So I have some plants, 6 in all after a recent cat attack on the seventh one. They have completely quite growing! It has been over a month since I have seen even a millimeters growth on them. Of the six the tallest is about three and a half inches tall and the shortest is about one and a half inches tall. They are going on two months since sprouting. I'm not sure what to do. I'm on the verge of just scrapping the whole project and giving up my first attempt at indoor growing. Could I just force flower early? What are the odds that I would even get a dimes worth out of them? I really don't know what to do. I really don't want to drag this out and them still end up not producing, especially given that I really don't have the funds to throw at a long unproductive grow.
Ok so here are the specifics. They are in a gutted PC case that I set up as a nursery. I have 4 23w cfls. I water once a week with a mild homebrew fertilizer. The brand of soil is Earthgro. It's organic and contains peat, compost, sand and perlite.
it looks like your soil doesnt have enough aeration. it also appears as if the mixture is mostly composed of wood mulch - your location and the "In Georgia.....etc." ingredient statement implies that it may be pine bark. pine bark is highly acidic, which is unsuitable for cannabis. as far as soil is concerned, in order to get a quality mix for your plants your going to have to spend around $15-$20 unfortunately. i would reccomend going to home depot and buying 1.0 cu ft of pure sphagnum peat moss (NOT composted peat) and a bag of perlite.....this should cost you around $17 bucks and it will be enough to transplant roughly 25 gallons worth of soil. again, unfortunately you are going to have to purchase this somewhat large amount of soil (compared to what you would like to achieve) in order to achieve an optimal medium for your plants. but, if you would ever like to transplant them into a larger container, than you know you have enough soil! honestly i think the best thing to do for something like this would be to gently break off as much dirt as you can without harming the roots, and than transplant into something better. you really have to be careful with these plants because they are tiny! make sure you wet the dirt that you are going to transplant in before you make the switch from the old to the new (i made the bold in there because i think it makes it easier to understand that ramble of a sentence ) hope this helps -OSUB
You're only watering once a week? I think they're going to need more than that, especially with such small pots. Another factor could be temps. PC grows can get pretty hot if your airflow isn't great...what are your temperatures? I would also stop with the ferts, a plant that small will be just fine without it. Your soil mix has compost in it, should have plenty micro nutrients for it until it gets bigger. Are you checking the PH of your homebrew fertilizer? Could be pretty acidic... I'd probably start over, but If you want to try to recover them, remove yellow crispy leaves, add a tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide to a gallon of water. Use the whole gallon to water your plants with, then use plain water next time they get thirsty(typically 2-4 days. depending on soil type). But like OSUB said, it could also be your soil. Doesn't look like it contains much perlite at all. If it gets too compacted, your roots will struggle big time causing stunted growth. I know that from experience. You want a light airy mix. I've been using ~ 50% sphagnum peat moss 25% compost and 25% perlite with great results so far. Doesn't cost much at all to make a HUGE batch of it if you shop around. Good luck to you.