I don’t know why my plants are growing slowly nor why they are not bushy. All are being grown in a Vivosun 367x36x72 tent with good ventilation and a lot of light (all are LEDs including grow lights). They are fertilized with de-chloramined tap water and CalMag added. Regularly fertilized with Floragrow, FloraMicro, and FloraBloom.
Plant A is an AK47 (feminized, non-auto) that germinated 10/26/21. The top is fairly filled out, but the plant’s remainder is thin. The bud popcorns are very small except for the top and they aren’t very thick there.
Photos 4 and 5 are White Widow germinated 10/26/21. Are its trichomes supposed to turn dark or do they remain this color?
The last photo is a (L to R)AK47 fem non-auto germinated 10/30/21, White Widow fem non-auto germinated 11/10/21.
I have eight plants in my tent, one plant is a small seedling.
I would really appreciate suggestions and ideas as to why my plants are not big and bushy and why they are not ready for harvest now seeing that they germinated in late Oct. and early Nov.
This is my first attempt at “traditional” cannabis plants. Previously I grew some CBD-dominant plants (grown indoors but not in a tent) and most of them did very well! Much better than these plants. I thought a tent would greatly increase the growth and production of the plants.
Thanks for your help!
They certainly look healthy enough. I’m gonna guess coco ? As tall and sparce as they are, all I can do is guess, maybe you had your light too high?
Marty
I know this list can be a bit overwhelming but it’s the best way for us to diagnose any potential problems.
Grow Journal Check List
Seedbank:
Strain (bagseed too):
Indoor, outdoor:
Tent, Room Size:
Lighting:
Light height:
Temps (day and night):
Relative Humidity (day and night) :
Added Air (fans, portable acs, heaters, dehumidifiers) :
Ventilation:
Pot sizes:
Soil, Coco, or Dwc:
Nutrient type:
Ph numbers:
Ec and PPM:
Water Temps:
Co2:
Seed germination date:
Veg duration:
Nutrient cycles (how often feed/water):
Mark,
@treetrunks nailed it !!
We can all see and advise if we know your growing parameters…it will take a little time to fill it out but get you a lot more advice… A lot of people here on GN are more than willing to help you out. Just remember they’re busy people !
If you provide that Grow Journal Checklist at the beginning of each grow in your journal you will provide a LOT of info for us !!!
Good Luck Bob
Thanks! I guess I thought traditional plants, grown indoors, would get as thick and bushy as my CBD-dominant plants did. For these plants, shouldn’t they be ready for harvest now having germinated in late October? I thought 12 weeks was the timeframe for harvest. The growing medium is Jungle Growth potting soil with Black Kow composed manure mixed in.
As far as lighting goes, I have four 5000K LEDs and one LED Grow light. I don’t have them aimed directly at the plants, they are aimed to provide reflected light inside the tent.
Ok, sorry about that. I’ll fill it out now and post here.
Nothing to be sorry about!
OK, here it is:
Grow Journal Check List
Seedbank: ILGM
Strain (bagseed too): AK47 and White Widow
Indoor, outdoor: Indoor
Tent, Room Size: 3x3x6
Lighting: 4x 5000k LED, 1x LED Grow
Light height: <20" from top of plants
Temps (day and night): approx. Range is 65-80F
Relative Humidity (day and night) : 65%
Added Air (fans, portable acs, heaters, dehumidifiers) : Exhaust fan and hanging air circulation fan
Ventilation: Exhaust fan
Pot sizes: 10"
Soil, Coco, or Dwc: Soil (Jungle Growth+Black Kow+Vermiculite)
Nutrient type: FloraGrow, FloraMicro, FloraBloom
Ph numbers: 6.1
Ec and PPM: Unknown
Water Temps: Tap water with Chloramine removed and CalMag added
Co2: Unknown
Seed germination date: 10/2021 and 11/2021
Veg duration: Unknown
Nutrient cycles (how often feed/water): Approx 3x per week
I want to add that I am a newbie to cannabis and growing it. I have many years’ gardening experience just as a hobby (super hot peppers, veggies, succulents).
If not for this site, forum, and its fantastic members, I would not have had a clue how to do this! I don’t smoke, I want to use it in edibles to help alleviate my acute chronic pain.
I have read here that, to cure the buds, I pick them into small popcorn sized chunks and place on a baking sheet in a 220 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Is that correct?
Mark, thanks that helps a lot !!
There will be other opinions here for sure…my first take on your program …
First, it appears to me that the lack of foliage and apparent stretch of your plants indicates to me that your lights just aren’t sufficient…I will leave it to others to provide you some light advice !
Looks like your pH is a little low…remember you want to start charting your pH IN and pH drainage water OUT ! I believe you would be better served in your grow medium with a pH 6.3-6.5.
Another thing that is going to be very important for your nutrient management is buying a good quality EC or ppm meter…low price meters are going to be tempting, but believe me some of the cheap meters are worse than no meter at all !!!
When you have a good ppm/EC meter in hand you will want to record the ppm/EC of your nutrient water going IN and (just like pH) the ppm/EC of your drainage water. If you take time to write down you pH and ppmEC numbers at least twice a week you will have commanding control of your nutrient program…
When you get these initial impediments solved, we can show you how to take command of your grow!!
Hope that helps and Good Luck!!
What are the make and model of the lights?
Thank you so much rflasch and treetrunks!
The white lights are:
and the grow light is:
I don’t have a lot of money to spend on the equipment, so I’ve tried to get the best I could for the money I had. Maybe I should place a couple of the white lights lower and facing up into the plants. How about that?
Thank you so much. I will look into those meters.
Which of the plants, if any, look to you to be ready to harvest? I’ve heard that letting them go too long prior to harvest isn’t good.
Am I correct in the process of “oven preparation” method?
Mark, Your harvest will depend on the color of your trichomes and you can time your harvest to deliver your favorite ‘high’. There are many, many explanations here …suggest a search with the magnifying glass at the top of the page…perhaps trichome color.
Also there are a lot of articles about curing ! Perhaps search ‘curing’
Hope that helps…you can find a lot of GOOD STUFF using that magnifying glass FWIW
Bob
Can we get some pictures close-up of the larger tops. We will get a better idea from those pictures when your plants will be approaching finish.
What it looks like to me is you have way insufficient light. Look at your plants the top foot is big and fat everything else is not. The only super inexpensive solution that I can think of at the moment would be for your next grow and that would be multiple toppings keep your plants short and put your lights down on top of them close. And maybe grow less plants at one time. You must remember growing indoors you are furnishing the plant with everything. What it normally gets outside for light is the sun. So I think these suggestions will improve your plants and it won’t cost you anything.
You do not cure your flower in the oven ever. What you have read about people putting their buds in the oven and doing is called decarboxylation. That is activating the THC in the flower so you can consume it without Burning it. Your plants should hang in a cool dark place with a little bit of air movement. When you can bend a small branch and it snaps it’s definitely dry enough. That’s when you trim your flower off of the branches and jar them up for the cure. Come on man lay down lay down
@ArtVandalay Hey buddy, could you give us some more details on the lights you’re growing under? Brand, transfo, led’s, specs, …
Perhaps a photo?
Cheers mate!
@ArtVandalay
https://gn-forum-upload-bucket.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/original/3X/e/7/e765a4cdf343e5c641ced7c7ebf98486fb6d24e0.jpeg
And I have to congratulate mate, because apart from being a bit stretched out and untrained (but that’s just a style-thingy, easy fix), your plants look REALLY healthy to me. Well done 
*Edit: Ah sorry, I looked over your post above.
I think you should aim the lights directly at the plants to minimize reflective losses and keep the lights closer to you plants if possible. I would try and get them as close as possible without overheating the tops of the plants. If you place your hand under the light near the top of the plant and it feels uncomfortable after a while then you likely moved too close. With my Floros I kept the tops of the light a few inch’s from the tops of my plants with a fan blowing inbetween and I was running like 1300 watts to flower a 4x4 canopy
Thanks! Being new to this I have found that there are so many conflicting instructions for every step of growing and harvesting and afterwards. So should I “cure” it using the method you said even though I will only cook with it?
I have a couple more of those white lights available, so I am going to put them on a stand underneath the plants and pointing upwards. Maybe that will help the remaining young plants grow more full like I see in photos here on the forum. A lot of the plants I see here are huge!
Thanks again!