Hel with first grow - small plant for its age

I am trying to grow for the first time. My plants are 12 days old and they look a bit down since their birth. It’s been a bit of a harsh days lately since it’s really hot this past two weeks.

  • What strain: Northern Light Automatic
  • Method: Organic soil
  • Vessels: Pots
  • PH of Water, Solution, runoff: NA
  • PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient solution: NA
  • Outdoor
  • Light system: NA although is catching direct sun in the mourning and indirect light in the afternoon so it doesn’t burn since it’s too hot around here
  • Temps; Day, Night: 28-32ºC Day | 24-26ºC Night
  • Humidity; Day, Night: NA
  • Ventilation system; NA
  • AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier: NA
  • Co2; NA

PS: In the last image, the plant in question is the one in the left.
They are a bit yellow in the end of their first set of leaves. And the stalk looks a bit in the rooted way to me. I just would like to confirm if it’s in normal conditions, or should I adjust something for them to get better.

Thanks in advance guys.

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Welcome to the community ! Your cups look too wet need to let them dry out some. Also if not already need drain holes in bottom. Overall seedlings look good.

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They look healthy but definitely stunted by something. Mine are a day and two days older respectively and I just fimmed and topped yesterday.

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What are you giving them?? They are way bigger then mine! xD

They have holes in the cup, so I will just let them dry out. It’s really hot, so that may not be so much difficult to do

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I have a grow log for these plants in the journal section…I don’t know how to link it. It’s called something like if I can you can too. It’s not something you should mimic but could be informative I suppose. I’m giving them dyna grow foliage pro at smallllll doses. A good bit below what’s suggested on the bottle. .65 ml/ gallon last feed. But don’t feed your yet! They NOT ready.

Is it ok for the seedlings to be in direct sun if it’s >32ºC? Or is it better to move them to a cooler place with less sun light?

Less light doesn’t sound good! However I don’t know the answer to your question. Sorry.

Seedlings are normal for being chronically over watered and lack of a proper light and lighting schedule. Window sill grows are not very successful. Are you planning on growing them outside?

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Yes, eventually when they get bigger.
For now, I think I have 3 options:

  • Let them outside, in a small balcony, in the east side of the house (it only receives direct sun till 12pm)
  • Let them in the west side of the house, (receives direct sun between 12h30-19pm) but it reaches >36ºC
  • Let them completly inside of the house in a cooler place, a bit away from the window, where is sunny, but doesn’t receive direct sun)

Which one do you think it’s best?

They need as much direct light/sunlight as possible so I’d go with options 1 and 2 if possible.

I can move them easily, since they are still in a really small pot.
I check the temperature now, and it’s 40ºC and 25% humidity where they are. I have no sunny place that it’s cooler than that.

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Outdoor plants need to deal with heat and they will harden up as they get used to it. Try leaving it out there a little longer each day and let the soil dry up before giving any more water.

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It looks like you are watering too much. I may be wrong but I would cut back for a day or so. If you’re worried about the plants drying out try a clear cover of some sort. I use a clear cup and either cut a slit every other day or so or replace it with a cup with slits already in it.

Sunlight is your plants’ friend. It’s what they need. My plants will go outside as soon as they show green. The heat is another thing. It will require more watering. A side note: I switched to fabric pots this year and I haven’t had an over-watering problem at all. Root formation has been stellar.

What is your organic soil? I used to use straight cow or worm manure. I am currently mixing that 1 to 1 with coco coir and a couple handfuls of perlite per gallon of mixture however, I don’t plant my seedlings straight to it. I put them in an extreme amount of coco coir (5 to 1) in party cups (with drainage slits) and water sparingly (about 2.5ml a day for the first few weeks) right at the base of the plant.

This is my first year with auto-flowers and to tell the truth, I’m not impressed with the rate of growth. With my first harvest about a month off I don’t seem to be stacking on the buds like I’m used to with previous grows. Well, we shall see.

Good luck…

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@oldmarine I have a bio soil with: pine bark humus;sphagnum peat; horse manure.
I will add this when they get outside to try to keep the moist up.

I didn’t add any water yesterday, and this is how they look today… The bigger pots are still pretty wet, so I will not add any water today either. The smaller, I think I will add a tiny bit of water for it to not dry up.

@Hellraiser Let’s harden them up with heat a bit more each day, then!

I will give more news when the time comes.

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I’m from East Texas and we have pine everywhere. Our soil is highly acidic because of that. I’d keep it away from your cannabis grows.Also the clear buckets allow for unwanted growth. Either cover them or transplant out. I’d suggest fabric pots as it is almost impossible to over-water. jmho

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Hi guys! I came bearing some news…

After 5 days with no improvement on my little plants, I decided to do a drastic move and change their soil. I changed to one with low NPK and a 20/60/20 sand/silt/clay mix. I then mixed 3 cups of soil with one of perlite and 1/3 of vermiculite. I did this to improve drainage and to increase moisture, since they are going to be an outside grow on a really hot (at least this summer) environment.

I tried to be really careful, a balance between cleaning all of the previous soil around the roots and trying not to disturb them too much. I end up realizing that their root system is really, really small, I would say it looks like around day 3-5 of germination… This is particularly sad since they are an auto flower and they are on their 18th day of life, already! But well… I hope they recover well!

I transplanted them to pots of 3-4L. (I have a feeling this will be their final destination, since they are autos) I then added ~125ml of water with ~6.5ph level.

This is the final result, the mourning after their transplantation:

The plants 1 and 3 are a bit on the yellow side (they were like that since yesterday, actually) although it’s not that visible on this photo. The plant number 2 is the one that looks better, this days.

PS: I didn’t notice any root rotting of any kind, I guess that’s a good sign in all of this.

Looks like they are working on fourth node now? Pictures aren’t the best. You would see some delay from transplanting from what I hear. I don’t transplant. I’m new and this is not an objectively better position I just don’t see the point in shocking then with transplant if you don’t have to…anyway, growth of my plants was pretty slow til 3rd/4th node or so (this is when they are focused on growth under the surface.) And then really started to pop. You should see some exponential growth soon if they aren’t too wet and they are getting enough sunlight.

The best photos I could get. I hope you can distinguish the sets better, @Eagles009.

I think they are only in the 3rd node, but I am not sure.

I transplanted them since I was sure the previous soil was a bit shitty for them, and seeing from the root system size, they were not developing it (instead of growing big on the outside)

Do you have more seeds? If you don’t see marked improvement within a week I would scrap it. You could prob grow new plants that are way healthier in the time it takes to get those on track. Chalk it up as a learning experience. Here’s a picture of mine from today. Same age. Ignore the little guys they are 8-11 days.