Brock's Orange Hazeberry Gum Auto - Micro stealth grow - Plant looking OK?

[Hashslag]

Hello - as the title, I've just got my little micro setup running, and I've got a little OHG from Brock1 in there.

 

• 18/6
• Viparspectra P600 set at 50% intensity
• 16" from light to canopy
• Average 25-28ºc inside
• A mixed soil medium with some compost, worm castings and some Arcadia earth mix (usually for bioactive reptile enclosures/tropical plants)
• Watering lightly with collected rain water

 

I can't remember when I popped the seed, it's been a while tbh (maybe a month or more) so growth has been pretty slow, probably down to my novice husbandry.

 

I'm just wondering if the plant is looking reasonably healthy though - I've started to LST it to encourage lower growth, but it seems to me that the leaves look a bit 'down-pointy' maybe... perhaps worrying over nothing but any input will be gratefully received

 

[Should Know Betterer]

Maybe the pics but your soil stuff looks a tad dry, this can cause pointy down droopage ? 

[Hashslag]

@Should Know Betterer I think that's really just the surface mate, the circulation fan possibly speeding up surface evaporation... I am wary of over-watering but I am watering little and often with rain water. Maybe I should increase watering just a little to see if it makes a difference?

[Bobcharlieeeee]

Either underwatered or overwatered, soil looks pretty dry. i did 2 soil grows and never got the hang of watering soil. i gave up and went with COCO and havent looked back since.

 

I was confusing underwatering with overwatering and vise versa. If it was underwatered i thought it was overwatered and held off on watering, which made things worse.

 

You will be told to do a wet / dry cycle. but everyones deffinition of dry varies so much that i never got it just going by descriptions. i dont have anyone in real life to show me

 

When did you water last and how much?

Edited April 5, 2023 by Bobcharlieeeee

[Hashslag]

Hey @Bobcharlieeeee thanks for the input mate. As of now, I watered again last night, about 200ml I suppose? It's tricky because everywhere you read that overwatering is a much bigger problem than under watering - I guess I need to find a balance somehow! I kinda wish I'd gone with coco with this - I think I will next time.

[Bobcharlieeeee]

@Hashslag Whats the pot size and are you watering the entire pot until run off? the top of the soil does look abit dry in the pics.

 

is it moist if you put your finger in?

[Rustybiff]

Hey @Hashslag, I don't think they look underwatered, can see the soil's moist beneath the surface.. It could just be that the soil is a bit dense and unaerated so the water isn't draining freely. The plant itself looks healthy if you ask me, it's just waiting to root out that pot (which is fairly big so you're right to be careful with the watering... I'd invest in a lance sprayer, you can get a 5L one off the bay for 18 quid iirc, it means you can stop the top of the soil drying out and going aquaphobic without actually directly watering the plant too much. One of the best things I've bought for making life easier, couldn't live without it now! I think when people say to let cannabis dry back completely before watering it's easy to take it too far and let the soil go bone dry, best thing is to get it when the pot is light enough but before the soil is receeding from the edge of the pot

 

I think it's starting to look a little hungry though.. I've found 3ml/L of fish mix to be a good amount at that age (that's if you have it and are doing organic feed)... Also don't think a month is too slow for that, should take off when it gets the roots down!

 

@Jon Smith you were mentioning that droop can be a good sign on pot up, that they will be big drinkers.. Maybe you could help out on this one?

 

[Hashslag]

Thanks so much for your insight gents. @Bobcharlieeeee - I don't honestly know the size of the pot  It's an old catering coleslaw tub from my Mrs' work, I'll guess at 2-3L perhaps? I don't water until it starts running off, no - I've just been putting in a little bit at a time, but I think I may be under watering just a tad tbh - I've just added another 225ml rain water, I'll keep an eye on her over the next few hours and see if there's any visible changes. Also, if I put my finger in, it's not what I'd call 'moist', just slightly damper than the top of the soil if that makes sense (or it could just be a difference in temps).

 

@Rustybiff thanks mate - I did think that perhaps the growth had slowed whilst it was putting out roots into the new pot (it started life in a pot noodle sized yoghurt pot and was transferred to this one). So it's possible it might have had a slight shock as well? I know autos don't really enjoy being repotted too much. Also with feeding, aren't autos very light feeders? I was of the opinion that I shouldn't really feed until it gets to flowering?

 

E2A - is fish mix different from fish/blood/bone? Or can one be substituted for the other?

Edited April 5, 2023 by Hashslag

[Revive]

14 minutes ago, Hashslag said:

- is fish mix different from fish/blood/bone

Biobizz fish mix is a liquid fert, fish blood and bone is powder..a bottle of fish mix is what you want really, dry ferts will take ages to break down so won't be readily available to the plant straight away 

[Jon Smith]

@Hashslag @Rustybiff These look small given they're ~ 30 days old, so suspect the roots are not strong, likely due having been over-watered and/or the pots never left to dry a bit to promote root growth. The soil looks a bit soggy/compressed/pebbly, not even and fluffy, which makes it harder for the roots to breath the moisture out quickly. IME leaves look a bit similar droopy in both over-watering and under-watering, yet the difference is that adding water will quickly (some hours) and clearly perk under-watered plants, whereas it does not do such a thing in case of over-watering.

[Rustybiff]

Hey man, good point about it being an auto.. I don't know anything about them really but grew a couple in the garden as my first introduction to growing. They may have different feeding needs in flower but seeing how the lower leaves are fading to a slight yellow I think indicates it's ready for some food.. technically it's now consuming itself for food which will stop growth because it's prioritising survival. I think this is right but it's just my gut instinct from my own experience! Do you have some maxicrop seaweed around? Maybe a foliar feed would help, unfortunately I think you've missed your chance for a couple of days if you've just watered it again

 

I remember @Shumroom telling me to foliar feed just before lights off otherwise the water can magnify the light leading to further damage

 

To be honest I think underwatering is easy to spot because the leaves droop from right where they attach to the main stem. and will perk up within hours of watering. If they're staying looking droopy like that I normally think it's something else

 

Edit: wrote this while Jon was posting so sorry for repeating things but yeah fish mix is a fucking awesome tool to have on hand. Minging to get on your hands or anywhere else for that matter but it can keep plants looking so good! I really struggled with keeping them happy between the seedling - adult phase but now as soon as I see the tiniest fade to yellow on the lowest leaf I start with 3ml/L and they just grow on happily. Because it's organic you wont see immediate effect, so the lower leaves may continue to yellow for a few days as the food becomes available but it's nothing to worry about. Just about finding your way and learning to predict their needs

Edited April 5, 2023 by Rustybiff

[Bobcharlieeeee]

39 minutes ago, Hashslag said:

Thanks so much for your insight gents. @Bobcharlieeeee - I don't honestly know the size of the pot  It's an old catering coleslaw tub from my Mrs' work, I'll guess at 2-3L perhaps? I don't water until it starts running off, no - I've just been putting in a little bit at a time,

I would water the entire pot until you get run off until the pot feels heavy, then dont water until it feels light, probs 3-5days at this size.

 

What soil is it? at that size id of thought there would still be plenty of nutes left in the soil

[Hashslag]

Fucking plants  

 

Thanks everyone for your advice, as always. Appreciate your time. I'll keep an eye on things and see how she progresses, I'll order in some feed when I can and perhaps try that to see if it helps perk her up a bit. I think she's looking little better today than yesterday, but could be wishful thinking  

[Hashslag]

Just now, Bobcharlieeeee said:

What soil is it? at that size id of thought there would still be plenty of nutes left in the soil

 

It's a bastard mix of some sort of compost, some worm castings mixed in, a little bit of FBB went in the mix as well and some eco earth substrate which I use in my gecko bioactive tank for plants.

 

In simple terms, it's probably far from perfect but I thought I'd see if it would work. If anything I thought it might be a little 'hot' tbh...

[Bobcharlieeeee]

It could be the soil being abit too compact, if it was too hot id expect to see some burning perhaps. Just double checking you do have drainage holes in the pot?