First Grow-She's Not Looking Well

First time grower, armoire grow, 1 Vanilla Kush, with a Critital Kush and Super Silver Haze just sprouting.

The VK is not looking well. She is 10 days from sprouting, Fox Farms Light Warrior Soil with a very thin layer of 1 part FF LW mixed with 2 parts FF OF on top to help keep the moisture in they are under CFLs, which seemed to dry out the LW really fast. I'm running 8 6500 and 4 2700 for the three plants. She seems to be stunted in her growth, I'm keeping her close to the lights, and I don't think I'm over watering.

So, the 2 bottom round leaves curled and yellowed and she doesn't seem to be growing at all. One problem I have is: the cabinet runs about 81 during the day (18/6 cycle) but drops pretty quick to 68-70 degrees with the lights off. Could the cold temps be the problem? The room itself is normally cooler as it is an old house 100+ years old. I've reset my timers to turn off the exhaust fans when the light turn off, just a small fan running inside during this time. Any help would be welcome, don't want to lose her.

Those bottom "leaves" are the cotyledons and they always yellow off early. They are what provide the plant with nutrients for its first week of two of life. let me ask you this, assuming you watered at the time of sowing the seed, how many times after that have you watered those ladies?

I watered her a day after she sprouted until there was run off, them every 2-3 days. I tried to hold off on the watering but the LW seems to dry out really fast. Do you think it could be overwatering? I planted the other 2 in different soil (a mix of LW and OF).

Fish Weed said:

I watered her a day after she sprouted until there was run off, them every 2-3 days. I tried to hold off on the watering but the LW seems to dry out really fast. Do you think it could be overwatering? I planted the other 2 in different soil (a mix of LW and OF).

Click to expand...

I hate to ever say anythings for sure without seeing in person, but Im 99.9% sure you are over watering by a lot. if your mix is watered in well at sowing then you are usually good for about a week in typical conditions, you never need to water a seedling until run off. Remember, there is almost no roots below those plants so why would all that mix need to be soaking wet? I seriously suggest to everyone who's worried about over watering to use a regular kitchen spoon and just give those babies three or four regular spoonfuls of water every other day or so. As week 1 or 2 baby seedlings they rely more on ambient humidity than water absorbed through there roots, again because there really isn't much of a root system at this point. Id leave those gals off the water until that soil has dried out decently, those baby roots need some oxygen too.

Well F me quick. I'm sure that's not going to be the first rookie mistake I'll make. I'll cut way back on the watering. Thanks Haystax. What about the quick temp drop? It drops like 10 degrees within an hour of the lights going off. Any ill effects or stunting from that?

Fish Weed said:

Well F me quick. I'm sure that's not going to be the first rookie mistake I'll make. I'll cut way back on the watering. Thanks Haystax. What about the quick temp drop? It drops like 10 degrees within an hour of the lights going off. Any ill effects or stunting from that?

Click to expand...

Some folks might say they have problems with temp drops like that, but I personally do not. Ideally between 75-82 for the first two week will help them along better, but as long as they are popped like yours, then down is no big, even 68 for a few hours if you ask me, but your mile may vary.

i just wanted to add for other readers that I am talking only on behalf of organic soil growing.

Ok, thanks for the help. I lost one other plant that didn't take when I put it in soil after germing. So I tried popping another one that didn't germ, so then tried 2 freebies and they both popped. Was only going to do 2 plants but should have just enough room for 3. Thanks again for the quick response, I'll follow you info from here on out.

Nutes too hot for the seedling. The OF. What you need to do immediately is remove all your seedlings to small containers so that can establish strong root systems. So however many seedlings you have you transplant them to small plastic or styrofoam cups. And use only light warrior and you my friend will be good. Also you never top dress seed starter with stronger soil power because the nutes from the OF will trickle down and burn your tap and offspring roots and could possibly stunt growth. The OF you want to transplant in about 14-21 days from sprout. And either you can use the same soil and nutes or you can be ahead by tranplanting in new fresh soil for flower. Depending on the size of pot(s) you use. No stress bro.

gardengardian7 said:

Nutes too hot for the seedling. The OF. What you need to do immediately is remove all your seedlings to small containers so that can establish strong root systems. So however many seedlings you have you transplant them to small plastic or styrofoam cups. And use only light warrior and you my friend will be good. Also you never top dress seed starter with stronger soil power because the nutes from the OF will trickle down and burn your tap and offspring roots and could possibly stunt growth. The OF you want to transplant in about 14-21 days from sprout. And either you can use the same soil and nutes or you can be ahead by tranplanting in new fresh soil for flower. Depending on the size of pot(s) you use. No stress bro.

Click to expand...

This one is in a pretty small jiffy pot. How do you transplant seedlings without moving all the same soil with it? The LW doesn't stay together even when wet, I had thought about a transplant but was worried all the soil would fall apart and kill the seedling.

Simple depending how old the seedlings are the rootball should be that big. Also it shouldnt be more light warrior than OF. But just do it like a professional. Extra care and concern. You take a spoon and space it about 3 inches from the seedling and scoop a circle around her and lift her out and put her in a little cup and youre good.

She looks fine. By transplanting a new seedling into a large pot you have added weeks to your grow time.

When new seedlings first go into dirt they expend most of their energy putting down a rootball. The growth will be almost all below-ground until the roots find the inside walls of the pot. Only then will you see rapid growth above-ground. That's why us old-timers first put seedlings into solo cups. The roots soon reach the inside of the cup and start fast vegetative growth. You are going to wait weeks before you really see "progress".

I put seedlings first into a solo cup and leave her there until she is taller than the cup. Then they go into a 7-inch square 3/4 gallon pot, get topped or FIM'd and stay in the 7-incher until they reach 12-16 inches. The I TP again into 2-3 gallon pots to finish. Try this and you will see how much faster your plant will grow.

Good luck, BigSteve.

bigsteve said:

She looks fine. By transplanting a new seedling into a large pot you have added weeks to your grow time.

When new seedlings first go into dirt they expend most of their energy putting down a rootball. The growth will be almost all below-ground until the roots find the inside walls of the pot. Only then will you see rapid growth above-ground. That's why us old-timers first put seedlings into solo cups. The roots soon reach the inside of the cup and start fast vegetative growth. You are going to wait weeks before you really see "progress".

I put seedlings first into a solo cup and leave her there until she is taller than the cup. Then they go into a 7-inch square 3/4 gallon pot, get topped or FIM'd and stay in the 7-incher until they reach 12-16 inches. The I TP again into 2-3 gallon pots to finish. Try this and you will see how much faster your plant will grow.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Click to expand...

I'll give this a try. The 2 new seeds I germinated are in solo cups. This Vanilla Kush is in a small pot which I'm not to happy with. Checked her this morning and she seems to have perked up a bunch. Not going to think about watering until tomorrow night if she still looks good tomorrow morning and will take the advise above and go light on the water.

I just realized, my typos which i cant change now because the edit selection is nolonger an option. But i was saying the rootball shouldnt be that big yet. Either way goodluck on the girls.

New problem popped up last night. Temp was running at 83F, when I checked an hour later the temp shot up to 90. I turned off half of my cfls and shifted everything under the 6 that were still on. But this VK was wilted and tipped over. Heat stress? I added a very small amount of water to her, the temps came down to 79 pretty quick with only 2 hours left in the light cycle. I checked her this morning and no improvement. Any suggestions?

RIP little Vanilla Kush. I think the heat spike fried her, she's is dried out to the point of crunchy. No response to the adjusted lower temps and a little bit of water.