Month old and she just stopped growing

[lazyfish]

Hello,

I have only experienced a couple grows myself and I have been struggling with this fact for a while.

I start a seed and everything seems to go fine until about a month in and they just seem to stop growing. Sometimes I leave them alone and sometimes I fert, sometimes only water.... Only three grows so they are all inconsistent regarding fertilizing and I have only just started to pH my water and fert.

Is what I am experiencing normal? How stressed does a plant have to get before they stop growing all together? Would LST or a dose of Fish emulsion be enough to stop growth?

 

[Bcrane00]

I would think the only reason for them to stop growing would be a nutrient lock out. Test the ph of your runoff water? You can also just run a few gallons through each plant to flush them. If that doesn't work try a flush coumpound. Most neutrient companies have one version or another. Like fox farms has the sledge hammer flush solution. Other then that I wouldn't know. I'm new to growing as well. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[lazyfish]

Here is one example. It is a 20 day old Malawi Gold in fresh organic soil and it is under 5000 K CFLs. I thought it would be much bigger by now. I don't know what to expect when it comes to average growth. I watered for the first time last week without flushing first because the soil was new. Should I have flushed first? After I watered it seemed to have stopped growing. I was only misting the surface of the soil for the first couple weeks. The soil still seems very saturated and I think it might be over watered.

I don't know whether flushing would be a good idea or not.

 

[iwltfum]

It's nitrogen deficient. I would put a layer of compost on the soil, but you could apply a high N fertilizer too.

 

[lazyfish]

iwltfum,

Thanks for the input, I think I agree with you. It's just strange because I am growing a 2 month old Blueberry Kush right next to it and I didn't give it a drop of nutrients and it grew much faster. Weird.

I am going to give it a flush and a half dose of fish emulsion soon and will get back with some results and pics.

 

[jojo677]

It also looks like it may have a bit of nute burn on the newer growth (?) so it could be a pH issue as well. It does look nitrogen deficient too, but I suspect you may have a pH problem. What soil are you using? What is your pH?

 

[lazyfish]

I use this potting soil from a local hydroponic store. I heard of good results from a couple of my friends.


I only started testing the pH a couple weeks ago. I use the simple liquid color indicator, and feel confident with my estimations as to the pH. I use .5 ml vinegar per gallon to acidify from ~7 to ~6.5 pH and have been watering with that.

I had watered last week with water at 6.5-ish. I flushed it just a minute ago with the same 6.5 pH water, 4 gallons through the 2 gallon container which came out at maybe slightly less that the 6.5. I then fertilized with half strength fish emulsion and sea kelp at 6.5 pH...

Here is another pic right after the flush and fertilization:


Thanks for the help.

 

[fanleaf]

I only started testing the pH a couple weeks ago. I use the simple liquid color indicator, and feel confident with my estimations as to the pH. I use .5 ml vinegar per gallon to acidify from ~7 to ~6.5 pH and have been watering with that.

I had watered last week with water at 6.5-ish. I flushed it just a minute ago with the same 6.5 pH water, 4 gallons through the 2 gallon container which came out at maybe slightly less that the 6.5. I then fertilized with half strength fish emulsion and sea kelp at 6.5 pH...

Here is another pic right after the flush and fertilization:

Trust me. Just because your fairly confident on what ph is going in that has nothing to do with whats coming out. Get yourself a ppm and digital ph meter and test the runoff water. They arent too expensive and well well worth getting. I'm going through my first grow right now using FFOF with a fem AK47.
For the first week and a half I just ph'ed my water going in to 6.5 on the money using a calibrated meter. After my girl started canoeing and twisting and spotting really quickly I had to figure something out. Well after 3 or 4 different guesses I tested the runoff. Yep, 5.2-5.3! Everything was for the most part locked out. I've saved her, shes fine and dandy as of now. After scratching my head because FFOF should be fine I found out that I need to do several things to prepare that soil better in the future. 1st of all I'm cutting the FFOF with 25-30% perlite from now on for compaction and runoff. The reason why is because you will need to flush just as I did. After an 11 gallon of ph'ed distilled at 7.1 I finally got my runoff to 5.8-5.9. That's not good but better. The problem with it is the soil compacted so much I had to add more to the top. ADD 25% PERLITE FROM NOW ON! So, I believe the reason for the low ph is the Peat in the FFOF. Number 2 from now on is mixing at least 2 tablespoons of Domolite (lime) to the soil for every gallon of soil. Domolite will help buffer and keep the ph up. I also added a little pelletized lime for longer term. Mine went to 5.2ph and I didnt use any nutes and I always ph'ed my water! For my seedlings from now on I'm also cutting the FFOF with some LITE soil. FFOF may have too many nutes for these little guys I think.

Like I said, whats going in won't be what's coming out I bet. I bet it's way low. I would flush it with 3X the capacity of your pot and recheck runoff's ph and ppm.
As of 1 hour ago I just watered mine and FINALLY my runoff ph was 6.1 at the end of the runoff and 615ppm disolved solids. That 6.1 I can live with for now because I can see it coming up slowly and the plant took off! Some of that ppm was the CALMAG I had to add last watering. I had to give it some since I use distilled.
Here is a pic of my 23 day old AK47. Shes been topped twice and recovered well after the torture I put her through. It's my first grow and shes making me learn quickly!
23 days old since day she broke soil. Shes 11 inches tall and 18 inches wide. I had to take off a few fans after the whole lockout ordeal. They were sick, dying and crispy.

 

[lazyfish]

I actually did check the runoff and it seemed to be around 6- 6.5, I didn't look very close because it's fresh soil and had not had these problems before.

Is it normal to have to flush fresh soil?

Its sort of a bummer because the other girl seemed to be growing a little slow then she stopped completely. I had heard and read a lot about nutrient lockout and figured pH was something I should pay closer attention to but it seems like I may have only made things worse.

I'll just wait and see for now. Unless it might be a good idea to flush again? seems like a good idea??? maybe? I have no idea what I'm doing....

I think i need a TDS and pH meter...

Thanks everyone for all the great info!

 

[jojo677]

Seeing that new picture and reading more about your details, I'd say it's simply a nitrogen deficiency. That's my guess anyway. The fish emulsion should also have enough nitrogen to feed her... I wouldn't think you'd need to flush again either. If this is your first time feeding, give it a few days and re-assess!

If you're comfortable with the pH drops I'd just stick with them. They don't need calibration and plenty of people have good luck with them.

 

[fanleaf]

OK I didn't realize you checked the runoff, my bad. If you hadn't checked the runoff it sounded very similar to what I had for a bit. I'm a newb I admit but wanted to share my ordeal to give ideas if nothing else.
Yea, if your runoff checks out like you say then it's definitely different than my problem was and probably deficient of one thing or another like you and others feel.

As far as flushing new soil goes, again, newb here but I wouldn't think so but what I'm doing right now is preparing FFOF with perlite and a little pelletized lime as well as some Domolite and letting the lime start working in a week or so before I even plant.

I hope you get her fixed up though!

 

[lazyfish]

I wouldn't think you'd need to flush again either. If this is your first time feeding, give it a few days and re-assess!

It sounds like I have all my bases covered for now...
Thanks for all the input, fanleaf. By the way that AK is remarkable for 23 days! I know it could grow quick, but not that quick! Nice!

 

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[lazyfish]

Hey guess what!??


It's usually at this point that I don't know what to do. Do I observe the plant and water with treated water, and wait for signs of deficiency? When do I know when to re-fertilize?

I am mostly concerned with nutrient availability. I have had problems in the past where I didn't know whether the plant was exhibiting deficiency or toxicity and I was unable to take any confident steps to remedy the symptoms.

Thanks Everyone!!!

 

[jojo677]

I believe that's a nutrient burn. Keep in mind that the older damaged yellow leaves from earlier won't get any more green, and that's what the lower leaves look like. The new growth looks nice and green, with a bit of nute burn on the tips of the fans. I would feed with 25% of whatever you were feeding for 1 feeding, and then maybe 50-75% after that. Looking better though!

 

[lazyfish]

Thanks for the advice Jojo!
How long would you recommend between feedings? It takes a while before the soil seems to be dry enough between waterings, maybe a week. Should I water at 25% strength every time?

 

[lexort420]

Might be better to nute every other watering thats what i do usually but it really depends on on the individual plant. Some people do water water fert but in the end you will need to get to know what your plant likes. Slow and steady wins the race, and by that i am referring to increasing the strength of the nutes your feeding and also how frequent you are watering. As im sure you know by now this hobby takes some serious patience so sit back and relax and smoke a big bowl. Peace.

 

[jojo677]

Lex has it right! It is really dependent on a lot of things, so it's better to play it safe. Maybe try feeding every other watering.

What I meant was try the following for your schedule:

-Feed with 25% of what you are feeding now, with plenty of run-off to clear the medium
-Water
-Feed with 50%
-Etc... Slowly increasing your feed strength from here, to see what your plant likes.

 

[lazyfish]

Awesome! Thank you all!

 

[lazyfish]

Alright!

So, I flushed (her?) 6 days ago and at first she looked like this:

And, today it looks like this>>>>

Now this is was a "Malawi" seed (I assume real Malawi Gold) from Ace Seeds; it is a pure sativa which may grow pretty tall.

Could I begin flowering in a just few days since it is going to grow tall with a long flowering period? The company Ace actually recommends this as an indoor growing tactic, but I am not sure what to think of it. With quality in mind, I understand that I should wait until the plant is mature enough before flowering, but Ace says to start when it is only a couple weeks old....