First Time Grower with Slowness issues.... or impatient?

[OhioIndoorGrower]

I just started transfering my hand-written notes from my notebook to this Journal page, and I added some photos. I feel like I’m doing something very wrong. Other people are posting how their plants look like small bushes after 3 weeks, and mine just look like small seedlings. Am I under-watering? I really don’t think I’m over watering, because the soil is pretty dry every time I go out to check on them. If you have a few minutes to look at my journal, I’d super appreciate any comments or help. I’m tracking as many individual metrics and variables as I can, and it’s all documented pretty well in my journal, which can be found here:

Journal

Today is my plant’s day number 13… as in, I took the seeds out of the package from ILGM, and put them in a cup of water. After about 36 hours I moved the seeds to paper towels labeled with the strain, and left them again for another 36-48 hours. So far, so good, the tap roots were over an inch long, so I planted them in my 5 gallon fabric pots and I’ve been watering with rainwater mixed with a half dose of Cal-Mag, pH’d to about 6.3-6.5, which sits in a 5-gallon Home Depot bucket with a fish air pump and rock dispersers. My soil has stayed around 5.8-6.2 measured with a BlueLab soil/water tester that was correctly calibrated only a day or so before I planted the taproots. The grow media is composed of Coco, perlite, worm castings, and some other ingredients (half strength on everything, bat guano, alfalfa meal, 4-4-4 all purpose and Kelp meal). That was all mixed up in each fabric pot to make sure the mixture was correct.
Since planting the tap roots, I’ve been watering about 60-70 ml of water a day, per plant, 2x a day. The soil is pretty dry at the end of the 12 hours that I leave the plants alone. I’ve been watering at 9a and 9p daily. I just read last night that this is not good, sigh… people say you shouldn’t water on a ongoing schedule, but I really don’t know. So… instead of watering my normal amount last night, I changed it up and gave the plants like 3-4 times the normal water to try and moisten the grow media. i checked the plants this morning, but did not add more water as I normally do. I’m hoping this will help spur some growth, because my seedlings (if that’s the correct term) are less than 3 inches tall at this point (again, today, Jun7, is day 13), they have two main leaves, two super tiny leaves, and the two cotyledons. They just look small, and I don’t know if I’m over watering or under watering… the leaves look nice and healthy green, and they aren’t curling up or down. I feel like I’m missing something or doing something wrong, but I haven’t been able to identify it yet. Maybe it’s on perfect course? Maybe I’m expecting too much? Maybe I’m not patient enough? This is harder than it looks!!!

[Fieldofdreams]

@OhioIndoorGrower want a better response, start your journal in here just like you started this thread. Easier on the rest of us lol. Post your pics with it cuz we’re a visual crowd.

[Adt187]

First pic is day 9 from seed and 2nd pic is day 23. It goes a bit slow at the beginning.
I also have a journal on the journal page and I don’t believe one person has looked at it in 5 weeks!

[Fieldofdreams]

@Adt187 as soon as you click on it you get a redirect and it wants you to log on and whatnot……me personally I’m a little ADD so I immediately back out and look for easier reads. This works my friend. Let our journey begin.

[Fieldofdreams]

This thread can be your home. Figure out a fancy catchy name that can outlive multiple grows and have a friend with editing powers change it to that. You then have a home all your own.

[OhioIndoorGrower]

Ahh! I’m sorry! I was trying to figure out how to do that. I was able to get some pics. I’ll get them moved off my phone and upload them in a bit. Thanks for the response!

[OhioIndoorGrower]

Those look nice “Adt187”! Your day 9 pic is about what mine looked like, say… 3-4 days ago, though, not as tall. And your day 23 pic looks great, thanks for sharing and responding! Sounds like I need to be patient!

[OhioIndoorGrower]

Here are pics of my three girls from Cycle 1. These seeds were introduced to water on May 26, and planted in their fabric pots on May31.

Purple Kush Auto Feminized

Gold Leaf Auto Feminized

Super Lemon Haze Auto Feminized

These pictures were taken at about 3pm Today while the girls are normally in their dark period. I have the light scheduled 19/5, and it turns off at noon, back on at 5pm. It really helps regulate the heat in the two tents overnight.

That being said, this is a garage setup… I know. Not the best location, but you do with what you got. So, I put two Spider Farms 4x2x7’ tents next to each other. One is the storage location for all my grow materials, and the other is the actual grow tent. I regulate the air in the storage tent and the two tents are put together with 2 inline fans that keep everything circulating. I also have 4 additional small 6" fans, 2 in each tent. A/C, Humidifier, space heater, and 6" exhaust duct from the storage tent to vent the system into the attic. All in all, it’s pretty solid from what I can see from my AC infinity Bluetooth sensors.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears! Thanks again!

[Fieldofdreams]

@Adt187 sh!t I’m a tard. I responded to you as if I were still chatting with @OhioIndoorGrower

Bear with me peeps, is it 4:20 yet???

5 min ago lol!!!

[MrPeat]

@OhioIndoorGrower I will give a little inside help. Don’t ever compare your plants with another grower’s one. Why? Unless everything is exactly alike, you will see many variations take place. When I say everything, I am referencing to outside Temps and RH%. Plus whatever nutrients that come with wind and rain. Even if your neighbor had the same equipment and what not like you have there is a 99% chance it will grow different than yours. Plus inside temps, RH% and every other factor that can influence your grow.

So I will leave this parting gift. Everything is identical. Same light and water. About to start nutrients tonight.

The comparison is mind blowing. Broke surface at the same time as well. This is Zkittles Glue from Expert Seeds.

This is Genetics at its finest. I mainly grow Sativa Dominants so my plants tend to hit 7 to 8 feet tall indoors.

Another example….the one I am holding was 8 feet tall and I had to cut her in half just to get it out of the 4x4 tent. I can literally reach over 7’ in the air as I gorilla arms as I call them.
Also the big full tent…the plant that is front Left is the one I am holding in half. I had to keep it off the floor cat and dog fur.

[Adt187]

Yeah the small pic they were actually stretching a bit, I buried them a bit deeper at transplant and have had no problems. I dropped seeds may 1 and just finished second topping. I am in coco so it will be a little ahead of your soil grow. Happy Grow, I’ll follow your journal.

[Karbinator]

I would venture a guess that your girls experienced stalling from cold root soil…I try to keep soil 70/74°f (heat mat) even with lights out until they hit heights that I top and train… Then temps can swing down a little at night… also, be careful on feed water temps… tap water temps can be cold and can be overlooked as the issue.
Stalling is sneaky, cause it sometimes happens without leaf issues (we listen to the leaves mostly)… it also lasts up to a week or two when younglings… Do you have a thermostat controller for your heat mat?

[Borderryan22]

@OhioIndoorGrower

60-70 ml of water a day, per plant, 2x a day

Way too much. Try once a day.

[Karbinator]

It’s Coco so it may be dropping straight through each time. He did say it was dry in 12hrs.

On the infinity data:
I just noticed the swings in humidity. Try to get that inside a 10% window of 55/65% in their stage… The 35% is not doable. Also, without co2, you need to get out of the 80s on temp. Unless your leaf temp says lower via. Fan breeze.

[OhioIndoorGrower]

@MrPeat thanks for all of that information! Yes, you’re correct, I should compare myself to someone else, for the same reason I shouldn’t compare my grow to someone else’s. No two environments are the same. And, sure, I’m not expecting these autos to reach 7 feet tall, I’m just worried at this pace if they’re going to even produce any buds… Looks like I’ll have to tweak the water supply and try to keep the roots warmer at night, and the RH% up a little higher. All good stuff.

[MrPeat]

@OhioIndoorGrower There was a post where the Auto is at the top of his tent and this is before flowering.

Each seed is unique. The photo of the full tent the 2 Blue Dream grew almost identical which is very unusual from my experience.

You just have to watch Sativa Dominant plants as they tend to grow tall. Indicas are usually short and bushy. I did have a Indica Dominant get a little past 6’ tall. Not common in my 4 years of growing. But I am a Sativa fan.

Now my Autos tend to be around 3’ tall on a consistent basis.

[OhioIndoorGrower]

Apparently, this forum site won’t allow new users to post more than a few times a day, so I’m combining this reply for everyone who has helped so far. They made me wait 17 hours before being allowed to post a new message, my apologies for the delay!

@MrPeat thanks for all of that information! Yes, you’re correct, I should compare myself to someone else, for the same reason I shouldn’t compare my grow to someone else’s. No two environments are the same. And, sure, I’m not expecting these autos to reach 7 feet tall, I’m just worried at this pace if they’re going to produce more than an eighth of smokable bud… Looks like I’ll have to tweak the water supply and try to keep the roots warmer at night, and the RH% up a little higher. All good stuff.

@Adt187 Thanks and good luck in your grow, too! You’re off to a good start already, judging by your pics! I’ll follow your grow, as well.

Thanks, @Karbinator! I just ordered a 48" x 20" heat mat, with IP67 waterproofing and a digital temp gauge, from Vivosun. I’ll get that put in as soon as it’s delivered. I don’t currently have one, I’m just relying on the internal temp of the tent to keep the fabric pots and grow media at near the same temperature.

Thanks. @Borderryan22 for the recommendation, I’m going to try and step back from watering and only water once every 1-2 days. I think I’ll bump up the amount of water per watering, and space out longer between.

Yes, @Karbinator , I am growing in a Coco, perlite mix, with some other ingredients. When I was watering over the last two weeks with my spray 950ml / 32 oz bottle, I would spray the plants with 10 sprays at a time, move on to the next plant in a clockwise manner, and keep giving 10 sprays until the bottle got down to about 600ml remaining. At that point, I dump the remainder back in my Home Depot bucket. The top of the grow media would be nice and evenly damp, but I don’t think the water got very deep. That’s why last night I changed up and used a small coffee cup to pour water closer to the plant stem, in hopes that the water would get deeper. I did lift the fabric pots last night, and they were heavier than ever before, though, I didn’t weigh them. I checked on them this morning at 9 am like I usually do, and then took the above pics around 3 pm, (which I don’t normally do).
As for the info on the Tent Temp and RH… One thing that is hard for me to explain through text, is that the two tents are connected together with two 6-inch ducts. The one at the top of the tent draws hot air out of the “grow tent” and pushes it into the “storage tent”. The bottom duct draws fresh air into the grow tent by having a different fan just pushing air to the right. The problem is that the “grow” side doesn’t have Bluetooth capability, and I can’t look at historical data. That only works on the “storage” tent, because the AC-Infinity fan controller is set up to exhaust air from storage to the attic, and draws the air through a carbon filter. There is no carbon filter in the “grow” tent. The walls on both tents are also bowed inward, due to the vacuum of the AC Infinity set to a minimum of “1” and a max of “5”. Any more than that and it exhausts air too quickly and my environment gets too hard to keep stable. It’s tough because this is buried in the back of my garage, which is detached and has no insulation. The only way to control environment variables is to add in these systems. So, I do have an Air Conditioner (which works as a dehu, also), two portable space heaters (which aren’t really easy to control the temps, they’re not accurate at all), and other fans inside both tents. Airflow def isn’t an issue, though, I can totally see how temperature and RH are making wild swings. Ohio has been up to almost 90 already and as low as 45 overnight. Recently, though, it’s been 70-75 daytime, and 55-60 overnight.

SO!!!

Also, I have an update for the thread. As I mentioned, two nights ago, I watered way more than I usually do. Maybe this is correlated, maybe not, but, last night, I checked on these girls and there was a big growth spurt! And, when I felt the growing media with my hands, it felt very dry to a couple of inches deep. The good news is that the media felt warmer than the air temps. I could feel the warmth on my fingers as I gently rummaged through the top layers of all 6 pots. I also, pH’d the soil, and all 6 were right at 6.3 pH. My 5-gallon bucket of Calmag treated water was bubbling all day with the fish air pump, and it was tested at 7.1 pH, so I mixed up my pH Down solution and deluded the water until the pH was between 6.4-6.5.

I think the reason my humidity is so low in my tents is that I’m not watering enough, and then with the space heaters running overnight, it further destroys humidity. So, I took my 1-liter spray bottle and filled it all the way to the top, and distributed it across all 6 plants. I was shitting bricks last night thinking I over-watered them again. Went to bed all nervous…

Woke up this morning and did my normal 9 am morning check, and the girls had another explosive growth day!!! Again, these girls are VERY small. So, when I say, “an explosion of growth,” I mean that relatively speaking. The smallest leaves on a couple of these girls grew a couple/few millimeters overnight, and the main leaves got greener and bigger, as well. I’m beginning to think I’ve been starving these girls of water.

Here are some pics from just a little bit ago:
Gold Leaf Cycle 1:

Gold Leaf Cycle 2:

Purple Kush Cycle 1:

Super Lemon Haze, Cycle 1:

Purple Kush, Cycle 2:

Thanks again, everyone!

[MrPeat]

@OhioIndoorGrower Yeah there is a limited post count the first 24 hours. You need to read more posts and also give more Hearts. You do these and check in every day you will move up in rank. Then you can seriously post a ton. Heart counts go up as you level.

I am a Regular and if you look at my Stats it’s pretty scary how much time I have in retirement.

I hope you didn’t think I was attacking you. Because I wasn’t. Just making sure you know this. As its not always cut and dry reading a post. No facial expressions.

You should be fine. My Autos generally yield 1 to 2 oz dried, cured and no stems. I keep the sugar leaves on and smoke those too.

Now my Photos its about 2 oz for Indicas and up to 2+ lbs for Sativa dominant plants. I am still learning about Indicas as I am a Sativa smoker.

Another point. When you water make sure to keep it from the main branch in the ground. Make them spread their roots and this will help stabilize the plant as it gets bigger.

[Borderryan22]

@OhioIndoorGrower

5-gallon bucket of Calmag treated water was bubbling

There is no need for this. Using a bubbler will add carbon to the water and throw pH off. At their early age, they need water only, if you have amended your coco, and very little. 5-10ml per day is enough for seedling in coco.

@OhioIndoorGrower

deluded the water until the pH was between 6.4-6.5.

You want pH between 5.8-6.0 for coco, unless you have a medium that is prebuffered to a certain pH. If it is plain coco, then you probably need to pH it a little further down.

[MrPeat]

Like how FFOF is buffered to 6.5 pH. Nice catch. I only grow in FF products and I have never tried Coco. I know about the pH and what not but that is all. And that you use nutrients straight away as the seedling gets bigger.