First time grower plants look unhealthy in

[farmpalm]

Hi new grower. Got 3 plants 8 days old and they started showing yellow spots and one has a new set of leafs that look wilted basically I think. Using Sohum soil and Barney’s farm auto gorilla skittles. Any help? I just watered around the outside of plants. Heres a pic of the one if you can see the yellow spots and edges and the second one with the new leads wilted already. Super tiny.

 

[Moe.Red]

It looks like they are in huge pots. I imagine you are getting a lot of root growth right now. How you water plays a huge roll with development. Can you give us all the details of the grow to help you? I also always ask for an overview picture of the grow space to answer a bunch of questions like lights, distance, air, environment etc.

 

[farmpalm]

It looks like they are in huge pots. I imagine you are getting a lot of root growth right now. How you water plays a huge roll with development. Can you give us all the details of the grow to help you? I also always ask for an overview picture of the grow space to answer a bunch of questions like lights, distance, air, environment etc.

Thanks. They are 5 gallon pots from ac infinity. I germinated using the paper towel method and when the taproot popped out I put them right in the 5 gallon pots, root down. Being autos I was told to put them in their “forever home”.

I put the soil in the pots and watered about a gallon per pot before putting seedling in and out a humidity some to cover it. When they popped out the ground I removed humidity dome and have the lights(spider farmer) about 20 inches above. I have the lights around 50% intensity they whole time. I water them just around the stem area once it looks dry to me. I am definitetly having a hard time forgiving out if i am over watering or under watering. I was told to water little using a turkey blaster around the small plant for awhile. So I don’t use a ton of water and never soak all the soil, just around the plant. I have a small fan running inside the tent. Using sohum soil so I haven’t added any nutrients or anything, just distilled water.

the grow tent is 4x3 with 2 spider farmer lights. I have a clip on fan running constantly for a few days now. I have another intake fan that sucks air from outside the tent but I haven’t turned that on yet. Temperature been 68-74 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity around 55. The tent is in my basement and we just had a cold front come thru as soon after I started this grow so it been hard to get the temp over 75. Thanks for any help.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

You can stunt a plant's growth by transplanting which is one of the reasons people suggest starting autos in their forever home. The flip side on that is you're setting yourself up for a challenge using those large pots. Watering too frequently is a problem when plants that small are in a pot that large since it can literally take weeks to dry out enough to water again. Your plant roots won't grow into dry soil so this becomes a juggling act.

 

[farmpalm]

Any ideas on why leaves have yellow spots? So watering the whole pot now would be a bad idea I take it. And the small plant looks even worse any ideas what’s going on there? Thanks for any help

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Since they are already planted, it's probably best to ride it out. Once the soil has dried in the area you've watered in, give the whole soil a good watering. You want to promote root growth through out the pot. At this point, you're not necessarily trying to create run-off. You're trying to create evenly moist soil through out the pot. The next part is the hard part .... wait. Do not water until your pot feels light again.

 

[steamroller]

The yellow could just be nute burn since you popped in 'hot soil' ?

 

[FuriousStyles]

Since they are already planted, it's probably best to ride it out. Once the soil has dried in the area you've watered in, give the whole soil a good watering. You want to promote root growth through out the pot. At this point, you're not necessarily trying to create run-off. You're trying to create evenly moist soil through out the pot. The next part is the hard part .... wait. Do not water until your pot feels light again.

What he said. Most times helping the plant means leaving it alone.

One tip though. Start your plants in solo cups. If you let the medium dry out before transplant you will not have any transplant stress. The plant doesn't know it got transplanted. All it knows is, its once dry roots are wet, time to grow.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

The yellow could just be nute burn since you popped in 'hot soil' ?

Possibly ... but looking at the dry pot I'm still inclined to believe this is a large pot, newly sprouted seedling watering issue. It can be done, but it's a difficult task without some experience.

Edit: If they were mine, I'd also start in solo cups. I germinate in paper towels and move the sprouts into large peat pellets once the seeds have cracked. When roots start showing up at the bottom of my peat pellets, I cut off the netting and transplant to a solo cup. I grow photo-period plants so from solo cups I transplant to 1 gallon before transplanting to their final home in 5 gallon air pots. If I were to be growing autos, I would skip the gallon pot and transplant the seedling directly into the 5 gallon home at about 3 nodes of plant growth. The larger root structure will help mitigate the over-sized pot issue.

 

[steamroller]

Possibly ... but looking at the dry pot I'm still inclined to believe this is a large pot, newly sprouted seedling watering issue. It can be done, but it's a difficult task without some experience.

I agree 100% on OPs predicament .
I have also read where they say to place in final pot to start also , but had some past experience and did not . It seems a huge hassle and OP is in it now .
I start in 16 oz solo cups with starter soil [Coast of Maine] and then move to 5g .
Not sure if moving it smaller container for better control is what others would do .
Watering will be a huge PIA IMO.

 

[farmpalm]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll water and wait impatiently lol. Already learned a lot for next time.

 

[lvstealth]

the plant sends a tap root out and it goes to the bottom very fast, then it puts out roots.

there are many threads on watering, and it is the most important thing you have to learn and learn it right.

2 things, how much and how often

how often is the easy part. you have a 5 gallon bag pot, so fill another with the same stuff and sit it there for 5 days. meanwhile stop watering your plant.

after 5 days, lift the bag you just filled, just 2 inches off the ground, note the weight as you lift. feels like lifting a bag of sawdust.

when the plant feels that light water it till you get a little run off (like half a cup). dont count drizzling out the sides, just running out the bottom.

then wait and wait and wait and then it will feel that light and water.

watch the plants. watch watch watch. they will tell you if they need water. but for now, use the pot weight to know.

when people tell you about roots and water, just know the root first and formost heads to the bottom. it does that before it grows the top part. the water also heads to the bottom. you will drown them watering them a little on the top all the time when the top dries.

gravity.

the water finds its easiest way to the bottom, which is great, because the root is down there! the water will form a level or table (has to do with gravity, and the details are here in a thread by Aquaman about watering)

the auto should be started in the pot it ends in. transplanting is not so good, and even if you try and not disturb the roots.

the auto is time based, not light based... BUT it has triggers to start and one of them is the roots getting to the bottom and filling out the rest. so it does that in a solo pretty fast and that sets off the thing that says GO. then you transplant and the roots get confused, so it swaps to root growing mode and stalls out the upper growth. but your timer has started already.

so, when people tell you you can transplant, you can, but it has nothing to do with disturbing the roots, the damage is done, the timer is started.

think about when you start a seed, you put it in the paper towel and in 2 days it has a 1/4 in root, you plant it - but if you dont, or forget or arent home, in 5 days it is 3 or 4 inches long.

so the root is fast about making its way to the bottom

 

[farmpalm]

the plant sends a tap root out and it goes to the bottom very fast, then it puts out roots.

there are many threads on watering, and it is the most important thing you have to learn and learn it right.

2 things, how much and how often

how often is the easy part. you have a 5 gallon bag pot, so fill another with the same stuff and sit it there for 5 days. meanwhile stop watering your plant.

after 5 days, lift the bag you just filled, just 2 inches off the ground, note the weight as you lift. feels like lifting a bag of sawdust.

when the plant feels that light water it till you get a little run off (like half a cup). dont count drizzling out the sides, just running out the bottom.

then wait and wait and wait and then it will feel that light and water.

watch the plants. watch watch watch. they will tell you if they need water. but for now, use the pot weight to know.

when people tell you about roots and water, just know the root first and formost heads to the bottom. it does that before it grows the top part. the water also heads to the bottom. you will drown them watering them a little on the top all the time when the top dries.

gravity.

the water finds its easiest way to the bottom, which is great, because the root is down there! the water will form a level or table (has to do with gravity, and the details are here in a thread by Aquaman about watering)

the auto should be started in the pot it ends in. transplanting is not so good, and even if you try and not disturb the roots.

the auto is time based, not light based... BUT it has triggers to start and one of them is the roots getting to the bottom and filling out the rest. so it does that in a solo pretty fast and that sets off the thing that says GO. then you transplant and the roots get confused, so it swaps to root growing mode and stalls out the upper growth. but your timer has started already.

so, when people tell you you can transplant, you can, but it has nothing to do with disturbing the roots, the damage is done, the timer is started.

Thanks. The pots Definetly don’t feel like I’m lifting up sawdust. The top seems pretty dry when I stick my finger down it feels little moist but breaks up easily. Almost a “clumpy” feeling. I guess I could have overwatered but I don’t feel like I used enough water at all. Much more complicated than I thought it would be. Thanks for the advice.

 

[steamroller]

New Simplified Way to Water Marijuana Plants

The other day I had an idea and after testing, it works great. To know if you need to water, get yourself a soil meter. Poke or drill 4 holes in your pot 1/4 way up from the bottom spaced around the pot. Insert the meter probe into the hole and test for moisture. If its dry, then water SLOWLY...

www.thcfarmer.com

This should take the guess work out of how much water is in your buckets .

 

[Madbud]

50% at 20” might be too much light for seedlings, try 25%.

 

[lvstealth]

like i said. dont water again till it feels light

heres the thing, the roots are really working at getting to the bottom and filling out the pot. it seems longer in the beginning and it does take almost forever for it to dry. with an auto i seldom have to water in the first 10 days to 2 weeks. when the roots have done their thing the plant will have the two tiny starter leaves, then a set of single blade, then a set of three blade leaves. after this it will start the 5 leaf set and its off to the races!

 

[farmpalm]

So I let it dry and watered all soil. This afternoon it looks like the plants are still growing but I see yellow and orange spots on the leaves. Should I be turning the lights off at all? I leave them on 24/7. Also the stems look fuzzy is this normal? Uploaded photos of each plant.

 

[lvstealth]

the spots look like you planted it in "hot" soil. did you mention what it is planted in?

 

[farmpalm]

the spots look like you planted it in "hot" soil. did you mention what it is planted in?

I planted in sohum soil. A friend told me today that it could be from where I watered the pots I also got water on the leaves and then it burnt from lights?

 

[lvstealth]

in the second pic the bright little dots on the left leaf - that looks like water.

the rest looks like hot soil.

that is a super soil. so very hot