Fertilizing Seedlings?

I decided recently to sprout 72 seedlings from different strains I have been collecting so that I could find a new mother for a commercial garden. I have ben using AK47 and it is a great strain with really nice traits, but I want to find something new. I need a little variety.

So my sedlings all came up but 2 about a week ago. I have them now transplanted into cups and they are sitting in Promix. My question is this, the Promix has no nutrients and I the seedlings look very healthy, but they are getting just slighly pail in colour and I want to correct this before it becomes a problem. What type of dosage should I give them, or should I just let them be until they are a little older?

The nutrients I use is 'Total Nutrition' from a hydro store here in town and I believe this is the only place that sells it. It's great stuff and I have been using it for years with excellent results, but I am not use to stating seeds. Uusally I use clones. It consists of one bottle fro veg, and then in bud you add the veg and then afte mixing add the second part for budding.

Any suggestions on nutrients for seedlings in a totally nutrientless soiless mix (sounds weird) would be greatly apreciated. Thanks in advance!

TGT

Fish emulsion, worm castings. Use some dilute stuff with the right ph. Wait a couple days and hit a big dosage of organic stuff, which can't hurt it.

What about a fert with 1-1-1 ratio with some trace elements. thats what I am using and is working better then my first attempt when I used Fox Farm Veg 6-4-4

1/4 strength nutrients, nothing fancy needed.

TyStik

Miracle Grow for Acid-loving plants?

Miracle Grow for Acid-loving plants?

I know it's usually scorned by growers, but this is my first grow, and I couldn't get my hands on anything else.

The reason I used it at all was because 2 of my 2 1/2 week old seedlings were starting to get a little yellow on the edges of their leaves. The 2 cotyledons, still on, are def yellow.

And, I don't know how else to describe this, but they both look like miniature palm trees!.....lots of leaves, but they're all at the top....is something wrong with them?

The NPK of the MG is 30-10-10 and I applied it at 1/8 tsp to 32oz distilled water. (sorry I couldn't figure out the metric equivalent!)

****the normal feeding proportion is 1tsp.(not tablespoon) to 1 gal. water

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

view2athrill said:

The reason I used it at all was because 2 of my 2 1/2 week old seedlings were starting to get a little yellow on the edges of their leaves. The 2 cotyledons, still on, are def yellow.

And, I don't know how else to describe this, but they both look like miniature palm trees!.....lots of leaves, but they're all at the top....is something wrong with them?

Click to expand...

First off, the cotyledons are supposed to turn yellow - they're the seedlings source of nutrients for the first stage of its growth.

Secondly, seedlings are going to have all their growth at the top. They don't take on the shape of the traditional cannabis plant until they get older and bigger.

And lastly, and I'm not positive about this, but I feel applying regular-strength or even close to regular strength miracle grow to seedlings is going to burn the shit out of them.

Thanks for the advice guys, I am going to use quarter strength until they get a little larger. They are doing great so far. Thanks again!

TGT

Loblolly1 said:

First off, the cotyledons are supposed to turn yellow - they're the seedlings source of nutrients for the first stage of its growth.

Secondly, seedlings are going to have all their growth at the top. They don't take on the shape of the traditional cannabis plant until they get older and bigger.

And lastly, and I'm not positive about this, but I feel applying regular-strength or even close to regular strength miracle grow to seedlings is going to burn the shit out of them.

Click to expand...

Ok...so the palm tree effect is ok, the cotyledons are supposed to turn yellow....but what about the yellowing of the edges? And tonight I noticed one of the leaves has several brownish spots on it.

As I stated originally, I used 1/8 tsp. to 32oz water....I think that's 1/8th or maybe even 1/16th strength, given that reg. dosing is 1tsp. to 1gal. water. (I kinda suck at math)

Miracle Grow sucks.. Id just put seedlings into fox farm ocean..

You should never give seedling nothing but seedling soil for the first 3 weeks. This is the biggest mistake noobs and growers that just have too much time on their hands make. Lift your pots or cups and make sure the yellowing is not from over watering . Also put plenty of perlite in your soil to let those roots breathe.

You can add a little, but it won't always be taken up so it can lead to problems.

First of all, thank you all for responding....

First of all, thank you all for responding....

.....but what about the YELLOWING????

And yeah, I know about not giving the babies anything until they're older......I'm not sure about my soil (it's "says" organic and it was from a very reputable health food store), but maybe having stored it for a year (unopened, in a cool, dry place) made the supplements dissapate?

Well, the oldest 2 seedlings are almost 3 weeks old and I still have them in 3oz. cups....should I transplant them to larger pots with more soil? Maybe that would help things along.

I have been really careful about watering, too, but there's algae growing on the insides. Could that be a problem?

Thanks again you guys....I do appreciate the help!

I have had this problem growing in soil before my last go around with some white rhinos. I had continuously read everyone say, "Don't give anything, don't give anything" and I was really starting to believe I could have some crummy african violet soil mix cut with styrofoam instead of perlite with barely any veg nutes (8-24-12) and get away with it. No I was wrong. I ended up freaking out and using urine for my veg nutes because I wanted it to be organic as possible. This made the leaves come back, don't worry about the tiny cotyl leaves. These guy's aren't important. I think out of maybe 14 plants I have two with yellow ones now. All the other ones are pretty green. They will probably fade in the next week or so, I won't freak out though. Worry about the new growth, this is how you can judge the nitrogen coming in. Look at if the thing is growing. Everyone told me white rhino was some mega indica couchlock strain. The nirvana one looked so sativa in its stretch. It went from 4-5 inches to 12 in about a week and a half. When these things came up, they looked like they were N defficient, so I added the urine and it corrected it. You can use urine but try to find more reliable resources. The strength and content can change day to day as well as content. I got my plants growing fine but they ended up lookin kinda wilty by the time they were 1 foot tall. It would probably have done better with a new soil.

Let the stuff dry out, then transplant to a better soil. If its going off track this early, that should be a warning. Perhaps you need a better soil mixed with more perlite. Try to get rid of the excess dirt off the top of the rootball when you transplant. You want some new soil on those things possibly. I'm not telling you to yank your plants out of the soil quickly either though. Don't rush it, you can water them after transplanting the dry rootball. Then everything will sort of melt together and mix up right. Its better to add a little extra perlite, especially if your new to growing and are prone to overwater. I always try to teach myself to underwater just to see what happens. Once you realize its simple to water, it becomes easy with nutrients as well. This way you can plan out when your pots will be kinda dry so they can get the nute water with a little clean water to keep everything fresh. Overwatering does more to screw up little plants than a lot of other stuff. Sometimes this is a very common reason there is yellowing, caused by the water preventing air to change the ph. This can change ph so that nothing is really being taken up by the plant, thus it has to use it's nutrients up from surrounding leaves. This is often the reason why the lower leaves have to come off in a grow. In a perfect grow you can keep almost every leaf on the entire plant, don't let anyone fool you.

Why is everyon saying give absolutely nothing? Haven't you guys heard adding superthrive even when the seedlings are cracking helps the plant out? Since superthrive is something that unlocks the door to your plant getting the most out of its surroundings (nitrogen), wouldn't it make sense the plant needs something? Also I started off in rockwool, and you better bet I had to transplant cause those things look horrible just growing in water and air. The plant needs nutrients, right?

I understand we want the plants to live but if its bagseed or just a 40 doller pack, why not? Who are we to say what the plants needs at certain times. I'm sure everyone looked at the first guy putting fungi in his soil like he was crazy; it takes experimentation to find what is right for you. I learned early on you could get away with a lot if you just listened to most of the advice out there (i.e. if you feel desperate that your plants need something, only add a small amount of something that can't burn your plants at the right ph). I have added even miracle grow in some early experimental grows right from the start in low amounts. I wouldn't add it everytime or anything, just a little to let the plant know what I wanted it to be doing. Sometimes people want to assume everything that is common belief is true, I'm just saying perhaps adding nutrients will bring your ph down to the appropriate level. I read somewhere, "don't try to fix up your weak soil, just start with good stuff". Assuming your soil isn't exactly foxfarm, your gonna end up having to add nutes later so why not put them in now? This seems to be one of the more overthinked things I have seen.

Its like the people telling you to not overwater but never saying add 1/3 more perlite. Do what you think's best, you are probably right.

I have used promix for a long time....

Because it has no nutrients I gave my plants an early feed.... YOu want to make sure that feed has micros in it.....

you can use fish and kelp...something like thrive alive which is perfect for this.... a weak npk and micros.... kelp based.... worm castings and seaweed....baby food....

The cotyledons are well worth watching.... in poor soil they turn yellow much faster than in decent soil...

I use the cotyledons as a feed me gauge.... when they yellow its time to feed....at the latest....

if you dont the next set of leaves will be used..... then the second set....

as far a superthrive .... its a rooting hormone.... naa....

Im no more in favor of planting seeds in mix without ferts than starting hydro in plain water....

Thanks, ExcelAtIt, for your kind and sympathetic words....sometimes this place can be so intimidating for us newbies! And we're only just trying to do the best we can for the best results....

Yes, I think at this point it'd be a good idea to get my 2 oldest seedlings out of their cramped quarters and into some good, fresh soil. The new growth, checked out as you suggested, looks fine on one, but kinda blue-ish and twisty on the other....hmmmm, strange. But I've got good roots on both and think they're ready for a new home.

The other 5, younger seedlings are going ballistic! So maybe the soil I have isn't so bad after all. There's no perlite in any of them, however, but I'll add some when I transplant.

Pepe Le Puw - Your right, but its not only specifically for rooting. Either way, the roots influence your plant's reaction to stress... why would you not want a backup? It doesn't hurt to add it as long as its in the right amount, I just let the micro's in my soil do the work though. I have heard there is improvement in germination with superthrive vs. not. Also if you have problems with nute lockouts, the superthrive might make more available fromthe soil (assuming some micro life has been destroyed by overwatering).