What up Dude, Scotty, Guru and everyone else behind the scene!! I appreciate all of you guys!! My 2 week old seedlings are starting to look like crap (leaves are super dark green, light green stripes, droopy and now turning crispy) so I tested runoff and it was 1220!! I’m using Happy Frog with worm castings (1:4 ratio) added some Mykos and of course Recharge. Temps are between 68°-75°. Using store bought spring water. What can I do to help my babies? Was planning on cutting the soil with some Canna coco(1:1) when I transplant in 2 weeks or so. Any advice is greatly appreciated🙏 Peace, love and chicken grease!!
I don’t think you’ll need to cut with coco since you’ll soon be in mid-veg and they’ll want more nitrogen in the soil anyway. I would cut down or leave out the earth worm castings (EWC) next time if you think this mix is too hot. I suspect overwatering/overly moisture-holding soil in part due to EWC. You might want to transplant a bit sooner, or at least pop out the plant and peek at the roots to see how rootbound they are.
Coco is a fine thing to add to a soil-less mix, but it too holds water pretty well and (in my opinion) needs additional buffering (CalMag) before mixing. I think if you go 1:1 you will end up lacking nitrogen first, then the other nutrients. But maybe you’re way ahead of me with a fertilizer plan not yet mentioned.
I love EWC and often top dress with them at the first sign of diminishing nitrogen.
Soil run off is not an accurate way to test soil ppm. Most of the nutrition in soil is bonded to organic matter. Additionally, minerals and other stuff mixed into the soil can cause misleading high numbers.
This looks more like unhappy roots to me than over feeding anyway. They’re probably just ready for bigger containers.
Well said soup!! Could agree more my guy!
It looks like a roots zone problem caused by over watering. when the soil stays to wet it can cause the soil at the bottom to go anaerobic and cause problems with your root. Watering less water more often is a way to help with this. and if you find you have a heave pour use a smaller container to water with.
I don’t think worm castings are needed at this seedling stage. I would think too much nitrogen. I am in week 5 flower now and had really good success with using ocean forest like this….. Seedlings in root plugs to about 3 weeks, then plain happy frog transplant to one gallon, with Mykros at roots of course for transplant. In 1 gal for another 24 days roughly, then transplant to 5 gal using 3 parts ocean forest mixed some perlite and worm castings. I fill it about 65% full. At week 3 of flower I top off pots with strawberry fields at a watering. I just decided if im going to use these soils i probably should use it as intended by manuf. Its going very well compared to first grow where i managed, but was constantly slightly deficeint followed by adressing and ending up with slight tip burns.
Happy frog bag itself , in my experience, does not need to be amended until around week 4 or when your plants tell you they are hungry . Had similar problem but the leaves were much darker , then it locked out . I don’t know if they come with hotspots or if it’s tilled well before packaging but never hurts to give it a good mix . Be careful with store water . Consistency is key !
All that but really…….. recharge. Water correctly with recharge and you will not get burned.
I’ve been running happy frog and canna mix for about a year. Never had issues with “hot” soil… happy frog has little to nothing to nothing in it compared to other soil available from fox farm. To me it’s a root thing. Probably over watering or ph imbalance. Good luck and grow on!
I can’t thank you all enough for the great advice!! I was trying to be super mindful when it came time to water, waiting at least 2-3 days in between. I’m glad I went with bag seed for my first indoor grow. Had a feeling I was going to screw somthing up lol. Still having a blast tho, love this plant!! And this community!!