Hey Guys! Yes it's a first post but I was just going through the forums and when I saw this I figured I had 2 cents to throw in if no one minds.
To the OP, nice to see another one join the fold. Also good that you're here looking for opinions rather than just trying things on your own since as you mentioned you don't have a lot of experience. The internet rocks for learning to grow so certainly keep using it! Just to clarify, since I have no idea of the strain, the vendor it came from or your setup I'd just add a few reminders that may help you here or down the road in your next grow and also maybe ask a question or 2 about your setup.
1. Changing the environment in different ways is a form of stress on the plant. Changing light spectrum, intensities, humidity changes, watering schedules can affect different strains differently. What one strain can handle another one can't. It seems like you changed up your lights as a response to an issue you were seeing.
2. In veg, the soil needs to go through a moist/dry cycle to induce root tip growth which leads to upper tissue growth. You mention you suspect there's some water pooling at the bottom of the pot. Just as an example, if the plant was left in dry soil more than it should have been earlier in it's life, it'll send roots down to find water. If there's a pool of water at the bottom of your pot that's where the plant will start sucking up that water. The problem with that is that if the roots sit in water they're susceptible to root rot. But more importantly, if the roots are in fact sitting in water and obtaining most of their water from that spot, it would be a similar situation to overwatering. One definite sign of overwatering is a plant that grows straight up with very little lateral growth. This happens a lot with new growers as they're afraid of drying out the plant.
3. The flower soil you mentioned... from that pic in the air pot it appears there's very little to no perlite or vermiculite and it appears to be mostly peat from what my monitor shows me. If that's the case the soil will take longer to dry out as we need and the roots are in contact with a wetter soil for a longer period of time Again this can lead to the straight up effect you see here with little or weak lateral growth as it's similar to overwatering.
In general the plant looks happy, just not showing lateral growth. As for the slow growth, that can be genetic or it can be from making environmental changes more than the plant wants. Most strains decelerate a bit when transplanted. That's stress. Other forms of stress above simple tricks like LST etc. can be suspect and cause a slowdown in growth. If I were just going to rip an off the cuff statement about what's going on it would be the following, although don't take it as gospel because there's a few factors we don't have:
1. Plant turgidity looks good, looks like nutrients are ok for now.
2. From what you said about watering, I'd guess that the lack of lateral growth is due to overwatering in one way or another and there is very little root growth going on in the soil.
3. If you truly are using a single bulb home depot type LED {I'm guessing on that because of the low wattage) your growth will be slower than you may want. While in veg the plant doesn't need as much light as in flower, for decent vegetative growth you should shoot for a par of 600 or thereabouts. You can get away with less for sure but the result is slower growth and less vigorous lateral branching. If you need a par meter and have an iphone etc. there are plenty of free apps that will get you in the ballpark.
As for the spots on the leaves, I couldn't tell you. Many pests can cause that, but I would suspect your soil as a possible source for those unless your environment caused it. I've seen indoor grows where people had a crap ton of different house plants all over the house and bugs in their grow. One tour of the house to check the other plants and they found their source. Again, cheap soil is always a suspect. Even "good" soil can get bugs as well. One bag to the next, you never know. Miracle grow is kinda known for being a haven for funus gnats.
Suggestions would be, check your par with a smart phone because a 45 watt home depot bulb is kinda meh even in veg if that's what you're using. Now that you've got your plant in an air pot, think less about a water "schedule" and get to know the difference in feel between a watered plant and a dry plant. Pick it up and get used to how heavy it feels every time you go in there (which should be every day if you're really into it) and you'll know when to water. Not every strain takes in water or nutes at the same rate. Weighing it lets you know for sure when the soil is dry. Once you get the plant cycling between "wet" and dry regularly you should notice an improvement in lateral growth assuming the strain's genetics work that way. Also, there are times during the plant's life where watering picks up and slows down. That's part of learning the strain and pheno. If you keep trying new strains expect to have to watch the plant and adjust accordingly.
There are amendments that can help with root expansion, some are just ferts with higher phosphorus. To keep it simple you can also just throw a small amount of kelp in your feed water as well and it has other benefits as well.
I just noticed your last post there, those little white spots aren't a mag deficiency. That's a pest. Since you mention you used "flower" soil, if you have a moment and a magnifying glass or jeweler's loupe (you should have one for checking those trichs ;) ), take a look at the leaves close up and see if it's spider mites. At first sign, you'll see the little spots on the leaves where they've been feeding. Once they mature and keep going you'll eventually start seeing fine tight webs generally at the ends of branches where the buds are going to be.
Best piece of advice I can give is, stay stable. Dial in your environment before you even pop a seed, that way you can see where your tent or room is going to stabilize. This plant grows it's fastest in a predictable, stable and ideal environment. Constant light changes, drastic temp changes, repotting, humidity and feed changes all contribute to slower or stunted growth.
If this is the only plant you have now and you don't intend to advance any further or spend any more cash on the hobby then I'd again say just try to stabilize. Check your light, check the pot weight for watering, keep temps and. humidity stable as you can and within a couple weeks she should begin. to pick up steam all other things considered. I know not everyone is going to dive into this hobby with cash to burn right from the start and that's ok. If you intend to keep going and advance, try to level up your gear when time and money permits. If you go the tent route make sure you can evacuate air and humidity. I hate to say it because I'm not a fan of theirs but
AC Infinity has done more to advance the science of home grows more than any other company. The other guys all jumped on the bandwagon as far as I can recall after the fact, but a tent, exhaust fan and of course an appropriately sized horto light help immensely in stabilizing your environment.
And lastly, what light are you going to put her under when it comes time to flower? 45 watts from any light manufacturer is going to give you mids to less than mids as cannabis needs an increase in intensity during flower and has minimum and max par values to work within, strain notwithstanding.
That's it for my first post. Hope something in there helps you out.
That was a short novel eh?
my plant has received multiple flushes since then and will be flushed before flower and tbh, I don’t think it hurts much during the veg stage especially if it’s just soil sprays. Let somebody else back me up tho bc I could be way off im just letting you know how I handled it lol
