Seasoned Opinion Sought

[Durkee13]

This is my first little solitary "guinea pig plant". I call it "P#1", sprouted from medium (Burpee Organic Seed Starting Mix) on the 15th of last month. Can I get a grade on its health so i know if this little princess is doin ok and im taking care of her.
Ive never gotten this far...all i can say I think I got the seed germination down to a fine "T", but once they've sprouted I've struggled it seems, and after about 3 months of actively attempting a grow operation, this is where ive gotten.

 

[Silentvirtue]

Not bad going, it's harder than people think. I always say if you can germinate then you can grow as germination to cotyledon is a delicate stage especially if starting outside of a medium.

She look very pail meaning she's lacking some nitrogen. Start introducing feeding at 1/4 to 1/2 and judge accordingly. I'd have an EC of around 0.7/8 and work you way up (I use tap water at 0.1 EC so adjust for your chosen method)

If your currently feeding it that check your PH or add a little more base nutes to bring your EC up a point or two maybe 1-1.1

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

Hey there! Nice start! Your plant looks pretty healthy.

However, it definitely needs to be fed. I just looked up that burpee "organic" seed starting mix and it turns out it's just coco coir with a tiny bit of fertilizer in it for the first week. So the reason your plant is turning that light green color is because it needs nitrogen like @Silentvirtue suggests.

Here's the thing though. Since that's coco, it's basically hydroponics because it's completely inert. Your going to need to pH balance your nutrient solution if you intend to use that medium through your whole grow. Here's a link to some more info on growing in coco:

How to Grow Cannabis with Coco Coir | Grow Weed Easy

Ever wondered how to use coco coir blocks to make a cannabis-friendly rich potting mix? This tutorial breaks it down...

www.growweedeasy.com

Conversely, if that's not what you were going for, you could up-pot into a bigger pot with a good organic soil and the soil would feed the plant for quite some time. Then you wouldn't need any additional nutes for a bit, and it's more forgiving on the pH.

The reviews for that Burpee stuff btw are 80% people being pissed off that burpee doesn't say it's inert on the packaging anywhere.

 

[Durkee13]

Not bad going, it's harder than people think. I always say if you can germinate then you can grow as germination to cotyledon is a delicate stage especially if starting outside of a medium.

She look very pail meaning she's lacking some nitrogen. Start introducing feeding at 1/4 to 1/2 and judge accordingly. I'd have an EC of around 0.7/8 and work you way up (I use tap water at 0.1 EC so adjust for your chosen method)

If your currently feeding it that check your PH or add a little more base nutes to bring your EC up a point or two maybe 1-1.1

just in case, I thought my cam flash mixed with the led veg light the color hue may not have been "true", heres a couple of the same plant in natural sunlight...

 

[puffdatchronic]

your keeping it going but to get it togrow fast bigger pot and more or closer to light

 

[Durkee13]

Hey there! Nice start! Your plant looks pretty healthy.

However, it definitely needs to be fed. I just looked up that burpee "organic" seed starting mix and it turns out it's just coco coir with a tiny bit of fertilizer in it for the first week. So the reason your plant is turning that light green color is because it needs nitrogen like @Silentvirtue suggests.

Here's the thing though. Since that's coco, it's basically hydroponics because it's completely inert. Your going to need to pH balance your nutrient solution if you intend to use that medium through your whole grow. Here's a link to some more info on growing in coco:

How to Grow Cannabis with Coco Coir | Grow Weed Easy

Ever wondered how to use coco coir blocks to make a cannabis-friendly rich potting mix? This tutorial breaks it down...

www.growweedeasy.com

Conversely, if that's not what you were going for, you could up-pot into a bigger pot with a good organic soil and the soil would feed the plant for quite some time. Then you wouldn't need any additional nutes for a bit, and it's more forgiving on the pH.

The reviews for that Burpee stuff btw are 80% people being pissed off that burpee doesn't say it's inert on the packaging anywhere.

What soil would be a good organic medium to transfer into? All I have on hand is that miricle grow potting soil. Im trying to grow this sole plant without any additives, nutes or otherwise (other than what provided in the soil/medium) Its really a learning experiment with this one, to figure out the cycles of growth before i start medding with its chemistry!
but id like to keep this plant alive at least till harvest or until it is discovered its a male.

BTW, this is just from a bag of mids Ive collected...no specific strain, breeder or no otherwise form of identification

 

[Durkee13]

your keeping it going but to get it togrow fast bigger pot and more or closer to light

its about 30" from a 600 watt blurple (veg switch on only, flower switch off), its all i had at the time, but i got a humidity dome now, only 7" high though. it has the fitted sunblaster T6HO 17 watt 6400k with 1581 lumens with reflector.
Any advice on that would be welcomed as well

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

What soil would be a good organic medium to transfer into? All I have on hand is that miricle grow potting soil. Im trying to grow this sole plant without any additives, nutes or otherwise (other than what provided in the soil/medium) Its really a learning experiment with this one, to figure out the cycles of growth before i start medding with its chemistry!
but id like to keep this plant alive at least till harvest or until it is discovered its a male.

BTW, this is just from a bag of mids Ive collected...no specific strain, breeder or no otherwise form of identification

That's definitely doable but you will want a decent soil and you'll definitely need to get it into something other then that Burpee stuff. What miracle grow do you have? The normal stuff is terrible but the organic version doesn't seem awful, and their new line Black Magic is made specifically for cannabis supposedly.

Otherwise you really don't need to worry about the brand or anything. Fox Farms is pretty standard but don't worry if you can't find it. Any good organic mix will work.

Avoid ProMix though if you don't want to use additional nutrients. It's good stuff but doesn't have much too it and won't feed your plants on its own. Your looking for a mix with stuff like compost, worm castings, kelp meal etc with something for drainage like perlite or peat moss. You can also add that coco you already have for drainage if need be at a ratio of about 10%-20% of the total medium

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

its about 30" from a 600 watt blurple (veg switch on only, flower switch off), its all i had at the time, but i got a humidity dome now, only 7" high though. it has the fitted sunblaster T6HO 17 watt 6400k with 1581 lumens with reflector.
Any advice on that would be welcomed as well

The heights alright for now but both switches on at all times! The two phases things is a useless feature. All the light, all the time.

 

[Durkee13]

That's definitely doable but you will want a decent soil and you'll definitely need to get it into something other then that Burpee stuff. What miracle grow do you have? The normal stuff is terrible but the organic version doesn't seem awful, and their new line Black Magic is made specifically for cannabis supposedly.

Otherwise you really don't need to worry about the brand or anything. Fox Farms is pretty standard but don't worry if you can't find it. Any good organic mix will work.

Avoid ProMix though if you don't want to use additional nutrients. It's good stuff but doesn't have much too it and won't feed your plants on its own. Your looking for a mix with stuff like compost, worm castings, kelp meal etc with something for drainage like perlite or peat moss. You can also add that coco you already have for drainage if need be at a ratio of about 10%-20% of the total medium

This is what I have...

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

This is what I have...

Unfortunately that's the bad stuff, IMO anyways. Some people seem to grow alright with it. But that "time release" fertilizer is actually released whenever you water and has a tendency to burn young plants, especially in the hands of new growers.

 

[Durkee13]

Unfortunately that's the bad stuff, IMO anyways. Some people seem to grow alright with it. But that "time release" fertilizer is actually released whenever you water and has a tendency to burn young plants, especially in the hands of new growers.

Well im glad i was informed, i dont like the time release crap either.

only places i can drive to is walmart, home depot, lowes, and meijer...any of those places carry good soil for these purposes so i dont have to wait to have some shipped?

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

Well im glad i was informed, i dont like the time release crap either.

only places i can drive to is walmart, home depot, lowes, and meijer...any of those places carry good soil for these purposes so i dont have to wait to have some shipped?

12 Qt. 6.3 pH to 6.8 pH Ocean Forest Garden Potting Soil Healthy Mix FX14053 - The Home Depot

The Ocean Forest Potting Soil has everything your plants need, in one bag. Ocean Forest is a powerhouse blend of premium earthworm castings, bat guano, and Pacific Northwest sea-going fish and crab meal.

www.homedepot.com

HD actually just started carrying FoxFarms products and they will ship to the store even if your location doesn't stock it. Not sure if it's available everywhere though. Failing that, the MG organics or Black Magic soil don't look awful and should be readily available at any of those stores.

 

[BluntMoniker]

Well im glad i was informed, i dont like the time release crap either.

only places i can drive to is walmart, home depot, lowes, and meijer...any of those places carry good soil for these purposes so i dont have to wait to have some shipped?

@Gentlemencorpse has you going in the right direction. All very good advice.

Being someone who is in Lpwes/Home Depot just about every day of my life, I gsruntee you can find what you need, to put together a decent soil mix, if they dont have a good one ready for ya.

I havent personally used the Organic Miracle Grow, so I cant RECOMMEND it, but like GC said, it looks pretty good regardless of the Miracle Grow stigma.

If you dont want to use the Miracle Grow, you could just buy topsoil, organic compost, and perlite. Do about 25% topsoil, 25% perlite, 50% compost, and you have a decent base to start with. You could add a few handfuls of earthworm castings as well.

This will get you started, and provide you with s bit of a nutrient buffer.. but you will still need to fertilize throughout your grow, as this mix only provides basic necessities, as opposed to being a "super soil" that only needs water start to finish.

If you want to go organic, I use Biobizz nutrients, but megacrop is also highly recommended around this site, and I myself am waiting for it to come back in stock so I can try it. Megacrop isnt "organic" technically, its "vegan"... but I'm sure it's close enough (from a omnivore's POV lol)

 

[.Smoke]

I had good results from MG Performance Organics mixed with perlite. Was my first grow too so plenty of mistakes made.

 

[Diona19]

When your trasplanting, should you be shaking the excess soil off the roots or just pull er out and stick the plant in the new soil disregaring how much soil is still stuck on the roots?

 

[Gentlemencorpse]

When your trasplanting, should you be shaking the excess soil off the roots or just pull er out and stick the plant in the new soil disregaring how much soil is still stuck on the roots?

The latter. I usually put a little soil in the bottom of the new pot, move the plant with it's existing soil on top, then add soil up to the level I want it.

 

[Durkee13]

12 Qt. 6.3 pH to 6.8 pH Ocean Forest Garden Potting Soil Healthy Mix FX14053 - The Home Depot

The Ocean Forest Potting Soil has everything your plants need, in one bag. Ocean Forest is a powerhouse blend of premium earthworm castings, bat guano, and Pacific Northwest sea-going fish and crab meal.

www.homedepot.com

HD actually just started carrying FoxFarms products and they will ship to the store even if your location doesn't stock it. Not sure if it's available everywhere though. Failing that, the MG organics or Black Magic soil don't look awful and should be readily available at any of those stores.

I just got back from picking up a bag of the happy frog stuff

 

[Durkee13]

Ok so to move to a new pot (larger) and into the Happy Frog potting soil I just got.

Is my plant ready or strong enough for this move?
Do I need to keep the old medium around the roots or let the soil dry so I can shake off the soil and transplant that way?
Once it is transplanted, what measures are needed to be taken to ensure it survives the stress?

Aaaal a first for me and Ive struggled thus far and Id really like to NOT fuck this up!!

 

[Durkee13]

I had good results from MG Performance Organics mixed with perlite. Was my first grow too so plenty of mistakes made.
View attachment 4551896

jesus, nice crop!