10 days in, what's wrong with this one?

Hey everyone. I'm about 10 days in on this one, and I'm not sure what's going on. I'm using CFLs and they aren't close enough to burn.

Everything was fine yesterday, but today one of my seedlings are having problems. I am using MiracleGro Seedling Starter, so I don't think it has nutes in it. I'm also using distilled water. I could have over watered, but I can't find any over water pictures to try and compare. I've been touching the soil and waiting until it doesn't have any wetness when I rub my fingers together and then watering which is usually every two days.

I heard not to give any nutes for 2 weeks, so I haven't. I ordered some Fox Farm Ocean Forest and it won't be here until Monday. I also ordered a PH tester, but again, won't be here until next week.

I feel like I need to transplant soon out of my party cup, but I don't want to have to do it now and then again on Monday when I get FF to reduce shock.

From what I've learned it looks like a calcium or magnesium deficiency or maybe I'm having drainage problems but I'm not sure. I do have holes in the bottom of the cup. I thought about using tap water if it's a deficiency next feeding to help with the cal and mag.

+REP to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

u wont know if its a defiency until you know the PH. Not much can be told until you know the PH..........does not look like drainage, over or under watering though. If PH is correct then get a soil test kit.

looks like a PH problem, youll most likely need to get some ph up and ph down to fix the problem

Yea ph tells us alot becuase it look like it needs nuts but it could be all locked up because of the ph levels so if u fix that or if it is correct then we can guess at giving it what nuts it is asking more of

Well, I'll keep watching it until I can transplant it on Monday. Repped you all up. Thanks for taking a look. I'll see how the new soil works and check my PH when the meter comes.

It's really strange because my other plant received exactly the same treatment is about the same age and looks to be doing okay. Here's a picture of the other one, how's it look?



I'll post again when I have the reading.

Well if your gonna grow, you should do it right bro-chacho.
Your having problems because your cutting corners and not using the right stuff.
When you get your Ocean Forrest, you should cut it with some worm castings, and add epsom salt and lime.
Add 10 cups of Worm Castings to your bag of Ocean Forrest and mix that shit up real good.
Then when your filling your 3 gallon buckets, add 1tbsp of Dolomite Lime and 1tbsp of Epsom salt per gallon of soil-so 3tbsp each.
Then youll be all set
If you wanted to up it a level you could add 1-2tbsp per gallon of Steamed Bone Meal to the bottom portion of your 3 gallon buckets when your filling them.
You could also add some Great White when you transplant.
Then if you really wanted to get crazy, ditch that pussy CFL and get a 400 watt HPS, or bigger if you have the space.

I'd say I'm doing okay for my first time. I have to start somewhere, and I'm not going to magically have experience. When I fail, I see it as a way to learn from mistakes. I didn't want to add liquid nutes until the 2-3 week mark based on advice I've read from other members, and some suggest that FF OF is too hot for young seedlings so I went with Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix which is very light. I don't see how that's "cutting corners" because it works just fine for the plant's first stages of life. I don't have a hydro store near by, in fact it's over 200 miles to my nearest.

I always planned on getting ocean forest, just not for the very beginning. I ordered it last week from Amazon. As for the PH Tester, I've read a lot of members don't worry about PH levels as much in soil than they do using hydroponics and instead look for tells and that's what I'm doing until the tester arrives. I did the right thing and went ahead and ordered one despite that. I also have Botanicare and X nutrients nutrients coming in the mail, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to be using the right stuff.

I originally had a great budget, but then that fell through and I had to make do with what I could afford. I built a grow cabinet, with 1 intake fan and 2 exhaust fans. CFLs will be a great starting point for me, and I don't see any problem using it with a current low budget.

I'll take you up on the soil mix advice, but I see no need for MH or HPS until I get the hang of this.

i don't see any perlite. mix the soil with 30-40% perlite, and re-pot. i have no idea if this has anything to do with your troubles, but perlite is very important in a good mix.

Yeah, I'm going to get some Perlite and lime before Monday. The MiracleGro Seed Starting mix said it had some perlite in it, but there's very little from what I can see. I'll make sure I have better drainage once FFOF comes.


Also, I wanted to suggest to anyone who runs into a budget problem, that using Mechanical Turk on Amazon will let you raise money or Amazon credit up by doing University surveys and other small crap jobs. They add up fast, and you can feel some relief on your wallet.

yea if u take all our advice you should have some wicked dank

Yea i think you really only need some perlite. To add to your ocean forest. When you get it. And like you said you will have not have add any nutes for 3 weeks. Ocean forest mix has everthing it will need. But you will have to keep a eye on that. And see when the plant has used it all up.

50% perlite big and chunky i tried the stuff from bi-mart 30 or 40% but 50% big and chunky and the plants look twice the age i haven't tried less so it mite work just as good but i think because of the 50% then the soil will feed your plants half what it says so i don't feed 4 like 2 weeks and then start slow and try to bring it up just be4 12/12 i have only grown for 1 year so i have a lot to learn but this is what i have seen 4 myself and start with seed clones r risky if your new like me you need a good start i started with clones i think they had pm not sure but sense i have started from seed i have had no pm now it is a pain because seed you need to pheno chase so it takes time and money just to find the 1 you r looking 4 but you could get lucky and pm is a pain in the ass i also use a hep-pa filter now so was it the clones i still think so only because when i bought them other clones had it u could c it i thought because it looked clean it was you learn as you go.