1st time growing diary

[SpikPT]

I just fed them for the first time and one of them looked bitten even before feeding so I guess it was some insect. Here is the one bitten

do you have any idea what happened? The bite is on the right side
Here are the others

I watered them monday and skiped tuesday and when I was going to feed them today, the soil was dry so I hope that wasnt a problem. Last days were very hot so I probably should’ve watered them tuesday because some were curling the pointy leaves a bit and I think thats underwater. Anyway, if you know what happened to the one bitten, I would appreciate to hear your experience. I have neem oil and I dont know if I should spray that one because she is still so small.

[cannabissequoia]

It’s not bitten or cut in my opinion, but just a minor defect. If it continues throughout the growth then it’s a genuinw mutation. Not something to worry about.

As far as watering, let the surface dry out slightly to a depth of 1/2" or 1 cm for now. When it is more established this can be doubled.

Now that they have roots they will survice & thrive better with a wet/dry cycle, allowing up to a week between waterings if possible.

There’s a joke around here… but a good lesson for many eager beginners; it’s called “LITFA” aka leave it the fuck alone I remind myself constantly to apply more LITFA.

[SpikPT]

Today, I fed them again after 5 days. Im currently doing it like this - feed dry water dry feed dry water dry and repeat but I dont know if I should have more drying days or less feed, if you have any suggestion let me know. All the girls are doing really good except one that had a problem in the stem so I put a stick near her to help. Also one of the seeds that I put directly at the soil, is already above and doing fine. Bad news is that we have rain coming, should I do something to try to protect them or just let them alone? Here are the pics of them

Baby seedling, her strain is northern light automatic

The next one is having some problems with her stem

[cannabissequoia]

I think you can add a day between watering from the looks of them…& allow the rain–plants like rain hehe. Only if you suspected hail or heavy down-pour type rain would I recommend shelter.

[SpikPT]

So do you recommend doing something like this: water dry dry feed dry dry water dry dry feed dry dry repeat? And for the shelther what could I use? Like a plastic covering the chicken wire? because I suspect some heavy rain coming. This what will save us from a drought our barrages were at really low levels but this april rain always helps to raise it enough to supply agriculture during the summer. I might also add some sticks to support them to fall over before giving them any shelter. Thanks for the help.

[cannabissequoia]

clear plastic (anything, really), repurpose soda/beverage container, bag, etc.
under the circumstances I would be more worried about drawing attention visually, but cannot gauge that accurately. of course the air-flow should be good too or they may “cook” in sunlight.

the regimen/schedule you asked about looks OK, if only I personally don’t feed seedlings often. it economizes on fertilizer but only a slight amount.

if it’s possible to use a pitchfork before your rainfall, try piercing the soil around the area with the pitchfork, leaving many small but deep holes. this will allow heavy rain to drain instead of flood/run off.

[SpikPT]

Thanks for all the help. This week I will avoid watering but I dont know what I should do about feed because we’ll have rain for 5 days in a row.
About the feed, we were using 2mL for 4L which is a lil bit more than a gallon. The recommended dosage was 2mL per 1L so we are going for 1/4 of the recommended dosage. They seem to be growing really well but I will add more dry periods and it will reduce also our feed because there’ll be more time betwen feeds (7 days) so in that schedule I only feed 1x per week. About the visual attention, we already got chicken wire around them so I dont know if it was much worst having some plastic covering them. Atleast for today, we only got light rain, I think you call it showers so no worries for now. I’ll add some holes tomorrow when I go there but they really seem to like this type of rain.

[cannabissequoia]

@SpikPT

Thanks for all the help. This week I will avoid watering but I dont know what I should do about feed because we’ll have rain for 5 days in a row.

…enjoy your “off” days

[Tinytuttle]

@SpikPT if your soil is good I wouldn’t worry about the feeding bottled nutrients, your soil microbes give everything your plants need at the right time and the right amounts I’d say leave 1 or 2 alone and only use water ,and experiment a little when force feeding your plants your alternating the balance of things even potentially increasing the plants susceptibility to pest attacks( from a book I’m currently reading) things are looking good there and are going to take off here in the next two weeks I have a feeling !

[SpikPT]

I dont know my soil that’s the problem. I’ve been reading a book called teaming with microbes just like you suggest and I’m learning a lot. This soil seems to have more clay and I cant tell you if this is good enough because I didnt add any organic matter at the begining. I dont know if using an organic fertilizer also makes any difference but I think the objective really is to let the fungi and bacteria establish and obtain by themselves the necessary nutrients so I guess it does make a difference but I gotta read more lol. Next year, I will definitly go full organics and I will start preparing my soil on october so It will be for sure good enough
For the experience you were talking about I have 2 spots and one of them is in the forest, in a much more stealth place full of trees and green life, the trees block some light but we’ve been trying to move some branchs with roped and its working. The spot is also in a slope with hard acess so we dont go there too often like we go to the main spot, so they dont be feeded at all. Lets see how they go.

[Tinytuttle]

Plants have been growing fine since the beginning of time and back then no one was dumping fert’s on them back then . Not sure how coined the phrase “ No one ever fertilized the old growth redwood forest “ in Cali where the trees (Sequoia’s) I think there call that get 300’+ tall

[Stoner]

Hey guys, so nice to see seedlings doing their thing.

Looked up Lisbon on the map, 38N Latitude. That compares nicely with NoCal or Oregon climate conditions. Hot and dry unless it raining cats and dogs.

Getting them through the first couple nodes of growth can be a challenge, every hungry bug on the plants wants a piece of them. Grass hoppers are my bane.

For the most part, you don’t have to be concerned by rain or stormy conditions. Your first pic spread shows them on flat ground. I would be a little concerned about runoff rainwater. If you are clear of the actual drainage zone, you will be good.

Good luck, keep an eye on your progress.

[SpikPT]

Checked them today and they were just fine. I will let them be until rain stops. We had rain on monday but on tuesday and wednesday wont rain so they will dry but then on thursday is expected to rain until wednesday so I dont plan to do any water/feed until atleast friday or saturday. The plants are in little mounts so it will also help with excessive water I guess, I’ll also poke some holes in there, as already suggested. For the bugs, I usually find some bugs attached to the leaves but they dont seem to harm the seedlings. The worst animals were the rats and pigeons but I added chicken wire to prevent them to destroy the plants. I also have one more spot and its in a slope, I dont have any photo of it yet but I’ll try to get one tomorrow, that spot seems a lot more guerrila and its much more hidden but in the other hand the girls dont catch so much sun like in the other one. From what I’ve seen, the ones in the forest are smaller probably because of the sun and they also get fed/watered less than the others but not by a lot.

[Tinytuttle]

Ya your plants that are in mounded little hills are just perfect in the situation if you got like 6”of rain up off the main ground will keep you roots from being waterlogged and any excess will drain away from them

[Stoner]

“From what I’ve seen, the ones in the forest are smaller …”

Cannabis can be tricky that way. If a plant is getting near maximum direct Sunshine, it will have a compact internode spacing, and be short. When a plant is shaded, the internode distance increases, dramatically, until the tops find Sunshine.

A shaded plant will be tall and slender. A Sunny plant will be much shorter and denser with multiple branches.

Nothing beats hours of direct Sunshine.

[SpikPT]

I’ll try to move some tree branches to give them more sunlight but currently I’m busy and that requires some mates to help me but once they grow, they’ll have acess to direct sunshine, they really just need to be a little bit taller. I’ll post some pics of them when I can, for you to see what’s going on. but for the others they are definitly in an excellent spot where they get sunshine all day long.

[cannabissequoia]

The angle of the sun is changing too.

[Stoner]

Great thing about cannabis growing, the plants take care of themselves just fine. If it finds itself in shade, it will stretch to find the best light.

[SpikPT]

Just checked my Weather forecast and they keep expecting rain from thursday 4/03 ( today) until next saturday (12/04) it already rain monday and I let them dry until today, when the rain watered them for me. They are getting 2 weeks of what you call LIFTA i Guess from last sunday (31/03 to 14/04), since I wont add anything other than shelter if needed due to heavy rain. I’ll post here some pics I got today to check the difference before and after the rainy week. Some chicken wire fell due to strong wind, but I put them up again. Maybe I’ll need to add some sticks to support them but for now they are doing fine.

Little northern light seedling above, hope she survives

This time I also added some photos a lil bit more far away so you can see the little mounts they are in and the spot a lil bit better

[SpikPT]

Hello guys. Today while I was checking the spot, I came upon one plant that seems sick. Here is her pic

And here’s a pic of another just to comparision

After reading the plant trouble section in grow faq, It seems like a overwater problem since its raining a lol, or a calcium or sulphur deficiency because the younger leaves are the ones yellowing from near the stem to the tip. Do you have any suggestion of what could be and how I solve it? I would appreciate all the help you can give.