Newbie grower here, having problems after switching to 12/12.
Started my first grow project when i read you could go from seed to smoke in 90 days, i just had to try. However that is under optimal conditions i realized. My setup initally was just throwing some bagseeds in a pot under a 9w Floro Indoor. I was broke when i started. After 2 months of extremely slow growth - switched to a 50w LED Cool bright. That’s when the plant really took off. The plant was in Veg (18-6) from Jan till June. Finally decided to setup the flowering room with a 12/12 timer. It has been almost 4 weeks under flowering, but no signs of bud forming. The plant is not thriving the way in Veg. Its yellowing and the leaves are showing unhealthy body language. No idea what i have done wrong. Would hate to lose the plant. Have been eagerly waiting to try some homegrown bud but things are not working out as planned.
Would be grateful for suggestions.
Copied this from thread template asking for help. Will add pics ASAP
Have they even looked at grow FAQS: Have read books by few veteran growers ( Soma,BOG,Rosenthal,Cerventes) (Came across this site just few days back, yeah i know i have been living under a rock)
What strain if known: Bagseed
Soil medium or hydro: Potting soil in grow bag.
pH of medium: Unknown (cant afford device)
NPK test of Soil medium:Unknown (cant afford device)
Age of plant: 2months pre-growth under 9w floro / 4months veg under 50w led cool blue / Almost 1 month in flower under 120w led warm white.
What nutrients are being added? Organic compost
How much nutrients added: every 2-3 waterings roughly few handfuls.
How much water/ water pH: every few days if top layer is too dry. PH unknown
Indoor/outdoor: Indoor
Type of lighting and length of time lightning on cycle: 50w Led Veg 18/6 / 120w Flower 12/12
Bugs present: I think whiteflies & ants. Have been using neem oil to get rid of them but it does’nt seem to be effective. maybe Im not using the right dosage. I just take about 10 drops and mix it well in water and spray it on the plant.
A picture posted of the plant/problem: Will post asap
What has been done in terms of self help: starting this thread
Hi Okletsgrow, thats a good hook right there, then you got to add drying and curing time lol
I think you have a few problems but without a pic its very hard to say.
Are they in total darkness, no other light getting in with them?
It sounds like its hungry when they go into flower they stretch and grow real fast, which means they want a lot of food.
Your feeding with organic compost, does that have an NPK ratio on the bag? it takes time for compost to be of use to the plant, as its a macro food, which needs to be broken down by bacteria, to become available for the plant.
Without a PH pen you may have lock outs due to your water PH being out of whack, if your potting soil has no PH buffers. Potting soil has very little nutritional value for a growing plant, unless its a seedling.
It could be there ios not enough light for the plant to make enough energy to go into flower after or during the stretch phase.
A picture will help tremendously, also where are the yellowing leaves top middle bottom are they new or old fan leaves. Does the yellowing start at the tips and work back towards the stem or the other way round?
Are they in total darkness, no other light getting in with them?
Ans: I have setup the timer to be on from 6am-6pm,around the same time the sun rises and sets over here. I would say it gets complete darkness from 7pm-6am (sunrise). There is 1 switch light which powers the timer & it stays on, in the same room but quite far from the plant.
The only thing different i have done in the past month is including steamed bonemeal to the compost mix since i read it helps in the flowering process. Recommended dosage was 25grms once in 2 weeks. I started off at 1/4th the strength to give the plant time to adapt.
Okay, the light on the timer may not look like much, but it’s probably stopping the plants going into bud.
During the dark period, it has to be totally dark, if you can, stand in there with the plant when it’s dark to see if you have any light leaks. That little light probably looks like a soccer field flood light to a plant, they see the infra red spectrum clearly.
If you google night vision before and after, you will get the idea, of what you see, the before, and what a plant sees in infra red in darkness, the after bit with the goggles on, only they don’t need the goggles lol .
You need to tape over that light so nothing shows through.
They look like mostly sativa which can take a long time to flower, and the look starved. Without a known PH for watering, it could be a lock out or just not enough food, if you can find a fertilizer, preferably organic, something like Jobes 3,7,5 is good.
The light is really not strong enough for plants that size, how big are the pots, they may be root bound as well.
Not to be argumentative, but I have to question that. My outdoor plants never seemed to have a lot of issues with not having complete and total darkness. I tend to think that the intensity of the light is more of an issue.
I used to think like that as well the improvement I have seen on my flowering plants, now there are no light leaks at all, changed my mind.
You got to roll with what you have outside if you can’t change the situation.
I think it may have to do with spectrum as well. As I said earlier, what a human thinks of as low light, a plant may see as extremely bright. You have to think what a plant sees not what humans see.
I have to grow autos outside to get them to flower, due to street lights and passing cars 80 yds away.
It may differ from strain to strain, but the more light they are a exposed to in the dark period, the more likely you are to have problems.
So I think it would be better for okletsgrow, to eliminate the easy stuff first, with his possible multiple problems until he knows for sure what it is stopping them flower.
edit… Here is a pic of what a tiny bit of light does in the infra red spectrum, what you see is that little light on the left, what the plants see is on the right.
Twice now & both times from seed I’ve had grows refuse to bud after the flip & both times it was sativa dominated strains they took over 65 days after the flip to bud
Yeah them be pistils buddy! Plant looks to have multiple problems. And that can be causing your stunned growth. At least with mine my plant was starving
I’ll be watching to see what other ppl say. Any more info would be great how much your feeding what you’re feeding how much water every how often and pot size 4kg!!! Is that 1 US gallon?..if that’s the case get them puppies into 5 gallon pots if they’re only in 1 gallon pots plants that size can’t store any nute reserves so you’re playing a constant game of food catch up .Just from looking I’d say root bound nute lock out and someone said something about adjusting your pH.
pH is extremely important since certain nutes are more readily available at certain pH’s.
the improvement I have seen on my flowering plants, now there are no light leaks at all, changed my mind.
