Seeds all germinate, but don't sprout when planted?

[FrankC]

Today, Blanca (auto White Widow) looks unusual.
Her first set of true leaves had been abnormal, one of them looking chewed on one side (although I see no evidence of insects).

Now (day 18) she has more issues:

• Both of the second set of leaves look like they were chewed on a bit (red arrows).
• Those leaves have a few brown spots near the edges, if you zoom in and look closely.
• And the third set of leaves is very asymmetric - one is quite large (at 10 o'clock)) while the opposite one has barely grown out from the stem (purple arrow)
• She is by far the smallest of the three plants, even though she was the first to pop from the soil (coco)..

The other two girls (below) are doing much better - so the problems seem to be something specific to Blanca, not the overall conditions of the grow - remember, she's the one I dropped on the floor while still in seedling cup on day 11.



Any ideas why Blanca is doing poorly?

Conditions:
Temp about 70-73, RH fluctuates about 50-60:
Coco/30% Perlite, 3-gallon fabric pots.
Currently watering with 1/3 strength nutes: Per gallon: 2 ml CalMag Botanicare, 5 ml Fox Farm Big Boom, 3 ml FF Grow Big, pH 6.0, EC 570 uS/cm (.570 mS/cm), 270 PPM.
3'x3'x6' AC Infinity tent, Ionboard S33 LED light, inline 6" exhaust fan, oscillating fan, and humidifier .

[Bluey]

Stress

[FrankC]

Anything to speed her recovery? Herbal tea? Leaf massage?

[Bluey]

Don't push them, so less light and less nutes and conservative environment until they recover

[FrankC]

Remember that these are all autos, so they don't have too much time to recover, I imagine.

[Bluey]

I've only ever grown autos once in my life and that's this current grow.. For some reason the clock seems to stop ticking on them in so many ways, even pistol development which really sucks hey....

My only advice is do your best..

[FrankC]

OK, I think I know what the problem is with Blanca (and Betty to some extent): calcium deficiency.

The first photo is Blanca. Note the misshapen leaves, and the few brown spots (upper leaf).



This is from an article about growing in Coco Coir. Note the misshapen leaf in the first picture, and the brown spots


The cause: improper preparation of Coco Coir.

When I prepared the coco from a dry brick, I had followed the article https://www.growweedeasy.com/coco-coir The article said:

"Optimally, you can add a Cal-Mag supplement and pH this water to 6.0 before soaking. This can help make sure your coco coir has extra Calcium and also help it get into the right pH range right from the beginning. Honestly though I often use water right out the tap. You’ll be adding Cal-Mag and setting the pH later, but the “best” way is to start supplementing your coco coir now, and it definitely may save you time and trouble later.

So, based on this, I added a small amount of CalMag to the water when I rehydrated the coco - about 1 ml/gallon.

However, today I read an article https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/how-...fer-coco-coir/ that says to buffer the Coco in a much higher dose of CalMag, about 10x higher than I used - AND to do it for two 8-hr soaks.

"There are cation exchange sites in coco that will interfere with nutrition until they are buffered. The cation exchange sites in coco naturally come loaded with sodium (Na) and potassium (K) cations. However, the Na and the K are only weakly held to the exchange sites. In the presence of calcium (Ca) or magnesium (Mg), the sites will release their Na or K cations and lock onto the Ca or Mg. These processes are known as “cation exchanges”.

"Buffering coco is accomplished by soaking it in Ca and Mg. This allows the cation exchanges to take place prior to adding plants. Simply soak your coco in a solution of Cal/Mag water and the exchange sites will release their K and Na cations and lock onto the Ca and Mg. When the cation exchange sites bond with Ca and Mg rather than Na and K, it is “buffered”. The bonds that hold the Ca and Mg to the sites are very strong and cation exchange will largely stop. This means that all of the nutrients that you add to the water will be available to the plant at the ratios that you provide them."

I think the problems I'm seeing could be explained by not doing a thorough enough Cal Mag treatment when preparing the Coco. They recommend a foliar spray with CalMag as a treatment.

[Bluey]

I foliar with calmag right into preflower until buds start to form. Still get cal deficiencies unfortunately. I may have to do the soak treatment and see if it makes much difference.
Put that much calmag into this grow I got N toxicity from it and still got cal deficiency.

[FrankC]

Today is day 22 since sprouting (~25 from seed), and 2 of the 3 plants seem to be doing well. These are Auto Tangerine and Auto Bruce Banner

I'm wondering if I should try some very mild LST, just bending the tops over slightly.

However, the internode distances are very small, and I don't want to damage the plants.

Better to leave them alone for now, or try bending them over?

[Bluey]

Leave them alone until the 6th node growth establishes then top just under the 4th node. Wait a week then pull down the two branches that spread out under your top.

[Rootsruler]

Agree with Bluey.

[Bluey]

FrankC like this

[FrankC]

I thought topping autos was not advised - I guess you don't agree with that. If I understand what you said, I would be removing 3 of the 6 nodes?

[Rootsruler]

You can top autos. Depends on how much veg time has been programmed into the breeding.

[SoOrbudgal]

You can top a auto but wait till it's abit older. Or you don't have to and just LST it at about 30days by 6wks mine are generally beginning to flower. But for your first time i'd leave them alone and just observe and keep healthy. Practice on photoperiods with the heavy training until your more comfortable that's my thoughts but you do what you feel like.

[Rootsruler]

Agree w/@soorbudgal

[FrankC]

Today is day 25 since sprouting (~28 from seed), and 2 of the 3 plants seem to be doing well. These are Tanya (Auto Tangerine) and Betty (Auto Bruce Banner)

They both are working on their sixth node.

They are in 3-gallon pots of Coco/perlite, and I'm now wondering if I should have used 5 gallon, and if I should expect to transplant them again?





Blanca (Auto White Widow) has recovered somewhat, but is still showing brown spots on some leaves, which I think is Ca-deficiency and or too-high pH.

I'm giving CalMag foliar spray (to all three plants) and raised the pH of the nutes from 6.0 to 6.4.

[SoOrbudgal]

No i would not do a transplant the 3gal work fine don't mess with the roots now. Those front 2 look great and you don't want to cause a accident to the roots now. I've grown many a auto in 3gal fabric without any real issues. The roots will adhere to the fabric you'll see when you remove the plant from the pot after harvest but the fabric breaths and roots may poke out and be air pruned that's the beauty of these fabric pots. Next time when you grow try a 5gal bigger roots bigger fruits.

[FrankC]

4/12/24 day 27.
I decided to try some very mild LST on Tanya, since she is the tallest. I put one tie around her stem near the top, and another pulling the other way, a few nodes down. I gradually tightened these over 2 days - you can see the bend in her main stem here. I'll keep gradually bending her down, a little bit each day.

[FrankC]

Betty and Tanya (autos) are growing really fast now - and some of the early leaves are now hidden by the newer leaves, and not getting as much light.

Would it be a good idea to, some time soon, remove some of the lower leaves that are in shade?

Two days ago, 4/10:


:
Today, 4/12:

[FrankC]

Update: 4/18/24, Day 32.

All three plants are looking good, although Blanca (the one I dropped as a seedling, and has CalMag deficiency, in back of tent) is still much smaller.



I'm now feeding EC 1300 (Fox Farms Big Bloom and Grow Big, plus CalMag, pH ~6.2), thinking of going up a bit in strength, maybe to EC1500 (note this is uS/cm, equal to 1.5 mS/cm).

I've been doing LST on Tanya (front left), pulling down a stem now and then, but leaving Betty (front right) alone - you can see she's now a bit taller. No sign of flowering yet.

These plants are quite dense - I wonder if that is a good thing? I've been keeping the light at 80%, 20/4 schedule, about 18" above the canopy (AC Infinity IonBoard S33 LED light, 240W). I've also been doing a very light pruning, a leaf or two every day or two.

[Rootsruler]

Raise the small plant to the level of the larger ones so that they're all getting the same amount of light and give the plant a chance to catch up.

[FrankC]

It's actually the same height as the others - just not as bushy.