Slooow growth, yellowing, etc. Please help!

[Bent526]

Hey folks, I have another thread over on the Indoor Growing forum (here).

I've detailed my setup there, but I will go through it again:

• grow space is about 20x20x15 inches
• 6 CFLs (4 daylight, 2 warm @ about 1600 lumens each)
• temporary fans, temps are pretty high (about 28-30 degrees C) will fix soon
• fed nutes to the two older plants too early because i'm a bonehead, have since stopped and flushed them
• watering about 1 time a day, the grow medium is perlite, vermiculite and peat moss - it is drying out quickly
• using tap water, but i haven't checked pH yet, going to buy a meter ASAP. switching to bottled spring water in the mean time.

OK so I am experiencing really slow growth, and a bit of yellowing which i think is because i used nutes too soon. But I thought they would have come back by now -- that was over a week ago.

The first two pics are of my older plants (they sprouted just under three weeks ago)... I think they should be a lot bigger.

The third pic is of my new batch of seedlings, two have some really funky leaves going on -- but seem to be coming back, and the one in the front is growing very nicely and is a nice colour of green.

Last pic is so you can get a general idea of my setup. I have no idea why they are growing so slowly.. am i just being impatient?

I know I have to get a pH meter, but could anything else be wrong? I'd appreciate some help!

Thanks

 

[lowrydergrower775]

stop giving it nutes for three weeks and stop watering it daily a seedling has enough water when it crack open to last it from 5-7 days so let it dry out very very nicely before you water it again and just let it do its thing

 

[Bent526]

Thanks for the advice,

I stopped giving the first two nutes over a week ago. The others (younger ones) I didn't give nutes to because I smartened up.

The plants are almost three weeks old! I should allow them to be bone dry?

Thanks!

 

[lowrydergrower775]

well marijuana grows best from being watered well to letting it dry it out nicely idk why but it does so yea

 

[Bent526]

Guys,

I'm still having major problems. Please help!

These plants are now over three weeks old and they are growing REALLY SLOW.

I eased up on the water and I almost killed two plants. They now have large dark ends on their leaves (the two yellowish plants)... My environment is pretty hot so I need to water them every day to keep them from totally drying out.

I think my soil is causing an issue, it dries out way too fast and has a lot of peat moss in it (the bag said it was pH corrected, but I still think it's off). I have to get a ph meter.

If anyone can give me some more ideas I'd really appreciate it!

And here are some before and after pics... the first plant is doing decently, and the second (which is a week older) is not doing so well. They should be a lot bigger, no?

 

[Hick]

that peat may be too acidic for the babies. Seedligs are pretty vulnerable to excess heat, too. Watering daily is too much for seedlings.

 

[Blunted]

Don't keep the medium wet all the time, its important because your roots need oxygen and it promotes root growth. You really need to check your PH, using peat I find it makes the soil acidic. Your soil may be losing moisture too fast because you pots are too porous, low humidity, or too much drainage in your medium, JIMO..

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

Looks exactly like mine did, i had them in some bad soil at first. i transplanted into fox farm ocean forest and my plants doubled in size in 2 days and completely bounced back. i'd look into doing that. also... try using a fan to get those temps down and strengthen the stem. Oh and definately stop watering every day, i started doing the same thing but slowed it to once every 3-4 days and it worked a lot better for me. keep it goin, these little plants are strong and it doesn't take much to get them to bounce back.

 

[Bent526]

SmknWhiteWidow, I took a look at your plants and yeah mine look identical, I wish I saw your thread earlier.

Unfortunately I can't get Fox Farm soil here, it's illegal to import soil. So I'll have to go and try to find some soil that doesn't **** somewhere... Hmmm, another trip...

When you transplanted, did you remove a lot of the excess old soil? Just wondering if I should try and remove a bunch.

I really think it's the soil and containers now. I did transplant one into some other soil I have around here as a test and it seems to be hanging in there, much better moisture retention.

I got one of those spike pH meters that you just stick in the soil... but I'm having issues because either my soil is at exactly 7 pH or there isn't enough in these little pots to test... If anyone has pointers on using these meters please let me know!

I'm off to find some soil.

 

[marcnh]

ok my opinion:
1.It's too hot reach for 23 c 75 f
2.the peat pots are drying your plants out too quickly with this heat, maybe this will improve when you lower the heat, if not place them inside another plastic sup to retain moisture and just spray the top of the soil daily so the soil below will still be moist but well aerated.
3.get a 2700k cfl for the seedling stage. I believe this increases leaf growth. Some may say I'm wrong, but I think the seedlings love it.
Good luck.

 

[Bent526]

23 degrees, eh? I'm going to have to do some serious rethinking about ventilation... thanks for the advice

I've got three of them in new pots, the moisture level seems great. I think that the peat pots were a big mistake. Will update in a day or two with more progress!

 

[SmknWhiteWidow]

Yea i got rid of a lot of the soil. when i transplanted a lot of it just came off. then i CAREFULLY removed a little bit more. made a world of difference

 

[Bent526]

Great, I just transplanted a few of them and did just that. I've experimented with soil types as I can't buy Fox Farm here. I've already started to see some improvement, now I just need to get my temps under control. Arg.

I've got 6 CFLs, two spiral-cage fans for exhaust, a fan blowing on the plants, and a passive intake at the bottom of my cabinet, but I can't seem to keep it cool. I'm going to have to do some reconfiguration when I get some time.

Thanks again

 

[Bent526]

SmknWhiteWidow, I gotta say thanks again man. Your post really helped -- the plants are now over double in size, in just two days! The soil made a WORLD of difference!

And marcnh you were totally right too, I wouldn't use peat pots again. They are cheap, but dry out waaaaaaaay to fast for my temps. In combination with the soil I was using, it was a big mistake to choose them.

Thanks for the help guys!

Will post pics after my gf's mom leaves our place Can't be poking in my secret grow-box too much with her here!

 

[Bent526]

Hey guys, as promised here is some pics of a few of my plants after re-potting.

These guys are doing the best, a few others are still lagging, but also doing better and regaining colour and growing much better. I'm very excited that they are growing WAAAY faster now, and seem to be healthy.

Note the first two pics are of a plant directly under a warm CFL (there are other daylight 6500k CFLs around it though) and the second two are of a plant that is under the daylight CFLs.

The last two shots show a plant that was turning a yellow-greenish colour, and it is now regaining a deep green... some spots are still a bit yellow, I hope that goes away.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Bent