Thoughts On A Very Young Plant With Slow Growth

[dkparker]

Thanks to anyone to muddles through this to give me any insight or advice. Sorry for the lengthiness...


SOIL GROW

Strain - Indica Dwarf Low Flyer Auto (70 Indica, 20 Sativa, 10 Ruderalis)
# of Plants - 1
Grow Type - Soil
Grow Stage - Seedling/Vegetative
Bucket Size - Starting in 4" pot (10cm)
Lights - 1 3 head 150 watt LED (40 watts consumed)
Nutrients - I have only watered once at the point my first leaves sprouted, mixing 1 gallon with 1tsp fish emulsion. I have ordered a General Hydroponics pack of FloraGrow/FloraMicro/FloraBloom that should be here in a few days that I was going to use for a hydro attempt in a few weeks and was planning on mixing that with my watering when I size up on my pot and maintain that on a schedule.
Medium - For the starter pot I used Miracle Grow Vegetable Blend soil
PPM - n/a
PH - 6.2
RH - 46% to 50%
Room Temperature - 69 to 73
Solution Temperature - ~70
Room Square Footage - 20' x 20'
Pests - None Known

Problem: The growth seems slow as compared to others pics I've seen, and
the coloring seems like it may be slightly pale

Have mercy on a newb, lol. I've been trying to absorb all of the info I've been reading here as much as possible and not jump into anything grossly unprepared, but I wanted to go ahead and try a grow to practice the stuff I've been learning.

So here's what I've done:

• Started a seed using the paper towel method
• Upon germination and the tap root growing to a little over 1/2" I transplanted to the small 4" pot with soil, the soil being slightly moist upon transplanting.
  • Transplant to soil date was 4/18, so 9 days prior to this original post.
• I waited until the first set of lobed leaves appeared after the sucker leaves, at which point the soil was pretty dry, and watered 1/2 a cup of the mixed water/fish emulsion solution mentioned above. To date that is the only water I've given the plant, as the soil still has some moisture at this point and I didn't want to chance drowning the young plant.
• The light I am using (pictured below) has three heads, and for the first week I kept the three spread out about 3 inches above the sprout hoping to prevent stretching. On 4/25 I move the light up a few inches so that they are positioned about 6" above the plant.

I feel like the plant should be further along by this point based on pictures I've seen from other's grow journals, of course with the understanding that different processes and different strains would give different growth rates, still on average it seems like my progress is behind.

I had in mind that I wanted to start the plant inside and move outdoors the first of May. I had only intended to start the seed indoors and get it going, and admittedly do NOT have a controlled environment to do this. I have this set up next to my desk in my office, in decently large room (20' x 20') with constant temps around 70 F, RH floating around 50. I do keep a fan running in the room to keep the air moving.

I have a few questions:

• First, I wonder if there is agreement that the plant should have grown more by now.
• If so, did I mess up using fish emulsion. I've had great results using it with baby vegetable plants I start from seed so thought I'd try it until the stuff I've ordered comes in
  • do I need more nutes? Was it too early for any nutes?
• Do you think my PH is too low at 6.2?
• Did I keep my lights too low and the plant is not growing because it's too much? Or do I not have enough light and this is preventing it from growing?
• Is trying something like this futile outside of a more controlled environment? I see pics of everyone using tents and closets, is the process actually that sensitive (I started to use the word 'finicky'...)

I know I have so much to learn and appreciate the time anyone will take to give me answers and insight.

 

[safeman]

you need a good root stimulator like -- Great White - Orca - Extreme Gardening products, ect - Consider using on building your root system 1st 3 weeks

 

[dkparker]

Thank you for the reply, I just bought some Great White from Amazon and it shows it should be here by Friday or Saturday. I'll begin using that and see if that helps, thanks again!

 

[skirk]

I agree it's a bit small for it's age, but it's healthy looking.
Lights are good for that stage.
Temp and humidity with air circulation are spot on.
If pot drains well and it's not sitting in runoff, pot is ok, not great.
Why is it not at full potential? What's missing? I reckon it's the medium or lack thereof.

 

[dkparker]

I agree it's a bit small for it's age, but it's healthy looking.
Lights are good for that stage.
Temp and humidity with air circulation are spot on.
If pot drains well and it's not sitting in runoff, pot is ok, not great.
Why is it not at full potential? What's missing? I reckon it's the medium or lack thereof.

I appreciate your input, I do have a question about the pot. I'd not really put much thought into the type of pot used for starting the seed, seeing a lot of plants started in Solo cups and things like that (maybe that's a better option anyway). What factors would you look for in a pot for starting seed?

Also, you're probably right about my medium, I should have put more thought into that as well. I've read more about building up your soil after I started this and was concerned that I'd fudged that factor.

 

[skirk]

I germ in Jiffy pellets and transfer to pre moistened final pot day after sprout. It works for me, because I'm horrible at transplanting. Last pic is of same seedling 9 day after sprout, so your plant is not far behind. Note difference in medium.

 

[dkparker]

Very cool, thanks. I've used the pellets before for my tomatoes and peppers, I can't believe I didn't think of that

And yea, my soil looks horrible compared to yours. I will definitely pay attention to that going forward. When I move it to a bigger pot I'll be sure to not cut any corners. Thanks again for your help.

 

[safeman]

Thank you for the reply, I just bought some Great White from Amazon and it shows it should be here by Friday or Saturday. I'll begin using that and see if that helps, thanks again!

also check out a product called "Re_charge" it's a must !!!

 

[dkparker]

also check out a product called "Re_charge" it's a must !!!

Thank you, I'll definitely check it out. I've stretched my budget at this point so I'll probably wait and resupply in a few weeks, but when I'll do I may get a larger size Great White and I'll check on the recharge too.

After some further reading of others' posts I may try some ProMix HD or Happy Frog for my soil medium. Right now I have Coco Loco that I was going to use for sizing up my seedlings but I'd like to try some other stuff to compare. Of course not sure how good of a comparison I can make at this point until I'm sure I'm getting the other basics right, which right now is probably questionable.

I did go ahead and get some jiffy pods to start my next few seeds in for soil grows. I just got in my Bubble Boy DWC setup for a hydro grow I was going to try, but I'm rethinking that and may try to get a few soil grows under my belt and then try a hydro later in the year.

 

[dkparker]

The Great White I ordered is not going to be here until later next week. My soil was dry and needed a little water so I thought I'd try to mix some honey and aloe into a mix and water it just to see if it helped at all. So I warmed a cup of water, 1/4 teaspoon of honey, 1/4 teaspoon of freshly scraped aloe gel, and 1/16 teaspoon of FloraGrow. I allowed it to get to room temperature and then spooned 5 teaspoons around the soil at the stem.

For the sake or recording the progress (if any) I thought I'd update with pics:

As of Monday, 4/27:

As of today, 4/29:

I think I'll take another pick in a week right before I try the Great White, then record the progress the next week again. Hope it's ok to do this here and not in a journal.

 

[safeman]

Keep them coming !! great work

 

[dkparker]

Thanks! My Great White came in early and arrived yesterday. I've been transitioning the plant to outdoors and have been setting it out in the sun each day and the pot was pretty dry, so I went ahead and took the opportunity to size up the pot this morning.

I resized to a 3 gallon pot and used Coco Loco for medium. When I took it out of the pot it wasn't root bound, but they were beginning to curl around the outside of the pot. I lightly dusted around the root ball with the Great White, filled the rest with the soil and then lightly watered around the edges, with the water being at 6.2 ph. Here she is as of this morning, hopefully more to come in another week or so:

 

[dkparker]

One other question, I posted this in the lighting forum but thought maybe I'd get a quicker answer here, sorry for the cross post.

I'd intended this to be an outdoor grow, but I just learned that over the next two weeks I will be having company at my house and I don't need my plants to be noticed. I ordered a grow tent that I can put in an upstairs room that would be completely safe though, however it won't be here for another several days.

My question is, would it hurt the plant to go ahead and allow it to live outdoors for a week until company arrives, and then when I get the tent set up transition to an indoor grow? Would going back and forth between full sun and artificial light hurt or confuse the plant or the cycle? Thanks.

 

[safeman]

One other question, I posted this in the lighting forum but thought maybe I'd get a quicker answer here, sorry for the cross post.

I'd intended this to be an outdoor grow, but I just learned that over the next two weeks I will be having company at my house and I don't need my plants to be noticed. I ordered a grow tent that I can put in an upstairs room that would be completely safe though, however it won't be here for another several days.

My question is, would it hurt the plant to go ahead and allow it to live outdoors for a week until company arrives, and then when I get the tent set up transition to an indoor grow? Would going back and forth between full sun and artificial light hurt or confuse the plant or the cycle? Thanks.

Things will be OK - the only effect will be you grow times - longer - the plant has to adjust - lighting is you determining factor

 

[dkparker]

Thanks! I took some of my post from this thread and have created a grow journal. I've posted my plans to move the plant indoors there along with the equipment I'm using, if anyone would care to check it out and offer any feedback. Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice, it is much appreciated.

My Grow Journal

Thanks.

 

[safeman]

Will be follow - your journal