When can i feed my seedlings nutes ????

Growers,

I have had my 4 seedlings under a 400w hps now for 3 days... They seedlings themselves have been up and going now for 12 days and the roots are really starting to take off.

I did however feed nutes on the weekend to all plants and 1 is looking a little sick, the other is just ok and 1 is thriveing so i reverted back to feed 100% water only to try and revive the sick 2.

I was thinking of waiting another couple of days and feeding with half strngth nutes.

Any help i would be greatful for.

Forgot to mention the temps are in the 90's at the moment due to it being hot in the U.K so i'm doing all i can to bring it down.

tHANKS. kiss-ass

its way too early to use any nutes!,your soil prob has some in it,don't feed anything but water for the first month,then you can do like 1/8 streath.

I'm not growing in soil... I'm growing in 100% perlite

mattyblade1 said:

Any one ??

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You can start on a dilute dose. It's really up to the plant. Is it showing any deficiency signs? If not I'd probably just leave it alone and watch for the telltale yellowing of lower leaves (nitrogen def.). Best of luck my friend.

i always heard use 1/4 strength nutes for seedlings and clones.

which is what the label on the nutes suggests.

id be worried about the 90 degree temps.

phoenixaflame said:

i always heard use 1/4 strength nutes for seedlings and clones.

which is what the label on the nutes suggests.

id be worried about the 90 degree temps.

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Don't use nutes on seedlings!! learned the hard way here, take my word for it, 1/4 strength is hard on them too, almost killed off my 3 week olds. Just feed them water for now.

I'll usually start feeding 3-4 weeks in.

thanks for the advice, though everyone says different things.. I have been feeding with water only but i may try a mild nute dose at the weekend or something. I'm worried about the 80-90 degree temps but i can do nothing as it's warm here and i grow in the attic... By 4 pm the temp drops back down to 60 - 70.

Any more help on the nutes and temps side of things would be great and thanks.

I would go with the recommendation of your nutrients. Also make sure to use distilled water or let the chlorine evaporate for 24 hours first. I read that foliar feeding is good. First thing I would do though is work on your temp issue. If its consistently high 80's. If its just a spike for a couple hours I would guess its ok but not optimal.

Can't reall do to much as its in the roof space.. Need to by a small a/c but worried about running costs

Yes I just experienced this on my first grow had 4 really nice sprouts, and my brother and myself decided to use some nutes, burnt them, and killed them.....Back to the drawing board

bummer mate.. I'm going to try a really weak solution on the weekend

Is the attic not ventilated? Most that I have been in have some way for air to get in one end and out the other, either through the wall or through a tile vent.
Have you tried running the light cycle at night? That really helped me drop my temps.
Does the growspace take up the whole attic? If not you could partition off the unused space and vent into that as long as the air can get out, more air should enter through the eaves.
Ac is not at all necessary in the uk, it doesn't get hot enough for enough of the time to make it a worthwhile investment. It is far easier, and less expensive to move air than to cool it, an ac should only be considered if ambient temps are in the 80s for most of the day. When do you see that over here?

Hairy Bob thanks for your imput mate... I started the light cycle at night last night because my wife had suggested just that... Who would have thought ??? It seemed to work very well with my temps staying around 27c all nite.. Light has just gone on then and it's up a bit at 31.5c, but it hopefully will go down as the sun does.. I do have an inline fan extracting at the top of my small grow room, but it doesn't seem to be as good as i first thought but it is doing something as the ducting it warm to touch...

Do you grow in the attic in the UK ? If so how long does the seedling stage take to end and go into the veg stage ? I germinated 4 seeds 2 weeks ago to the day and the are only getting there 2nd jaggered leaves now.. Is this normal ??

Cheers mate

I'd say by the second week they should have their first if not second true node, but I only grew from seed once, over a year ago. Since then I just take cuttings and trade them occasionally with a couple of other growers I know.
You have the seedlings under a 400w hps? That's a bit ott really, they will grow perfectly well under a cfl or two until they get a few nodes on them. Hopefully you have the hps well above the plants, but that will drastically reduce the amount of light they are recieving, with cfls you can keep them pretty close and use most of the light that comes out of them. From what I hear seedlings really don't like too much heat. Much more than 29c is not going to do them any good and could well slow your growth.

I have 4 seedlings under about 80w and they are growing fine so you might wanna save yourself some money on your hyrdo bill and get some flurescent or CFLs then when it comes to flowering use your 400w.

I always give them a small nutrient watering about 1/8 after they are about 2 weeks old then after a week or two of that i kick it up. I use organic soil mixes and have never burnt a seedling. If you are really worried - test it out on one plant.

Yeah guys all useful info thanks.... I have started with really weak nutes and have seen a differance overnite... The light is 3 foot above the seedlings and has made a massive differance to the growth since moving them from my CFL grow cabnit.. The temps are way better now that i have the light on over nite and off for the hot part of the day so i think I'm heading in the right direction.

I also last time gre grew from cuttings / clones which is why i'm asking all the q's about the seedlings.

So any more advice people can give i will return with rep +

Thanks

Sorry to raise this from the dead! Giving fertilizer(nutes) can be dangerous. On all female seeds I use nutes. The first dose I give is right on top of the seed as a stimulant. The seed will be point down with the circle at the top about 1/8 below surface of soil. Apply 5ml of a 2-1-2ml per gallon General Hydroponics flora series with a syringe directly to the seed. Syringes work great here, but be sure to press slowly. I use a 20ml I have given mexican bag weed week old seedlings up to 10 mil every 3 days.

mattyblade1 said:

thanks for the advice, though everyone says different things.. I have been feeding with water only but i may try a mild nute dose at the weekend or something. I'm worried about the 80-90 degree temps but i can do nothing as it's warm here and i grow in the attic... By 4 pm the temp drops back down to 60 - 70.

Any more help on the nutes and temps side of things would be great and thanks.

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Try starting your feeding with small amounts of silica (maybe 2ml per quart). The silica will help plant get strong and handle the extreme temp fluxuations in your attic. You can also add 1/4 base grow nutrients. As with base nutrients gradually increase both between plain waterings.

MsGuerilla said:

Sorry to raise this from the dead! Giving fertilizer(nutes) can be dangerous. On all female seeds I use nutes. The first dose I give is right on top of the seed as a stimulant. The seed will be point down with the circle at the top about 1/8 below surface of soil. Apply 5ml of a 2-1-2ml per gallon General Hydroponics flora series with a syringe directly to the seed. Syringes work great here, but be sure to press slowly. I use a 20ml I have given mexican bag weed week old seedlings up to 10 mil every 3 days.

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Make that a 1-1-1 of GH 3 way from now on. I burned the shit out of g13 haze fem, and the purple widow. 10ml Of 2-1-2 given on day 11 was to much. On female seeds from now on I'm following the same schedule but with lighter strength. 5 mil of 1-1-1 on top of seed then on day 10, 10ml of 1-1-1. For me rapid growth is a must. When you live in a state where the fuzz gets off on arresting people like me, dicking around and waiting is not much of an option.