NJ new grower with seedlings struggling to gain size

Hi all,
I’m new on the forum & new to growing weed, though I’m a New Jersey outdoor gardener with a bit of experience.

My seeds (1 feminized & 1 auto) sprouted a month ago. Three weeks later, I put them in the ground (swim or sink, baby) in a raised bed in decent organic soil of my own making. There was some root damage/loss during the process, which is probably why they seem to be stuck as they try to grow new roots. Since then, I fertilized with a bit of 5-1-1 fish emulsion. So now they’re in the ground 9 days.

Is there anything I can do to give them a grow jolt?

Pictures to come.

Transplant in general have a 3 day minimum recovery period, if you did to much root damage they may just now be coming out of shock. Not to much to do about that. We have had a lot of rain here in the mid atlatic past few weeks dose not help them shoot up a few good days sunshine should help. You can put up a suplemently UV light that runs at dawn and dusk and rainy days if you really want to be proactive. First grow is always a learning experiance. Hold faith and hold course im sure your ladys will be ok

Yeah, they got heavily pummeled by rain here today, which should hopefully make them a bit stronger for it. As far as learning, I’ve got a few do’s and don’ts already under my belt.

RaggedMike said:

Hi all,
I’m new on the forum & new to growing weed, though I’m a New Jersey outdoor gardener with a bit of experience.

My seeds (1 feminized & 1 auto) sprouted a month ago. Three weeks later, I put them in the ground (swim or sink, baby) in a raised bed in decent organic soil of my own making. There was some root damage/loss during the process, which is probably why they seem to be stuck as they try to grow new roots. Since then, I fertilized with a bit of 5-1-1 fish emulsion. So now they’re in the ground 9 days.

Is there anything I can do to give them a grow jolt?

Pictures to come.

Click to expand...

Pictures will help a lot to determine the condition the seedlings are in. I would say transplanting them in the ground that early might have shocked them. Seedlings can be pretty easy to kill when overwatered. I'll wait for the pics to get posted and I can help you out further.

Were they indoor or outdoor as seedlings? If indoor sprouts, they'll have benefited from being introduced to the sun slowly. If all of this has just been outside, they'll probably be just fine. Either way, time seems like the solution

I sprouted them indoors, then put them under an umbrella outside after a couple of weeks. Here they’re next to tablespoons for size reference.

Usually I set (veggie) seeds directly in little pots of potting soil, which is efficient. This time I sprouted these weed seeds on paper towels (per instructions) then potted up the sprouts, which imo is wasteful of the plant’s energy (and my time) as it reorients itself. Not doing that again!

Also not using 100% coir again. As i was putting the plants in the ground, most of the coir came loose, taking a lot of the little roots. With my potting soil, everything would come out of the little pots intact.

Live & learn.

Give them time, still have a good month left to veg before they start to flower.

I'm a newbie grower but a month's growth for sure tiny plants don't seem like much. My dream of lighting up big spliffs seems to be going up in smoke haha

Looking overwatered, water them only once in two or three days and not much water, compare size of plant and amount of water you use.

Do they have enough sunlight?

And why so dirty?

They’re planted outside & at the mercy of all the rain we’ve been getting.

Time is not on my side with these little plants so I’m looking to buy a clone or 2 of decent size to replace them.

Problem is most places seem to have a minimum buy of 4 plants.

husita said:

Looking overwatered, water them only once in two or three days and not much water, compare size of plant and amount of water you use.

Do they have enough sunlight?

And why so dirty?

Click to expand...

They’re outside bruh

Looks like you have some nice loam there but I'm wondering if it's too compacted especially with a lot of rain making any pre-existing compaction worse. Root rot and/or lack of air might be an issue.

I got a couple of clones coming.

Soil turns over easily, but if you have some tips for loosening it further I’d appreciate it. Also what else I can amend it with. Thanks

RaggedMike said:

I got a couple of clones coming.

Soil turns over easily, but if you have some tips for loosening it further I’d appreciate it. Also what else I can amend it with.

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you can work in organic materials like compost, peat moss and other organic materials. Gypsum is another amendment that can be used for loosening compacted soil.

RaggedMike said:

Time is not on my side with these little plants so I’m looking to buy a clone or 2 of decent size to replace them.

Problem is most places seem to have a minimum buy of 4 plants.

Click to expand...

Buy the 4 clones as this set will not give you what you're hoping for. Dig out some holes and fill with FFOF (Fox Farm Ocean Forest) to give the new plants the lightest soil possible at first and they will grow the roots they need twice as fast as you'll get in yard dirt.

Your new clones will likely come from a 18-6 light cycle and will start to flower the day you set them outside unless you light them up. The successful setting out of plants from inside to outside takes careful time matching or it all flowers when it shouldn't.



I decided to run 24-0 years ago after fighting the whole time matching deal. With LED all 3 lamps only pull 21 watts. Keep your lights on until Aug 1st.
If you lived in a warm southern climate with no danger of frost, you could have extended the veg as long as you wanted. It never freezes here and I grow outside all year round.

Start photoperiod seedlings inside on 4-20 or earlier for huge plants come Aug.

BrassNwood said:

Start photoperiod seedlings inside on 4-20 or earlier for huge plants come Aug.

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This is the best way! Start from seed so you can start your first grow pest and virus free. A lot of dirty cuts going around. You will thank me later lol