Struggling Cannabis Plants Any Suggestions?

[ShadowKhan]

Hey guys! My name is Shadowkhan and this is my first time growing cannabis :). I thought it would be something fun to do, and I've enjoyed the sticky icky for quite a while now so I thought to myself "Why not give it a shot?" I'm making this post in the hopes that I can get some pointers into the right direction regarding my grow.


My girlfriend & I decided to go with a whole setup, we bought a 4x4 grow tent at a decent price, with intake fans, exhaust fans, carbon filters, just the essentials. Originally we started out with three bag seeds (no idea if they are male or female) and put them under a blue light as shown in the picture below. We have a couple of other plants in the grow tent, and have been watching these seedlings grow for roughly 3-4 weeks. Originally the light was set too high, and 2 of the 3 plants had to be replanted because they had stretched too much and were becoming thin and frail. This seemed to fix many issues with these 2, until maybe a week and a half later, more details later on in the post.


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Currently, the plant is on a 16/8 day, night cycle. (16 hours of light from 10:20 P.M to 2:20 P.M and then dark all the way up until 10:20 P.M, repeating) The lights are (as well as the space heater we are using) are set to turn off and on at those intervals automatically. After burying those 2 plants deeper, we lowered the light so that it is roughly 24 inches away from the top of the red solo cup the girls (hopefully) are in.

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As I had stated before, we originally had 3 plants. Everything seemed fine besides a little overstretching due to the light not being close enough. However a 2 or 3 days ago, 2 of the girls without warning completely toppled over, one minute they were standing semi-straight and tall, the next day I open the tent and they are just toppled over. Originally my girlfriend and I took a look at the soil, and discovered a little tiny bug roaming around in the soil. Concerned with what it might be, I had gone out and bought Neem Oil, and my girlfriend sprayed the plants. This is when a day or two later, the 2 plants toppled over. I suspect too much Neem Oil as the culprit here, but again that's why I am here. The plant you see above is the sole survivor out of the 3 we have planted so far. These plants have had no nutrients, the only thing we have been doing is watering. Making sure the water is damp but not so much that the plants would suffocate and die.


We haven't been checking Ph levels of the water, and as I had stated before, no nutrients. Just water, making sure the temp stays between 69-72 degrees, and keeping a relative humidity level of 45% to 55% (I know that is low but our humidifier seems to struggle to reach 60%. Right now as I'm typing this it is 9 in the morning on 4/4/2023). Based off of the research I had done, the general rule of thumb seemed to be no nutrients until the plant itself had grown 3-4 sets of true leaves, as the nutrients in the soil would take care of the seedling until veg stage. We weren't planning on checking Ph until the plants had reached veg stage, but a second opinion is always nice.

I suppose my main question is, what gives? Is the plant in the picture above where it needs to be in its grow cycle? Every bit of research I have done has shown that photoperiod plants should be more farther along in the cycle then this one is. Also, how come those 2 other plants within a span of just a day or 2 completely toppled over? Any tips or tricks for a new grower like me would be fantastic, and anyone willing to help can request any information as needed such as pictures or what have you. Thank you all for your help, and may mother nature bless your future grows.

Hey guys, update on the plants :). As of right now I am typing out this post on 4/5/2023 at 1:15 P.M.

Not much change in the plant, however we decided to transplant early into a bigger pot.

Someone responded to the original post and had said that they only typically kept their seedlings in a solo cup for about 3 weeks. Seeing as how we were about at that mark, we decided to transplant. This time in different soil, with actual nutrients such as worm castings, and bat guano. The mix also came with perlite added as well which is nice! Someone had also asked if we had kept the seedlings in a dome, and to respond to that we kept them covered with saran wrap for the first week or so of germination but that was about it.

Most importantly, everyone was very helpful in stating that our light situation was not ideal, and we appreciate the feedback. As a result, we've lowered the light from 24 inches to 18, a temporary fix until we can upgrade our light situation in the following week.

Another poster also pointed out that our watering habits most likely weren't up to snuff, we do have a 3 in 1 tester for, moisture, light, and Ph. Initially we were having problems with the tester, and someone pointed out that we should just get our hands on a moisture meter, noted! Thank you very much for this feedback. That being said with a little finesse, we managed to get the moisture read to work, and measured distilled water between 6-6.5 Ph, stuck the tester in, let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes and it when right between dry and wet. It is a little difficult to see in the picture because of the blue light but that is where it's at, any further suggestions regarding this would be excellent!

Finally, as we transplanted the seedling into its new home, I took the liberty of using our thermometer that our heating mat came with too test the temp in the soil, and it came out too 64 degrees. Is this high, or low? Any information regarding on where it should be at and how I can get it there would be excellent, as well as any other suggestions would be fantastic! Also as a side note we are keeping the temp during the light cycle to around 71-72 degrees in the day, and at night around 69 (nice) degrees at night, with humidity staying around 55%. Again, any information is always much appreciated, and as always have a good day, and may mother nature bless your grows.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Raising the temp in the soil to about 72F will help improve growth rates. Just raising the temp in the tent to about 78F should help a lot with your soil temp. Also, raise your pots off the floor unless you plan on using the seedling mat to help warm up the soil. It will still seem slow at first due to the size of the plant. Remember, there's a lot more going on under the soil that you can't see but once the roots have established enough to support further growth, you'll see it. It will gather momentum soon.

You would have been better off waiting before transplanting. Watering correctly will become rather difficult with a small plant in such a large pot. It will take a long time to dry back and that is critical to keeping your root zone healthy. You'll be "ok" if you can resist the urge to water it any time soon. By that I mean it could be 7-10 days or more before it dries back enough to water again. Here's where the moisture meter will come in handy. Now when I say "dry back," I mean let it dry back to a point where the pot is light and your measurements with the moisture meter show "dry." Not bone dry, but pretty dry. My wife waters our plants when the moisture meter (scale of 1-10) reads about 2 to 3. Please read through at least the first few pages of this so you get a better idea on how cannabis should be watered:

New Simplified Way to Water Marijuana Plants

To know if you need to water your cannabis plant get yourself a soil meter. Poke or drill 4 holes in your pot 1/4 way up from the bottom spaced around the pot...

www.thcfarmer.com

Since you're in soil, don't worry about pH-ing your water. The soil is your buffer. It's not necessary and in some cases it can be harmful due to the acidic and caustic chemicals used for pH down and up.

Young seedlings will prefer rH in the upper 60's to about 70. As they grow larger, you can bring that down. Once you're in heavy flower, you will want your rH to be about 50%. Some will tell you to keep it higher than that but to be honest the extra humidity can cause mold/mildew issues in a heavy flowering indoor plant.

Anyway, I'm sure I missed a few things so we'll wait for others to chime in.

 

[ShadowKhan]

Raising the temp in the soil to about 72F will help improve growth rates. Just raising the temp in the tent to about 78F should help a lot with your soil temp. Also, raise your pots off the floor unless you plan on using the seedling mat to help warm up the soil. It will still seem slow at first due to the size of the plant. Remember, there's a lot more going on under the soil that you can't see but once the roots have established enough to support further growth, you'll see it. It will gather momentum soon.

You would have been better off waiting before transplanting. Watering correctly will become rather difficult with a small plant in such a large pot. It will take a long time to dry back and that is critical to keeping your root zone healthy. You'll be "ok" if you can resist the urge to water it any time soon. By that I mean it could be 7-10 days or more before it dries back enough to water again. Here's where the moisture meter will come in handy. Now when I say "dry back," I mean let it dry back to a point where the pot is light and your measurements with the moisture meter show "dry." Not bone dry, but pretty dry. My wife waters our plants when the moisture meter (scale of 1-10) reads about 2 to 3. Please read through at least the first few pages of this so you get a better idea on how cannabis should be watered:

New Simplified Way to Water Marijuana Plants

To know if you need to water your cannabis plant get yourself a soil meter. Poke or drill 4 holes in your pot 1/4 way up from the bottom spaced around the pot...

www.thcfarmer.com

Since you're in soil, don't worry about pH-ing your water. The soil is your buffer. It's not necessary and in some cases it can be harmful due to the acidic and caustic chemicals used for pH down and up.

Young seedlings will prefer rH in the upper 60's to about 70. As they grow larger, you can bring that down. Once you're in heavy flower, you will want your rH to be about 50%. Some will tell you to keep it higher than that but to be honest the extra humidity can cause mold/mildew issues in a heavy flowering indoor plant.

Anyway, I'm sure I missed a few things so we'll wait for others to chime in.

Hey, me again:) thank you so much for the info however another problem has arisen. If you remember in the OP I had stated that the other 2 plants over the course of a day drooped over and were completely touching the soil, now this plant is doing it. This is exactly what the other 2 plants did. Can I save her? Or is it too late?

 

[PrimoClonesCanada]

Prop it up with a straw,plant tag or something
And you really should have waited alot longer before re potted it.

 

[ShadowKhan]

Hey, me again:) thank you so much for the info however another problem has arisen. If you remember in the OP I had stated that the other 2 plants over the course of a day drooped over and were completely touching the soil, now this plant is doing it. This is exactly what the other 2 plants did. Can I save her? Or is it too late?

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Hey guys, good news. I came home from work and she bounced back (sort of) however her leaves are starting to turn white

Any ideas of what this could be? Thanks so much, and always may mother nature bless your grows.