I've read all about growing, but this is my first attempt to actually do it. About three weeks ago, I planted my first seeds ever, full moon from nirvana. I didn't do anything special to germinate, just put them in potting soil under a 300w led grow light ~18 inches from the plants, and they had been doing great, they sprouted and got their first true leaves no problem. There are two issues I'm having now. One plant got half of it's leaf bitten off by my cat I'd initially assumed it would need a few days to recover, but would probably be fine, but now, its forming some tiny yellow dots on the leaves, and the tip of one of it's second true leaves turned brown. I heard that superthrive is very good at helping stressed plants, so I bought some today. I just watered the plant two days ago, and the surface is still moist. Should I give the plant the superthrive now? Or should I wait a few more days to make sure I don't overwater? Should I add it to the foliar spray? My second problem is that all of the plants seem to be growing very slowly. A couple days ago, I looked up what most plants look like at their age, and they're no where close. My plants have their first true leaves about 1/4 inch, and the second ones about half that, but very thin. So, assuming they needed nutes I made up a foliar spray of VERY weak nutes (1-1-1 at 1/8 strength) and spray them with it once, sometimes twice a day for the past three days. At first, I believed it was working, but now I'm not fully convinced it wasn't just a placebo effect. One of the plants (the smallest) became a darker green than the others, so I stopped feeding it for now (still looks healthy). I didn't want to give them nutes with the water because they still have their cotelydons, and I'd heard it's best to wait till they fall off. Actually, I just noticed the tip of one of the second leaves is turning brown on this one too This one seems fine other than growing slow This is the dark green one. Lastly, I think my pots may be a bit too big, and I possibly should have added extra perlite? It seems to be draining well to me, but most pictures I see seem to be heavier on the perlite than the soil I got. Any help is appreciated, thanks Sent from my Nexus 6P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You need a better soil, that soil is woody and needs perlite. Do you have good drainage in the bottom of the pot. Not if the soil is still moist. How much draw does your light put out if it's 300w it's probably putting out half that maybe less. Try and give more information about your grow, like soil, ventilation, light and temps light schedule. you'll get better responses. Good Luck Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The light is 300w, but I'm sure it's not using that much; I think the web page said the true draw is about half. It's bright as hell though, imo. I've been leaving it on 24 hours a day. I'm using Pennington professional potting mix. The drainage seems decent, zero puddling, starts running out the bottom in just a few seconds; I've been very careful to avoid overwatering. I only water ~every four days once the first inch of the soil is very dry. With that being said, I'm not saying that overwatering is not the problem, I heard that over potting causes the water to last too long, which causes the same symptoms? If that's the issue, should I re-45pot immediately? Or will that be too much stress for them? Currently, my ventilation is limited to an open door ~16 hours a day, and a small desk fan blowing on them, but I've got a 2500cfm fan with a carbon filter coming in a week or so. It doesn't get too hot with the door closed though, sometimes I sit in there and chill with them in the mornings, and I never break a sweat even after an hour or so. No exact numbers though. I have a pH meter coming with the fan, for now I'm just using plain water filtered with a brita. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Actually, on second glance it looks like the soil has nutes in it too. I'm just not sure how bad that is, should I definitely repot them? Sent from my Nexus 6P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
To me it looks like they need nutrients... and all that bark in the soil is probably holding in moister, when you water give them a good soaking and don't water again till its dry. It's easy to tell by the weight of the pot
I like the weight test, if possible leave a pot full of your medium that is totally dry so you can compare weights be sure to use the same ratio of soil to perlite, this helped me