Not behaving like a weed?

[Nunyabiz]

 

[Absorber]

Its not a helpful comment for a new grower trying to learn .
Its got plenty of life in it yet .
The humour will be lost !

 

[Possim]

Its not a helpful comment for a new grower trying to learn .
Its got plenty of life in it yet .
The humour will be lost !

Thanks Absorber. I've lost a few things in my 70 odd years, but not my sense of humour - all good

 

[Nunyabiz]

Its not a helpful comment for a new grower trying to learn .
Its got plenty of life in it yet .
The humour will be lost !

Only on the humorless

 

[Absorber]

Only on the humorless

I have a sense of humour, id just hate to see a new growing pull the plant thinking you were serious.

 

[Keffka]

This plant looks suffocated.. it’s stunted and bleaching out. What do you have for aeration? By the looks of the medium I don’t see any sort of aeration like perlite. You will see a 100% improvement with proper aeration in the medium. Things like wood chips and coco breakdown and wind up causing compaction.

Couple that with hard sided pots and your roots are struggling to breathe and stretch out. Any mix you use you’re gonna want to cut in 15-25% minimum, of perlite or some other aeration amendment.

This small adjustment by itself will improve your experience more than most other changes will especially with seedlings and plants still establishing.

 

[Possim]

This plant looks suffocated.. it’s stunted and bleaching out. What do you have for aeration? By the looks of the medium I don’t see any sort of aeration like perlite. You will see a 100% improvement with proper aeration in the medium. Things like wood chips and coco breakdown and wind up causing compaction.

Couple that with hard sided pots and your roots are struggling to breathe and stretch out. Any mix you use you’re gonna want to cut in 15-25% minimum, of perlite or some other aeration amendment.

This small adjustment by itself will improve your experience more than most other changes will especially with seedlings and plants still establishing.

Thanks for your response Keffka. Yesterday afternoon, following others suggestions, I repotted in a quality seed and cutting potting mix, and added perlite in about a 3 part soil to 1 part perlite ratio. I've lightly sprayed the leaves with a diluted 15% nitrogen fertiliser, and haven't watered the soil yet.

The original mix was quite wet, but loose and not compacting together. The pots have excellent drainage and aren't sitting in saucers, so I wouldn't have thought adequate aeration was an issue?

Here's hoping.

 

[RedskinnedRhino]

Thanks for your response Keffka. Yesterday afternoon, following others suggestions, I repotted in a quality seed and cutting potting mix, and added perlite in about a 3 part soil to 1 part perlite ratio. I've lightly sprayed the leaves with a diluted 15% nitrogen fertiliser, and haven't watered the soil yet.

The original mix was quite wet, but loose and not compacting together. The pots have excellent drainage and aren't sitting in saucers, so I wouldn't have thought adequate aeration was an issue?

Here's hoping.

Excellent plan of action, you should see improvements in a couple days with that approach.

 

[Keffka]

The original mix was quite wet, but loose and not compacting together. The pots have excellent drainage and aren't sitting in saucers, so I wouldn't have thought adequate aeration was an issue?

Here's hoping.

Yep, your first clue there was an issue is the mix being wet. Unless you watered right before you transplanted, your mix shouldn’t have been wet. It should’ve been damp/moist at the absolute most. If you squeezed it, it should’ve only dripped just slightly like this:

That’s me squeezing a handful of soil with a decent amount of pressure that I watered completely, then grabbed a handful to take this picture. Anything more than that means your medium is holding too much water.

Aeration and container drainage are two separate things. You can have a container that drains perfectly with a medium that has no aeration, or vice versa. They’re both important though. Aeration is specifically related to your medium and what you have in it providing pockets of air, and the ability to drain efficiently. Drainage is related to your container allowing that water to drain out. I prefer to use fabric bags because cannabis is a plant that has roots that LOVE oxygen.

I can’t explain that to you in a way that conveys its importance enough. You have to see it with your own eyes but I promise I’m not wasting this many words just to help you out 10 or 15%. Cannabis and its roots want a light and fluffy mix that they can easily cut through while stretching for nutrition and claiming their space. If the roots have to push through mud or around rocks, in the beginning, it’s going to be slowed.

Once cannabis gets a foothold then its roots become much more aggressive and powerful, as seen outdoors, but it needs the space and medium to get a foothold.

If you take a look at roots and what their initial sizes are, as well as the initial root hairs you’ll notice they’re very small, and fine. The tap root may have the strength to anchor and pull the plant up, but the roots meant to sustain and grow the plant don’t have that same capability in the beginning. So yes you’ll sprout but then the plant will just falter and suffocate. You can tell by the small stem and the leaf appearance relative to its age that it’s roots have been affected.

You’re doing the one thing that matters most though. Adapting. Don’t start switching methods up, just focus in on adapting to your grow. You’ll see much more success focusing on a single method instead of jumping around at every problem. Good luck, you’re in a great place with great people!

 

[Possim]

Yep, your first clue there was an issue is the mix being wet. Unless you watered right before you transplanted, your mix shouldn’t have been wet. It should’ve been damp/moist at the absolute most. If you squeezed it, it should’ve only dripped just slightly like this:

That’s me squeezing a handful of soil with a decent amount of pressure that I watered completely, then grabbed a handful to take this picture. Anything more than that means your medium is holding too much water.

Aeration and container drainage are two separate things. You can have a container that drains perfectly with a medium that has no aeration, or vice versa. They’re both important though. Aeration is specifically related to your medium and what you have in it providing pockets of air, and the ability to drain efficiently. Drainage is related to your container allowing that water to drain out. I prefer to use fabric bags because cannabis is a plant that has roots that LOVE oxygen.

I can’t explain that to you in a way that conveys its importance enough. You have to see it with your own eyes but I promise I’m not wasting this many words just to help you out 10 or 15%. Cannabis and its roots want a light and fluffy mix that they can easily cut through while stretching for nutrition and claiming their space. If the roots have to push through mud or around rocks, in the beginning, it’s going to be slowed.

Once cannabis gets a foothold then its roots become much more aggressive and powerful, as seen outdoors, but it needs the space and medium to get a foothold.

If you take a look at roots and what their initial sizes are, as well as the initial root hairs you’ll notice they’re very small, and fine. The tap root may have the strength to anchor and pull the plant up, but the roots meant to sustain and grow the plant don’t have that same capability in the beginning. So yes you’ll sprout but then the plant will just falter and suffocate. You can tell by the small stem and the leaf appearance relative to its age that it’s roots have been affected.

You’re doing the one thing that matters most though. Adapting. Don’t start switching methods up, just focus in on adapting to your grow. You’ll see much more success focusing on a single method instead of jumping around at every problem. Good luck, you’re in a great place with great people!

Thanks again Keffka. I hadn't thought about the difference between the two before, so thanks for sharing. I grow vegetables reasonable well in the garden, so thought the seeds would be pretty much the same but, saying that, I was surprised the roots were so fine when I took the Jiffy pot out to remove the mesh.

Hopefully I can save the seedlings and. even though it's too late to get a full crop this season, will be better prepared for the next.

 

[Keffka]

Thanks again Keffka. I hadn't thought about the difference between the two before, so thanks for sharing. I grow vegetables reasonable well in the garden, so thought the seeds would be pretty much the same but, saying that, I was surprised the roots were so fine when I took the Jiffy pot out to remove the mesh.

So you already understand a lot of the basics which is very useful. The number one tip I give new growers is to learn the fundamentals of gardening. You’re already there, or at the very least, you’re on your way.

When it comes to cannabis, think of it closer to tomato’s. A lot of what will benefit a tomato will benefit cannabis. Cannabis just likes to take everything tomato’s like, and turn it to the max. It likes more nutrition, more space, more of almost everything.

Hopefully I can save the seedlings and. even though it's too late to get a full crop this season, will be better prepared for the next.

Even if you can’t save them, the experience and confidence you gain from putting your hands on the plants is worth it. I started off using just bag seed while I refined my grow, then I spent money on quality seeds. I still lost time and money running a substandard grow with genetics that hermd so any way you cut it, you’re probably going to take a few lumps on the way.

As a home gardener I imagine you’re already very accustomed to having to adapt

 

[Keffka]

Here we go I found a perfect example from my own work.. here’s a plant that went straight into coco.. it had no perlite, no aeration, just coco and nutrients

Looks almost like a mini version of yours. Here’s another plant that is the same age but this one was planted in the coco mix with perlite

You can plainly see the difference in size and health. If you gave it another week you’d see the smaller plant begin to look almost identical to yours.

The only difference between these plants, was perlite in the mix. These are old pictures so forgive the lack of happy leaves

 

[AgedMaster]

I grow autos in straight coco I soak my seeds in a cup then place directly in a12ltr pot I don't feed nutes for first 2 weeks. You need to have quality coco not cheap stuff. It's also possible to over water in fabric pots if you water to much at one time the leaves will look puffy here's a pic of the plants

 

[Keffka]

You need to have quality coco not cheap stuff

I’m highlighting this because this is super important for everyone to know, even if you just use coco for carbon in soil like I do. Coco is just coconut husk, they use it to fill couches and stuff so it’s easy to think all coco is created equal, but it’s not. Cheap coco comes with all kinds of random manufacturing crap in it, plus a ton of salt that will fry anything it touches. It also gets stored in places that are begging for pests and spores.

Decent quality coco isn’t that expensive for the amount you can get, it’s more than worth the extra cost

 

[Possim]

I grow autos in straight coco I soak my seeds in a cup then place directly in a12ltr pot I don't feed nutes for first 2 weeks. You need to have quality coco not cheap stuff. It's also possible to over water in fabric pots if you water to much at one time the leaves will look puffy here's a pic of the plants

Thanks Master - very healthy looking plants. Do you mix perlite with the coco and would you reckon something like this is the go, or get something without the calcium and magnesium?

 

[AgedMaster]

Thanks Master - very healthy looking plants. Do you mix perlite with the coco and would you reckon something like this is the go, or get something without the calcium and magnesium?

Hi I used ECO Thrive for my coco this time I normally use canna coco but the hydroponics store had none it was 5 pound more I use straight coco no perlite. I just looked at the coco you have it looks a little cheap I think you are from AU if I was you I would get canna coco pro plus and canna coco nutrients you can get them from AU there easy to use. If you grow photoperiod you can follow a grow guide its simple to follow I grow autos and never go over half feed. Check your water hardness online if you have hard water you shouldn't need calmag with canna if you have soft water I would use calmag. Here is a grow guide for AU.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Regarding the humorous comment from Nunyabiz...

When you've got your soil dialed in, little seedlings just grow like crazy, and then turn into healthy plants that also grow like crazy.

So, with a little seedling that has struggled, is looking very sad, and may be closer to death than to life, there's a point where you just need to start over with the proper soil, pH, watering routine, lighting, etc.

Attention to detail will pay off. It's really not that difficult, but some attention to the basic details are really necessary.

If you can make a custom soil mix, that's a great way to go. If not, and you are depending on a commercial potting soil, then for a beginner it can be difficult to understand what's a good potting soil and what isn't. Here in the U.S., a popular and trusted potting soil for cannabis is Fox Farm's Ocean Forest or Happy Frog. When you are looking for a comparable soil in Australia, you can compare the labeling. It sounds like @Absorber is on the right track with his recommendations.

happy growing!

 

[Possim]

Regarding the humorous comment from Nunyabiz...

When you've got your soil dialed in, little seedlings just grow like crazy, and then turn into healthy plants that also grow like crazy.

So, with a little seedling that has struggled, is looking very sad, and may be closer to death than to life, there's a point where you just need to start over with the proper soil, pH, watering routine, lighting, etc.

Attention to detail will pay off. It's really not that difficult, but some attention to the basic details are really necessary.

If you can make a custom soil mix, that's a great way to go. If not, and you are depending on a commercial potting soil, then for a beginner it can be difficult to understand what's a good potting soil and what isn't. Here in the U.S., a popular and trusted potting soil for cannabis is Fox Farm's Ocean Forest or Happy Frog. When you are looking for a comparable soil in Australia, you can compare the labeling. It sounds like @Absorber is on the right track with his recommendations.

happy growing!

Thanks cbdhemp808. With the help of expert advice from this forum, I've repotted, added perlite, moved out of the direct sun, and refrained from overwatering and, I'm very pleased to report, they're looking much more betterer Will update pics soon.