Seedling Question

[Bswe22]

Hello!
I have started my first grow. I am in the process of building my grow room. Should be done this weekend. I will post some pictures of that later. The question I have now is about my seedling. The stem looks really long to me. Is it too long or is it ok? I was thinking about transplanting it tomorrow and burying the stem up to the two little water leaves. Is that a good idea or not? The other question is when do I start feeding this little guy? Right now it is under a 2' x 4 light T5 fixture. Thank You

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[Hushpuppy]

First, welcome to The Passion Glad you chose to come here to share your first grow with us. To answer your first question, She is a little stretched but not terrible. When you go to transplant it to a larger pot, just bury it deeper, about 1-2 fingers below the seed leaves (cotyledons). The reason it is stretched is that you didnt get the light close enough to the plant as it has been growing. If you place a small fan to blow across the plant so that is dances just a little, you can lower the floro right down to about 1-2" away ffrom the plant. This will keep it from stretching any more until it gets bigger and you have to place a higher lumen light over it.

You don't want to ffeed a seedling until the cotyledons (little round seed leaves) turn yellow, as these are actually the food source for the plant while it builds its roots. When the cotyledons turn yellow, it means they are about used up. Now iff you are in organic soil or you are going into organic, nutrient rich soil, then you don't have to "feed" the plant anytime soon. But if you are in neutral soil or soilless medium then you will need to begin feeding with a liquid nutrient solution. You will need to start feeding very light at first so that you don't burn the roots off the seedling. Most nute brands, you would use about 1/4th off the recommended dosage to start out then increase slowly each week as the plant responds to this food.

Green grow mojo for your new plants and first grow. Don't be afraid to ask questions and read all that you can

 

[Bswe22]

Thanks for the info! I thought it might of started stretching because I had it too far from the light. I have moved it closer and it has helped a lot. I will transplant it tomorrow I will also get a small fan so I move it even closer to the light. I will be feeding this plant liquid nutrients because it is in a soilless mixture I picked up at my local grow shop. I will also be using their own line of nutrients. The nutrients are "Nectar of the Gods". Does anyone have experience with them?

 

[yooper420]

Welcome to MP, think you`re gonna like it here.
Second what hushpuppy said.
Never heard of those nutes, of course never heard of lots of things.
You got questions, someone here`s got an answer.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I have heard of the Nectar of the Gods but I don't know much about it. Is it a "synthetic" or "organic" nutrient? This is very important for the way you need to do things going forward. If it is organic, then you will need to look at getting some dolomite lime to mix in with your medium, and you will need to make microbe teas to give the microbes a boost as they are the life-blood of organic nutrient grows.

If it is synthetic nutrients, then you will need to get a TDS pen and a pH pen for monitoring the chemistry of the nutes. You will also need pH adjusters and calibration solutions for the pH pen. You will most likely also need to get an additive called cal/mag, which is a combination of magnesium and calcium which is not given in large amounts in base nutrients (it interferes with the chemistry of concentrate nutrients) While organic grows live and die with microbe health, Synthetic grows live and die with pH.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Yes, the stem is too long, which indicates either too little light or the light is too far away. If you have a 2' 4 tube T5 it is most likely the 2000 lumens tubes. You should be able to get those within a couple of inches from the top of your plant. You do need to keep your space small enough so that your light is not trying to light up too much space. Do you have an reflective "walls" around the baby plant? If the light and the plant are simply sitting in a large space without reflective surfaces around the plant, the light is dispersing throughout the room and the plant will be getting inadequate light. The light you are using will cover a little under 3 sq ft or a space 2' x 1.5'.

I personally would recommend lime in all soil mixtures regardless of whether you are growing organic or not.

I also have never heard of Nectar of the Gods. I am always curious how new growers pick their nutrients. So how did you happen upon this nute line? Okay, after reading about this nutrient line. I a going to suggest something else for you as a beginner. This is from their web site:

"Oregon’s Only Organics understands that Nectar For the Gods is not for everyone. It takes a gardener with the special passion and desire to produce the highest quality fruits and vegetables to use this line of nutrients. Nectar For the Gods will never claim the highest yielding plants, the tallest plants etc. etc. But we can tell you that the flavors and the colors and the overall quality will be noticeably better. So if you’re ready to break off from the average gardeners mentality, and you want to impress your friends with your mad gardening skills, give Nectar For the Gods a shot."

This kind of sounds like it is for the more experienced gardener. I really am not too impressed with the information that they give as nothing has any N-P-K numbers. It also looks like there are a myriad of products that you are going to have to try and wade through to just figure out what they do. How many of the products did you buy? I do like organics though I believe it is harder to grow organic. What kind of soil did you use t initially plant them in?

 

[Bswe22]

I have heard of the Nectar of the Gods but I don't know much about it. Is it a "synthetic" or "organic" nutrient? This is very important for the way you need to do things going forward. If it is organic, then you will need to look at getting some dolomite lime to mix in with your medium, and you will need to make microbe teas to give the microbes a boost as they are the life-blood of organic nutrient grows.

If it is synthetic nutrients, then you will need to get a TDS pen and a pH pen for monitoring the chemistry of the nutes. You will also need pH adjusters and calibration solutions for the pH pen. You will most likely also need to get an additive called cal/mag, which is a combination of magnesium and calcium which is not given in large amounts in base nutrients (it interferes with the chemistry of concentrate nutrients) While organic grows live and die with microbe health, Synthetic grows live and die with pH.

They are organic nutrients. Not sure if I'm going to use them yet or not. Thanks for all that info! That will help me make my decision.

 

[Bswe22]

Yes, the stem is too long, which indicates either too little light or the light is too far away. If you have a 2' 4 tube T5 it is most likely the 2000 lumens tubes. You should be able to get those within a couple of inches from the top of your plant. You do need to keep your space small enough so that your light is not trying to light up too much space. Do you have an reflective "walls" around the baby plant? If the light and the plant are simply sitting in a large space without reflective surfaces around the plant, the light is dispersing throughout the room and the plant will be getting inadequate light. The light you are using will cover a little under 3 sq ft or a space 2' x 1.5'.

I personally would recommend lime in all soil mixtures regardless of whether you are growing organic or not.

I also have never heard of Nectar of the Gods. I am always curious how new growers pick their nutrients. So how did you happen upon this nute line? Okay, after reading about this nutrient line. I a going to suggest something else for you as a beginner. This is from their web site:

"Oregon’s Only Organics understands that Nectar For the Gods is not for everyone. It takes a gardener with the special passion and desire to produce the highest quality fruits and vegetables to use this line of nutrients. Nectar For the Gods will never claim the highest yielding plants, the tallest plants etc. etc. But we can tell you that the flavors and the colors and the overall quality will be noticeably better. So if you’re ready to break off from the average gardeners mentality, and you want to impress your friends with your mad gardening skills, give Nectar For the Gods a shot."

This kind of sounds like it is for the more experienced gardener. I really am not too impressed with the information that they give as nothing has any N-P-K numbers. It also looks like there are a myriad of products that you are going to have to try and wade through to just figure out what they do. How many of the products did you buy? I do like organics though I believe it is harder to grow organic. What kind of soil did you use t initially plant them in?

This plant was transplanted today. I buried a lot of that long stem. I also raised it closer to the light. My light fixture is from an old reef tank that I had. It is a high output T5 fixture. I just recently put new grow tubes in it. This evening I cut a little white poly film and made a little tent around the area. I will be tweaking that a little more tomorrow. I also put a little fan near by blowing across the light and plant.

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[The Hemp Goddess]

When you transplant like this, you should bury the stem right up to the first set of leaves. You still really have a lot of stem sticking out of the soil.

Have you fed them anything yet? I notice that the color in the last close up doesn't look quite right.

What was the spectrum of the T5s you bought? Something in the 6500K range is best for vegging.

The reflective film tent and the fan will help. The tent area needs to be really small to take advantage of all the light you have--something like 2 x 1.5. Keep the lights as close as you can. You will find that you can keep the canopy an inch or 2 away from yhe light without adverse effects.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yeah that looks good. Looks like good soil. Plants look quite happy. The cotyledons are yellowing so it is ready for some groceries now

 

[Hushpuppy]

Just noticing the light color. I know a lot of aquarium lights use "Daylight" which is 5000K spectrum. That is ok but you will get better growth and results with 6500K bulbs.

 

[maineharvest]

It looks like your off to a good start. Feed it and watch it grow.

 

[Bswe22]

I did want to bury more of the stem but didn't have the room to fit the correct pot in my little area right now.

I replaced the bulbs in my light with 4 new 6500K grow lights. I didn't think pure actinic light would be good…lol

I have not fed them anything yet but I think I really need too! Looks really droopy this morning. :-(

When I transplanted yesterday the bottom of the pot had a lot of roots! I used Mykos Pure Mycorrhizal Inculant right on the root zone. I tried to only water the root zone and not the media entirely. I did read the the soil I used has some nutrients in it I think. I am using Roots Organic Formula 707. This is from their website:

"Formula 707
Roots Organics Formula 707 was created for a special kind of gardener, one who wants to control their own destiny. It is different from the other growing mixes created by Aurora Innovations. It was designed with greater water holding capacity, less perlite and pumice, and specific ingredients for outdoor as well as indoor container gardening. Just cut, poke holes and plant directly into the ready-to-use grow bags. The 15 and 30 gallon grow bags contain just less than 10 and 20 gallons of the highest quality growing mix. Made from only the finest ingredients, coarse peat, coco fiber, compost, perlite, pumice, worm castings, bat guano, fish bone meal, soybean meal, kelp meal and much more."

Now my question is… Do I need to feed at this stage or not? Am I using soil or a soilless mixture? I was under the impression that it was a soilless mixture.

Should I be worried about the droopy ness this morning? Or is this just because of the transplant yesterday?

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[Hushpuppy]

its doing fine. The droopiness is most likely from the transplant. It should pop back up in a day or two. If the plant is hungry, it will not droop, the leaves will get lighter toward yellow. If the leaves are drooping, it is either ffrom transplanting into drier medium (yours would be considered organic soilless medium), or from too much water.

Here is a little trick for you to keep from over watering. Whenever you get ready to water, aerate your water ffor 6-12hrs. This will dissolve lots of oxygen into your water which is good for the roots of the plant, and it will help to prevent the roots from drowning until the medium drains and dries enough to pull air into the soil.

You don't need to feed the plant at all right now. I would say to get some mollasses and use about 3 tablespoons to a gallon of water and pour that into the soil the next time you water. You already have beneficial microbes in there so adding the mollasses will stimulate them to multiply and go to work ffeeding and protecting the plant.

Have you added any dolomite lime to your soil? Iff you haven't then you need to get some and add a couple teaspoons to your soil on top and then take a small fork and work it into the soil just a bit before watering. This and the microbes will keep the pH of the soil in the happy zone for the plants. I would give it about 2 weeks before adding any nutrients and then only go with about 1/3rd of what they recommend for the ffirst 2 feedings, then on the next 2 feedings move it to 2/3rd of the recommended dosage, and so on till you are up to full dosage every feeding. Being in organic/amended soil, you already have plenty of nutes so I wouldn't feed it but 2x a week at most, probably no more than 1x a week

 

[Bswe22]

I have not added any dolimite lime to the soil. That will happen tomorrow! That does lead me into my next question. What should my waters pH be before watering? My tap water is about 7.4. What pH is best for cannabis?

 

[Hushpuppy]

Since you are in organic, your pH should be right around 6.5 but no higher than 6.8 and no lower than 6.3 as that is going into the soilless/hydro range. Most plants prefer soil and water pH to be more acidic than alkaline which is anything above 7.0 Since your water is above 7.0, you will not need much lime. However, I am always concerned when water is above 7.0 as that usually means there is some alkaline chemicals present in the water.

If you water is heavy with mineral, certain minerals will cause the pH to be pulled one direction or another. Sometimes its a very minor amount that is pulling the pH high, and the nutrient solution added to the water, or even pouring the water into the organic soil is enough to bring the water in the soil/medium back to where you want it.

That is why I always recommend that new growers take a sample of their water to their county agriculture department, or iff you are on treated water, contact the water department and ask them what the pH, TDS and the top 5 elements are that is in the water. Also ask them about chlorine or chloramine, floride, or salts being in the water.

 

[pcduck]

I would save the mollases for my ACT tea.

 

[Bswe22]

I would save the mollases for my ACT tea.

What is ACT tea? ( I have so much to learn...lol)

 

[Bswe22]

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Just thought I would give a little update. She is looking pretty good to me! I have moved her outside to my grow room now. She is under a 600W MH now. I started the light out about 4' away. I left it that way for a day then lowered the light down to 3' away. Should I go any closer that that with a 600W MH? Also was wondering when is the best time to water the plant? Just after the lights come on? Just before the lights go off? Or does it just not matter? Thanks!

The pictures are from a few days ago, just before the move to the grow room. I will post more pictures later!

 

[Rosebud]

A good way to tell how close your plant should be from the light is by putting your hand on top of the plant. Bring the light so it is just warm on you hand, not hot.

You have had lots of good advice here, yay for your new baby. she looks good. When or if you transplant again you can bury your stem. Greenest of mojo...good start.