First Grow - Kind Soil, Auto - Stunted Growth and Pale Leaves

[TechWeed]

Hi Everyone,

I just started my first grow. Yow! Having problems with stunted growth and pale leaves. These are just over 1 week old.

White Widow

Girl Scout Cookie

White Widow

White Widow that really never got off the ground

Strain; Girl Scout Cookies, White Widow Auto

Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco? Coco Loco with Kind Soil in solo cups will be transplanted into 3 gal grow bags

System type? Soil

PH of runoff or solution in reservoir? Have been using distilled water.

What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS

Indoor or Outdoor - indoor, 4 x 2 x 6 tent

Light system, size? Mars Hydro Reflector 720 watts LED moved from T5 last night.

Temps; Day, Night 71 degrees

Humidity; Day, Night now 70% since putting in the grow tent. Before about 35%

Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size - not set up yet. Will be Phresh filter, AC Infinity 6 in fan

AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,: humidifier

Co2; No

Started grow on 2/27, 5 seeds in distilled water with hydrogen peroxide. All five popped.
Put in solo cups - clear with holes, red over. plastic wrap over the top.
Misted wrap 2 to 3x per day.
3/7 put three eyedroppers full around each plant.
3/8 moved to grow tent and Mars LED light
3/9 no growth and one of the White Widows has pale leaves. No roots visible on any of them in the clear solo cup.

Just used an Jellas ph tester and it showed 8.8 - compared it to the drop method and it shows 8.8 as well. I guess I thought distilled water would be the right ph. Hand smacks head.

Here’s my proposed plan:

• Raise the temp by putting a space heater outside the tent (nervous about it tipping over inside the tent) and aim it at the lower intake vent.

• Adjust the ph by using PH Down or a natural re lemon juice or vinegar. I have ordered Earth Juice.

What do you think? @SilentHippie I am tagging you because you seem to have the most Kind Soil experience!

Thank you for any and all advice!

[WickedAle]

I think if you give them some time they will be fine. Light shouldn’t be to close and don’t overwater, allow to dry out between watering. The water pH will be affected by the soil. You need to check the pH of the water coming through the soil and verify it is between 6 and 7.

[SilentHippie]

How high is that LED? Your white widow might have cooked under the saran wrap. Your T5 would probably have been fine for a couple weeks. The other plants don’t look too bad. Are your plants directly on the floor?

[TechWeed]

@SilentHippie thanks for the quick reply!

The T5 is about 4 ft above the plants.

The plants are on a plastic bin lid on the floor.

[TechWeed]

Also, these are Autos so I didn’t think I would have enough time under the LED

[SilentHippie]

My mistake, I thought you moved them under a Mars led. At 10 days old they are putting out roots and not showing much top growth. They’ll start growing again. Once those roots hit the Kind soil, they’ll really take off.
Keep an eye on the WW, if it’s not light bleached, it may have hit a hot spot in the soil. If I’m not mistaken, I think Coco Loco does have some amendments. Hopefully someone else can jump in if I’m missing something.

As for the temperature, personally, I would be fine with my tent at 71. I wouldn’t try to raise it any.

[TechWeed]

You were right - I did move them under the LED because they are Autos and I figured they wouldn’t have time under the LED.

Also, what about lowering the PH. Should I undershoot the 6 range in the water in order to average it up to 6 ish?

@SilentHippie thanks so much!

[TechWeed]

Thanks for the great advice @WickedAle!!!

[WickedAle]

Don’t bother pH’ing water unless your PPM is above 300. It does not have any buffers to hold and maintain pH. The soil will provide the salts/nutrients that will greatly effect your pH. When you start adding nutes to your water them worry about the pH before you add to the soil.and as before monitor your pH of the water that comes through the soil.

[Jarnkat]

My Jack Auto was really stunted her seed cap got stuck on her for the first 5 days and she was a very slow grower. Her third week of grow she has blown up and almost caught up with my Bubblegum auto witch has been having a great go at life so far. They should take off once they get established!!

[WickedAle]

Sometimes plants just take time to establish roots before they grow. The small one was 16 days post germinate and it really didn’t take off for another two weeks. Picture taken in a 3” net pot.

[TechWeed]

This is a soil, water only grow. No nutrient feeding.

Thanks @WickedAle

[SilentHippie]

@TechWeed
If you’re still misting, you should be ok until your Earth Juice arrives. Once it gets here, ph to 6.5 - 6.8 and grow weed! I love this soil. Some folks are pulling more from their plants with other methods but for the ease, this is the way to get started.

[TechWeed]

Perfect @SilentHippie!!!

[TechWeed]

Okay, Earth Juice arrived. Next I water, I will use that to adjust PH.

One of my White Widows, the one with the pale leaves, bit the dust. Um, seems someone watered with too much vinegar in water…

There are two that were just starting to get pale sections on their leaves so I moved them away from LED (36 in) away. Put them under T5 and the leaves recovered and are now green.

You know I am kind of ticked off about this - shouldn’t be this hard. I start tomato seedlings each year and grow beautiful (and tasty) plants in Earth Boxes. I have two indoor plants that are over 25 years old. Sorry, had to whine.

So another question: my tap water is hard - we don’t drink it. It comes in at 215 ppm and 8.8 ph. Everything gets gummed up with hard deposits. We use a ZeroWater pitcher to filter water to drink. I also used it to grow seedlings. It brings it down to 0 ppm which I have read is not good for soiless/kind soil grow.

Should we use the tap water ph’d?

Pictures of the struggling survivors to follow.

Popped two White Widow seeds yesterday.

Thanks everyone!

[TechWeed]

One more thing. When I used the ZeroWater filtered water for the seedlings (and Kratky tomatoes) I added some CalMag crystals to the water.

[TechWeed]

Here is what is left…

one of them had a very shallow root structure when I pulled it out.

Thanks!

[Tancred1096]

@TechWeed I feel your pain iam growing autoflowers,money are dark green .3 attempt

[peachfuzz]

Your overwatering my friend…
That is you main problem…
Plants are drowning…