SOIL New grow

[KeifWellington]

First time grower. It’s been a roller coaster, and currently my Sunset Sherbet ladies are stalled and not looking great.
8 weeks from seed. Organic soil, I checked ph and it was 7ish, haven’t tried to lower the ph because I don’t have any ph down. I haven’t been watering to a 20% surplus because I always think they look overwatered. I changed from cfl to 300 watt vispar led. Two weeks ago watered with a low dose of some store brand fertilizer that I’ve had for a while. Recently watered with Fox farms nutes.

[Mr.furley]

Hi KeifWellington
so 7ish isn't going to cut it, your plant will so to a crawl and not watering to runoff is OK in soil as long as you are not watering every day and letting your pot dry out completely..
you can use lemon or vinegar to lower you PH in a pinch

https://www.growweedeasy.com/adjust-ph-organic-marijuana

PH is #1. And should ALWAYS! Be controlled.

[PhantomSulker]

I too did not have a PH tester initaly and my water was 7.2 on average, well it still is but I fill my 2 gal jug the after I finish watering and balance the ph to 6. Then depending on which tent I am watering I put the appropriate nutes in and then test the PH again and get to 6 before using. I am new to this but when I bought the tester I saw a big difference in growth.

[Mr.furley]

PhantomSulker
It makes a huge difference in one's grow room. With coco, hydro and soil it is very beneficial to allow your PH to fluctuate ever so slightly up and down through the grow.
I grow in Coco and will move between 5.8 and 6.4, my main stay is 6.2 for the most part. You should really never be at the extreme end of your PH Range up or down, it will start causing problems.
Nice and happy middle😎

[PhantomSulker]

I am just finishing my 1st grow with random seeds in dirt. I have 8 plants started in coco and I did not know about moving it. That makes sense. I will try that, thanks for the advice.

[PRIMO]

You need to mix up a couple gallons of ph 6 water with a tsp of cal-mag and weak nutrient like 1/4 strength, sit em somewhere with a drain is easiest water them slow and evenly til it's coming out the bottom as fast as it's going in the top. Then leave em alone for a week. In the future wait to water til they are almost dry, then water to run off.

[KeifWellington]

I mixed up water, vinegar (to lower ph), weak nutes, and molasses (cal mag substitute because I had it in the pantry).
im gonna leave them alone for a week.
Ill report back.

[PRIMO]

Good point Mr.F

[Potted]

I hope that was unsulfered blackstrap molasses or u may kiss them off

[Mr.furley]

Good point Potted

[KeifWellington]

A week later, things seem much better. Still some discoloring at the leaf edges. I’ll be watering tomorrow. Should I keep up with the formula I used last week? Unsulphured molasses, weak nutes, and some vinegar for ph.

Also, One of the plants has always had a curly leaf thing going on, even as a seedling. I assumed it was a “lucky fin” genetic anomaly but everything is coming up curly now.
any ideas?

[Mr.furley]

Yes. Give to 1 more week. Make sure your see more improvement.
How close is your light? And it helps us to see the plants in nature light if you can.

[KeifWellington]

Here’s a flash photo.

[Mr.furley]

Thank you. That let's us see what color your plants are.
I would say to cut out any nitrogen for a water or two. The drooping and shine makes me what to know how often you water? And how much?
Do you have air circulating in send out the room? And what temperature are your high and lows?

[KeifWellington]

Light is about 18” above

[Mr.furley]

Let's move your light to 24" for a week.

[KeifWellington]

Light: up another 6”.
Watering: prior was nowhere near what I did when I watered to 20% runoff. Pots are still wet and heavy
a week later.
Temperature: basement grow. Temp is 55-63* F. Do I need to warm things up?
Wind: no fan as yet. The LED has a fan but it’s not moving the leaves at all. Is that my next purchase?

[Mr.furley]

Temperature is definitely not helping, basically Transpiration in your plants slow down when temperature get cold, so yes.
Vegetation temperature should be 78f to 85f
Flowing temperature should be 72f to 78f
55f is to low and it will stop the plants from uptake water and cannabis is picky about its temperature.

[KeifWellington]

I’ll throw a heating pad under them

[KeifWellington]

Ok here we are 10 weeks from seed. One of the plants looks like it’s ready to flip to flower, while the other one is still lagging far behind. Same nutes, same space, same everything.
I’m inclined to just switch to 12/12 now and let it run its course.

[Mr.furley]

It is always best to have a healthy plant before flowering it.

[Mr.furley]

The one plant is show improvement! The other, not so much. How is it coming with the PH?

Is there anyway you can get a wire rack under the potsin between it and the sauce? So air can flow under them. Here is a example, same idea

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/filedata/fetch?id=268562&d=1542603375

Have you got your temperatures up?

The one that is looking better does the damage seem to have stopped? If so cut the couple leaves off that look like crap.

[KeifWellington]

I watered to overflow with a little vinegar added and the runoff is in the low 6.
Ill get some racks under them today. I have just the thing.
The heating pad has the space up to 70
All the new growth looks healthy. I’ll defoliate the ugliest leaves.

Should I switch to flower now or wait to see if the smaller one improves?

[Mr.furley]

The one that is struggling could have problems down the road if you do. The biggest factor for when to start flowering is plant size, they will double and even triple in size so it a matter of how much room you have left. Container+plant+spacing+light. Like I said it's best if the one is healthy but sometime you got to do what you got to do.
Can you set up another space for the sick looking one? Or is this your only choice?

[KeifWellington]

I can wait to flower, this is all about learning.
Is there anything I should be doing differently for the sick one? It’s all the same soil and schedule. PH is right.

[Mr.furley]

If you think your soil in depleted of nutrients a good Flush can fix alot of problems. Kelp can aid in stressed plants, and a little calmag is all I can think of for suggestions. Out of all of them the flush would be big one

[KeifWellington]

Ok I did the flush on my sicko. Zero nutes, some molasses (cap mag), and 6.2 water.

[Mr.furley]

Sounds good and hope it helps your girl out, after this it will be important to feed regular schedule nutrients. Keep us posted on the progress.

[KeifWellington]

Here we are 5 weeks into 12/12. Can you give me an idea of my next steps? Been doing nutes every other watering.

[Mr.furley]

Great job! Looks like they have pulled though and are budding out nice, you're next step is to hold her steady nutes, water, repeat.
You look to be 2 to 4 weeks from finish and will need to taper off any nutrients at about two weeks out, starting with any nitrogen and silica, then any potassium and phosphorus till they are getting just plain Ph'ed water the last couple weeks(some peeps will add a little unsulphured molasses at this time)..
Can you snap a close up of the buds next time.

[KeifWellington]

Here are closeups of the buds. Just zooms
on iPhone pix really.

[Mr.furley]

I'd say 3 to 4 at least they're going to really fatten up somemore, then ripen, when you can notice please see the pistils turning red start cutting nitrogen.
Good luck