2 Plants look OK but not growing, one sick

[mmxbass]

Attempting to grow a number of plants.

As this is a first grow and I have the time and money to invest, I'm trying a few different things. These three plants were the three that I attempted to see what happens when you plant directly into the final container. (The other three were planted in cups and then medium pots and those are fine.)

So for these three. The first two sprouted almost immediately, grew to their current size within 2 weeks of planting, and then stopped growing. They look happy enough, they're not trying to stretch or anything. They're just sitting there chilling not doing much.

Can I safely assume that these 2 are directing their energy toward making huge massive roots and I should just leave them be? I know if you put a small plant into a huge pot that it will try to focus on roots for a while.

Nutrient question: These pots are peat/perlite/vermiculite. They were given an initial soak with 2T/g Big Bloom water and otherwise contain no nutrition. The pots are huge and the seedlings tiny so I basically haven't watered them. Should I just leave them be on nutrients for now?

The 2nd plant, while healthy, has a discolored tip on one of the leaves.

The third plant, as you can see, is droopy and weak. I have no idea why this one is different because it got the exact same treatment as the other two. I'm guessing it was overwatered due to drainage issues (It drains well enough but I'm still thinking of adding more perlite to the mix, I feel like it could drain better) but, as I said, it was treated no differently than the other two so I don't know what to think.

The PH appears to be about 6.5 when I test it. Temperature in the area is 68ºF to 70ºF and humidity is about 35%. I cannot change these numbers but will do whatever is needed to compensate if they're a problem.

Obviously one or more things is going wrong but I don't know what at this stage. This is a first attempt and I'm trying multiple things at once to see what works best but these three I want to know why this particular method doesn't seem to be working very well.

 

[Bapple]

Autos or photos?
Indoor or outdoor?
Temps etc....

 

[mmxbass]

Photos... royal queen critical fem... NOT AUTO.

Indoor grow... temp and humidity are as specified in the original post.

 

[2clean]

Don't worry. It will always reach for t light. Should b no concern. Don't under or overwater because roots r still small. N go easy on nuted

 

[go4snypr]

Huge pots, tiny seedlings -basically havent watered them.........that is probably your problem. water the area around the plant real well, then give it a couple days and water again, the plant wont be using the water at the sides of the pot yet or the bottom, so even if it has some weight like its wet, if the top inch is dry, the plant is probably dry.

 

[mmxbass]

With or without maybe 1/4 strength Grow Big. As I said the soil has basically no nutrients past the initial low level BigBloom. Maybe a bit of Grow Big at 1/4 strength will move things along.

Thoughts? Light nutes or none? I'm worried after about the 2-3 week mark they may be getting starved.

 

[mmxbass]

Also I'm just going on the record as saying. While this is my first grow I have done some basic research and I keep a number of decorative cacti around the house so I'm comfortable with being told to ignore things for a long time and not worry if that's what needs to be done.

 

[mmxbass]

OK. I gave them water with a 1/4 strength dose of GrowBig. I've also changed the big grow light from all frequency to maximum blue/white. I've also given them booster CFLs.

The one in the first photo within a few hours went very green and looks like it's trying to fan its leaves out to soak in the nearby CFL light. The leaves themselves even look a bit bigger like it's trying to spread the ridges out just to maximize the surface area. I'll see how things are in the morning. It looks very happy though.

 

[theoroij]

Hi,

I'm on my second grow now and from my (little) experience I wanted to share my thoughts on your ladies.

35% humidity seems a bit low, the plants would benefit from higher relative humidity as they have small roots to support adequate transpiration.

Not that important but temps can also go a bit higher to speed up chemical reactions, 78 fahrenheit I'd say.

Like you I planted directly in the final pots and the only thing I noticed was I didn't have to water for weeks, not even a drop, I had much higher humidity though, like 80%.

I don't think they need nutes so young even if the soil doesn't have any, they "feed" mostly on the Cotyledons (the round "false" leaves) for now...

Final thoughts: Humidity is relative to air temperature so if you raise the temperatures humidity will drop... If I were you I would just leave them alone and try to raise the humidity... You can also try placing the lights further away from the seedlings for 1 day or so to see if they stretch, a healthy plant will stretch and turn looking for the light.

The big don't: Don't revolve, add, remove or mess with the soil in any way, the more the root system is stressed the longer the plant will need to grow.

I hope that helps

You can check my journal, there's a timelapse (see the last vid on the last post), you can use it to compare evolution in a number of days.

 

[mmxbass]

As I said in my original post, I have absolutely no means of changing the temperature or humidity. I either need to accept and deal with 35% / 68ºF or not grow at all.

I gave them the nutrients and they seem to be fine about it so we'll see for now. Not much else I can do at the moment if there's nothing obviously seriously wrong with them.

 

[theoroij]

Sorry, didn't read that part or forgot...

Shouldn't be too hard to increase humidity, an easy way if you have the room would be an exposed bucket of water, the water will evaporate into the air... the more air flow the more water surface needs to be exposed...