Hello once again everyone. I popped my last 2 seeds from the feminized pack of 4 Maroc seeds, bought last year, into some compost last Tuesday (10-03-09), boh of which popped out of the soil on Sunday evening (15-03-09), making Rainman very happy in the process. I'm deliberately getting things started slightly earlier this year as my best efforts were thwarted last year. After a promising start which included moving the greenhouse to a better location and actually BUYING seeds to ensure females, I had a lot of building work going on for much longer than expected which meant loads of bedding plants in containers being drafted into the greenhouse to disguise my babies, robbing them of CO2, sunlight and general air-flow.

So this year the plants wiil be able to get the full benefit of the moved greehouse without the hassle of builders and bedding plants cramping their style.

Anyway, here they are, nothing to look at really, hopefully there soon will be.

Hi folks. One of my seedlings mysteriously bit the dust, went limp over a couple of days and never recovered. I have now dug out a bunch of "bag seeds", soaked them for a couple of days as they are a couple of years old, as I wanted to determine if there was life in any of them prior to committing them to compost. Anyway, a few of them were showing signs of popping so I planted them all yesterday, we'll see how that goes.

The remaining Maroc girl is coming along nicely, I'll get a picture up soon.




Rainman

acid house?

I'm not an expert or anything but are those small plants in the pic stretching for the light a bit?

It's the Acid House, yes. They may be stretching for the light, every plant I've ever grown (all by natural light) has started off as a spindly seedling even though they get moved to different windows to follow the sun. I find that. as long as you work on the stems by bending them ever so slightly a few times a day or blowing on them, helps them become rigid enough until they fatten out a bit.




Rainman

good tip m8, I might do a natural light grow this year ..just when I seen those long stems it reminded me of seeds I had years ago that went spindly and fell over ..will keep it mind

Good luck with your grow this year - and mine have stretched a bit like that in the greenhouse - when I repot I will just plant them lower - roots will still grow from the stem anyway

SL

use a stake to support them m8. tie it lose and keep taking it off untill it can support itself . just a thought

back again eh
good luck m8,

Thanks for the comments everybody, yep Leroy, back like the fool that I am.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of the remaining seedling. Ancient bagseeds have yet to emerge.

she's lookin healthy, when you pot up bury her up to the first little leaves, now roots will start to grow out the stem you buried and she'll grow up nicely


nice sig...

Cheers Leroy, didn't know that. Correct about the sig, that 2007 grow was a belter!




Rainman

Hey mate, looks like things are starting off nicely for you. I popped some seeds a week after you for growing in a plastic greenhouse, will definitely be pulling up a seat to see how you come along. I was worried my seedlings were growing a bit slow but it looks like yours are going at a similar rate, I guess it is because it's still early in the year.

Nice babies Rainman...

Dr

Good Evening all, a bit of good news (of sorts). The dozen aged bagseed seeds I planted have so far yielded two seedlings which I photographed earlier with their big sister who seems to be coming on pretty well considering the lack of sunshine. I've almost given up hope on the rest of the seeds, you never know though, I'll give them a few more days.

Anyway, here's the crop as it stands at he moment.

Hey mate, looks like things are moving along for you, albeit fairly slowly. Just a newbie thought but I found my seedlings were going a bit slow at this time of year so I nailed some lampholders to the bottom of some hardboard and wacked a few 99p 20W CFLs in the bottom, now when my plants come in in the evening a put them under the CFLs to give them a few more hours daylight. Has brought them along very nicely and may help with your stretching if you fancied giving it a go.

Hello again everyone. I seem to have had a mould problem develop on my larger seedling which seems to have affected the seed leaves (one almost fully covered in mould, the other one is dead) and the first set of true leaves, both of which had faded in colour over the last few days. Today, I noticed the tip of one of the leaves had gone white and dusty so immediatly removed and binned it. This has never happened before, mould ususally being something I associate with later flowering and the dropping temps outside. I do however, think I know how it occurred. The compost I am currently using (the name escapes me at the moment alothough it is a brand name) has been exhibiting some strange characteristics, namely the top layer drying out and becoming mouldy when the reest of the compost is still perfectly moist underneath. I scraped off all the mouldy compost with a spoon yesterday and am planning on replacing with new compost tomorrow which will also be into a larger pot.


Has anyone else experienced this?




Rainman

Hi Rainman

OT1 explained this

I cant

Its not much to worry about - compost doing its stuff

hb

Is it west+ advanced?

Its happened to me

hb

if ur worried about stretched seedlings, you can quite safely repot up to the first set of leaves....

Hello again everybody, just a quick update on the ongoing grow.

The older plant still seems to be suffering from whatever is making it's lowest set of leave go yellow. The previous pair were removed about a week ago and the current pair had gone yellow to about halway up the leaf. Instead of removing the whole lower set of leaves this time, I just cut them about halfway to remove only the currently affected part as the shock of removing the affected leaves previously seemed to slow the growth. I have put in a picture of the older plant in it's current trimmed state, a picture of the trimmings ( if anybody can shed any light on the problem, I'd be grateful ) and a picture of the other 2 seedlings which are coming on fine.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I'm not experienced myself but for what it's worth I'd have thought this problem is environmental. Is your greenhouse rather dark/shaded and humid at the moment, do you have a lot of damp seed trays sat around germing other seeds (canna or otherwise)? If so you could just be providing the ideal environment for the mould. Could you bring the plant in on a dry south facing windowsill for a bit to try and kill off the mould or heat your greenhouse if you don't already?

Hi net2-3, they've only been in the greenhouse in the last 2 days, both of which have been warm and sunny all day and they get brought in at about 6pm for further sun on the bedroom windowsill. That has been their regular location up until the last 2 days, it's always warm but well-vented. The problem only seems to be taking out the bottom pair of leaves. If you count the seed leaves, that's 3 pairs of leaves almost totally gone in about 2 weeks or so. I'm hoping the plant will outgrow whatever it is and will kick on with the more clement weather.




Rainman

Where you getting your water from Rainman? If it's rainwater then it should be ok, but otherwise make sure your PH is in range (and as soon as you can, as seedlings wont hang on too long). Also maybe check PH of that soil if you haven't already.

Also, I'd bury that stem asap as it looks very thin, just do a quick careful repot even just back into the same size; things will speed up if your plant isn't putting loads of effort trying to bulk out the stem. Apart from that, obviously its early but they look quite neat! Good luck and I hope you get it worked out, and hopefully nature will take back over.

Cheers Petrol, I have plenty of access to rainwater so will start using that. I haven't potted the two smaller seedlings up yet as I thought perhaps the soil wasn't being allowed to drain properly in the larger pot with the more advanced plant in it. I was therefore wary of potting up the other seedlings too early to try to avoid that issue. I am fairly satisfied that it wasn't the problem so a bit of potting on will be happening over the weekend. I'm really waiting on the nightime temps in the greenhouse picking up as they always get on better when they're out there 24/7.

Anyway, here's a couple of pics, taken earlier.

tbh they look like a while away from potting up yet mate. It is 2weeks behind up north so wont be long before the sun comes


Bert...

hey rainman
i have the same problem with the yellowing and the slow growth..
how did the maroc react to trimming off the ends? might have to resort to that myself.

apart from the yellowing all yours look really good! will be watching this mate

Thanks for the comments guys. The trimming off of the dead/yellowing leaves doesn't seem to have helped, the larger plant seems determined to shed it's bottom set of leaves as quickly as it grows a new set at the top. I repotted all my plants with the aim if swapping as much of the existing compost (which I thought may have been causing the problem with the leaves). It doesn't, at the moment, seem to have made much differrence. The compost I was using was Evergreen with added John Innes, might it be too rich for seedlings? I've now moved on to Morrisons general purpose compost, we'll see how that goes.


Anyway, here's a few pictures, taken this evening, young seedlings first, older female last.

Hey mate, good to see you back around again but I'm sorry to hear your plants are still struggling Might be a silly question but do you let your compost get quite dry before you water the plants?

E2A: Have you posted your problems in the Growing Questions forum?

Yes, generally always, could that be the problem?





Rainman.

No mate, I was worried that you might not be letting the soil dry out. I was wondering if your plats are having trouble taking up any nutrients and wodered if this could be because the compost does not have enough air in it but unless you're keeping it constantly wet or have firmed it down into the pots too hard you should be OK.

I've just looked back over your thread and I think your issues could be down to lack of light, if the plants are getting plenty of sunlight, I had a houseplant that was growing lots but losing leaves just as quickly and had mould developing on top of the soil. Moved out into sunlight and it's perkin up nicely. A windowsill will always have relatively restricted light and the fact your in Scotland won't help. I think you want to get them outside into as much sun as possible, could you sit them in the sunniest spot in your garden when it's sunny and keep them in te greenhouse when it's dull and overnight?

Hi net2-3, I really don't think the problem is environmental. They "wake up" on an indoor windowsill that faces east and gets the sunlight earlier than he greenhouse does. The window in question gets the sun until about 11am but they are moved to the greenhouse about 8-9am anyway as the Sun is well up by then. The sun is then off the greenhouse by about 6pm when they get moved to a high-up, west facing windowsill until the sun leaves there at about 8.30pm.

Also, with regards to the compost, I always follow a pretty strict wet/dry rota as dictated by the plants needs. I've only been at this lark for a few years but have never experienced this problem with the dying off of the lower leaves, if any plants died previously I worked out what was causing it and remedied it.

Also, just to put the tin lid on it, since going to work this morning and returning, 2 more leaves have given up the ghost, turned brown and are now all but dead, in a space of about 9-10 hours! I'll post in the growing problems forum and see if anyone can help there.




Yours, pulling out his hair

Rainman.


P.S. The other 2 seedlings are galloping along, fingers crossed at least one comes up all girly.

Beats me then I'm afraid, sounds like you're giving them all the sunlight you can. I really thought it must have been lack of light when I looked back to your post about the mould on top of the soil. This occurs when the soil isn't getting much sunlight so I figured this was probably causing the problem with the plant. Hope it perks up for you.

i thought you get mould on your soil if its constantly damp/watter logged could be wrong though.

Lack of sunlight and constant dampness can both contribute from what I understand.

Just to clarify for everyone, the mould was scraped off weeks ago, the area recovered with fresh compost and has not recurred. I'm hoping some assistance will come my way from the sick plants forum.




Rainman.

Good Evening Folks, good news from Rainman Towers, the ailing female seems to have picked up a bit in the last 5 days or so. I removed all growth that showed any sign of being a bit off and that seems to have solved the problem. No leaves currently look as if thay are anything but healthy. Also, the two bagseed seedlings have rocketed along in the last few days. All plants are now in the greenhouse full-time, since yesterday.

I've posted a picture below.

Looking strong and healthy now Rainman - Now all they need is a bit of sunshine


SL

Really pleased to hear things are picking up nicely for you, those plants are looking much happier now.

hi rainman hows it going

looking forward to seeing how you get on this year, all the best, simple.

Thanks for the replies everybody. The sun has been out a fair bit so far this week so the plants have been lapping it up and are looking great. One of the seedlings has come on so well I was able to top it today. Previously, I have always been scared to top the plant so young however, it has a full 3 sets of leaves below the cut and is flying along, also I want to avoid the plant becoming too tall for the greenhouse before it branches out properly as has alway happened to a greater or lesser degree during my last 2 grows.

Simple, are you growing anything this year?




Rainman.

i am indeed my friend, tho i have got off to a late start, only last week germing 3 fem sage and 3 fem lr x ak

Good to hear you're up and running Simple, keep us posted.

Things have been bombing along here on the plant front, the three of them have really kicked on in the 9 days since the last picture. The female, which is on the far right of the photo below, seems to have just about outgrown it's problem of the lower pairs of leaves dying off, just about . The pair of bagseed seedlings appear to have really large leaves for their small size, which may or may not indicate soon-to-be large plants, maybe someone with more knowledge could shed some more light on this?

Anyway, here there are, Feminised Maroc on the far right.

Hi fellow growers and casual onlookers, just a couple more pics, they are growing visibly every day at the moment, that may or may not be evident from the pictures. All the plant have now been topped for the first time, the middle one in the pics below was done ten days ago, the others were done on Friday.

Anyway, here they are, female maroc on the right, bagseed hopefuls in the other two pots.

....and a shot from above.

Good Morning everybody, hope you are all well. Here are a couple of pictures of my 3 specimens taken on Monday evening, all of which are coming along well.

As usual, feminised on the right, randoms elsewhere.

Lookin Good strong and healthy now Rainman - Hope the randoms turn out to be fems for you

roll on October for some nice buds eh

SL

Hi folks, hope everyone is well. My female plant is still suffering with the previous condition which now seems to be causing all the fan leaves to die off by firstly going black at the tips then dying and turning black/dark brown all over. The other 3 plants have all been grown in the same compost in the same environment and appear to be coming along fine without any problems. All four were potted up to what will be their final pots about 10 days ago and have grown substantially since then, although all four are smaller at this stage than their counterparts from previous years, I can't explain that either as the weather has been decent for the last couple of months.

Fingers crossed that at least one of the three others shows some sort of female characteristics soon.


Anyway, I'll get a couple of photos up of the plants, including the afflicted one so you can see what I'm talking about.





Rainman

First up, Little Miss determined not to grow properly. Not a great picture as I had removed all the dead leaves a few days ago, also had the camera on the wrong setting. You can see that the tips of the closest leaf are starting to go brown.

Next, the youngest plant.

And finally a picture of the sickly female with the other 2 plants of similar age, they are totally outstripping it in the growth stakes.