bush more. Birds snagged a couple more (little f!#@ers!!), so now I'm down to 3 A number of my seeds turned out to be a male (grew nuts). But despite those set backs, I'm a happy camper. I'm gonna wait another week or so and then stick up a couple of photos to show the difference.

Also a friend gave me a G13 fem which he started under lights and holy cow, it's a beast and lovin the light. Thanks to all the poster and readers who took the time and effort to send me their advice, Hopefully i'll have a few more pics to share with you in the coming weeks. Look out for Skinny Plants 2 (the revival)