how do they look? what can I improve? they have always had 10 hours of sun and 8 hours of light in an indoor setup I made with aluminum and 6 hours of darkness
this photo is from February 12th
these others are from March 8th, the day after I transplanted them
and this is how they looked yesterday, March 23rd, already with their training guides
What kind of soil is that and how often are you watering? Any nutrients being fed? Plants don’t like that back and forth between inside and outside, anyway to go fully one way or the other?
I water every two or three days or when I see that the substrate is a bit dry, and it’s a substrate I made myself with leaf mold. I also apply rice water, which I researched helps with the roots.
I’m not too familiar with organic but someone else will jump in on that. I feel like the soil might have poor drainage? Did you add any pumice or perlite?
Nothing really, just soil and making sure it wasn’t compacted. What could I add to improve that?
Perlite or straw for drainage, sand also works. Vermiculite stores water. Drill a few holes in the sides of the pot so that more air gets to the roots and they don’t grow in circles.
During growth, you can fertilize with nettle liquid fertilizer. For this, take a bucket, cut nettles into small pieces, and pour rainwater over them. After 4 weeks, always use 10-30 ml of it per 1 liter of water. You can also spray the plants with it; for this, use 10 ml per 1 liter of water, which will keep pests away.
should it be rainwater or does any water work? what quantity and for how long
If you let it sit, you can actually use any water. Normally 1 kilo of nettles to 10 liters of water. Or 100 grams to 1 liter of water. Let it sit covered for about 4 weeks, then it should be good. The residues should then be strained out.
How often do I water with that mix, and what else do I use besides the rice water I already use?
Once a week is enough.
You could add worms to the pots. They loosen the soil and fertilize it. On top of the soil, you lay grass, leaves, and such to feed the worms and cover everything with straw.
Thank you very much for the tips, I would appreciate any others you have.
Check out Korean Natural Farming online, you’ll definitely find something for your grow.
I wouldn’t even know where to begin advising on a leaf mold substrate. Did you mix perlite or similar to ensure the roots don’t get waterlogged and get enough oxygen? Or is that needed with your substrate?
Actually, I didn’t mix it with anything other than just leaf mold, so perhaps that could be it, even though I already made holes around the pot it’s in.
Leaf mold is great as a compost or as something to mix into a soil to improve it but to use it as the whole substrate is going to lead to a root zone with very little oxygen and drainage without adding perlite or something else to the mix to start with. That could be a cause of your slow growth. My recommendation would be to transplant them into a fresh mix of something a bit airier and see how they go. You could re use what you have with the leaf mold but I would mix it with some potting mix and perlite or something like that to break it all up a bit.
TNT is growth fertilizer. It’s good, I also had the set from Hesi years ago.
I already made an adjustment to the substrate by adding perlite to both, hopefully, the root issue can be solved and they grow a bit faster. I would appreciate it if you could recommend any autoflowering seed with a good harvest (several grams) and suitable for beginners.
That looks good, should help. I use a 60/40 coco/perlite ratio, and it looks like you’ve gotten close to that.
The only auto I’ve grown is the Aloha Auto from Crop King. It was easy enough, I ran two girls 24/0 from seed to just before harvest. They looked beautiful through the first half of flowering until I had trouble with nute lock that gave them leaf burn until the end but it didn’t seem to affect the flowers.
I had a decent yield, enough to see me through the next year, but I’m a moderate consumer. The yield anyone gets will vary and depend on your environment.
