Lighting and seed starting advice

[Narsbars]

Setup: 150W LED, FoxFarms Ocean Forest mixed 50/50 with Perlite. Seeds used both Auto Flower and Photo Period.
I have been practicing early here in Maine. Last year I had a part of a closet some Mylar film hanging over strings, and a bunch of home LED bulbs with the tops popped off in an area that still got hit with some light at night intermittently. All seedlings started in a plastic germination tray with FFarms Ocean Forest and Peat starters came up strong and fast. As you would expect they did get leggy but still produce some top quality bud in small quantities.
This year I am using seeds from a good supplier, a sponsor here, I believe and 150W LED. I am just growing in an open area near a patio door with the LEDs on a 18/6 schedule. There is another 150W LED about 3 feet away for my pineapple. Every single plant that comes up, whether germinated in dirt, wet towel, dropped in a jar and then planted come up but stunt at a couple of weeks. The last batch of AF got to be about 6 inches high and started flowering while still stunted. I pulled and tossed. The current batch of Photo Periods has stunted at about the same height. Some of the leaves turned yellow, but then the plant just looked perfect......if you were growing for Barbie.
Any ideas on what to do?

 

[Bill284]

Its hard to define your question.
From what I understand your girls are stopping growth at a certain point.
How have you been watering your girls.
Too much water in that soil can cause a young girl to go dormant.
How often how much and what?

 

[Paul Squiggle]

Have you got some pictures

 

[Nunyabiz]

Odds are your soil plus any nutrients are too hot.
AF stunt from literally anything, too wet, too dry, too much nutrients, bad transplant, a loud fart.
Photo-periods you usually got to do something pretty serious to really stunt them where they don't recover.

 

[Narsbars]

Its hard to define your question.
From what I understand your girls are stopping growth at a certain point.
How have you been watering your girls.
Too much water in that soil can cause a young girl to go dormant.
How often how much and what?

Probably way too much. I had presoaked the soil, not dripping but very wet before transplant. I have not given them any water unless I could stick a finger in past the 2nd knuckle. I know, I know, not very scientific but I am thinking you may have hit the nail on the head.

 

[Narsbars]

Odds are your soil plus any nutrients are too hot.
AF stunt from literally anything, too wet, too dry, too much nutrients, bad transplant, a loud fart.
Photo-periods you usually got to do something pretty serious to really stunt them where they don't recover.

Fox Farms Ocean Forest cut with another 50% pearlite shouldn't be too hot I would think. They have never gotten to a stage where I would even think about nutes......except one run I tried 1/4 strength Fox Farms grow big, at 6.5 ph my meter said I never hit 375 for PPM and that was with a start PPM of 110 from my well water. No luck with that run either.

 

[Bill284]

Fox Farms Ocean Forest cut with another 50% pearlite shouldn't be too hot I would think. They have never gotten to a stage where I would even think about nutes......except one run I tried 1/4 strength Fox Farms grow big, at 6.5 ph my meter said I never hit 375 for PPM and that was with a start PPM of 110 from my well water. No luck with that run either.

Try lifting the pot to tell if it needs water, emilya has a thread on watering potted plants and seedlings, also I grow in coco so not great with soil. Read some of her info on that soil your using, she is very knowledgeable on soil grows and nutrients.

 

[Narsbars]

Update, I will not, cannot mention the maker of the lights. Leave it at they are 150 watt full spectrum, quantum, not blurple. I agree with the moderator removing the vendor name after I was educated as to why.

 

[SmokingWings]

I am going to go with the soil is causing the plants to stall at a certain stage of growth.

You may have bought the Fox Farms Ocean Forest but when you mixed it 50/50 with the Perlite you created your own soil mix. The Ocean Forest is a good product but it does need some nutrients added to support the plant and Marijuana is very demanding. I feel that you have hit the limit that the soil can produce for the plant; when it gets to as big as they are, they have hit the limits of the soluble nutrients available and the micro-organisms can't keep up with producing more from the available organic material.

When you filled the container with the new mix only half of it is soil and the other half is a basic soil amendment. The Perlite is added as an aeration material and not to supply macro or micro nutrients.

Just for starters the Fox Farm web site recommends using Big Bloom, a very mild liquid that can be mixed with water. The quote is from the web page for the soil....

Garden tip: Designed for containers and ready to use right out of the bag. There’s no need for nitrogen fertilizers at first; instead try FoxFarm Big Bloom® Liquid Plant Food to get things started.

One interesting thing is the part that says that "there's no need for nitrogen fertilizers at first...". What does at first mean? And the Big Bloom contains some of what the Ocean Forest already has in it.

No mention of the size of container the plants are being grown in.

 

[Narsbars]

Thank you, re: Size of containers, all about six inches across, a couple 10 inch. I actually did one test with Big Bloom at 25% recommended strength. According to some advice here I may have overwatered the seedlings, and now under fertilized. I now have a personal theory that I did not start them in a seed starter mix while using a heat mat.
I am getting ready to just toss the current bunch and start over.
I think my last try will be to give them a full strength dose of Big Bloom at recommended PH and PPM and just wish em luck.

 

[SmokingWings]

Thank you, re: Size of containers, all about six inches across, a couple 10 inch. I actually did one test with Big Bloom at 25% recommended strength. According to some advice here I may have overwatered the seedlings, and now under fertilized. I now have a personal theory that I did not start them in a seed starter mix while using a heat mat.
I am getting ready to just toss the current bunch and start over.
I think my last try will be to give them a full strength dose of Big Bloom at recommended PH and PPM and just wish em luck.

About 6 inches across and 10 inches high gives a container of about 1 gallon. Since 50% of the soil mix is Perlite the plants are trying to survive on approximately a half gallon of soil. I figure that is a good reason for the plants to be stunted after a couple of weeks.

Since you mention that the plants came up strong and fast then whatever you did there worked out so no need to think that not starting them in a seed starter mix is the problem.

Just transplant the stunted plants into larger containers and they should start to perk up and grow faster in a week or two. Consider a different soil mix ratio. I keep thinking that I have seen similar mixes of Ocean Forest and Perlite with good results but the grower used a ratio of about 10% to 15 % Perlite

 

[Narsbars]

Thank you, but when I say stunted I mean 4 to 5 inches at a month or more, with tiny leaves and not developing nodes just some crowded tiny leaves that should be nodes.. I believe those planters can support a plant because you can grow in a solo cup.
I have drenched them in full strength Big Bloom and if they don't grow like Jack's beanstalk in the next few days I am going to set them free, of course I live in Maine.

 

[Ghostwriter31]

Setup: 150W LED, FoxFarms Ocean Forest mixed 50/50 with Perlite. Seeds used both Auto Flower and Photo Period.
I have been practicing early here in Maine. Last year I had a part of a closet some Mylar film hanging over strings, and a bunch of home LED bulbs with the tops popped off in an area that still got hit with some light at night intermittently. All seedlings started in a plastic germination tray with FFarms Ocean Forest and Peat starters came up strong and fast. As you would expect they did get leggy but still produce some top quality bud in small quantities.
This year I am using seeds from a good supplier, a sponsor here, I believe and 150W LED. I am just growing in an open area near a patio door with the LEDs on a 18/6 schedule. There is another 150W LED about 3 feet away for my pineapple. Every single plant that comes up, whether germinated in dirt, wet towel, dropped in a jar and then planted come up but stunt at a couple of weeks. The last batch of AF got to be about 6 inches high and started flowering while still stunted. I pulled and tossed. The current batch of Photo Periods has stunted at about the same height. Some of the leaves turned yellow, but then the plant just looked perfect......if you were growing for Barbie.
Any ideas on what to do?

Lights and the plants need to be enclosed area where your lost light can reflect back. I’m sorry if someone else has said this . But that seems to be your first issue , could be your watering habits too

 

[Narsbars]

Lights and the plants need to be enclosed area where your lost light can reflect back. I’m sorry if someone else has said this . But that seems to be your first issue , could be your watering habits too

I have previously started seeds in cups, in closets, in a spare room with crap soil. In all of the above everything grew bigger and faster. I am thinking the one big difference is the very low humidity in the room I am using.
Thanks for the input and I will be putting any decent pops in a tent but would like to see some success first.
Just popping my first units using a heat mat, plastic dome, etc. for comparison.

 

[SmokingWings]

Thank you, but when I say stunted I mean 4 to 5 inches at a month or more, with tiny leaves and not developing nodes just some crowded tiny leaves that should be nodes.. I believe those planters can support a plant because you can grow in a solo cup.
I have drenched them in full strength Big Bloom and if they don't grow like Jack's beanstalk in the next few days I am going to set them free, of course I live in Maine.

They can be grown in small containers but they tend to stay small. The people that do small container growing do have to keep right on top of things though and have to constantly maintain a feeding schedule to make up for the small amounts of soil.

Most of the experienced growers keep reminding us that it can take up to 2 weeks for the plant to react to being fertilized so there might be some waiting time before tossing them outside to fend for themselves.

 

[Narsbars]

Have you got some pictures...................Here you go, that is a dime, the plant is a month old. Time to put it out of it's suffering.

 

[Reave]

Those autos already are stunted so bad its time to drop some new seeds. Potentially you were overwatering, they also look like they need food, but that could be caused by overwatering as well.

 

[Reave]

Here is the article the others were refering to:

The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant Also covered: the importance of pH and why we successively up-pot How to Water Over the last several years I have put a lot of study into this, and I feel that I can now define the proper way to water a potted plant. Keep in mind that this discussion...

www.420magazine.com

 

[Stunned]

Starting seeds is nerve wracking in the first 2 weeks after germination
That first 5 or 6 days after they get out of the medium is crucial
This is an epoch in your plant's destiny you don't want to skimp on

 

[Nunyabiz]