Hey everyone! I've just recently started dipping my toes into growing and to keep the explanation short, I just need some quick advice on what to do with one of my plants. They're all autos. Btw, you guys are amazing. Such a community! These darlings have been planted 8 days ago. From the first photo you can see that the Royal Bluematic 1 (Royal queen seeds) is very undersized compared to pretty much all of the others. Same conditions (60% humidity, 27C temp) for a week. The soil is a starter soil mix that I threw together with balanced NPK values, supposedly. Added clay pebbles at the bottom (couple cm high, 1 inch). The seedlings have all hatched under their own cheap bottle humidity domes and stayed there for roughly 3-4 days, just to keep the humidity nice and high. Pots are 11ll pots (3 gallon). I planted them in drenched soil and left them be for almost a week. Only recently watered them a tiny bit to keep them moisty. Using rainwater roughly ph 6.5 (using test drops, so fuck knows exactly). Other details: 1x1x2m tent (3x3x6 roughly imperial). Using a 400W HPS about 40cm (15in) high (had it higher for the first 3-4 days). Exhaust fan working with another desk fan doing the work moving the air inside. That's about it. I was thinking about pulling the Royal Bluematic 1 out and just starting a new one. She's been looking crippled from day one tbh. Can she grow up to be a nice member of the society or is she f. already? I don't want to waste time on a botched start. What do you think? I've been eyeballing The Vault for a good autoflower. Any suggestions? Sorry for the weird photo quality and thanks in advance for helping out!
Sounds like you're doing everything right. Lighting, temps, soil etc. It could be a sluggish phenotype. I would let her live. Unless she takesome up space you need. She will give you bud either way. I don't see any pearlite in the soil. What kind of soil is it? Mixed with peat or coco for drainage I hope? Simply putting clay at the bottom might not be enough. If it's just regular old soil, make sure you let it dry out good between watering as oxygenation of roots is vital, also smaller plant requires smaller amount of water. When the roots start to dry out a little, this signals them to grow larger in search of water.
Hey, thanks for replying so quickly! The soil mix does have around 30% coco in it, yes. I used one of those expandable coco bricks. They didn't carry any perlite, the wankers. I'm completely new to this, but the guy at the garden shop I got the supplies from said the soil is very airy and there's peat in it too. You can tell that even when the soil is completely drenched, the compression there is almost nonexistent. Seems good as far as I can tell. I'll keep an eye on the watering patterns though, certainly. Getting one of those humidity meters in a few days. I know they're not the best, but at least they'll give me an idea of how far off I am from just feeling the weight of the pot. If you were to dump her, what solid auto would you go for for a first time grower?
I've never grown an auto, I like to control and train thru veg for hobby. Those soil moisture meters are useless so save your coin. Just make sure the soil is dry 2 inches down and the pot feels light. I would also HIGHLY recommend switching to fabric pots also. It does two things. 1. The roots will not wrap around inside the pot and become root bound, instead they will air prune themselves and search the soil "honestly" and thoroughly. 2. They help to oxygenate the soil and root zone readily, this makes it less harmful if you do happen to overwater. Also makes overwatering less likely. They are perfect. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Done. I was thinking about the fabric pots already ahead of this grow, but ended up going plastic for whatever reason. I'll do that for sure next time. Thanks!