Stunted Growth, Seeking Help

[JayM]

You probably have a mix of issues as others have stated. Weak light too far away, not watering to runoff enough, time for up-potting, etc, but I think your biggest issue is lack of food. Do they look better after a topdress of your nutes?

Your compost is likely fine. It's done after it cools off from the thermophilic action that breaks stuff down. If you can't recognize any of the inputs then it's likely it's good to use. But, you're 6 weeks in and, depending on your inputs, the original compost in your mix may be running out of gas.

I had a similar situation with a new mix I'm using. Plants looked unbelievable for about 6-8 weeks and then the color started to fade. I started giving them fish fertilizer and they're getting better color again after a couple of weeks.

Your compost would likely make a great mulch over a layer of castings. I use aged leaf mold screened down to 1/2 inch, but many things will work. If you just leave the castings exposed to the air they'll dry to a nice concrete-type finish and nobody wants that.

Coot can get away with just compost and castings and then only water because he has superior outputs of both. What inputs do you use for each of yours?

I just top dressed a couple of days ago, it usually seems to take a few days to a week before the plants show anything with these dry amendments.

For my compost inputs I use grass clippings, cardboard, paper, food scraps, vegetable garden trimmings, leaves eggshells, coffee grounds etc.


For my worms, I feed them coffee grounds, left over fruit scraps, sprinkled crushed eggshells, shredded paper and I put my outdoor compost in there too as I have heard the worms will process that even further.

 

[JayM]

Looks as if they're beginning to be root bound, which can induce lockout. I'd repot them, PH your water between 6-6.5, add Myco directly to the top soil and water it in. Then I'd check the runoff PH to make sure it's in range. Finally, I would then adjust the Ppfd to around 250-350, or accordingly and watch for the leaves to pray.

Thanks Greengo. I'll turn my light up for sure. Sounds like up potting is a must. I'll go to 5gal fabrics pots.

 

[JayM]

Your pots look thin walled. You can see light getting through. I use a mix like yours and also top dress with Gia but not as much.

True. They do look very thin, good point. I usually put them in 1gal fabric pots but did not have enough this time and wanted to keep them all the same lol..

 

[JayM]

Ah, i see i did in fact post what I thought did not post lol.....

 

[Azimuth]

For my compost inputs I use grass clippings, cardboard, paper, food scraps, vegetable garden trimmings, leaves eggshells, coffee grounds etc.


For my worms, I feed them coffee grounds, left over fruit scraps, sprinkled crushed eggshells, shredded paper and I put my outdoor compost in there too as I have heard the worms will process that even further.

Ok, good. Pretty standard stuff. Coot runs a ton of carbon through his in the form of leaves as well as all the amendments like rock dusts, various meals, and his calcium inputs (Gypsum, Oyster shell flour, etc.).

So he can get away with more because the worm castings are the microbe dense worm casting version of all of those.

 

[Odjob]

Keep at it! Gonna be a happy day when it all comes together. You have a wonderfully resource here and your on the right track. Most of what i got figured out came from learning what not to do.

 

[JayM]

Here's a little update about 10 days later. I applied a bit of everyone's advice. I think the plants look a lot better and are growing much faster as far as I can tell.

I fixed my watering methods a bit, fed the plants, up potted, lowered my light until I saw the plants praying etc.

I think they look a lot better. So far I have transplanted 4 of the plants that I was confident are females.

Thank you everyone, I'm sure I will have questions in the future.