First time grower second try first might be dying

TONYBLUNTZ420 said:
Ok so this is a pic of lil sis.. my baby.. I've been writing down everything I have done so far and been doing a 2 day watering schedule or lift method to see if it's heavy still... so my question is do I need to feed it any thing know or wait a week or 2 and just give it straight water.. it's about almost a week old 4 day maybe
Click to expand...

Congratulations, you have successfully experienced both the #1 and the #2 most common beginner's mistakes. The first most common mistake is over watering by watering too often, the second most common is making the mistake between the need to feed, and supplementing your grow with nutrients.

If you are in even a decent soil (and you are), and you are successively up-potting every time the roots grow into a container, you will be refreshing that soil periodically, and frankly, if your soil can not handle all the needs that a small vegging plant has, you are already sunk. There is usually no need to add nutes to plants in the first 4 weeks of life, unless of course you are outside in the sun or under huge lights and superior air flow, so that the plants can use extra nutes.

Think of nutrients not as food, because your plants have plenty of that in the soil, but think of them as vitamins, or supplements. The plant doesn't "need" them, but if she is working extra hard and can use them, nutrients can provide superior growth. If you load up that already supplemented soil with even more nutes, you, like so many other new growers of weed, are probably going to run into trouble.
 
Thank you very much... just get worried I'm not doing enough... then I start thinkin I'm doing to much..lol.. it's alot more work then just planting a seed in the ground and waterimg..or just feels that way..but again thanks for the advise..
 
Please chime in at anytime. .. I can use the help advice. . What do you mean by increase the surface/bigger flatter tub...sorry I'm such a newbie
 
He means to adjust relative humidity to leave a wider shorter container of water open, vs a tall cup, you have more surface area of the water to evaporate.

And yeah you should water till you see run off. Btw, lifting to tell if you need to water only works if you can lift the plant.
 
Ok I'm starting to get nervous of how dry the soil really feels and looks and it's been about 3 1/2-4 days with out water .. should I wait some more or water... and ok I understand what you mean now thank you... sorry if I am frustrating you guys .. and trust me I am trying my best to read everything I can get ..
 
Haha no worries man I know what it was like. Ok, take a deep breath and relax.

First, you should remember if it is day 3 or day 4 since you last watered. You don't have to, but I found establishing a routine easier than responding to a plant I knew nothing about how to grow.

Right now, the plant is in a tiny paper cup. Lifting it is kind of a non issue because it's so light. For you, you need to get a good idea of your relative humidity, and if it is low, put some water in a tupperware or whatever to get that number higher.

Also, since your cups are so small, and only look to be half filled with soil, you should 1. cut the rim off the cups to have a cm high sidewall. Any higher, and any air blowing across the cups will not circulate down to the soil or probably won't. OR 2, transplant the seedlings in a few days (they're week+ old right) into a larget pot. Not a final, but a larger pot so the roots can grow.

Down the road you can lift the plants dry, and right after you've watered them, so see the difference in weight. Then, after a while you can lift the plant to see if it needs water or not. It has to be heavy enough to make the difference in weight easily noticble. And of course, how you grow your plant and how heavy it becomes, if it's too heavy, lifting won't help you.

I just check with a finger, give it a day if it was cool, not wet to the touch, then to every three days as teh plant was established well and I haven't had a problem since.
 
i have never had a problem using the lift method... even with 5 gal containers, all you got to do is try to shove them an inch... if they are light, they move easily. You can tip them too... you don't have to totally lift it to get an idea if it is dry. However you do it however, DO NOT use the finger method in any shape or form... feeling the top, especially if there is a fan in the room, does not at all tell you what is going on at the bottom.

Be patient with this... don't stress that you are not having to do anything... just imagine all those plants thriving out there in the wild without you babysitting them. Let the plants figure out how to get to your water.
 
Ohhhhhh mann...I did a humongous disaster. .. went to lift the cup and the lip of the cup caught on box and fill over and the whole thin rolled out... so pissed.. as a small laugh I found out it was pretty dry stayed tight and I got to take a pic.. nice amount of roots... then I panic and put it back in cup and watered...taking a chance and learning at the same time..and I'm talking about lil sis
 
Ohhhhhh mann...I did a humongous disaster. .. went to lift the cup and the lip of the cup caught on box and fill over and the whole thin rolled out... so pissed.. as a small laugh I found out it was pretty dry stayed tight and I got to take a pic.. nice amount of roots... then I panic and put it back in cup and watered...taking a chance and learning at the same time..and I'm talking about lil sis
20151020_165032.jpg
20151020_165043.jpg
 
ouch
 
:oops: We all do daft things at times , I had sum auto's seedlings in sum 3gal pots with top half of a coke bottle over them to keep humidity up while they were young , I went to remove them and one of the coke lids fell , hit the seedling and snapped the stem , It happens .
Live and learn .
Be safe .
 
(Lil sis) in cup she is the smaller one .. obviously....the the lst'ed one is (big sis)..now I'm slow I'm a assuming you mean lil sis that I should put in ceramic pot... I will post a pic of the pots I have and let me know if it a good size if not I will buy bigger one and please when do you think I should transplant ... I already see 1 or 2 roots sticking out of the bottom if the cup...and thank you for the input and helping me look stuff up I didn't know about .. figured I try LST'ING big sis since she wasn't looking to good..and I fed her some nutes already..but I only had tiger bloom fert and big grow... I need to go pick up some plant food also..please don't be afraid to shit on me or tell me what I am doing wrong.... again thank you all
 
Ok, word of advice, to avoid potential future dissapointment, I'd not refer to unknown plants as he or she until you know. That's just a bit of superstition....

For your first grow, I'd keep things simple as possible. I don't know what your final container size will be, but I'd go from that cup to a 1 gallon pot. Some may point out it's not optimal. Maybe not, but you want effective, not optimal. If it's simple and works, that's all you want while you learn everything.

Tiger bloom and big grow are plant food. I'm not sure if that's all the plant food in that line, is that what you mean you need?
 

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