Hello everybody I'm new to this site I'm just looking for some much needed advice. This is my second grow but my first autoflower grow. I have 4 9 day autoflowers growing as we speak and I'm a bit concerned. I am using Coco coir and a 250w HPS. I have a ballast and can adjust it from 250/400 and 600 but I've had no choice but to leave it on 250 due to the hot weather. Anyway back to the topic at hand 1 of my plants seems to be dropping and just doesn't look healthy at all. Can somebody please give me some advice? Is it under watering? Over watering? Or heat stress? Are the others okay? Seem awfully small for 9 days old. Any advice would be great
Autoflower help!!
- Thread starter Kystro
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Not familiar with your medium but I know they're stretching for light.
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@Kystro to AFN.First of all we need to see pictures of the plants in 5000K Day Light color or flash. Turn the grow lights off.
They do seem a little small but at this stage it does not mean much. Most of the early growth is in the root system. It looks like you are watering wrong. If there are dry spots in the pot the roots will not grow there and may lead to stunted plants latter. What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and roots there will die. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. There is an art to watering.
Now the light may be too far from the plants. Use the back of the hand method to determine the light height. Hold the back of your hand to the light at canopy level and lower the lamp until the back of your hand is pleasantly warm but not hot.
You mention high heat how high? With high heat you need high humidity especially with seedlings. I would shoot for 70%. if it too hot and too dry they will stop growing. Ideal day temp is 78°F 68°F at night with RH 40% to 60%. I have trouble to stay that cool in the summer and have hit the low 90s and still had reasonable harvests.
Thank you for the great advice. I have lowered the lights so it is warm below my hand but not hot. And I will give them a good watering tomorrow, all over but not saturated. The plant that's drooping slightly, do you think it will recover if watered correctly from now on? And the temperatures are mad at the moment ranging from between 25c and 30c and humidity is roughly 50% will try higher the humidity. Thank you.
First of all we need to see pictures of the plants in 5000K Day Light color or flash. Turn the grow lights off.
They do seem a little small but at this stage it does not mean much. Most of the early growth is in the root system. It looks like you are watering wrong. If there are dry spots in the pot the roots will not grow there and may lead to stunted plants latter. What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and roots there will die. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. There is an art to watering.
Now the light may be too far from the plants. Use the back of the hand method to determine the light height. Hold the back of your hand to the light at canopy level and lower the lamp until the back of your hand is pleasantly warm but not hot.
You mention high heat how high? With high heat you need high humidity especially with seedlings. I would shoot for 70%. if it too hot and too dry they will stop growing. Ideal day temp is 78°F 68°F at night with RH 40% to 60%. I have trouble to stay that cool in the summer and have hit the low 90s and still had reasonable harvests.
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Hey it is a weed.... they should survive.
25-30°C is not way too hot. I run those temps all summer from June - September.
Awesome, thanks. 1 last question and I'll leave you be do you think it would be ok to add organic veg nutrients after 2 weeks mate
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It is ok to add the organic nutrients at any time the problem is it takes a long time for the microbes to convert the inputs to ions the plant can assimilate. So they may not become available to this plant as it will have lived and died before the conversion happens.
Organic soils should really be "cooked" for months to years prior to use. I grow my outdoor gardens organically (over 20 years of organic inputs now) but my indoor cannabis is salts with Humic Acid, Fulvic acid and Kelp as the only organic inputs. Even these have been refined. 15 years ago I used to haul soil from outdoors to grow indoors. It was great at first but you can really only grow one plant in the soil and it needs to be returned outdoors to be recharged. My outdoor garden could not supply enough soil and my back gave out on me. That is when I went Hydro. Now pumps do all of the heavy lifting. DWC is an amazing method for growing cannabis if you have the right temperature environment. Unfortunately it is too hot here so I have evolved to growing in rock wool cubes.
Django_TO
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Besides all that @Mañ'O'Green already said, try to fold the sides of the pots. There's a lot of space between the top soil and the top of the pots. The girls might not stretch so much if the light reaches them better.
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