I'm going to follow this advice on my second grow and probably pick up some CalMag that Jawbrodt was talking about.
Hope yall don't mind if I tell ya a little about my grow for your advice. I don't want people thinking I'm tryin to jack a thread (seen some guys get pretty harsh on here for that) I don't have an actual grow journal up because I spent all my money on my grow and didn't have anything left to buy a camera, lol.
I started 6 Widow seedlings off under a Jumpstart T5 propagation setup. I was worried about "hot" soils for my little guys so I went to Lowes and picked up a bag of plain top soil and added some MG perlite to it. I had them in 16oz cups that were cut in half and they seemed to grow out of it in around a week. They had their roots wrapped around the sides of the 8oz little cups, so against my better judgement I think, I transplanted them into there final grow bags. 3 gallon bags with 1 part FFOF, 1 part top soil, and about 25% perlite mix. I then moved them from the little T5 (waste of money for a little 2000 lumen light I think, but I was excited and started spending money stupidly) and put them under my 400w MH. I'm on day 14 now and they just seemed to stop growing (or they are moving very slow) They are still just now producing their second set of serrated leaves (the leaves just after the first two true serrated) I'm afraid I've already screwed them up. I'm using PH adjusted water every 3-4 days (the seedlings aren't sucking up much water so the 3 gallon bags stay moist about 2-3inches under the soil according to my moisture meter) I have the light about 2 feet off the plants with a fan blowing across them (feels cool when I put my hand over them) I have them on a digital timer 18/6 but my little guys just don't seem like they are adjusting well. They look healthy though, nice and short, strong little stem in comparison to alot of lanky seedlings I see on here from folks with crappy light setups, and they are very perky and a healthy looking green, just VERY slow growth.
Am I just over analyzing the situation? I love these little guys already and I have no other seeds in case I screw up. I was planning on taking clones as I'm almost done with my separate veg room and I have a kinda crop rotation plan in mind if I can get these raised and the males culled.
I have some Jack's 20-20-20 and some Jack's Blossom Bloomer 10-30-20 but haven't begun my treatments as I wanted them to get used to the FFOF first.
You guys seem really cool and I would love some pointers. I'm hoping that I'm just being paranoid for their safety!
Thanks
mud,
I like to use the standard MG potting mix that's had 10% perlite and 10%
vermiculite added to it. As far as improving drainage and keeping the soil from becoming to compacted as the grow progresses, perlite and vermiculite perform equally as well. I like getting some vermiculite in the mix because I've read (see the Wikipedia entry on it) that it aids in
cation exchange. And from some of my other reading on how plants grow I know that "cation exchange" is one of the main mechanisms involved with how plants uptake various nutrients.
As far as transplanting goes.... I start seeds in 9 oz plastic cups in Jiffy Organic seed staring mix. They stay in this for around 2 weeks before I transplant them into 4"x4"x5" containers with the MG/perlite/vermiculite mix. All though I like to start in the Jiffy mix (mainly because it has a really fine particle size) it has so little Nitrogen in it that a young, strong growing plant can only go about 10 to 14 days in it before it will start yellowing from lack of nitrogen. This is kind of my indicator that it's time to upcan into the MG mix.
Additionally... while my seedlings are in the 9 oz. cups they stay close under flourescent lights on 18/6. When I upcan them into 4x4x5 pots is when I move them under the 400W MH (still on 18/6).
Then some where around day 40 to 45 I upcan them again into 1 gallon pots (again using the MG/perlite/vermiculite mix). Some where in there (while they're still in the 4x4x5 pots) I'm pinching my plants so that they grow two main colas and this sets there upward growth back a week or so. If I wasn't doing this but only growing a single main stem plant these steps would happen sooner (or they'd get to tall for my grow space). They continue to veg in the one gallon pots until around day 60 when I switch to 12/12. With in 10 to 14 days after that I've got the males and females figured out and the
keeper females I'm going to grow to completion get upcanned to their final 3 gallon containers.
This may seem like a lot of unnecessary transplanting to most folks but I find some great advantages in it that make it worth the extra work to me. For one thing when their smaller (and in the smaller pots) I can keep them closer together and not have to turn on the other lights I have that I use to supplement my 400W MH (as the plants get bigger and need to be spaced farther apart). That's all about trying to keep the electrical bill down.
Next is the fact that if you keep the container it's in closer to the plants size (and it's moisture needs) you don't have as much complication with watering issues. When it's time to water you can just pour it on until it runs out the bottom and don't have to worry about the center staying to wet for to long.
And the thing I think I like the most about doing these extra transplant steps is that 3 times during a grow I get to look at my plants root system and see how it's doing.
And I don't agree with this popularly held belief that transplanting is harmful to the plant because it disturbs (or damages) it's roots. On the contrary, every time I upcan a plant I purposely try and cause minor root damage. I squeeze the root ball gently to try and loosen it up and even drag my fingernail down the sides of it in several places to try and tear some of the roots that are clustered on the surface.
I have done this to hundreds of pot plants. And if you figure in all the vegatable plants I've started from seed for the out door garden and done the same thing to, the number of plants is up way above a thousand. I am fully convinced that stressing your root ball a little bit in this fashion is way benefical in the long run. Sure, it may give the plant pause for a day or two but the gains to be had from the stronger root system this encourages translate into a healthier, stronger, higher yielding plant.
As to your plants seeming to have stalled in their growth....I agree with jawbrodt that they're just in a root building stage. A lot of people think the veg stage is all about what's growing above ground and that's what they concentrate on or judge things by. The veg stage is just as much about what's going on underground as it is with what's going on above it. Most of a plants root developement occurs in the veg stage. If you don't have a good root system before switching to 12/12 the plant will never develope one. Once a plant starts flowering it's going to put most of it's effort into that. And if you dont have a good root system to support the plants flowering efforts the yield (and the plants health) is going to suffer.
Starting out I use to veg under 24/0. I got massive amounts of foliage real quick but the plants always suffered later on in flowering and I wasn't getting very good yields. When I depotted them after harvest I could see that there just wasn't a very good, dense root system/ball. One of the great leaps forward for my growing efforts was when I switched to 18/6 for veg and started doing these multiple upcans.
Jack
lol.
well said, well said...