Help - Plants Aren't Growing In Rainy Weather

[fvitterbi]

I think I need your expert advice,
I thought I knew what I was doing but
My plants aren't growing and they are seeds from a top 10 seed bank/distributor.

I am based in the Carribean and we have had torrential rains including 4 Hurricanes and 2 Cyclones since September. As a result, we are getting over an inch per day of rain. Soil is always wet and the plants don't get the proper amount of light.

Please see the attached pictures.
Conditions: 3 gallon or 5 gallon plastic pots, with added drainage holes (8 per pot) and raised off the ground for more drainage. I do no proactive watering because it rains so much. I just add nutrients.

1) (Picture of 2 plants) These areTrainwreck & Purple Haze seeds from 420 (top 10 seed distributor) Week 3, and they still have 2 leaves. Using 5 gallon pots here...Why isn't this growing? Is it that the soil is so wet that the roots can't breath? or not enough sun? The plant is maybe 1 inch tall

2) Picture of tiny plant with multiple leaves: Super Silver Haze , same seed provider, week 4, It's not even 2 inches tall

3) Picture of small plant. AK-47, also from 420... it's week 6, it's 7 inches tall and it's already started flowering! it's probably going to yield a few grams at most

Again, climate is the Carribbean, it is rainy/gloomy every day, and often rains up to 2 to 3 inches EVERY day,
for months. We had very bad luck here because it was supposed to clear up by November but then we had 2 cyclones hit.

Any advice on what to do with these plants? I was excited to get all these exotic types of seeds in the mail but this is useless.

Maybe I can bring them in at night to dry out the soil?
or should I just ditch all of these plants and re-plant new seeds in dry , new soil, now that most of the rainy season is gone?

FYI-I tried 5 gallon pots per recommendations here but these plants are taking forever to grow from 5 gallon pots,
I think i'm going to switch back to 3 gallon ones.

 

[MsSinful]

re: Need Help! Plants not growing due to rainy climate - Maybe soil?

What type of soil are you using? I agree with your thoughts on the soil is to wet so the roots are not growing.
If you do switch pots I would add some perlite to that medium. It will help with drainage.
I prefer starting seedling in a small container for the first 2 weeks while the roots have time to grow.


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[dubnation]

OMG. I'm in Southern California and I freak out even when it rains a little lol. I don't know how you do it!

The soil should dry out now that the rainy season is gone. So don't worry about it. Good thing you had them in large pots. If any smaller they would have definitely drown.

But now that it's dry you don't need such large pops for seedlings. I use small 12oz cups for up to a month and then transfer to 1-gal and then to 3-gal and then finish with 10s.

Hang in there. These stresses make them stronger! Weed has grown all over the world in all types of crazy weather.


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[Major PITA]

Don't freak out. The bigger the pot, the slower the growth above the soil appears to be.
The first job for a new seedling is to put roots down. They need to insure survival by searching downward and outward for a reliable water source. Once the roots reach the bottom and sides, the root ball fills in and growth above ground increases. Your plants have a lot of dirt to fill with roots. That's a good thing, although I prefer to start smaller and then up-pot to bigger containers. Be patient.

 

[fvitterbi]

ok great response, so it's pretty clear what happened now..

what happened is that I was growing Autoflowering plants and they hate transplanting, last time i grew autoflowers, when I transplanted they got super shocked and I did everything perfectly. Now I am growing feminized, but not autoflower, I forgot that it's better to grow in smaller pots and transplant, crazy how we can forget such important things.. Well what's done is done,

1) so do you think I should transplant to smaller pots right now and then back to soil after mixing with perlite or coco or something?
or do you think the roots might be very deep at this point filling out like you said? these are babies, 2 weeks old, i can't imagine they are that deep. maybe a few inches.. if they are really going to fill out first then that will take a long time, no?

2) if not then is there anyway i could mix Perlite/coco with existing soil?

 

[Major PITA]

I'd leave 'em be but let them dry out.
If healthy, after a couple of weeks, they'll have longggg roots.
I would not try to mix in different soil at this point. The only way you will know for sure is to try it, but I think it would be a mistake. If you have a plant or two your are willing to sacrifice as a test, you could try re-potting with or without different soil, but I think you will find it difficult and likely to do more to set them back, than help them grow more quickly. If it is just a big pot and wet soil, doing nothing should let them hook up soon and then hit turbo mode. Only time will tell.

 

[fvitterbi]

ok so we really have no idea how long the roots are, that's what it sounds like and we won't know unless we break up the dirt,

here is what i will do , ill let them dry out,
i ordered smart pots from amazon... i'm going to transplant to the smart pots but keep the existing soil, so ill just cut off the plastic pot and do my best to just move it all over.. ill have to water like hell before i do so..

besides that ill cut up some plastic covers so when we go through a rainy spell ill put these covers on..
everyone tells me to put covers on the soil but it's tough b/c in the Caribbean we don't know when it will rain next,
the cover may actually cause the soil to stay wet longer.. but i guess i got to try

was thinking of getting a hair dryer and drying out the soil that way from teh top down but guessign that could really really shock them LOL

i will try bringing inside at night and putting in front of a fan... going to buy a space heater to just keep one room to basicallly dry them out..

thanks so much for all the great advice!

 

[Major PITA]

A fan will help, but heat is not so good. I've cooked plants' roots just from leaving pots out in the sun. Can you put a make-shift cover/roof over them so it blocks the rain but lets the sun and air in?

Since I up-pot, I don't know how long your roots are now. I'm sure it depends on several factors anyway (like how light the soil is).
What I can tell you is, after 6 days the roots are down to the bottom of a solo cup. I do not germinate seeds in paper towels or any other nonsense. I just put them about 1/4" deep in my soil and water them in. So that means in 6 days, the seeds germinated and the tap root is at least 5" long. I'd bet, if I germinated my seeds in advance and then they were in soil for two weeks, the roots would be something like 12". Dunno for sure.

 

[fvitterbi]

wow i never knew the roots were that long..
i've transplanted before and i never saw roots that deep... but i guess the little roots i must be missing
well than ill have to be super careful when moving to smart pots, yes i do the paper towel thing so the roots might be long after 2 weeks ..

i can't really make a make-shift cover... well i actually already have something like that...but long story short, the sun isn't intense enough in the carribean, if you cover the plants with a greenhouse style cover, it takes down the sun some 40%, and it's already so weak as it is, it's never a strong sun like you get in california...

but i might take your advice and just move over to the coverd area when it's raining

check this out.. last night i put the plants inside with a fan in the darkness, and woke up late... so they got maybe 15 hours of darkneess and dryness.. i sware today some of the smaller ones like my sour diesel that was 15" is now an inch taller,

 

[fvitterbi]

Ok guys, well you were wrong about one thing, a few of you said that I shouldn't transplant the plants from my 5 gallon tubs because the roots were probably very deep,
well i opened one plant that wasn't growing, the roots were 1 inch deep if that, so I put the 3 plants into Solo cups with holes in the bottom

NOW, I found the products I need, I have imported 3 and 5 gallon smart pots,
and I found Coco fibers and a type of dirt that is already mixed with Perlite (I think it's perlite),

Check the pictures below

1) Fiebra de coco (coco fibers)
2) dirt w/ perlite mixed
3) normal organic soil

So I am thinking i am going to mix these in the following portions

70% dirt w/ perlite mixed,, 15% normal organic soil, 15% Coco fiber
I won't mix in any fertilizer. I'll do all that by liquids.

Then Ill put all this in 3 gallon and 5 gallon smart pots.

I'll start with solo cups, once 3 inches tall, move to a 1 gallon plastic pot with holes in the bottom,
Once 1 foot tall, move to 3 or 5 gallon smart pots..

Does this work or would you do any changes to this?

 

[Major PITA]

Wow! If you have seedlings more than 2 weeks old and the roots are less than 1" in length, there must be something seriously wrong with your soil or seeds - not just too wet.

These plants had ungerminated seeds dropped into them 6 days ago. I use Promix HP (potting soil made from peat moss and perlite; about 70%/30%). It took 2 days for the seeds to sprout. The other 4 days got the roots down to the bottom of the cups. When I plant seeds, the cups of soil are completely soaked - you can't make them hold another drop of water. That makes me think your "too wet" soil is not the primary problem causing no root growth. Eventually it would become a problem. But new plants shouldn't stop growing immediately.

I have no idea about your bags of dirt. Personally I hate coco, but lots of growers swear by it. The other two bags both sound/look like regular old potting soil and should work fine.

 

[fvitterbi]

Well I think it was definitely the soil, When i moved them to solo cups they grew some 20% in a day,

But to clarify, you are growing indoor,as I said I'm in a tropical rainy climate, it's several times as gloomy and humid as almost anywhere in the U.S. So the amount of light you are feeding your plants and that is drying out your soil is probably 5x if not 10x what i am getting.
I guess that's why more people don't grow in the Carribean.

A question though, i saw you're doing the grow 1 phase in Clear plastic cups within other plastic cups,
What's the benefit to that? Other then being able to check the roots.
do you poke holes in both?

 

[Major PITA]

Well I think it was definitely the soil, When i moved them to solo cups they grew some 20% in a day,

But to clarify, you are growing indoor,as I said I'm in a tropical rainy climate, it's several times as gloomy and humid as almost anywhere in the U.S. So the amount of light you are feeding your plants and that is drying out your soil is probably 5x if not 10x what i am getting.
I guess that's why more people don't grow in the Carribean.

A question though, i saw you're doing the grow 1 phase in Clear plastic cups within other plastic cups,
What's the benefit to that? Other then being able to check the roots.
do you poke holes in both?

I grow both indoors and outdoors (in Oregon, where it rains a LOT) using exactly the same techniques while plants are in pots.
The only reason for the clear cups is to show the root development. No advantage. In fact it is a disadvantage otherwise since you need the extra cup to block light from the roots.
Drain holes? ALWAYS!

I had a 14'+er this season that outgrew my rain abatement solution.

 

[EBnFLO]

I applaud you guys' efforts to grow outdoors in such wet weather.

So this conversation has got me wondering. What if some super fast draining media was used? For example, what if they were transplanted into 100% coco coir in a smart pot?

Or clay pebbles?

I am asking this because I have seen people say that it's IMPOSSIBLE to over water coco...

And I happen to like clay pebbles...

Something that drains instantly seems like it would help in soggy places.

Then if it ever stops raining for a minute, you can feed hydroponic with drippers!

Oh, one word of caution. Careful moving the smart pots around. Depending on how tightly the soil is packed and how well the roots are developed, it can be really easy to cause the soil to crack open (presumably breaking lots of tender young roots)


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[Major PITA]

cncpro-

I don't believe rainy weather is the problem. But you need to use light well-drained soil. I've never had problems with plants being too wet below ground (root rot). I did get some stem rot on a branch that I let sag down and was laying on the soil. The bigger problem is when buds form. Then mold can be a huge issue, especially on longer flowering strains. I'm only going with 6-8 week strains from now on. If I was growing in clay soil, I'd probably be singing a different tune. I amend my soil with pumice. It acts much like perlite by adding drainage and lightening the mix. In addition it mineralizes the soil which is great for organics. The big advantage is, it costs $30 per cubic yard (more than 200 gallons).

The sun is stronger in equitorial areas so I come back to the soil as the issue. I think the biggest challenge for growers in the tropics is the lack of photoperiod change. Near the equator, the days are always close to 12 hours. You never get a true veg phase and bloom phase. For example, in Jamaica, the longest day is just over 13 hours while the shortest is just over 11 hours. The advantage is, you can grow year round. I think I'd try autos in a perpetual grow. Lots of smaller chops rather than one or two larger harvests.

 

[SMO MAN]

I agree with the first few replies I read; start with smaller containers and add perlite to soil. If you stay with larger pots, you could try covering the soil with plastic to keep excess water out.
Even if you decide to start new plants, do NOT give up on those babies. They could come back strong.

 

[Major PITA]

I think I'd try autos in a perpetual grow. Lots of smaller chops rather than one or two larger harvests.

Stoner moment. No need for autos. Every grow is probably an "auto grow". Since the days are only about 12 hours long, my guess is outdoor plants act like they are under an indoor no mercy grow where photos are started and finished all under 12/12. Doh!

 

[EBnFLO]

That makes sense Major


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[Islandgrow]

Stoner moment. No need for autos. Every grow is probably an "auto grow". Since the days are only about 12 hours long, my guess is outdoor plants act like they are under an indoor no mercy grow where photos are started and finished all under 12/12. Doh!

We do have a few weeks when they do revert back to vegetative if in flower . So if timed right you can keep her in veg for a month after the seedling phase. Before flowering starts.

"carpe diem"