HELP! Are these plants stunted? Day 23

[Cosmo]

Hello fellow growers. With the legalization of marihuana in Canada less than I year away I’m looking forward to the opportunity to grow a few ladies in my back yard albeit a year early. It’s in Southern Ontario, Canada with lots of privacy thanks to a tall cedar hedge. I also get full sun in certain parts of the property from early morning until about 8 P.M. in mid-summer. I’ve outlined my plan below and would very much appreciate any advice anyone can offer. This is my first grow so don’t be shy about setting me straight.

Location - Outdoor Grow, Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada

Strains - 1 x Crop King Northern Lights Auto/Fem and 1 x Crop King White Widow Auto Fem

Grow Medium - A variation of Bobs Basic Organic Soil Mix below:

Base Soil

· One third will be general purpose compost or potting mix. (Pro-Mix BX 3.8 cu/ft) (15 gal = 2.005 ft³)(1gal = 3.785L)
· One third Perlite or whatever aeration materials you choose, damp it down before handling, don't breathe that dust in.
· Then one third consisting of Earth Worm Castings.

Amendments

· 5 – 8 fl oz (150-225ml) of Lime. For Calcium and some pH buffering.
· 10 – 20 fl oz (300-600 ml) of Seaweed Meal. Micro nutrients, trace elements.
· 10 – 15 fl oz (300-450ml) of Fish, Blood and Bone Meal. (The cheap stuff.) The bulk of the N-P-K value.
· 5 – 10 fl oz (150-300ml) of Hen Manure
· 5 fl oz (150ML) of Epsom salts. Epsom Salts are Magnesium Sulphate.
· Some (a handful of) Seers rock dust for mineralization of the soil. And some mycorrhizae if you can find it too.

Pot - 5 Gal Smart Pot

Germination Start Date - Thursday April 27^th

Germination Method - Seed in plastic cup and organic soil mix above

First Sign of Life - 3.5 Days!

Lighting - Single CFL per plant, 1800 lumen ea.

Move Outdoors - May 19, Move to the garage overnight until the weather gets warmer.

Weather - The weather has been cooler than normal by about 6 degrees Celsius

[Canuck147]

Cosmo Welcome to the forum. Nice write up of what you have and are doing. Best of luck to you.
You say you have autos - they should start to flower, I'd say around about now. Should be ready for harvest end of July. If you had planted photoperiod seeds instead - then you would have planted them at the right time and they would flip around say July 22 (summer solstice?) and be ready to harvest end of September.
So do yourself a favor with these autos and plan to have 2 grows this summer - start 2 more at the end of this month.
By choosing autoflowering seeds, you should definitely be under the one meter tall limit - although I have had a few autos that grew just over 4 feet.

[Cosmo]

Thanks Canuck147! Four weeks is this Thursday so flower should start around then. When will I know if I have girls?

[Canuck147]

When you bought feminized seeds. I forgot to say they don't look stunted - you just gave them a big pot to fill their roots with. Now they will grow up for you. Pay attention to their needs and watch how fast they grow.

[PigSquishy]

Auto-flowers are 100% always Female, and Feminized Seeds again should 100% of the time be female

As far as are your plants stunted, I am in the northern hemisphere as well with those cold Canadian arctic winds that blast down on us, and when I read you moved the plants to the garage my first thought, was I hope you lifted them up off the concrete floor and gave them some type of an insulation factor off the floor. It could be raising them up so they have an air gape from the bottom of the pot to the floor, or a couple of pieces of cardboard to protect them from the floor. I know our temps here last night and earlier this week have been in the high 30's, and the ground here has been cold enough with those rainy winds that last night some even saw bits of snow for awhile that hit some outdoor gardens for those who planted a little too early in hopes of avoiding the frost potential. If your plant roots got too cold, then yes it could seriously slow down the plant and stunt it for up to a week or even 10-days, but should spring back with time.

There are various things which you can do to help protect your plants outside from these kinds of conditions, some cover their gardens with plastic or blankets during cold strong winds or at night when the temps drop down into the 30's, others till in compost into the soil so it generates heat to protect the roots from the nights like last night. All in all there is a lot of ways people protect their gardens from things like the cold whether they are in the soil or in containers, but if the root temps drop below 60, then it can slow the plant's growth and even stunt its growth for a week or two. Hopefully that helps you.

[Cosmo]

I'm due to water in a day or so. Maybe I should add a little molasses into the mix. Diluted kelp, dissolved Hen Manure and a couple of tbsp of Molasses?

[PigSquishy]

Honestly I hate the word "weed" because do you even know what the term "WEED" means? It means it is any plant you do not want growing... so you could have the world's most beautiful prized rose pop up in the middle of a corn field and that is a "weed" because it is a plant you don't want growing. Cannabis later earned the name "weed" because the US Government wanted to wipe it out on a huge national scale and then pressed for others to follow suit, because they seriously worked hard to completely wipe out all cannabis strains in nature. Hence how the term "weed" got started in reference to cannabis, and if you want to know how cannabis became known as marijuana a slang name for it I'd encourage you to do some reading there too, because again you will find it was the way the US Government got cannabis farmers and others to go after this horrible drug "marijuana" and so while they fought to stop this drug, the cannabis farmers at the time didn't even know what they were fighting to end was cannabis... but that is what some digging in history lessons will get you.

So as far as the idea of hardening a plant goes by exposing it to cool weather, yes plants do need to be hardened I agree... but again if you do your research on how to harden plants properly you will find temps of 60 being what they don't want the roots being exposed colder to, and when it comes to setting the plants out in the sun and letting sunlight warm the pots... well then I'd refer you to "Dr. Carl Whitcomb, Improving Plant Root Systems" over on YouTube who has a Ph.D and all kinds of gardening and other awards, etc... on a National and World scale and has a lot to say in regards to the root systems of plants and trees. Because I am getting my ideas of what is or isn't acceptable from him, Ed Rosenthal (Ph.D and is/was a professor over at Oakland University, the college specializing in cannabis) and also has written a number of other scientific papers not on cannabis as well, Harley Smith is another one he can be found on YouTube as well as writes articles for some magazines and such as well, who does things on the world scale for hydroponics, etc.. and others like that who have written on plants and cannabis.All in all there is a lot of new information coming out every year on plants, cannabis, etc.. and its really been a huge help to me to listen to some of these people and make some changes.

[Canuck147]

But if they weren't 'weeds' they wouldn't grow as fast. I got catnip 4inches out of the ground planted same time as my 28 inch auto. We can be a little thankful in that way.

[Cosmo]

I have another question. Should I trim the first and second bottom starter leaves off? See circles spots for a trim.

[Canuck147]

NO - let her grow a bit more. They aren't interfering with anything, maybe when they hit the soil cut them. Think of them as small sugar factories that are producing energy for the rest of the plant. Just my opinion.

[Cosmo]

OK! Thanks Canuck147!

[PigSquishy]

Perhaps the best advice I could give you would be this... your first couple of grows don't do anything beyond just worrying about getting the pH, nutrients and watering at the proper times, unless a problem pops up. The idea is for you to see the life cycle of a plant from start to finish without you making any changes, so you get an idea of what to expect and will then know what changes you've made that have hurt or helped the plant. Next I am a firm believer in studying up and doing some quality reading and researching, nowadays you can turn on YouTube instead of reading or even download a free word to speech program to read it to you if you don't want to read it yourself. The idea is to study up and learn about what you are doing, I'm only aware of a couple sites out there where you can really learn everything you need for 100% free, and honestly this is the first site I send everyone too, there is a ton of very great articles written here that teaches you everything you need to know in regards to every aspect of growing from the seed to harvesting, drying, curing... and storing for long term storage until you want to enjoy it. I've worked for sites that charge you lots of money to learn, and you will get less from there than you will here reading for 100% free. I rely on authors such as Ed Rosenthal, find his books on Amazon or other places he used to write the column "Ask Ed" in the magazine High TImes, among a long list of other things, check out his name you will see. His best book is "Marijuana Growers Guide By Ed Rosenthal" and I just did a search on Google and found it in a pdf for 100% free at the top of the results, so it won't even cost you if you don't want it in paperback. Harley Smith, I watch his stuff on YouTube, NPK University and read his stuff in Maximum Yield Magazine online for free. On YouTube I found Dr. Carl Whitcomb's video, Improving Plant Root Systems, and honestly it made a huge difference for me. I always try to make it a point to make it clear to people, don't just listen to some person you found on YouTube who showed you something in a video and thus it must be true, but listen to trusted scientific sources and follow it up with the YouTube videos of others to see what else others are trying that might work, but have a firm basis for knowing what you are going to do. The only difference between you and a "professional" in whatever their field of expertise is in is simply they took a whole lot of time to seriously study about it, because it meant enough to them that they wanted to be the best at it, all you have to do is the same in the things which interest you.

[Cosmo]

To: Canuck147 and Greenthumb

Thank you both for taking time from your busy day to read my post and offering excellent advice. You have confirmed what I hoped to hear, "it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.

I did read a lot before I started this grow; probably 100 hours or so. I read about strains, grow mediums, germination techniques and stuff I'm not even ready for yet like curing and long term storage. There is a wealth of information available but nothing tops a day like today. I posted questions and pictures about my grow and you two offered up your advice willingly.

So, I say thank you both! I'm not done yet and I will be back; maybe once I see something that looks like a flower.

Bye for now,

Cosmo

[PigSquishy]

Keep reading, there is so much to learn I've been gardening for years and years and I come here to help others because I am still coming here and other places like this everyday to keep learning, because despite all my years I still don't even come close to knowing enough in my own opinion.