soil settled more than expected; repot vs leave them alone?

[a9ymous]

I have four auto plants that are doing well except that the soil settled more than I expected and I feel they are both too cramped and might have problems with the pot rim. Only two are showing flower threads. 3 are Gnomo, 1 is an Afghan Kush auto I'm pretty sure.

I know the pots are small but so is the only spot I can grow them in. I had a successful grow in this box with these pots with Gnomos once before that matured just before they got tangled up in the lights. That was three years ago and the only other grow I've tried since was a near-complete failure for multiple reasons.

I want to know if it's safe to pull them gently out of these pots, add more soil to the bottoms, and then put them back in so they have a little more room for their roots and are lifted up so the bottom leaves are above the rims. I know I should have done something before now but I've barely had time to keep them watered and fed... I can do this today if repotting is a good idea.

Details: This is a FoxFarm OF soil grow following the FF feeding guide that came with Big Bloom/Grow Big/Tiger Bloom, Deer Park spring water with a little vitamin c to bring the ph down. These are 30 days from starting them in a coffee filter, placed in peat pellets two days later and into these pots on nov16. The 6500k HO t5 bulbs crapped out a week or so after putting them in this box and the only replacements I had were 2700k, asked here and someone said it wasn't necessary to change them back out (I did order more 65's though, so I could do that).

All comments welcome! Help~

 

[a9ymous]

Ok, well, never mind. I went ahead and did it. The roots were starting to poke through the fiberglass screening I folded over the bottom holes for ventilation so I didn't remove that. The soil kept its shape well when I turned them over in my hand so I was able to just hold them upside down with one hand and scoop the soil in with the left. I think I managed to keep the jostling to a minimum. They are closer to the very top now and back in their venue. I soaked the OF with rainwater from my barrel before planting as I did the first time I potted them.

I'm still happy to have any advice but I've already done it so I'm just going to hope for the best. Will report back.

 

[ThE sAtIvA hIgH]

personally i would of let them be coz over the lifetime of the plant they would of stretched up a bit anyway , BUT you've done a good job anyway , and no harm done so win win

 

[spliffbuddy]

Well contrary to the other reply I would have re-potted same as you have done. Auto's should be grown in bigger pots to give the roots space, your pots are small anyway so all the root space you can get the better, that's my take on the situation anyway, I know people say they don't like the stress also but as they were not in full flower I would have done the same. Better to change now than have a root ball issue later.

 

[a9ymous]

spliffbuddy--that's kind of what I was thinking. I'm already limiting them to a small pot so I didn't want to overcramp them. They are only just starting to show sex so I figured I'd better do it now. (I also try to plant by the moon and today was a good day for this sort of thing)

T.s.h--well, lets hope no harm done!

I'll post pics again in a couple of days. If they were upset by this it ought to be obvious pretty quickly.

 

[Po boy]

for your next grow put soil into the pot and water it in really well. Let the soil settle for a few days and then sow the seed. that eliminates soil compaction. GL

 

[wdk420]

Shoulda just top dressed

 

[tekdc911]

Shoulda just top dressed

thats what i do

but if i do transplant i leave the top few inches of the pot empty so i can go back and top dress it

 

[tekdc911]

figured id add i transplant all the time if there is NO as in almost 0 stress or damage involved they recover fine
the only reason people say not to do it is the fact that the outcome can permanently affect yield and growth / growth rate and starting them in there final pot eliminates the
chance

 

[a9ymous]

Yeah, I didn't know for a while that autos do better not being repotted much, but I did know that before starting this grow. As I say, this setup and these pots did well once before (I posted some pics from that grow here: https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/263061-kannabia-gnomo-automatic.html). I'm not sure what the deal was with the shrinkage. There wasn't enough room around the stem to just top dress unfortunately and I thought it would be harder on the girls to trim off bottom leaves to do it that way. It would have been a fairly brutal trimming for some of them.

So far two of them seem unfazed by the experience while the other two are starting to look a bit crappy though I think it's a nutrient issue. Will try to post some pics soon. Thanks for the comments.

 

[guardogz]

hey anon. got a couple of gnomos goin. using 5 gal buckets and one of the revs super soil mixes. started them under an inda gro 200w induction and now they re under 600 w hps. it seemed like they took 7-10 days to adjust to the new light. seem better now. one plant grew to 3 ft, was topped then tied down a bit. the other is a manageable 2 ft, not topped. also have a big band auto that will b topped, and is very happy and sturdy. both of the gnomos show some fert burn, none w the big band. they ve had a couple of teas and some top dressing. lookin fwd to c how the afghan compares to the gnomos. and thanks to all for the tips here.

 

[a9ymous]

HELP



It was a bad week. Everybody was looking sick (some claw shaped leaves, some leaves turning yellow starting from the bottom and then with brown patches) and I was hoping to post pics on Thursday for you guys to help me figure out what's going wrong, but my camera died. I decided to hold off on feeding yesterday morning since it looked like it might be overfeeding and just watered them with Deer Park with a pinch of epsom (just a hunch) and a pinch of vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) which I keep around for dechlorinating bathwater and sometimes hose water if my barrels run dry in summer. The ph was near 7 Thursday. Today three of them are looking much better but one seems near dead they were all getting dry so I gave them some more C water. They're now measuring between 5.75 and 6.

The claws are straightening out compared to Thursday and the color on the upper parts of the plant is better. I took these pics before removing the dead leaves at the bottom. I'm hoping it was nitrogen pverdose but then why the yellow leaves? But then they seem to be getting better after witholding a feeding? Was/is it the ph?

Is there any kind of CPR I can do for the extra sad one? My husband is freaking out.

Sorry about these pics, it's a weird camera I almost never use & had to correct the color on one of them. Keep in mind the blue/red LED sidelights which can affect the color.





guarddogz, I wish I could grow them bigger, maybe next year! Nice to know they will get that large. So far the AK seems healthy and nice.

 

[spliffbuddy]

Possibly some heat stress, what lights are you using and how close are they, also what are your temps. Does look like N deficiency, these are now around what 35-40 days old and should be a lot bigger, I think this strain is supposed to finish in around 90 days, it looks as though they started flowering and I have found auto's need N during this period. How often are you having to water before dry and what and how much/often are you giving, could be over/under watering. What size pots are you in now, any chance you have root ball issues, what were the roots like when you re-potted. I would give them a feed of calmag & N and see if they improve. Check the temp at canopy and if too much heat from lights back them off. Do you have a fan blowing over canopy, if not get one. 1 & 3 should be ok, 2 is on life support and may make it 50/50, you'd best call a priest for 4, think she will need him. I have also read that some growers have issues with FFOF soil so maybe worth checking the PH of your soil, I am not familiar with it though.

 

[a9ymous]

Hey spliff, the heat is not a problem; I have an oscillating ionizer fan on them 24/7 and the thermometer which is near the HO t5 fixture (20" sunshine systems) is consistently between 72 and 75. The tops are not stressed fortunately. There are also two older LED sidelights. I've been feeding them on the Big Bloom/Grow Big/Tiger Bloom trio and on the feeding schedule that came with them. Watering with rainwater from my barrel (when it's clear) otherwise Deer park spring water with a little ascorbiic acid (C) for the ph but had apparently not been adding enough (if you read the last post I explain that on Thursday the ph was about 7 and I lowered it to about 5.75 over two waterings with C). For the first three weeks the pots felt light (needed water) about every 48 hours, and I alternated watering and feeding so they were getting nutes every 4th day. Then it got to about every day and a half, and now it's about every 24-30 hours. I'm prone to overwatering so I try to make myself wait until the pots feel light but not too dry.

I am purposely growing in small pots because I have to keep these small, and grow them in this small box. But I was able to get a decent set of Gnomos out of this same setup a few years ago. If you go back and read the beginning you'll see I recently had to emergency repot them in the same pots due to soil "shrinkage". I think the general problem right now is overfeeding, especially because it's easy to mix a small qty too high. But I have some Maxicrop which I might give at the next feeding, in case it is nitrogen deficiency instead of too much N (which is what I thought). The second pic looks worse because the camera for some reason didn't calibrate the color like it did for 1 and 3, it actually looks green ad pretty much like the other two only with more dead leaves at bottom. The stems of the saddest one went purple but the others (getting the same nutes) did not. That makes me think I did hurt the roots on that one when I had to repot. I'm gonna just hover over it and see if any inspirations come. Very sad to see one die :/ fingers crossed.

 

[tekdc911]

are you watering when the pot is totally dried up / lite ?
they look a bit over watered
could possibly be a watering issue they very well might be staying to wet
it shows like a N tox with necrotic patches in later stages
could be ph but just at a glance it looked like a over watering issue
over watering often stunts growth as well
personally i water by the weight of the pot and not a certain day

 

[a9ymous]

thanks tek,

yeah, I felt like it was overfeeding, but I went ahead and fed again today cause I've skipped a couple during the crisis and what spliffbuddy said made me nervous about not enough N. I guess if they start looking crappy again I'll know to hold off again. My last grow took longer than the estimated time (I think about 4 months) so I wasn't that upset about the size, although obviously it would be nice if they finished earlier. I figured it was because my lights are just ok (100w sunshine systems HO t5).

Like I say, I am prone to overwatering so while I try to make myself wait until they're light, they are definitely not bone dry. I'll try to make myself wait longer. Keeping the ph down is more of a struggle than expected, and the FF nutes seem to raise it, Having to put a lot of C in the water.

 

[a9ymous]

Yeah, these really are far behind. I posted the wrong thread link before, I posted the last decent grow I had in this one

https://www.rollitup.org/seed-strain-reviews/263063-kannabia-seeds-gnomo-automatic.html

and my pics at 5 weeks look a hell of a lot better than these do now. I also had the 6500k bulbs blow and replaced them with 2700k, the general opinion seemed to be that it didn't matter but I wonder if I should have swapped them back out when the replacement 65s arrived.

 

[spliffbuddy]

I do not think it is from over feeding, possibly over/under watering but from what you've said maybe not. My next guess would be the soil, possibly too rich for the young plants, are you PHing your soil, the feed or the run off. It is the soil you need to check, ideally want it between 6 and 7.

 

[a9ymous]

Quick update: have been witholding water until the pots are light, making sure it's got enough C when I do water, and have been witholding food. Two of the remaining three, one Gnomo and the Afghan Kush, are looking swell, healthy and green but not as dark as they were and starting to surge upward. The other Gnomo was looking better but then got sickly again after I fed the other day. When I do feed again, I'm going to look at the feeding combo on the chart and reduce the recommended N. I must have overdone it on the at some point. Pics over the weekend.

Although the Gnomos seem less varied in type now than when I grew them a couple of years ago, it seems they might still be a little different and need different treatment.

The afghan kush is kinda sexy.

 

[a9ymous]

Haven't been able to post pics. The AK (I'm calling her Kalinda) is a much leggier type apparently. I kept having to move things around in the cab because it would shoot up into the lights again practically overnight, then last week I finally just bent the stem (and what a stem! ). It's covered with buds but no trichs yet visible to the naked eye anyway. I think it will finish last and I'm not going to rush it. I really like the looks of the AK but might not do this strain again unless I can upgrade my grow area.

The two Gnomos have also improved since pushing harder on the acidity, waiting till drier before watering and withholding N for the sickest looking one (Gertrude) for a while. I started adding Open Sesame to the feeding last week. Gertrude is still small (almost no stretching) and her leaves are still a little iffy looking but she has more trichs than any of them. Guessing she'll finish first as she stopped stretching and just started packing flowers in where she could. The other one (Ginger) has started looking more like I remember this strain looking, a bit taller now, healthy and happy looking, and a light dusting of trichs.