Suck's Grow Journal

[Suck]

Hello growers,

this is my first grow ever so please go easy on me I would like to ask you 3 questions but please let me give you few details regarding my grow. I have 9 autoflower plants, various strains, all from "Fair seeds". All germinated on wet towell and then half of them went to small cups and half into final pots (6,5 litres) using nuted soil. First two weeks they were inside on the window (southern side) and last week they have been outside on the balcony. 2 days ago i applied Plagron Alga Grow (half of the reccomended dose) along with Canna Rhizotonic and Atazyme enzymes. That much for the description, here are the questions:

- Do my seedlings look ok for 3 weeks of age? I feel like they are bit small
- I am worried about the one in red cirle and in the detailed pics. After tansplanting her (she was the largest one) the new leafs are curled in. Is that overwatering or could it be stunted by the transplantation?
- Any ideas to improve in general?

Any help would be higly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Suck

 

[Johnny5thesim]

I would consider a few things. What’s your outside temps like? Especially night time. What’s your PH your feeding at?

They might just be adapting to a larger medium to build their roots on. I find after a transplant, they seem to slow in growth for a few days and even droop a bit. I attribute this to root development. Then they tend to explode after a few days post transplant.

I would just go over your basics and make sure temps, ph and watering practices are in check. And lookup Emilyas watering thread. It will give you some good info to get that under control.

 

[Johnny5thesim]

https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/proper-way-water-potted-plant.266274/

 

[Justin Goody]

To me it looks a bit like over watering, and should go away in a few days. What kind of soil is that? It looks dense, but they seem to be adjusting pretty well.

 

[Suck]

I would consider a few things. What’s your outside temps like? Especially night time. What’s your PH your feeding at?

They might just be adapting to a larger medium to build their roots on. I find after a transplant, they seem to slow in growth for a few days and even droop a bit. I attribute this to root development. Then they tend to explode after a few days post transplant.

I would just go over your basics and make sure temps, ph and watering practices are in check. And lookup Emilyas watering thread. It will give you some good info to get that under control.

Thanks a lot for the answer dude.
- My outside temps are actually pretty low still, around 13° C but went even lower to like 5°. I do not think that is the issue though since i am relentlessly taking them back inside before sun goes down
-Regarding the PH, i will be honest even though i have read about importance of that in many arcicles - i am not controlling that whatsover. I am using regular tap water which i leave couple days sitting in a barrel.

I guess i will just go ahead and buy the PH thingy. Question: what do i measure, the ingoing water or the soil itself?

And finally thanks, i will check that Emilyas thread, thanks for the direction sir.

Much appreciated

 

[Suck]

To me it looks a bit like over watering, and should go away in a few days. What kind of soil is that? It looks dense, but they seem to be adjusting pretty well.

Hey dude, thanks for reply and for your insight. Might be overwatering, guy in growshop told me i should flush it from time to time because i was just lightly spraying the surface until now.

The soil is just a shitty "substrate for muscat" from regular growing store supposedly enhanced with basic nutrients for up to 6 weeks. I kinda realized this was probably my biggest mistake. Next time i will be going for some special substrate, bio bizz, plagron etc. Also i forgot to insert some kind of drainage to the bottom of the pots. I will also learn from that next time pressuming i would only stress the plants doing it now.

 

[Suck]

Any comments on the size for 3 weeks? I have nothing to relate to

 

[Justin Goody]

Hey dude, thanks for reply and for your insight. Might be overwatering, guy in growshop told me i should flush it from time to time because i was just lightly spraying the surface until now.

The soil is just a shitty "substrate for muscat" from regular growing store supposedly enhanced with basic nutrients for up to 6 weeks. I kinda realized this was probably my biggest mistake. Next time i will be going for some special substrate, bio bizz, plagron etc. Also i forgot to insert some kind of drainage to the bottom of the pots. I will also learn from that next time pressuming i would only stress the plants doing it now.

For sure, drainage is super important to these ladies. And the soil doesn't necessarily need to be anything fancy, but definitely get something with perlite and get it a bit more fluffy next time. I started staying away from soil with nutes, and just slowly adding my own, once the plant was established. Lots of good info here on how to do it right. Good luck with this bunch, hoping it turns out well for you!

 

[Justin Goody]

Any comments on the size for 3 weeks? I have nothing to relate to

They look like they are happy for now. Maybe a bit small but they've already been transplanted so it might have slowed them a bit. I would ask this same question in a week

 

[Suck]

For sure, drainage is super important to these ladies. And the soil doesn't necessarily need to be anything fancy, but definitely get something with perlite and get it a bit more fluffy next time. I started staying away from soil with nutes, and just slowly adding my own, once the plant was established. Lots of good info here on how to do it right. Good luck with this bunch, hoping it turns out well for you!

Thank you for valuable info sir, i somehow understand the fluffyness i think. Simply the roots do not have to work as hard to go through.

They look like they are happy for now. Maybe a bit small but they've already been transplanted so it might have slowed them a bit. I would ask this same question in a week

Well just half of them was transplanted but anyway cheers again and i willl report in 1 week

 

[Johnny5thesim]

PH is definitely something you want to be on top of. You can even get cheap testing kits at local stores for like $10. If your out of range of PH, that could lead to a host of problems.

They are quite resilient plants. So unless your ignoring the basics, you should be able to get those girls going good!

 

[Suck]

PH is definitely something you want to be on top of. You can even get cheap testing kits at local stores for like $10. If your out of range of PH, that could lead to a host of problems.

They are quite resilient plants. So unless your ignoring the basics, you should be able to get those girls going good!

The money is not that big of a deal, it was more me being uncertain its really that important. Thanks dude Still the question remains - do i measure the PH of soil or water or combined ? I mean if i measure the ph of waterhow can itell what will be the end PH of soil mixed with that water?

 

[skirk]

They have not reached full potential for reasons you've stated. First two weeks on a window sill and shitty substrate. That being said, perhaps they are developing roots before taking off. When I used synthetics nutes, (now organic) I would pH after mixing. I've never done the soil slurry. For comparison these are two, 2wk. old auto plants, same strain, sprouted same day with the smaller of the two 11 hours older, grown under fairly optimum conditions. Good luck.

 

[Johnny5thesim]

The money is not that big of a deal, it was more me being uncertain its really that important. Thanks dude Still the question remains - do i measure the PH of soil or water or combined ? I mean if i measure the ph of waterhow can itell what will be the end PH of soil mixed with that water?

I am not a soil grower. So perhaps one can respond with info relating to soil. Different mediums will have different ph ranges required for optimum uptake. If you feed outside your mediums range. Then your plants will have problems not being able to uptake certain nutrients. You generally want to identify the range of PH your feed is going in. So you would test your nutrient solutions PH level. I use soiless promix peat. And I feed at 5.8-6.2ph. Soil I believe, needs higher PH around 6.5-7 or some such thing. But I am not sure.

I used to check runoff PH. But gave up, as I found it just caused me chase around non existent issues.

Again. I stress that I’m a soilless grower. Soil methods may differ.

 

[Suck]

They have not reached full potential for reasons you've stated. First two weeks on a window sill and shitty substrate. That being said, perhaps they are developing roots before taking off. When I used synthetics nutes, (now organic) I would pH after mixing. I've never done the soil slurry. For comparison these are two, 2wk. old auto plants, same strain, sprouted same day with the smaller of the two 11 hours older, grown under fairly optimum conditions. Good luck.

So what you are saying is that window sill is not good? I though they were getting plenty of light since its this huge "french" window on southern side. So you think its better to get some artificial light for the seedlings? I am considering moving my next grow indoors so this might speed it up.

Your plants look way bigger and healthier, thats for sure

Thanks for your answer mate!

 

[Suck]

I am not a soil grower. So perhaps one can respond with info relating to soil. Different mediums will have different ph ranges required for optimum uptake. If you feed outside your mediums range. Then your plants will have problems not being able to uptake certain nutrients. You generally want to identify the range of PH your feed is going in. So you would test your nutrient solutions PH level. I use soiless promix peat. And I feed at 5.8-6.2ph. Soil I believe, needs higher PH around 6.5-7 or some such thing. But I am not sure.

I used to check runoff PH. But gave up, as I found it just caused me chase around non existent issues.

Again. I stress that I’m a soilless grower. Soil methods may differ.

So the process would be to measure the ingoing mixture and then measure what runs off? Also would i do it just once or everytime i water? I am in general pretty lazy person but if it helps my babiies im up for it

 

[Johnny5thesim]

So the process would be to measure the ingoing mixture and then measure what runs off? Also would i do it just once or everytime i water? I am in general pretty lazy person but if it helps my babiies im up for it

Yes, you want to measure what the PH level is that goes into your medium. As for runoff, I am not sure how this applies to soil. With my medium and nutrients I don’t need to worry about runoff PH. I am not sure how that might apply to soil.

PH is critical to a healthy grow. If left unattended, your grow will suffer many calamities. I am still hoping a soil grower can chime in. As I don’t want to give you misinformation, based on how my medium is!

 

[Suck]

Hello guys,

i just wanted to share week after update. The plant seems to be recovering but i would like to ask you couple more questions. I was wondering whether:

- its even worth to do LST with autoflowers on balcony? Precisely because they are basically getting light just from one side and thats hwy they all are leaning towards that side. I am just curious if LST woiuld still have impact in terms of bigger yield, i dont care that much about size of the plants.
- its too early to start LST with these small girls?

Thanks in advance boys and girls.

Suck

 

[Suck]

Any ideas guys? i am bit stressing because i feel like these girls are way to small for 4 weeks :/ Is there any chance they will catch up?

 

[Johnny5thesim]

LST is about exposing nodes to more light to prompt more growth in those nodes. It sounds like you might be short on light. And you shouldn’t see too much shading of nodes due to their small size. How many hours a day of light are they getting? If you have limited light, you’ll get limited growth. I would definitely be rotating it. But they may start flowering right away, and if they do. They likely won’t turn out well at their current size. From my understanding, autos are still going to thrive best off 18+ hours of light per day. Ruderalis naturally grows in places with long day cycles, thus the adaptation to flower at a fixed time. Because they don’t need the whole far red receptor change thing that photoperiods require to trigger flowering.

Below is my autos at 28 days. Where I had just begun LST.