New Grower Sour Stompering

[Royalroacho]

These 2 Sour Stompers are my 3rd grow. Kinda fourth, I had 3 Dark Devils I got about 2 weeks into and abandoned. I feel like it's going a little more slowly than my previous attempts, there's been a few hiccups. Firstly, I rebuilt a viparspectra par600, converted to citizen 1818 cobs. I wasn't really prepared for how little heat they produce, and what level to keep them at. Ive always started with rapid rooter in a prop kit with heat mat, but this time one of the seedlings heaved it's way out and I just put them straight in the dirt. So they're in 7 gallon fabric pots with roots organic original soil. Temps were 72 for a few days, I added a 60w incandescent for heat and brought it up to 77. Rh is probably lower than it should be, from 45-60% with a humidifier running, but I think that'll be ok for now.
They're on day 12 today. Just getting half and half ph'd ro/tap with a little earth juice cal mag and a couple drops of superthrive. I added myco/bacteria inoc from kelp for less.
They stretched quite a bit, I had the light too high at first. I dunno about this light, the spread isn't too good. I'm saving for parts to put them on a proper frame. Well see how it goes. There's 2 4000k and 4 3000k running at 36 watts each, hung at 26".
This seedling phase is always pretty stressful for me, it's hard for me to read what the plant wants at this point. Trying not to overreact and cause more problems. The 2nd set of leaves were arching, kinda looked like a child's cartoon bird drawing. Or the open doors of a Delorean. The edges of the lower leaves folded up a little. Im not sure if it's light stress, and raised the light a little. This pic is from yesterday, day 11...

Here they are today, day 12. The one close to the humidifier, in the first pic,is a bit slower, maybe from the temp difference? Maybe not.

I would appreciate any thoughts and advice. I'll try to keep this a lazy journal, I'm pretty busy and easily distracted.
Also, is this a the soil probe you recommend @Waira ?
Amazon product ASIN B004PDNQOK

 

[jingo]

They look to be developing normally, I wouldn't stress on them at this point.

 

[Waira]

...yup, they're doing fine Royal', the young leaves are still growing and often may get wavy or arched some as the new tissues expand,....
-- Ok, how big is your tent? 6 COB's is kicking ass powerful! As you know, our eyes are not a good judge of PAR intensity, etc., and seedling do not want the intensity of light that older plants do... How far away are the lights? I'm thinking 24-30" at least; light stress with LED/COB is more insidious than with HID... did you opt' for dimmers, or can you control power to individual COB's? We have an excellent DIY light section here, and some very solid skilled members to consult with (I'm not one of them! I'm a Sun grower mostly...).. If you want the light to spread more, there may be lenses that will help,... not using reflectors, right? They tend to focus, not spread,...
ah, that's it, the A8! Follow direction with it's use, and some tips: the bi-metal tip is the key, so it must be kept clean and stored well to lessen surface tarnishing which will mess with accuracy...scrub it before each use after being stored, and wipe it clean after use with a damp paper towel..
- don't take readings right after you've fed or used pH'ed water, these may skew results
- take reading when the soil is nicely moist, not soaked, and nowhere near dry.. the moisture affects conductivity profoundly, so best readings come from levels in between these!
-- let it sit for a few minutes to stabilize.. it'll jump like crazy as you push it into the soil, so it needs time to level out and read well,...
-- never immerse it in liquids!

 

[Royalroacho]

Thanks for explaining the soil probe, I'd seen you mention it in other posts, wanted to make sure it was the right one. I had a cheap 3 in 1 that only worked for moisture, it corroded from leaving it in the soil, definitely will keep it clean this time.
The tent is 4x2x5, but the cobs are pretty close together. There's 3 switches that control 2 cobs each. I initially had it at the top of the tent, and they stretched quite a bit. I buried about an inch of stem. I have all the lights on right now at 26", I played around with it and left it there when they started bending towards it. They were definitely trying to escape at lower heights. Im watching for signs of stress. Actually, I'm kinda hovering over them constantly like a protective mother hen...hmm...it's been 20 minutes since I checked in on them...I better go make sure they're ok

 

[Royalroacho]

Day 16. I received the PH probe today. The ph is 6.5-6.6. That's good. The moisture meter is telling me that 4 inches or so below the soil surface is very wet. That's bad. And would possibly account for the growth being slowed down. I had been giving them 250 ml each, every 3 days. I'll let it dry out. Would it help to raise the fabric pot on 2x4's? I'm also ordering parts to remake the light, theyre too concentrated.
Temps are at 75-77, rh ~50%. I have an oscillating fan on low speed setting. Lights about 30" above.

In the picture that loaded sideways, you can see the leaf edges are curling. Is that from too much light or possibly they're trying to transpire more because of overwatering?

 

[Seabass]

Looking good man, after they stretch their roots in those 7 gal pots, they'll explode! Environment looks perfect. I've got a Sour Stomper a bit older then yours, feel free to check her out. Happy growing.

 

[Royalroacho]

I checked them out, lookin good.:smoking: Mine are Def a little behind, kinda makes me wanna start over...not giving in to fatalist perfectionism...I can always get more going after I rebuild the light, and it would be cool enough to try dwc again without the hid lighting...

 

[Royalroacho]

I raised the pots by putting 2 2x4's beneath them, soils starting to dry. They seem healthy other than what's probably mild overwatering symptoms. @Waira, if I'm going by the probes moisture meter, do you know what average level I should water? This is the worst part for me, gaging water intake un the first few weeks.
I'm going to give them the first feeding next watering. I mixed 1/10 tsp earth juice sea blast grow, 1 ml earth juice calmag, and 3 drops superthrive in RO water, which I keep an air stone in. I dunno if the superthrive does anything. The conditions are different from previous grows, so I can't compare. I'll stop it when the preflowers show.
I have noticed they get a short growth spurt after watering, then slow down after ~18 hours. I'm guessing the roots need more o2, I'll try 250 ml again after its dried a bit.
Day 17

 

[Royalroacho]

Well, it's been a while, been pretty swamped with school/work stuff, here's an update. I left off right before I gave them their first feeding, which was 1/8th tsp of earth juice sea blast, and things went downhill from there. The plants stalled for a few days, started getting a little dark. It didn't look quite like n-tox, and I wanst sure since I only gave them a small nute dose. They kept not growing, and I kept procrastinating until after a week I was sure it was n-overdose symptoms and flushed them. They bounced back and had an immediate growth spurt. That sea blast is very strong, 17-8-17. I got a little sampler and had to try it...
I also had a misconception about these fabric pots. I thought they were supposed to dry out more quickly than they do. I'd read "you can't overwater smart pots" a few times, but I have certainly over watered these smart pots. They take about a week to dry out, and have almost no drainage capacity. Maybe it's the type I bought, they were cheap Chinese off brand. After causing a bunch of over-futzing issues, I've finally trained myself to just leave them alone. Here's some sideways pictures


You can see here the damage I caused by overwatering, alot of the leaves have died off. Theyve been stable and stopped deteriorating for about a week. I dont know if the P def is caused by overwatering or not. Using 2ml tiger bloom/big bloom. This one has a few of the branches that appear to have topped themselves, and sparse, mostly 3 fingered leaves.

This one is doing a bit better. They're both on about day 40.

So...this is a DP Euforia photo. This is the third time I've tried it, each time in DWC. Each time it got crazy calcium deficiency, and I thought I was dwcing wrong. I was meticulous and it made me nuts. This time I moved it into coco, and planted a cherry bomb photo and another SS.
With the same nutes, they're fine. When I received the euforia, the label had what looked like a date, 17-4-2001. I wrote attitude, and they assured me it was an inventory label, not a date. I'm pretty sure these were old seeds.

I also rebuilt my cob, with an hlg320-1050.

 

[Royalroacho]

These ladies got chopped yesterday, I think it was day 62. Considering my heavy handedness with the watering, they came out fantastic. Solid genetics from Mephisto. No popcorn at all, super solid dense buds from head to toe. Ill have a dry weight in a few days, but looks around 4 oz at least