really slow seedling?

I keep reading not to over or underwater the plant so they say keep the soil moist but not sodden. I don't understand how to keep the medium moist but not let it dry out and not to overwater it? If I am supposed to water till runoff than how is it possible for me to overwater a medium that is supposed to be porous and be nice and airy other than watering too often? The thing is how do you keep the soil moist if you don't water every couple of days as the top of the soil gets really dry but underneath it is moist? Do I just spray the top and try to keep it moist with the rest of the medium?

For seedlings wait till it's dry to the touch 1" down in the soil to water again, when they get bigger you can wait till it's dry about 3" down

Thanks for the response. That is what I thought was the case but I do that and get told I am overwatering always. I can wait till it is 2 inches dry and still same problem. I did notice the roots don't start till about 2 1/2 inches into the soil so maybe I am planting the seeds to deep? Maybe I need to ignore the overwatering responses and just try to keep watering it when the top inch feels dry to the touch but than I read that people shouldn't use the touch method but the weight of the pots. I really think something is wrong in my setup or the way I am watering them (pouring water from a pitcher) I hope it is the temperature thing. I am thinking I will let one keep drying out and the other one I will water every time it gets dry at the top and see what happens as I don't know what to do except experiment at the moment. The surface of the mix gets dry but underneath never no matter how long I wait it seems to just stay with a slight amount of moisture unless I agitate the mix and fluff it out to make it start to dry. After agitation is dries quickly as it is no longer compacted (which I read that peat moss isn't supposed to compact and is supposed to be nice and airy) I can literally leave the mix that I put 200ml water in for a week and it will still be moist just not at the top 1 inch - 2 inches and when I water it I am supposedly overwatering it. Like I said it also seems to compact after being watered.

Ya def not man. Cmh does not make airy buds. Cheap Leds and fluros will.

Jjgrow420 said:

Ya def not man. Cmh does not make airy buds. Cheap Leds and fluros will.

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Yea I don't know where I read that. I thought I saw it mentioned a few times but I just did a quick google search and nothing really popped up except a couple forums so yea I don't really know where I got that info. My temps were hot and higher humidity than normal for the last grow also the plants were extremely old (16 weeks autoflower supposed to be 10 weeks) so that is probably why they were airy I thought the CMH just added to the problem. I am glad you brought that up so I can see if I can make my buds more dense if I can grow a plant that is. If you have any suggestions for my problems though it would be greatly appreciated.

Whered you get the seeds.
Autos are notorious for being unstable and having poor traits from cheap breeders. I personally will not grow an auto unless its from Mephisto.

Jjgrow420 said:

Whered you get the seeds.
Autos are notorious for being unstable and having poor traits from cheap breeders. I personally will not grow an auto unless its from Mephisto.

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Mephisto and Fast buds. This time Mephisto last time Fast buds. I also tried some from fastbuds this time but not the same strain. Non of them are growing properly and I have already thrown out 7 seeds or so. Also the ones that I am trying to germinate right now are not coming out of the mix yet and have been in there for 3 days now. I am hoping they pop up soon. I am going to try and germinate with the toilet paper method that mephisto mentions next time. I am really hoping these seeds work out as this is getting expensive in all areas (lighting, seeds, purchasing equipment, time spent trimming, watering etc.)

Me personally I never place a seedling under strong lights. They get the baby treatment under sunblaster t5s that are led upgraded. Only watet when they need it an no nutes until they get a few leaf sets going. You know when the leaves start to get big? Thats when you want to give them a very small dose of nutes. Not every watering either. I only use rapid start @ half strength on its own for the first feed. Once the plant seems strong i will start to dose an a+b at the lowest possible dose. Eg advanced nutes 1ml per ltr

I am trying to do organic if possible like my last grow. I am using all gaia green products but haven't placed anything but a very small amount of EWC in a few of the pots. I have the following to add at whenever I need them (super fly insect frass, EWC, all purpose, Bloom) Maybe I will have to try and place it under a weaker light but I see tons of people starting their plants off under lighting stronger than this and they still get huge so I don't think that is the main culprit.

Ya man. Seems like you maybe overwatering and drowning then out. A new seed will drown and the inside will turn mush.
Try soaking them for a few hrs in tepid water with just a few drops of peroxide to help soften the shell and keep the fungus away. Then put them in papertowel thats moist not sopping wet let the root come out 1/2 inch then gently plant it and water around it not directly on it until it emerges.
You can even cover the top of the pot with some plastic wrap with a hole or two in it to keep the moisture from escaping.
I also pre wet mix my soil before i put it into the pot so you dont have to add much water to it
Sorry whats ewc?

EWC is earthworm castings. I will have to try that and see what happens. I am going to leave the 4 that I have right now and see if they can come back as I have wasted so many seeds but I have 1 more pot so I might try to add 1 more plant in there since the others will probably be extremely small being stunted and all. When you plant the seeds do you moisten the mix before hand and than water just around the seed? I assume I am not putting it in dry mix and wetting around it.

kronicking421 said:

okay, thanks for the heads up. The logic of someone lying while trying to get help makes no sense to me as they would possibly not get any helpful advice due to them not giving accurate information. Also I didn't write it for you just as a heads up. The block of text is me saying what happened and why I thought it did. I thought I would take some pictures of some of the stuff I have left just for fun. It doesn't look very pretty but gets the job done and smells really nice. Also very sticky but some of the buds that I didn't put in while moist are dry and not very sticky and also not as potent. I believe it is due to not getting a cure. Next time if I can get this going again I will make sure not to be lazy and just trim my stuff after a few of days of hanging the entire plant and not cutting any fan leaves off except a couple here and there for air movement.

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You know there is a feature in Windows called "Sticky Keys"

dbz said:

You know there is a feature in Windows called "Sticky Keys"

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sorry i'm not sure what you are trying to say?

kronicking421 said:

EWC is earthworm castings. I will have to try that and see what happens. I am going to leave the 4 that I have right now and see if they can come back as I have wasted so many seeds but I have 1 more pot so I might try to add 1 more plant in there since the others will probably be extremely small being stunted and all. When you plant the seeds do you moisten the mix before hand and than water just around the seed? I assume I am not putting it in dry mix and wetting around it.

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Ah earth worm castings got ya.
Ya i wouldnt be putting anything in the soil until the plant gets a bit bigger. If your ewc arent totally clean you may be transporting a pathogen that the little gals cant handle when they are so small.

kronicking421 said:

sorry i'm not sure what you are trying to say?

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I was making a joke about bud all over your laptop keyboard.

Jjgrow420 said:

Ah earth worm castings got ya.
Ya i wouldnt be putting anything in the soil until the plant gets a bit bigger. If your ewc arent totally clean you may be transporting a pathogen that the little gals cant handle when they are so small.

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Yea I am holding off for now as I was told not to feed them although I was also told I can't overfeed them with organics. The only reason I wanted to use them is my last plants turned out good and that was a big difference between my first and second grow.

dbz said:

I was making a joke about bud all over your laptop keyboard.

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LOL I guess the pictures didn't make their way into the quote. You got me to look up what sticky keys is though. Heard of it never really knew what it was though. You learn something new everyday.

kronicking421 said:

EWC is earthworm castings. I will have to try that and see what happens. I am going to leave the 4 that I have right now and see if they can come back as I have wasted so many seeds but I have 1 more pot so I might try to add 1 more plant in there since the others will probably be extremely small being stunted and all. When you plant the seeds do you moisten the mix before hand and than water just around the seed? I assume I am not putting it in dry mix and wetting around it.

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The way i did it in soil was water it 4-5 hours before you drop the seed in. Drop the seed put a pinch of soil over it ( enough to cover it completely) and done. After that only water when its dry and water with a dripper or syringe around the seed not directly over it just a few drops enough to keep moisture around seed.

kronicking421 said:

Yea I am holding off for now as I was told not to feed them although I was also told I can't overfeed them with organics. The only reason I wanted to use them is my last plants turned out good and that was a big difference between my first and second grow.

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You can def overfeed organic nutes. The plant will onlyntake what it can. The rest is left over in the soil and that can cause your ph to swing if your microbes arent colonized ph swings can kill them off making more issues. I only do the organix thing outdoors as the ground is a better buffer then a small pot

And yes i mix the soil (pro mix) with water before potting