Advice for slow growth

flarm

flarm

Member
Hey I'm worried that my plant is suffering from stunted growth. Right off the bat, I'm pretty sure it's because I'm using 100% Purplecow Indicanja as the medium with no unamended soil. It's just about at the 30 day mark and she's 3" tall, has a thin stem, almost no petiole growth, and seems pretty weakly rooted. I don't think it's a nutrient or watering issue, as I haven't added anything and have been using spring water pH'ed to 6.5 very sparingly.

Otherwise, it's in a 2 gal pot, under a Visparspectra 150W LED, 77°F, 50% RH

So far I've come up with three possible solutions, and want to know what you guys think:
  1. Just, be patient and hope its growth picks up
  2. Dig out some of the top soil, chop the first node's leaves off, and refill with regular soil to get some new roots going
  3. Move into new container with less super soil/completely new medium (which has me worried about transplant shock)
Any input would be awesome
 

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flarm

flarm

Member
Light is 18" away. As for the water, I've only been having to add water every 4th day or so. I followed the instructions on the back of the bag (fully saturate after transplanting, allow it to dry 50% before watering again, don't allow excess runoff). If its dry 2" down and the pot is noticeably lighter, then I add more.

I've been adding about 100 mL at a time, letting it soak down for a few min, then adding more. I'll do this a couple of times until the bottom of the container is completely wet, but not dripping much, if at all. Usually ends up taking about half a liter or so to do. The soil holds water for a surprisingly long time
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
Not familiar with your soil or it's moisture holding capacity, but .5 liters every 4 days seems very light to me. Are you watering around the entire top of the container, or just focusing the water right around the stem?
 
flarm

flarm

Member
Oh and the reason the top soil looks bone dry is because I piled on some dry soil from the bag this morning to try reinforce the stem a bit
 
PopAndSonGrows

PopAndSonGrows

Well-Known Member
I actually think it looks SUPER healthy albeit quite a bit smaller than you'd like.

My opinion. . .. it's the low humidity. I veg plants in a 2x2 with low humidity and I get pretty slow growth as well. If you were sitting at more like 60-65% you'd have significantly more growth just by adding that. However, I would argue that the lower RH and slower growth is safer and easier to deal with, by not adding another device and a bunch of airborne moisture.
 
flarm

flarm

Member
Fangthane said:
Not familiar with your soil or it's moisture holding capacity, but .5 liters every 4 days seems very light to me. Are you watering around the entire top of the container, or just focusing the water right around the stem?
Click to expand...
I thought so too, but my thought process was to keep any nutrient runoff from happening. I try to get the entirety of the top soil saturated. I wonder if I soaked it too much when I first planted in it and now it like holds too much water.
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Water it - it needs it ( not sparingly )
Keep light at 18” over it
Have patience …..

Sometimes you get late starters … it looks pretty good anyways. Recommend more light in the future.

For a “ super soil “ it is pretty light in NPK. Had to scour for a label as website just throws out a word salad on its blend. You would have been better off with a more nute dense common bagged medium.

IMG_1841.jpeg

Emergency Failsafe : Pee on it
 
PopAndSonGrows

PopAndSonGrows

Well-Known Member
flarm said:
I thought so too, but my thought process was to keep any nutrient runoff from happening. I try to get the entirety of the top soil saturated. I wonder if I soaked it too much when I first planted in it and now it like holds too much water.
Click to expand...
It's not so much the top soil, as much as it is if that moisture is getting deep enough. You can dig your finger down several inches to find out for sure
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
It's not really the top of the soil that's your concern. If the bulk of your water ends up being poured around the stem, the roots won't spread outward lower down. That plants just looks exactly like plants I've had when I I started out that I vastly underwatered. I was giving very small amounts at a time, then wondering why it wasn't taking off so it didn't occur to me to actually give more water. I was caught in a weird loop.

Why so keen on avoiding runoff? Going fully organic?
 
flarm

flarm

Member
PopAndSonGrows said:
I actually think it looks SUPER healthy albeit quite a bit smaller than you'd like.

My opinion. . .. it's the low humidity. I veg plants in a 2x2 with low humidity and I get pretty slow growth as well. If you were sitting at more like 60-65% you'd have significantly more growth just by adding that. However, I would argue that the lower RH and slower growth is safer and easier to deal with, by not adding another device and a bunch of airborne moisture.
Click to expand...
Ah okay cool, I should've mentioned that I'm also using a 2'x2' tent so those are probably similar issues for me.

I last watered it saturday morning and right now I can't just poke my finger into it, like it's still wet enough that I would have to dig to get an inch or so deep. I'm pretty sure I'm getting the water all the way thru because after I'm done watering the bottom fabric is wet. Granted, there are times when some might runoff the sides of the soil and straight thru the fabric, but I think I've gotten pretty good at keeping that from happening

Budzbuddha said:
Emergency Failsafe : Pee on it
Click to expand...
I'll keep that idea on the backburner, haha
 
flarm

flarm

Member
Fangthane said:
It's not really the top of the soil that's your concern. If the bulk of your water ends up being poured around the stem, the roots won't spread outward lower down. That plants just looks exactly like plants I've had when I I started out that I vastly underwatered. I was giving very small amounts at a time, then wondering why it wasn't taking off so it didn't occur to me to actually give more water. I was caught in a weird loop.

Why so keen on avoiding runoff? Going fully organic?
Click to expand...
I figured cause it's super soil, that you don't want excess nutrient runoff. As Budzbuddha mentioned, it's pretty light as is. Also the back of the bag said not to let that happen. (here's a crappy low-res pic of what the bag says, I'd take one myself but the bag is rolled up in my garage)
 

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Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
Well, maybe it's just a late starter. If it doesn't take off in the immediate future, I'd suggest giving it some much more thorough waterings, and maybe add some nutes. If the nutrient charge in the soil was light to begin with, a month old plant is probably hungry by now. Good luck.
 
flarm

flarm

Member
So the consensus seems to be that I need to water more. Sounds like I should also be adding nutrients to the extra water. I know some brands recommend doing 50% nute dilutions when working with amended soil. Have any of yall had to do something similar to this before?
 
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