4 day old seedling / lime green veins

[BoCoGrow]

What soil do you use?

I wanted to stay with Biobizz but now im paranoia about it being bad because I hear quite some people are not a fan of them.

I'll tell you what soil I am using, and while things are progressing nicely (compare the 1 day change between the picture I'll post below with the pic I posted in comment #80), I wouldn't suggest you over-index on what I'm doing. I'm new to this again as well, and I killed my first batch of 6 seedlings, our grow setups are different, etc. I have a long way to go before I am experienced enough to suggest how folks should adjust.

I'm using Fox Farms Ocean Forest (OF) soil. I plant seeds directly into the soil (no presoak, paper towels, etc.), but after filling the pot and before planting the seed, I scoop out around a softball size of the soil in the top center and fill that with seed starter mix. I plant my seed in that to avoid any early nute burn. Then I mist the top of the soil and mist the inside of the humidity domes, and put the pots on a germination heat mat. I don't know if the heat mat even helps given the size of the pots, but I do it anyway and have thus far had 100% germination rate across Sweet Seeds, Canuk Seeds, Roc Bud Inc., Dr. Krippling, etc.

One of the challenges you and I are seeing with trying to learn is that everyone does it differently. I've had people rave about OF and others have said they "will not allow OF on their property ever again." One grower told me to add CalMag to my RO water, and another said CalMag isn't needed. Someone said to soak the pot when watering to 10% runoff, and another person told me that feeding my plants with 6 cups of water at their current stage was too much, even though the runoff was limited to none. Frustrating, right?

It is easy to read a post or thread and think, "ah f**k I should't have done that," or as you noted, to become paranoid about using a specific soil, but whose feedback is gospel? The point of view I've developed is I'm just going to try stuff -- sure, I'm going to read and incorporate what other more experienced growers are doing -- but at the end of the day, what worked or didn't work for someone else may work or not for me. I value all the feedback that I receive in these forums, but at the end of the day, I'll have to make a call, and if it works, great learning experience, and if it doesn't, great but frustrating learning experience.

You also mentioned, "I'm not sure what to blame, the underwatering, the seeds, the soil..." One suggestion that isn't based on growing is to not make too many changes at once. For example, say you increased the watering, changed seeds, and changed soil, and things improved, or got worse. What was the cause? Others may disagree, but I personally only want to change one variable at a time. If I stick with the same seeds, and the same watering, but things improved when I changed the soil, then the improvement was most likely the soil. If I change multiple things at the same time, I don't know what variable actually caused the improvement or decline.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I'll keep watching what you are doing and wishing you the best. The pic I mentioned earlier (good growth on 2 newest sets of leaves):

 

[Tom Bombadil]

ffof is decent. I use it as part of a base. The issue with it is that not all batches are properly aged from what ive seen. Some come out for sale hot due to high demand and the push to get it to the consumer asap. We get it for 10 dollars a bag in my area and it goes fast.

 

[Jaydot]

So she's pretty much done for,
today you can see the the tip of the first leaves are burning away,
same thing is happening on the sides of the leaves.
Are these signs of the plant dying or is that nutrient burn?

 

[Proph]

So she's pretty much done for,
today you can see the the tip of the first leaves are burning away,
same thing is happening on the sides of the leaves.
Are these signs of the plant dying or is that nutrient burn?

It's really hard to say because the seedlings have had leaf issues from day one. I doubt it's nute burn since your not feeding the plant. I don't think it's the soil because the issues appeared before the soil is even a factor. I'd hate to see you pop more seeds from the same group of seeds and have the same issues again. I definitely don't want you getting discouraged because I strongly believe that this is not your fault, or a result of something you did or didn't do. You've tried everything except seeds from an outside source, so my offer still stands If you wanna give that a shot.

 

[Jaydot]

It's really hard to say because the seedlings have had leaf issues from day one. I doubt it's nute burn since your not feeding the plant. I don't think it's the soil because the issues appeared before the soil is even a factor. I'd hate to see you pop more seeds from the same group of seeds and have the same issues again. I definitely don't want you getting discouraged because I strongly believe that this is not your fault, or a result of something you did or didn't do. You've tried everything except seeds from an outside source, so my offer still stands If you wanna give that a shot.

Unfortunately I'm not in the US but I appreciate the offer,
I did get new seeds from another place, I'm just still thinking about switching soil because I'm being paranoid, but I don't have access to ffof.
Perhaps I should stick with Biobizz lightmix, after all alot of people do well with it.

 

[Smoking Frog]

Go with coco coir.
Stupidly easy for beginners.

 

[Jaydot]

Go with coco coir.
Stupidly easy for beginners.

I honestly havn't researched much about coco because I read you should stay away from coco as a beginner, am I wrong?

 

[low_and_slow]

Hey Jaydot, I had similar struggles early in my experience growing cannabis, I feel like I started really seeing good results when I switched to a totally unfertilized medium and began using chemical fertilizers. Organic or soil-growing has a long list of benefits, mostly simplicity, but getting your recipe right from the get-go is absolutely necessary in a way that it's really not in hydro or semi-soilless medium.

My first successful medium was Sunshine Mix #4 and General Hydroponics Flora Trio nutrients. That medium was able to get a seedling into its first few sets of leaves, then I had to begin applying fertigation around day 20.

After that, I moved over to pure coco coir and the same nutrient lineup and have never looked back. Right now I'm mixing the coco 50/50 with vermiculite, but I'm not sure I'm seeing a clear advantage and will probably save my money and just run coco after this grow is over. Verm is super expensive and basically looks the same as the coco-only plants I've grown.

I find that I've arrived at a very specific formula that works with my tap water with only minor tweaks based on varietal I'm growing. The advantage I've found is that you can rinse the coco heavily before planting your seed, and you're going to be fairly certain that all of the nutrients in that medium come from your fertigation, not from slow-release fertilizer added in unknown quantities by the manufacturer.

The other advantage of coco is that you can water it endlessly once the plant is mature and you're very, very unlikely to over-water as a result. With other mediums you'll need to allow plenty of time between waterings because the roots can become distressed if they're not receiving adequate oxygen. In coco, you're essentially growing hydroponically, except there's no real penalty if you only water once per day. It's sort of like the ease of soil with the advantage of letting you push as hard as you want like hydro.

All that said, you won't go wrong with any of the mediums you listed so long as you follow the good horticultural practices you've developed so far, water appropriately, and keep the fertilizer mild and under control. Based on your latest pictures, if that were my plant I'd mix up some 1/5th strength nutes and flush that thing almost to the point of flushing too much...if that doesn't turn things around, then you're probably past the point of no-return and would be better starting over.

 

[Jaydot]

Hey Jaydot, I had similar struggles early in my experience growing cannabis, I feel like I started really seeing good results when I switched to a totally unfertilized medium and began using chemical fertilizers. Organic or soil-growing has a long list of benefits, mostly simplicity, but getting your recipe right from the get-go is absolutely necessary in a way that it's really not in hydro or semi-soilless medium.

My first successful medium was Sunshine Mix #4 and General Hydroponics Flora Trio nutrients. That medium was able to get a seedling into its first few sets of leaves, then I had to begin applying fertigation around day 20.

After that, I moved over to pure coco coir and the same nutrient lineup and have never looked back. Right now I'm mixing the coco 50/50 with vermiculite, but I'm not sure I'm seeing a clear advantage and will probably save my money and just run coco after this grow is over. Verm is super expensive and basically looks the same as the coco-only plants I've grown.

I find that I've arrived at a very specific formula that works with my tap water with only minor tweaks based on varietal I'm growing. The advantage I've found is that you can rinse the coco heavily before planting your seed, and you're going to be fairly certain that all of the nutrients in that medium come from your fertigation, not from slow-release fertilizer added in unknown quantities by the manufacturer.

The other advantage of coco is that you can water it endlessly once the plant is mature and you're very, very unlikely to over-water as a result. With other mediums you'll need to allow plenty of time between waterings because the roots can become distressed if they're not receiving adequate oxygen. In coco, you're essentially growing hydroponically, except there's no real penalty if you only water once per day. It's sort of like the ease of soil with the advantage of letting you push as hard as you want like hydro.

All that said, you won't go wrong with any of the mediums you listed so long as you follow the good horticultural practices you've developed so far, water appropriately, and keep the fertilizer mild and under control. Based on your latest pictures, if that were my plant I'd mix up some 1/5th strength nutes and flush that thing almost to the point of flushing too much...if that doesn't turn things around, then you're probably past the point of no-return and would be better starting over.

It makes sense that unfertilized medium is more trustworthy as you don't know how much and what they put inside the soil,
considering with covid alot of people started to grow at home, resulting in alot of sales, maybe the demand is too high to result in proper soil sometimes, idk just a thought.

Now I don't mind trying coco, just from what I've read online, they say its better to stay away from as a beginner,
again I have the same options for brands, biobizz, plagron, canna and atami.
I do have access to GHE nutrients, they also say chemical nutrients are not adviced for autoflowers.
All the info found online is so confusing.

At this point I still don't have soil so I need a plan to go with.

 

[low_and_slow]

Canna is great stuff, and I've heard about people using Plagron successfully as well.

If someone told you that you can't grow autoflowers with chemical fertilizer, that person is dangerously deranged, lol. I can confirm that you can grow absolutely FIRE autoflowers with chemicals.