This is when I usually screw things up. Stop me!

[FullMoonparty]

Problem = Plants always start to fade on the bottom leaves and I panic. (Making things worse)
Soil = Coast of Maine raised bed soil. I screened out the bark and woodchips but did not add enough perlite.
Environment = indoor 5x5 for now around 80F if I'm good that week. RH around 55%.
Lights = Mars Hydro bar style light. I leave it at 75%. It seems to work with seedlings in the tent for now.
Cultivars = Ace of Spades from Gnome Automatics and two Sour Stomper from Mephisto.
Age = 22 - 25 days old. Ace came up first.

So here I am again. I make it this far and then start messing things up. My soil was way too heavy for Auto Pots and I removed the pots from the system by week two. The short Stomper was waterlogged so I set it on a towel and even sucked out water through the side of the fabric pot with a shop vac. After letting the plants dry out a while, I started watering from top like normal. Almost normal, i should say. The soil holds water like a sack of cement. The bottom leaves on Ace (Freeley) are yellowing and the plant seems to be turning lighter all over. I don't want to make the same mistakes and burn the shit out of them with bloom meds. I can wait for top dressing to kick in. I'm not going for massive yields, Ijust wat to keep them alive and healthy. They look so cool when they are in full bloom. I wish they were perennials. Do I top dress with an off the shelf dr. so and so organic whatchamacallit? Thanks for any help.

 

[Smoke em if you got em]

It seems like overwatering was a problem for you so if it was me I'd get a couple of plastic storage tubs/boxes and place 1 or 2 of your potted plants in them with the dishes you have but turn them upside-down so you keep the potted plants up and away, out of the standing water that will accumulate in the new plastic tub.That will keep them from drinking too much, but it wont stop either of us

 

[Hotfire]

someone told me this and saw it for myself so thought id pass it along: sour stomper seems to be pretty sensitive to N. ( you can kind of see yours getting the claw tips slightly). mine really loved when i backed off the N and gave her a PK booster. i used beasty blooms by fox farms once a week from week 6 to week 8. i also use Recharge once a week. the Recharge really helps with lockouts and brings some green back to the plant I've noticed. im new so don't listen to me just wanna throw my spare change in here for what its worth. good luck growmie!

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Different strains react differently to nutrients and water quality. I've gotten to the point of just mixing all my soil together in a batch and letting the chips fall where they may. Anymore I reuse the old soil, add some perlite if needed and a good dose of Osmocote Plus. Only have 1 out of 5 showing deficiencies this round.

 

[FullMoonparty]

Water = well water from the pressure tank before any filtration. Iron and sulfur in the water makes it rusty and rotten egg smelly. The iron/hydrogen sulfide filter backwashes with strong peroxide 33% I think and the water softener backwashes with sodium chloride. I found out that neither is good over a long period of time. I could be wrong but I am getting much better results drawing water directly from the tank.

It seems like overwatering was a problem for you so if it was me I'd get a couple of plastic storage tubs/boxes and place 1 or 2 of your potted plants in them with the dishes you have but turn them upside-down so you keep the potted plants up and away, out of the standing water that will accumulate in the new plastic tub.That will keep them from drinking too much, but it wont stop either of us

Thanks. It seems like they have fully recovered from too much water. The pots got much lighter and I waited until they showed signs of being thirsty before I added a drop. The curly never came out of the shorter stomper. That one was the worst. I like the structure of it even though it's stunted. The branches spread nicely and strangely two tops formed on two lower branches that were opposite of one another.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

build a flower and maybe some craft blend from buildasoil top dressed two weeks ago would likely remedy the yellowing.. looks like they are a bit hungry. my soil is pretty heavy and it causes little issue.
gl

 

[FullMoonparty]

build a flower and maybe some craft blend from buildasoil top dressed two weeks ago would likely remedy the yellowing.. looks like they are a bit hungry. my soil is pretty heavy and it causes little issue.
gl

Hungry is what I was thinking too. Based on info I read here, I'm on week 4 so I should be top dressing by now. Build a soil might take a while to get here. Any suggestions for what I should use in the meantime? I started making some seed sprout extract with sunflower and melon seeds. That's what I had, no other reason. It should be ready by tomorrow. A bag of deer feed corn is about ten bucks for a 40 lb. bag these days. If I see a big difference in the plants, I'll try making some seed sprout extract with that. Do you think I should mix a little ewc and vermicompost in the mix?

 

[FullMoonparty]

OK, I think I'm getting it now. The short plant that was previously overwatered was seriously underwatered when I checked it out last night. Hmm, looks the same as overwatering kind of. I top dressed the plants last night with what I had on hand which was "worm dirt" and some kelp meal. "worm dirt" is what night crawlers are packed in. Dark reed sedge Pete and castings. It's full of bugs, fly eggs, and weed seeds. Careful bringing it indoors. I either dry it out in the sun or toss some dry ice in with it. I'm not allowed to put dirt in the oven. My tomatoes love the stuff. I watered a bit last night just to get the soil re moistened. Half an hour of spraying and waiting. This morning I watered a little heavier with a vermicompost/seed sprout tea. I noticed the soil was much more receptive to the water by slowly introducing it back into the soil. Patience and fortitude now.

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

OK, I think I'm getting it now. The short plant that was previously overwatered was seriously underwatered when I checked it out last night. Hmm, looks the same as overwatering kind of. I top dressed the plants last night with what I had on hand which was "worm dirt" and some kelp meal. "worm dirt" is what night crawlers are packed in. Dark reed sedge Pete and castings. It's full of bugs, fly eggs, and weed seeds. Careful bringing it indoors. I either dry it out in the sun or toss some dry ice in with it. I'm not allowed to put dirt in the oven. My tomatoes love the stuff. I watered a bit last night just to get the soil re moistened. Half an hour of spraying and waiting. This morning I watered a little heavier with a vermicompost/seed sprout tea. I noticed the soil was much more receptive to the water by slowly introducing it back into the soil. Patience and fortitude now.

A good indicator ( in my experience ) is if the leaf itself is drooping but it's stem is straight out it's oversaturated and can't expire fast enough ( overwatered )if the leaf and it's stem are drooping there's not enough water to keep the plant turgid ( under watered )....I have had extreme case or 3 that the whole top of the plant was drooping over and pointing back down, a drench and a couple hours had em right as rain again so don't panic.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

something immediately available would be best.. like a nutrient tea if you could make one.. ide still order the buildasoil stuff if you can.. you could top dress and make a tea as well.
gl