New grower needing help

[hardtofind]

Hi!

So, it's not my first trying to grow, but I hope the first successful grow.

I've tried twice before and always with the same bad results and I decided that I should ask the experienced people some things before the 3rd attempt.

So, I'll get right to it: the last two times I tried growing Northern Lights (fem) and my seedlings died at about 3 weeks, both at the same time and the same way.

The 1st time, some people said it looked like N deficiency, which I thought unlikely but as I wasn't measuring the pH, I gave a shot at it anyway and I fed some nutes. Unfortunately, it only got worse. The 2nd time I payed attention to the pH, but I still had the same problem and there was nothing I could do.

I think they both died from nute burn and I think it's because I've used BioBizz All-Mix which comes pre-loaded with nutes. Although some strains (e.g. indicas) are ok with this amount of food, I think NL is not. But, as I know nothing, I'd like to have a 2nd opinion and so "What do you think it might be?"

The following only applies in the case of a nute burn. I bought 50L of All-mix, which is way way more than I need, but they didn't have any 20L bags at the time. My idea is to buy some BioBizz (or other brand) light-mix, but again they are not selling 20L bags and I'd be forced to have 2x 50L, which I'd rather not. I've seen on some threads that for the seedlings I can buy cheap regular soil from a gardening store and when they take roots, transplant to some all-mix. Is this a good idea?

If not, what should I do?

How they look before problems

The beginning of the end (1st seedling)

Leaf close up

Sorry for the long post, but I'm really motivated to start growing and it's really sad that I failed twice already.

Regards

 

[Light Addict]

Re: Re-new grower needing help

Ok Welcome to 420
Firstly I'm a soil guy and have never used any of the pre loaded soils that your kind of on about.
Young plants don't need hardly any nutrients. So I'd definitely go with a generic blank soil to start.
This sounds like your big issue, if using a blank soil then you can indeed use nutrients.
With the soils you mentioned they were probs to hot for your babies.
So yep cheap soil mixed with perlite and your golden.

 

[hardtofind]

Re: Re-new grower needing help

Thanks! It's nice feeling welcome!

I had bought the BioBizz All-Mix because I read some successful journals that hardly needed anything during vegetative growth and as I was slightly afraid of burning it (so many stories of newbies that burn their plants) it seemed like a good idea.

So, finally, the 50L of All-Mix that I have are useless? Or can I use it when transplanting to a bigger pot (after the plant has established itself)?

 

[Bapple]

Re: Re-new grower needing help

Howdy Hardtofind and

I use Plagron Growmix which is prefertilised, it's the equivalent of AllMix. I sprout my seeds in Root riots sunk into a solo cup filled with Growmix diluted with extra perlite. So basically when my roots emerge from the Root Riots they grow straight into the perlite/growmix mixture. I use this method for both Autos and Photos and have had no real problems ever. If you look at my journal in the link below you'll see that none of the very disparate strains I am growing really complained except the ABK in the early days.

Good luck with your grow

 

[hardtofind]

Re: Re-new grower needing help

Hey Bapple!

Thanks for the input. Root riots seem great, but I really wanted to avoid spending more money. Still, I'll have a nice time reading your awesome journal!