Plant problems or helicopter newbie?

Hey folks,

I'm writing this post to hopefully have some experienced growers take a look at my young plants and let me know if I should do anything different or ride it out...

OK a little background -
First ever grow. Today is day 15 from starting seeds. Got my seeds from Nirvana(two orders no problems) and planted 4. 3 Northern Lights autoflower and 1 freebie. Started them all in jiffy pots with FF happy frog. They did well the first week or so under my office desk light, maybe stretched a little(5-6" after 12 days) On the 12th day I moved them into their bigger containers. The 3 NL autos went into 3 gal smart pots and the freebie went into one of my wife's flower pots. They had mostly FFOF but I scooped out a hole and lined it with more happy frog. I then peeled away the jiffypots except for the bottom as roots had gone through and I didn't want to rip them, and put them in. Watered all 4 and placed them about 18" under a 600W MH in my little grow room on a 18-6 schedule. The room is in my basement so temps are ok. Humidity is a little low but I'll just have to deal with that. After the first watering, one of the three looked a little droopy and I thought I overdid it with the water so waited a couple days for the soil to get good and dry in the top inch or so. I watered the hell out of them this morning and took pictures that I'll upload. It seemed to me that I gave them a lot of water. I mean a lot, but none came out the bottom which brings me to my first question: I didn't add any perlite or anything like it so I may have a drainage issue while they're so small. Is that gonna be ok or should I try and carefully scoop them out and mix some in? Do I have an issue here or should I just ride it out? And of course: How do they look in general? Any advice? One seems kinda derpy.

I really appreciate any and all input you people can give.. This is a great resource by the way, Thanks!

bunch of new grower mistakes here but you can get thru it

putting seedlings in a big pot is a mistake as it greatly affects proper watering. But what you want to do is to water with 3 to 5 ounces of water in a circle around the baby 3 to 4 inches away from it bout every 2 or 3 days depending on response till it gets bigger

FFOF is a tad hot for new seedlings, HF is a good soil for seedlings & clones

the 88 degree temp is high, you already know the RH is too low try and get it down to 78 if you can and be aware temp & humidity are related

good luck !

RM3 said:

bunch of new grower mistakes here but you can get thru it

putting seedlings in a big pot is a mistake as it greatly affects proper watering. But what you want to do is to water with 3 to 5 ounces of water in a circle around the baby 3 to 4 inches away from it bout every 2 or 3 days depending on response till it gets bigger

FFOF is a tad hot for new seedlings, HF is a good soil for seedlings & clones

the 88 degree temp is high, you already know the RH is too low try and get it down to 78 if you can and be aware temp & humidity are related

good luck !

Click to expand...

Bunch of new grower mistakes - Damn.. I thought I was doing good

I knew putting seedlings in a big pot was going to make watering tough, but I figured since I didn't have any experience anyway, what the hell. Plus I think I read somewhere that because autos have such a short lifespan that transplanting them really hurts productivity, so best to get them in the final medium asap. Would you recommend jiffypot to 1 gallon to 3+?

I'll definitely use your recommendations as a baseline watering schedule and yeah I heard FFOF was a little hot and might burn them a little but should have no lasting negative consequences really... right?

I managed to get the temp down to 77 by turning up my exhaust fan a little so I'm good to go there. A gaping hole in my planning I think I see now is that my light is at about 18" as I mentioned, but I can only raise it about another 6" max. I originally was going to do this in my shed with a 4x4x8 tent that I bought but I was too impatient to wait for the warmer temps out there as it's not heated or insulated. No way that's going to be enough room for them to grow right? So unless I move all my equipment at 2am I'm going to have to take them out of the light for an hour or so. Should this be done sooner rather than later, more for the freebee than the autos? I don't want to move them out too soon as I live in the northeast US and while it's been mild here there is sure to be some freezing temps to come. While the shed is technically indoors, as I said it's not heated or insulated so the only heat source would be the light and residual daytime heat...

Man I kinda rambled on there sorry about that... Puffing does that to me

Finley said:

Bunch of new grower mistakes - Damn.. I thought I was doing good

I knew putting seedlings in a big pot was going to make watering tough, but I figured since I didn't have any experience anyway, what the hell. Plus I think I read somewhere that because autos have such a short lifespan that transplanting them really hurts productivity, so best to get them in the final medium asap. Would you recommend jiffypot to 1 gallon to 3+?

I'll definitely use your recommendations as a baseline watering schedule and yeah I heard FFOF was a little hot and might burn them a little but should have no lasting negative consequences really... right?

I managed to get the temp down to 77 by turning up my exhaust fan a little so I'm good to go there. A gaping hole in my planning I think I see now is that my light is at about 18" as I mentioned, but I can only raise it about another 6" max. I originally was going to do this in my shed with a 4x4x8 tent that I bought but I was too impatient to wait for the warmer temps out there as it's not heated or insulated. No way that's going to be enough room for them to grow right? So unless I move all my equipment at 2am I'm going to have to take them out of the light for an hour or so. Should this be done sooner rather than later, more for the freebee than the autos? I don't want to move them out too soon as I live in the northeast US and while it's been mild here there is sure to be some freezing temps to come. While the shed is technically indoors, as I said it's not heated or insulated so the only heat source would be the light and residual daytime heat...

Man I kinda rambled on there sorry about that... Puffing does that to me

Click to expand...

you'll be fine, just go slow with the watering

Final pot for autos is recommended, but...
When watering seedlings try to treat them as if they are in a solo cup. Water in a tight diameter, no more than 175ml. Increase as she grows, as if up potting.

Perssonally, I start watering with 175ml at the base only. Watering slowly. I use a plastic squeeze bottle, works perfectly. The idea is to send your tap root straight down in search for water.