New Grower Another First Grow Journal - Northern Lights and Critical Mass

[areyouthefarmer]

Hmmm...found out yesterday that I missed something - I hadn't run across the information before, and when I did it was too late.

I read that once the soil is in the pots, I should flush with water and allow to drain off, just to have a nice level of moisture in there. I did not do this. I planted the seedlings and sprinkled a glass of water around the top of the pot, with a little extra attention given to the action area in the center.

I don't want to over water the kids at this stage, but am a little paranoid about them not having enough fluids at this delicate stage.

Any advice? Just mist the top regularly?

 

[areyouthefarmer]

Any advice on the water situation guys? Critical is growing really nicely but Northern Lights seems to have paused (this is day...5?)
Seriously concerned that the soil doesn't contain enough moisture.

 

[fatcalvin]

I did the same thing and planted mine "dry" into the soil. Just make sure that your soil is at or near the top of you pot because it will settle down. I made the mistake and now have my soil line about a 4-5" below the top of my pot. All good just the lower leafs won't get light and die off like mine. Good luck

 

[areyouthefarmer]

^Thanks very much FC!

 

[areyouthefarmer]

Hi All,

Well, it's day 7 for the plants. Critical Mass has caught up from a slow start and looks to be doing well. Northern Lights has slowed considerably.

Soil ph is a steady 6.0, temp is around 83 F (28/29 C) Watering every other day and trying to stick to just a reasonably misting of the surface.

I'm still worried about the moisture level in the pot. Any advice on ensuring the mix has enough moisture - without overwatering - would be greatly appreciated. Or just tell me to stop obsessing and it will all be fine!!

I've attached pics of the girls, please do give me a shout if you spot any early signs of distress that I might miss. To me, they look like they are doing pretty well....

 

[areyouthefarmer]

Pics From Days 8 and 10

Calming down about the watering, feeling like I'm getting into a reasonable pattern. Will start to ease off from the watering soon, and go for a soak and dry approach - although I'm almost there already.



Day 8's photos were done with flash during the girl's night time. Day 10 was under their usual light. I will aim to take more flash shots, to give a better idea of leaf condition.

How do you guys think they are looking for this stage of the game?

 

[fatcalvin]

To me they look just like they should. About the water thing. The easiest way i found was to "hand weigh" the pots. Pick them up when they are dry to get a feel for the weight. Then water until moist, not soaked. Then get a wet weight feel for them. After a few feedings you will get the feel for it. Also i had the same hard time when i first started about over/under watering. I read something and it made sense to me. You are growing a WEED. When all the grass in your yard dies from no rain, whats the only thing left? WEEDS!!! They will go a while without water and the roots like to grow and search for water. Im in 3 gal pots and i water probably once every 5-6 days.

 

[StormsEniGma]

just caught up, they look good but back off the watering, even as seedlings the soil needs to dry, as the soil drys the roots grow in search of the water, if its constantly wet in the area they wont grow much, in the first 2 weeks it is root growth that is important, more important than the growth you can see on top
im a little worried about your hight, your box is 1 metre high but you loose about 30cm with lights and you have fair sized pots so lose another 24cm with them so with my rough calculations that gives you about 50cm of growth height?
start reading up on training your plants with scrog and other tie done measures because if you have a good grow both your babies are likely to get a metre tall
im subbed in mate and wishing you luck on your first grow, i am now just starting 15 days into my 2nd grow
some advice from a newbie to a newbie, see your first grow as a learn grow, try not to expect a big yeild, if that happens awesome but experiance is the main thing you want to take from this grow and ultimately it is that experiance that will help in maximising future grows

 

[StormsEniGma]

and another good rule when it comes to weed, you will do more damage over watering than you will under watering

 

[areyouthefarmer]

Thank you SO much Storm!
Watering information is very welcome! At the beginning of the week, I gave them a thorough watering (so that there was run off in the trays) and then left them for two days. I checked the moisture at that point and it was dry on top but wet (not moist, wet) at the bottom so I left it another day. That next day, they were dry so I watered again, though not to the point of run off. Totally with you on the importance of root growth, I'll ease back a little more on the watering, but it was looking like it would be about every four days. I've also been reading around and seeing people extolling the virtues of dry spells followed by watering, so I'm very much in that mindset. I will ease off though!!

Height - hmmm....lights are probably only 20cm (I think) and they will go right to the top of the box, but that only increases your estimate of grow-space by 10cm, so I'm thinking you have a very good point there. I had originally thought of scrogging, and then decided against it. More recently I have been wondering about LST - though for both of those techniques it was more to do with increasing possible yield than running out of space. I have plenty of time to decide on one or the other, so I will read up on both and see which one I want to go for.

Learning grow - I totally agree and have to say that even without an end result, the process so far has been fantastic. It is quite something to see these plants go from seed to flourishing sprout so quickly! Very hard not to think of final yield though, and hard not to obsess over every little detail. I'm doing ok on the obsessing, I will try to ease back on the yield expectations!!

Thank you so much for your advice and support, it means a lot. I was feeling a little lonely out here!!