Newbie Outdoor Grower In Need of Guidance

[WEEkenD]

Hello to anyone that reads this, I am a new grower and I've decided to grow some Holland's Hope outside in NV and I was just lookin for some guidance / tips because I'm a new grower and I'm very nervous about my first crop because well... I've never done this before. First off, I'm planting outdoors in the soil (after adding soil amendments, I'll see if I can get pics of what im using on here), however right now I'm in the first growth stage. I have germinated my seeds and planted them in a starter box ($3.00) at Wal - Mart, just something cheap and easy to start off with. Things are going well I've had them in there for about a week and I've had 7 / 10 survive and thrive (they're quite marvelous really), however recently one of my strongest growers seems to have a stem problem. It appears as though the stem just "gave-up" and fell over, it doesn't look like it's snapped, almost as though the inside structure of the stem has simply collapsed and I'm propping the plant up with a toothpick and twist-tie set up (It seems to be working). I've looked on a few sites about solutions to this problem however I haven't really found any because most deficiencies in nutrients etc. show up in the leaves, and this problem resides in the stem. So in conclusion to this problem, I was wondering if advice could be offered about how to fix the plant, whether it be exposure to the sun, over watering, under watering, lack of nutrients etc. I do have my plants in full sun in my windowsill, with no greenhouse set up, they're just basically out there with no coverage. Any advice / tips / funny but not demeaning comments / witty banter etc. would be greatly appreciated.




In order from left to right : My basic set up with 7 visible plants, steer manure + compost I'm using for soil (mixed with regular dirt, perlite (pic 4), and the 16-16-16 NPK fertilizer seen in picture 6), the miracle gro fertilizer has a composition of 18 - 18 - 21 NPK, the next pics are those of the injured plant (using an iPhone camera so I couldn't get in too close otherwise they'd get fuzzy).

 

[obijohn]

Sounds like the soil around the stem is too moist, it can kind of rot it. Don't pit water on the base of the stem, water around it

 

[Nike617]

dont use miracle grow it will burn your plants use fox farm ocean forrest

 

[kpmarine]

Avoid mg perlite if you can, people have had burning issues. I can get 4 cubic foot bags of horticultural perlite at the garden store for $24, shouldn't be hard to find for a reasonable price.

 

[Growman3001]

if using miracle grow is a must, dilute it a bit more than directed. I use miracle grow myself and she look cool to me...

 

[kpmarine]

if using miracle grow is a must, dilute it a bit more than directed. I use miracle grow myself and she look cool to me...View attachment 2178099

NPK is NPK, it's more their water soluble capsules that they use for the time release in some products, I'm pretty sure. The more you water, the more of them release. So overwatering becomes overfeeding quickly, then you have to flush; but when you flush, more pellets activate. I'm sure you can see the cycle.

 

[Growman3001]

works for me...

 

[WEEkenD]

What are some traits of "burning"? Recently about 4 of my plants have been afflicted with what appears to be white / grey spots on the smaller rounded leaves and on some of them the jagged leaves appear to be wilting or something at the ends with a yellowish color? I added some miracle gro this morning (before I saw this updated post), but in light of the bad rep it has should I discontinue use of it?

 

[kpmarine]

What are some traits of "burning"? Recently about 4 of my plants have been afflicted with what appears to be white / grey spots on the smaller rounded leaves and on some of them the jagged leaves appear to be wilting or something at the ends with a yellowish color? I added some miracle gro this morning (before I saw this updated post), but in light of the bad rep it has should I discontinue use of it?

The round leaves will die off eventually, that's normal. Without an actual pic of the problem, I doubt most people would want to venture a guess about the yellowing. Miracle gro works for some folks, but it seems to have enough inherent risks that I'd return what I could and pick up something else. I have been using teas for my first outdoor grow, they're cheap and easy. Plus, it's damn near impossible to burn with organics, or so I have been told.

 

[WEEkenD]

Teas ? What kind of teas, and how do you even apply that to the plant? Also on a further note, the Miracle Gro I was using had two different measurements - one for outdoor plants, and one for indoor plants. My plants are still inside and I was using the outdoor measurements, thus it appears that I have probably been overfertilizing being that the outdoor measurement is 6x the concentration of the indoor measurement.