Organic Seedlings Trouble!, any help is appreciated.

[dethmetul]

Hey IC,

Having trouble with my plants, hoping some of you organic gurus can give me a hand. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Seeds were started in paper towel and then into cups of 60 cocoa / 40 store-bought earth worm castings.

Watered with spring water when dry. They were growing very well up until the start of the 4th true leaf set. (as shown)

First leaf set began slight yellowing. This was 3 days ago.

Next day noticed there had been no new growth since the day before and yellowing was slightly increasing.Thinking it's still early for feeding with fish hydrolysate etc. so watered with a little bit of kelp only.

Next day (yesterday) still no new growth and slightly increased yellowing of first leaf set. Watered with small amount of sea crop (sea mineral product) thinking this would be similar in effect to the kelp just increased diversity.

And finally today, still no new growth that I can tell from three days ago, and slightly increased yellowing. Not sure if it's definitely asking for Nitrogen and I should start adding fish hydrolysate or if there's something else wrong and I'm just making it worse by adding anything. Or was thinking it was around time to brew a compost tea as well? Not sure what to do basically..

Again any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[rrog]

Is the soil too wet? down an inch or two. You have holes drilled in bottom?

 

[Iron_Lion]

Needs nitrogen or over watering. If soil is wet I would give a foliar spray with liquid seaweed or top coat the soil with some EWC and water, better yet do both.

 

[dethmetul]

Thanks for responses guys.

Yes there are several holes in all cups, when I water too much I can see it all run out the bottom so I know there is good drainage.

Pretty sure I'm not over watering, I wait until visible soil is all completely dry and lift cups to make sure it is very light etc. before watering.

Thinking it must be that it needs Nitrogen. Going to feed tomorrow morning unless anyone disagrees.

Thanks again.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah feed em.

The thing to remember with coco is you must feed up the N level of the coco first. Then the coco will do the right thing and feed your babies.

It is very easy to overwater coco especially using organics but... especially when they are young.

 

[dethmetul]

Much appreciated. Gave them quarter strength of the manufacturer recommended fish hydrolysate along with a little bit more kelp just now.

Hopefully this is what they were looking for.

And will keep in mind about the watering and be more careful regardless.

Thanks again guys.

 

[self]

yep, feed 'em fish. top dress with more ewc like Iron said.
they'll be fine.
what strain?

 

[heady blunts]

top dress EWC.

 

[Scrogerman]

starving yeah i concur!

 

[rrog]

And be patient. Don't be tempted to over-do and burn 'em

 

[OrganicOzarks]

Give them food, and ease up on the water.

 

[h.h.]

Sounds like a high percentage of castings already. Even with adequate drainage, you're water retention (pwt) may be too high. I'd be thinking of threading some wicks through with a shish kabob skewer.
Another question would be if they're staying warm enough and getting enough light?
They probably do need some nitrogen though.Quarter strength should be fine. I tend to give them even less at that size. Increase gradually to get it into the coco without stressing the roots. No BAMM effect.

 

[jaykush]

read and do what this thread says. your problems will go away for good.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=207215

 

[dethmetul]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys.

Strain is mostly all Apollo 13bx's from Subcool, and I have one freebie fem Blueberry from Dutch Passion as well for a little variety. (far left in the pic showing 3 is the BB, and was the first to start yellowing actually)

Temps are high enough I believe; 78-82 during lights on. Try to keep it closer to 78.

Approx an inch away from CFLs. Pretty sure they are getting enough light currently and going to be switching to HPS soon as well.

Can definitely top dress with some EWC when I get home from work tonight since was recommended as well, and will be very careful with watering from now on for sure.

Was possibly over watering just these last few days once they started to yellow because I kept wanting to add new things to fix it. Will be much more cognisant from now on though.

Thanks again all for your responses.

 

[moses wellfleet]

did your coco peat come from a reputable source?... i have had issues with sea salt content of coco, symptoms looked exactly like that... if you want to check it then soak 1 cup coco peat in 1 cup water squeeze the water out and test with a EC meter if it reads any higher than the original fresh water that could be your problem!... i also notice you have no perlite in your medium, cannabis roots love air, drainage amendments are very important...

hope you come right!

 

[dethmetul]

Hey MW,

No cocoa peat didn't really come from a reputable source. It's "The Original Cocopeat Block" from Canadian Tire.. My other option was from local hydro store at 6 or 7 times the price and heard negative things about it coming with bugs so figured the Canadian Tire was a much better option.. Perhaps this was a stupid assumption?

I had a mix made up to transplant them into and if this is likely the issue perhaps I will dump it and go grab some nice top soil and perlite and EWC tomorrow and mix that up for them instead? This is my first time with cocoa peat really and don't have an EC meter to test for salt, not interested in buying one really..

They were looking pretty good 24 hours after feeding seemed to have grown a little bit finally, but some are spotting now as if there is lockout of some sort. Thinking need to either transplant or dump them and start again, this was sort of a test only a couple seeds. Have more of the same. More interested in my time than the seeds.

Thanks for your input man, much appreciated.

 

[rrog]

I've used that original brick. I found I had to heavily condition in boiling RO water, acidified and high CalMag+. Rinsing and washing away the sea salt. Quality bagged coco has been conditioned. That's probably not news to you, though.

 

[dethmetul]

Nope, first time using coco didn't realize this was a concern. Thanks for the info man not going to use it anymore then can't be conditioning etc. and don't really have access to higher quality locally.

Do you think that Transplanting currently into soil they will recover without flushing etc. or should I just start again?

 

[moses wellfleet]

Nope, first time using coco didn't realize this was a concern. Thanks for the info man not going to use it anymore then can't be conditioning etc. and don't really have access to higher quality locally.

Do you think that Transplanting currently into soil they will recover without flushing etc. or should I just start again?

they will recover just fine wash away the old medium carefully and replant... cannabis has an amazing ability to bounce back!

 

[rrog]

I have no experience with this sort of transplanting, but I would offhand agree with moses.