Recovery from not enough light

[420Red]

I'm a first time grower and made a newbie mistake of not providing enough light. I'm growing AK-47 extreme auto fems. I have the seedlings in six inch pots and plan to transplant them into 5 gallon buckets once they reach veg. Germinated and put in soil on the 13th. I'm 11 days in and they're 4 to 5 inches tall with only the first leaves on top. I now have a 1200 w full spectrum led light 3 feet above them. My question is should I replant them or let them continue to grow as is?

 

[Canuck147]

Hey 420Red -welcome to the forum - how about pictures? You must have noticed some on this forum.
First thing I would ask is - 3 feet above the canopy the manufacturers recommended distance? Seems a bit high to me, but my wattage is not as high.
Second thing would be - didn't you notice before you posted what kind of data to include with your post? Indoor?Outdoor?Attic?GrowingMedium?Pics? C'mon man, spit it out.
Also - could be the big one - during your research did you come across anything about autoflowering plants? Like, how they don't like to be transplanted?
Easier to help you with pictures.

 

[fozzy]

Welcome to the forum Red! I glad you are learning from your mistakes. I say let them grow! As Canuck said some pictures would help us. Since Auto don't like to be transplanted as Canuck says, I would suggest you go ahead and tranplant into the buckets and bury the stem about half way up. (be very careful). Then if your light is at the correct height from the plant you should be good! Don't forget to poke holes in your buckets! Good luck on your grow!

 

[420Red]

No Title

Canuck147 my apologies for my poor etiquette. This will be an inside grow, plain garden variety potting soil is the medium and yes 3 feet is the manufacturers recommend height from the canopy. Also no I didn't see anything on autoflower not liking transplant.

Fozzy, I really appreciate the positive feedback and I included a pic for clarity.

Thank you both both for you input.

 

[Newf]

You can definitely see from the stretch that those seedlings were looking for light. I think the reason autos are not recommended to transplant much is that once a plant is in the flowering stage it does not focus on root growth as much (or at least you don't want them to.) As such, transplanting is just a stress without benefit. Since an auto-flower plant can start to flower early and without notice, transplanting after the seedling stage may be a crapshoot. These appear to be still seedlings so I doubt it will be a problem. Great picture. You have found the right website to help you through your first grow. I have heard great reviews of the AK-47 being really good for first timers (like me too) and I wish you well. Please keep us updated on how it goes. Also, are you planning on any nutrients? LST?

 

[Canuck147]

No need to apologize. These other 2 posts are right on. For an autoflower it is stretching too much, put the light down. 4 inches at a time.

 

[420Red]

Lowered 4 inches and will be transplanting into 5 gallon buckets tomorrow. I've only had the light on them 1 day due to poor logistics timing on the delivery of the light.

Newf,
I'm not certain on nutrients yet any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. As for Lst I plan to attempt pulling the tallest parts over with twist tie and I still have some homework to do on that as well.

 

[PuravidaC]

Not familiar with LED growing but the streach you have looks like lights are too far from plants. Transplant in permanent pot ASAP (especially autos) and hold off on nutes (if you have good soil) for a week or two. Everything else looks great!

 

[420Red]

Got the seedlings transplanted into permanent containers. Gave them a good drink of water and into the grow room. I will post pictures but for now I'll give the dimensions. 6 foot by 6 foot and 8 foot tall.

 

[420Red]

No Title

 

[Newf]

Now that you are in bigger pots it is much easier to over-water so please be careful. Potting soil should contain enough nutrients for at least 2-3 weeks. There is a good lesson on nutrients on the GWE web site. A basic vegetative nutrient supplement with a lot of nitrogen until you flower and then a flowering formula (low nitrogen and high potassium, phosphorus) for flowering. You don't need to go overboard on complicated or expensive nutrients at this stage. I bought a regular size bottle of fox farm veg stage for about $20 (you can get it cheaper on line - I bought mine at my hydroponics store.) and have only used about 1/5th of the bottle for my entire 12 plant grow. (Only a few teaspoons per gallon every other watering.) You will find a lot of expensive supplements out there and some may be helpful for an experienced grower trying to eek out an extra ounce or two, but I would keep it simple at this stage. MUCH MORE IMPORTANT is pH. Your plants really do absorb nutrients much better with an appropriate pH range. Potting soil is a bit more forgiving that soilless or hydroponic grows, but be careful. I originally bought a local garden shop soil which had a lot of lime stone mixed in and was quite alkaline. It took a long time to get the pH right. I use pH down (again a big bottle about $20 at my expensive hydroponics store) and I use 8 to 10 drops per gallon. This bottle should last me 50 grows. I check the pH using the drops (Nebula Haze has a great section in the website on how to use this.) You can test the water going in and the runoff from your plants very easily. Good luck on your homework with LST.There is a lot of info on the website. I would not do any cutting on an auto-flower for training.

 

[Newf]

I like your grow room, it looks like it will keep out all the light when the flowering stage comes but I don't see any opening for air circulation. Plants need fresh air (the roots need oxygen and the leaves need co2. ) so don't forget some ventilation.

 

[Sonnyhad]

You are going to run into a huge problem really soon. I don't care what the light manufacturer says, your lights are too far. I would suggest some cfl's about 3" from the plants, you've got one hell of a stretch going!

 

[Sonnyhad]

I might also add that seedlings do like cfl lights for a couple weeks!