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**Canuck147** · 10-31-2020, 10:58 AM

Well - to start with - I can answer your question about why you think it has stopped growing.

It hasn't stopped growing - you just can't see the new growth. Cuz it's growing its roots.

I would expect your autoflower to be like that for a few more days - then it will begin its vertical growth.

But it needs to know how big its home is - you do that by watering the whole pot until you get a bit of a run off.

Don't use any nutrients as you say your grow medium has nutes in it - so hold off on trying to make it grow faster by overfeeding it.

I'm a soil grower so I'm unsure of cocopeat and how to water it.

**Gingerbeard** · 10-31-2020, 11:03 AM

If it's just the one seedling that is stunted, and you are doing the same thing to all your seedlings, it just might be a bum seed. Bum seeds happen, even with good breeding. I would remove that seedling from it's pot and put it in a Solo cup. Basically a 16 ounce drinking cup with hole in it for drainage. Keep the soil you're using. Since it might not succeed, it would be a waste of space to keep that pot in your grow. Space you can fill with weed.

'Hot' soil, being soil with lots of nutes for the first few weeks, can burn seedlings. I've recently experienced this with my own hot soil. My solution has been to give only pH'd water. Adding nutes to hot soil isn't such a good idea for the first few leaf sets. Once the plant recovers, I add low ratio nutes for a few waterings, and up the dosage to brand recommended amounts. When recovery happens, the plant will handle the hot soil, better.

What are your nutrient and soil brands and types?

**dphipps1020** · 10-31-2020, 11:35 AM

First, welcome to the forum and to the exciting world of growing cannabis! Based on what you wrote in your post, I'm going to think it safe to assume that you're underwatering and that's mostly why she's stunted. To me she looks fairly healthy still so I don't think it's anything other than that. At this stage, there is very little need for nutrients, so I don't think that's the issue either. If the amount of water you're giving is dry within a day, try giving a little more water each time. That's the only downside to starting in the final pot is that you will have to water a little more for good results right away. Right now she's developing her roots, so you may not see a lot of growth for a few days. The light green can be caused by new growth exploding after she gets some water. Mine do that if I let them dry too much. At the seedling stage where you are, I usually use a spray bottle for the first week and a little into the second. Think about the little tap root searching for water and try to give enough that it will reach the bottom of the tap root, plus a little bit more. With your setup it will be difficult to overwater unless you're filling the entire pot. Try giving roughly 300ml of water to start with now. If it dries up within a day, bump up that number. The idea is to let it have some water and then as the water dries, the roots will grow in search of more. As your plant gets bigger, increase the amount of water until you're watering the entire pot. Once you are watering the whole pot, you should be to watering about every 3 days. You'll want to feel the weight of your pot to judge when to water next. When you water the entire pot, lift it and feel how heavy it is, then in a few days lift it again. If the pot feels light, it's time to water. You may have to water every day (or 2) at first just to get the roots going, but you want to keep them a little moist. Usually by the end of week 2 I'm watering enough to soak the one gallon pots I use for starting. I'd say give her some water today (more than usual) and see how she responds, I bet she'll perk up and start growing again.
As far as nutrients go, I don't feed mine because I use living soil. Here you will probably get different answers because everyone does it differently. Some people use them at half strength and feed every second water, so plain water, feed, plain water, feed, etc. As small as she is, you shouldn't have to feed for a little while, especially if your soil already has nutrients in it. Some other people feed every water at 1/4 strength and it works well for them.
Hopefully that helps. Sorry for the long response.

**D.A.A.S.69** · 10-31-2020, 02:10 PM

lx574 for 10days it is rather small, but will still make a nice plant,
For one thing it's in a 5gallon pot, they grow much faster in a Dixie cup,
,but your gonna be alright if you dont overwater, you do not want young seedlings roots sitting in water, it needs more oxygen than water, you want your roots searching for water, like mentioned above said, plus that's what Nebula says in her tutorials.
Just think about how small the roots are in your pot, they can't take much water at that age, they need more oxygen than water at that age.
Everyone does things differently, but if that was my plant, I'd only use a cup of water a day, 2cups a day if your lights are drying out your soil in a day.
When you start getting fast growth, an you will in 4-5days, then you can start watering until runoff out the bottom of your pot.
If you ask me, you need more perlite in your soil too, even if you are in airpots.
Don't get frustrated, it's gonna be alright, she is gonna grow, I promise you.
Just make sure you keep your soil damp around your seedling until she starts growing good, an all that takes is a cup or two of water , whenever it looks dry or feels dry, everyday day or two.
Everyone has got their way, that's the way I do mine, an it ain't the only way by no means, so I sure don't want to get in an argument with anyone about it.
Next Time ,try starting one of in a Dixie cup, you have decent size seedlings in 10days, dont be scared to transplant an auto, it ain't hard to do.

Welcome to Gwe, HappyGrowing

**growell** · 10-31-2020, 05:20 PM

all of the above i use paper towel method to crack seed then put seed in rooting pellets soaked in sumo start mix 1 litre of it up then put the pellet in a propagator then wait for seed to grow then i just squeeze the pellet to see if dry if it is i spray with the litre i made up when u see roots coming out of bottom of plug pot it up into what size pot u want this gives total control takes the guess work out when u plant it already a healthy plant i just started as well i killed a few seeds this is best way for me i know little off want u wanted to know but if struggling next time mate

**lx574** · 11-02-2020, 01:31 AM

dphipps1020 , thank you so much for such a clear answer sir, I get your point. D.A.A.S.69 , thanks for such encouragement. It was uplifting to read your comments.
I took a plunge yesterday morning, added 1/8th of recommended NPK and micronutrients ( all liquid) and mixed it in 1 litre water and watered the entire pot. If I use 1 litre water, I get about 15% run off and the first few 100ml looked like compost tea.
I had been watering limitedly the first few days and never watered till run-off until yesterday. It's been 31 hours since I watered the whole pot and I do see some nice growth. I am not sure if the new growth is because of added nutrients or just because I watered whole pot or it would happened even if I had watered less. I have to say, the light green color of leaves still concerns me. The medium still has good amount of moisture. I will check tomorrow morning again and water ( with 1/4th the fertilizer) if the soil is dry and see how it goes from here. Since I am from one of the asian(develping/underdeveloped) countries, the brands/equipment/soil/fertilizer available in american/european markets are not available here. I was able to get my hands on soil moisture and light meter. I'll employ them starting today to get a better understanding of dry/wet cycle.
Also, the branded enriched soil was purchased a few months ago and I was able to complete my set-up only now hence the delay in usage. The package says that the soil is good for another year. I am not sure if the micro-organism died out since I didn't use the soil. The soil package was airtight. I am just speculating here. For now, I am giving the credit of new growth to the nutrients added. I have attached the pick of my seedling taken today morning. I will once again update after a week or two with my watering and nutrient schedule and how my girl fared.

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**lx574** · 11-20-2020, 02:12 AM

Ok, this is how my girl looks just after 20 days. She's really grown big. So, this is how things went.
1). Watering : from what I read, you need to water your girls growing in coco almost daily and growing in soil; every three to 4 days or when the top inch is dry. My mix was a organic mixed with coco, so I was really not sure what to do. whether to wait till the top inch becomes dry which never seem to happen or just water like coco.
Since the first few days the growth was not great, I watered her almost everyday. Over the next 20 days, I closely monitored her growth as to how she responds to various watering schedule going upto 4 days without watering. What I understood is that, it didn't really matter whether I water her every day or every three days, she seems to thrive anyway. I now water every three days with about 1.5 litre of water for single plant which gives about 10% run off.
2). Nutrients : I know my coco-soil was organic and I was not suppose to mix nutrients but since the initial growth was very slow compared to other videos I saw online, I was really doubtful if my soil really did have any nutrient, so I started using hydroponic nutrients. initially I started with 300 PPM and now I go upto 900PPM. I am really doubtful if my nutrients are being used because I consistently getting very high run off ( in the range of 1500 to 2000) but my girls are thriving and I don't see nutrient burn. The hydroponic nutrient is very cheap in our place ( really cheap) so I don't mind even if it goes to waste and even just 20% get's used, i'll be happy. Since it's already a month, I have to anyways use fertilizer as per the soil vendor so I'll continue feeding at 900PPM. I am planning to shift to bloom in my next feeding cycle. Thanks everyone for your guidance.
So anyone who's concerned about seedling not growing very much in the first 10 days, wait, she'll definitely grow. My both seedling didn't do well for the first 10 days and now both of them are kicking really well without any sign of stress or disease. I am quite surprise to be honest that my first grow is going so well. I know majority of the challenges come when she enters flowering in terms of odor and humidity control. I'll cross that bridge as it comes.
3) Lights : Since the start, it's always been 16 hours of light. I turn on the lights as soon as I wake up at 6:30am and turn them off when I go to bed at 10:30pm. I did purchase a timer switch but never got around to programming it.

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**SoOrbudgal** · 11-20-2020, 09:17 AM

She's looking great. Even during flowering sometimes it's like they sit there and think about it for week then like overnight they grow inches. Sometimes you can't overthink what they'll do just gotta let them be once you've given them what they wanted for growth. Patience and learning.

**lx574** · 01-12-2021, 03:32 AM

Harvested my girl on 10th of january. flushed on 31st Dec. Had to ditch the 2nd plant ( bubba kush auto) with a heavy heart in early december due to lack of space. I didn't quite expect them to grow so big. This one is blue kush auto. Currently in the drying process. I defoliated her heavily until the final weeks of flowering. No topping, only LST. Next time, will try SCROG. Need to work on making a bigger grow box. I cut down few buds on 23rd december and 30th december for testing/experimenting on quality on various stages. So few tops are missing on the final harvest.

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