Hi there, I realized both of my plants have very slow growth rate during the seedling stage. I am not certain the reasons for it. I suspect I might not have given enough light for them. During the day I expose them to sunshine and during the night they are under a 150W Equivalent Soft White (2700K) Twister CFL Light Bulb. I usually water them twice a day using a spray (so provides more oxygen).
If you are going to bring them In at night they need to be under a 6500k light. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Definitely need more light than one 42w (?) CFL. Also it's suffocating from lack of oxygen to the roots. Get some perlite or another aeration ammendment in that medium.
Its not the lighting YET but u do need more. Listen to CO. it is 100% that muck they are in. Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Grasscity Forum mobile app
a simple cfl bulb is plenty of light till it's 6" tall or so....make sure to get more light then though. I agree it's probably the soil it's in...looks too thick and holds too much moisture...also all the wood, bark fragments tend to make the soil real acidic....you usually see that in soil that made for flowers. Make sure you're watering based on the weight of the cup...don't just water on a timed schedule. Get used to picking up the cup and paying attention to the weight. You should be able to tell if it needs water or not the second you pick up the cup. I would transplant into a lighter soil/medium sooner rather then later.
I see! I will increase the lighting. I had some oxygen crystals in the soil. I was told they are high-end product for roses and stuffs. Sounds good. I will change the medium to regular perlite mixed soil.
Which medium do you personally suggest? I just went to home depot and bought the most expensive product they had.
I always recommend coco and GH nutes...cuz that's what I use. I highly recommend it though if you can find it. If home depot if your only source you could either make a soiless mix or try some very low strength soil without time release ferts. I'm not an an expert on the soil stuff...but if I had to chose I'd probably go with the seed starting mix, african violet(with no time release ferts), or cactus/palm/citrus mix. I was just looking through their site and they have something called wondersoil...it's a compressed brick of earthworm castings and coco I think..but you have to order it online. *you want a soil that's light and won't get water logged. Some soil that may be to high in nutes can be cut 50% with perlite or coco to make them safe for seedlings. Alot of those 'wet' store bought soils will also come with a variety of bugs..mostly fungus gnats. If you go with soil...others could probably make better recommendations then me
Also just a quick question, what do you mean by time release ferts? I never heard of this before. Google also showed me a number of different definitions.
+1 for googling before asking lol. well in miracle grow soil for instance...they put these little plastic green/blue beads in there that will eventually disintegrate(?) as you water, and they break open and release more ferts/nutes. So the idea is that as you water over time more and more balls break open slowly releasing ferts into the soil. They work terrible for weed though...maybe they work for flowers ... but not weed. Usually they break open and burn the roots and you see all sorts of weird nutes burns..and other deficiencies mixed in. That wondersoil looks pretty cool actually...coco and EWC sound like a really good start.
I see! So I started on the wrong footing. Additional question will be, I guess, will wondersoil works when the plant grows bigger? Will I need to change it back to some type of time release fertilizer? - I imagine the fertilizer would help the plant to grow. In fact I even add super strength fertilizer in my current soil.
something like that wondersoil is probably light in nutrients...it might last the plant...3 weeks before you need to feed it. (Keep in mind I don't know about that wondersoil for sure...I've never used it but it sounds/looks good. ) You will eventually need to feed your plant(s) nutrients when you water....alot of people recommend the fox farm stuff, I personally hate it. I don't know what you could get at HD for nutrients....but if you order any, I have great results with botanicare PBP, liquid karma and calmag when I grow in soil/soiless stuff. ...but really if you're gonna order anything online (assuming you can't get it locally) just get GH nutes and run the 6/9 formula in coco lol. Might be a little more $ to start out..but the results will be worth it. I could walk ya through it if ya wanted...I even have a guide all written out for ppls. either way...I hope you grow some awesome weed.
Sounds good. I will go to homedepot today for wondersoil. Meanwhile I can look at your tutorial and buy those formula and coco online. (I personally don't think homedepot has coco).
Mix with some perlite and it should hold the water a bit more and more oxygen too. Both seem to work great on their own too it seems to be more of a preference thing. Trick is to feel the pots and water when light, not based on a timed schedule as I have learned by killing most of my seedlings via drowning lol. Sent from my SGH-I747M using Grasscity Forum mobile app
If you go with coco either use pure coco or 50% perlite....here's a direct link to that guide I mentioned..a few things need updated cuz it's a few years old now. If you go with coco though..read through that guide and use those same nutes as well..its a very popular growing method in coco, and I have amazing results with it...I like to refer to it as 'cheat mode'
Cool, did you guys buy these materials online? I went to homedepot and I only got seedling plugs (basically sponge).