New Grower New Grower - asking community for help with Heavyweight strain Autoflowers

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Hey guys,

This is my first grow. I have a few questions to ask if you don't mind. I've attached pics showing 3 of my ladies who aren't doing to well right now. I planted them on 7/16 @ 6AM. It is now day 4 and they have showed almost no growth since the 2nd day of being out of the soil and aren't looking so good...



I wasn't sure how much info was needed, this is quite a bit below but feel free to skip to the pics if you would rather just see what they look like instead of the huge read.



- I have a Agromax 2x4x6 growing tent

- My seeds I bought are called: Heavyweight Fast & Vast Auto Autoflowering Feminised Seeds

- I germinated them by placing them in pH'd 5.8 RO water for about 12 hours, checking them frequently until all 3 cracked open. After that, I removed them and placed them on layered plain white paper towels and made sure they were separated from each other and the paper towel was moist. Once I folded the paper towels over I placed them into a open plastic sandwich bag and let sit for about 20 hours in a dark warm place. Each seed sprouted about a half inch long tap root.

- I prepared my soil beforehand. I am using Promix HP w/mycorise. I filled 3 separate 3-Gallon pots up and then pH'd the soil with my 5.8 pH RO water flushing till about 15-20% run-off. I made sure before placing the seeds into each pot that the soil was moist, not soaked, moist as if you were to buy a garden bag of soil that kinda moist.

-I placed each seed w/taproot facing Down very carefully into 1/4" hole, maybe a tad bit deeper but not by much, then covered it lightly with some loose soil gently pressing down. Since the soil was still moist i only sprayed the top with 5.8 pH water around where i placed the seed, maybe like 5 sprays from the water bottle. I then put a large sandwich bag over the top of each 3 gallon bucket to create a little humidome for the tap roots to get the correct humidity needed to grow better (which i removed after 2-days of the seedlings being popping out of the soil).

- I decided after much research that I wanted to get my ladies out of the ground and into veg using CFL 6500K color temp spiral bulbs. Each pot has hanging above it 3 x 42w 2600 Lumens Spiral CFL bulbs. I wanted to make sure that they got all the light so i bought baking pans for reflectors... i know it was ghetto with the nice tent i bought but I had already purchased ext. cords and such for vertical use, later finding out horizontal is better. So i figured maybe this would direct some of the lost light downwards. Picture below.

-My lights are hanging about 2-4 inches away from the soil atm. I planned to move the lighting up little by little as they grew keeping them as close as possible to the plant without burning it.

-At the top of my Grow tent I have a GrowBright 4" Inline Fan & Carbon Filter Combo. The bottom flaps are opened to bring my house air inside which right now the house is set to 71 degrees. My digital thermometer inside the grow tent is reading 78.8F and 50% humidity.( is positioned at level with the top of the pots) with the lights and fans/carbon filter running.

-Additionally for flowering.. IF I ever make it that far :( ... I have hanging a 400W HPS setup attached to a 400w Ballast (Ballast is mounted outside the tent.) The HPS bulb is encased in a 4 Sided Horizontal Reflector.

- I have some clip on fan's im running that blow across the tops of the CFL lights I mentioned above. Both inline fan at the top and the fans at the bottom for the CFL bulbs run 24/7.

- From day 1 of putting them under the CFL's I chose to go with 18/6 lighting schedule.

- I haven't fed them any kind of nutes or anything weird just the pH 5.8 RO water ( I pH using a digital wand unit you swirl in the water, also i have a PPM meter the water reads 001-004 ppm that I'm using.) As far as watering I really haven't done much. Each day I just spritz around the seedling at the soil in a circle pattern, not much because i heard the roots need to search for water, i was just keeping the soil moist on the top. If i stick my finger into the bucket about 2 inches down its still somewhat moist so I haven't watered them just the spritzing once a day to make the top wet.



Phew.. hopefully your still with me after all that above. I just wanted to make sure I gave all the info so you when you look at my ladies in the pics you can tell me what I've done wrong.


I would greatly appreciate any help you guys can provide. I can upload better pics if needed just let me know.


By the way each seedling pic is separate. The solo cups are a non-autoflower strain I just germinated and placed in there today because I fear i messed up the Auto's.
 

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I added better pictures with Top and bottom views. Image 1003 and 1004 are seedling ONE. Image 1005 and 1006 seedling TWO and so the next 2 are seedling THREE. The last pic is how i have the lights above each pot. Currently they are 3-4" away from the lil ladies
 

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Hi

May I ask how much water do you give to one of your seedlings? I usually give my seedling like a shot glass of water (equates to 1 oz ) everyday. I also check for a little run off after I poured water into the pot but not too much. I use solo cup to start seedling. You know, The tap root is shooting down, looking for water so the bottom of your pot should be moist, not just the top two inches or around the plant. You should also add CalMag to your RO water if you haven't done so.

Young seedlings don't need much fertilizers so I usually grow it in solo cup with coco and vermiculite , or any seed starting mix. Too much fertilizers in soil for young seedlings will stunt and damage its growth. Check your soil.

For light, I only use one CFL, no need for too light at this stage. Once it grow out the second set of leaves, I put it under a larger light.

Hope this help :)
 
hey Af_mini thank you for responding to the post. Everyday I give it one shot glass of pH'd 5.8 RO water. before i planted the seed i flushed the promix hp with 5.8 ph ro water as well to set the soil ph. after a few days i checked on the soil and it was still kinda wet, so i took handfuls out and squeezed to get the excess water out. I did that with each 3 gallon bucket of soil i had till the soil had the same kinda of moist feeling as a garden soil you would buy. I planted the seed then just spritzed the top of the soil a few times with the pH soil. the first 2 days i didn't water it, i just spritz the top a few times to moisten it once a day. day 3 and day 4 (today) i gave it a shot glass worth of water, circling the seedling.

The reason I have 3 CFL's running is multiple different sources I have looked into on the web say that you should be running about 100w-150w per plant or 5000-7500 Lumens per square foot in veg stage to receive the maximize node structure.

As long as I am not burning or bleaching the seedling, I can use that much light right?
Also since my seedlings on day 4 are so small and just starting to get the true leaves - when should i water it more than just the shotglass full. It is starting to get dryer as i stick my finger down about 2-3 inches in the soil. Will it be okay with just a shotglass worth around the seedling? Im wondering if that will be enough for the roots to search out water.


Cheers!
 
hey Af_mini thank you for responding to the post. Everyday I give it one shot glass of pH'd 5.8 RO water. before i planted the seed i flushed the promix hp with 5.8 ph ro water as well to set the soil ph. after a few days i checked on the soil and it was still kinda wet, so i took handfuls out and squeezed to get the excess water out. I did that with each 3 gallon bucket of soil i had till the soil had the same kinda of moist feeling as a garden soil you would buy. I planted the seed then just spritzed the top of the soil a few times with the pH soil. the first 2 days i didn't water it, i just spritz the top a few times to moisten it once a day. day 3 and day 4 (today) i gave it a shot glass worth of water, circling the seedling.

The reason I have 3 CFL's running is multiple different sources I have looked into on the web say that you should be running about 100w-150w per plant or 5000-7500 Lumens per square foot in veg stage to receive the maximize node structure.

As long as I am not burning or bleaching the seedling, I can use that much light right?
Also since my seedlings on day 4 are so small and just starting to get the true leaves - when should i water it more than just the shotglass full. It is starting to get dryer as i stick my finger down about 2-3 inches in the soil. Will it be okay with just a shotglass worth around the seedling? Im wondering if that will be enough for the roots to search out water.


Cheers!

Yeah, at this stage,roots are developing more than the stem and leaves. you can give more water if it's drying out. I just consider a shot glass is the maximum amount of fluid I can give to young seedlings for my solo cup setup until it reaches to 10 days. 3 gal pot should get more. The tap root needs to stay wet or moist all the time during this stage.

Since you "squeezed" out water, Do your pots have good drainage holes at the bottom? I'd check that too. Also, Flushing should be the last resort when your plant got really really sick or has really really bad problem with soil.

I think your plants are not in veg stage, so maybe you could take off one bulb today and check for result tomorrow. If it's not the light, then you can ignore this. I guess once you see the plant's top is growing the set of three fingers fan leaves , you can put it under your HPS light.

Anyway, I'm trying to help you with the best of my knowledge, not the best advices.
 
Thanks Af, I'll give it a try tomorrow when the lights flick back on
 
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