Help! Helping Autistic son with new outdoor grow

[roadiewifelife]

Hello all,

As, the title says, I'm helping my 22 year old autistic son with his 1st outdoor grow.

We drove up to Plant Humboldt shortly after the 1st of May and picked up 6 plants, 1 sativa and 5 indica, and made our way back to Santa Cruz, California. We waited 3 days for them to adjust to our climate and the planted them in their buckets.

When I went out to the greenhouse this morning I noticed that his "Granny Candy" sativa had "taco" leaves.

Everything I've been reading suggest light issues, but those growers are growing indoors so I'm assuming that's not the issue. He was overwatering our strawberries so we had a gnat issue inside the greenhouse and I've treated all the plants in there with neem oil and the soil with diatomaceous earth as well as hung the yellow sticky traps from the ceiling and put stakes in the plants to catch any adults. Could that be the issue? I did that yesterday.

He is very passionate about learning how to grow, but due to his autism doesn't have friends or people he can ask for help so he has his trusty cannabis loving mama to help him with this and I'm not exactly experienced in any of this. Just trying to help guide the kid properly since he's invested a lot of money into his little operation.

We also have another plant "Guzzlers" that is droopy with a capital DROOOPY. It's looked like this since we got it home and adjusted.

He's been watering everything 3-4 days. Is that not enough? Too much?

Take it easy on me, I'm just a mama trying to help an adult child with his hobby and I can use all the guidance I can! haha

 

[roadiewifelife]

Here's all our plants for reference. If you see anything we're doing wrong please please call it out. I'm open to all suggestions. I just want to help the kid!

 

[TreeBee]

They look over watered and underfed to me but I have shared your post and hopefully someone whos better equipped to help you will come along.

They will ask what your growing medium is soil/peat/compost what ever is in your pots. Also what nutrients are you using?

 

[roadiewifelife]

They look over watered and underfed to me but I have shared your post and hopefully someone whos better equipped to help you will come along.

They will ask what your growing medium is soil/peat/compost what ever is in your pots. Also what nutrients are you using?

The soil we are using is Fox Farms Ocean Forest and the pots are 45 gallon. He says isn't using any nutrients at the moment.

Ocean Forest® Potting Soil - FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company

Our most popular potting soil, Ocean Forest® is a powerhouse blend of aged forest products, sphagnum peat moss, earthworm castings, bat guano, fish emulsion, and crab meal.

foxfarm.com

 

[Phyto]

I concur, overwatering. The roots are suffocating, and they are damaged to the point of having a tough time absorbing water (or nutes). First thing is to get the roots healthy again, then address feeding. You need to let the soil dry back a lot, then only water when needed. 45 gallon bags with plants that size, probably could go at least a week, and maybe two, without watering. I've lived in both coastal Humboldt County and Santa Cruz, not too much climate difference between the two, SC is just a tad warmer and a little drier (but not much).

 

[roadiewifelife]

I concur, overwatering. The roots are suffocating, and they are damaged to the point of having a tough time absorbing water (or nutes). First thing is to get the roots healthy again, then address feeding. You need to let the soil dry back a lot, then only water when needed. 45 gallon bags with plants that size, probably could go at least a week, and maybe two, without watering. I've lived in both coastal Humboldt County and Santa Cruz, not too much climate difference between the two, SC is just a tad warmer and a little drier (but not much).

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

So stop watering or do we need to transplant into fresh soil and basically start fresh so we don't kill them AND water much less?

 

[DougV]

It looks to be in a hoop house. What’s the temperatures inside there?

On water, water slowly to allow moisture to be absorbed, water deeply. Don’t water again until the soil is dry at a depth of 2”. The easiest and most accurate way to test for moisture is your finger. Slowly insert your finger to a depth of 2 inches. Feel damp, cold, wet, or anything other than dry, hold off watering. I get that might be difficult to explain. They have moisture meters, but they are hard to impossible to read. For now, I’d bet you will not need to water more often than 7-10 days.

Nice size pots for outdoors, good choice. Rough amount of water, to water that pot deeply, 2 gallon and 1 quart.

It may wilt, but heck it already is. There’s probably a bit of transplant shock as well. You rushed the hardening process. Normal routine is to spend a week slowly acclimating it. Odds are it has lived its whole life inside.

Don’t change soil, it’ll dry and that’s better than disturbing it again. It will take it a few days to start recovering, what you want to see is new growth. Yes, I saw your post.

 

[Phyto]

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

So stop watering or do we need to transplant into fresh soil and basically start fresh so we don't kill them AND water much less?

Stop watering for at least a week. I'm not sure if replanting in fresh soil would help or hurt, transplanting is a shock for certain. I might try it on one or two of them and see how it works, then if it's successful and the others are still having issues transplant them too. I checked where you bought the clones, that's pretty far inland, so if you're in Santa Cruz proper, or even in the hills your climate is cooler and wetter than where the plants came from. Normally I would suggest lifting the pots to gauge when they're dry to and again when wet, but that isn't feasable in 45 gallon containers!!!

 

[roadiewifelife]

It looks to be in a hoop house. What’s the temperatures inside there?

On water, water slowly to allow moisture to be absorbed, water deeply. Don’t water again until the soil is dry at a depth of 2”. The easiest and most accurate way to test for moisture is your finger. Slowly insert your finger to a depth of 2 inches. Feel damp, cold, wet, or anything other than dry, hold off watering. I get that might be difficult to explain. They have moisture meters, but they are hard to impossible to read. For now, I’d bet you will not need to water more often than 7-10 days.

Nice size pots for outdoors, good choice. Rough amount of water, to water that pot deeply, 2 gallon and 1 quart.

It may wilt, but heck it already is. There’s probably a bit of transplant shock as well. You rushed the hardening process. Normal routine is to spend a week slowly acclimating it. Odds are it has lived its whole life inside.

Don’t change soil, it’ll dry and that’s better than disturbing it again. It will take it a few days to start recovering, what you want to see is new growth. Yes, I say your post.

I will put a thermometer in there to find out the temp and get back toyou, but I'm going to assume that's not the issue. We have all the doors open so the back and front wall are just screens. I actually have the screens up too so the fungas gnats that haven't been trapped to the sticky yellow things will move their asses outside. We also have a fan that blows during the day to keep the air moving. On top of that it hasn't been above 65 degrees outside since we brought them home.. but who knows! I could be wrong!

Glad my research on the pot size was accurate!

I told him to leave it all alone and to NOT water again until I say so. He's so gung ho! I figured he was going to melt down today once he saw the "taco leaves" and he's handling it pretty well. They weren't tacos yesterday, but he watered them again yesterday when I told him not to do that when I left to run errands. It's like he can't help himself!

 

[roadiewifelife]

Stop watering for at least a week. I'm not sure if replanting in fresh soil would help or hurt, transplanting is a shock for certain. I might try it on one or two of them and see how it works, then if it's successful and the others are still having issues transplant them too. I checked where you bought the clones, that's pretty far inland, so if you're in Santa Cruz proper, or even in the hills your climate is cooler and wetter than where the plants came from. Normally I would suggest lifting the pots to gauge when they're dry to and again when wet, but that isn't feasable in 45 gallon containers!!!

I'm 2 blocks from the beach.

Yeah the pots are HEAVY without water so there's no way we can lift these babies!

 

[TreeBee]

The soil we are using is Fox Farms Ocean Forest and the pots are 45 gallon. He says isn't using any nutrients at the moment.

Ocean Forest® Potting Soil - FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company

Our most popular potting soil, Ocean Forest® is a powerhouse blend of aged forest products, sphagnum peat moss, earthworm castings, bat guano, fish emulsion, and crab meal.

foxfarm.com

I have read of PH issues with fox farms also read its a bit on

I will put a thermometer in there to find out the temp and get back toyou, but I'm going to assume that's not the issue. We have all the doors open so the back and front wall are just screens. I actually have the screens up too so the fungas gnats that haven't been trapped to the sticky yellow things will move their asses outside. We also have a fan that blows during the day to keep the air moving. On top of that it hasn't been above 65 degrees outside since we brought them home.. but who knows! I could be wrong!

Glad my research on the pot size was accurate!

I told him to leave it all alone and to NOT water again until I say so. He's so gung ho! I figured he was going to melt down today once he saw the "taco leaves" and he's handling it pretty well. They weren't tacos yesterday, but he watered them again yesterday when I told him not to do that when I left to run errands. It's like he can't help himself!

A lot of people love a few plants to death before they learn to step back. Also 65° is the low end of the happy scale. So they maybe too cold not too warm

 

[roadiewifelife]

It looks to be in a hoop house. What’s the temperatures inside there?

Oyyyyy, I put the gauge in there and it's rising quickly. Stay tuned! I'm waiting for it to stable out and will post.

 

[DougV]

If this insultingly stupid, I apologize. It’s a silly gimmicky way to see if a pot needs watering.

Amazon.com

 

[Oldchucky]

Two blocks from the coast can be problematic! Get a lot of salt air! A lot of humidity! Greenhouses can mess with their light! If the overcast doesn’t burn off till one or 2 PM, you’re not getting a whole lot of sunlight! Just things to look into! I grow in 35 gallon bags! I would recommend just getting a cheap long, single probe moisture meter to poking through the sides of the bags to see what is going on down in the lower half! They’re about 15 bucks! They at least let you know if it’s soaking wet or bone dry! Just sticking your finger in up to the knuckle isn’t going to tell you, Jack! Being that close to the coast is far from ideal! But hang in there, and keep swinging!

 

[roadiewifelife]

Here's the whole set up he's created and the current temp/humidity inside. We leave the screens up during the day and then put them down at night to prevent raccoons, possums from getting inside.

I'm assuming we have an overwatering/temp problem?

 

[roadiewifelife]

If this insultingly stupid, I apologize. It’s a silly gimmicky way to see if a pot needs watering.

Amazon.com

I love it! Good call!

 

[TreeBee]

Here's the whole set up he's created and the current temp/humidity inside. We leave the screens up during the day and then put them down at night to prevent raccoons, possums from getting inside.

I'm assuming we have an overwatering/temp problem?

That is way above 65 lol... you want that at least 15° lower

Thats about as hot as it ever gets where I am from

 

[roadiewifelife]

That is way above 65 lol... you want that at least 15° lower

Yeah, I was like whoooooa. It doesn't feel like that at all inside!

So we probably need to take off the greenhouse until flowering season. It gets so damp/wet in August/September that people get mold here so we thought the greenhouse would help.

 

[TreeBee]

Yeah, I was like whoooooa. It doesn't feel like that at all inside!

So we probably need to take off the greenhouse until flowering season. It gets so damp/wet in August/September that people get mold here so we thought the greenhouse would help.

I would move the fan to one end and have it blow straight through the other end try and tunnel some of that heat out. How hot is it outside the greenhouse?

 

[Oldchucky]

And raise the pots up a little to get some airflow underneath them! If you can! Looks like you have a decent amount of perlite in there for drainage! That’s important! I’m surprised at the low humidity! I think that can work in your favor, if you just lay off the watering for a while! But I imagine it roars way back up in the evening, and during the night! But unless you can find out how much moisture Is down in the root Zone it is all just a big guessing game!