Sun or light

First time grower in Africa, my plants are 4 weeks in and haven’t been potted yet as they are still very small, and it seems they are struggling on what I suppose its the full African sun, im wondering should i take them inside near a window? And does the soil really matter? I have a mixture of black cotton soil which generally is fertile in my area as we grow other cash crops and only add organic manure, down side it retains water when wet and hard rock when dry would have planted directly but was afraid of root rot, i mixed with one part river sand soil to ease on drainage and manure, still no sign of improvement, one has even fallen over any tips? I sourced seeds from brother Grimm’s





6 Likes

These appear overwatered to me. E.g. too much love. There may be some damping off but it’s difficult to tell from the photos.

edit:
Also seedlings do not really need high intensity lighting or high amounts of nutrients. Consider finding some perlite or other media to loosen up the soil and improve drainage, roots need to breath to an extent and bathing them in moisture constantly inhibits that. The sand is probably helpful but it may not be sufficient. Don’t know as I don’t amend sand myself. Light watering and only increasing as the plants become established. Preference is to allow the soil to begin showing dry back between watering. This can be difficult if the amount of media is large relative to the seedlings and the soil has been saturated.

Manure is a good nutrient source though there are pitfalls if it is not well composted and ‘aged’ along with the potential for the transfer of herbicides. Either way, it shouldn’t be needed in this early stage of growth.

You may want to consider doing starts using peat pellets if you can find them. These are small and more obvious if you’re oversaturating them. Plain tap water is all that is needed until up-potting them (when you see the roots exiting the from the bottom and sides of the pellets).

Congrats on taking on a grow! Don’t fret if you encounter some growing pains, plenty of folk can help with suggestions on OG.

9 Likes

you need drainage holes that I don’t see, maybe they are there don’t know

3 Likes

The only thing I can see that could be a problem is the volume of your containers. They don’t look very big and plants need room to grow their roots out. Another reason is the soil looks really dense. Soil should be light fluffy and airy. Get some perlite mix it with whatever soil you’re using and up pot to bigger containers, at least 1 gal.

5 Likes

Thank you for the insights, will pot them to a bigger container, yes there are holes in the containers that the water runs off very quickly after watering, i took the pics just after watering. From the pictures i saw the cause of the yellowing could be a zinc or magnesium deficiency, how can I correct that?

2 Likes

@draq . An easy and cheap fix is to mix some leaf mold into your soil mix. Go to any nearby forest and collect the fluffy material that is under the leaves but on top of the dirt. Mix it about 50/50 with your soil. Welcome to overgrow my friend. :grin:

UPDATE: i found some plants having very large roots that they were struggling in the small pot i transplanted to a 20litter bucket now hopping for the best , feel like i should add soil to the brim but not so sure so advise on what to do


1 Like

Looks like less than ideal medium man pretty compact and damp. Cannabis prefers lite airy mix otherwise roots will suffocate and plant will suffer