Doing it ALL wrong

[litteringand]

Hi all, glad to be here, these forums are great! I am a rookie with little to no knowledge about growing except the bit I've read here.

Amateur that I am, I took the seeds from a recent bag and dropped them in a pot that formerly held a pansy plant purchased at Lowe's.

Thought there was a slim chance that those dry seeds would germinate, but lo and behold two weeks later I have six sprouts in a 6 inch across pot and my interest in growing is piqued!

I have a small pot with whatever soil came in it sitting under a 60 watt incandescent in my closet lit about 16 hours a day. I know from reading here that this is about the worst setup one can have...

They are literally growing on top of each other and I'd love to get a couple decent plants out of it, but they are only about three inches high and I'm afraid a transplant will kill them.

Any suggestions for my bootleg startup or am I out of luck?

(If anyone is interested I can post a picture.)

 

[Stoney Bud]

I took the seeds from a recent bag and dropped them in a pot that formerly held a pansy plant purchased at Lowe's.

Thought there was a slim chance that those dry seeds would germinate, but lo and behold two weeks later I have six sprouts in a 6 inch across pot and my interest in growing is piqued!

I have a small pot with whatever soil came in it sitting under a 60 watt incandescent in my closet lit about 16 hours a day. I know from reading here that this is about the worst setup one can have...

They are literally growing on top of each other and I'd love to get a couple decent plants out of it, but they are only about three inches high and I'm afraid a transplant will kill them.

Any suggestions for my bootleg startup or am I out of luck?

(If anyone is interested I can post a picture.)

While your seedlings are still tiny, you can put your hand over the cup with the seedlings between your fingers where they don't touch, and very, very gently dump the cup into your hand by flexing it very gently.

Have 6 more cups with drain holes at the bottom, full of loosely filled dirt ready and put ONE plant in each so that only the top half inch of stem is above the dirt. Then very, very gently water them until the dirt is saturated. This will settle the plants into the dirt and move the dirt around them safely.

Now, for your light. The incandescent bulb isn't doing much of anything for your plants man. While they're young, you can use compact fluorescents to grow them. Here's a link to a picture of what you can do for now.

Compact Fluorescent Vegetative Grow Lights
Look in this thread for the post by German Gigalo about the quad CFL's.
Click Here

And here is a valuable thread for you to read:

GrowFAQ-Florous
Click Here


This will get you over the hump with these babies you have and while you read and learn. Post questions about anything you can't find, and one of the many growers on the site will help you.

Good luck to you man!

 

[Tom 'Green' Thumb]

Great advice ^^! I just wanted too add - when the plants are so young it is very safe to transplant, but you still have to be gentle. The plants now probably only have one tap root going straight down so make sure you transplant them taking this into consideration. You don't want to tear or damage their only root. Also, you shouldn't have to worry about roots being inter-twined yet, which is good news for a transplant. Just my 2 cents, hope everything works out great and good luck!

TGT

 

[litteringand]

Thanks for the info Stoney and Green. I got the little sprouts moved into individual 12 ounce cups, (lost one RIP) they were stretched, so I buried the stems up to the just below the leaves and watered. I've also moved them to a new spot and put a 24/0 quad CFL setup hanging about 4 inches above them.
I've attached a pic. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Stoney Bud]

Hey man, that's looking much better. You can move those lights down to about 2 inches from the tops of the plants. Just watch it and keep it there. You'll need to move it up every few days.

No nutes yet.

Are you going to stay in dirt or are you going to try hydro?

You did a real great job transplanting man. Good work.

Have you already planned on any particular nutes?

Thanks for the info Stoney and Green. I got the little sprouts moved into individual 12 ounce cups, (lost one RIP) they were stretched, so I buried the stems up to the just below the leaves and watered. I've also moved them to a new spot and put a 24/0 quad CFL setup hanging about 4 inches above them.
I've attached a pic. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[litteringand]

Hey Stoney, thanks for the tips, they are looking better already!

At least three have weathered the transplant well and are showing new growth, the jury is still out on the other three.

I would like to try hydro, maybe for my next grow, for now I don't want to try too many new things at once.

As to nutes, I really don't know...I heard Miracle Grow Patio does an okay job...or I have a Fox Farms retailer about 40 minutes away. I know that stuff would probably be better, what are your thoughts?

 

[pranicfever]

Tell you a secret..... Some of us don't even use nutes....

Although they say MG isn't always the best to use.
I bought this decent stuff at the dollar general down the road, the one grow that i did, the plants thought it was decent.... and it was only 2 dollars.

Have a Great one

 

[Tom 'Green' Thumb]

litteringand, I wouldn't try hydro until you have soil down perfectly or close to it. Soil is much more forgiving for someone new to growing and hydro can turn on a dime for the worse in hours. I'm sure some people have went straight to hydro, but I think soil is great to start with to learn the fundamentals of growing and get a feel for the plants. Learning to read the plants and know what they need is an important step to becoming a good grower. This is just my opinion so you might want to talk to a few more experienced growers and find out what they have to say. Put all the suggestions together and draw your own conclusion. Good luck!

TGT

TGT

 

[KADE]

litteringand, I wouldn't try hydro until you have soil down perfectly or close to it. Soil is much more forgiving for someone new to growing and hydro can turn on a dime for the worse in hours. I'm sure some people have went straight to hydro, but I think soil is great to start with to learn the fundamentals of growing and get a feel for the plants.

Soil beats the hell outta me =(.. I can do EXACTLY the same thing to all the same plants from the same mother... and there is always a couple that freak and get ph problems... beats the hell outta me. But I have never had a problem w/ hydro.... (yet anyways)

I'd still call myself half new to the growing scene... I know all the science.. just need more experience I guess.. I keep trying out some soil when I have a extra cutting laying around that I can't use for hydro.

 

[Tom 'Green' Thumb]

I should try to get into hydro a little more before I make such statements. I am really only going on what I have experienced with close friends hydro crops and not my own. I have seen them in detail and been there almost the whole crop, but never was it truely my own. I have always grown soil crops as this is the way I first learned and have been doing it this way for over 10 years now. I should expand my horizons and try some hyro to see for myself. I'm probably due for a good change.

TGT

 

[KADE]

Perhaps soil gives u more room for error... but hydro you can fix things faster. I think thas y i like it.