Just a minor celebration thread as a new grower. My one seedling (Female Seeds Neville's Haze) to withstand the lights being too close and temps being slightly too high made it to veg stage some time back. I changed up my lighting fixture to help with temps, but still left them too close to the plants/seedlings and NH showed signs of light stress: wilting leaves, some of them tacoing. But she was also starting to show signs of needing to be fed as well as she was in just a solo cup full of seed starting mix with no nutes. So I rolled the dice and transplanted her last night into my homemade soil mix. I followed the directions from http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/574364-stress-free-transplanting.html but things hit a snag when the little plant simply refused to come out of the cup. Much of the top layers of soil fell out and the root ball was left at the bottom of the cup. I slightly squeezed the cup on all sides several times to no avail. Finally, I knew I had to get the plant out, so I gently slid a butter knife down the sides to the bottom. She eventually came out after several sessions of the knife, and I thought for sure I would see the infamous transplant shock this morning. To my surprise, I saw the opposite! She has perked up and the leaves are lifted up and healthier looking already. Now I guess it will be a matter of time before I get to see if my homemade soil is a decent growing medium. Thanks to Grasscity users for great threads and advice that have helped me get this far.
I've actually done a few already, but they were done too soon and my lights being too close fried them anyway. They did not shows sign of shock either. I actually think the biggest factor is timing. I have done all of them right before the end of the light cycle so they would get several hours of dark to recover. It has worked well so far.
Biggest factor is leaving the roots untouched. if no root system is broken, there should be no reason for it to develope any negative side affects.
Well that is indeed the biggest . While I had trouble getting my NH out, the roots appeared to have been pretty well intact even after my butter knife work.
This was how I learned. It's not a professional HD video, but I watched this video once, and have never had an issue with a transplant. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIx6MLXIze4]Transplanting Marijuana - YouTube[/ame]