Noob grower needs diagnostic help

[StarkRG]

Indoor/Outdoor: Outdoor (unless it's raining, in which case I bring them inside and set them near a window)

Growing Medium: Soil (specifically Hortico All-purpose mix)

Growing Style: ??

Watering/Feeding Frequency: Transplanted two weeks ago, haven't fed yet, they were accidentally left out in the rain a week and a half ago so they were soaked then, watered a little bit on Friday

Nutrient Strength (PPM/EC): none so far

PH Levels: 6.5

Temperature/Humidity Levels: outdoor ambient

Air Flow/Fans etc.: no fans, outdoor wind

Lighting Type (CFL/HPS/MH etc.): Sun, around midday I move them from the front to the back so they get fairly continuous sun throughout the day.

Total Wattage: N/A

Growth Stage: seedling

Plants Age: approx. 4 weeks

Cannabis Strain: multiple, detailed below

 

Hi everyone, long time toker, first time grower. I've spent the last few days trying to diagnose my plants' problems and haven't been able to figure it out.

 

They're about four weeks old and were transplanted into their current pots from the incubator about two weeks ago. I am attempting an outdoor grow in soil, I started them in jiffy peat pellets from feminized seeds with auto-flower genetics. I realize this is less than ideal but I live in a sharehouse on a limited budget (meaning it was a chore to even get my housemates' approval to even grow outdoors, let alone afford lights or the electricity to run them). Soil pH is around 6.5, I water from a watering can filled with tap water and left overnight (though I sometimes have to top it up with straight tap water).

 

Earlier this week I noticed some dark-green discolouration beginning at the tips of the lower leaves of one plant, the discolouration has expanded and now covers nearly half of the lower leaves and has since begun on one of the other plants. Additionally two other plants have begun to grow some small, somewhat deformed leaves.

 

I haven't yet started fertilizing since I originally thought the soil should have enough for a few weeks, though I have since discovered that this may not be the case. I haven't watered them much, however unfortunate they were left outside during a rainstorm and, thus, probably got too much water, this was their first watering two days after being transplanted (I have since been very careful to make sure they were inside whenever rain was likely). A couple days ago the soil was beginning to feel dry (stuck my finger about an inch down) so I watered them a little.

 

Additionally during the rainstorm one of the plants lost its first true leaves, its second leaves had just begun to form so they weren't big enough to be ripped off and its cotyledons were fine. I figure this plant will end up dying but it still seems to be struggling on. 

 

I'm including full resolution images as I think they make it easier to see the problems. If you'd rather I use lower-res images I can certainly do that. You can see in the photos that I've piled some soil (actually dry peat from peat pellets whose seeds didn't sprout) around them as they were beginning to look a bit lanky (thanks, I'm assuming, to several overcast days causing them to attempt to reach for more light) and it was a tad windy this morning. (in case you're wondering the little green pellets are slug and snail pellets as we have a little bit of a slug problem, so far I haven't noticed any trails in the pots themselves so hopefully the pellets will continue to do their job)

 

Silver Haze 1 I consider most healthy. The slight orange discolouration was some orange goop I found and wiped off. It's possible it came from my sandwich I had eaten earlier but I can't be sure of this.

 

Silver Haze 2 is the one I first noticed the dark discolouration. It's somewhat difficult to see in the photos so I've included two. You can see that the leaves are also beginning to curl a little. The younger leaves seem pretty healthy though.

 

Blackberry is the second one that started to get the dark-green colouration. Otherwise it too seems fairly healthy.

 

Amphetamine 1 is the one I first noticed with abnormal leaf growth. It was somewhat more immature than the others when I transplanted so that might have been part of it. They were all started at the same time and it was beginning its second set of true leaves while its roots were beginning to pop out of the peat pellet so I figured it was time. Transplanting took the form of placing the entire peat pellet into the soil and covering it up so any damage to their roots should have been minimal. As you can see the new leaves are slightly misshapen and, especially the one closer to the bottom of the photo, stunted. Additionally the veins seem to be yellowing.

 

Amphetamine 2 is the one that got its leaves ripped off during the storm and I figured was a goner. However it has since continued a bit of growth since then so it's possible it might make a recovery. It too is showing signs of stunted leaf-growth.

 

After investigating further I discovered that all-purpose mix generally doesn't contain enough nutrients on its own so at this point I'm leaning more towards phosphorus and calcium deficiency with the possibility of nitrogen deficiency (only because according to this page all-purpose mix usually needs this added, plants aren't showing this yet). I would like to be sure about this before I go giving them nutrients they don't need.

I was told by someone on another forum that my all-purpose potting mix was more akin to a soilless medium, I'm not entirely sure this is true (if it were why would it be sold as an all-purpose soil?). This other person was questioning why the soil did not contain any perlite, I wonder if it's because there's a decent amount of uncomposted bark (not a whole lot but it's definitely visible). I would have got the Tomato mix Bunning's had but they had moved it when I went to get soil and so I thought they were sold out. Unfortunately I can't afford to go replace all my soil at this point.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited October 6, 2013 by StarkRG

[everest]

cool they look good .

 

 hey , that mix looks shabby , an pots look too big from here , cost ya a few bucks gra some perlite for drainage and re pot into small . like 4 inch pots , use premium potting mix , ratio 60\40 soil\perlite . you can do it grower ..

 

 ev

[brick]

and don't use any ferts until they are a bit bigger and stronger

[StarkRG]

Hey, thanks for the replies and encouragement.

 

I've decided to email Hortico to find out a little more about the ingredients of this shitty, no-purpose potting mix. Specifically what "mineral nutrients" were added. It sounds to me like they haven't provided any nutrients whatsoever in the mix so I might need to add some sooner than would be normal.

 

Since I really can't afford to replace ALL the soil I'm wondering if I could mix in some of this soil fix or, better yet, worm castings, if I can get my hands on some.

 

everest: All the advice around the 'net that I've seen on making your own soil mix makes me think your 40% perlite suggestion is far too high. Even another site's suggestion of 25% seems too high since I've found at least four independent sources suggesting between 5-10%  perlite in the mix.

 

As for pot size I was going on the advice of another site which said fewer transplants is better so I chose pots that should be good until about the half-way point. They're even slightly smaller than the size I wanted to get which was 300mm X 300mm cylindrical (straight sides), these are 290mm X 240mm tapered. The 290mm diameter is the outside diameter, an utterly useless dimension to advertise a pot, it's actually 260mm inside diameter at the top (an only slightly less useless dimension). Why they don't sell them by volume (liters) like they do in the US (where it's in gallons, but the same concept) is beyond me.

 

At this point I can't really afford to get all new pots AND soil fix/worm castings (and pay rent AND eat for the next month) so I think I'm going to focus on attempting to repair the damage done by my poor soil choice (as well as write a nasty letter to Bunnings in an attempt to get them to pull this terrible soil from their shelves). That said if there are some really inexpensive small pots I will grab them (as it also means I don't need as much soil fix/worm castings for the time being).

 

Whatever I choose to do it won't be until next week anyway which is when I get paid. Hopefully my girls will last until then.

[Train Wreck]

The problem with most cheap potting mixes is that they have a large percentage of organic matter still being processed or broken down.
It is a cheap way to a lot of trouble.
Many plant residuals actually remove nutrients from the soil as they break down.
A lot of the bacteria that break down the organic matter require more nitrogen during this process than is available from the organic matter, so they source it from the soil, competing with the plant.
The bacteria are more efficient at doing this which slows plant growth.
Mature compost has processed most to all of its organic matter and as the bacteria die they release their stored nutrients back into the soil, available to your plants.
A high quality potting mix is only a small investment in a grow.

[StarkRG]

Yeah, wish I'd known that from the start. They should not be allowed to sell this stuff, at least not under the "all-purpose" descriptor, and it certainly should not pass any kind of standards. Also it doesn't look like there's much, if any, nutrients in this so-called "soil" to begin with.

 

At best this is filler and it fails pretty badly at that too.

[Train Wreck]

Yeah, wish I'd known that from the start.

We could all benefit from hindsight.

Research can be your friend and then spend your doe.

Practice and experience and spend some more.

Great hobby, saves me a lot more than I spend on it.

Good luck !    

[everest]

  thats the searles premium with course perlite mix ...

 

  thats the nasties i picked out ..

 

 good mix and then use light canna nutes ..

 

 into it  mate

 

 ev