Hello all, This is my very first post as well as my first grow. I'm trying my best to learn as I go with this, so bear with me if I sound stupid with anything I say. My seeds are Northern Lights autoflowers from Nirvana, and I germinated 3 of them about 2 weeks ago (3/10/16). I used rapid rooters to germ them, which I now feel was a mistake; one of the stems grew weirdly sideways, but seems to be doing ok for now. I moved them to solo cups, then read that transplanting autos tends to stress them out too much, so I transplanted them into 2 gallons smart pots after about 5 days in the solo cups. Since then, I haven't seen much growth.. I've been doing my best not to overwater them, but I'm afraid I may have when they were in the cups. I stick my fingers in the soil a knuckle down to judge how damp it is, and after about 2 days of them being in the smart pots, the soil has dried some, but still feels damp about an inch or so under the surface. My setup is in my closet, in a 48"x25"x25" grow tent. I'm using a 400w MH, currently running 18/6 light cycle. I have standard airflow, with a vent fan pulling heat from the light out of the tent and a small oscillating fan inside the tent. Using Fox Farm Ocean Forest as my medium, and haven't fed any nutrients yet. With the light on, the temperature stays at around 79-81 degrees F and the humidity hovers around 50%-60%. Lights off, the humidity climbs slightly around like 65 or 70, and the temp gets down to around 71 or 72 F. They are 16 days old tonight and worried they may be growing too slow. The leaves of a few seem a bit strangely shaped compared to what I've seen online, and some of them were dropping slightly as well. Possible shock from transplanting, or overwatering? I'm honestly not sure and I need the opinions of growers who have great experience! Let me know if there's any more info I can provide. Here are some pictures. Thank you for reading, and in advance for your help! Any opinions are appreciated.
I think transplanting them may have slowed there growth a bit. Also over watering does that as well. You should feel the bottom of the pot NOT the TOP. You want the pot to dry out all the way to the bottom before you water the TOP of the pot doesnt really say much about the bottom. These two issues is probley what slowed them down. Next grow youll improve with these eliminated. Be patient theyll pick up.
For future grows, dont transplant autos. Imo its just messy also She will recover cut back on water, mist lightly daily. My autos love 24/0, no need for dark cycles.
When a plant is transplanted, it develops it's root system first. Taking a small plant and putting it into a large container full of soil just means that this process is going to take a little while. That's why we typically transplant them up one pot size at a time...to confine the root space so it doesn't take so long for them to get rooted in and then get back to growing foliage. Your plant is just making it's root system and does not require more water or nutes or anything other than you just leaving it alone and giving it a chance to do it's thing. Back off until the plant feels as light as it did when you loaded the container with fresh soil at transplant. If it don't feel like that, it's not time to water or do anything else. You especially don't need nutes yet. They only need nutes once they've used up the natural nutes that come in the soil. TWW