Up periscope is just the seedling popping up above the surface lol! Your PH is fine at 7, maybe a tad high. Get a small syringe squirt the water in a ring 2 inches away from the plant in a ring. Try to keep the soil close to the stem, and the leaves, dry. By doing so, the plant will be slowly encouraged to reach a bit more laterally for water. I wait till the plant says I need more water before I water again. Eventually, the plant will need the whole container watered daily. At that point its transplant time!
It’s in a full size pot so it’s not going anywhere. It’s a white widow auto btw. Also my set up is below, do you still think the light she be a little higher?
But a syringe? So that would just make a narrow ring around the plant? Doesn’t seem like much water. How much water? How about often?
1 Like
I use 10ml to 20ml for seedlings and increase gradually. I also use syringes for dosing nutrients. Its hard to say but your light looks high enough? But if you want the plant a bit less dense it could go a bit higher? However the palnt looks happy in that photo? You have lots of space there, are you only going to grow that one plant? SCROG ? Syringes are cheap, you can get em at any pharmacy.
1 Like
Yes, same process with a 5 min wait. The folks at Oregon’s Only suggested I do a slurry test and that was the way they said to do it.
It appears that letting it set longer may move the needle slightly but not enough to worry about.
Looks like you have got a lot of good help so far.
1 Like
@Cannabian only growing once at a time until I get things figured out. This isn’t my first attempt and is a fairly substantial improvement over my previous attempts. 
I took these photos this morning. You got me concerned about over watering so I backed off a bit with the sprayer but this should give an idea of how I’ve been watering. At the very least I’m going to start pHing my water to the lower 6’s
Try not to get water on the leaves when you water. Just water around the theoretical drip line. Which in your case is the perimeter of the leaf tips. That promotes root stretching. It also keeps the root near the plant safe from rot or drowning from over saturation. As an arborist it makes sense to me because trees do it that way. A large evergreen tree is shaped like an upside down cone. During a heavy rain it is almost dry closest to the stump. The tree wants it that way because igs feeder roots are out under the tree branch ends where the water drips. A wider root for cannabis promotes more feeding area and greater stability. Always a good idea to feed plants around the perimeter of the pot if you can. In the case of your seedling, its much smaller and very easy to over water in a big pot! It cant dry soil out it cant yet reach.
2 Likes
@Cannabian okay, I already was trying to stay away from the area surrounding because I heard about root rot and I was spraying to the edges in an effort to promote the roots growing out horizontally. If I’m reading your post correctly, you’re suggesting watering in a ring shape around the plant leaving it dry close to the plant and around the edges?
How do you use the syringe? Above the soil as a single stream? Or placed into the soil like an injection?
Also what’s SCROG mean?
I just spray a stream in a circle around the ends of the leaves where they would drip. In theory, when a plant is actively growing, the roots are 1.5 times the diameter of the branch length. So if you have a plant 1 foot wide its root would normally be 1 1/2 foot across. Its primarily the 1/2 part that does the feeding. Case in point, in a bubble bucket, or dutch bucket, thebplants feeding root is in the solution and the upper part of the root is in the air. There are parts of the root zone that do different work. Ergo I tend to water the dripline more than the trunk.
1 Like
Hey @blackthumbbetty since you’re the go to for auto flower advice, can you take a look at some of the pics I’ve uploaded? I’m concerned about it’s growth rate. It’ll be three weeks on Wednesday since I planted it, it broke through 3ish days later. In your opinion how do they look? Does it appear to be a pH issue or perhaps I’m over/ under watering? I was thinking the pH is high. It’s growing more leafs, but it doesn’t seem to be getting much taller.
I took these this morning.
1 Like
To me, they look possibly overfed from the FFOF. It’s a fairly hot potting mix, at least for autos.
I wouldn’t worry about watering with a syringe. That’s not necessary. However, watering in a ring away from the plant is a good idea at this early stage. Just use a measuring cup and gently water in a circle several inches away from the stem. You’re doing this to get the roots to spread out in search of water.
1 Like
I read about the roots needing to spread out. Not sure if it comes across in the image but I was trying to do that with the spray bottle by leaving the area around the stem dry and dampen the area outside the plant and all the way to the edge of the pot. I liked the spray bottle for distributing the moisture more evenly, but I’ll try a measuring cup for a more consistency in the amount of water put down.
So you don’t see any signs of pH problems? I’ve been just using RO water with a pH of ~7.0 and a ppm of 25 (already expecting to have to add nutes to the water because of the low ppm), so I was planning on starting to use pH down to get the water around 6.2-6.3. I’m guessing you’d suggest I still do that?
Speaking of pH down, does the water hold that pH after it’s adjusted or does it need to be checked and possibly adjusted again? I saw a video of a guy mixing up like a 5 gal drum of it, so I’d guess it keeps for a while.
Thank you @blackthumbbetty and everyone else for all your help, I apologize if my questions are tedious.
In soil, aim for between 6.3-6.8, lower during veg, higher during bloom.
If your slurry test says the pH is in range, then your pH is in range. Those cheap prong soil testers are very inaccurate.
The slow growth rate is most likely from the hot soil.
1 Like
@Cannabian quick question, how often are you water 10-20 ml? Once/twice a day? Thanks
When I first see the plant poke its head up, I water maybe 5 ml of tap water. I dont even ph it. After it gets its first true leaves it may need a 5 ml top up. Because Im really only wetting the top inch or so, it dries out in a few days. As the plant grows a tad I start to slightly increase the water to 10ml plus or minus depends on your temps and ventilation and how much your mix retains, but now I start to water in a circle about the same distance as the longest leaves on the plant away from the stalk, I also start a light feed of seaweed extract. The plant throws a tap root in the beginning and the fine lateral feeder hairs start a few days later. Those feeders I want as wide as I can get em. When the plant is on the third set of leaves and around 6 inches tall, strain dependent, I still do the circle thing but now Inincrease water again and go deeper. Every time I increase water I have to wait for the plant to drink it. So normally its every three days or so. Some plants are hungry though. If they droop a bit and its been a couple days, you can assume they need some water. Its normally better to underwater than over water as long as the leaves dont get wilted. Droopy ok, wilted not good! Thats stress. So to summarize, water only when needed, in many cases the plant will say when, dont over water, better to underwater and if you are watering in the early stages more than every 2 or 3 days its probably too often.
1 Like
@blackthumbbetty , if the soil being to hot is the issue, what’s my best course of action? Is there anything I can do to cool the soil off at this point or do I just have to ride it out until it cools off in its own? Thanks
I’d just ride it out, at this point. No reason to risk root damage by flushing them or transplanting, especially if they’re already a bit behind.
You’ll be fine, just keep an eye out.
1 Like
Okay, thanks for all your help
1 Like
Oh wow, like I said I was spraying it twice a day. The water must’ve stay on the surface for the most part and dried under the light. Otherwise I’d imagine I was way overwatering then. With the spray bottle, the soil was drying out within a few hours. That’s why I was doing twice a day, in the morning and at night.
Do you decide whether it needs water based on the top layer or do you check deeper into the soil. I tried doing 15 ml around the plant last night and the top was almost dry 5 hours later, you could still see damp spots though. But when I woke up the next morning, about 12 hours after I watered, the top layer is definitely dry and brown color but just beneath the surface the soil is much darker. I’m not sure about waiting until Wednesday (2 days) after to work to water, much less Thursday (3 days).
Also, if my conversion is accurate, 15 ml is roughly one tablespoon, which would make 5 ml is roughly one teaspoon, correct? Thanks a lot for all your help @Cannabian
Im not really sure about the tablespoon/teaspoon thing to be honest. Tablespoon sounds about right? How hot is the soil? Young plants are pretty sensitive to hot soil, but like @blackthumbbetty said, so long as it doesnt kill the plant outright, more than likely it will hust retard the growth until a sufficient amount of plant and root is there to eat it. Also every watering washes a bit more nutrients out. Even still I would water less and not worry about a flush. In the future, you may want to put your young plants in straight coco or promix until they get somewhat established before you transplant them into loaded soil mix. Better still, if you can spare the time, use an inert media like promix and simply feed according to the nutrient schedule of the food you choose.
1 Like
Hmm, fricken water . I’ll just keep an eye on it, and if the leafs start to drop a bit I’ll know they needed watering a little sooner I guess.
Not sure how hot the soil is, but like blackthumbbetty said, apparently it’s to hot for autos early on. I’ll just ride this out for now and use a different soil or at least mix something with FFOF on my next plant. But apparently transplanting autos isn’t a good idea but I’ll keep that in mind if I ever try non autos, but I’m a little intimidated at the prospect of using a non soil medium. I thought autos were supposed to be easier damn it
Sorry to be a pest, but are you looking at the soil deeper in when determining whether to water or just the top layer? My light seems to dry out the top layer quick while further down still looks okay so idk. Thanks @Cannabian