Small for day 15? Growth not yet taking off

Hi all. First grow now under way thanks to some kind help from these forums.

Indoor grow (for now, maybe moving outside later) 2x3 tent
100W actual output full spectrum LED
Growing in coco 1.5 litre pot (for now)
Temps are 75-79F/24-27C
Humidity 60-70%
Royals Queen Seeds - Easy Bud Autoflower strain

I know transplanting autos is not recommended but I need to start these indoors and that necessitates small pots, I accept the risk with transplanting.

I pre soaked the coco only with tap water .5EC (we have hard water but no chlorine) at PH7, no nutes. The husk became stuck on the seedling and stalled, after I removed it the plant seemed to be okay but the first set of true leaves were quite slow to develop - a typical example of the risk of stunting autos perhaps, but I will see this one through because I want to keep learning. Growth then picked up but never really 'took off'. At about day 9 I introduced Canna A+B + Cal Mag EC 0.9 (so .4 of nutes) at PH6.5. The plant kept growing at a slow but steady pace and on day 13 at next watering I upped the nutes to about 1.1EC, ~PH6.2.

Pic attached is day 15. Is it likely to just be behind because of the husk issue or is something amiss elsewhere? The leaves are about 5 inch wide

Thank you in advance!

Because that point you was do transplanting of autoflower is not good idea that how it ruin their roots because auto only havt e their final pot to be stay forever till harvest so if you get fem seed as photoperiod it can transplanting....

So i am sugget you to try put 2ml of hydrogen perxoide 3% into 16 oz water and feed it never know maybe help root back alive because that hydrogen perxoide have oxygen help root breath as well and healthy. You can review on youtube

That how i put 3 ml of it into distilled one liter water and feed my plant its healthy no joke also grow more too here my pic

I know that transplanting autos is not the recommended thing but as I say in my post, I do not have a choice (time/space/other limitations).

The plant in the picture has not yet been transplanted so I don't see how that can have anything to do with the slow growth I have asked about?

Roots before shoots. 15 days from seed? It could just be making good root system it should kick off soon tho

Thanks Arnski. Though Day 15 from first set of true leaves, more like day 18 from planting of (paper towel) germinated seed into medium.

This is what I have been telling myself, root system is establishing and it will take off soon, though I'm lucky if I have 2 more weeks of veg before it flowers.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind at all about a low yield, I just want to know if the slow growth may be down to a mistake (be it the helmet head at sprout or something else?) so I can make sure I correct it in the future

Thank you again!

For the future, don't wait so long to feed her...the minute they're up you should start a nutrient based feed if you're using coco. Waiting a week to feed put you 1 week behind. Remember, 5.8 pH is your sweet spot. Good luck.

Thank you @CannaCountry . I have just germinated a planted a White Widow auto last night. If it manages to break the surface then I will be feeding as soon as first set of leaves appear. Next time I will probably pre-soak. I have seen lots of people mention that "they dont need nutes until X, the seed has enough and they will tell you when they need more", but I guess if that were the case then why do so many people pre-soak with nutes?

I think I misunderstood too. I basically thought that if a plant ISNT showing nutrient deficiency then it’s at capacity already. This very much changes my view of the ‘less is more’ mantra people have been recommended with autos, if that indeed was what my mistake was.

thanks again!

"Pre-soak", I'm assuming is what you mean by buffering new coco with nutrients before using it? If so, you'll certainly want to do this, but it will not negate the fact, that if you're going to run coco, you need to feed from day 1. The plant derives next to nothing from the coco, and even with the pre soak, buffering, charging, whatever you care to call it, the step is to fill holes if you will in the coco, it's not so much to provide nutrients to the plant you're about to grow in it. If that makes sense. And I would agree, if your plant isn't showing a deficiency, at least at that moment in time, one would have to think it was happy. Good luck

It’s gonna take off. Stop doing some silly food cycle for autos for the first 30 days. Stop whatever you’re feeding and give your autos just water for a few. I promise I can show you autos I fed the fuck out of , this run, and autos I fed water only..... I’ll be damned. The water only show less stress and far larger shoots and top buds.

Now I’m even more confused. So is feeding a low amount of Canna A+B and Cal Mag, at 0.4-0.9 EC above base EC, a ‘silly food cycle’? So you’re basically recommending a flush of a young plant in coco? That’s exactly the type of thing I have been advised not to do so in curious as to the reasoning behind that.

Too late anyway as I increased the feed to 1.3 EC above base last night - plant isn’t giving me any bad signals yet so will see how that goes.

Moabfighter said:

It’s gonna take off. Stop doing some silly food cycle for autos for the first 30 days. Stop whatever you’re feeding and give your autos just water for a few. I promise I can show you autos I fed the fuck out of , this run, and autos I fed water only..... I’ll be damned. The water only show less stress and far larger shoots and top buds.

Click to expand...

He's in coco, he has to feed every watering.

OP, your fine with your feed schedule just could have fed sooner. I've noticed with a lot of autos they do seem to grow kind of slow at first anyways then take off all of a sudden.

There young let them grow. Man I see so many people on here when starting to grow go ham on the plants when there babies. And where did this no transplant autos come from. I’ve deff always herd people say don’t transplant them but I do all the time obviously I’m not transplanting a 2 month auto but as long as it doesn’t have pistol shoots yet do what u need to some of the fattest autos I’ve had we’re transplanted around week 4 or so as long g as there’s no pistols.
but be carful don’t fuck anything up o. The plants roots or bend stems or over water after. And within a week it should recover and continue. It’s the shock risk that u need to be carful of be carful and you’ll be fine pot swapping them I even last year stuck a zkittlez plant outside after it started to bud in house I spent a week introducing it to sun and then outta bucket and into the ground at like day 35.