Plants Not Growing At All

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Chen

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So, I have an odd one here.

My plants are simply not growing. I simply can't account for why.

Light - 400w MH 24/7
Medium - Soil
Water - Hard w/H&G Soil
Temp - 25-30C w/AC Cooltube

This is what they've looked like for the past 3 weeks.

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It feels like time has simple stopped. I can't account for this in any way.

Appreciate any input!
 
They are cute babies, the only thing i see right off the bat is they need some air at the roots. Either add perlite or squish the pot in your hand to loosen the soil. The other thing i see is they look like they are getting hungry, maybe a light feeding of Nitrogen?
 
I've seen this but usually much sooner with seedlings that just STOP. They are on strike, something ain't right and they shut down until things are right again. Infuriating as they take up a spot under the lamp.
From seed or cloned? Might be the seeds, are they regular? I've had terrible luck with fem seeds that just come up and die.
And here's a couple of (I think) autoflower seeds I dropped months ago. Would you believe I am actually harvesting these two this weekend
if I can find the time to trim them.

View attachment 100_0041.jpg
 
my wild guess is that soil is either too hot or too clogged
 
I actually added a decent amount of Perlite this time around.

I usually add Vermiculite as well, but didn't, so the aeration of the roots should be good.

It doesn't seem to make any difference whether I water them or not. They're like the living-dead.

Frankly, I've had this issue for a while now, but only in Coco.

Now it's happening in Soil and I'm.. just stumped.

Temps are definitely good. Got the AC running all the time.
 
Okay Chen, since you were having this issue only in coco, it is now even more likely that it was always caused by too hot medium. Coco normally comes untreated and contains sea salt and what else. If you have some calcium nitrate at hand, just soak them overnight in 2g/liter soution then flush flush flush, then flush again. For a small quantity of coco, you could go by with soaking them in a bigger volume of water for a day then straining then flush flush flush, then flush some more. Hell even perlite raises my TDS when i first buy it, so even that needs treatment, only much less than coco. a TDS meter is very convenient to do all this. For those plants in that airy soil, I would say, flush that soil then let it dry. you could try the dutch bucket method, that should do well in flushing the soil. At this point, it is better to do a couple of water buckets first then a bucket with very low dose of ferts to ensure that they get what they want. it is better to do that in one application to avoid drowning the roots for a longer period. hope this helps
 
So, I have an odd one here.

My plants are simply not growing. I simply can't account for why.

Light - 400w MH 24/7

just noticed that 24/7, maybe try to get their attention by turning off the lights. Try 18/6 , maybe they'll go looking

Did you try flushing? When I was in dirt, I'd flush all the time, often alternating flush, nutes at 6, flush
 
I've never had an issue with the soil getting too hot.. the temps in the room are pretty low (20-25C).

I'm not using Coco anymore, but I do flush pretty often.

Never had an issue with 24/0 rather than 18/6, but I will try it.

I just re-potted them into 3.5L containers with a mixture of Soil, Perlite and Vermiculite and flushed it.

Essentially, I'm going back to the basics.

But I mean, what could cause a plant to just stop growing like this? It's.. so bizarre.

Btw, the root system was pretty good. Went all the way down to the bottom of the pot, though not all around it.

I took all the soil off the roots, thinking it might have been an issue with the soil.
 
Have you fed it? If so, what and how much?

Started off with Dutch Pro (the whole collection).

Then changed to Canna Soil Supermix.

Then changed to H&G Soil because I've had a good experience with them in Coco.

Nothing is working.

But either way, even with just plain hard water they should still grow a little.

I actually had the same thing happen in Coco and as soon as I changed to H&G Cocos they grew 12 inches in a day (no kidding).

I honestly can't account for what has been going on in my grow room for the past few months. I think my plants are haunted.
 
our hard well water has an HIGH p.h.. could u be getting nute lockout?? are u checking, adjusting ph to 6 to 6.5 ?? look hungry..
 
our hard well water has an HIGH p.h.. could u be getting nute lockout?? are u checking, adjusting ph to 6 to 6.5 ?? look hungry..

Yes, I'm adjusting pH to ~6.7+/- every time.

Good light, good nutes, good temperature, good medium..

And yet, not growing an inch.

Come on, guys, if nothing else this is one hell of an anomaly, right?
 
when we say soil is "hot" we mean that it is high in ferts and salt concentration and not actually hot in temperature. I still think that this is the source of your problem
 
when we say soil is "hot" we mean that it is high in ferts and salt concentration and not actually hot in temperature. I still think that this is the source of your problem

But I just flushed..
 
What kind of "soil" are you using? Does it have nutrients in it? is it Organic soil?
The reason I ask is that in coco coir or other "soilless" mix, you will use a lower pH than if you are using "organic soil".
 
Yes, I'm adjusting pH to ~6.7+/- every time.

Good light, good nutes, good temperature, good medium..

And yet, not growing an inch.

Come on, guys, if nothing else this is one hell of an anomaly, right?

YUP, a head scratcher. double check your meter. how old is it? check calibration. do u own any t5s? any problems vegging there?
 
Meter is only a few months old and calibrated. It does measure quite slow these days, though. Takes forever to get to the actual pH. I'll get another one if I can.

I'm using a soil mix that definitely has nutrients in it, NOT COCO.

On top of this, I seem to have more problems..

My other vegging plants (larger ones) are yellowing like mad:

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look like they're starving. what type of meter are u using?? the new hanna meters are about $40. and are self calibrating. i had a 4 or 5 year old hanna meter that appeared to be accurate and was also recently calibrated. it was slow to function too. i bought a new (white) one. the old meter WAS OFF. I needed twice the ph down i was using. i know u said yours was pretty new but jeeze they look hungry. something is killing them. if not the ph, it maybe a problem in the roots. jmo
 
Do you have a TDS meter, if you do you should check the runoff. Gives you an idea of how strong the ferts are in your soil.
That's the first thing I do when I see a problem with my plants.
My guess is they are under fed.
 

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