Slow Growth Any Ideas?

[BudSpuds]

Ok I have 3 pineapple kush in veg for 8 weeks. Growth has been painfully slow. They were just transplanted from pots into the bags with fox farm ocean forest and perlite mix. In case they became root bound. The light set up is 1 250w 6500k CFL bulb is 15,000 lumens and 8 23w CFL equivalent 5000k bulbs 1600 lumens. Total 27,800 lumens. PH is in range and plants look healthy. Plants have been topped at 3rd node and have 4 tops. Surely it didn't take that long for the plants to recover from the topping? Any thoughts on the slow growth? Haven't sexed the plants yet no signs of sex, have cuttings in the flower grow to try to sex early. As they look I think the plants on the left in the pic are female and the plant on the right is a male looking really stretchy...Any feedback on the grow would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Papageno]

there are lots of reasons for stunted growth. over watering can cause it...but the most common is humidity being too low for the temps and or both being off. Make sure the humidity is above 50% preferably in the 60's for early veg. anything under 40% will bring it to a crawl.

There are many other ways to stunt growth. pH problems, over dosing of certain nutes....the list goes on. Some times however, when running just CFL's, it is hard to get the temps up high enough and the humidity to follow.

I will post a chart below that is a hydro chart. You can ignore the pH and EC line in soil but the rest apply.

 

[Papageno]

Oh and stretching is almost exclusively due to not getting enough light. Being on the end that makes some sense. Try and swap it out with a middle one. You may need to add some light or spread them out a bit for wider area coverage.

 

[Major PITA]

What are your temp's like? Cold roots will slow growth even if the canopy area is warm.
When you topped them, did they have at least 5-fingered leaves on the node below?

 

[BudSpuds]

Air Temp is 77 humidity is 40%. Yes full leaves at topping.

 

[BudSpuds]

Thanks, Think your on to something with the humidity. It is very low at 40% as it is very dry in the house in the winter. Room Temp is 77 degrees. Put a vaporizer in there humidity is on the way up! Where is it optimum to keep the humidity 60%?

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

60% to 70% should be just fine for vegging, but suspect topping may have slowed things down a little !


In flowering 40% to 50% should be just fine & may include the lights off period as well as RH may spike a little which should help remove bud rot issues which normally happens with falling temp & a increase in RH.

That being a fine line & conditions ya growing in !

 

[BudSpuds]

Temp is up to 79 degrees and RH is up to 61%. Will keep monitoring it and see if I get some results. It seems my sour d seedlings are already looking better. Thanks Everybody!

 

[OlderGrower]

What are your temp's like? Cold roots will slow growth even if the canopy area is warm.
When you topped them, did they have at least 5-fingered leaves on the node below?

If your grow room is anything like mine, the floor is considerably colder in the winter then in the spring and fall. Think of walking around with bare feet, in the winter time it feels colder when your feet are in contact with a cold floor. Put on some socks and shoes and suddenly the house feels warmer. Raising your plants off the floor and insulating them will help.

 

[BudSpuds]

The plants in the veg room are off of the floor a couple feet on a shelf. In my flower set up i need to get the plant off of the floor.
Thanks

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok I have 3 pineapple kush in veg for 8 weeks. Growth has been painfully slow. They were just transplanted from pots into the bags with fox farm ocean forest and perlite mix. In case they became root bound. The light set up is 1 250w 6500k CFL bulb is 15,000 lumens and 8 23w CFL equivalent 5000k bulbs 1600 lumens. Total 27,800 lumens. PH is in range and plants look healthy. Plants have been topped at 3rd node and have 4 tops. Surely it didn't take that long for the plants to recover from the topping? Any thoughts on the slow growth? Haven't sexed the plants yet no signs of sex, have cuttings in the flower grow to try to sex early. As they look I think the plants on the left in the pic are female and the plant on the right is a male looking really stretchy...Any feedback on the grow would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

tell me about the lower growth that is no longer there. Did you prune it? Bingo... that is probably why the growth has slowed. That was a lot of trimming along with the topping.

Did the lower growth yellow and get trimmed for the sake of the picture? If so, that might have been an important clue. The plants look pretty healthy actually, and really reaching for the light. I am not sure I see a problem here and suspect you just cleaned out the lower growth.

 

[BudSpuds]

Hi the lower growth was fine and healthy. I have read a lot about removing lower growth for help in transferring plant energy up to the top of the plant, and since it doesn't get much light it doesn't do much but steal flowering energy in that process. Read that it should be removed long before the flowering has started so the plants recover. I placed some of the cuttings in the flower room for early sexing. Oh I forgot the topping was done long before i trimmed the lower growth. Topped at the third node. I see your point of the plant constantly needing to recover. I want to get rid of the stretchy plant on the left. To get more space for the other 2 so they get more light. But my wife won't let me she thinks its going to be a female. It doesn't look like it to me I'm betting on the 2 plants on the left as female. I won't have to sex my next round I ordered some feminized white widow seeds. I plan on mainlining the Sour D seedlings I have that are a week old when its time to top. This is my third grow and getting better each grow. One PH question. Should PH water about 6.0 every water or should I alternate PH 6.0 then water 7.0? So ph doesn't drop to low?
Thanks for the insight.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi the lower growth was fine and healthy. I have read a lot about removing lower growth for help in transferring plant energy up to the top of the plant, and since it doesn't get much light it doesn't do much but steal flowering energy in that process. Read that it should be removed long before the flowering has started so the plants recover. I placed some of the cuttings in the flower room for early sexing.
Thanks for the insight.

very good... you are right in all of your ideas on the trimming, and that is what it looked like had happened. I would say that she is simply recovering from the makeover job... those leaves reaching straight up does not say slow growth to me... it says that you have achieved full transpiration, the roots are healthy, and you are watering correctly.

 

[BudSpuds]

Added ph question to the reply if you have time. Thanks so much!

 

[Emilya Green]

One PH question. Should PH water about 6.0 every water or should I alternate PH 6.0 then water 7.0? So ph doesn't drop to low?
Thanks for the insight.

The pH drifts from the moment that you water, in most soils drifting upwards. If you water with 6.5 pH every time, at the moment you water the container has the same pH as your water. At this pH, most of your trace minerals are able to be broken down and moved up into the plant. As the pH starts to drift upwards, it hits the perfect pH to break apart the salt bonds on all the rest of the nutrients, and with this drift, in one watering you are able to pick up the full range of nutrients.

You are overthinking this, and trying to manually do the drift. This is incorrect. If you water at 7.0 pH, you are already out of the usable pH range. During this watering, and the subsequent drift upwards, you will not be able to get many nutrients at all into your plants. 6.0 is also out of the range for a soil container grow, and so at the moment of watering you also will not be able to get a lot of the needed nutrients, but at least here the upwards drift will get you into the range for some of the vital stuff.

Remember that pH is temporary. Adjust to the middle range of the chart, and you will be fine. The soil will adjust itself, as it was designed to do. Here is the chart.... please pay attention to the soil side:

 

[Major PITA]

This may not be practical where you are, but I am taking my girls outside during the day. They absolutely love it. Nothing like Ra to make 'em happy.

 

[millertm]

The pH drifts from the moment that you water, in most soils drifting upwards. If you water with 6.5 pH every time, at the moment you water the container has the same pH as your water. At this pH, most of your trace minerals are able to be broken down and moved up into the plant. As the pH starts to drift upwards, it hits the perfect pH to break apart the salt bonds on all the rest of the nutrients, and with this drift, in one watering you are able to pick up the full range of nutrients.

You are overthinking this, and trying to manually do the drift. This is incorrect. If you water at 7.0 pH, you are already out of the usable pH range. During this watering, and the subsequent drift upwards, you will not be able to get many nutrients at all into your plants. 6.0 is also out of the range for a soil container grow, and so at the moment of watering you also will not be able to get a lot of the needed nutrients, but at least here the upwards drift will get you into the range for some of the vital stuff.

Remember that pH is temporary. Adjust to the middle range of the chart, and you will be fine. The soil will adjust itself, as it was designed to do. Here is the chart.... please pay attention to the soil side:

I have had better results from feeding at 5.7 and watering close to 6 with soil. I keep hearing and seeing people using soil at 6.5 or better. For my grow, lower seems to be better. Just a thought.

Cheers

 

[Emilya Green]

I have had better results from feeding at 5.7 and watering close to 6 with soil. I keep hearing and seeing people using soil at 6.5 or better. For my grow, lower seems to be better. Just a thought. Cheers

we would have to get into a discussion about what type of soil mix you were in and what sort of amendments you use to figure out why this could be millertm, but unfortunately this is not our thread to do so. Your results however are atypical, and probably confusing to someone trying to figure out pH in a normal soil. btw, the reason you keep seeing people talking about watering and nuting at 6.5 pH, is because that is the way most of us do it.

 

[BudSpuds]

My soil is Fox Farm Ocean Forest with a 30% perlite added. It seems since I added the vaporizer to the grow room it's responding already especially the seedlings are taking off! Thanks to all for your help much appreciated. I have posted a new thread about bottom watering any thoughts?

 

[Emilya Green]

My soil is Fox Farm Ocean Forest with a 30% perlite added. It seems since I added the vaporizer to the grow room it's responding already especially the seedlings are taking off! Thanks to all for your help much appreciated. I have posted a new thread about bottom watering any thoughts?

not a fan... others are though, I could be wrong. Good luck.