My seedling has stopped growing - Help me please!

C

Chile 420

New Member
Spring time is starting here in Chile, and as such I have started an AUTO Blue seed with it spending about half of the day on my balcony under a good amount of sun, and the other half of the day under some Cool white 6500 CFLs. The seed was germinated in papertowels, and then moved into a 7 liter (<2 gallon) pot. The seed sprouted after about two days in the darkness in moist soil and was showing significant signs of growth each day until about day 5. It is now day 8, and the plant has not advanced at all since about day 5.

Up until Day 5, I had pretty much only watered the plant using a mist/spray of water and had not actually poured water into the pot. On the morning of day 6, I poured about 1/4 liter of water with BIO GROW from BIO BIZZ into the pot. (2 mls per liter). The plant was just starting its second set of true leaves, and just didn't go any further. It has had probably around 20 hours of light daily between the sun on the balcony during the day and the 2 (very closely placed) CFLs in the evening.

I am very worried that I either overwatered the plant, or that perhaps even these organic nutrients might have caused the plant to stop growing. I have not watered it since misting the morning of day 7. Below you can see a photo. It has been this way for about 3 or 4 days now with out advancing.

Can someone help me figure what the problem is???

IMG_44821.JPG

View image in gallery​
 
Hi Chile 420. Welcome to the 420 Magazine site and community of members that gathers here. :welcome:

I'm not sure what to make of your little sprout not growing. It looks healthy enough and I don't suspect you've overwatered and would not expect the little nutrients you added only 2 day ago be an issue either.

In my limited experience I believe I've detected "surges" so speak in my plants' growth. They will grow like crazy for a bit and then hit a plateau where the growth is not as noticeable if at all measurable.

I would continue to give the girl the good care that you are and watch for another couple days. I'll monitor this thread and you can report back when either begins growing again or doesn't.

Be well and happy growing! Oh and again, Welcome!
 
Hi TanR!

First off - Thank you for responding! It's so nice to get some feedback.

I find it so weird that it was growing, and the second set of true leaves was literally half way developed when all of the sudden it just stopped, and has not changed at all for about three days. My friend has a seed of the same kind and his is definitely bigger than mine. My original thought was that I had overwatered the plant or hit it with too much nutrient liquid, but you have a point that it does look healthy.

The top layer of soil seems somewhat dry, but I think I will wait until tomorrow to give it more water. How much water would you say that a seedling of this size needs, and how often? Also, would you recommend for the plant to be outside under decent sun light, or in the window with same amount of sun but in hotter and more humid situation due to the greenhouse effect?
 
re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Chile 420 said:
Spring time is starting here in Chile, and as such I have started an AUTO Blue seed with it spending about half of the day on my balcony under a good amount of sun, and the other half of the day under some Cool white 6500 CFLs. The seed was germinated in papertowels, and then moved into a 7 liter (<2 gallon) pot. The seed sprouted after about two days in the darkness in moist soil and was showing significant signs of growth each day until about day 5. It is now day 9, and the plant has not advanced at all since about day 5.

Up until Day 5, I had pretty much only watered the plant using a mist/spray of water and had not actually poured water into the pot. On the morning of day 6, I poured about 1/4 liter of water with BIO GROW from BIO BIZZ into the pot. (2 mls per liter). The plant was just starting its second set of true leaves, and just didn't go any further. It has had probably around 20 hours of light daily between the sun on the balcony during the day and the 2 (very closely placed) CFLs in the evening.

I am very worried that I either overwatered the plant, or that perhaps even these organic nutrients might have caused the plant to stop growing. I have not watered it since a light misting misting the morning of day 7. Is it possible that I have underwatered the plant? Below you can see a photo. It has been this way for about 4 or 5 days now with out advancing.

Can someone help me figure what the problem is???

IMG_44821.JPG
Click to expand...

I wouldnt give it any nutes for at least 2-3 weeks after sprout, its not necessary to give nutes before that, all the plant needs when the plant is that little is water, which u havent really been giving it because you said you were misting/spraying the plant correct? Wash your soil thoroughly, til u get some run off water, then wait a few days until the soil is pretty dry to wash it again. i Would hold off the nutes for now until the plant grows a bit more, and make sure you give it a good wash when u water it, as long as you have holes down the bottom of ur pot, and you wait til the soil drys up, you wont be over watering nor under watering. And like fatty said the plant looks healthy, tighten up n it will grow just fine. Btw whats the total wattage on ur lights?
 
re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

no nutes yet. wait another week at least.

I don't recommend the paper towel method, I soak in warm water for 12 hours then plant into moist medium. autos especially, should be handled as little as possible once life has started.

after a plant creates a few leaves, significant slowdown may occour in some plants while it focuses on making more roots.

to water, you should water very well, trying to ensure all the medium in the pot is at least a little moist, then do not water again until the pot is quite light, but some intelligence is required to gestimate the depth of the roots/moisture level when starting in the final pot as its possible for the bottom soil to still be damp, but the top section where the roots are could be bone dry. I counter this usually by increasing the ratio of perlite the deeper down the pot you go. having the bottom few inches laid for drainage, such as pure perlite/gravel or whatever combinations your using.

That seedling looks healthy. give it lots of light, but avoid too much warmth, try to get good ventilation on the soil to help it dry. allow the pot to dry fairly thoroughly and your next watering should be just a very weak solution of food.

what soil are you sing, depending on the existing food levels, you may need to do more calculation.
 
Hi Chile 420,

Happy to have offered at least some moral support, if not sustentative advice. There are a lot of variables to consider in offering thoughts to your question on watering and whether to place the plant outdoors or not.

In the absence of any specific information as to your current spring time temperatures outdoors, I'm hard pressed to provide a credible suggestion. I will offer, with the hope of being helpful, that during this phase of your plants life it will thrive in a warm, somewhat moist environment. Ideal daytime temperatures would be around 22C to maybe 26C and humidity would levels would be in the 50% or higher range. Nighttime temperatures can be as low as 15C or 18C without any negative effects on the plant.

Your plants water needs is also going to be determined by a lot of variables. In a less humid environment I find plants will need watering more often than those in a humid environment. One fairly safe way of watering is to slowly deliver enough water so that 20% or so of the amount provided drains off through the containers drain holes. I've found that especially dry soil will initially drain very quickly so I stress delivery of the water in a slow manner. I sometimes give 1/4 or less of the water I anticipate a plant will need and wait 10 minutes before applying the rest of the water to the point of run off. With a 7 Liter pot this might require as much as 3 or 4 liters of water if the soil were really dry. Since you haven't added much water at all at this point, now might be a good time to get a feel for the weight of the pot and soil in a relatively dry condition. You can then use this as a gauge in the future as to whether the plant needs water or not by lifting the container and comparing the weight to what "dry" felt like.

At this point in your seedlings life it is devoting a lot of energy to developing it's root system. The dryer the soil, the more roots it will generate in search of water. An abundant root system is very desirable but I recognize that with an Auto, the clock is ticking so to speak to get the top as big as possible before it blooms. I'm afraid I have no experience with Autos though so I can't offer a suggestion on whether to promote the root development by allowing the container to remain on the dry side, or to provide more water to promote development of the foliage.

Sorry I don't have a more concrete "do this, then that" answer, but hopefully I have provided a basic framework for you to evaluate the situation and make decisions accordingly.

Happy growing Chile 420!
 
TanR,

Thanks for the advice. I think at this point in time I am going to keep her in my window as it gets warmer and is more humid inside than on my balcony. I realize now that I perhaps had the plant slightly underwatered, and so today I have given maybe a bit less than a liter (3/4) of water. A decent amount of water is definintely running out from the holes on the bottom of the pot, hopefully somewhere around 20% made it out. I would say however that it seems to flush pretty quickly as the majority of the water makes it out in less than 5 minutes. Do I need to flush more than the liter I have already given it today? How fast does one normally see the effects of watering in the plant?

From here I will definitely wait until the top two inches of the soil seem dry. Thanks again for all of your help and your responses.
 
Re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Fatty,

Thanks for responding. I really hope that the plant is just developing roots and hasn't just stopped growing or died. The soil that I'm using is not typical being that I live in Chile. From what I gather looking at the bag, it does not have any nutes, has a ph between 5 and 8.5, 30/45% humidity, ans supposedly promotes good drainage, and minimizes compacting.

Thoughts?
 
Re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Stoner2b,

Thanks for your response. I am going to take your advice and not add any nutrients until next week (week 3). You are correct: before I planted the germinated seed, I gave the soil a good soak through the day before, but since I have planted the reminated seed, I have was misting/spraying a good bit everyday, keeping the topsoil moist (although I imagine that that wasnt really doing much deeper down) but up until today had only give the plant an actual dose of water directly into the soil until day 6 (about 1/4) liter with 2mls of BIO BLOOM diluted in the liter.

Today I gave her a good water of about 3/4 of a liter and got a decent bit of run of. How much would you say that I should be giving it each time I water at this stage (9 days) in a 7 liter pot?

As far as my lighting, the plant spends the day on my balcony with a decent amount of sun even though most days are partially cloudy. I have decided to move the plant to my window in my bedroom because it gets warmer and more humid in there creating a greenhouse type of effect. Once the sun has gone down, I move the plant under a 130 watt 6500k cool white light along with a 18W-t8-154 6500k flourescent tube, and the plant stays just a few inches from both bulbs with a light breeze coming from a fan. Once the plant gets bigger, I plan to add another 130 watt 6500k cool white bulb or 2 to the setup.

I really hope that the plan isnt dying, but its really weird that it hasnt shown any signs of growth for about 5 days now..maybe it was underwatered. Any and all advice is helpful. Thanks!
 
Chile,

I think if your getting a decent amount of run off then she'll be fine with the water provided. I read a post of yours in another of the Forums - FAQ's that you watered the soil decently before planting so it may not take as much water to get runoff.

Now the battle to fight the temptation to water again too soon begins! I'd wait at least a week before watering again. While Cannabis does like a slightly humid environment, it does not like wet roots.

Be well and enjoy growing!
 
Re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Gigabane,

Thanks so much for your response. I will not nute anymore until atleast next week. I am starting to realize that perhaps I have my baby underwatered, and as such today gave it a bit less than a liter of water. I seem to have decent drainage as the majority of the run off has gone through in the first 5 minutes after I water and I have small layer of gravel at the bottom to help.

At this point in time, how much should I be watering. That is to say, I am on day 9 and have the seedling in a 7 liter pot.

I will also take your advice and try to touch the plant less being that this is not good for autos. Also, there bottom of the stalk has a red hint of color: does this mean anything bad liek root rot?

All advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Do a bit of Googleing on the soil find out what you can and apart from that I agree with what's been said only thing I will say is if your getting more lights for later on get the 2700 k rating with more red spectrum for the flowering phase .
Be patient and give it a few days now you have watered it and see what happens
 
Re: My seedling has stopped growing at 5 days! Please Help!

Just out of curiosity, how soon after the 3/4 liter flush i gave the plant yesterday should I expect to see some change or growth?
 
Maybe my problem is my lighting??

As far as lighting, I have the plants in the closed window (northern exposure: living in the southern hemisphere) during the day while I am work. At this point it is not that hot yet (its spring time) and days are somewhat cloudy. However, the sun is pretty strong in this part of the world due to a hole in the ozone layer directly overhead. Anyway, despite the cloudy days id like to say that the plant gets somewhat decent light between patches of clouds in the window combined with a greenhouse effect which makes it more humid and hotter.

To compensate for less sun, once the sun goes down, I take my two baby autos over to the closet where i now have 2 (24 watt intake) 130 watt output 6500k cool white bulbs which are set in a home made reflective fixture just a couple/few inches from the babes. (I also have two flourescent tubes (18w/t8) that i used the first few days but now doubt if they are even worth having in there...thoughts?)

At this point in time, I have been leaving the light on all evening/night (giving it about 24 hours between the somewhat cloudy day sun and the flourescent bulbs). At the same time I have also heard that with autos it is better to have 18/6 going on or something similar (20/4). Yeserday I did and 18/6.

My questions (remembering that I am working with autos) are:

- Is it ok to use both natural sun light as well as flourescent?
- Is 24 hours ok or should it be 18/6 or what?
- Does it need to be a fixed schedule (every day the same amount of darkness)?
- And if so, does that same amount of darkness need to come at the same time (example - every night at 8 it gets darkness for 6 hours)?
- Is it a problem that my plant moves everyday from the window to the closet?
- Is it ok to use both natural sun light as well as flourescent

Please give me any and all suggestions/comments on my lighting situation. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME!

If you would like pictures of my set up, just let me know.
 
some autos wont flower on 24 hours of light, other than that, I say make your own preference. autos are far more stable when it comes to varying the light and dark periods, but its still prudent to offer as much consistency as possible, its just good practice =)
No problem moving the plants and combining sun and lights is good.
when they start to flower 2700k bulbs are much better than 6500 =)
 

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