Severely stunted outdoor grow

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D1LDN

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Hi guys,

I had a pretty successful first outdoor grow last year.

Initial rookie error of using miracle-gro compost aside, I brought in c. 4oz from two plants, relying on bio-bizz bloom for my nutrients.

This year has been an absolute shocker: despite investing in All-Mix substrate, BB Gro, Alg-a-mic and BB Bloom my first plant (Narco Purps by Cream of the Crop) is severely stunted at less than 30cm tall(!!!!) and I'm expecting c. 5grams max from a 11Litre pot.

Absolutely galling.

I decided to try again with a second Narco Purps plant, germinated around 4 weeks ago. This time I went with Light-Mix and a 12Litre fabric pot. The exact same stunting as happened again. We're talking 15CM tall and I can already see the beginnings of pre-flower. The leaves are healthy aside from the odd thrip nibble, with no signs of nutrient deficiency etc.

The weather here (South East UK) has been dry, but overwhelmingly overcast. Other than that, the environment is exactly as it was last year.

I don't see a way to fix this now? But would be interested to know whether I just put this down to extremely poor genetics or old seeds that are ill suited to an outdoor set-up?

Happy to post some photos if that's helpful.

Big thanks,
 
I looked up the strain and found some reviews on the Narco Purps. All describe the height as medium to small.
You said "The weather here (South East UK) has been dry, but overwhelmingly overcast. Other than that, the environment is exactly as it was last year. "
I think your answer is lack of sunlight. Anyway you could set them up with some lights?
 
Thanks for looking into this - much appreciated.

That's an interesting thought re: the sunlight. I've been growing tomatoes at the same time, and whilst the fruits aren't ripening too fast at all, the plants have skyrocketed in terms of vegetative growth during the same period.

I've got a real lack of knowledge when it comes to indoor set-ups and lighting...What would be the minimum set-up I'd be looking at?
 
It could be as simple as a light in a garden shed.
The main problem is the smell of marijuana when it starts flowering if it is inside your house.
So you would need some ventilation and maybe a charcoal filter if the air was recirculating inside your house.
I remember folks used to grow in small cabinets using several compact fluorescent bulbs. A LED light will give you better weight. The LED size would depend on how big the growing area will be.
I do believe that particular strain tends to be smaller so you may want to try another strain on the next grow.

"CFL or compact fluorescent light is really effective in the cool white spectrum as an alternative to an MH bulb. A 250W CFL can deliver comparable results to a 400W MH lamp. This is achieved by hanging the CFL as close as 10cm above the plant canopy. CFL runs cool and can get really close to plants without burning foliage. Plus, CFL lights will only marginally increase grow-op temps. This makes CFL perfect for seedlings, cuttings, and for use during vegetative growth. CFL lights are sometimes the only option for micro-growers.

Unfortunately, CFL boasts neither impressive lumen nor PAR output figures. Worse, CFL lights are not very effective for flowering marijuana. Cannabis plants need far more intense illumination during bloom than CFL can supply. Expect lightweight yields and loose buds from CFL lights in the flowering phase."


"HOW MUCH LIGHT DOES YOUR GROW ROOM NEED?
To establish the correct amount of light for your crop, you need to multiply your grow room length by its width to obtain the growing surface, then multiply the obtained figure with your desired PPFD level.

If your grow box is 250cm long and 80cm wide, your grow space will be 2.50m × 0.80m = 2m². If you aim for a flowering plant canopy of around 2 square metres and you want to experiment with a PPFD level of 500μmol, you simply need 1,000μmol/m²/s. This result should then be divided by the PPFD per watt of light to ascertain the wattage needed."

On micro growing:
www.royalqueenseeds.com

Cannabis Micro Growing: Growing Great Weed in Tiny Spaces - RQS Blog

Think you haven't got the space to grow weed? Think again. With our guide on micro growing, you can grow top-shelf bud at home in even the tiniest of spaces.
www.royalqueenseeds.com www.royalqueenseeds.com
 
Thanks for the info - that's really helpful.

Whilst this summer hasn't been anywhere near as good as 2020, I just can't get my head around the cloudy weather affecting the plants to this extent. I've just looked at last years crop after the same time period, and they were honesty 10x the size at this point.

Last year I had Alpujarrena and BCN Critical XXL. Some obvious issues with nutrient deficiencies per above, and also a bit of Powdery Mildew, but I was more than happy with the eventual yield.

Some images of this year's first and latest Narco Purps attempts here...Madness?!

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A good indicator for adequate light levels is the inter-nodal spacing of a plant during vegetative growth. You said yourself that the tomatoes you're growing are getting huge.
The more light you supply a plant the shorter the space between nodes/branch points will be. So lacking light leaves em lenky.

Your first three nodes are spaced quite far apart, so low light levels are likely the cause of that but then they should have shot up for the pre-blooom stretch and yours just stopped. So there looks to be more happening than just light.

In every picture you've taken the soil looks quite dry, did you always take them before watering? And did you supply additional nutrients after the first 3 weeks?
 
Just my opinion but if it was due to "light" they would of been lanky n not short-( I dont grow outside tho so idk). Another thing when plants are small it could be the watering was off and roots got into pockets of dry soil and just stunted them..
Genetics play a role as well, so the possibility of one or more than one reason why they might of stunted.

:goodluck: :jointman::pass:
 
Druid said:
A good indicator for adequate light levels is the inter-nodal spacing of a plant during vegetative growth. You said yourself that the tomatoes you're growing are getting huge.
The more light you supply a plant the shorter the space between nodes/branch points will be. So lacking light leaves em lenky.

Your first three nodes are spaced quite far apart, so low light levels are likely the cause of that but then they should have shot up for the pre-blooom stretch and yours just stopped. So there looks to be more happening than just light.

In every picture you've taken the soil looks quite dry, did you always take them before watering? And did you supply additional nutrients after the first 3 weeks?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response - much appreciated.

That's really interesting re: the nodal spacing. Agree there surely has to be more going on than the cloudy weather given the normal growth on my other ornamental and veg plants.

The soil in those photos from yesterday was fairly moist by one knuckle deep. I've used BioBizz Gro and Alg-a-mic from Week 3 onwards for both plants.

Is the younger plant at all salvageable at this stage? Or are we looking at a another 3.5g harvest situation?
 
mwilliams2006 said:
Here is what I use for my outdoor plants in the garage on cloudy days. Amazon.com : iPower GLJMPSFOLD4 4 Feet Foldable Grow Light Stand Rack for Seed Starting Plant Propagation (No LED Tube Included) : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I hang a Vivarspectra P2000 on it and use white cardboard for reflective "walls." Take it with a grain of salt as I don't consider myself to be a successful outdoor grower (yet). HTH, IMHO, YMMV, etc.
Click to expand...

Cheers man. Sadly I don't have the right space for an indoor grow set-up...but appreciate the advice.
 
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