Slow development or not?

[home_grower]

Hey dudes and dudeses :)

I planted me a marijuana plant about 1 1/2 month ago. According to the instructions I found over the net, my plant was suppose to show its first sex defining buds by now. Not happening.

So, I decided to have you doctors look at it. I've attached some photos I took just now.
How does it look to you? Which stage am I in?
I have the lighting setup to provoke flowering (12h ON / 12h OFF) for almost a month now. So, I should be in flowering stage.

I thought those new branches that come out from the base of the initial branches were suppose to be buds. As in buds with either little balls or strings of white hair. They just grow into regular branches.
Should I be worried?
If my plant is not mature yet, maybe I should bring it back to the 18h ON / 6hrs OFF schedule.

Thx,
home_grower

 

[OctoberDee]

You might need more light if that plant is a month and a half. Also if there is any ambient light the plant is not likely to flower properly. There isn't any evidence of sex from the pictures you have here. Maybe you should let it do the 12/12 thing for a couple more weeks and re-check/ re-post pics.

 

[jagle]

not enough light, it is stretching for it and very weak looking

 

[home_grower]

I wish we met sooner :) Thx guys!
You country folks reckon it's the light, er? I'll double up on them bulbs.

Was scheduled for harvesting in mid March.. looks like that flight is delayed lol

Thx again!
Cheers

 

[OctoberDee]

Get the light doubled for sure. Are you using any fertilizers? If not, you should look into some. I'm an organic fool myself. I use Earth Juice which is ok, better is worm casting and guano teas. Others use some pretty major nutritional programs, you can probably get some good ideas on how to feed your plants by reading through some threads here on the Farm. Just a thought, good luck. BTW I'm a city mouse

 

[home_grower]

I had some fertilizer in the dirt from before. Something left over from my wives's flowers that were planted in there. :)
This is my first ever attempt to home grow marijuana. I'm an extreme amateur. I still have doubts that it will actually flower and give buds properly. Man I hope it does.

I don't think I can get those specific kinds of fertilizers where I'm from. They do have a couple of different kinds, though and I can try some. My only question on that subject is:
Can I harm my plant by putting in too much fertilizer?
Lets say it already has enough and if I put more can I overdose it?

Btw, I did double up on the bulbs as well as putting aluminum foil on the walls. It is far brighter in there now. It should help improve things.

 

[home_grower]

BTW I'm a city mouse

lol
I was calling you guys "country folks" as in "farmers" :D
Nevermind lol
I'm a city mouse, too. :fighting0085:

 

[home_grower]

Well, it was about 20 days behind schedule but 3 days ago I saw the first female pre-flowers on one of my plants. So cool :) It's a girl!

My concern is that those female white hairs are only present at the very top of my plant. No signs of anything similar down bellow what so ever. Wasn't it suppose to flower all around?

The other pant is still not showing any signs of flowering. Its been 2 months since I planted them both.
I decided to use that other (non-flowering) plant for testing, though. Yesterday I poured some nutrition liquid in its dirt. More than what was written on the box. The other (flowering) plant is getting the prescribe dosage, don't want to risk that one.

One (liquid) solution has (reading from the side of the box):

• 
  7% Nitrogen;
  5% P2O5;
  10% K2O;
  and
  Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Mo, B

The other solution is crystals. Says 22 - 21 - 18 +M.E.:

• 
  22% Nitrogen;
  21% P2O5;
  18% K2O;
  Mg = 3000 ppm;
  Fe = 1000 ppm;
  Ca = 500 ppm;
  Mn = 300 ppm;
  Cu = 300 ppm;
  Zn = 150 ppm;
  Mo = 50 ppm;
  B = 50 ppm

Can I harm them using this stuff?

 

[SmokeyPipes]

If you've had it on 12/12 for a month and it's only 1 1/2 months old! That's your problem rt there!! A seedling needs at least 30 days before it's even mature enough to show any sort of sex! Seeds can also be started on 12/12 which is why nothing has happened up to this point!Looks like you have a female tho,but that's never going to be enough light to flower that out the rt way,especially since it's already so tall! Live and learn my friend,
Good Luck!!

 

[onaeun]

I'd say reposition those lights, you could still maximize a little I think. And you can definitely hurt your plants with those foods. I'm sure though that, diluted down, they could sufficiently feed your plants. I'm guessing you would have to dilute those salt fertilizers down quite a bit. Just think that a little goes a looong way, and that you've grown your plants with virtually no added fert. Use very little in your feed water. If they look hungry you can up the dose by a small amount. Those crystal ferts are way overpowered usually if you have the ones I'm thinking of.
You could either continue the 12/12 and finish these girls and have a small harvest, or you could decide to top them (cut off the top node, which would make the plant replace it with multiple top nodes from the bottom) and return them to 18/6 light cycle to continue veg before initiating flower (12/12). This way you'd harvest more, but sacrifice time. Either way you'll have a compromised yield, but this is your first time so it's all about learning!

 

[prometh]

distance between the nodes is small. i'd say its very likely its a male

 

[home_grower]

Guys, I killed one of my plants :(
That second one (that I was using to experiment, as I said earlier)... well, in my attempt to buff it up with vitamins and fertilizers, I must've hurt the little guy. Hope you were right, prometh. Hope it was a guy, at least.
I'm not gonna give up on it just yet, though. Gonna wait till it starts loosing its green color and then declare it dead.

Being extra careful with my other (officially female) plant. Added 2 more lights, right now there are 4 ESL lamps in there, each at 30W which is equivalent to 4 x 100W of normal type of lamps. Hope this is enough light since it is REALLY bright in there.

@onaeun
Thx for the tip on cutting off the top nodes! But, since those few little white hairs are the only promising signs of progress in these 2 months of my first ever attempt to grow marijuana, I'm gonna leave them as is. Feel sorry cutting them.
Even if I do get a small harvest, I'll be happy that my attempt showed some results.

You're all extremely helpful!

My healthy plant is showing some brownish color on one of its leaves (see photo). Should I be worried? This is the plant that got the prescribed dosage of fertilizer. Maybe I can react fast if there's something wrong with it.

 

[SmokeyPipes]

That's either nute burn or overwatering or even both!!Honestly your kinda wasting your time trying to grow these out the way they look,based on the looks of that other plant you'd be lucky to get a quarter out of it! I'd go back to the drawing board and start over if I were you and throw that thing outside maybe!!

 

[Dunge]

Under fertilized plants struggle to suck enough nutrients.

Over fertilized plants die.

 

[home_grower]

That's either nute burn or overwatering or even both!!Honestly your kinda wasting your time trying to grow these out the way they look,based on the looks of that other plant you'd be lucky to get a quarter out of it! I'd go back to the drawing board and start over if I were you and throw that thing outside maybe!!

A quarter what, SmokeyPipes? You recon I'll probably get 10 grams (~ quarter ounce) only?
If I were to start over with all my newly gained expertese on the subject :thinking How long do you recon it will take from germinating to harvesting? Just like a ball-park figure... using the same seeds I used for this batch. I know that there are too many variables, but still, 3 months?

Under fertilized plants struggle to suck enough nutrients.

Over fertilized plants die.

I guess I should just throw that sick plant away :hunter: Doesn't look like it's coming back from the dead.

 

[Purpstickipunch]

It takes time bud. Im on month one at the moment, another month or so for my veg and then on to flowering a good 8-10 wks.

Make sure your soil is half perlite/ Half potting soil. Good luck. Im going through a bit of wilting myself. sucks....

 

[hiboy]

Hopefully she,, she will survive. Looks like she isnt that bad, im being positive. Pour some ph water no nutes thru the soil, alot, and clean out your saucer pan once ur done.
Spray some plain water on the leaves, flush her out, see what happens
h

 

[Sasha]

Hopefully she,, she will survive. Looks like she isnt that bad, im being positive. Pour some ph water no nutes thru the soil, alot, and clean out your saucer pan once ur done.
Spray some plain water on the leaves, flush her out, see what happens
h

I agree with this but make sure you spray the leaves only when the lights are off and I cant believe no one mentioned that you need to take down the tin foil immediately because it creates hot spots which will burn your leaves. Flat white paint will work great. Good luck

 

[Purpstickipunch]

I agree with this but make sure you spray the leaves only when the lights are off and I cant believe no one mentioned that you need to take down the tin foil immediately because it creates hot spots which will burn your leaves. Flat white paint will work great. Good luck

I actually was going to say this in my last post. lol. damn computer had to plug the fucker in.

I agree flat white paint, thats what I am using for my room. Eventually though Im going to get the white/black plastic sheeting on my walls to prevent light leaks.

Also about the flushing- Im not sure if I would do that or just transplant into a half and half soil/perlite mix. The mix by the photos looks saturated with water already; Looks to me like she needs to dry out.

Im going to be honest, I would just start over. Get some small t-5s if you don't want the expensive lighting, remove the tin foil, make sure you have atleast one fan in the area, and paint the walls flat white. Thats really it, other than the mix/perlite.

With the perlite/soil mix you will just recieve more oxygen to the roots. You want to avoid root rot entirely and the best way to avoid this is perlite. That way you know if you overwater. Im starting to learn that the rule of thumb with this is to water the mix until water starts trickling out the pot into the pots res. That way you avoid overwatering, and your roots get to breathe. The stronger the root the stronger the plant.

 

[home_grower]

Hey friends,

Looks like my girl's doing fine, isn't she? :)
So grateful to everyone pointing me in the right direction!

I just saw your suggestions on tin foils :( bummer, I'm taking rid of those tomorrow. I already see two small spots on my plant where the leaves turned brown. Probably the cause. Need to get me some white wallpaper, don't want to introduce toxic chemicals (paint) near my little girl.
I saw the "tin foil walls" idea on this forum, actually. Guess I didn't see an educated discussion on the subject.

Anyway, progress update...
As you can see.. female flowers are pretty distinct and cool looking ;) So far they only showed up in the top half of my plant (top 5 nodes). Hoping to see some more down below. Love how things are progressing!

Does my plant look ok to you experts?