First time growing indoors, purple stems on babies!

I have read this forum religiously, but never posted and have gained tons of info from all of you, so I wanted to thank you in advance, I am from California so used to growing outdoors, I know I have great seeds from attitude, aurora Indica, masterkush, Afghani#1, boss hog, grand daddy purple x og, some Thailand race seeds Sativa, but they were a UFO freebie, I'm an Indica girl. Don't care about those, I have moved, so I'm growing indoors, trying hydro deep water culture, too lazy to build my own, so ordered two kits from stealth hydro and want to scrog, they are doing fine so far, what I am concerned about is this god bud seed a friend gave me, it has been growing for three weeks, just put in some dirt with cfls on it, I gave a quarter strength advanced nutes, and it made the stem turn purple, is this ok? I am growing in my basement and the floor is cold, but it have the humidity and heat at what is recommended. Should I add some phosphorus? Put a heat mat under it? It's just not doing anything, had it in rock wool for two weeks, put in dirt last week, ran out of smart pots, so I am planning on transplanting to a smart pot, not keeping in plastic, any ideas would greatly be appreciated. And thanks in advance for the knowledge I have learned, used to use a pioneer 400, like cfls better!

So many things......

When you say "dirt" are you talking about the stuff in the backyard? If so, that's your first mistake. You need at least potting soil of some sort. I prefer Ocean Farms Happy Frog or Ocean Forest....but if you're in a pinch, Miracle Grow is fine as long as you don't add nutrients to it.

Second....you're giving nutrients to a seedling. You shouldn't be doing this at this point.

Third....The purple is a sign of stress....not uncommon though and the color won't hurt your plant, but you certainly are giving them a tough start. Transplanting seedlings is not an easy task and has a high likelihood of failure.

i had purple stems it was ok just try not to stress then youll overthink and prolly fuck over ur plant even more IMO

lilroach said:

So many things......

When you say "dirt" are you talking about the stuff in the backyard? If so, that's your first mistake. You need at least potting soil of some sort. I prefer Ocean Farms Happy Frog or Ocean Forest....but if you're in a pinch, Miracle Grow is fine as long as you don't add nutrients to it.

Second....you're giving nutrients to a seedling. You shouldn't be doing this at this point.

Third....The purple is a sign of stress....not uncommon though and the color won't hurt your plant, but you certainly are giving them a tough start. Transplanting seedlings is not an easy task and has a high likelihood of failure.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your help, when I meant dirt, I used sunshine mix no. 2 with earth ,worm castings, coir, and added azomite for the 67 trace minerals , perlite, guano, and a little organic compost, but bad idea with the fertilizers! Thank you, I should no better but used advanced nutes on my plants outside with great results, love their big bud and final flush, gets expensive though. I bought general hydroponics Flora Series on amazon, which I am now giving only plants in soil, or I guess that is a soilless mixture. I read the box, and it said to give macro, micro, grow, rapid start, floralaliciousplus, and flora blend to a seedling, which I have never done before in my life, I have always only given ro water to seedlings, and that's it. The box said to go to 200-400 ppm on a seedling, I adjusted the ph to 6.5 then only put on quarter strength, the ppm was 155, so I will follow your advice. I didn't pay for the God Bud seed, a friend from Cali sent me some, but even though I didn't pay for the seedling I don't want to kill it! Thanks again for your help, I'll probably be posting more now instead of reading and gathering information, since it's my first indoor grow, god I miss California, I'll probably be posting for more help! Thanks again, Marci

I can't agree more, after all these years growing, the plants I leave alone do the best, overthinking and wanting to add those magical products have screwed me up before, I should know by now! It's sad!

I put my plants in dark cycle while im home and light cycle while im at work.. that way I dont bother then...im only home while the lights are on for 1 hour in the morning while im getting ready for work. That gives me enough time to check the res level. Check ph, add nutes if its a feed day, and check for problems then its off to work

The more u look at them the more ull fuck them up

Seedings are just fragile at this stage n really like a controlled enviroment if possible. Could b lots of things from lights, temp, humidity. IMO a propagator is the best way to control though many on here may disagree. But my 90% success rate tells a different story!

Careful feeding at this stage n any stage. The soil mix u are using has plenty of nutrients at this time n maybe a little too much. Make sure ur watering with distilled water to get those microbes to thrive on there own. Should only need to bewatered very little like once a week or so.

I highly recommend an inexpensive soil NPK test kit $13 on ebay. Takes out all the macro guess work

Remember; some strains naturally/genetically have red/purple stems, branches. Do some research on your strains and see if that's the issue. My Space Bomb and Mango have always had this and I've grown these strains for the last year straight. Good luck and be patient; patience and vigilance are key to great rewards.

Thanks so much for you help, I will follow yOur advice, I have a ppm monitor and checked ph was at 6.5, tds showed 156, but I agree, no more nutes and will watch the watering, I can't Agee with you more, the more I have tried trying to correct problems I have ended up killing them in the past, the one I grew outside our great, let alone, just given guano once a week and watered with reverse osmosis water. Lie I said, I have been a long time follower for advice, I even changed to cfls from reading your forum with great results in my hydro setup. Thanks again in advance, this is my first indoor grow, both soil and hydro, so I am sure I'll be asking for your help again, and you have no idea how much it's appreciated!

Thanks so much, I have no clue what I did to my camera on my iPad but it's taking weird colored pix, I'll figure that out later. So much thanks for all advice given and take, litte baby looking much better after two days after following your advice, drastic change in plant after two days, stem turning green and it's actually growing significantly, doesn't look like much, but after 3 weeks of it not sending out its set of second week I thought it was a goner! It has it's second set after two days from your help, stem turning green. Staring my hydro in deep water culture soon, my rock wool cubes are getting close to be moved to the netted pots, something I have no clue what I'm doing, been doing a ton of reading and research on here, but I'm sure I'll be asking help with them!
Sorry I messed up my camera, but you will see the general idea of the difference your suggestions have made! Hugs and thanks, me