Hello all. I have a micro grow going in a cabinet that's 36"x20"x4'. 2 65 actual watt 2500k cfls and 4 23 watt 6500k cfls. 8" intake 4" exhaust vith a vortex duct fan and a small fan circulating inside. Temps run 77f at night and 80f during the day. I germinated 8 bag seeds in red solo cups. Six made it. I planted three with organic seedling soil the last three I wasn't going to have enough soil for so I mixed in some Scott's hyponic soil with the seedling mix (roughly half and half). It is time released ferts which I know isn't good. The first three in seedling soil are small and terrible looking. The three in the half and half mix are taking off growing there second set of leaves already. They all sprouted on 9/5 so are roughly six days old. I was thinking about mixing some fish emulsion that is 7 5 5 very weak for the three small weak looking plants. Any ideas of how this might affect them or will it nute burn and kill them. Thank you for your time and any help would be greatly appreciated.
So the three that are in proper organic soil for seedlings are looking dodgy, but the three than are in your own weird mix are doing fine? At 6 days old, I think they would be surviving even if they weren't planted, so I don't think there's any need to add any fertiliser to them, probably do more harm than good. Any other reason they might be doing worse? Is the organic soil more wet and claggy than the other mix? Are they accidentally sat in a draft or being scorched by a light? If you click on "More reply options" when you post, you can upload some pics.
The soil does seem to stay moist longer they have only been watered twice since popping out the other three were watered for the third time this morning been using distilled water at room temp. I thought it may have been because they were bigger. I can post some pics of the set up and plants later this afternoon when I get home. Thanks.
If it is they soil is there or should I do anything for it. Or will they just get stronger and take off on their own?
It's difficult to say, but the reason why I asked about the soil being wet is that it's a common mistake to over-water small plants, as they don't like soggy conditions. It may be that if you just leave them for a while they will get stronger, but some pics of the plants and your pots would help because there could be something else. By the way, the wetness issue is why it's common that people use perlite or vermiculite mixed in with their soil, because it helps to open it up and drains better.
The first pic is the set up. The second is what all three plants in the organic soil look like. The third is what all three in the "weird mix" look like. The organic does have quit a bit of perlite already in it. I wish I still had the bag for reference. I'm in a small po dunk town and only have a lowes and Walmart with a very limited selection of garden supply's.
"weird mix" lol, looks like they're doing fine, maybe you stumbled on the magic formula! I didn't mean it in a bad way, anyway. I think I glanced over a sentence containing "hyponic" and "mix", and interpreted it as something else. Could be the tiny roots don't like the potting compost that much for whatever reason, so they're stressed. Could be just coincidence a couple of the seeds aren't good growers and they happen to be in those cups. Whatever the reason, it doesn't look sickly, just small, so it will probably catch up when it's ready.
Hey man thanks for the help and I didn't take offense it's all good. I will prob be looking for some more help down the road even though I've read and researched for hours about all this! It's just not the same until you actually try it. You seem to be helping all the noobs out quit a bit on here. That's pretty cool. Thanks again man.
Amen to that! Hands in the air, I'm definitely still a newbie myself, and I try not to overstep my mark too much. I know it's a lot for people to take in sometimes, there's so many variables you can get in to, so much pressure to 'optimise your yield', I just think it's nice to be helpful and give people confidence, not feel foolish or to be too critical. I'm not fed up yet with saying "don't fertilize your 5-day old seedlings" and "60watt equivalent isn't enough, it's only 14 actual watts", although I'm sure it will happen eventually! Nice little grow space by the way. Is that an emergency 'space blanket' I spy on the walls?
I grew up and still live on a ranch so I've been growing and fertilizing all my life so I've got some hands on knowledge, just not with cannabis. Tha cabinet is perfect size for what I need for personal use. Under neath is a 2' tall space that I someday would like to have a good bonsai mom and clones in a bubble cloner to keep it perpetual. Yes unfortunately that is an emergency blanket. After this set of bag seeds I think I'm going to just paint the inside a high gloss white. The bottom space is white and looks a lot cleaner. Hopefully I can get all the bumps out of the road on a couple tial grows. I've got some cotton candy seeds and strawberry cough in the fridge from herbies my wife really wants me to get going on. Have you any experience on either of those two? Smoking or growing?
I've got one of those blankets too. I know it's not great, but it's convenient for reducing the size of my space to fit the size of my grow. When you go white though, go flat white not gloss, looks shiney but is actually about 20% less reflective, a bit like the 'tin-foil' illusion. I think it's great you've decided to get a bit of practice before getting fully kitted out. That way you'll really know what you want to do rather than guessing i haven't tried those strains at all, but you can probably find some people who have done both in some of these places: - Grow Journals http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/ - Smoke Reports http://forum.grasscity.com/smoke-reports/