Are they OK? worried grower

Hi all,

I am starting to worry about the babies, having not grown before i'm not sure how they are doing. I am worried that they have been over watered or are being light saturated. There are two thai fantasy auto's (left side of pic) and 5 ambrosia. The thai fantasy seem to look healthy but the ambrosia seem to be drooping? They are almost 3 weeks old now i thought they would be a bit bigger?

ph between 6-6.5
grow room is 54% humidity and 31 degrees c. (88 fahrenheit)
homemade co2 generator introduced recently
180watt blackstar LED.
light cycle is 20/4
fan on during day and watering every couple of days recently, prior to this it was once a day until water drained through the bottom of the pots.
bottom of light is 200mm (8inches) from top of canopy, too close?

Any advice would be amazing, cheers

Whats your soil?

just potting mix, osmocote multi purpose

what kind of soil are you using? the dirt your using looks really compact and you have no perlite in there to lighten it up for the roots you should get some better soil immediately!

What kind? most of the name brands like Miracle Grow, Scotts or Schultz have time released nuts very bad. Go to your local Grow store and buy a fully organic soil. Fox Farm is a good choice.

too much Nitrogen. probably due to the shitty time released fertilizer osmocote is so famous for.

hydrosoil78 said:

the soil looked really dry. if you put them in a tub or tubs, flood them sometimes they might do a lot better, or saturate the soil, then come back in 15 minutes and saturate it again, this gives the roots time to start absorbing nutrients. 'maintain moisture but do not keep it saturated'

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Not really good advice hydrosoil. Watering when using time released nutes in the soil just releases more nutes and flushing releases even more. It's ironic that the advice of more water comes from a guy with moniker hydrosoil. LOL!

good one

hectic, is there anything to take into account when transplanting? Should the root ball have the old soil knocked off it?

alright, even if you grow in a small pot technically its still a 'field', of whatever medium you choose. for the IEC (ionice exhange capacity) of the roots to go up, you have to saturate the soil with as much water as it can hold (field capacity) after 15 minutes for small plants, the ionic exchange capacity will go up and the plant can absorb fertilizer (ions) best at the hottest part of the day.
I don't care a whole lot about each person's first time, but to get results you need to record irrigation rates of water(gph) and fertilizer, for each plant variety you grow those will be somewhat different.
are you seriously recommending this guy never waters his plants?

beasters said:

hectic, is there anything to take into account when transplanting? Should the root ball have the old soil knocked off it?

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Yes, but be extra careful don't touch the roots with your fingers. You just learned a lesson to remember all on your own and you might not realize it. different strains will react differently to soil, temp, light ect. your Thia doesn't seem to mnd the soil but the ambrosia does. Keep a log or a journey write your observations down for future reference. hope this helps.

hydrosoil78 said:

alright, even if you grow in a small pot technically its still a 'field', of whatever medium you choose. for the IEC (ionice exhange capacity) of the roots to go up, you have to saturate the soil with as much water as it can hold (field capacity) after 15 minutes for small plants, the ionic exchange capacity will go up and the plant can absorb fertilizer (ions) best at the hottest part of the day.
I don't care a whole lot about each person's first time, but to get results you need to record irrigation rates of water(gph) and fertilizer, for each plant variety you grow those will be somewhat different.
are you seriously recommending this guy never waters his plants?

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I think were on the same page. my advice was for a person using soil with time released nutes. Over watering compounds the problem with this type of medium. Peace!

Thanks heaps man, ill keep updating. Thinking the light should be moved a little higher too, any thoughts?

I have no experience with LED lighting sorry, check the manufacturers website for details or maybe this site has a thread you can refer to. If all else fails Google your way to better growing. Good luck and keep us posted I'm subscribed.

Will do, peace mate

put your hand under the light , you might be able to put it pretty close , as close as you can put it before your hand starts to burn, thats how close it should be.
if it's too close you can get heat damage but then you can just move it a little farther, it looks like the pots might be too big, if each plant got bushy they would need more canopy space and good airflow. be careful if you have to transplant again

hydrosoil78 said:

put your hand under the light , you might be able to put it pretty close , as close as you can put it before your hand starts to burn, thats how close it should be.
if it's too close you can get heat damage but then you can just move it a little farther, it looks like the pots might be too big, if each plant got bushy they would need more canopy space and good airflow. be careful if you have to transplant again

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Lets not forget light burn from the light intensity. There are two kinds of light burn one from heat and one from intensity. Like I said before I can't help with LED but with HID both can be an issue.

underwatered, under fed and the rooms too hot 88.

ok update,
transplanted into new soil. 1 part organic poultry manure, 4 parts local potting mix and pearlite. light moved to 12 inches and nutes added. will keep posted.
peace

beasters said:

ok update,
transplanted into new soil. 1 part organic poultry manure, 4 parts local potting mix and pearlite. light moved to 12 inches and nutes added. will keep posted.
peace

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Good call using the chicken litter. I use it, strong stuff.