New Grower First grow and I could use some advice

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hi everyone this will be my first post up on the forum and I'm looking forward to receiving some advice here. this is an extreme ghetto grow lol little background I've been traveling in an RV and my engine blew in a town where I don't know anyone so I've decided to grow my own. this is a tiny town it doesn't even have a Walmart and considering I have no transportation it is hard to get supplies so this is what has happened so far.I went to the hardware store to get supplies and the only soil they had was a miracle grow organic and Miracle Grow potting soil I bought all that they had left in the store two bags of each. I started with 6 pots.
Three days later the temperature got to be about 85 and I looked in my pots and there were millions of tiny bugs they looked like mites to me but I'm not really sure. I thought about trying to use pesticides and because I just wasn't sure what I was dealing with and being a brand new grower I decided it would be best to just scrap it all and start over so I lost 6 seeds.
I was so freaked out with these bugs I itched for days..lol I found a supply store that carried black gold seedling soil and I bought a bottle of big bloom nutes.
I decided to only plant 3 seeds this time so I planted them directly in soil in 3 gallon pots. a white widow, LSD, & a KC 45.the LSD sprouted with the seed on it which caused more panic lol I gently rub it off and the plant looked so white I thought I ruined it so I planted a delicious la musa in the same pot however the seedling recovered nicely and now I have two plants growing in one pot which I know is going to stunt the growth on both of them. no signs of any bugs thank God and I was reading one night about ladybugs and I woke up the next morning to this. I am taking this as a good sign from the ganja gods.

ok so some questions I'm using 12 CFLs I have 8 26 watt daylight and 4 cool white. I noticed that they were really pulling towards the daylight bulbs so I replaced the cool whites with some daylight during the veg stage. I am battling big temperature swings from night time until daytime but I have basically kept it between 70 and 85 degrees with a space heater and an oscillating fan. This is what they look like at 11 days. they seem small to me but what do I know that's where you come in how do they look?
My next question will the seedling soil be ok? I thought perhaps because of the short lifespan that I could get away with using the seedling soil.I was thinking of adding a quarter strength of the nutes but I think it's too early? if they are done did could this be caused from my temperature getting too
 

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I'm not sure what happened right there at the end it wouldn't let me type anymore but anyway that was supposed to say if they are stunted could this be from the temperatures getting too high? Oh and my kight cycle is 20/4 and my soil ph looks to be about 6.3 to 6.5.
 
the leaves also have an appearance of looking brittle to me although they don't feel brittle
 

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Nutes too early and over watering (keep it only slightly most) will stunt - seedling soil is great to start in and no nutes for the first 2 weeks except maybe a root stimulant. I think your temps are fine.
 
Btw they do not look overly small, and do look well formed.

This is mine at 11(ish) days (the one on the right is 11, the left is about 14).
IMG_0701.jpg

Also, the pests could of come from the garden centre bags of soil - you do get the odd bag like that.
 
Hey Ghosthunter and Welcome to AFN!!!
I am entirely to new to offer too much advice but I can tell you that they look better than mine at that age! I thing like mjdregba said they look goo and they are well formed, nice color too! BTW love the lady bug!!!
So here some goo grow vibes for you :karma Cloud:
 
Hey Ghosthunter,

Just had a fungus gnat problem myself - I had tried a soil mix that was too damp
and not fluffy enough - probably got the gnats with the seedling compost. Yours
sounds like it was either mites or thrips - so it may have been a good idea to ditch those
plants at a young age - don't want those in your grow space!

They look fine - lay off the nutes with sick plants - ph is a tad high but okay -
temps have a good range. See you got a ladybug there - they'll clean your
plants from pests very nicely - that's good news.

Did you have a look at the critters before you started getting itchy?

I've got posts in both the new grow and infirmary section that show how
I dealt with my particular problem.

The new plants look okay in the photos.

The experienced growers on AFN always recommend patience and holding back with
drastic use of pesticides.

Neem Oil suspensions - a few drops mixed with a drop of neutral
gardening soap and then diluted to a pint or two for a spray is actually
good for your plants - get cold pressed neem if you can... commercial
pesticides may kill young plants.

My Neem Oil also has Sweet Almond, Bergamot , Rosemary and Eucalyptus in it -
used it for a few grows - they seem to like it and all sorts of pests and molds
don't. Again just a drop or two - I've heard of people using a teaspoon per
gallon - that is WAY to much!

As far as I know compounds from the Neem Oil are absorbed by the plant and
so it becomes a systemic defense - I may stand to be corrected here though.

Hope that's helpful - good luck with the new plants...

Otto

'Less is more!'
 
Thanks for the responses and warm welcome. I haven't used any nutess yet at all I was just wondering if maybe that's the problem due to being in seedling soil. I haven't done anything because I've read that it's way too early to start nutes. My KC45 is the one that I'm worried about it really looks like the leaves are getting brittleI backed off my lights a little bit for that plant just to make sure they aren't too close to the lights the other ones seem to be fine that close to the lights I'm probably about 2 or 3 inches from the plant. I am so tempted to water but I can clearly see that the top is still moist and I know this is a big mistake for beginners so I'm holding off. I was looking at the KC 45 and reading about it and they do say that they can be very temperamental and are actually better for outdoors. so for now I guess I will just sit on my hands and not do anything it's so very tempting to mess with them but I read over and over beginners doing this so I will wait and maybe one of these days I will wake up with a jungle in my bedroom.
my biggest problem seems to be the watering for future reference before I'm putting a seed in the soil do I drench the whole pot first and then put this seed in? I put the seed in and just watered the center of the pot and was just putting a little bit of water around where the seed sprouted. the last time I watered I watered the whole pot though.

And yes I love my ladybug she sits on my leaf all day and must get stoned then she wanders off and sits directly on the cfl at night. Ive named her squishy and I cant wait for some bud so I can ride the squishy train.
As far as the bugs...I couldn't identify them from any pictures. I took this picture but my flash made them look white but they were actually a light brown and it was definitely a complete infestation whatever they were...creepy creepy creepy..I bleached everything and that corner of the room before I started over. they were definitely from the miracle grow organic soil because I still have some of the Miracle Grow potting soil left so I put some in a cup and put it under a light in the other room and watered it just to see if there were any bugs in it and I don't see anything. thanks for all the help I really appreciate it this is very exciting and I'm really loving trying to do this on my own. I'll keep monitoring the plants for a few more days and if it's okay I will post another picture here and you guys can see what you think. Peace

Im also wondering if because im using a spaceheater if maybe its too dry in the air. I don't have any way to test the humidity
 

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Easy on the nutes - young plants are very capable of finding them in seedling soil -
some seedling soils probably have too much - watch your leaf tips...that is where
you'll usually see the beginnings of over feeding and hot soil mixes...if you must then
1/16th or 1/8th values...
Personally, as a new grower, I leave it till week three - even four sometimes -
the genetics of these plants are very unstable so regressions/small phenotypes
happen more often than with PS plants...the older the are the more tolerant they
become - just like any plant.

Don't drench your soil - I had fungus gnats in a store bought compost and made it
worse by leaving out my usual coir component - it should be moist and fluffy!
trickling water over them is the right way to go...

I need to get a mini microscope too...I have no idea what those are - look like eggs maybe...

I'm a newbie so always check with the experts here - they are really supportive!

Everything looks like its on track - I worried like hell my first time round.

Otto
 
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