Sad little Scorpion

C

chachie09

Good morning all! 
 
I have started my first indoor grow, and everything has sprouted, and most are doing well.  Except my scorpion...she is sad.  They are all in solo cups of FFOF, getting about a cup and a half of water every other day with about an 1/8th dose of big bloom mixed in.  everything is looking great and taking off, except the scorpion.  Shes starting to slowly yellow from the outside in.
 
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Imo I would stop with nutes. The OF has plenty for a young plant. Also It sounds and looks like its being over watered.
 
Have you tried not watering it as much, I have found when plants start to yellow like that some times there getting to much water.
 
Copy, im letting them all go an extra day with no water and see how they look. I didnt think the Big bloom would hurt at all seeing as it is 0.1-0.3-0.7 and is cut way down.
 
Here is a pic in the cab.  You can see how she is a little behind the others all around.
 
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It looks fine to me...
 
yeah the ocean forest has enough nutes for a while.
do the cups have drain holes in the bottom?
 
Yea, that would be my question as well.  A cup of water every few days sounds like an awful lot to me unless it is draining out the bottom (and draining well).
 
I would have to assume that they do drain, as I cannot imagine them going through so much water, but I'd be curious as to how much is actually leaving the solo cups, as they do look pretty wet.
 
Yes, each cup has about a 1/2"-3/4" hole in the bottom of the cup.  You can see the drain pattern on the tray under the cups. They drain VERY well. Yesterday was the first day after watering and the surface of the dirt was starting to dry a bit already.
 
I have some scorpions as well - perhaps a bit larger than yours. They go through almost no water compared to my other ~30+ varieties. Evaporation removes more water than the plant does. My scorpions are also slower growing than quite a number of my other varieties.
 
Do you water by the weight of the pot, or by feel/appearance of the soil?
 
I water by weight of the pot, as it is easier to tell how moist it is - even at the bottom of the pot. It's pretty easy to learn to do it by weight, especially if you use a mix with coco coir, as it gets extremely light when not holding water. It's a much more consistent method in my experience.
 
FFOF does not need nutrients for quite a while. I have been using the entire Fox Farm line for about 5 years now FWIW.
 
Nutes - entirely not needed until the cotyledons fall off. And agree - what's in the soil will be more than enough for quite a while.
 
Probable cause of yellowing - agree, likely overwatering.
 
geeme said:
Nutes - entirely not needed until the cotyledons fall off. And agree - what's in the soil will be more than enough for quite a while.
 
Probable cause of yellowing - agree, likely overwatering.
Click to expand...
Agreed
 
Ok all, few days later and everyone started looking better.  My guess is that it was a combo of three things: Overwatering, nutes, and light too close.  I checked on them the night of posting this and they were all starting to burn and had some canoeing in the leaves starting.  So I cut all nutes, moved the light up about 4", and added an extra day between waterings.  All is now well, the scorpion has started to green back up again, and everything is thriving!
 
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That's WAY too much water.  You're flushing nutrients out the bottom.
 
Drain holes are a safety measure.  If water comes out the bottom then it was too much water.  The soil surface should always be dry by the time you water again.  If you have a fan pointed at them it will increase the water requirement a bit but otherwise at this point they should need only a couple ounces a day... slightly more for the ones with a lot of leaf already.
 
Do give the runt another shot of nutes since they were washed out, then hold off on more nutes and with less watering it will stay in the soil better.
 
Agree with the others, believe it or not.  ;)
 
Cut WAY back on the water.  A full watering should produce a few drips out the bottom drain hole.
A flow-through flush is handy once a month, to flush any salt that may be accumulating, but is otherwise vast overkill that will only deplete the soil. 
 
Before watering, let the soil get 100% dry at the surface, and then pick up the cup.  Only if feels REAL light should you go ahead and water.  Let the plants wilt slightly once or twice.  This will not damage them and is a good way to judge when they really do need water. 
 
Try inching the light back closer to the plants.  Light is pepper fuel and the more the better!  Give the plants a day or two to show signs of stress before moving the next inch.
 
In general, don't be afraid to apply light doses of ferts.  FWIW, I've had great luck with simple MiracleGrow at fractions of a teaspoon per gallon, applied constantly.  (Fertigation.)  However, for young plants growing in OF, there really shouldn't be a need for any extra ferts unless you've been getting a LOT of flush action from the over-watering.
 
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