Well, it's my first time doing this, so I'm learning what to do and not do. I am into my 2nd week with 2 plants. Initially, one germinated quickly and the other one didn't. I was concerned about that one (see this thread for pics) So, 6 days later the first plant I thought was doing ok is pretty much not doing anything. Here it was on the 4th. And here it is now. The other one is doing better, having grown from this: to this. Unfortunately, both soils are Miracle Grow (first in organic, second in the Orchid potting mix). I believe the second one is stressed because of the soil (too much phosphorus?). The first plant really hasn't changed much at all, so I'm wondering if it's something I should give up on, or if I should pump more nutrients into the soil. I did add some Dr. Earth 3/3/3 supplement the last time I watered, but I'm not sure that will help at this point. The good news is that I've already gotten a bag of Fox Farms Ocean Forest, and will be getting the full complement of Fox Farms nutrients and using them per a schedule I saw posted in another thread. I guess my question is whether I should give up on the plant that's not been doing anything over the last week, or is it possible it could go into a growth spurt and be ok? If not, I can start up a new plant. I have 2 more DNA Genetics 60 day wonder seeds, but I also have 2 other autoflower varieties I can plant. The current plants are under a 24 hour light regime though, so I'm not sure if the other plants would hold up to that. The other seeds are: 5 Lowlife White Russian Autoflower 5 Advanced Seeds Sweet Dwarf Autoflower I also have some feminized seeds, but I'll grow those together so I can reduce the light cycle to flower those. All of those seeds are the freebies Attitude sends. I only have a 63W Penetrator LED, so I can really only grow 2 plants at a time right now.
I would personally just start over. But it looks like you could save the second one if you just transplant into your new soil. Oh I just saw that they are autos. I would def start over if you already have this many problems. Autos are unforgiving in the veg stage, if they start flowering when they're small and unhealthy, then your aren't going yield much.
Here's an update on my grow, which I'm going to tough out for both plants. I'm considering the option of transplanting both plants into a new soil mixture of 50/50 Fox Farms Ocean Forest & Happy Frog mix, then throwing in 15% Perlite. I was definately going to do future grows in that mix. I'm just a little bit scared of actually transplanting, as I've never done it before and am worried I'd do it wrong. Benefit would be that they'd be in healthier soil for the rest of the grow. If I were to transplant them, how would I best go about that? Both plants are in 3 gallon pots. During the last 3 watering cycles for the smaller plant, I've added Nuts, and the plant has woken up and started to grow. I think the Miracle Grow Organic soil must have NOTHING in it as far as nutrients. It's been really hot here in the northwest. Though my closet has normally stayed in the 79 to 82 temp range, it got up to 88 yesterday afternoon, even with fans blowing air out the closet and out the window. Here's the plants this morning.
Depending on the soil you can add nutrients in the first 2.5-3 weeks...A seedling can survive by itself for a few weeks off its cotyledons but after its good to give small...doses of nutrients. (1/10th concentration, maybe 1/8th)
I figure this thread will be my grow journal. Hopefully future attempts will get better and better as I learn more. I made the decision last night to transplant my babies into new better soil. I can only hope they survived the process. One of the goals with transplanting them (especially the one in the Miracle Grow Orhid soil) was to get them out of the bad soil and into a mixture I'ved decided on using. I'm going with a 50/50 mix of Fox Farms Ocean Forest and Happy Frog soil, then mixing in 15% perlite. I saw the results in Fluroking's threads, and will see what I can do. One thing he does that I didn't do on the transplant is to use sterilized Lava rock in the base and ph neutral pebbles on top. I need to locate a place that would sell these things for future grows. Anyways, back to the transplant. Though I had watered recently, I also didn't want much of the old soil contaminating the new soil. On the larger plant, I still figured I'd have to get a decent amount of that soil to move from one pot to the other. However, with both plants, most of the soil seperated from the roots, so I basically was just moving the plants only. On the larger plant, one clod ended up breaking off and taking some roots with it, and the rest of the soil just came off when that happened (by accident). So, I've done my best to put them in the new soil, but I have no idea if they will survive the process. I figure I'll know within the week. If these plants survive, great...but if not, I'm ready to start up a new set of plants and do the soil correctly.
Sounds good so far brah!! Glad to see I can be an inspiration to you!! Lol, or my girls atleast anyway HAHA!! Great move by getting them into the new soil asap, should be about 3 days and you will start noticing huge increases!! I wouldnt feed them anything for now, I mean look at mine, theve been in there 3 weeks this friday and imo they couldnt possible be thriving any harder at the moment.. As for transplanting, remember 4 of my 7 plants were in 1 pot!! When I transplanted 2 of them had there roots almost completely torn off, now they are my 2 biggest plants.. Just goes to show how resiliant they really are.. Plus they are gunna love that soil mix!! I'll be here with you till the end bro!! Good luck, and Happy growing!!
Just watered today (maybe a little early by 1 day) with the Super Thrive. We'll see what happens. Lower leaves are looking a little weak, but they aren't getting as much light from the LED's either since they are directly under the big leaves. I also pH tested the water coming out of the pots, and it tested at 7.2...so that should be good.
Argh! Being older, my eyesight is failing a little bit. I just looked at the scale for the pH strips, and it was actualy 6.2, not 7.2...lol
Okay good! (good that its 6.2, not the eyesight... my eyes are horrible too...) Maybe you can stick a cfl or two under the plant to light up some of those leaves... or increase reflectivity of the light?
I just had a brilliant idea based off your comment omdogg, and I'm not even stoned right now. I would think it's already been done, but it might help in gathering light and focusing it on the lower leaves. Basically, think of the dog anti-lick/bite collars. Put one of those around each plant (with a reflective surface). It would add to space needed for each plant though. If the angle at 45 degrees and surround each plant, taking light from above and sending it in from the sides.
Also, except for one day when it was really hot outside, my grow closet has been hanging at 80-82 degrees, and 40% humidity. Since I use LED's, I don't need a whole lot of ventilation, and since I live alone the one of the closet doors stays open enough to get new air in without fans. I have overhead and side fans going in the room with the closet, so I am pretty sure the environment for the grow is pretty good atmosphere and CO2-wise. Though I want to keep these transplants alive just because of time spent on them already, I'm looking forward to the next cycle of plants now that I have a firmer grasp on the basics.
Sounds like you got it down man, I keep a large standard box fan at the entrance to my closet, about 2ft from the plants it its on level 2 at the moment and they are just living it up.. I'm gunna post some pics of mine on fri in my journal, I think this time I may do 2 or 3 good hd pics of the stems, I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out, they are def super tuff plants, lol.. The reason for friday is because they will be about 5 weeks old, and in ffof-hf for their 3rd week..
Damn, sorry guys, I just realized I explained myself twice on your thread already, lmao.. My bad brah.. To many bong rips... You understand..
Here's some better pics of the closet, first how I normally keep it, then open so you can see it all. Also, close up of the plants under the LED.
OK, some post-transplant pics for today. On the larger plant, the lowest 4 leaves were in pretty sad shape, so I snipped them off. It does seem to have recovered from the transplant, and is growing new leaves, both above where the 4 were, and below as well. I'm curious if this plant looks ok and somewhat normal. What is weird is that both were planted about 3 days apart. They sprouted about 2 weeks 14 days and 11 days ago. You would think the smaller plant would be pretty close in size to the larger one, but it's still tiny. Since the transplant, it's been growing new leaves though...so I have hope for it.