Nitrogen deficiency + FoxFarm Ocean Forest question

Hi all,

I am a first time grower who has encountered their first problems.

1) First my plants got a bit rootbound in their solo cups (24~ days from seed) and started to droop, so I transplanted them.

2) At the same time, their cotelydon leaves + first pair of true leaves, started to yellow (sign of N deficiency, I assume?)

3) So I transplanted them to a bigger pot with new fresh FFOF soil.

4) I watered 2 with water that had 1 tsp/gal of Grow Big nutes.

5) I watered 4 with just regular water. This way I can see how the plants respond to nutes from soil alone, and nutes from nutes + soil.

6) All plants seem to be recovering, the one with nutes + soil kinda seems to be recovering best (a little less light green colored).

7) PROBLEM: I seem to be needing to cut off the first pair of true leaves from all these plants, as they aren't recovering. Did I act too late? If I hadn't been rootbound, would feeding a yellowing plant some N, make them go back to 100% green after a few days?


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NLH2 given regular water + new soil from transplant:




2 days later:





NLH3 is growing after transplant, but never recovered from yellow leaves, prob will have to cut them off today:




And here's NLH1, before being watered and after recovering + having yellow leaves cut off:








So my main question is: do yellowing leaves turn back to green if you give them nutes in time? How long is the window when one can safely act? Should I assume they didn't recover because they were under multiple possible stressors:

- Freshly transplanted
- Dehydrated during time of transplant, if that's why they were drooping
- Rootbound during transplant, if that's why they were drooping
- Nitrogen deficiency

If you transplanted to larger pots with ocean forest you won't need to add additional nutes for a few weeks. That soil is loaded. The plant will recover. The yellow leaves could die off however the plant will be fine. The shock may slow growth but just veg a little longer to desired size. Stunting during flower is much more detrimental

The first set of leaves usually discolor and die off.

Your plants look healthy don't add nutes till you see that they are hungry. Probably a few weeks min.

Good job just don't over water them. Less is more and patience is key

You don't need to feed for a month In a 5 gal pot with ffof soil. I'll just add bloom when growing cuttings with a short veg.

The yellowing was from the solo cups. Scrap them and start in 1 gals. 24 days In a solo cup has kept them from max growth.

They will explode now in the bigger pot. But why not fill them with soil? To the top.

A yellow leaf probably want green up, it's cool leave em on till they turn brown.