Stunted growth in hot arid climate

It’s already been a month on my auto flowers and they only have first set of 2 leaves. Considering they start to flower after about a month. This can’t be right or good. I believe I haven’t done anything wrong but they are outside n it’s hot n very dry n high elevation so my guess is too hot n too dry is why stunted growth. I could be wrong about anything I said but what can I do to help my plants if it’s too hot or too dry or any other reason that would cause stunted growth?

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You are growing outdoors in soil?

My stunted outdoor growth was mostly due to soil issues

What can you tell us about your soil?

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Yes. It’s part ocean forest, part peat, part vermiculite

Oh Mostly ocean forest then peat then vermiculite

Pictures

I’m in Colorado Springs (7,100 feet) and have no idea how to grow outdoors, unsupported in this climate. You’re going to want to support the plants in a high humidity, moderate temperature environment until they are old and tough enough to stand your climate. If autos are that small after a month it’s best to start over. An awful lot of outdoor growers start their plants indoors and move them out when conditions are ideal. You may not have much choice but to build a greenhouse of some kind.

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I have a green house but it gets even hotter in there!!

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Yeah; you may have to shade the greenhouse and provide more indirect light if the sun is too intense.

Strain selection can become important: look at sativa-leaning strains for heat and arid tolerance.

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Here you go. Hope this helps.

COPY/PASTE: This “Support Ticket” into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA

Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA

Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco?
System type?

PH of runoff or solution in reservoir?

What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS

Indoor or Outdoor
Light system, size?

Temps; Day, Night

Humidity; Day, Night

Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,

Co2; Yes, No

Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you smile

Soil issues … low humidity… high heat will stunt your seedling ,get some good soil transplant 5 gal fabric pots , leave them outside souls come back

Added peat to ocean farm soil to hold more moisture outside in heat, added vermiculite to improve oxygen. Added humic acid/kelp 5/2 ratio in beginning. Fed worm poop tea. Fed RAW Grow once. Water with de chlorinated tap water. I can check ppm n ph run off later when I get a chance and can update with that as well.

Ph of run off is 5.6. I put in distilled water that was 5.7.
Run off ppm is 1114 or 2.37 millisiemens or 2370 uS/cm. Not sure what measurement unit is used here so gave all 3.

Thank you hope this helps. My guess is ppm or EC is higher than it should be. If a flush is solution, not sure how much water to run through it?

What is your overall climate? Like temp, rh, is it winter or summer where you are? I live in the desert and never thought outdoor was possible, but plenty of peeps on here do just fine

Edit: just saw support ticket above

Gonna tag an outdoor desert grower… @Oheeeoh

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My seedling runoff is at 2500 ppm for reference. Im using 50/50 fox farms happy frog and salamander. They are doing fine. May i ask, what strain and genetics are you using? From what I see, your numbers look solid. Might come down to genetics

Ya I though fox farms ocean forest was considered “hot” yet heard it works fine. I have no clue why they doing bad. Others are a little bigger. They are both autos that are indica dominant. It’s very dry but not too hot yet. But even in mid 70s, dirt drys up fast I think bc of high elevation sun is stronger. Any veggies I put in ground as seedlings will just die by end of day unless shaded n they still look sun damaged/dry/wilted

How often are you watering?

In your photo, your soil looks very wet for a such a small plant.

Also do you have a way to calibrate your pH meter? Distilled water should be 7.0 pH or very close to that.

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