1st Timer - Seedlings Already Stretching

I use rain water which comes out of the sky around pH7. I grow in coco coir and therefore try to keep the pH between 5.5-6. Since I don’t like smoking chemicals (messed up lungs), I use concentrated lemon juice from a bottle. Very cheap and always available at any grocery, and a little goes a long way. You have a pH meter, right?:wink:

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Sorry it took so long to respond but I apparently sent too many messages on my first day and had to stand in the corner for 24 hours. LOL. Thanks to all for your help. Ph adjusters and brighter bulbs are on the way. And to Stomper, my grow area will be 24" x 60" +/- for three plants in 5 gallon containers. I’ll post pictures when I finish my set up this weekend. It is very different from what I’ve seen as a typical indoor set up on this site and others. It is an open area design inside (no need to hide in Massachusetts no more! At least for the time being). Some people have a “Sun” room, some people have a “Florida” room, we have a “Jamaica” room. Stay tuned!

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yeah, having to wait is painful in the beginning :slight_smile:

As long as it can’t be seen from the road with an un-aided eye, it doesn’t need to be hidden in MA.

Just looked at a different topic re: lighting time for seedling. Mine are on 24 straight at this point day 6. Good, no good?

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Hi @Mass.Hysteria even I’m a new grower, I’d suggest 18/6 as this allows the seedlings to get a bit of time to recover and grow even better. Think it as a human body that requires sleep to improve and re energise us to work better the next day. Correct me If I’m wrong @Matthew420 @Stomper

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Different people will say different things on this subject. I did the first 1 or 2 weeks under CFL’s at 24 hours on, mostly to maintain heat and humidity where I wanted it. Then I went to LED and did 18 hours, mostly to save electricity.

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You’re really going to like that light if you haven’t used yet platinum 600 series are incredible lights can’t wait to watch her grow

The bright lights are on order and I was going to return the soft whites. But should I save them for flowering? Are they better than the bright lights for the flowering phase?

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Veg is Daylight (5500K - 6500K)

Flower is (2500k-3000k)

Sounds like the answer is “save them!”. Thank you.

There’s trouble in paradise. We are in day nine now. Putting the seedlings under the cfl slammed the brakes on the stretching but it also seems to have done the same to the growing. There has been no growth in the leaves since then (4 days) and the stems seem to be thinning. I have not got the ph under control yet, still sits at about 8, still waiting on the ph balancers to arrive. Last night I watered with a 17% lemon juice to distilled water solution. Not enough to move the meter. But here’s the confounding thing. My wife is working with three seeds from the original order, me with six. Same soil, same seeds, same lighting, same ph. She started a day later, had the same stretching problem but took a couple of days longer to put them directly under a cfl. That stopped the stretching but hers continue to grow. The second set of leaves on those are growing today. The only differences between ours is the germination method and pots. I set mine in water for 24 hours and all sprouted. She sprouted hers in damp cotton and planted them. Two days ago I place three of the plants under the led and left the others under the cfl. Made no difference. Any ideas?

Without the correct PH, I wouldn’t expect a ton of new growth. Not having the correct PH locks out the nutrients the plant needs to grow.

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Not ph at this point, I bet they are ready for transplant being in a pot that small

I will try that. I’ll pick up larger pots this afternoon.

Keep me posted

Is that two peat pots in one ?
If that’s so, take the one pot off, just rip it out…
The main root should be coming out of the bottom of the pot with soil, its hitting open air space…death sentence…simple, for any plant…
Just saying
Good luck

Update. I had completely stunted growth for the last two weeks after I put them close to the bright cfl’s to stop the stretching and then under the led. To Majiktoker and Ragnar, I cut away the peat pots and replanted in larger pots. Two continued to decline rapidly and begged me to kill them. I like to think of it as assisted suicide. All were under the led for 10 days +/- with no more growth so I pulled the plug on that and put the remaining four back under cfl’s, why waste the electric? The four remaining are recovering. I think I have to plead guilty to over watering and over thinking the whole damn thing. Hopefully, I’m back on track.

Now here’s the painful part. My wife took three seeds from the original order and did her thing. See picture three. She germinates them in damp cotton, plants them in Miracle Grow and is stingy with water. No ph blah blah, no nutrient nonsense blah blah, no matter how much I tell her what I’ve read! But I did catch her singing to them! She is a grow master with a solid 40 yrs+ experience. Vegetables, fruits, flowers and more. Never cannabis though before this. Just a natural.

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Yep, that’s how it goes, I just talk to them…
My plants gets nothing else than rabbit manure…
No extra chemistry involved…
Good luck !!

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