The Brady Bunch! First CFL Grow, Bag Seed (all advice welcome)

Hey this is my first grow. I will be posting pictures periodically and hopefully I can get some pointers here and there.

What I'm working with:
Random bag seeds
Kellogs Patio Plus - All Natural Potting Soil
No pH meter (working on it)
My box's dimensions are 4.5'x3'x2' HxWxD
(2) 27w 5000k bulbs and (1) 20w 2700k bulb right now. Going to put more in once they get a little bigger. Temps stay around 70-76F

I have one bulb over each plant about 1-2 inches away. There is a fan blowing over them as long as the lights are on. Here are some pictures of my babies so far.

The first picture is of Marcia who is 1 day old growing under the 2700k. The second is Jan who is 2 days old and the third is Cindy who is 7 days old both growing under separate 5000k bulbs. All dates are from the time they sprouted. I don't know if my growth is normal or slow, I have seen some other grows where by week 1 they have 3 leaf sets. Cindy is still working on her second. Not a big concern because she does look healthy just wondering if I am getting slow growth?

Just watered them this morning with tap water that has been sitting out for over 24 hours.

One question I have is the new leafs that Cindy grows start out purplish near the center and as they grow and become bigger they lose their purple color is that normal?

Jan's leafs are very droopy while Marcia's are very perked up. Any comments or advice is very welcome.

Thanks for looking, hope you stick around.

First!!!!!

Now that I got that out of the way...Looking like normal seedlings so far, only time will tell but I hope things turn out well. I'm using Kelloggs Patio+ as well, and noticed it's got a lot of alrger pieces of wood in it, which don't bother me, but huh...lol...Did you mix anything into it? Anyway, glad to see a new grow started, I have 2 seedlings a few days old myself, and 5 germing as we speak, so hopefully we'll have some nice comparative growth down the line...Sorry for rambling...keep 'em green!

Hey thanks for reply. Cindy has straight soil in her cup while both Jan and Marcia have a 20% perlite to 80% soil mixture in them.

Cool, I'm running 30% perlite in a couple of my plants, it drains almost too well...lol...and the seedlings I have I mixed in 30% of this Jiffy seed starting mix, it's like peat and some filler...Have yet to see how this works out. Whatcha planning on transplanting into? Pot type/size?

Don't know yet honestly, I was thinking about having these end up in 3 gallon pots by the end of it all.

Rasta Viking said:

Don't know yet honestly, I was thinking about having these end up in 3 gallon pots by the end of it all.

Click to expand...

Perfect, I'm finishing my plants in 2.5 gallon pots I picked up at the dollar store...sounds like a good plan

Sweet, when you get your journal up feel free to post a link in here, I would like to follow it.

Haha...all the good stuff is at the end, so I'll save you the time and skip to some budporn, I've had this thread for a while now...

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/395072-metagrow-lots-pics-37.html

Time for another update!
So its been 4 days since I last took pictures of my girls. Some recent changes: I got my (23w) 6500k bulbs, 4 of those in there now with 1 (20w) 2700k. I built a makeshift reflector out of reflectix and my girls are looking great and growing! Couldn't ask for more. First two pictures are of Marcia second leaf set coming in her 5th day. Third picture is Jan - Day 6.

Fourth picture is Cindy the big girl. Second leaf set is expanding and the third is already coming in! Can you see how purple her new growth is? Almost looks frosty, is that normal?

I have to confess something, while I was working in my room yesterday morning I accidentally knocked Cindy over Most of her soil spilled out of her cup. I quickly grabbed her put as much soil back in as soon as possible and set her back. I hoped and prayed that I hadn't severed her root system and killed her. Her growth was not even stunted and she is doing fine I still felt bad though and wish I had centered her in the cup, but I'm glad shes doing good.

Last picture is of my setup and the new reflector I built. As always any advice/criticism is welcome!

I have found a few small bugs in my grow over the course of a few days. They are a little bit smaller than a lady bug, but sort of the same in the way they fold their wings in and cover them with their hard shell when not flying.. They are brown in color with a sort of stripped pattern. Anyone know what these might be?

Everythings looking good/. seedlings looking good. Some advice... Got to walmart and get some emergency blankets and put them on the walls of the grow room for optimal reflection. I have the link to my grow in my signature if you wanna check it out. anyways great job thus far.

Lots of new growth from Cindy! She is looking a bit droopy though. Thought it might be because she was so close to the edge of the cup when I replanted her after she fell. So her roots were touching the side and she didn't like it. I re-potted her today, hopefully will see improvement. Shes not droopy from over watering because I wait till the soil is almost dried out, about 3 days between a good thorough watering of her party cup. Will hope for the best.

high five for the great names

Thanks man!
Order of pictures:
Cindy- Day 15
Jan - Day 10
Marcia - Day 9

Cindy is looking A LOT better! Her new growth is perky and her old leafs are starting to come back up and stop drooping. Couldn't be happier about that. She seems to be liking her new home. She is growing fast!

Jan on the other hand is not doing so hot. She has been drooping for the last few days and her growth seems stunted, or maybe she just doesn't grow as fast. But she hasn't stopped drooping since March 18. That is when the drooping started and it only seems to be getting worse Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be? I doubt it is over watering as I wait till the cup is almost dry to water all my plants. I watered her one day, waited the next day to see if she recovered any ( she didn't) so I watered her again because I thought it might be an issue of under watering. She still isn't showing signs of improvement.

Marcia is a day younger than Jan and she was perky for most of her life but just yesterday she started to follow Jan's lead and droop. She is surpassing Jan in growth though! She started drooping yesterday which was 2 days since being watered so I just watered her this morning, but still drooping.

I realize it could be a pH problem as I do not have a meter to test this, but I leave the tap water out for over 24 hours before giving it to the girls. They also all receive the same water so why would Cindy be ok with it? and Marcia was for the most part until recently.

Anyone have any other ideas as to what may be causing the drooping aside from underwater, over watering, or pH problems. Unless it really sounds like I am under/over watering? Please let me know.

Is it possible that the plants could be too cold? It is about 70-72 in there usually. Sometimes reaching 75+ The new growth on most of the plants is purple, and some of the tips of old growth leafs is purple as well.

One other thought I had about what might be the culprit to my drooping is about 2 days ago I accidentally left one light on for an hour longer than it usually goes at night. So that day the girls got an extra hour of light (21 instead of 20), but it was only from one bulb 20w 2700k.

Most tap water has a ph of 6.5 to 7.5 you might what to try bottle water. All of the bottle water that i have tested have a ph of 5.5 to 5.9. I hope that helps.

Wish I could afford to give my girls tap water all the time. Sadly I cannot, thank you for the tip though. Like the title says all advice welcome.

how many lights

5 - (4) 23w 6500k, (1) 20w 2700k. Will add more once the girls get a bit bigger.

idk man ... it l looks like your doin somthin wrong...l they should be way bigger......heres my babys on day 7 now..View attachment 1511799

Jan and Marcia definitely got stunted growth. Jan pretty much stopped growing all together. Marcia just started back up, hopefully she shows signs of improvement in the coming days. Cindy is growing well. I didn't always have 5 lights. They started their lives under 3, (2) 23w 5000k, and one 20w 2700k. My 6500k's came in about a week in.