Noob - First grow problems

[Regnad Kcin]

SOIL GROW
Strain: White Widow (fem)
# of Plants — 10
Grow Type — Soil ---started in Miracle Grow seed starter. Transplanted at day 16 into Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Grow Stage — Day 18 Veg
Bucket size 2 Gallon (9" x 9" x 9.5")
Lights — 28 ea. 23w 6500K CFL spaced 4" apart, no bulb closer than 3" from any plant
Nutrients — None so far.
Medium — Fox Farm Ocean Forest
PH — 6.9
Grow Zone Temperature — 74 F
Grow Zone Square Footage — 3.5' x 6'
Problem: Some of my plants are showing signs of distress. I suspect that I may have overwatered them in the seedling stage when in solo cups and perhaps again at transplant time. Today the soil is dry to 2" deep. Should I wait to water again? I have a fan blowing 24/7 and room temp is reasonably constant. I can't imagine this could be light burn, but that has also crossed my mind.

Should I let these puppies go for a couple more days to see if things stabilize or should I water again and hope for the best?

Thanks for any help you can send my way!

RK

 

[SmokeGent]

It sure looks like overwatering. You also have some magnesium deficit, lower your PH to 6.5 - that way they will feed properly.

Water every 3-4 days unit water comes down the holes of your pots.

 

[CanniCulture]

This looks like it could be a handful of problems.

First, im glad you moved into FFOF soil from Miracle Grow... MG is famous for being cannabis killers, easily one of the worst growing mediums for this type of stuff.

Second, FFOF (Fox Farms Ocean Forest) is also quite a guessing game. Some people have wonderful success with it, others have nothing but issues.. This is something you have to play around with to see if its for you.

Third, this is MOST LIKELY caused by the transplant. Usually a plant will go into immediate shock when transplanted into a new soil. This is normal, although not always do the plants recover. This might be what is giving you this immediate problem, although the plant looks like it may not of been to healthy before the transplant.

The topping job can also cause the plant to have slowed growth for a small period of time.

I also think overwatering IS an issue.. I would let it go extra dry for a day, wait until you lift the pot and it feels exceptionally light. You NEVER want to water your plants unless it is COMPLETELY dry. FFOF is famous for issues with overwatering, so be extra careful there.

Also, are you in an area where there is chlorine in your water? if so, you should either buy a dechlorinating formula, or fill your watering containers 24hrs in advance and allow them to sit open through the night. This will evaporate the chlorine in the water, which if left in the water, will kill your root growth, and all the beneficial bacteria it needs to stabilize the PH, nutrient uptake, and proper growth.

Like i said, it could be any of these things, or a portion of all of them mixed together.

Good luck!

 

[Regnad Kcin]

Canni!

Outstanding info, and thank you! In retrospect, I've done a ton more reading since I posted and have decided to start a journal that goes into the detail of my adventure. It may be unique in that I'm doing a complete CFL grow in a ScrOG environment using the unorthodox 12-1 veg. lighting followed by a gradually diminishing lighting regimen during flower.

It's Probably a bit ambitions for a noob in the 420 world, but I've been an outdoor gardener of herbs, flowers, and vegetables for over 30 years, and there ain't anyone in my neighborhood who hasn't been impressed by the fact that I've been able to get my Hydrangeas to bloom cobalt blue when no one else seems to be able to get anything more than an anemic pink! (it's all about soil ph).

At the moment, it has been 6 days since transplant, and I haven't added a drop of water to the pots. (They are still a bit heavy) What I did wrong at transplant was based on something I read in an on-line posting that the transplant soil should be saturated before the transplant. I embedded an empty cup the same size my seedlings were sprouted in in the new pots and filled the rest of the pot with FFOF soil to the surface. I then put the pots under the faucet and saturated the soil until I got constant drainage out of the bottom.

This left me with a convenient way to simply pull the empty solo cup out of the soil and replace it with the rooted seedling after removing it from its old solo cup. It was so easy, but as I've now learned, I think I created a transplant environment with virtually no oxygen in it and likely almost suffocated the seedlings.

The de-chlorinizaton idea is not lost on me either. I used to have 3 large aquariums and when it came time for a water change, I would always leave the water out-of-tap for 24 hours before using it on my fish. I guess the same goes for this scenario as well. There is far more info on-line about indoor hydro-growing than there is about indoor organic soil growing. (sigh).

Currently the ladies are recovering nicely with the exception of one which was sickly from the start. I'm still nursing her, but I may decide to sacrifice her to gain space in what I think might be potentially a seriously overcrowded grow.

Thanks for the encouragement...now I have to think about structuring a grow journal.

RK