HELP! Very strange seedling.

[nobiegrower22]

Hello everyone, i'm here to ask general advices on my first grow and specifically, on a problem i'm having with a single plant.

So, being my first time, i decided to try growing some autos outdoors. I got a strain of purple kush and planted the seeds directly in soil. I'm using the BioBizz All-Mix premixed soil.
I read some people saying it was too hot for seedlings and others saying it was fine, in any case i couldn't buy a new one and decided to start my plants there (let me know if you tried it). I also read it is best for autos to be planted directly in their final pot, which in my case are 25 liters ones.

I made one mistake from the start: i didn't water the whole growing medium before planting the seeds and instead poured water on the surface every time it felt dry.
Anyway, both seedlings sprout in 4 days and one was strange from the beginning being of a very darker green than the other one.

As soon as the first set of leaves came up, i noticed that they were groopy, deformed and curling down, i read on this site that it could have been a overwatering problem, so i tried adjusting it carefully as the article said, but the plant is still growing very slower than the other one and even the second set of leaves seems to have the same looks as the first one.

What should i do? Will the plant recover? Is it really just a overwatering problem?
Pictures of both plants below, you can easily see the difference.

[CaptainWiese91]

I’m happy for you didn’t water the whole soil with water first - then you would have a drowned seed for sure - never do that.
Use a spray bottle for the first weeks 👍🏻
in my opinion the seed is fine ? - my autos do some of the same as yours are doing - and they became wonderful plants. It looks like a little overwatering- but then let it dry up a little. The soil is usually pretty moist when it’s brand new soil from a bag.
All my autos are outside, and I spray a lot around them - but it’s because the sun where I live I drying everything up so quickly.
I wouldn’t say you have a huge problem here mate

[dphipps1020]

Spray bottles are awesome for seedlings, definitely invest in one if you don't have one.

[nobiegrower22]

Thank you mate.
As for the soil, it was already dry when i poured it in the pot and i read elsewhere it's best to moisten the whole medium before planting the seed in order to have enough water for the first week and don't disturb the seedling
If i did that, i would have been careful to make it drain enough before planting the seed

[CaptainWiese91]

I never moistre the whole soil when you have that tiny plant in a big pot. Because it still need oxygen for the roots. It can’t get that if the whole pot is too moist for too long time.

[dphipps1020]

I'm thinking under watered. Looks like the leaves started drying out a bit to me, and that's what caused the twisted growth. Even the better looking one is starting to show signs around the edges of the leaves. I could be wrong, as I'm still fairly new to this so maybe one of the veterans can confirm or deny it? Pretty sure you need to increase the amount of water though.

[nobiegrower22]

I don't think that's the case, it actually takes a lot of time for this soil to dry up and i'm giving a really small amount of water
In my opinion the leaves in the healthy plant look a little twisted cause i tend to move the pot during the day to make the sun reach the plant and they adjust accordingly

[CaptainWiese91]

Try give it a break with the water then. You will know it pretty fast then. If it’s progressing- it’s under watered. But I think it has enough moisture in the soil.

[CaptainWiese91]

Maybe - Its just looking like the 2nd pair of leaves is full of water too me ?🤔🤔 - like when you give your plant a little too much water, so the moisture is in a high level in the leaves - like when you press the leaves with your finger you can almost few the moist inside the leaves. But he could try too give it more water as you say - if it’s progressing is over watered- if not it’s probably was under watered.

[Notaprogrower]

Ive got exactly the same problem as you. 2 of my autos are doing pretty decent but one of them is like its just stuck and not growing atall, and the leaves are starting to shrivel up just like your one

[CaptainWiese91]

Do you have the same environment as nobiegrower?

[nobiegrower22]

So should i try to give a break on watering and see what the plant does?

If it progresses it was overwatered if not it was underwatered?

[CaptainWiese91]

Yea. Then im sure you know what you are have.
It should recover from it. It doesn’t look so bad mate

[nobiegrower22]

Ok, i'll let you know!

[CaptainWiese91]

Thanks.

[Rwise]

I'm going to make another point, curling leaf can mean over or under water, it can also mean root issues (which goes along with water issues). But the one most overlooked and most common here is bugs! Do you see anything flying, crawling etc.? Look at the under side of the leaves with a 30x zoom lens (microscope etc.) for signs of bugs!
How much perlite is in the soil? If it is not well enuf drained you might add more.
Do the pots have lots of air holes in the sides and bottom?

[CaptainWiese91]

Forgot the perlite/leca. You’re right Rwise. My bad !

[nobiegrower22]

The soil is advertized to have 30% of perlite, i honestly think it's a lot less so i might add some. As for the pot, i'm using a geotessile one, so it should have no drainage problems.
As for the bugs, you might be right, this morning a noticed a very very small worm sitting on top of the leaves, i think he was around 1mm or less and he was fast as hell, i had a rough time killing him

[nobiegrower22]

Bugs would be the most plausible thing given that the other plant, in the exact same enviroment, is doing so much better

[dphipps1020]

This is what I got when I realized I had thrips. One spray and I let it dry, went back over it and haven't seen any since. It's super concentrated too so 1 tbsp fills a 32oz spray bottle. Doesn't seem to effect the plants any either.

[nobiegrower22]

I'm waiting for my neem oil to arrive, sadly a lot of products you guys use don't ship to my country.

[nobiegrower22]

Update: I adjusted the watering schedule even more and both plants grew up smoothly, the strange one has recovered but of course she is way littler than the other. Both has started flowering very early so I'm not expecting very much from them.
I think, in the end, it was just the soil being too hot for a seedling.


P.S: lemme know what do you think of them! How much do you think they will produce combined?

[SoOrbudgal]

Yep she needed water great recovery