a little potting advice please brethren

my baby is 19 days from first potting from seedling, i have raised the level of the soil about an inch and i currently have about 3 inches from soil level to the cotyledon leaves. it needs to be repotted and i was wondering, should i bury it up to near the cotyledon leaves?

also it just has natural sunlight at the moment and no nutes, seems very healthy

sorry for crappy image, had to use laptop camera

thanks

gingaman

yes, repot up to the first node and use some perolite.

get your lights closer or they will just stretch again.

thanks for your reply.

how would i go about avoiding the stretch if i have no light

what is your light source?

im guessing the sun I wouldnt bury her up to the first node but about an inch below them, otherwise youll be wasting space in the pot (no root growth will appear on the main stem below the soil line). You might want to suppliment the natural light with a small CFL, the extra intensity should reduce stretching - although its not as bigger deal as people would let you believe.

Make sure you get a good soil mix.
Maybe even head down to a garden center, soil mix can be pretty cheap. make sure it has a good mix of perlite.
As for stretch cant really help that because of the sun, maybe look some of these up LST/topping/scrog modifications they would help with controlling height and shape of the plant.
Good luck!

If you're using the sun as your only light source you may as well try and grow this outdoors. Many of the grows I've seen using sunlight from a window have the plants end of stretching. If I recall correctly windows block out some of the usable light and often will have dust/grime/fingerprints/etc that will block even more light. Also you probably aren't getting that many hours of direct sunlight by the looks of where the window is. If you must use the sunlight(why not just use CFLs?) I would put the her somewhere where the plant gets at least 12 hours of direct sunlight. Or get a light meter and check for yourself. You want a minimum of 5000 lumens hitting your plant.

i agree...mb more supplemental light. so if you have her in that spot for x number of hours...move her into a strong light source for an extra hour or two or three. as far as potting, mj roots like tomatoes in that there are dormant root buds all along the stem. so if you pot it deeper, just below the cots, those dormant root buds will become active and the plant will develop a stronger root system. okee dokee? also i can't tell for sure but your soil looks pretty dense...lack of O2 at the rootzone and that deprives the roots of oxygen. if you want to make a good potting mix start from scratch. pm me or any exp grower and they'll give you a recipe for a nice mix. i happen to like mine. it produces some mighty tastey dank. don't waste money on prepackaged potting mixes. it teaches you nothing about soil biology and you need experience in that area just as much as growing plants.

wow thanks guys, some good information there. sorry for the hit and run earler i had to go to work.

i agree with your comments about soil, this stuff i found in the shed, no idea how long it had been there. i will use some fresh stuff when i do re-pot.

you are correct with your guess about the sun, it is my only light source at present.
[this might sound really nooby] cfl's are normal everyday lightbulbs right? i have a couple lamps from ikea about the place, kinda small, one is 8w and t'other is 11w. so i guess my question is: will these be ok until i get a proper light sorted (ie will they cause any adverse effects) or should i not bother with them? also i can leave these on 24/7 if i need to (or 18/6)

what are your recommendations as to total darkness if using an 18/6, does a plant need to be locked away or will it be fine in a room with curtains closed kinda thing?

now i am approaching the third week of life, when is a good time to start with nutes. could i get away with no nutes, nice and organic??

thanks

Those would be good supplemental lights, don't think for a second that you can grow any type of weed with lights that small. You want 100 actual watts per plant. Since you're growing outdoors(using the sunlight) I would get a par meter so you can see how much light your plant is getting. You need at least 5000 lumens. I'm using about 200 actual watts of CFLs in my grow and that's still on the low end.

For veg you don't really have to worry about light leaks. You do have to worry about them when you flower. I really doubt you're getting anything close to 18 hours of light though.

Your plant is pretty small for three weeks. The soil probably has plenty of nutes still in it. Specifically what organic nutes are you wanting to use?

i have been reading a lot in the forums and i think organic aint for me. im gonna get some fertiliser from the garden centre and go from there