Update 5/16/18 I’m still dealing with some serious heat or nute burn, I’m not sure which. My plants first set of leaves are feeling it and don’t seem to be healing at all. Anyways, I transplanted into 3 gallon pots using an organic soil. I won’t be using that miricale grow crap or the peat pots in the future. Hopefully they start to take off soon. These pictures were taken just after watering. Plants are 10 days old from sprout. Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3
Update 5/24/18 Well, things aren’t looking too good. The plants are dealing with some kind of nutrient issue I assume and are growing very slowly and curling up, wilting and yellowing. I recently put an order in for some Fox Farm Ocean Forrest. When that comes in would I be able to transplant the plants again, knocking off all the soil from the roots while doing so? Or would it be better to start over? Really need some input here. Thanks all. Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3
Update 5/27/18 This is what I’ve got now, taking some suggestions from fellow growers in another thread. I mixed my FFOF with perlite using a 4/1 ratio. Got my solo cups ready drilling lots of holes to ensure proper drainage. CAREFULLY dig out my babies from their old hostile soil and transplanted into the solo cups with the new FFOF soil mix. I then just lightly watered them (Not even half a regular water bottles worth) of bottled reverse osmosis water and lightly misted them with the same water just before the lights go out. I’m hoping to see these girls turn around! What do you all think? Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3
Update 5/31/18 They seem to be doing okay. Still very slow growth, idk how long that will last because they definitely had a lot of issues. I’m gonna keep these girls going atleast until I receive my seeds. Ordered some feminized OG kush from Growers Choice. Also just realized I’ve been watering with a pH of 7.6 right from the tap, I’m sure that had some negative effects too. I’ll test my run off when I water tomorrow, the soil has dried up quite a bit. However, I did put a bit of soil in the pH test tube and shook it up. Looked to be a pH of about 6.4. Is that an accurate way of testing? Plant #1 Is it normal for the top leaves to be pointing up like this? Plant #2 Still some yellowing on lower growth. Plant #3 This girl has some weird very bushy and twisted growth. What’s up with that?
Runoff water tested at 6.4 pH as well. Are all of my issues due to overwatering or could I be dealing with a nutrient issue as well, maybe a nitrogen deficiency? I’ve read that I shouldn’t give nutes for the first month when using FFOF. Any truth to this?
I would suggest start giving them some nutes. Start with a low dose and increase slowly. Any fish emulsion or grow nutes will do. Pick one with high Nitogen ratio. FFOF does have nutes to start off but not enough that would make your plants explode.
Update 6/3/18 The girls have bounced back pretty well. Growth is getting back to normal and no more yellowing of the lower leaves. I appreciate the help I’ve gotten from everyone on this forum. I started some slight LST training on plants 1 and 2 and figured I’d practice topping on plant 3 because I’m not sure if I’ll keep it or not due to the weird growth. My feminized OG Kush seeds should be delivered tomorrow and I just put an order in for a Quantom Board 100 as well as a new grow tent rather then the DIY one I built. I’ll probably convert my homemand tent into a smaller seedling/veg tent. Exciting things are happening! Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3
Update 6/5/18 30 Days From Seed I had a lot of fun stuff come in today. It was like Christmas morning. I’m now going to be growing with a HLG Quantom Board 100w. I also bought a cheap 2x2x4 grow tent for $50 but I’m suprised by the quality of it. Seems sturdy and no light leaks whatsoever. The next order is gonna be Fox Farm Nute Trio and some 5 gallon smart pots. I’m hoping to be able to grow 2 girls at a time with this set up. I also got my order from Growers Choice Seeds, 3 Feminized OG Kush seeds. I might flip these bagseed plants to 12/12 soon just to see what they will do because they’ve had a rough start and didn’t have the setup I needed. Here go the pictures! The Tent The Light The Girls Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3 Next Up
I also say ditch the miracle grow soil. It can work but you must mix in generous amounts of perlite. If I look at those plants I think they're suffering from lack of air to the roots from a soil that is too compact and retains too much water. Use at least 25% perlite with any medium you use. Your plants will thank you for the increased drainage and aeration. Fox farms soils can be pretty hot as in strong out of the bag fertilizer wise. Most people that use them mix them with about 25-30% perlite both to water the strength of the soil down to a more reasonable level optimize the medium for increase aeration/drainage. When using soil the medium is made up of nutrients. It's going to take close to a month for the plant to exhaust a pot of any size to where you have to start feeding it. If plants that young in soil with nutrients are having issues it's ph or soil structure related 98% of the time IMO. Careful when perlite shopping if you get it where you got your miracle grow. There's a lot of cheap perlite with time released nitrogen in it. Avoid that like the plague. Precision perlite course is what I use exclusively. I'm a promix/DWC hydro grower. If I had a formula for easy success for you it would be promix brand HP in fabric pots spaced up off the drain trays. 80 degree room temp. Get a bottle of General Hydroponics floranova bloom and feed them 4ml/gallon every day. With led growing a little warmer then usual causes more rapid growth then traditional HPS growing. I target 80-82. I don't always make it there on cooler days. It's 79 today but on hot days I might see 84 for a high temp. You're going to want to keep the veg light cycle of 24hr or 20/4, 18/6 for a good 6+ weeks. When I veg my goal is to train an even canopy that will fill my flower room when it comes time to flip them to a 12/12 lights cycle. That will cause them to flower.
I would love to get into growing in other mediums. I’d feel like I’d have more control over what’s going on. Maybe I’ll check out some grow journals and see if I can learn more about it. Thanks Tbone.
Update 6/8/18 I transplanted the girls earlier today because I roots were coming out of the bottom of my solo cups and growth had slowed down. A couple hours after the trasplant they really perked up, no more droopy leaves and from what I can tell they look pretty happy. This grow has really made me practice some patience, glad I didn’t start off with good genetics and these are just bagseed. I didn’t have enough of my soil mix to trasplant #3. Probably not enough room in my tent for her anyways by the end of it but we’ll see. Haven’t decided on what I’m going to do with her. Group Photo Root Ball Plant #1 Plant #2
Update 6/9/18 I found a local nursery that has pretty much everything I need, so much cheaper too. No more ordering online! I picked up a bag of Fox Farm Happy Frog and mixed 30% perlite into it. I also grabbed some Fox Farm Big Bloom, unfortunately it was the only one of the trio they had so I’ll either need to order online or go with another brand for Veg and Flowering nutes. I transplanted Plant #3 into a 3 gallon pot. She was looking really rough.. but I have confidence she’ll bounce back just like the others. I water all of them using 1 tbsp/gal of the Big Bloom and they seemed to really like it. Runoff pH tested at 6.4. Lights are on 18/6 right now to encourage growth. They’re 34 days from seed but due to the stunted growth and hard start I’m calling it 16 days in Veg. I plan on vegging them for atleast 4 probably 5 weeks. I also germinated on of my OG Kush seeds and planted it into a solo cup. I’m gonna Veg it under CFLs until it’s ready to go under the Quantom Board. Waiting for her to pop out now. Plant #1 Plant #2 Plant #3
They're bouncing back. I can see the additional perlite. The roots are breathing now. I think they were just waterlogged and not draining well in those solo cups.
Way to battle through the adversity man!!! They are coming around now. I used to grow in homemade supersoil, with decent results. Recycled and added amendments to recharge for the next batch. Still have the veggies growing in it, but the coco is where it’s at for me now. Check out the Masterblend 4-18-38 powdered nutrients on amazon. $35 for 12.5 lbs and only using 10-20 grams per 5 gallons, this stuff lasts FOREVER!!!. Check out my journal if you want to see the results so far. I haven’t quite completed a grow with these nutes yet but I’m happy so far.
It might help a little more if you pick up a larger drain tray that's the same size as the bottom of your tent. You can add a piece of mylar to the bottom of it so the reflection keeps up. Drill a bunch of holes in those plastic pots to increase the aeration. Maybe 1/4" or so. In that tent size it's probably pretty easy to find an oven grill or fencing to help space the pots off the floor. This allows more air to the roots and reduces danger of buildup in the medium. When the pots are in the drain tray they can soak back up buildup you're attempting to rinse out. It also doesn't allow air to 30% of the surface area of the pot.
Just a suggestion, on the plant that has all the weird twisted leaves, go ahead and cut them off. Focus on the new growth, the plant will recover just fine. Now that you have transplanted into a bigger container, they will be growing soon. I’m also running a 2x2x4 tent so I know the challenge of height that you’re gonna be facing. I’m also really liking that QB.
I would cut those off too. Sometimes if it's not taking up much light I'll let them hang until the plant drains the green from them but they're close to being ready to cut off. I mean all that dead growth from the problems.
Never thought of that. That’s a good idea. As of right now I’ve been taking them out of the tent and watering them because I don’t have a proper drain tray set up. I’m off work tomorrow so I’ll take care of it then. I want to do a final transplant into some smart pots but haven’t gotten around to buying them yet. I took your suggestion and trimmed off all those leaves. This plant was my first ever try at topping. Just keeping it around for experimental purposes but it’s looking better every day now. As far as the height restrictions go I started LST on the bigger 2 again because they’ve really started to take off. I’d like to make a full circle around the pot before flowering and tie down more as needed. Still plenty of space right now even taking account of the double in size once in flowering. My OG Kush from Growers Choice seeds sprouted last night as well. She’s under 92w of CFLs right now until she’s ready to go under the QB. I’m so happy I went with a Quantom board. These things are awesome. I was blown away when I first plugged it in and seeing how bright it was, very little heat too. The girls are loving it as well!
Also, I’m sure these aren’t preflowers but I could be wrong and wanted to get some other opinions. They are 36 days from seed but I think it’s far too early. Let me know what you think.
Forget the name of those but they're normal structures on the plant and not preflowers. Preflowers will be small pairs of white wispy hairs at the node intersection. They're pretty easy to recognize.