Gratefulred Grow 2.0 Sonoran Desert

[gratefulredhead]

Greetings, friends. I'll be documenting my second grow (first is in progress, but it has been, generally, a "learning experience") and certainly asking for your help and advice along the way.

Starting with four seeds and thinking these would be New Years babies - two White Widow X Crystal Meth and two Lambs Breath, both Autos. I'll start them inside, and when they are more established, likely move them outside in about a month or so to suck up the glorious Sonoran sun before it becomes a hellscape of 120 degrees F in the summer. It is like mars. perhaps worse.

Soaked for 18 hours in spring water. Another 24 or so in paper towels in between plates. Standard operating procedure.

All responded well with good tap root growth. One was sluggish, but I could see it splitting. Thought it would be fine. Planted them on January 2.

Since they are autos, I'm not planning on transplanting this time around. Using 2 gallon cloth containers. Filled mostly with Fox Farms Happy Frog supplemented with a bit more perlite (two or three scoops), but created a center of organic seed starter mix.

Watering with a spray bottle, water at 6.5 ph. A few days under CFLs and they all sprouted happily and searched for those CLFs. Kept them under a canopy for humidity.

Today, 1/7, I felt they were established enough to move to a new location under LEDs (at about 30 inches) without their covers. I do wonder if this is too soon?

Thanks in advance for following along and offering your advice and experience. Even with all the research, I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions. I've appreciated your help and communication quite a bit so far in my first attempt which resulted in more knowledge and community than ounces, but I'm more than cool with that.

Peace.

 

[gratefulredhead]

Well dammit, I didn’t expect my next post to be already bad news. My non-green thumb qualities are showing already!

Looks like I’m losing one of them.

It occurs to me that one of those seeds didn’t crack as fast as the others and didn’t have as large a tap root. So it may have been compromised from the start.

Does anybody see any other reason for this? Are they stretching too much? The remaining three look good.

 

[Carcass]

Your green thumb is fine- just need to get that stretch under control...
I wouldn't write the droopy one off just yet- looks like that one got too top heavy and just fell over- you should be able to prop it up and it should be ok-

They stretch really fast at this age, but you shouldn't really let any of them stretch much more...maybe drop that light down about 10 inches closer and see what happens...(30" seems kinda far, even for seedlings)
What are the specs on your light?

You've got enough room in those pots to add a few inches more soil, which is totally fine to do to shorten up those stems...and/or prop up that droopy one..

Other than being a little too tall, they look pretty good!

 

[gratefulredhead]

She’s pretty kaputt, but I do think the seed may have been compromised from the beginning...

I think the stretch may have come from the height of the CFLs. They just moved to an LED yesterday. Some specs are here below. They recommend 18” for veg, so I am going around 21-22 at this point.

 

[Carcass]

Oh- so they did most of the stretching before they went under the led?
In that case the light is probably fine where it is- just keep your eye on them- if they grow over 1/4 inch overnight, then the light may still be a bit far away...

 

[gratefulredhead]

Everything seem to be going quite well and stretching stopped but this morning one of them was leaning over and looking weak. I’m wondering again if it has to do with watering too much? It looks exactly like the other one that died and I’m worried that I’m going to lose yet again another one.

This seems to be in coincidence with giving them water last night. I’m not using very much and it is from a spray bottle but perhaps it is still too much at this point. It is the only parameter that seems to make sense for a reason.

Advice?

 

[gratefulredhead]

They were leaning slightly to one side. Perhaps again weight? I tried propping this one up immediately. Yikes.

 

[Carcass]

They don't look overwatered- I think the leaves are just getting a little bigger, which equals more weight
and those long stems can't support it...
Since one died, you've got all the soil from that pot...I'd add another 2 inches of soil to the other 3 pots
to shorten up those stems- I've had to do it before- it won't hurt the seedlings- in fact, the buried part of the stem will sprout roots in a couple of weeks, so it actually benefits the plant in the long run...
Just be careful adding the soil- maybe tie the seedlings to a little stick or something to support them while you're adding the soil .
They look good except for being a little too tall, so they should do fine once you shorten those stems...
That's what I'd do, anyway...

 

[gratefulredhead]

I think we are good. Thanks for the advice. The one that fell is looking strong and I have some confidence.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Are you watering the soil at all or just spraying them ? Looks like you are watering in the center instead of the outer rim to make the roots chase the water. The root growth will help support the new top growth. The stretch is probably due to the CFL being too far away. You pretty much have to put CFL's real close to the plants to do much good. I did a complete grow with just 4 - 85 watt CFL's a few years ago & found that out the hard way. Mine stretched too.

 

[gratefulredhead]

Buds - I'm spraying them. Keeping things closer to the center, since at this point they are so small and they are in 2 gallon pots. I'll move the watering radius out as soon as they get established, unless you all think I should do that now. From what I've researched, when starting seeds in larger pots, they often don't root well because of the additional area, so that was my solution. Can change that up at a drop of the hat. Agreed on the CFLs - since moving them to a good quality full spectrum LED I don't think they've been reaching, but rather leafing well - thus they got top heavy and toppled, is my guess. Does all that sound reasonable?

 

[Buds Buddy]

Buds - I'm spraying them. Keeping things closer to the center, since at this point they are so small and they are in 2 gallon pots. I'll move the watering radius out as soon as they get established, unless you all think I should do that now. From what I've researched, when starting seeds in larger pots, they often don't root well because of the additional area, so that was my solution. Can change that up at a drop of the hat. Agreed on the CFLs - since moving them to a good quality full spectrum LED I don't think they've been reaching, but rather leafing well - thus they got top heavy and toppled, is my guess. Does all that sound reasonable?

The roots tend to grow downwards when you water in the center. When you water to the outside the roots grow outwards & down creating a bigger root ball. More Roots = More Fruits. In a 2 gal. I water about 12 oz. around the outside edges at first. After the plant is established ( 4 - 5 sets of leaves) I start watering the entire plant.

 

[gratefulredhead]

OK - so even when they are this small, they'll be able to reach out to the edges? I'll proceed in this direction. How often are you watering, approximately, at this stage?

 

[gratefulredhead]

They are responding well to the extra soil, some gentle nutes (mycorrhizal root booster and a little seedling food) and careful watering.

I germinated a new WWxCM just to make sure I had two of each plant. Germinated just fine (soak, paper towel, into starter soil). Popped up a couple days later.

Check in soon.

 

[013]

Hey Grateful!
I dropped a few notes on your faq post and I’m too lazy to re-type or do copy & paste. Check them out... hope something helps.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Looks like the gals are well. About another week of 12 oz. & the roots will be hitting the edges of the pots. Then feed till run off. This works good for me so I hope it helps.
How often I water depends on the dryness of the soil. Usually every 2 days with 12 oz.

 

[gratefulredhead]

Working hard not to overwater. They seem good, end of week two.

 

[Carcass]

They seem good, end of week two.

Great work, Grh!
It's cool to keep the top of the soil a little damp (not wet) until they get established - just spray a little water on there to keep it from totally drying out..once a day or so

 

[BeanTownFan420]

You cannot overwater hydro being all the evidence I need for that statement to be true. But you can not give enough light and heat and airflow to properly uptake and dry the medium which then leads to what some call over watering but again it is just a lack of airflow heat and light. When you meet those other things like I do you can water every other day and never have issues in soil. Growing over twenty years in soil and I water heavily when I feed and flush and have never had 'overwatering issues".

 

[gratefulredhead]

You cannot overwater hydro being all the evidence I need for that statement to be true. But you can not give enough light and heat and airflow to properly uptake and dry the medium which then leads to what some call over watering but again it is just a lack of airflow heat and light. When you meet those other things like I do you can water every other day and never have issues in soil. Growing over twenty years in soil and I water heavily when I feed and flush and have never had 'overwatering issues".

I’d love to have your opinion on my other (failed) grow. Perhaps it was the combination of the soil and the container, but the vast consensus was that it was overwatering. Am using better soil this time and added extra perlite so things are looking good so far.