spindly, droopy growth

[jcdem]

hey all, this is my first grow so i'm not too keen on how these plants are supposed to grow. my plants are looking malnourished or deficient in some area. i'm using a blend of organic soils, something like the moonshine mix (ff ocean forest, light warrior, and black gold) so i've not added any additional ferts for veg.

i water when the soil feels dry, which is currently about every other day. i've repotted once, about 3-4 weeks ago, and the plants are now about 40 days old. i'm thinking maybe the pots i have now are too small? the roots have begun to poke out of the bottom on some of the pots, but i can't fit too much bigger pots in my cabinet.

the plants just don't seem to be filling in like i thought they would. i'm only using a 150 watt hps but the plants have always been close to the bulb and the air circulation is good. i'm not sure of the temps though, but i would estimate around 75f.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

looks like there still veging?
not too sure if you know the differance.
you should switch to flower imediately..
12/12....
also... looks like some leafs are twisting/upset, are you on tap water?
if so let it sit for a day or two and the chlorine will evap...
they look upset by the tapwater. if you usding bottled/ro then it looks like they want some nutes... what do you have>?

 

[jcdem]

yes they're still vegging with 24/0 light... i did not think they were mature enough to flower yet. they do not look like they could support the weight of any buds. how much will the plants themselves grow in the flower cycle? i was under the impression that it wasn't much (i suppose i'm very wrong!). i also thought that i should veg for about two months...

i'm using tap water that's been run through a brand new pur filter. is that not enough to clean the water? if not i'll switch to bottled immediately.

 

[Queso45]

If you're watering those plants every other day then you are overwatering them. Just because the top part of the soil feels dry doesn't mean that it's dry at the bottom.


Also, moonshine mix has a boat-load of food in it. I wouldn't be surprised if the soil was too hot.

Because your plants are rootbound, I think if you transplant all of your plants into a lighter soil and water them less often you will see improvements in a week or so.


DEFINITELY don't water your plants every other day. Check out 10K's lift method thread for a good way to know when to water.

 

[sirgrassalot]

I think they're drenched. The lift the pot method is a good start. I think your pots are fine.

 

[jcdem]

okay here they are in larger pots and two days into flower. some of the tallest bud sites are top-heavy and falling over... what can i do about that? i've added flowering ferts but i realized that i did not add enough so i put more on top of the dirt. i don't think it's going to be all that effective there but i figure when i water some of it will drain down into the dirt.



it's a girl! in fact, five of five are showing female hairs! i'm surprised they're showing only two days in, but there's no denying it from the pics...








and what appears to be a bud site. this is repeated on several plants' tips.

 

[wygram]

Sorry to bring down your joy, this is truly a fun hobby, but those are not female preflowers. Here is a link to a thread with some excellent micro shots of flowers for sexing.

The purple stem in the third picture of your last post also looks like a phosphorous deficiency, which could be an explanation to the weak plants and leaves.

 

[jcdem]

doh! i see now, the female preflowers should be extremely tiny, thin, hairs. i hadn't seen the other things growing before so i thought for sure it was them.

oh i have another question... notice the plant in the middle of the group shot? i accidently broke off at least two nodes when they were a couple of weeks old, so when i moved all of them to bigger pots i threw some flower fert in with the new soil and the just plant just took off. it has a much darker green color and is hardly loseing any leaves relative to the other plants. it seems like i pull off a leaf every day from the other plants.

the thing is, i'm supposedly using a rich soil mix anyway, so why did the fert help so much? it's only 4-8-4

 

[jcdem]

The purple stem in the third picture of your last post also looks like a phosphorous deficiency, which could be an explanation to the weak plants and leaves.

that looks to be the case in the upper stems of about three of the plants. i don't see why that's happening with this soil...

 

[oldtoker]

man, clean all of the dead leaves off the top of your soil please, that alone can cause problems.

remove any leaf thats completly yellow or appears dead off the plant, they will come right off if its dead and not producing enery for the plant anylonger.

please dont water quite so much let them dry out a bit. the roots grow to look for water, when they dry out they search more, and besides the roots will get to much stagnant water and rot, your plants are powerd by a 150wt cfl
you have a 75 degree stated temp, your plants most likely are being water to much, and i assume looking at your soil it has not enough perlite as well so drainage probley isnt as good as it could be.

next time try black gold organic(orange bag) with a lil more perlite and nothing else honestly i usally dont feed them untell they pale up, or i can just transplant.

the plant in the middle looks remarkabley differnt from the other's what is going on with it?

the stalks of your plants suggest they can hold buds up.

never used any fox farms stuff, sounds to hot for touchy feeders.

are you sure its only 75? it looks kinda hot in there

oh i alwasy use tap water getting ready to water right now.

dont worry your doing fine man nothing detramental is going to happen, your plants will make it to harvest.

 

[jcdem]

thanks for the tips. i was leaving the leaves because i figured they would just decompose into the soil and become nutrients :shrug:

i'm letting them dry out now. when i transplanted the new soil was fairly moist (ocean forest is incredibly moist from the bag) and i watered them a little so the dirt would settle.

and i am using black gold organic.

the ambient temps in my house stay around 65 and my cab gets good air circulation so i don't think it could be much warmer than 75. the exhaust never feels very warm from what i've noticed.

see my previous posts for the reason that middle plant is so different.

 

[jcdem]

well, the plants have been in 12/12 for nearly three weeks now and still no signs of sex. i thought they would be showing by now... they certainly are growing a phenomenal amount.

edit: nevermind, some are showing female hairs, one or two are not really showing hairs but may be forming balls.