Very slow growth and yellow leaves

Basic Growing Info
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Hey OGs! First time (limited budget & non-US) grower here. I’m sure you won’t like my situation and setup, but it is what it is right now, and I will have to adjust and upgrade in the near future as my grow progresses. But for now, I’m looking for answers on why my plant isn’t doing so well.

  • Strain: Blueberry, Dutch Passion (shoutout to @FieldEffect for his kindness & generosity)
  • Lights: 12W x 3 (3000k) house LED bulbs with dome taken off. Total 36W.
  • Distance from light: experimenting & varying between 6 inches and 15 inches.
  • Cycle: 18 on, 6 off.
  • Grow space: 0.5ft x 0.5ft (makeshift temporary grow space for seedlings)
  • No fans. Room temp between 72F and 82F. Ambient RH: between 65% and 85%
  • Water: Initially used RO water. Fed vermicompost tea once very recently. pH unknown.
  • Soil: 40/40/20 mix of unbuffered & unwashed cocopeat, vermicompost & perlite.
  • 25 days since sprout.

My previous seedling of a different strain in the same soil mix had stopped growing at 7 days mark through to 25 days until I transplanted it and declared it dead. It too had the same issue. Yellowing of leaves, crisping up and stopped growing. I may have overwatered the previous seedling, but I make sure to let my current plant dry out a bit before watering with a little run off.

I intend to keep this grow an organic one. Hence, I haven’t used any bottled nutes. I have access to cow manure, Epsom salt, bone meal and other organic fertilizers.

Could anyone tell me what I need to fix? I know there are a lot of unknown variables, but from my research and understanding:

  1. 36W is sufficient for seedlings, if not for a full grow. (one OG member here harvested with 36W). I also read 35W/ft2 is a good target, so I believe my lights fall within the range.
  2. My soil mix wouldn’t need pH’d water since it would buffer itself as it’s organic.
  3. A fan isn’t absolutely necessary for growth.

More details:

Once sprouted, seedling stretched a little bit. Transplanted into the current pot with the stalk buried in the soil a bit up to the true leaves. This seedling did well after transplanting (same soil mix before transplant too) for about 12 days. Grew normally. Green leaves, good rate of growth, etc.

But then on, the growth slowed down drastically. Leaves yellowing. Bottom most leaves getting dry and crispy. There’s (hard to notice) brown / transparent texture on bottom leaves. Could this be cal mag issue? There’s purple streaking near the stems of the leaves. I’m not sure it’s the genetics or a deficiency. Pictures below.

My tap water is a bit hard right out of the tap. Hence my choice to use RO bottled / filtered water.

Experienced growers, how would you nurse this plant back to health and fix the deficiencies(?) and growth? Please note that I do not have access to popular nutes & fertz used in the USA, although I can find generic versions of the organic fertz. Help me out? Thank you.

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Checking the ph is always good. Soil does buffer but there is a limit and always better if it doesnt have to.

Slow growth and yellow leaves from birth can be over watering often times. Does your soil get dry between waterings?

Edit: reread that yove had overwatering on recent runs so make sure to let dry out now. Make sure you arent over compensating if leaves are getting crispy. Yellowing as a generic sympton is classic nitrogen def, but can be bunches of other things too. If taps a bit hard might by some minerals are blocking the nitrogen uptake. Anyway to check your water? If you dont have the tools can call the water company for a report on the water.

Double edit: hehe, using ro water. Man I dont read well the first time. Im just thinking simple nitrogen def.

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Yes it’s a good idea to check all these things but my off the cuff answer is that they are hungry.

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I’m making sure not to overwater this time. Yes, I did let the soil dry out and pot feel light until I watered it again. First chance I get, I am heading out to buy some pH strips / indicator liquid and test my water pH. I hear the yellow cheap pH pens from Amazon are junk and don’t work well.

I assumed vermicompost had sufficient nutrients (NPK) for initial stage of growth and shouldn’t face any issues. Isn’t it the case? I also fed the plant a bit of bonemeal + vermicompost tea 2 days ago.

I have another 40 days old Indian sattva landrace in a pot with red soil + vermicompost going pretty good outdoor. So, I assumed the water is fine. I’ll make sure to test the water pH before my next watering.

Do I check the pH of run-off or pre-feed or both? I came across suggestions that testing run-off water pH isn’t advised for organic grows.

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From what Ive seen the cheap ph pens work, initially, and then stop working/being accurate shortly after that. Much more expensive in the long run.

I check my water ph after adding nutes pre feed. As long as there are no issues I dont bother checking run off. For me Ive only checked the ppm of run off to see if I was over feeding. As long as Ive had 5.8-6.2 water, post adding in nutes, going in I havnt seen much problem. Now if youre top dressing or doing supersoil testing run off might give you more important info to track down a problem.

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Take this with a grain of salt, because remote cause determination is pretty difficult. But to me it looks both overwatered and nitrogen deficient. If you have enough uncomposted matter in your soil, microorganisms will break it down but while doing that, nitrogen inputs are required, so nitrogen available to the plant can become a problem. You don’t get that nitrogen back until the microorganisms die. If that’s what’s going on, you should be able to fix it by adding nitrogen. Composted chicken poop works for this.

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I just noticed a white root like strand appearing from the soil surface. Looks & feels very much like a root. Could this small plant be root bound in the small pot? Note that I repotted the stretched seedling and buried it deeper close to the true leaves. Should I transplant this again to a bigger pot?

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I’m using vermicompost. I believe it’s worm poop that’s already composted. I’ll try to get my hands on some chicken or goat manure. I might as well dilute some urine 1:20 and use it in a pinch if it’s really an N deficiency.

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As someone whos overwatered a ton of plants - this feels similar. Id uppot this if possible.

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It doesn’t look large enough to be rootbound yet, but up-potting wouldn’t be bad.

I had a couple of plants this summer with uncomposted inputs that caused a nitrogen deficiency. I up-potted two, but washed most of the soil off the worst plant with a hose before transplanting it into new media. That plant recovered more quickly, but I would still consider it a risky operation.

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Goat manure is better than chicken since it is considered a cold manure and won’t burn your plants.

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That’s true - I use them both. Goat poop will burn your plants too, I’ve done that but you’re right that they don’t have as much nitrogen. Also, uncomposted goat poop is okay to put on your plants. They say don’t use uncomposted chicken poop. I’ve done that too but it led to problems in flower.

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I personally use composted steer manure for my nitrogen boost . I also like to use rabbit poop too. Happy growing

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For me here in the NE us Everything grows crappy this time of year indoors. Its hot outside and in the grow room. I notice the plants dont like it. I see the same stuff indoors until it gets cold outside. After that the growth increases and the leaves stay green longer. Not saying its what you are dealing with. Its just my bro science post of the day.

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Appreciate the input. It’s almost winter here. But we’ve been having an abnormally warmer monsoon / winter this year for some reason. The plant seems to be growing, although slowly, and the new growth isn’t showing yellow. I plan to up pot it as soon as my coco is done drying. I just washed a pot load of it today.

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I run into the same problem a heat mat fixes it for me in veg. My flower tent normally never skips a beat.

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I had forgotten to update this post. Two weeks ago, I up potted the plant into the same soil mixture, but this time I washed my cocopeat vigorously before using it. Also bought some cheap organic waste compost from my local nursery along with some all in one organic amendment and VAM (myco) mixed them in the soil.

Started dechlorinating my tap water before using it by letting it sit for a couple of days.

Soon after, the plant recovered and exploded in growth. Now it’s so dark green, it almost looks like its got N toxicity, but the growth has been good, so I’m not worried.

Still haven’t ph’d my water :slight_smile:

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That’s looking much better! Good job :+1:

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