New Grower long time lurker does first grow

[lunarman]

Coming up on 3 weeks tomorrow. See pic below. I think they look pretty good but would like an honest opinion. This is an organic grow so not doing a feeding schedule. But I did top dress the solo cups with some EWC and some Welcome Harvest Flower Power which is an all purpose organic nute from BC Canada.

I dont think I'm going to top these since it's my first grow and I'd like to get some experience with basic growing so I have a baseline in my mind. I do have the SCROG netting ready to go once I transplant these to the fabric pots. And I'm going to use my amended soil in the pots and will add a good dose of the Flower Power to the soil at the same time. It looks like these plants are getting close to outgrowing the solo cups.

 

[lunarman]

I am on 20 days since seeds broke. Things were going well but in the last few days I'm noticing a lot of leaf droop. The two plants in the middle are the same strain -- DP White Widow CBD. The one of the left looks really bad. The one of the right is not as bad. The far left is a DP Ultimate auto. It is getting yellow lower leaves. And has droop too. And the one on the right is the DP Candy Jack. It looks like the best of the 4.

I have not watered in 2 days. I also removed the outside solo cup so the inside cup has more exposure to air to the roots thru all the slits cut in the cup. I am not sure if this is just a case of over watering or what.

This is an organic grow so my nutes are in the soil and I do make up a tea for watering too. So I don't think this is nute deficiency.

I'm using a grid of T5 HO lights above, and also T5 side lighting.

Tent temp and humidity is normal.

 

[lunarman]

I could use some help with my first grow. People commented on how good the setup looks when I posted this journal, but good gear in the hands of a newbie isn't going to cut it.

I have another picture to add to the journal that really shows what I think are unhealthy seedlings. the complete plants are drooping. All the leaves and drooping. on all 4 plants. This picture shows one plant that is drooping the most. Hoping I can get some feedback from others on what could be causing this.

Notice how all the leaves are drooped down.

 

[jingo]

Hey bro

Looking back a couple days seedlings look healthy, but slightly under developed. Now your correct they look sick.

Sense your going to repot, id gently lift one out and look at the roots. I would think they'd be wet and slimy or smelly. But they could be dried out.

May solve you're problems with a re pot.

I'm not getting my notification, but I'll find my way back if you tag me by writing @jingo. You can tag anyone you want for help that way.

We also have an infirmary for faster expert help.

 

[lunarman]

Thanks Jingo for replying.

The solo cups are cut down the side so I can peel the cup back and check the soil and roots and to me they are looking totally fine. The soil is not soaking wet at all. I check every day and try and keep it moist. Little dry up top, and then moister towards the bottom of the cup but not wet. I have quite a bit of perlite in my TLO soil and I find I can water with around 1/4 cup per plant and I see run off immediately and the soil can start to dry out pretty quickly. If anything I could be underwatering but the plants don't show those symptoms.

One thing I did introduce in the last couple of days is a tea, which I thought would be harmless. I setup a 5 gallon bucket and airpump/stone and added an organic powder with a bunch of different meals blended together (4-10-4) plus EWC and some molasses. I just ball park measured things. And watered my plants. I have also topped dressed the cups with EWC and the organic powder over a week ago and that seemed to really help so not sure how a similar tea would have a negative affect.

I'm going to stop the tea and just use ph'd water and flush for a day or two.

I'm going to hold off a bit on transplanting I think. Last night I turned off the lights for the first time in 3 weeks for 8 hours but kept the tent warm thru the night. I can't see how much affect that had but the plants seem maybe slightly better or maybe thats just me hoping it was so.

What I find weird is the plants look under developed like you say. Short, squat, and now dropping. I wonder if the issue could be related to light or temp or humidity or all of them.

@jingo

 

[lunarman]

wanted to mention one more thing @jingo. I noticed a small no seeum's bugs on a plant yesterday. Not sure if it was a mite. And not sure if bugs can affect growth like this.

 

[lunarman]

one more thing @jingo. I have 600 watt HPS air cooled lights but have not used them yet. I am using a T5 fixture above the plants. It has 4 x 2' bulbs in it. And I had to very close to the plants since it is cool enough and won't burn them. I also have a t5 bulb on each side for side lighting. I wonder if having the overhead fixture so close to the plants limited the growth of the plants from a height perspective and it basically trained the plants to be short and squat and made them droop as well. And when they first started out I had great growth as seen in the pictures, but then thru time I didnt raise the lights that much - I though the closer the better for penetration and growth.

After the 8 hours of darkness last night, I put the lights back on and raised them a couple of inches higher than they were before, which as pretty much an inch above the plants. Maybe I'll see some improvement in a day with the lighting distance change.

 

[lunarman]

I am getting some yellow lower leaves too. I wonder if I have a PH issue, nutrient lock or N deficiency due to lock.

Do these pictures tell us anything?

 

[Journey Man]

At @jingo, isnt hes girls beeing chronicly underwatered? Dry leafs, yellowing, i also see some tacos, that looks heat-stressed. It looks like the roots gets to little water. But i could be wrong, i just try to give my toughts about it.


Whats your temps @lunarman?

 

[lunarman]

@RamboGarden. My temps are pretty good I think. Using T5 lights in a big tent right now. Not using HPS yet. Average temp is 25C. Lights on 24hrs so light affect on temp is consistent, and ambient temp is buffered to be pretty flat because the tent is in an insulated garage. Thanks for pointing out the possible underwatering. I don't see that mentioned much as an issue compared to overwatering. I have flushed twice in the last day with PH'd straight water at around 6.0 to 6.5. The solo cups definitely have some weight to them now. Maybe this will fix things.