Had this issue with a few landrace selections in the past. Two that stand out in my memory did exceptionally well when I used nutrient film tech and let the roots run shallow but over a wide area. I came to understand natural selection favored the plants that grew this way as the area they hailed from was essentially a top soil only a few inches deep over a large rock quarry. I used flat gutter extensions and a layer of felt to create a contained cap mat, worked like a big flat wick essentially. The other configuration was fed by a pump to multiple drip lines at one end, trickling a film layer down a gradient on a large, shallow, drip pan used for oil in a bike garage typically.
The all responded well to some growth stimulation I eventually incorporated into my standard procedure for starting seeds that benefits from Aspirin, triacontonal (found in alfalfa meal), kelp meal, EWC and aloe. I combined these with a soln of Real Growers Recharge left under aeration for a couple days to make a very effective seedling tea. I use this to hydrate the peat pellets and fertigation until they are ready for nutes.
If I’m starting in coco I use this same mix but start with a soln of master blend or Jack’s plus cal mag diluted to around 200 ppm.
Recently I had incredible growth using coco mat liners layered under the pots or bags the plants were started in. I simply put a layer of digested super soil mix in between the mats and the roots exploded into it.
I share this enthusiasm and have a few tricks I can share to help, and a few pit falls to avoid should you care to discuss. My current set up is using the surface Blu mat on these amazing cap mats made by sustainable village. They are next level stuff that mitigates issues that can be problematic. They are key to developing a sort of hybrid (organic/synthetic) set up by suspending living soil over the mat and allowing the roots to dangle down to the mat like a shallow Kratke where they can fertigate a mild hydro soln. I’m still feeling it all out but so far it seems to give the grower additional control to maximize specific events like bud set at the flip by tweeking the ratios of the synthetic component. It’s also been beneficial when using a PK boost without buggering up the organ1ic balance established in the pot. More work and study is required here to call it a win, but it’s showing potential
If I see something like the size of the plants and the size of the substrate, plus the yellowing leaves, I can see that you have a problem that generates evaporation and the salts that are in your irrigation water. This is affecting the pH of the soil and despite having nitrogen available, the plant cannot use it because the pH is blocking it. If you fix this problem the plants will grow
That’s very weird to see them that way. Just a thought in addition to everything else that has been mentioned. In my experience the Kashmirs don’t have incredibly deep root structures, and at least from what the pics look like they will have to go pretty deep into the medium before hitting the reservoir.
With only four plants it might be a lot to risk, but what if you were to actually downsize the pot on one of them, maybe making the medium shallower by half, or just remove whatever medium is between the bottom of the root structure and the rez?
I don’t know a lot about hydro or octo growing, so maybe this is a bad idea, but at the very least this would also give you a look at the roots which will probably have some diagnostic value in itself.
The root system might be the issue.
I’m going to maybe have to give them another top watering with some nutrient solution to keep them going for a lot longer than normal…
Most plants roots find the reservoir within 7-10 days. These have been in the octopots for 18 days now…
The plants are doing ok. But still, NONE yet have roots into the reservoirs.
I’m top feeding them with the same nutrient solutions and they seem content with that. Im letting the bags go very dry for several days, hoping it would force them to explore deeper for more water. But they seem content with the desert-like conditions they are living in.
I’m going to give them another week, if they still have not found the res… I’m going to re-pot them into 2 gallon bags with regular soil, and flower them that way.
Is there water in the reservoir? It’s time to stop top feeding and fill the reservoir till it barely touches the netpot and allow the roots to get in there. Roots will grow towards moisture.
Yes. There is water in the res, filled to about halfway up the netpot. The clay pellets are damp and a small amount of moisture is being wicked up through the pellets.
I had stopped watering them completely after their initial transplant watering, but they began to die a few weeks ago.
So it became clear that they needed a little extra incubation, so I gave them a bit of nutes in the top (3 times total now)
But these plants have been sitting there for almost a full 30 days now. This is the only time I’ve ever seen this happen in an octopot.
The medium is 100% coco. So there is zero nutrients, and very little water retention. But they seem to be totally content growing in barren desert-like conditions. It’s very odd.
Seems like they just have the most shallow root system of any strain I’ve ever grown
Ok. The 4 Kashmir plants were removed from their octopups and put into 1 gallon cloth pots with regular soil. The root balls on these plants was very small and tight. They just weren’t reaching out to fill the containers and find the reservoir. Weird. Hopefully now they will start getting bigger, and in a couple weeks I can switch them to flower.
This project is already like a month behind schedule…
some landraces just can’t handle hydro, they aren’t adapted to it like our modern genetics that have had generations to adapt to that style of cultivation. I bet they will do better like this.
I feel ya on the frustration of being behind schedule… I started some autos the coldest week of the winter and we had a bad cold snap for a couple weeks straight, didn’t have a way to adequately heat the tent or basement lung room and they were so stunted a week in I thought I lost them and popped a few more, sorta got the heat a bit better and they’re going, but veryyyyyy slow… over 3 weeks since popping and they’re just showing their first set of 5 bladed leaves
Hoping since they’re autos they’re not too stunted but we’ll see.
Cheers to you for sticking it out with these POK plants, funny how these landraces behave being brought to an alien environment, even though it’s one we supposedly make perfect for them!
Yes, kashmir is a war region with deaths happening every day. India really wants azad back. Especially now when China is also pressuring to occupy land from India. I worked with a dude who grew up in kashmir(the Indian side) and he told me so much about the culture there. He was so surprised how we see cannabis here in Sweden. He told me that it grew literally everywhere, openly and wild in India. Especially in regions that weren’t urbanised. Apparently, everyone smokes in India aswell.
I’ve asked him about strains, but he said that it’s just weed. Nobody really cares about variety.
Smart man. A stitch in time saves nine. Best to do what you did now rather than later. I’m sure with a little doing these will do just fine using hydro. Takes a couple/few generations.
Very interesting grow so far! Looks like it was quite frustrating, but its made me very interested to explore these genetics! so thank you for putting in the work to do a seed expansion on them!
@Cannacryptic I would love to play around with this sort of thing, I don’t see you have a journal, don’t want to hijack this thread,
maybe come talk about it on mine if you don’t want to start one?
Sure thing. I have a problem of juggling too many ideas and experiments at the same time resulting in a bee hive of information lol. I really should dial down a few variables and make a more focused effort that’s better documented. I have two Animal Cookies from S1 seed ready to flip that are in 1gl pots; coco fed with Masterblend (essentially Jack’s 3-2-1 but a tick cheaper on the wallet) and liquid kelp. Those would be good subjects to log a grow using mats or another form of film tech. Let’s discuss some options in DM and I’ll start a thread when we figure out a path forward. Thanks for the interest!
I wish for a quick recovery 
so thank you for putting in the work to do a seed expansion on them!
