Beautiful little guy, interested in how this turns out and what your opinion of this vs hydro is. If you don't mind sharing, what is your mix? I'm always curious what people are using. Subscribed
The mix it is in right now is a mix of 1 lbs ewc, promix bx and perlite. You say toss some more EWC on there also? Was thinking about doing a humic acid, molasses, ewc and kelp meal tea middle of December - possibly do this sooner? Thanks again everyone
A little top dressing of worm castings is ALWAYS a good, healthy thing - using them in a slurry just helps to activate them. Take a few cups of them and put them in a container you can close and just cover them with water. Let them sit an hour, and keep shaking them vigorously. Apply them, leaving a half inch or so top dressing on top of each pot/soil. This really helps to ensure good microbial activity, and is always a good "general tonic". Your plants look good. I would also suggest getting them into larger (maybe 1-3? gallon) containers pretty quick. This might be why they are growing slowly; give their roots a chance to start spreading and gathering more nutrition. I think they might be being held back in the cups right now. Once they can spread their roots I guarantee growth will start snowballing. Under the right circumstances, ie: good organic living soil with plenty of nutrition, good bright lighting, warm temperatures, I've had plants that grew (and do) so fat and healthy and SO fast and vigorous that it made some of my hydro grows look silly. Trust me - the right organics can and will blow by hydroponics as far as vigorously growing plants. I've done both for a long time - give it a chance and once you get this dialed in you will be a believer. Nice plants. J
Let them become established in larger pots for a week or ten days and then the kelp tea will do you well. It might be a good idea to start soaking the kelp soon. J
Sounds like a good idea to me! I have a 2 gal smart pot I was planing on transplanting to but "when" I am not sure. I was going by old "signs" of 2 sets of true leaves or roughly 4 inches tall but what you said makes perfect sense and I will transplant this weekend. I just watered this morning, should I wait till the soil is dry to transplant? I also had read it is best to transplant near the end of the day so the plant has all night to recuperate - true? I am already starting to like this - growth is slower but waaaay more healthy. Guess its that "good things take time", which I am perfectly fine with!
I usually transplant (other plants) when they are damp, the soil stays together better, less chance of messing up the roots. That is as long as you can tap them out of the container easily.
Another problem with wet transplant is that the increased weight of the soul can increase the chance of tearing the "hairs" off of the bigger roots if your not careful.
very true, I aim for not dry, the soil falls apart, to just a nice damp where the soil stays together, but it is not wet.
I will be putting it into a pot with my 'good' soil, do I try to remove excess soil from the cup or just put the 'cup' soil right into a hole in the bigger pot? - Hah, can you tell I'm new to this!? LOL My plan was to tip it over, pull the cup off, put the entire 'mass' into the pot and cover gently and then water. Another thing I had heard was to water the new pot when empty to ensure no dry spots within the soil - another 'must do' tip or one of those 'well thats a good idea if you can' things? EDIT: Got the transplant taken care of - it looks pretty pathetic now, all tiny in the big pot. It was not root bound, but it was definitely ready for a pot change! Thank you very much Jerry for the heads up! Humidity is slowly increasing, up to 52% right now.
I tip the plant, have the right size hole ready. Stick the cup and plant in the soil, create the hole, make the fit good. IE don't be undersized. Do not remove the excess soil, put all into your hole. I do make sure the pot soil you are putting the plant in is nicely watered. I usually mix the soil with water, make it nice and damp before even putting it in the pot, then make a nice size hole for the new plant, put it in, tamp gently, water gently and you are good to go.
its the next day and things look good! Has not been 24 hours yet but it has already perked up a little. Pics from yesterday are in the edited post, i'll take some this weekend to show how it is doing. Thanks again for the heads up!
I noticed the one fan on the left that would be blowing on the plant is not running, but the one under it is. From what I have been reading is if you leave one blowing on the plant it helps beef up the stalk some by simulating blowing in the wind.
Okay - - okay. I am starting to become a believer. Shh - don't tell anyone tho! haha. Things that I can 'logically' write off as either setup, environment or flat out inexperience have really made me look at this experiment as something totally different... pardon my hippie but I feel 'connected' to this plant. I have always been used to a flood and drain or ebb and flow type hydro setup, and you would always cram as many plants/clones in there as you could - its essentially a factory. The plants meet certain criteria ( height, color, root development ) and move it to the next touch down station of its life. This is different, even from my simple routine of talking to it, watering, misting or whatever that days 'task' is just feels . . . right. Anyhoo - enough of that haha! The transplant went fantastic, no slowdown in growth or anything - if I'd have to say something, its that growth has increased! Jerry was totally right about the container! Leaves are perking up, color is getting better, new growth is increased. Still not growing as fast as I'm used to, but def growing 'healthier'! Question - the bottom of the stalk it looks like it is 'splitting' open. Does not appear to be bad, everything is growing properly but I noticed it a little about a week ago and then after the transplant it now looks like this. Is it something I did? Good growth? Thank you!
It looks like its just "growth" - I wouldn't sweat it. Keep hitting them with a lot of light now and just keep it moist - that's it. Please continue to keep us posted as to plant health/growth with pictures. j
Good call - I actually have 6 fans in the case on different timers. 3 exhaust, 1 light and 2 'circulating' ( that you saw one on, one off ) The fan blowing across the light and 2 exhaust fans run all the time the light is on. One fan blowing up and one exhaust fan alternate running for 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off every other hour. The one circulating fan ( blowing down ) alternates 1 hour on, 1 hour off 24/7. IE - more wind during the day, still wind but less at night. Hot and cold air cycles and what not haha. The reason I have the fans set up that way is exactly as you mentioned, to help simulate the wind. But since I do not have the ability to use oscillating fans at this time, I figured if I could alternate the 'wind patterns' I wont cause any wind burn or strengthen one side of the leaves more so than another. It is still fairly small but I am thinking about adding another fan, blowing down at an angle from above the 2 other fans. Maybe have this set to run for 1 hour every 2 hours?
That plant keeps looking beautiful, and it's just a seedling. I noticed something similar happening to my stem after watering close to the stem and hitting it with water, felt like some type of reaction caused due to water and dirt being on the stem for a few. Although, the stem feels great on my plant and is pretty strong, so I'm sure it's nothing serious.
It could be my 'thinking too much' mentality, but, I was kind of putting the stem splitting into the 'growth of a tree', since technically, MJ is a tree. The interior of the tree swells, the outter shielding ( or bark ) is split and sheds, the tree expands and another layer of bark is created. This is what I 'think' is happening ( since the light green 'fresh' is intact while the outside literally looks torn ). I dunno - I really don't LOL But - I do know that I am dying for that 5th node so I can start LST tho! It is looking so much better being in this bigger pot, I am going to top off the soil and then take pics later today. When do you think I should put on my first tea/slurry?