rookie mistake, transplanting advice/ opinions?

Okay so i just transplanted my 3 girls into their own 3 gal pots. The soil they were in had vermiculite and peat moss mixed into the soil. I'm using an organic soil and i was so eager to transplant them i forgot to mix in anything to provide space. (mainly b/c i didn't have any vermiculite onhand.

One of the girls is looking a little pale. but she got burned from the lights (ironically enough this was while i was at the store getting dirt and pots.) The other two are looking quite quite runty as well. This is my first grow so i'm not really sure how i should react. I know that watering can compress soil, leaving no room for roots to expand.

My question is, how long should I wait until upending the pots and mixing the vermiculite in? (was planning on giving the seedlings a week to get settled) OR should i just leave it/ try to mix in the spacer as best i can while keeping the girls potted?

Any advice/ opinions are welcome and appreciated.View attachment 1835555

see how long the soil holds water you can do this by lifting the pot after watering and comparing its weight the next day( the lighter the pot the less the water) i think they will be fine paleness could be because of overwatering.

paleness or yellowing of the leaf is also a N deff i had one of my plants do that i gave her some nkp and it went right a way

Thanks for the advice. I'll try the water thing but i've been super careful not to over water them. I barely give them a cup of water every coupl' day's.

I'm gonna have to agree with the N deff hypothesis. The soil had a NPK ratio of .1, .05, .1; although, half of that was slow release. I've been reading up on nutes and haven't bought any yet, so obviously i haven't used any, i'm not in a position where i can order nutes online. I'm going to have to use nutes bought at wall mart or lowes.

I've been reading up on my options from some very excellent threads here (really sorry i didn't save the user names for credit ) and i've narrowed my options down to 1 alaskan fish fert, 2 Peters complete, or Green-light and Bat Guano if i can find them.

Anyone have any experience with these?

PS ill be buying what i can find this weekend and will be posting before and after nutes pic's by wed's.

Check out more details and pics of my grow setup in my GrowJournal https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/476223-first-cfl-closet-grow-started.html

you are going to suffocate your root systems unless you get perlite/vermiculite in there ASAP...with soil that dense the water just sits there and the roots don't grow.

massah said:

you are going to suffocate your root systems unless you get perlite/vermiculite in there ASAP...with soil that dense the water just sits there and the roots don't grow.

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Yeah but don wanna stress the girls too much. It has been about 4 days since I transplanted them. What i'm going to put some vermiculite in there this weekend. My question is should i up end the pots and thouroughly mix the Vrmculite in? or, (what i am planning to do) jus use my hand to dig up the top 4-6 inches, around the girls w/o actually digging them out of their pots...

Budda growing pot said:

Yeah but don wanna stress the girls too much. It has been about 4 days since I transplanted them. What i'm going to put some vermiculite in there this weekend. My question is should i up end the pots and thouroughly mix the Vrmculite in? or, (what i am planning to do) jus use my hand to dig up the top 4-6 inches, around the girls w/o actually digging them out of their pots...

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First things first - Did you pay a lot of money for the seeds or were they bagseeds?
If theyre bagseed, pull them out and start over. Youre only a week into it at this point.
If you paid money for good seeds, theyre still worth trying to save. Those plants are so small, the roots are probably only 2-3 inches long. Pull out a 3 or 4 inch ball of dirt with the plant in it. Then remix your soil, and repot them. If youre careful, you can do this without disturbing the roots.

Mike@420 said:

Those plants are so small, the roots are probably only 2-3 inches long. Pull out a 3 or 4 inch ball of dirt with the plant in it. Then remix your soil, and repot them. If youre careful, you can do this without disturbing the roots.

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Thanks Mike, i'll be doing that then, the seeds are from a friends grow in San Diego. He had a MM card so i know the bud is going to be good.

PS. Ill be starting lst on the biggest plant in about 2 weeks. Is this to soon (grow started 9/30/)
More pics coming soon