Newbie - need advise, plant still small

  • Thread starter omarsciberras
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
O

omarsciberras

12
3
Hello all,

I have started to plant my first cannabis plant. I am noticing that the plant is still small considering that it has been planted for one week and a half. I am using coco coir and feeding using advanced nutrients. My pot is 22 litres. I am on a 20/4 schedule. 8 hours before the lights go off I water the plant and as soon as the lights are back I fed using the current: 7ml of Sensi Coco Grow, 7ml of Big Bud Coco, 7ml of B-52 and 7ml of Voodoo Juice
Newbie   need advise plant still small
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

542
93
Don't worry just yet. The roots are probably growing like crazy and the whole thing will take off on you. Have a look in my thread Explosive Growth in Coco Coir to see what happened to my plants in about 10 days from the stage you are at. Should you feed like me, 4x per day, you should be flipping to flower in 3 more weeks.
 
O

omarsciberras

12
3
My main concern is if I am giving enough nutrients and water. I didn't find any charts stating how much ml of water per day is required
 
mysticepipedon

mysticepipedon

4,738
263
My main concern is if I am giving enough nutrients and water. I didn't find any charts stating how much ml of water per day is required
Do not concern yourself with how much water you are watering your plants with. With every watering, make sure you have watered all soil in the pot.

I've never grown with coco. Read this threads on watering:

There may be something on the site specifically for coco, so look around.
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

542
93
My main concern is if I am giving enough nutrients and water. I didn't find any charts stating how much ml of water per day is required
With coco, you just water and water and water. Don't worry so much about overwatering - it should be so well-drained it is almost impossible. I suggest you water 2x a day for now, making sure to get runoff with each watering. There is a formula/rule-of-thumb to put in about the volume of the pot and get back 10-20%. Just be sure to get runoff. It is important to not let coco dry out.

I have been following the GH charts, mostly, and diluting my mixture with another couple of gallons of RO water. Mostly because I mix nutes in a 10 gallon tank (with 11 gallons in it) then put it in a 14 gallon reservoir. I top off the reservoir each filling with some RO water, intentionally bringing down the EC. Currently EC is in the 1500 range, but as 1700 when mixed in my tub.

My thoughts on this are that as long as I am feeding the plants often (currently 5x/day), they will always have nutrients available even though the EC is lower than recommended by chart. (Hence safer. I look at tip burn closely and reduce EC if I see signs.) By the time they have pulled nutes out of the water, another feeding replenishes them.

That said, when you plant a seeding into a big pot, it takes off slower than putting it in a solo cup for a week and then transplanting. But once it takes off, it's going to really take off, if everything is in balance.

Here is a quote from cocoforcannabis.com on the subject of watering in coco:

"Volume of Water Needed:

Coco mixed with perlite has the ideal air to water ratio when it is 90%-100% saturated. This means that when the coco has lost 10% of the water that it can hold you should water again. Since water is about half the total volume of saturated coco, the amount of water required should be about 5% of the container volume.

As an example, in 5 gallons of media, it should take about 1 quart of water to achieve adequate run-off. This is less water than most growers assume. Quantities are small because frequency is high. Since you are never giving the coco an opportunity to dry out, there is never going to be much capacity for it to hold more water.

If it takes more than 5% of the container volume to produce run-off, it means that the coco has become too dry. The best remedy is to water more frequently. In coco, it is always better to err on the side of watering too much than not watering enough"

OK - 22 liters is 5.8 gallons, so you're looking at watering about a quart or a little more, each time. Start with a quart measure. If you get runoff, good. If you do not get runoff, then add another watering per day instead of more watering per event. If you barely get runoff with a quart, try adding another cup to see if the runoff is about right then. Realize it may take one big watering or a few small ones to build up the water saturation to the point of getting runoff at all.

Again, have a look at my thread in the coco forum on explosive growth to see what might be coming your way. Or click my profile - I think you can see the images I've posted here already.
 
tobh

tobh

Supporter
4,194
263
@phxazcraig covered it pretty damn good for you. follow his advice and you'll be golden.
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

542
93
Thank you @phxazcraig really good explanation

I'm always a bit nervous about posting advice here, because I have so little experience myself. I can say that with my current grow, things are going well. But it could be luck. I haven't had too many issues to solve, which means I haven't learned about issues, which means I don't know what I don't know. For instance, my seedlings always grow slow. At first because I overwatered, later because I underfertilized, probably. My first attempt at growing was poor, and I overwatered my seedlings badly. Since then I figure it is better to be very conservative at first and let the seedlings grow slow rather than risk stunting them. I germinated Jan 7, had sprouts in jiffy pots 3 days later, and I stuck them into solo cups filled with coco/perlite. (I used Roots Organics premix). I did NOT fertilize at all while in the cups because I was afraid of overdoing something. Consequently they took a week or so to get leaves to the cup diameter, after which I put them into my 3.5 gallon airpots.

When transplanting, I could see that I had quite a lot of root development, and I think most of the growth in the first week after transplant was growing roots. And then my little plants became monsters overnight. They sort of outgrew my tent within 3 weeks - I should have defoliated more. I topped at the 5th, 7th and 9th or 10th nodes along the way.

I'm telling you, once they start going in coco, watch out! You may need to flower a lot more quickly than you expect. At least with high-frequency fertigation.
 
Chip.Douglas

Chip.Douglas

142
43
Hello all,

I have started to plant my first cannabis plant. I am noticing that the plant is still small considering that it has been planted for one week and a half. I am using coco coir and feeding using advanced nutrients. My pot is 22 litres. I am on a 20/4 schedule. 8 hours before the lights go off I water the plant and as soon as the lights are back I fed using the current: 7ml of Sensi Coco Grow, 7ml of Big Bud Coco, 7ml of B-52 and 7ml of Voodoo JuiceView attachment 1221905
Already feeding nutes on week 1?
 
Chip.Douglas

Chip.Douglas

142
43
No, it's been one week since I changed the feeding schedule for it, for the first 2 weeks the only progress done was as in the initial photo.
Ah ok plant might have got stressed and is stunted same happened to me after a week or 2 my girl started growing rapidly again.
It looks healthy so I would just let it grow
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

542
93
My guess is that at this point most of the new growth is going into root structure, since you put the plant into a large container for its size. At some point those leaves are really going to take off on you.
 
O

omarsciberras

12
3
Hello guys, latest photo update. One question please, since this is an auto plant, how will I know when to shift to the bloom nutrients? Thank you!
 
IMG 20220316 WA0000
Top Bottom