Time to cut my losses on this one?

[GreenGrower19]

Hi Peeps!

Having another crack at a grow but this time indoors.

I have upgraded my light and now have a Spider Farmer 1000W.

I started this grow in a plastic cup and transplanted into a 3G fabric pot (may have done this a little early on but was eager to get her into better soil I had delivered).

The plant is roughly now on day 17 and compared to other posts I see, shouldn’t it be much bigger with fan leaves by now?

It’s under the light for about 17/18 hours a day which is placed about 1.5 feet from the seedling.

I am being cautious with the watering as have learnt from my mistakes but still yet to master this.

Do we think I should persist with this or is it best to cut my losses? If continuing, any pointers on how to boost it up?!

It is growing in a cupboard (big wardrobe acting as tent) and has a fan in there to circulate air also.

Appreciate any input and guidance

 

[JIMKSI64]

Issues with stunted growth are almost always watering improperly. Some folks just can not put a little seedling in a big pot. I am the opposite anything I put in a solocup does a hideous lingering death.

Let's start with your medium just to make sure of that and then explain a little about your watering practices.
Lots of folks will help you here and they will ask the same thing.
How much light are you putting them under?
Any nutrition added?
Temp and humidity?

 

[GreenGrower19]

Issues with stunted growth are almost always watering improperly. Some folks just can not put a little seedling in a big pot. I am the opposite anything I put in a solocup does a hideous lingering death.

Let's start with your medium just to make sure of that and then explain a little about your watering practices.
Lots of folks will help you here and they will ask the same thing.
How much light are you putting them under?
Any nutrition added?
Temp and humidity?

Thanks for the response.

Light: 18/6 under 1000W
Nutrition: Not really, I have a bottle of ‘all in one nutrients’ that I’ve given it once or twice but nothing too fancy on that front.
Watering: I know it may sound extremely amateur but my watering schedule is just to water when dry. I gave it 1 big drink when I transplanted (about 1.5 litres of water with 4ml of the nutrients) and other than that have been using a spray a couple of times a day to keep moist.
Temp and Humidity: I don’t have devices to measure this, but growing it indoors in Spain with the added heat of the light I’d put it around 25°c maybe slightly higher.

 

[JIMKSI64]

Ok. The watering needs some tweaking but it may not help at this point but you need to fix this or it will just happen again. I need to know your medium before I make recommendations. What is the dirt.

 

[GreenGrower19]

Ok. The watering needs some tweaking but it may not help at this point but you need to fix this or it will just happen again. I need to know your medium before I make recommendations. What is the dirt.

Here are some photos and the description online of what I ordered:

 

[GreenGrower19]

Here are some photos and the description online of what I ordered:

But before this had arrived, I placed the seed in a cup of much lower quality soil so there will of course still be a cup shaped section of the old dirt directly under the plant. I know it’s not ideal but thought the roots would grow into the new soil in bigger pot anyway? Also forgot to mention it is an Autoflower.

 

[JIMKSI64]

Ok very cool soil choice.
Full stop on nutrition add. This is a charged soil that says right on the bag that can prolly take an auto the whole way. Not only will it not help to add stuff you may damage the Organic nature of the grow.
This looks like a high peat soil. It will have average drainage. The fabric pots are fine.
Again at least until flower add nothing but water.
Ok. Let this pot dry out completely. Dig down out and away from the plant and wiggle a finger. You should feel no humidity let alone no water when it is ready for watering. We will also talk about pot weight but later
When you water a seedling the thing to remember is what we call the drip line. it is the distance your leafs span outward. A good rule of thumb is that root development is about equal to leaf development.
When you place your new seedling just hatched in the pot do so around a small clump of very low power seed starter mix. These live soils can be rich for a young plant. The seedling has fuel for about 7 days and by then the roots should be past the seed mixture and into the soil.
We are going to take a 16 oz solo cup or equivalent and place it over the seedling. This will prevent you from drowning the roots. It will also humidity the soil around the plant not at the plant forcing the roots to look for water and grow. Initial watering is very low like 50-70 ml of water around the plant. Remove cup.
Then use a mister sqirter whatever to lightly moisten the top of the pot. Lightly. No standing water.
This will be about a week to ten days. When the seedling leaf span exceeds the solo cup and you can not put the cup over it the hard part is done. Now we will start watering on the perimeter of the plant out to the pot edge. Still not much water prolly about 300ml and going up slowly. After watering look at the edges of the pot where the dirt touches it. It will prolly be pulled away from the pot. After watering repair the dirt to pot area by pushing the dirt against the pot to make it look nice. This needs to be a habit cause later we will use this easy to see part of the pot to determine when we need to water. It will slightly pull away from the pot wall.
. So now let's say you are near week 3 and you are now up to 500ml. Now we start checking the pot weight. We lift it up before to see how light it is and after to see how heavy it is. Your brain will remember this task and will use muscle memory to tell you when the pot is light it is time to water.
Every. Single. Time.
Pot plants can slow water intake and increase uptake. At about week 7-9 they can pretty much shut down. If you water a pot that is not dry you risk what we call wet feet.
Now a little on wet feet. Once you get over about a liter of water the weight is easy. You may have some drainage from the pot. You need to ensure your plant is on a raised platform with drainage to allow the pot to wick off moisture. Do not let pot sit in drained water. It can kill roots. LFMF a wet feet issue cost me 2.5 oz on my first successful grow.

I hope this gets your stated on your grow. If you do not see growth after the pot dries back I would cull and restart the grow with a better understanding of watering practices.

 

[GreenGrower19]

But before this had arrived, I placed the seed in a cup of much lower quality soil so there will of course still be a cup shaped section of the old dirt directly under the plant. I know it’s not ideal but thought the roots would grow into the new soil in bigger pot anyway?

Ok very cool soil choice.
Full stop on nutrition add. This is a charged soil that says right on the bag that can prolly take an auto the whole way. Not only will it not help to add stuff you may damage the Organic nature of the grow.
This looks like a high peat soil. It will have average drainage. The fabric pots are fine.
Again at least until flower add nothing but water.
Ok. Let this pot dry out completely. Dig down out and away from the plant and wiggle a finger. You should feel no humidity let alone no water when it is ready for watering. We will also talk about pot weight but later
When you water a seedling the thing to remember is what we call the drip line. it is the distance your leafs span outward. A good rule of thumb is that root development is about equal to leaf development.
When you place your new seedling just hatched in the pot do so around a small clump of very low power seed starter mix. These live soils can be rich for a young plant. The seedling has fuel for about 7 days and by then the roots should be past the seed mixture and into the soil.
We are going to take a 16 oz solo cup or equivalent and place it over the seedling. This will prevent you from drowning the roots. It will also humidity the soil around the plant not at the plant forcing the roots to look for water and grow. Initial watering is very low like 50-70 ml of water around the plant. Remove cup.
Then use a mister sqirter whatever to lightly moisten the top of the pot. Lightly. No standing water.
This will be about a week to ten days. When the seedling leaf span exceeds the solo cup and you can not put the cup over it the hard part is done. Now we will start watering on the perimeter of the plant out to the pot edge. Still not much water prolly about 300ml and going up slowly. After watering look at the edges of the pot where the dirt touches it. It will prolly be pulled away from the pot. After watering repair the dirt to pot area by pushing the dirt against the pot to make it look nice. This needs to be a habit cause later we will use this easy to see part of the pot to determine when we need to water. It will slightly pull away from the pot wall.
. So now let's say you are near week 3 and you are now up to 500ml. Now we start checking the pot weight. We lift it up before to see how light it is and after to see how heavy it is. Your brain will remember this task and will use muscle memory to tell you when the pot is light it is time to water.
Every. Single. Time.
Pot plants can slow water intake and increase uptake. At about week 7-9 they can pretty much shut down. If you water a pot that is not dry you risk what we call wet feet.
Now a little on wet feet. Once you get over about a liter of water the weight is easy. You may have some drainage from the pot. You need to ensure your plant is on a raised platform with drainage to allow the pot to wick off moisture. Do not let pot sit in drained water. It can kill roots. LFMF a wet feet issue cost me 2.5 oz on my first successful grow.

I hope this gets your stated on your grow. If you do not see growth after the pot dries back I would cull and restart the grow with a better understanding of watering practices.

Top man, thanks for the wisdom!

Will definitely start implementing this with this plant and meanwhile am going to germinate the next seed.

For the next one, just to make sure I’ve got it right… i will fill a cup maybe 2/3 with the good soil but leave the top 1/3 standard dirt so its not too much for the taproot.

Then I’ll leave it under this light for the same 18 hours a day (will this be too much for a seedling?)

Will keep the soil very damp when it’s sprouting, and once it’s out to play i’ll keep the soil moist in the cup. Will just use the spray at this point. (Do they need to be constantly moist at this stage or is good to let the soil dry out completely at this early point too? Also, Should I soak soil through before putting germinated seed in cup?)

Once in the fabric pots I’ll use the cup method to encourage root growth.

Will keep you updated on how I get on!

 

[cannafarmer420]

Hi Peeps!

Having another crack at a grow but this time indoors.

I have upgraded my light and now have a Spider Farmer 1000W.

I started this grow in a plastic cup and transplanted into a 3G fabric pot (may have done this a little early on but was eager to get her into better soil I had delivered).

The plant is roughly now on day 17 and compared to other posts I see, shouldn’t it be much bigger with fan leaves by now?

It’s under the light for about 17/18 hours a day which is placed about 1.5 feet from the seedling.

I am being cautious with the watering as have learnt from my mistakes but still yet to master this.

Do we think I should persist with this or is it best to cut my losses? If continuing, any pointers on how to boost it up?!

It is growing in a cupboard (big wardrobe acting as tent) and has a fan in there to circulate air also.

Appreciate any input and guidance

I go from solo cup to 7 gallon, what you do is fully saturate the 7 gallon and make sure its watered when you put the seedling in and then you dont water for weeks

 

[JIMKSI64]

I use paper towel germination method directly into a 5 gallon with a small divot of low power seed starter mix.
I have a terrible history of killing solo cup seeds. I am at 100% on germination with the paper towel method.
You started a seed just fine do that again.
A 1000 watt spider farmer is not the best seedling light. It will produce huge heat at huge cost for something that needs a 6 inch footprint at lower power.
As far as soaking the soil before installing hatched seed I would recommend a bottom water of about a liter. Put the fabric pot with soil into a large pan and have a liter of water in a container. Add water to the pan about 1/2- 3/4 of an inch. The water will capillary into the dirt and soak the bottom of the pot. Keep adding but watch the level stays low. This will insure a nice pool of humidity that will pull roots down quickly. Top water as discussed from there.

 

[TannedViking]

My man installed the sun sick.

Just my 2cents (JIMKSI's watering explanation is already really good):

1000W for that stage is intense and could very well explain why the internodes are so immensly tiny. Fan leaves are almost stacked like pancakes. Having something to measure PPFD would be advisable to see if it's not blasting your plants to death. There's free apps that can do that for you.

The first single bladed leaves dying off happens a lot, that's just a bit of practice but they can show you a lot of upcoming problems you can then act on before it spreads. Internet is full of sheets showing all stages of nute problems. The little white dots on young leaves usually indicate crying (nutes being pushed out of the leaves edges and then drying up, leaving minerals to dry up into white spots).
Leaves growing into a curl, with any plant really, is an indication you might want to check Ph and humidity.

To count leaves, to be honest into week 3 having 4 leaves doesn't mean it's over. I'm 21 days in with mine and they are getting their 4th sets of leaves with a growth spurt setting in just now. One stayed so small and closely stacked on itself i also worried, but after looking it up it was actually a genetic trait of the auto itself. Every plant is a bit different.

I wouldn't throw it, just let it ride, it's going to be valuable experience nonetheless. As long as this isn't your only pot ofc ;p

Good luck!

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

Could use a bit more perlite, IMO.

 

[HerbalEdu]

other than that have been using a spray a couple of times a day to keep moist.

let the soil dry in between watering don't keep it moist, overwatering isn't necessarely watering with large amount of water, that could be oki if you let it dry enough afterward, overwatering could watering too often with small amount maintening the soil permanently too moist.

in soil you need an alternance of the soil being wet and dry not going too far a side or another, roots needs to breath and they can't in permanently too wet soil

 

[RootFarmer]

Yep definitely looks like it's been kept wet for quite awhile. It could potentially be saved but you will need to get your watering game dialed in.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I always try to get plants to recover. It's a good way to learn how to help the plants grow. They're actually quite resilient.

This one is struggling, for sure. The soil is too wet, as others have said. Better draining soil would be helpful next time. For now, pointing a fan at the side of the pot will help dry the soil faster. So would increasing the temperature.

I'm also wondering about the white spots on some of the leaves that could be a sign of insect damage. I can't tell for sure from the pictures.

 

[GreenGrower19]

I bought a humidity checker/ thermometer now too. Seems too hot and dry in there… I’ve germinated the next seed and just planted in soil, so need to get the conditions right and ready for this next one. Have just ordered a humidifier to put in there too to see if that helps. I can move to a room in the house that has air conditioning if that’ll help too? Don’t know how else I’ll bring the temp down to about 25° with 50%+ humidity (which is what I need right?)