Hey guys this is my first post in the forum. I have read and researched a lot about growing in the past few weeks and decided to give it a shot. I had my first seed sprout rather quickly however today when I put it out in the sunlight one of the cotyledons decided to bend downwards I have looked on the forum and most people point of it's overwatering however I doubt I overwatered. Is it normal for this to happen? Here are some pictures.
Your plant is a baby. Putting it out into direct sunlight at this stage could kill it....probably won't, but could. You need to temper your young plants to direct sunlight by moving them out into it over a period of time. Unless you give it time to form a root system and temper it, it's just going to keep stretching like it is now and will eventually fall over. Put it somewhere where it is getting indirect light for a day or so, then somewhere else with a little more, and then move it out into the sun. Right now it's building out it's root system and they don't do a lot of growing above ground until that process is finished, or use water. As far as watering: NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER water a plant UNTIL you can lift the container it's growing in and it feels light as a feather. Any weight you feel is moisture remaining in the soil. To keep them healthy, you've got to allow them defined wet/dry cycles. The roots do not like sitting in constant moisture and that's a great way to kill your plant. Most new growers kill their plants because of over watering. It does not matter if it takes a month for your plant to dry out, it does not need more water until it uses up what you gave it last time. Again, as with a baby, you don't start them out on steak and potatoes so don't even think about pouring any chemicals or "nutes" into your plant for a long time. The soil will easily support it until it's ready for transplant into a larger container (suggest a 1 gallon and you repot into it when your plant in the cup now grows wider and taller than the cup). Repotting into fresh soil will resupply nutrition (food) for the plant and will feed it for many days also. The good quality formulated grow soils require less nutrients than just plain old dirt. Unless your plant has had an opportunity to feed off the nutrients that come in the soil and use most of them up, pouring more in will just burn your plant. We don't use too many nutrients above the soil (Roots Organics Orig.) because they're just not needed. Take the time to read up extensively on nutrients and at what point in the plant's life it actually needs them and what they need when they do. Lots of new growers think nutes are responsible for size of plant and weight at harvest, but light is responsible for that. Nutes are nothing more than plant food and I wouldn't use them at all until I fully understood what they were and when my plants needed them. Inform yourself as much as possible with good solid "how to's" because the more you understand about what you're doing, the better the result. Best of luck and have fun!! TWW
