Is this normal growth for seedlings?

[Frozenguy]

These are blubonic seeds (spice of life) that popped the soil May 29th.
There are two, each planted in ~1gal of FF Happy Frog.
Temps are around 82 max at mid day, 78 morning and evening, 73-75 night time..
They are about 9" from a 250Watt GE multi vapor metal halide bulb that I have used before for unknown amount of hours.

I have circulation and ventilatin and humidity is about 37%-40%.
One has the cotyledons, the first rippled pair, and starting its first multi blade node.
The other only has cotyledons and the first rippled pair.

What is wrong with them?

Here is plant A and plant B:
Plant B is the shorter one on the right that has only two pairs of leaves.

This is plant B :

This is plant A two days ago: (next is plant A today, not much growth )

This is plant A today:

I've never had such slow growth. Then again, I always used to use superthrive and liquid karma.. I am just using plain water right now..

Plus, the bottom of the pots aren't really dark soil anymore, the top has been dry for a few days now.. They feel light, but i can feel moisture when i move it.. should I wait to water it or can I water it some? Its been like three days I think, maybe four..

Frozenguy

 

[maryj315]

One thing your pot is to big start them in something smaller next time like Dixie cups or pots for seedlings

Now lets move on to watering on a schedule not the best thing for a soil grown plant and even more so when the plant is to small for its space do not water until the pot feels dry by weight

And last you should not feed that baby nothing until at least 2 weeks and that will all depend on what is in your soil

If i were you i would walk away from it for a few days even a week maybe quit giving so much love and let it grow

Mj

 

[issack]

looks like they are stretching for light.

 

[Frozenguy]

Yeah I usually start in red beer cups, you can see a few in the pics in the background. I couldn't find any and planted these two in these pots to see the difference. I'll definitly wait till it feels light to water them.

 

[chubbynugs]

Ok so most noobs wont agree with me but you need to feed your plants right when they pop the surface. Seedlings love the nitrogen bro. Those seedlings are ready for the food man.

 

[chubbynugs]

Also i wont wait til they are dry to water seedlings for the simple fact that seedlings if get dried out too much will be irreparable once they droop. Once they are shocked it takes a while to perk them back up. I would recommend watering and feeding every day or at least keep the soil moist until they are in the veg stage.

 

[pinecone]

I think they look fine with the exception of being a little stretchy. If possible get the light closer. I agree with others that say that starting in smaller containers is better and not to feed them for at least 2-weeks (from sprout) in Happy Frog (in Light Warrior you should probably feed them right away). Also agree with letting them dry pretty good before watering again. You have so much soil relative to the size of the plants that it is going to be hard to harm them by drying them out. A bigger concern would be over watering.

Pine

 

[Frozenguy]

I need more help!! This is driving me nuts. I've germinated in 1 gallon pots before with great success, and so I figured I would start these off in these until I found my red beer cups.

Look at plant A today!!! Five days older then the last photo, this was taken today.. WTF is wrong with my plants???

I didn't water her until wednesday night.

My temps are 78-84, humidity is high 30's, low 40's

Using fox farm happy frog soil.

250 watt mh 10" from top of plants..

It disappoints me so much to see this kind of growth.
I've always had like huge seedlings at this point.

here is plant B

What could the problem be? My soil was purchased about 2-3 years ago and then stored in a storage unit. Could that be one of the problems? Could the pH change during that time?

This is so beyond me.. I'm very discouraged, but I know I must go on.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

1 thing about canibis it dosent grow upward untill the roots grow out to container sides then down. once a root or 2 hit the bottom of container plant grows upward. and hence every1 suggesting starting in smaller containers 1st

 

[Frozenguy]

1 thing about canibis it dosent grow upward untill the roots grow out to container sides then down. once a root or 2 hit the bottom of container plant grows upward. and hence every1 suggesting starting in smaller containers 1st

Ok, but what about when its in nature? Does it take a long time before it explodes with growth or something?

Also, does that mean that as long as they are taken care of, they should have a giant growthspurt?

Since these two blubonics, I planted 6 bag seed in red dixie cups with the same soil and they are pushing out their first bladed pair each.

2 more blubonics have been planted in red cups and they both just shed their shells after standing up for a 1 1/2 days..

plus I have 5 peat pellets with bag seed in each to test those out, but I still like my cups of soil..

So these plants should grow at a normal growth rate right? minus the fact that when I grew a couple years ago I used rhizotonic, sweet, and LK.. Now I use nothing lol..

Man I want to be training these ladies and getting some clones so I can get them into flower!!

I'm back to growing (for personal only now) and want to get a move on it!!!!

Thanks for your help, its light at the end of this tunnel. I get discouraged too easily

 

[Raphael]

Seed genetics is very important, maybe that strain is just a slow starter. How deep did you plant the seeds? They look healthy, so maybe just have to wait a bit longer than you want Maybe build a bubble cloner so you can stick the seedling in there and then you don't have to worry about it getting watered enough, then once it's mature throw it into soil.

 

[KolorBlind]

If they are still not growing at a normal rate I would think that its because the root system is not developing for some reason. I would say that watering it too often in the beginning stunted them, not to mention that 95% of the volume of your pot does not have roots growing in it, so while youre waiting for it to drain properly, your plants roots have been without water for far too long.

If you are going to plant in such large containers, it will be very hard to hit that happy medium of not watering too often but still watering enough that the plant doesnt stay dry too long. Just stick with beer cups from here on out imo.

KB

 

[Frozenguy]

do you think I should transplant these two (so far) healthy seedlings into beer cups? I dont like to transplant unless its a planned transplant, but could this be a necessary step?

 

[KolorBlind]

well, in your case Id say you should probably leave it the way it is. The main taproot grown straight down usually and it could be close to the bottom of the pot by now. I know the taproot will pop out the bottom of a beer cup within a few days sometimes. You would rick breaking what little roots you have apart.

If it were me, and im no pro, I would make sure the lights are as close as you can get them, put a small fan blowing on the plants to strengthen those flimsy stems, and try to watch your watering a little closer. In beer cups, I usually water about every 3-4 days in the beginning, so the same should apply for you it will just be harder to gauge in those large pots. Just try not to give them too much water at a time, maybe just pour it around the plant for a few waterings until it barely drains out the bottom. The great advantage to using clear beer cups inside red ones is you can pull the clear one out and see if the bottom half of the soil is dry yet.

Have you had a complete grow with this same light before? I never, ever have had to prop my plants up that young. It looks to me like they are stretching too much.

KB

 

[cork144]

some strains have slow growth untill they have an established rootball, so starting them in large containers means it takes them abit longer untill theyve rooted enough, whereas in a small container they wouldnt have to search far to hit the edge, just keep em in that, id recommend lst because they will probably be very stretched.

 

[Frozenguy]

a question about stretching..

Does it ruin the future of the plant or its clones? Once the conditions re returned to optimal, then the plant should stop stretching right?

 

[aasin527]

look at your cotyledons, they are starting to yellow. time to fert at 1/8 strength. ( i do anyway) when you plant your seedlings, don't fill the pot all the way. when you get the seedling stretch fill in the pots. new roots will grow in a week or two. blubonic are half blue satellite, which is half blueberry sativa which is a very slow plant. don't worry so much. show them a little love and let them do they're thing.

 

[vancityj]

They don't really look deficient, but your soil can't be that great if it's been in storage for three years. Seed genetics would play a large part in the overall appearance; some seed strains start out with semi-retarded growth, but do grow out of it, most times. In all of your pics, the soil surface appears dry; try to always keep the perceived root-zone damp. Your 250Watt GE multi vapor lamp is probably pretty bunk, imo. How old is the bulb? Is the arc-tube black, or? Get a new 400Watt (1KW, ideally), or something - they're pretty cheap. Give them a half-strength feeding, if you haven't already. They haven't stretched that much...don't worry.

 

[customelement]

I agree.. plants look fine minus a bit of stretching.. Though they do seem to be growing rather slow from the pics you've posted, but I would guess it's from going directly into larger pots as was stated. I would say toss a fan on them to strengthen those stems up, Check your bulb as vancityj said, move it as close to the plants as you can without burning them so they dont stretch anymore and when they start to show a bit more growth(2 more nodes at least), hit them with some ferts at 1/2 strength and they will TAKE OFF! On one of my old grows several years back I did along the same lines as you in planting germ'd seeds directly into 6" pots, and they took forever to take off.. but once they did.. they ended up being huge.

 

[Frozenguy]

Cool, thanks everyone. I'm almost done putting together my organic mix so once I do, I'll start a few more seeds in beer cups. I have 2 already that seem to be doing well..

I also just made my 250 mh ballast remote and am using an aircooled hood now for the 250 bulb. so i'm aircooling the bulb AND removing the ballast from the cab so i can lower the light to probably about 2" if i wanted because i usd to use these hoods with 600hps and had the light 6" from the top and only 75 temps..