Hey guys! Long time smoker first time grower, Mr. growit has been a staple in my learning experience and community pride. Great content and the knowledge base is just amazing. So here's my thing
I'm growing two Charlotte's diesel and two triple scoop in 60% coco 20% castings and 20% perlite. I'm just hitting 3rd week of seedlings growth, been using distilled water and keeping moist, they are in potting cups sitting inside of 7 gallon fabric pots. Grow lights are two 1200w led tolys full spectrum hanging about 20 inches above seedlings at a ppfd of 500 ish in a 40x40x80 tent, carbon filter and two fans.(pictures to follow) I've started feeding a 1/4 dose of hydroponic plant food and ph to 5.8 with auto watering system that waters for 6 seconds every 16 hours along side of spritzing distilled water every second day. Also running a heating pad to keep soil warm at 78° and rh at 60% as best I can. Now finally here's my question, seedlings are growing very slow and pale, I'd like to know if this is normal growth and can anyone see if I'm doing anything wrong? I do plan on starting calmag soon but feel like it might be too early. Any advice or direction is greatly appreciated.
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So new update, new lights, no more auto watering system and things are looking decent.
Finally on my way!!! I'd like to thank all those who led me in the right direction big shout out @igrowmyown the lights were the issue no doubt! Also to mr. growit having a forum like this is the best anyone can ask for, learn from other people's mistakes. Thanks guys!
Mini update!
So I've cut off all sun leaves that were blocking bud sites raises my lights a bit and put the bloom and veg on, also I've cut the feeding/watering to only when the top inch is dry. I'm feeling like @growmyown was right that my canopy was blocking the rest of my plant (stealing all the photons) so hopefully these changes make a difference. If I'm totally fu$%ing this up, I hope that someone will say something. Lol tks guys
I was under the assumption that those fan leaves are the greatest collectors of photons and the increased photosynthesis. Am I looking at this the wrong way?
Oh and they've been topped yesterday, honestly I tried to fim the Charlotte's diesel and waiting to see if I actually missed.😁
Here's my update, figured out that my ppms were way too low(tks mr. Grow it for the advice) from the first day of higher nutrients they started to grow, lol and now have a new set of problems.
Huge sun leaves, like blades over 2 inches across and one is exploding so I'm adjusting lights to get the other three to catch up, two on left are Charlotte's diesel and the two on the right are triple Scoop. Anyone have any thoughts? They haven't died so regardless, I'm winning!
I'll have to do a bit of reading I'll keep updating. Tks
At a ¼ dose I'm assuming would be a 3.5-1.25-9.5 ratio if I'm doing this math properly. Ya for sure I'll share some pics later, this grow seems a bit unique or unorthodox, hope it works out. Just gotta stop loving them to death.😂🤣😂🤣😂
yeah, just the ratios of n-p-k seemed a little off based on the age of the plant. Post more pics as it progresses!
Ya I have thought this thru quite a bit (especially since this is my first grow). Time, money and motivation is at stake so I'm doing what I can to avoid mistakes, and you may be right with these neuts I'm using, as far as n-p-k percentages, I'm gonna have to figure it out. Thanks for the input, appreciate all the advice.
Hey Andrew tks for taking the time to answer, I figured distilled was guaranteed to be cleaner and better suited to watering delicate seedlings. My tap water comes in at a 8.0ph, so would have to use a ph down to get to my 5.8 target and that would mean more unnecessary chemicals that could cause harm. Will be using tap water as they start to veg. My neuts are 1/4 dose and I'm treating this grow as a hydroponic set up since its 60% coco. They do seem to be getting a bit better since watering has been reduced.
On paper everything you're doing looks spot on. I agree that the seedlings look pretty small for three weeks. What is your rationale for DI water? Is your tap water very hard? Also, why are you feeding hydro food in soil? That food has an NPK value of 14-5-38 if I am reading that correctly which seems very off for a seedling.
My apologies for the slow reply, had a ppm meter coming in. Thanks for the feedback. Since these are in small peat pots inside of 7 gallons fabric pots I can't accurately check the ppm's (lesson learned to put them in solo cups) I've cut down to half the watering. For good measure here's what I got for ppms.
Distilled thru just the coco 204 ppm
Water+neuts reservoir 309 ppm.
Sounds like you're doing everything right but they do look a bit small for week 3. May be too much water for those small seedlings on that auto watering system? Just guessing there. May be better to hand water until the plants are a bit bigger. Do you know what the PPM of the runoff is?