Autoflowers growing very slow: Soil problem?

[davidson2354]

Soil: Bio Grow Mix from Atami mixed with Coco Fiber
Water: Tap Water
Outdoor and Indoor (no lights)
Nutes: BioGrow from BioBizz

So, I have grown more than 20 plants already and Im really confused with what's going on at the moment.
I germinated 6 autoflowers, some of them actually broke the seed shell while inside the wet paper method, I presume it could have caused some damage? Anyways I moved them with no problem to their pots. Now the thing is, I used the same soil for everyone. A soil that I used last year. (Cannabis seedlings stopped growing and showing pistils - Photos)
Now there wasn't any mature plant in that soil, only those small autoflowers that ended up dying, and I gave the soil some nutes and vitamins so the soil had fertilizers on it, not a big amount of it, but I did not flush it. So I re-used that soil with these new seedlings.

So, right after germinating I placed the pots on a shelve that is very close to my balcony, they get no direct sun light there. They started to stretch alot so I placed them inside a straw to help the plant not fall down. Because of that I started moving them to my balcony usually around mid, late afternoon so they could get more sunlight but not direct. And eventually I started giving them a little bit of direct sunlight every late afternoon. I could see they started reacting well, but very very slowly.

So I decided to dilute around 2 ml of BioGrow in 5 litres of Ph tap water. I gave them just enough to moisture the whole pot. I noticed they reacted well to it, a couple of days later when I saw there was a little minor improvement. Now they keep developing like this.

The Somango one has already 1 month and 2 weeks, the other ones are going to 4 weeks already. The Somango seedling also has some visible silver/white dots, the ak seedling is by far the slowest and one cotyledon is starting to show a bit lime green. The rest look completely ok besides the leaves curling down. I dont water them very strictly, also because I only check them from 3 to 3 days usually. I have another person checking the plants for me. And I have watered them before without Ph water, which I have done before in the past without any problems.

What is causing this problem? Could it be the soil?
I'm afraid that what happened to those seedlings from last year (link) will happen to these ones too, and they will just start flowering microscopic bud.
Any Help would be really appreciated!


AK (telegrow)

Blueberry (Telegrow)

CBD Industrial Plant (dinafem)

Somango

Super Skunk (telegrow)

Tutankhamon (dinafem)

 

[Chris Scorpio]

These plants are 4 weeks old????

Do they have any light at all???

They need light, can't ya hear em screaming at ya

Plus autos should be in final pot to avoid stress of transplant so they don't flower to soon

 

[davidson2354]

These plants are 4 weeks old????

Do they have any light at all???

They need light, can't ya hear em screaming at ya

Plus autos should be in final pot to avoid stress of transplant so they don't flower to soon

Thanks for reply, but if you read completely the description you would know that yes, they get light. Like I said before, I have grown more than 20 plants already, 2 feminized and the rest autoflowers. Never had this problem.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

If they are that old, they are starving for light

They look healthy, but at 4 weeks, very very small

Maybe up the nutes if they are getting light

 

[Oldbear]

When you say “no direct light” what does that mean?

 

[MrFortwenty]

Thanks for reply, but if you read completely the description you would know that yes, they get light. Like I said before, I have grown more than 20 plants already, 2 feminized and the rest autoflowers. Never had this problem.

They are both stretchy as F and small as F for that age because of the light, or lack there of. Without knowing your watering schedule, overwatering can cause this as well.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

, right after germinating I placed the pots on a shelve that is very close to my balcony, they get no direct sun light there. They started to stretch alot so I placed them inside a straw to help the plant not fall down. Because of that I started moving them to my balcony usually around mid, late afternoon so they could get more sunlight but not direct. And eventually I started giving them a little bit of direct sunlight every late afternoon. I could see they started reacting well, but very very slowly.

They need light my friend, thus the stretch

Even a cfl as a baby helps till 2nd or 3rd node

But in the shade, well, you have the results

 

[Oldbear]

To compare, this is a nLA that is 10 days old. She’s about 2 inches tall.

529BF15B-61C1-4879-8CC8-F0D3730A861E.jpeg

• Oldbear
• Jul 17, 2018

NLA Seedling

 

[MrFortwenty]

To compare, this is a nLA that is 10 days old. She’s about 2 inches tall.

04652DE6-F08E-43C7-9652-7494F39BFADD.jpeg

• Oldbear
• Jul 17, 2018

Your "10 day" old, 2 inch auto appears to be flowering

 

[Oldbear]

Your "10 day" old, 2 inch auto appears to be flowering

Oops
Posted wrong pic fixed now.

 

[davidson2354]

If they are that old, they are starving for light

They look healthy, but at 4 weeks, very very small

Maybe up the nutes if they are getting light

They are very young at the moment to give them nutes. I tried that before just to see what would happen. If I give them more nutes now I'm afraid of hurting them even more

 

[davidson2354]

When you say “no direct light” what does that mean?

It means they are sitting in the shade but not completely dark. So they get alot of light from the sun but not directly. With the weather here if I would place them directly under the sun light they will get stunted like it has happened before. A seedling never needs direct sunlight at this point. I have always done this and only placed them under direct sunlight when the plant has a thicker stem and around 4 nice nodes and bigger leaves. Never had this problem besides now and last year (link)

 

[davidson2354]

They are both stretchy as F and small as F for that age because of the light, or lack there of. Without knowing your watering schedule, overwatering can cause this as well.

I really don't think it's the lack of light also because like I said up in the description around 2 weeks ago they started receiving direct sun light for at least 4 hours per day. Plants this young don't need huge amounts of light to grow normally, at least from my experience.
I thought I could have overwatered specially because of those that have leaves pointing down. But this problem is from the beginning, the very slow growth, and if anything at that time it would be lack of water not overdosing. I poked alot of holes on the soil so it can get more air inside

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Ok, you seem to have a good handle on your grow

How can we help my friend

At 4 weeks they should be much much bigger


Good luck, hope they bounce back

 

[Blew Hiller]

I really don't think it's the lack of light also because like I said up in the description around 2 weeks ago they started receiving direct sun light for at least 4 hours per day. Plants this young don't need huge amounts of light to grow normally, at least from my experience.
I thought I could have overwatered specially because of those that have leaves pointing down. But this problem is from the beginning, the very slow growth, and if anything at that time it would be lack of water not overdosing. I poked alot of holes on the soil so it can get more air inside

Ok, plenty of light you say....then the soil is likely toxic/insufficient (as you suggested)...a healthy plant in decent soil under sufficient light @ 4 weeks would be much bigger than that....

 

[davidson2354]

Ok, you seem to have a good handle on your grow

How can we help my friend

At 4 weeks they should be much much bigger


Good luck, hope they bounce back

Thanks man, I appreciate it! I don't know how. The symptoms could have been caused by lack of light, overwatered or bad soil, actually soil with fertilizer nutes, that's one of the things I thought. That they could have gone stunted already because they were faced with too many nutes, cotyledons, from the soil itself and Coco fiber and for the fertilizer nutes that I put in the soil last year.
I have had auto this year too and they died because suddenly they started having alot of silver dots from a pest I don't remember the name. At this point I'm just really confused. And the fact that I am not currently living in the same place as where the plants are makes this harder.

 

[davidson2354]

Ok, plenty of light you say....then the soil is likely toxic/insufficient (as you suggested)...a healthy plant in decent soil under sufficient light @ 4 weeks would be much bigger than that....

Yes! That was my intuition. Yes they started stretching alot in the beginning but I started giving them outside light. If I would leave them a whole day outside with direct sunlight they would die. Sun and heat here are very strong (Lisbon). I thought of flushing them but I'm afraid it's gonna cause enough stress to stunt them forever and die. Thought of transplanting to a bigger pot and give other kind of soil.
I did germinate 2 new seeds that I will be growing on a different soil just to test this issue.

 

[Oldbear]

Davidson my little sprouts are in full sun all day long. I'm betwee3n Toronto and Ottawa Canada. The sun here at his time of year is intense.

Are you familiar with Plant Hardening? It's a process to get them used to full sun.

 

[davidson2354]

Davidson my little sprouts are in full sun all day long. I'm betwee3n Toronto and Ottawa Canada. The sun here at his time of year is intense.

Are you familiar with Plant Hardening? It's a process to get them used to full sun.

That's interesting you say that. I don't think I have ever heard about that, what is it? I will research anyways. The only reason I don't give them full sun is because I did that before and ended up killing some seedlings. It's the mix between the sun and heat, it gets a very dry atmosphere and dries the plants in a day when it's severe. When do you start placing them under full sun?

 

[Oldbear]

Davidson I've gone through a hellish start to my grow this year. Details in my journal at signature link.

So I feel for you man - you just want to save them all. Good luck with them. Many here will help all they can.