First time grower here. Plant is about 3 weeks old, not looking good at all! A couple days ago, i transferred the plant from a soil seed starter into a fox farm brand soil. I have been watering it once a day. The plant has been under a 250watt hps light and the temp has been right around 80. I have fans blowing on it, but i am getting a little nervous because it was growing quick then lately, it has just been turning yellow instead.. What should i do? The ph of the water i have been giving it is about 7.0 and the soil is about 6.0. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.. I dont want this little guy to drop dead.. thanks!
No pics mate. but, it could still be in shock from being transplanted? dont know how you did it? (did you pop the whole thing in soil or was it in like a small pot with dirt? i hope that makes sense) Sounds like lack of nitrogen. (depending on the "yellow look" it has) Where have you been getting your water? Might want to get soil ph up a little? (6.0-7.0)
ahh ok, soil looks dry. Are you keeping it moist? spray the leaves with water. have the fan blowing away from the plant and not at it if possible. Should pull out of it fine, just keep it moist, the root system isnt very developed yet and the plant will suck up water and nutes through the leaves.
Thanks for posting pics...and other noob's wonder why they don't get reply's when they don't post pics. A couple of questions.... Why are you watering every day? Are you watering enough to get runoff? Are you ph adjusting your water to 6.5 before application? HPS is not good for seedlings, You'd be better off with CFL's or MH Don't feed with nutes yet!! That's all I got for now...
Thanks for the quick replys! I gently got most of the dirt off the roots and moved the whole plant into the larger pot.. if that makes sense... Umm i am not adjusting my water..? 6.5 is what i should be water it at? About spraying the plant.. i could have sworn i read, to never put water on the plant it self.. Then about how often to water.. I also heard to different things.. Some say let the top get dry then water, while others say wait like 3 days to water.. Ok.. So for a game plan now: 1. Turn off hps and place two cfls down there.. Adjust water to 6.5 BEFORE applying water.. I havent added any nutes yet, just the ones that come with the fox farm soil.. About HOW often to water.. i am not sure about that yet..? Then ill run out and get a spray bottle and start watering the leafs.. How often to water the leafs? When they are dry again? Thanks for the awesome help.
Well when the plant is so young it doesn't have the root mass like a vegging plant does, keeping it in a humid moist environment will ensure it takes water in from roots and leaves. With the HPS or the HID lights, they get hotter than cfls and can burn the plants with water, but if you just mist them 1-3 times daily for a few weeks that should be good. Watering depends on the soil medium and the plant size. You can't water a plant too much, but you can water it too often. For the FFOF (if thats the right soil) when I use it I find it drys a little faster than other soils ive used, but like 77401 said, make sure when you water, your getting at least 10% drain off of the water you put in the top. When they are seedlings, you dont want the soil to dry out, but you want it to have air too, so do your daily watering, (pick up the pot get a feel for how heavy it is) and as you notice it start to dry out on top, spray the top layer down with that mister. Proceed with this and occasionally pick up the pot to see it loosing the weight of the water. Once it gets to be about 8-16'' then you can be more lack on misting the top of the soil, and just water when the plant needs it, Generally 1-3'' below the surface can be dry and once it gets to about that depth, should water again. FYI, for the cfls, the light is best used, like the HPS/MH, at a horizontal position to allow more light distribution.
--- Oh next time you transplant, try and leave everything in tact. The whole root-ball and medium. Idea is to minimize the movement and obstruction and destruction of the roots. (lol)
Awesome info. Thanks. I will do that next time as well.. All that seems to make sense so hopefully the little guy will recover.. :]
*UPDATE* Looks like it is recovering.. But I was wondering what is going on on the top? Is it like budding out? Is that normal?
O what!!? Shit.. so should i just toss em out?? I thought you couldn't tell until u put the plant into flowering?
Wow man, You got a bunch of balls on the top, I wish I could have a clearer view, but it looks like yours is a Male for sure, Damn.. I have been vegging for Two months and still can't see signs of sexing. So I would trash it, you say your using the High Pressure Sodium light for your vegging stage? Thats probably how it showed signs of maturity so fast, that spectrum of light (Reddish) is ment to mimic the end of summer (when it would usually start to bear fruit)
Wow...that's the craziest lil plant I've ever seen. Congrats on that, I guess...but yeah, it's a male for sure, with that cluster of balls on top. Keep that photo for future reference/humor, dude, it's just that crazy. Scrap the plant and start over though, if you're goal is some smokeable product Why, or how, it budded already only 4 weeks old and so sickly, no fuckin' clue...maybe it was just a last ditch effort to stay alive/spread it's genetics around... Generally you'll see preflowers around week 5 of veg, before flowering, but it never shows up this drastic. Did you change the light cycle at all? Did you have it on 24hrs to begin with, or what? It almost looks like you've had it on the 12/12 cycle for the last two weeks. I actually had a lil sprout that resembled your first picture...it struggled to grow, but all its old growth just yellowed up and died...then I gave it some nutes and it sprung to life, grew 8" in less than two weeks and made it to flower. Turned out male. Seems like males tend to spring up when the plant undergoes a lot of stress... @ Jumpers: You're right about the light spectrum (red = flower) but without that 12/12 cycle, the plant won't (or shouldn't, I guess) flower, period.
Thanks for the help... Thats a bummer.. For the light, i had it on 18-6 for the last month or so.. When i did the transfer to the bigger pot it must have had to much stress and turned male.. Thats lame.. I will add a couple pics to deff confirm that it is male before i rip it out.. Also, so it is fine for me to be using the hps for vegging? i dont want my next one to turn male ...? Also.. what would happen if i smoked this little guy..
That is soooo crazy. Yeah you can Veg under a HPS no problem. Just make sure it's far enough away while they are seedlings that you don't burn 'em (IMO seedlings are better off under CFL) and also unless you're trying to save $$ try a 24/0 light cycle.