Help with grow, soil and light issues?

[Strykr]

What Strain is it? Unknown
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Indica -Unknown
How Many Plants? 4
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage? Veg
If in Vegetative Stage... How Long? 22 days
Indoor or Outdoor? Indoor
If Soil... What is in your Mix? Outdoor soil (No mix)
If Soil... What Size Pot? 5 gal
Size (Wattage) of Light? How Many? 300w LED (100x3)
Is it Air Cooled? Yes
Temperature of Room/Cabinet? 75-85
RH of Room/Cabinet? 25-35
PH of Medium or Reservoir? 7
Any Pests? No
How Often are you Watering? when dry
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used? None Until yesterday (1/4 strength 7/7/7) (MG even though its a no no
Size or Square Footage of Room? Two 60 gallon totes

I posted a thread a few days ago in the veg forum and thanks to a few people I got directed here and can hopefully get this taken care of. My plants are suffering from terribly slow growth that I guess might be because I'm using bad soil? Here's a few pictures of them from a few days ago.

They seem to be doing a little bit better since I raised the light to about 14-16 inches above the plant. I really need to make up for lost time or just figure out if I need to ditch these plants and start new from seed?

The stats in the picture have been corrected and are now at what I listed above.

 

[rillos]

bring down your temps and raise your humidity. less than 75 degress and get your humidity up between 45-55

 

[Dan Ultra]

Do you have 2 plants in the same pot?? If so, you are probably gonna have more issues down the line, as they will quickly get root bound in a 5 gal pot.
What are you using to test the pH?
Were these from seed or clone?
What is the pH of the water you use to water them with? What is the pH of the run off?

I dont think it is really a temp and humidity issue, as mine are about the same and this is at 16 days from sprouting. Although I see that your temps get up to 90, so yeah, that may be too high.

 

[Stealthboat]

You used nutes a little early. You should start nutes when there are 4 sets of leaves or more and it looks like those plants have 2 or 3. The soil may also be causing problems, along with the temp and humidity. Fix this stuff first and see what happens

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Hi Strykr. I'm with Stealthboat. Your soil looks a little heavy - when you pot on at least improve drainage with added perlite. The roots need plenty of oxygen and hate being waterlogged. Getting the soil right is vital. Search 420 and you'll find plenty of soil recipes to use or adapt. PeeJay was a guru for this and SoilGirl has a full Living Organic Soil grow going on. I've adapted this for what I can find. Or there are ready-made branded products available, depending where you live.

Good luck.

 

[Alienpus]

He mentioned he was using outdoor soil, assuming he dug it out of the ground, would it better to transplant into better soil instead of trying to fix this one?

 

[Strykr]

I would definitely just go buy some soil at the shop near my house and try to transplant if that's the easiest route. How much damage would I do trying to get them out and transplanting them if I took my time?

 

[Strykr]

My hydro shop has bags of Happy Frog potting soil (Which I guess is alright from what I've been reading on forums?) Also have Fox Farm

If you guys would suggest it I will just go out and buy a bag today and transplant them.

 

[Alienpus]

My hydro shop has bags of Happy Frog potting soil (Which I guess is alright from what I've been reading on forums?) Also have Fox Farm

If you guys would suggest it I will just go out and buy a bag today and transplant them.

You have two in the same pot and apparently that is not good, maybe try carefully removing one and transplant it, see how it goes.

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Hullo Strykr. OK, let's try and sort this out together. You have 4 plants and 2 are in one pot (not ideal at all). The other two will need potting on as well. They are struggling, bless 'em, because they are in plain dirt. I am in Greece and have no direct experience of Happy Frog or Fox Farm - I mix my own organic soil - but I have seen many growers do very well with both of these brands. I would advise potting them on into larger pots as soon as possible. The girls need good soil, not dirt.

Remember:
- Mix in plenty of perlite for good drainage (around 20-25%).
- Put some crocks (broken pottery, clean gravel or small stones) at the bottom of the new pots also for drainage. They must not get water-logged.
- Try not to disturb the root systems when you pot on. Re-potting will slow them for a while, but if you don't they will eventually fail anyway.
- Water the current pots and the new soil. Then you should be able to slip them out and into their new homes. Separating the 2-in-1 may be tricky, but it must be done. Then water them in and keep a careful eye on them.
- Use rain or spring water if you can.

That's what I would do. I can't guarantee success, but I can say they will eventually die unless we try it.

Keep us updated and ask anything else you wish. Good luck.

 

[Stealthboat]

Fox farm soil is pretty good. It already has a bit of nutes in it so it may be a bit much for your young plants, but probably better than what you have now

 

[Strykr]

Hey guys, thanks for all the input I really appreciate it, I've learned from everything you guys have told me and if I don't use it this run I will definitely apply it when i get through this 'test run'. As of right now I don't have the room in my box grow the plants separately in their own pots so I am gonna skip that, see where this goes and apply it next time when everything is dialed in.

I have been really busy lately and haven't had a chance to update so here it is.

- I am 95% sure that my issues were a combination of being rootbound in the solo cups and then overwatering when I transplanted into the new containers.

- Basically I decided to water less and let them fight for life and learn from it, they seem to have come back pretty strong considering how they were doing just over a week ago.

-They are still very short, but they have grown what looks like a ton to me

 

[Stealthboat]

They do look much better than a week ago, good job! Based on the reading of your Acurite, temps looks just right but you still want humidity above 50% ideally during veg. To avoid overwatering for your next grow, add perlite to the soil so the mix is 30% perlite and 70% soil, this allows more air to reach the roots and will ultimately make the plant dry out faster.

 

[Strykr]

Hey everyone, started new and am a little over a month in and wanted to see if you could give me some Input! I started a new journal

Unknown Strain - First Grow LED