Advice on when to add nutes and when to move to flowering.

I hope this is my first successful grow. My previous 3 attempts all ended with dead seedlings due to different mistakes but I think I have that worked out. I'm using the hempy bucket method for this grow.

Issue 1: Timeline isn't matching up.

Using the timeline off the General Hydroponics nute bottles I put together my own timeline (image below) but my grow seems to be moving behind schedule. For instance, my chart shows that on 4/15 I should have been moving my little girl over to my flowering chamber, but I don't think it's ready yet. Hell I haven't even started nutes yet. After a bit of digging I found that a good rule of thumb was to not start adding nutes until you have "three leaves with three leaves on them," so I've been holding back. Only ph balanced water up until now.

Question #1: How do you think this little lady looks being just over 3 weeks old?
Question #2: Do you think it's time to start adding nutes or is it too soon? I don't see "three leaves with three leaves on them" quite yet.
Question #3: How does my timeline look? Does it seem viable except for the variation in dates due to how each plant is going to grow in each different environment.

That's all for now, thank you.

if all you have in there is perlite then yes you need to add nutes or it will die, start at around 250 or so and work your way up

I agree with highfirejones, if it's only perlite do what he says, what's your ph?

put the into soil , your new , don't lose another plant, see the leaves asking for nutes. my advice is . soil the plant asap add nutes onlyyyyyyyyy 20 % strength until its 6 inches tall then use regular strength , doing this works great, time frame who knows, all plants lighting experience , the better the faster that plant grows, don't understand your environment question . my advice is make it hot 85 degrees f and humid, that's what plants like . for veg, thell grow fast as fuck expecially if you add co2, I seen an inch a day or more !

Thanks for the advice guys, it's really appreciated. The grow medium is perlite and vermiculite per hempy's instructions. I'm going to start adding nutes today at a light level and see how things go. I'm going with the Lucas formula for this grow to keep things simple.

An update.

Per the advice above I started to add nutrients today. I took a gallon of tap water and did a lucas mix of 0-5-10, then tested the ph which was perfect in the range of 5.8-6.2 (analog kit, it was yellow-green range), then watered.

You should do alright if you stick with your feedings, I don't use the lucas formular so can't give any comments abt it, you're similar to how I grow only I use rockwool grow cubes, I feed twice a day with great success and maintain 5.8 ph, not sure abt hight temps I try to maintain aroud 75 degrees tho it's hard in the summer, do you keep track or your ppm's?, personally I feel it's important to know the strenght of your nutes, good luck with your grow.

DeeTee said:

You should do alright if you stick with your feedings, I don't use the lucas formular so can't give any comments abt it, you're similar to how I grow only I use rockwool grow cubes, I feed twice a day with great success and maintain 5.8 ph, not sure abt hight temps I try to maintain aroud 75 degrees tho it's hard in the summer, do you keep track or your ppm's?, personally I feel it's important to know the strenght of your nutes, good luck with your grow.

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My temps seem to be around the same as yours right now, in the 70's.

I don't track PPM, how do you do that? Right now when I mix nutes I just get a 1 gallon jug, fill it with water, test ph (which is usually always ideal here), then add the nutes which are measured in ml per gallon, then test ph again and go. How would measuring PPM help?

An update:

The plant perked up today after starting with nutes yesterday. In the original photos I had attached to this thread you see they are kind of "droopy", today the leaves are sticking straight out, kind of "at attention" so to speak. Seems like they're happy!

You need to purchase a TDS meter, you can get one on ebay cheep, ( $10 to $15 ) later on you can purchas a better one, measuring ppm's tells you how strong your nutes are, too high of nutes could cause problems like nute burn, too low and your plants will not recieve the proper amount, imo it's important, I know that my product label said to add a certain amt to a gal but when I checked the ppm's I was way too high, over 1800 ppm's which cause nute burn, that's why I always check before using., here's a chart I use to start off and adjust according to my plant strain, some can take higher, some lower, your plant will tell you. hope this helps.

PPM for Hanna Chart PPM

Seedlings, Early Sprouts ..100 to 250
Early Vegging ......................300 to 400
Full Vegetation ....................450 to 700
Early Blooming ...................750 to 950
Full Mature Blooms ...........1000 to 1600

An Update: My plant looks like da bomb! (at least in my opinion) This is a pretty large amount of growth when compared to the pictures in my original post, this is 10 days later. What do you guys think, looking good? Let's hope this Sleestack X Skunk plant turn out to be a female. This was a free seed that came with my Arjan's Haze 3 seeds that I'm saving until I have my process worked out.

I'm glad she's looking better those first pics she was looking really sad, but she's much much nicer now. You're growing in pure perlite and vermalite? Never heard of that...are you transplanting her into soil mix at some point?

OopsCake said:

I'm glad she's looking better those first pics she was looking really sad, but she's much much nicer now. You're growing in pure perlite and vermalite? Never heard of that...are you transplanting her into soil mix at some point?

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Thanks for the comments. Yeah, I'm using the "Hempy" Method. It's supposed to be very simple and hard to fuck up. This grow medium is used for the entire grow, no soil.

You can read more about the hempy method here. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=98419