lights? soil? and leaf color

[stonedwrx06]

hi guys this is my second grow and in my first i didnt read up or stidy at all but this time i found this forum and learned so much
ok first question i have 6 3 to 4 week old plants under 2 23 w 6400k cfl producing 3200 lums also 1 fish take light blue colored cfl dont know watts or lums and 2 20 w red k i forget the number producing 3200 lums so i have around 7000 lums is that enough?
second i started the plants in paper towle let them grow a little and put them in 2 to 3 inches of soil and 4 inches of rock underneth the soil in keg cups is the ok to support the roots i did it too get oxygen to the root and let the root grows well in the large gaps in between the small rocks
3 i noticed i kinda gave a little too much water the other day and the leaves turn yellowish the ph is fine in the water so i dont if i should be using nutes or not im just doing watering every day and running 24/0 in veg
thanks to whomever responds ohh and the seeds are white shark and i have 4 other seedlings in stage 1 right now

 

[BWC BayArea]

3-4 weeks old? Yea definitely start with a complete set of veg nutes. Start at 1/4 to 1/2 strength of the manufacturers suggestion and work ur way up in the days/weeks following. I suggest U try finding a reliable and accurate PH and PPM/EC meter (I hear ebay has good deals if u can't get to a store).
No need to water everyday. I like to alternate my feeding and watering. So I'll water, feed nutes, water and so on and so forth. Let ur soil dry out some (around 2" down) and then water again. Plants use different amounts of water in different climates and temperatures. Soil around the roots must dry out some b4 they grow in search of water. If the soil is always wet then they don't have to . Oxygen is forced from between small spaces between soil particles stymieing root development. So the nutes/water are there and the plant has no need to search for water. Soggy soil can create humidity problems as well as lead to fungus gnats, stem rot, root rot, among other things. The plant grows until the stem and foliar demands exceed the roots capacity to uptake enough nutrients (plants outgrown its root system).Int turn, inducing stress ultimately resulting in the plant feeding from older growth to support stasis. How close are ur lights too the top of ur plants (in feet/inches)? I don't know much about CFLs.

 

[stonedwrx06]

whats up man thanks for responding um the light are 5 inches from plants at most

 

[BWC BayArea]

U should be good at that distance I think. i was reading a thread stating that CFLs must remain close to the plants because they loose lumens the farther they are away (as all lights do). Start ur nutes. What sized pots u using? What type of soil? U wouldn't happen to be using Miracle Grow would u?

 

[stonedwrx06]

umm just transplanted and the roots out grew the soil im just using some soil that is from a compost pile nice soil. yeh my cfl's are close within 3 to 4 inches at the closest with a 64000 blue bulbs to promote vegging herd they were good i have 2 of them at 1600 lumens also a fish tank cfl blue also and 2 halo cfls red wihich are higher because they produce more heat andi found they tend to stress plant and 1 100w metal 1690 lumens so i think i should be good until flowering and ill have to buy some new ones. yeh i am using 24-8-16 miracle grow not the one with the acid fert. i have only used it once in a light solution cause i killed some plants a while ago using too much and wrong fert. but i will say i took like less than a quarter of a tablespoon and saw after 6 to 8 hours new leaves shooting out the stem also much better color back to a nice green. so i think combo of root not being able too grow and the low nitrogen from the root out growing soil

 

[BWC BayArea]

All MG soil has time released nutes that I've seen. That's the "miracle", even the organic MG does (read online) No nutes till a couple weeks after transplant (into different soil). Hard to say cuz I'm unfamiliar with the soil ur using. Main thing is to pay attention to ur plants' leaves. They'll tell u a lot about what's needed or what's been done. U PHing ur water? Ur runoff?

 

[stonedwrx06]

im just using soil from outside my condo doesnt look too bad im only using the miracle grow for flowering plants so i dont think it keeps realeasing but they look like they recoverd it could have been too much watering i think that burned them out and cause nutrogen def from roots not being able to breathe

 

[BWC BayArea]

Good luck with that. If u want more help post pics. If u don't know how click the "Learn 2 post ur pics here" link in my signature.