19-Sean-86
Well-Known Member
I'm UK to, get a tape measure so you can correctly adjust the height as it's something you have to do often throughout the grow until they stop growing height wise.
What could be wrong with my plants?
- Thread starter nufan1121
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- autoflower issues plant
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
Hey, welcome to RIU. I agree with Wizzlebiz, it looks like nitrogen overload, soil is likely too hot. I don't grow in soil so I cannot really say much to your medium. I personally go with coco, the reason being it is inert so the plants only get what you feed them. It is more work but no mysteries about the soil being used. Young plants don't need a ton of light and your nodes are close together so I don't think the light is hurting anything at least at this stage of it's life. Have you been watering enough? If the soil is too hot and you don't water enough it can cause these issues. Have you tried flushing the medium out with plain PH'd water?Please can any veterans help a new grower out?
I'm growing two different strains both autoflowers 1 x Solomatic RQS and the other 1 x Northern Lights RQS.
They are growing in a 120cm space tote with the following:
Equipment:
- 40/60 mix of Gro-Sure Perlite, 10 L and Westland Compost Multipurpose with added john Innes and Enriched with BIO3 - 60L
- 1 x USB humidifier EXTSUD Humidifiers 500ml Cool Mist Humidifier Air Humidifier Whisper Quiet Humidifiers with Night Light, Waterless Auto-Off, Up to 10-16 Hours Continu
- 1 x small space heater placed on the outside so heat comes in through the installed side PC fans HDCooL Space Heater, 1500W/750W Portable Ceramic Space Heater with Adjustable Thermostat and Tip-Over & Overheating Protection, PTC Heating Fan Heater
- 2 x PLANT !T 11L 3gals Square Base Dirt Pot without Handle
- 2 x silent PC fans on low mode (one intake one exhaust) AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7, Quiet Dual 120mm USB Fan, UL-Certified for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling
- 1 x 300w blurple grow light VIPARSPECTRA 300W LED Grow Light, Full Spectrum Plant Growing lamps for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower
Symptoms:
This is my first grow to get this far, my previous grow used garden topsoil and was a mess, the seedlings never made it past 2 weeks. This time, i though i did everything the 'correct' way following a mix of all of the advice i had read and i'm frustrated with the progress both plants at the three week stage and look like they wont grow much bigger/are stunted.
I purposely did not add any nutrients to the grow medium for the first 3 weeks as i had read not to do so. I have Ph the water to 6 using test strips and Nortembio Agro Organic pH Reducer 1L. Universal Use. Descaler for Irrigation Systems. Better Flavour and Aroma to your Crops.
I have bluetooth temperature monitors and a moisture guage to make sure the temp never goes lower than 20'c or higher than 26'c and the humidity is always between 55% - 75%.
As i only have the two stacked totes to work with, the plant is about 24 inches give or take away from the LED light.
Am i doing something obviously wrong here? Is this expected with such a cheap setup? I just want my plants to make it to flower and take to harvest for the first time. I'm trying my best to learn the basics and i can improve my equipment moving forward, but this setup should be producing something right? Am i being impatient and paranoid about the grow progress or justified?
Solomatic CBD Seedling day 2
Northern Lights Seedling day 2
Northern Lights day 22
Solomatic day 19
Northern Lights day 22 - side view
Solomatic day 19 - side view
dbz
Well-Known Member
You will get there, just have patience and keep at it. They don't like light but if you put them inside tight fitting say red solo cups then they don't get any.@dbz
Thank you for responding to the thread. Ironically, this is exactly what i did on my very first attempt about a month or so ago but my plants really suffered and i read a lot online about not using clear cups as root don't like any light and it can stunt growth. Although, in my specific situation in the previous attempt i mentioned i believe it was more related to the 'topsoil' i was using rather than the cup or anything else, as changing the soil in this latest attempt has got my plants further, i'm just still not quite there
I haven't grown tons of cannabis, but I have grown thousands of plants in soil. I, personally am not a fan of Ph'ing the water in a nice organic soil with lots of microbial activity unless it is very high above say 7.2-4. Good soils are quite the buffer themselves. Some chemicals can actually hurt the microbial activity in the soil.
You just need to make sure at that size you aren't over-watering in those pots. 6-8 ounces of water ought to last you 2 days minimumto 3 days at that size. Just water around the plants and not the whole pot, but increase the circumference of your watering and amount as time goes.
Just my two coppers.
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Wizzlebiz
Well-Known Member
Any starting seedling mix is fine tbh. Go to your local hardware store they should have it.
Organic soils is what I would suggest for the lower 75% of the pot if you cant find brands like recipe 420 potting soil, fox farms ocean forest, mother earth groundswell.
@19-Sean-86 thank you again for the reply. I did measure them when i went up this evening to turn the light back on after their 6 hour light-off cycle. The light is actually about 18 inches from the plant currently which unfortunately is the maximum i can currently get it. Should i invest in another tote or some kind of separator to create more space for me to play within? Once i get the hang of all of this, i am wanting to get some kind of tent but i am working with quite a small loft space as a restriction.
@Doug Dawson Thank you for adding your advice to the thread. As you can see, i'm struggling a bit with all the contradicting information (not necessarily within this thread, but online in general). I have a cheapo water measuring tool i use to make sure the soil is 'moist' focusing around the stem of the plant and working my way toward the edge of it's 'pot' as it grows day by day. The tool i use is https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077WX15NF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - i'm hoping it's not garbage?
In regards to flushing, i'm not 100% what that means, but i have only just yesterday started adding very very tiny amounts of Calmag and PK nutrients to the water in attempt to stimulate some kind of growth. Prior to that, i was exclusively using Ph ~6 water every time.
@dbz thank you again, i will definitely follow your advice at the start of my next grow. Will definitely hang in there and am glad i found this site everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. Only, the prospect of starting all again (for a third time) and not yielding anything at all from this grow is a bit soul destroying.
@Wizzlebiz thank you for the soil advice, i will be doing further research into soil prior to starting my next grow and applying all of the advice i've received in this thread.
@Doug Dawson Thank you for adding your advice to the thread. As you can see, i'm struggling a bit with all the contradicting information (not necessarily within this thread, but online in general). I have a cheapo water measuring tool i use to make sure the soil is 'moist' focusing around the stem of the plant and working my way toward the edge of it's 'pot' as it grows day by day. The tool i use is https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077WX15NF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - i'm hoping it's not garbage?
In regards to flushing, i'm not 100% what that means, but i have only just yesterday started adding very very tiny amounts of Calmag and PK nutrients to the water in attempt to stimulate some kind of growth. Prior to that, i was exclusively using Ph ~6 water every time.
@dbz thank you again, i will definitely follow your advice at the start of my next grow. Will definitely hang in there and am glad i found this site everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. Only, the prospect of starting all again (for a third time) and not yielding anything at all from this grow is a bit soul destroying.
@Wizzlebiz thank you for the soil advice, i will be doing further research into soil prior to starting my next grow and applying all of the advice i've received in this thread.
Doug Dawson
Well-Known Member
He Bud, no worries. I get it, there is so much info out there and each page you click seems to disagree with the last. It can be overwhelming. My advice is just keep going. Over time you will learn to recognize what is good and what is bad. When it comes to those meters, I would not bother with them. To see if you need water you can either stick a finger into the soil up to your knuckle to see if it is damp or pick up the pot after watering and see how much it weighs, than lift it each day, as it lightens you know the water is being used up. Over time you will get good at it and a quick lift of the pot will tell you if it needs water. As for the conflicting info, It's the same thing most go through so don't get frustrated. You are in good company. Flushing is something people do to their medium such as soil or in my case coco to get some of the nutrients out. With coco you feed every day until around 20% of what you put in drains out the bottom. You being in soil it is different but the principal is the same. By running a good amount of water PH'd through a couple times you can flush out some of the nutrients making the soil less potent. Seedlings don't require much so doing this can help if your soil is hot. By hot I mean has too many nutrients for the tiny plant. Here is a link to some info on nitrogen toxicity, it's signs and how to work on resolving it. Give it a read if you like, there may be some stuff in there that will help you. Good luck. https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-plant-problems/nitrogen-toxicity
19-Sean-86
Well-Known Member
Hey mate, you will need to be able to get it higher because the plants are going to grow so your need to keep raising it as they do. when the plants are young they don't need intense light another reason your want the light higher is so it penetrates and spreads light more
Wizzlebiz
Well-Known Member
A word of advise on the moisture meter.
Any moisture meter will do. The way to work it is to let your plants get slightly underwatered to the point of droop. Once that happens check your moisture meter in the soil and see where it is on the scale of the meter. Now you know what to dry looks like on the meter and can plan accordingly.
When you do this make sure to check on the plant every half hour or so. You dont want to stress it, you only want to know when its gone slightly to far.
Hope this helps.