Question about seedlings\early veg

Hey all,

I have 2 questions i'm hoping you guys can give some input on.

First, I usually grow from clone, not seed, I feel like my growth is going super slow, the 3 bigger ones were planted about 3 weeks ago and the 4 small ones about 2 weeks ago, is this poor growth?

My second question is in regards to the single plant photo. As you can see, I have some yellowing and some brown on the lower leaves, can anyone suggest what my issue might be? At first I gave them about 200-250ppm and now about 400ppm, i mix my own nutes from dry ferts, and used an NPK ratio of about 3-1-2. I also give calcium and magnesium, as well as trace (micros) nutes.

I'm wondering if maybe my ppm levels are off (nutrient deficiency) or maybe my t5ho bulbs are too close?

Appreciate any feedback!

Thanks!

Xul said:

Hey all,

I have 2 questions i'm hoping you guys can give some input on.

First, I usually grow from clone, not seed, I feel like my growth is going super slow, the 3 bigger ones were planted about 3 weeks ago and the 4 small ones about 2 weeks ago, is this poor growth?

My second question is in regards to the single plant photo. As you can see, I have some yellowing and some brown on the lower leaves, can anyone suggest what my issue might be? At first I gave them about 200-250ppm and now about 400ppm, i mix my own nutes from dry ferts, and used an NPK ratio of about 3-1-2. I also give calcium and magnesium, as well as trace (micros) nutes.

I'm wondering if maybe my ppm levels are off (nutrient deficiency) or maybe my t5ho bulbs are too close?

Appreciate any feedback!

Thanks!

View attachment 4283044 View attachment 4283045

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They don't look bad. Is there adequate drainage in the cups? The light is not too close.

I think it could b a phosphorus deficiency.it looks similar and it affects oldest leaves...

Hey i think they are doing ok. The first couple of weeks growth usually seems quite slow on top. This is the seedling stage establishing a root system, they then go into vegging, at this point the growth will increase substantially.
I have plants about the same age, some of them being clones and others seed.
The clones are notcibly larger even though they were repotted at the same time. The clones look more mature, the seeds look young. This is expected.

Dont worry i think they are doing good, i would seriously considering repotting them soon.
The growth will be different compared to what it has been the past couple of weeks. Thats them in vegging now, 2 weeks time theyll be like triple the size atleast lol, providing you repot.
I only use hid but my seeds are pretty much similar to yours.
I have never done soil so cannot comment on that, when diagnosing issues i usually go through a process of elimination but to me that looks like it mart be where water has been sitting on the leaves?
Beat of luck.

Your growth looks on point for seeds. As for the other plant check run off ph and make sure that's good if it is the next thing I'd do is pop them out of the cups and check the roots, they could be root bound or getting close to it.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback everyone!

I was wondering if it was a phosphorous deficiency but wasn't sure. Definitely planning to re-pot soon. This is in coco, i PH my water after nutes are added so I think PH is good but i'll double check runoff next watering Glad to hear they're growing at a reasonable rate, hopefully the growth starts picking up!

just my 2c but 3 weeks from seed? don't look too bad/looks fine imo. if 3 weeks since sprouting yea they growing kind of slow imo. i wouldn't worry though i had super slow growth like that before after a while they ended up just taking off. have one plant like that in my current grow. small and bushy compared to the other 2 but after like 4 weeks it's just starting to take off more.

if growing in coco you need to remember coco PH is different from soil PH. i don't grow in coco but i think PH is 5.5? soil i believe is 6.0-6.5. idk much about coco but im guessing some may come in pre charged like regular soil and i hear about washing coco due to salts so that is also something to take into consideration.

just my 2c

Lethidox said:

just my 2c but 3 weeks from seed? don't look too bad/looks fine imo. if 3 weeks since sprouting yea they growing kind of slow imo. i wouldn't worry though i had super slow growth like that before after a while they ended up just taking off. have one plant like that in my current grow. small and bushy compared to the other 2 but after like 4 weeks it's just starting to take off more.

if growing in coco you need to remember coco PH is different from soil PH. i don't grow in coco but i think PH is 5.5? soil i believe is 6.0-6.5. idk much about coco but im guessing some may come in pre charged like regular soil and i hear about washing coco due to salts so that is also something to take into consideration.

just my 2c

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Yeah, I PH to around 5.7, I only ever did my first grow in soil, I've used coco ever since, I like being able to monitor what my plant is getting, that way once I do get things dialed in where I'm happy, I can just stick with those numbers.

If you are doing coco, don't pH so low. I'm even seeing people advising going as high as 6.5, most go about 6.2
Your plants are looking fine, the 3 big ones will need transplanting this week, and will shoot out pretty fast from here on.

ANC said:

If you are doing coco, don't pH so low. I'm even seeing people advising going as high as 6.5, most go about 6.2
Your plants are looking fine, the 3 big ones will need transplanting this week, and will shoot out pretty fast from here on.

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Oh really? I've always heard between 5.5-6.5 for coco and 6-7 for soil. A lot of youtube videos I've watched seemed to have people PHing to 5.7 on the regular, which is why I went with that number.

I'm wondering when I should start topping? I've heard around 5-6 nodes, but i feel like these are too small be doing that yet, any suggestions?

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to these girls taking off

thanks

Xul said:

Yeah, I PH to around 5.7, I only ever did my first grow in soil, I've used coco ever since, I like being able to monitor what my plant is getting, that way once I do get things dialed in where I'm happy, I can just stick with those numbers.

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yea i figured since u said u grew clones. still find it funny how some more experienced growers miss that though and try to compare mediums and yet fail to realize the PH makes a huge difference. i PH or try to PH on the lower end because i dont water to run off and feed regularly so i try to take into account salt build up. have to calibrate my pen though taking forever just to get stable numbers without swirling the shit out of it in the jug.

Lethidox said:

yea i figured since u said u grew clones. still find it funny how some more experienced growers miss that though and try to compare mediums and yet fail to realize the PH makes a huge difference. i PH or try to PH on the lower end because i dont water to run off and feed regularly so i try to take into account salt build up. have to calibrate my pen though taking forever just to get stable numbers without swirling the shit out of it in the jug.

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Yeah, i get a stable number for a moment but if i leave it for any amount of time it climbs back up, I just use tap water (come out around 7-7.4 with about 50ppm). I always wondered if it climbing back up was an issue or if this happens within the soil and causes issues. I certainly don't have a proper understanding of all the science

I think you just need to repot.

If the other ones are looking good and you've followed the same procedure on all - then it just wants a bigger home probably.....

If you follow this it would be chloride but I don't think so if it's just one plant, maybe that's your alpha plant and it just outgrew the pot.

yea i second that repotting. if you take a look at my current grow on the first page you can see how early i report and the root growth vs the size of the actual plants. your plants are maybe twice as big as mine in solo cups. me personally i LOVE to repot early as my theory is less transplant shock. less transplant shock = faster recovery = more growth in less time. this is just my theory of course but been doing it since my 2nd grow.

Lethidox said:

yea i second that repotting. if you take a look at my current grow on the first page you can see how early i report and the root growth vs the size of the actual plants. your plants are maybe twice as big as mine in solo cups. me personally i LOVE to repot early as my theory is less transplant shock. less transplant shock = faster recovery = more growth in less time. this is just my theory of course but been doing it since my 2nd grow.

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I just took a look! Looks great! I'll definitely transplant them this weekend Would topping right before, at the same time, or later be my best bet in your opinion?

one stress at a time in my opinion. I FIM at the 4th node. move to the final pot start of week 3 yes or yes.

I also don't get Solo Cups. Wasteful IMO.

I use regular small plastic pots.... already have drainage holes and more sturdy - but yea....

i would top the newest node so in your case the 4th one but as redivider said i'd likely give um a few days to recover first from the transplant before topping. sometimes my plants do well after the transplant and i dont see much or any shock/slowed growth sometimes they get shocked but usually it is from other issues like over watering on my other grow. i tried something new on this grow by topping it later seemed better imo. i used to top them at the height of your 4 small ones they did fine still but i feel like they are too small at that stage to really handle the stress that well.

I just put up a grow journal, which can be seen here : https://www.rollitup.org/t/new-grow-from-seed.984785/

Transplanted the little ones today, thanks for the advice everyone! I was surprised to see them already trying to get root bound at the bottom of the solo cups so it's good I didn't wait longer!

Curious, do you guys tend to use the air pruning technique? I didn't for the 1 gallon pots but i may cut lots of holes in my 5 gal bucks (next time i may try the technique right from the start, as i read that's a good way to get a good root structure.

Xul said:

I just put up a grow journal, which can be seen here : https://www.rollitup.org/t/new-grow-from-seed.984785/

Transplanted the little ones today, thanks for the advice everyone! I was surprised to see them already trying to get root bound at the bottom of the solo cups so it's good I didn't wait longer!

Curious, do you guys tend to use the air pruning technique? I didn't for the 1 gallon pots but i may cut lots of holes in my 5 gal bucks (next time i may try the technique right from the start, as i read that's a good way to get a good root structure.

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i only grow in fabric pots so yes i use that technique i guess you can say. i do it mainly to dry out my soil faster and to simply get more air flow/oxygen to the roots. in my first couple grows the soil dried out in 4-5 days now just 2 days. i water 1gal they soak it up ez. in the past my pots couldn't even soak up the 1gal i'd get tons of run off ( fabric pots as well ) i think it was a soil issue and it took longer to dry out as well.