TVMASDL Grow No. 1

What's up gang?

Long time reader, first time poster.

So, first off I guess I'll throw my basic setup out there. It's nothing fancy so don't flame me =X

Veg. room is all I got set up so far, two 4 foot fluorescents with two 40W cool white bulbs in each, and an oscillating fan.

It's in a closet in my bedroom, so I open the closet door for a while, a few times throughout the day and try to circulate out the air.

My plants are random seeds from various bags of weed, so I'm not quite sure what I'm growin'. Anyway, after I germed the seeds (two succesfully germinated) I set them up in 6 inch (clay I think?) pots with "Sunshine All-Purpose Planter Mix", and a VERY small amount of ferts.

Well my first sprout came up yesterday and looks relatively happy, but "her" two little leaves are kinda droopy today. Not super droopy, but they look like a crappy McDonald's arch when you look at them from the front.

I'm not sure if I'm over-watering or what, I water twice a day with a spray bottle (no nutes yet). Usually about 10-12 hours apart. I saturate the top soil pretty well, to where it's moist to the touch and you can feel the moist soil about an inch down.

Maybe I'm just overly concerned, but that's my little girl in there. Can anyone help me alleviate my worries?

Here's some pics of the basic setup and the "droopy" seedling, as well as the seedling yesterday before it got a little "droopy":

Not sure what the soil is like, but sounds like it might be prefertilized. Giving a sprouting seedling any fert is usually a bad idea, even dilute fert. Combine the 2 and you may have trouble. Hope it works out, but I'd hold off on more nutes for a good bit.

http://www.sungro.com/products_displayRetailProduct.php?product_id=11&brand_id=8


There's a link to the soil I'm using, the fert was pre-mixed with the soil before the seedlings went in. And I really do mean a very small amount, like 1/10th of a teaspoon. I thought with a 6 inch pot it might just help out this soil a little bit for some nutrients while I give it fresh water. I haven't fed the plants directly with any nutes, only distilled water so far. Should I have just used the soil alone?

Here's the specs of the nute that I pre-mixed with the soil in those 6 inch pots:

Root Blast

Total Nitrogen (N).......2.00%
2.00% Nitrate Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P205).........1.00%
Soluble Potash (K20).......2.00%
Calcium (Ca)........13.8%
Magnesium (Mg)......7.5%
0.97% Water soluble magnesium
Sulfur (S).....1.88%
1.88% Combined Sulfur
Boron (B).......0.02%
Copper (Cu).....0.05%
Iron (Fe).....2.47%
0.01% Water soluble iron
Manganese (Mn).....0.12%
0.00% Water soluble manganese
Zinc (Zn)......0.15%

From what I've read on here I thought that pre-mixing a very small amount may help the plant in it's early stages of getting only distilled water for about 2 weeks.

Was this a mistake?

Bump.

It continues to droop.

I looked over the soil link that you provided, looks like an unfertilized soilless mix. Actually looked pretty good. By itself, seems like a good start for a soil mix.
On the fertilizer you mixed in, tougher question, for me at least. I gave up on quick release ferts, and went with a simple organic mix. Burn becomes much less likely
If the right quantity of fert is used, then all is well. It's hard, especially for new growers, to gauge the amount. From your plant's behavior, soil is probably too 'hot', too much nutes.
For burn, the usual treatment is to flush with plain water. Amount typically recommended is 3 times the volume of soil. Post a fresh pic when you can.
This is a best guess, it's also possible that it is just simple over watering. The down pointing leaves could be an indication of over watering.

sounds like over watering to me, dont water until your top soil is dry

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm actually feeling a little silly right now because I'm pretty sure that's just how these little girls look after a day or two of sprouting.

Ya see, when it sprouted up on day one the two "leaves" were really perky and pointed up, but after a day or two the real leaves started coming in and the other two are just kind of curved downward. I've looked over a lot of sprout pics and I am now thoroughly convinced that I'm just worried over nothing.

As for the ferts I'm thinking they're alright. The bottle recommended a full scoop from the included scooper (A teaspoon is how large the scooper is according to the bottle) for a 6 inch container. I used about 1/10th of that. I was just concerned because the soil didn't seem to have any ferts at all.

My little "girl" (pleasepleaseplease) seems very happy and healthy. But I do have another sprout related question:

My wife's little sprout seems to have sprouted, but is still wearing it's seed shell like a helmet, and the two "leaves" have yet to bust out. It's been above ground for about 2 days now and I'm wondering if this is normal and it will pass. The sprout hasn't seemed to make much progress in this regard in the last day.

Is there anything I can do to help it feel safe enough to take off it's helmet?

Or is this a normal thing and we'll just have to wait it out?

Here are the pics of my sprout, sorry about the quality. Five megapixel camera that can't zoom very well at all. I'd take a pic of hers, but the camera can't even get close enough without blurring everything out:

TVMASDL said:

My wife's little sprout seems to have sprouted, but is still wearing it's seed shell like a helmet, and the two "leaves" have yet to bust out. It's been above ground for about 2 days now and I'm wondering if this is normal and it will pass. The sprout hasn't seemed to make much progress in this regard in the last day.

Is there anything I can do to help it feel safe enough to take off it's helmet?

Or is this a normal thing and we'll just have to wait it out?

Here are the pics of my sprout, sorry about the quality. Five megapixel camera that can't zoom very well at all. I'd take a pic of hers, but the camera can't even get close enough without blurring everything out:

Click to expand...

this is normal, it might take a few days for the seed shell to fall off naturally, just give it lots of light and it should grow out of it

Update:


So here's my little "lady" on day 8, looks happy. She's developing her second set of "real" leaves now. At least I think that's what that is developing in the center.

Also an update on the little seedling with the seed helmet, the seed shell finally came off, but I had to remove it with some very tricky and carefully done home surgery. The seedlings embryonic leaves have opened up and the two "real" leaves are just now starting to develop, but the embryonic leaves had some slight yellow discoloration on the tips that I noticed once they opened up after the seed shell was removed.

Should I remove this? Because it seems like dead tissue, I just don't want to do anything hasty with this little baby. I would post a pic, but like I've said my 5MP camera can't zoom in enough for it not to be all fuzzy.

Also still watering the day 8 seedling with a spray bottle, any ideas on when it might be ok to switch to a watering can? I heard 200ml a day with a watering can is good, but I don't want to drown them. My pots are roughly 4in. in diameter and 4in tall I suppose. Thought they were about 6in but I took some measurements.

Bump.

Anybody?

ur too paranoid. leave them be

def dont be hasty, your seedlings are perfectly typical and as long as there home is well light and you dont over nute (u shouldnt wory about nutes yet with this little baby ) there is nothing you can really do to mess this up. be patent and take care of your babies. i was gonna tell you to remove the shell with a toothpick or tweezers but it sounds like the surgery was a sucsess

Thanks Kaleo, I was just curious if removing dead tissue on seedlings is detrimental to growth. I've read yellowing tips should be removed on older plants, I just wasn't sure about seedlings.


As for nutes, yeah I'm just using distilled water. No nutes as of yet, aside from the very, VERY small amount that was pre-mixed before the seeds were potted.

ya the leafs with discoloration are the little club leafs that sprouted first? these leafs, im prity sure, produce chlorophyll untill the true leafs are big enough to feed the plant them selves. i wouldnt remove them as they will shrivel up and fall off when they are no longer needed. honestly i know nutes and such will greatly improve the plant but i prefer a more natural grow style. even though i grow indoors i use a bulb that mimic sunlight and two cfls, i water with rainwater when i can colect it, the only nutes i ever use are in the poting mix i steal, i dont clip bad leafs, if there dead theyll fall off and i check my plants constantly, even though i hardly ever do ANYTHING to them

Yeah, it's the tips of the embryonic leaves that are yellowed. The real leaves are starting to come in, so I suppose I'll just quit being such an over-protective parent and let nature take it's course.

New question, I figured I'd ask ahead of time to try and get a wide spectrum of answers.

I'm not sure what strain this weed is, but from a lot of the pictures I've seen of people's seedlings on RIU that are just as old as mine, mine seems to be developing slowly.

I've also read that in soil growing it's alright to start 1/4 strength nute solution EVERY OTHER DAY. But, you shouldn't start using ANY nutes until week 2-3.

Now, since my plant seems to be developing slower should I hold off on nutes for longer? Or is there just a particular stage of development in which you should start using 1/4 strength nutes?

I.E. Start using 1/4 strength nutes once your plant has developed 2 sets of nodes. Or something like that.

Anybody?

Seedlings look a little dry bro there is alot of wanna be's on this site but we all started somewhere same has you and me.Keep the bottom of the seedling's moist not wet through or the seedling will not seek out water thus giveing you a good root base.Spray with a mister but be careful not to get none on the leaves if it is warm or the water has nutes in it.Once it has about 3 set's of leaves water about twice a week at most spend some money on a good set of nutrients.get in touch any problems.

looking good man

i never mist my plants, even in seedling stage. I heard that it drains the nitrogen out of the leaves, and the water droplets act like tiny magnifying glasses and produce "hot spots" for the lights.

Don't remove the cotyldons yet, they are crucial for providing nutrients to the tiny seedling. Let them turn yellow and fall off naturally.

theres nothing wrong with the growth or your plant, its waht we call a runt or a dwarf and not a bad sign at all. male plants grow faster and taller quicker i hear, and its better to let your plant develop while its short that have it strech to the moon and fall over.

as to the nutes, i would use only water for the first month or so. if your soil has some knind of nutes then id wate untill they expired. if you really want to nute then wait a while, like a month, or even untill the flowereing stage and use a fraction of the dose untill you find out how much your plant likes/needs/can deal with.

ive been looking into watering with molasses water and bannana water as they sound like natural nutres that cannot harm the plant or buds

Hi man. I was checkin out your grow. I started with a couple of 40W cool white shop lights too. Ended up harvesting almost half a pound.
The key with those lights is...Keep them right ON your plants. AS long as you have sufficient airflow your plants tops (when the get a little bigger) should be touching the tubes. I've got some seedlings going right now under them. Got 'em within an inch of the tubes.
This will keep them short with close (dense) nodes. They will grow a little slowly at first. But once they get some roots down they'll take right off.
You'll have to get better lights to flower with though. I used CFLS and kept the tubes as side lighting.
Anyway looks like you have a good start to a good grow. Try not to do TOO much lol Just let the plant do its thing. No feeding for 3 weeks. Then go easy. If it aint broke dont fix it! Good luck, happy growing.