First Grow - Seedling Stage - Slow Growth - Should I transplant?

[ledzepp]

Hey y'all,

First time grower here and I'm wondering if I should transplant my girls into solo cups because they've been growing quite slowly for the past 5 days. I'm not really sure why this may be the case - I know I was over watering a bit but they seem healthy now and just haven't been growing as vigorously.

Here's an overview of my setup:

Number of Plants: 6
Strains: 2x Papaya, 4x Mystery (Nirvana)
Stage: Seedling
Light: 20/4, transitioned to 18/6 on 4/10.
2 x 300 Watt LED (140 true watt)
Medium: FFOF
Nutrients: Seaweed Extract (very low concentration once every 5 days)
Age: 7 days since sprout, 10 days since seed


I've attached some pictures. Mostly all of my girls are on their second true leafs and a couple are showing signs of third leafs coming in.

My question essentially amounts to am I doing something wrong? Should I be concerned about the slow growth? My containers are smaller than solo cups (last picture) so I'm wondering if the size of my containers is causing me to overwater or not allow these girls to have a proper wet/dry cycle.

Thoughts?

 

[ledzepp]

Update - a few hours after posting this my fastest growing girl looks sad... don't know what I'm doing wrong. I haven't watered other than misting a little onto the top soil this morning because it was looking super dry. Is she underwatered now?

Also worth noting I think I may have given her a too high PPM nutrient mix last Friday. She got a small nutrient burn from it on one of her leaves. Do i need to flush or will that just compound the overwatering?

 

[ledzepp]

She's looking even worse now guys, now she's not even standing upright... I watered her a bit because the soil was bone dry up to the first knuckle.

What could cause this to progress so fast?

 

[redmud]

If those pots are a natural fiber I would ditch them I lost half my clones before I figure out that the jiffy pots was causing them to die some how, I have no idea I ditched them though and all is well, I think they just started decaying and caused the roots to heat up plus they didn't allow oxygen in once they were soaked they were water proof/ air proof.

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[ledzepp]

If those pots are a natural fiber I would ditch them I lost half my clones before I figure out that the jiffy pots was causing them to die some how, I have no idea I ditched them though and all is well, I think they just started decaying and caused the roots to heat up plus they didn't allow oxygen in once they were soaked they were water proof/ air proof.

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Thanks @redmud! Yes I bought them from walmart.. of course the one thing I didn't look up cause them to die lol.

What should I transplant to solo cups or 3 gallon smart pots?

 

[redmud]

Not sure I would judge by the roots if they are filling up the container they are in now I would go up a size but if they aren't to the bottom and sides yet solo cups will do the trick. If you go up to the 3 gallon smart pots just watch how you water keep it local around the stem so she has a chance to dry out gradually increase the water as she grows.

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[ledzepp]

For sure. I'm going to run out and grab some solo cups, I anticipate they've probably not had a chance to fill out this container since the leaves aren't even the size of it yet.

I'll double check the roots to make sure it's the right move and repost some pics after the transplant. How long should they take to recover after transplanting in your experience?

 

[DeanB]

Agreed, I've tried those egg carton type of containers, I got them at H. Depot. They didn't work for me either. I start in solo cups now, then up pot from there.

 

[ledzepp]

@DeanB/@redmud do either of you use FFOF? I just ordered some perlite to mix in with it since I've noticed these containers aren't draining too great and I'm replanting anyway. Wondering if it's necessary or not.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[DeanB]

I do not, but be sure to get that question answered before adding it.

 

[redmud]

I heard that ffof is a bit hot so look up what others are doing first. I would guess 4 to 7 days before the start looking good again. Don't forget to poke holes in the bottom the solo cups for drainage.

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[ledzepp]

I heard that ffof is a bit hot so look up what others are doing first. I would guess 4 to 7 days before the start looking good again. Don't forget to poke holes in the bottom the solo cups for drainage.

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Thanks for the time frame. I ended up transplanting two of them just now into FFOF, the other 4 I'm going to cut with 30% organic Perlite before transplanting to hopefully help the roots get some more air.

Thank you both for helping me diagnose and respond! Will be posting some pics again in 4-7 days.

Though with regard to my original post, do these girls look a bit underdeveloped for 10 days in?

 

[redmud]

Once you get those roots happy they will explode with growth they usually start growing faster after the third week any ways

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[r3envy]

I usually use rapid rooters with my seeds. They work pretty amazing (always have). I also put mine into 2gallon pots once they have 2 leaf sets.

From a 2 gallon i put my mothers in 15gal (this usually cause them to stretch out the roots at a longer period of time) or if you are going to flower i would go from 2 gal to 5 gal.

Also when you transplant do it the next day after you water so your root ball stays together. The less you break your root ball up the less shock they undergo.

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[r3envy]

I usually use rapid rooters with my seeds. They work pretty amazing (always have). I also put mine into 2gallon pots once they have 2 leaf sets.

From a 2 gallon i put my mothers in 15gal (this usually causes them to take a bit longer to start flourishing again but when they do they love the space) or if you are going to flower i would go from 2 gal to 5 gal.

Also when you transplant do it the next day after you water so your root ball stays together. The less you break your root ball up the less shock they undergo if any.

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[r3envy]

No clue why it double posted lol

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[ledzepp]

Transplanting them to solo cups helped immensely! All my girls are looking much better with the exception of one which I'm hoping is just working on its roots and going to catch up at some point.

Though now many of my plants leaves are curling upwards. I don't think it's quite a taco but you all can judge for yourselves. Any thoughts on what could be going wrong now?

 

[ledzepp]

Sorry I should probably provide a bit more context - they started curling after 3 days of straight misting. I moved the lights up to help keep temperatures below 80 (when the closet is closed, it gets right around 80)

I've been keeping RH around 45-60 for the past week. Lights are at 22/2 until this Thursday when I will switch to 20/4.

Also it seems like the runt of the litter (m2) doesn't like humidity spikes so I recently set the humidifier to turn off with the lights to keep humidity more consistent during dark hours (lol, the whole two of them)

 

[Major PITA]

I would have moved them directly into 1 gal pots since you had seedlings. You will probably need to up-pot them again in a week or two, depending on how they do.
Misting the top of the soil is a bad idea. Drench them completely, then let them dry out.
Their size for their age is OK, but those small starters you used were too small to hold them for very long, IMO. Most of the action happens below the soil when plants are very young.
I would not give new seedlings any nutrients for at least the first couple of weeks, especially when planting into potting mix that already has nute's in it.

 

[ledzepp]

I would have moved them directly into 1 gal pots since you had seedlings. You will probably need to up-pot them again in a week or two, depending on how they do.
Misting the top of the soil is a bad idea. Drench them completely, then let them dry out.
Their size for their age is OK, but those small starters you used were too small to hold them for very long, IMO. Most of the action happens below the soil when plants are very young.
I would not give new seedlings any nutrients for at least the first couple of weeks, especially when planting into potting mix that already has nute's in it.

Thanks for the advice PITA. Yeah in hindsight I should have gone directly to 1 gallons but I had already purchased 3 gallon smart pots which will likely be their final home unless I only keep 3 plants into flower in which case it will be 5 gallons.

I thought the 3 gallon pots might be a little big for the girls given how they looked a week ago when I posted this.

To clarify I wasn't misting the top soil I was attempting to foliage feed these girls since they responded really well to superthrive but I did not want to re water (I gave them nutrients with a dropper the first time). Do you think the wet/dry mist cycle is causing the leaves dry out and turn upwards like that?

I also read somewhere this is caused by rapid growth or heat stress but since my temps are ok and my LEDs are at least 24" above the canopy I'm not sure this is the issue.

When would you transplant these girls given their rapid growth over the past week? I'm trying to plan the perfect time to minimize transplant shock and keep this growth spurt going.

Thanks!