First Grow Questions

[MackTHC]

Hey everyone,

I posted this on another forum but wasn't having any luck, so I thought I would see if anyone could provide any help here.

Just started my first grow. Have sprouted 3 autoflowering plants in a 2' x 4' grow tent. Full time fan, all under a Mars Hydro 2000TSL. Plants are all currently in solo cups and using a mix of Pro-Mix HP, Perlite and Worm Castings. The sproutlings are all only around 8-9 days since breaking ground. I've just been watering with distilled water PH'd to 6.0.

For the last few days I've noticed the leaves have all started drooping. I know at the moment the soil looks over-watered but that's because I just added extra water to it because I thought it might have been a nitrogen deficiency. So I added some light nutes to some water, PH'd the mix and added a bit to the pots. (Done just before taking the pictures).

I think the leaves all look yellowed, which is why I was thinking nitrogen deficiency but I'm color blind, so I wanted to post and get a second opinion. Am I on the right track?

 

[Deke]

Lay off the watering. And dry the water off your leaves! They can burn that way. They look light colored but I wouldn't call them yellow. Less water, less nutes, they are too young to be throwing nutes at them yet.

 

[OdlaFett]

Listen to Deke, hes100 % right. Your roots are drowning.

 

[Chris Mullen]

Lay off the watering. And dry the water off your leaves! They can burn that way. They look light colored but I wouldn't call them yellow. Less water, less nutes, they are too young to be throwing nutes at them yet.

This

 

[Aqua Man]

Those cups... Why so empty? Need more room for roots and they are getting no airflow like that. Not that they need much but tucked in there like that

 

[rogone]

Yeah never leave any drop of water on leaves. These cups with hole at the bottom? Thats interesting i might try it. If not you shouldnt transplant autos.

 

[rogone]

Im feeding my new 9 day old baby 20ml every 2 days thats more than enough i think. Your roots need oxygen to absorb nutes. If the soil is good made for cannabis. You shouldnt feed any nutes so early. Search for the problem somewhere else. Aim for 6.5 ph maybe littlebit less.

 

[Beachwalker]

Also make sure you've got big enough drain holes in the bottom of those cups, good luck

 

[MackTHC]

Thanks for everyone's input! It is very helpful! I cut down on the water and wasn't aware that getting water droplets on the plants could be harmful. I will water without nutes for a while longer until they start getting larger.

As far as the cups being empty, they actually started with the growing medium being only about 1/4" from the tops of the cups, but I didn't compress it at all because I thought this would be better for getting oxygen to the roots. As it turns out, once I started putting water to the cups, it shrunk a great deal.

I think I was definitely giving them too much water if you are only watering yours 20ml every 2 days @rogone . I also just transplanted them out of the cups and into the main pots yesterday and it seems like they *were* starting to get root bound. The roots were pretty much around the entire cup and quite thick at the bottom. They have been transplanted for about a day, maybe a day and a half and have probably doubled in size in that time.

Rogone, you recommend PH'ing to maybe 6.5. I only went lower because that's what I read it should be for non-soil grows. Since the growing medium is almost completely peat moss mixed with worm castings, would you still recommend this?

 

[rogone]

Im new grower too no idea how to treat your medium. For soil 6.0 is littlebit short for calcium uptake. Dont transplant autos next time. But you said they grow ,so nice Good Luck. Also amount of water depends on your enviroment. Make roots search for water ,plants drink almost nothing at this stage. Post growlog thread im interested.

 

[Deke]

This is how I was taught to water seedlings. Less is always better when it comes to watering young plants. I watered with a spray bottle every 2-3 days. Don't water at the base, make the roots search for the water.
Also the , don't transplant autos philosophy isn't always true. If you do just make sure to take care and not stress it. I up potted this past grow from a 2gal to a 5gal mid flower with no issues. And the ones that went direct into 5gal with high dollar water only soil had only half the soil utilized by the roots. At $15 per pot of soil that adds up. I'm not saying don't plant into end size pot, but that if you do transplant it's ok.

 

[Deke]

Sorry ignore the first pic.

 

[MackTHC]

Hey everyone,

The grow has been going much better since my last posts. My plants have literally been growing like "weeds". I noticed yesterday that they have started drooping again and one plant in particular has some discolouration in some of the leaves. Can anyone tell me what this indicates?

 

[Aqua Man]

What are you feeding them?

 

[MackTHC]

I fed them some "Root Farm" base and bloom, but was only using about 1/8-1/4 of the recommendations on the bottles. I just switched back to plain water in case they were getting too many nutes. I had generally been watering them every 2 days for the last little while, or whenever the top inch or so of soil was dry.

 

[Aqua Man]

They look hungry I would feed 1/2 strength. I'm not familiar with that nute line but feed at half the recommended dosage. It may be a slight over watering issue also. Wait till pots are very light to feed.