Technical Issue Day 15, seedlings not even an inch tall

[Proph]

Height and growth rate are two entirely different things.. Sure, if you want your plants to "stretch" or get taller, you can raise the light height or dim the wattage.. But that won't make it grow leaves any faster.. The plants, leaf count wise, are behind schedule.. At 14 days above soil the plant should be starting it's 3rd set of new leaves.. Yours are just starting their 2nd.. What's your watering schedule like? How much and how often? Did you make that medium yourself? What is the ppm/ec of the medium?

 

[Highteq]

Height and growth rate are two entirely different things.. Sure, if you want your plants to "stretch" or get taller, you can raise the light height or dim the wattage.. But that won't make it grow leaves any faster.. The plants, leaf count wise, are behind schedule.. At 14 days above soil the plant should be starting it's 3rd set of new leaves.. Yours are just starting their 2nd.. What's your watering schedule like? How much and how often? Did you make that medium yourself? What is the ppm/ec of the medium?

I completely agree with you, I believe they should be farther along than they are despite how tall they are. They look and seem healthy so they should be producing more leafs even if theyre short.

The first week I was watering around 50ml in a circle around the seedlings every few days. Checking soil moisture between watering. pH of my water is always adjusted to around 6.3 and the water ppm is 25. I havent checked ppm of the soil but the runoff ive tested before is around 7 pH.
I did put together the soil myself, 3parts peat moss, 3 parts compost, 2 parts coco and 1 part vermiculite. I however did not adjust the pH of the soil prior to planting as I intended on tuning the soil with the correct pH. Every test ive done with a soil pH meter has read around 6.5pH

 

[St. Tom]

all you can do bro is have patience i cant advise you about the soil as i use coco but I've had slower starters turn out to be beastly plants also are they all the same strain also nice to meet you

 

[Highteq]

all you can do bro is have patience i cant advise you about the soil as i use coco but I've had slower starters turn out to be beastly plants also are they all the same strain also nice to meet you

Definitely ! And I am, just gathering as much information and knowledge as I can along the way. Not going to do anything drastic at this point, just from my observations of others i sense things are moving a bit slow. But hey, could just be the strain like previously mentioned or just these seedlings. I'm optimistic and confident in the health, just stumped on the lethargic growth. Nice meeting you !

 

[Highteq]

Did some investigating today and wanted to do a slurry test on the soil mixture. For my test I did a 1:1 ratio using the top layer of soil and distilled water.

Soil with distilled water at 7pH resulted in a soil slurry PH reading of 7.5.

For my own curiosity I created a 4.0pH tap water part and added to soil with a result of 7.0pH

My soil ph is definitely higher than I would like it to be. I was also under the impression that if I used a lower pH water like 4.0 that my soil pH would be in between. I was surprised to see it only lower to 7.0pH.

So is the solution to further lower the pH of the water to lower the soil? Using an additive like vinegar and flush a TBS with a gallon of water? Or watering with desired 6.3 pHd water?

I had anticipated to using adjusted pHd water to bring soil to desired pH but that seems to be in effective based on my slurry test.

Any thoughts?

 

[Proph]

Did some investigating today and wanted to do a slurry test on the soil mixture. For my test I did a 1:1 ratio using the top layer of soil and distilled water.

Soil with distilled water at 7pH resulted in a soil slurry PH reading of 7.5. View attachment 1281510

For my own curiosity I created a 4.0pH tap water part and added to soil with a result of 7.0pH
View attachment 1281511
My soil ph is definitely higher than I would like it to be. I was also under the impression that if I used a lower pH water like 4.0 that my soil pH would be in between. I was surprised to see it only lower to 7.0pH.

So is the solution to further lower the pH of the water to lower the soil? Using an additive like vinegar and flush a TBS with a gallon of water? Or watering with desired 6.3 pHd water?

I had anticipated to using adjusted pHd water to bring soil to desired pH but that seems to be in effective based on my slurry test.

Any thoughts?

Water does not effect the ph of the soil.. The ph of your water/feed is strictly about nutrient uptake/availability of the nutrients in that water/feed. Soil ph is controlled by the plant rhizosphere and the elements in of the soil, and is all about the roots environment. Two completely different things. If you didn't add a ph buffer to stabilize the soil, then it probably shifts/drifts, or is different in different places of the pot. I don't advise mixing/making soils without proper calibration.. I also do not recommend mixing mediums. Im not sure where that recipe came from but it seems quite off.. Peat moss is acidic.. It's ph is like 3 or 4.. Coco is almost neutral at 6-7.. Compost is often alkaline getting as high as 8... There's no way I would try to stabilize those three ranges into one, without a real soil probe, or even at all.

 

[Highteq]

Water does not effect the ph of the soil.. The ph of your water/feed is strictly about nutrient uptake/availability of the nutrients in that water/feed. Soil ph is controlled by the plant rhizosphere and the elements in of the soil, and is all about the roots environment. Two completely different things. If you didn't add a ph buffer to stabilize the soil, then it probably shifts/drifts, or is different in different places of the pot. I don't advise mixing/making soils without proper calibration.. I also do not recommend mixing mediums. Im not sure where that recipe came from but it seems quite off.. Peat moss is acidic.. It's ph is like 3 or 4.. Coco is almost neutral at 6-7.. Compost is often alkaline getting as high as 8... There's no way I would try to stabilize those three ranges into one, without a real soil probe, or even at all.

I appreciate the response, very helpful.
The soil mix was a common choice amung the various site and posts I saw about autoflower perhaps not the best choice now haha what is your goto medium? I wouldn't mind trying a coco setup.

I'm interested in doing a 2 bucket hydroponics setup. I've being doing garden herbs hydroponically and like the process. I'm printing up some net pots right now to try