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Wow, my 8 week old plant is already flowering?

NoVa Hothead

NoVa Hothead

Hadn't expected that to happen. This is a Red Savina, and it isn't even one of my better plants. This is one of the plants that I've been adding extra calcium and magnesium to in order to treat the cupping. I was rather surprised to find it flowering when I went into the grow box tonight.

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that's definitely a tall plant for 8 weeks (and in such a small pot). Be careful of root bound issues. I also saw a lot of budding starting to happen sooner than expected just after 8 weeks.

That's quick progress. Nice.
 
All of my plants that are taller than 8 inches are going into one gallon pots on Saturday, I hadn't expected the explosion of growth that's happened over the past month. These things went from being a couple inches tall to over a foot pretty quickly. Of the 60 plants at my house (another 60 are at my brother in law's), 36 of them are over a foot tall, and another dozen are over 8 inches. So, I'll be potting up four dozen plants this weekend.
 
I'm going to stick to containers, and it appears that April 15 is the magic day for me. However, in looking at the forecast, there aren't any days out there in the next week and a half where the temps are forecasted to fall below 45 degrees. So, I'm going to pot up to one gallon, and start the hardening off process immediately. They've already been spending small amounts of time outside the past couple weekends, but now I'll kick in the true hardening schedule.
 
That's cool. Most of my plants will be in containers as well. Maybe a couple of bells inground. Will you use your same container mix in the pots or was that just for potting up?

April 15th is the day for me as well. I started to harden off on Monday. I plan on leaving everything outside next weekend unless the temps drop and getting everything set up to get ready. Weekend of the 17th, they will start getting moved to their final homes.

I hope you have a stellar year!
jacob
 
Let me get this correct. Did that plant just spring out of the ground 8 weeks ago?
How in the world is it so big in that tiny pot?

Good work.
 
NoVa Hothead ..... from what others have said I think you need to cut off those early flowers. I think it AJ that said that.

FadeToBlack ..... plants can do some amazing things .... I think he's kept them well fed and maybe flushed them with plan water so there's no salts build up. You can also take a plant and whack off some leaves and plant it deeper , it will make roots on the stem.

Good luck NoVa Hothead !!

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
chillilover said:
Looks way to leggy to be a Red Savina, did you have strong enough light? Could the cupping be aphids?
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I'm using a grow box that is 2 foot by 4 foot, and have four T12 bulbs and three CFLs in the box. I forget the number of lumens that are in there, but it was more than sufficient for getting seedlings started before they head outdoors.

Part of the legginess is due to the exceptionally fast growth rate seen in the past few weeks, although I'm actually okay with the space between leaf nodes, as the stalks are strong enough on virtually every plant to support the height.

No aphids, and I've only got a few plants that are experiencing cupping. For the most part, the cupping in other plants has been resolved through increased epsom salts, and I just got some Huvega to assist with the process. Knock on wood, but I've been VERY lucky with pests, as I haven't seen any aphids or mites at all.
 
P. Dreadie said:
NoVa Hothead ..... from what others have said I think you need to cut off those early flowers. I think it AJ that said that.

FadeToBlack ..... plants can do some amazing things .... I think he's kept them well fed and maybe flushed them with plan water so there's no salts build up. You can also take a plant and whack off some leaves and plant it deeper , it will make roots on the stem.

Good luck NoVa Hothead !!

Peace,
P. Dreadie
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I took off the flowers last night. I want those plants to be bigger before they start fruiting.

I'm also planning to do exactly what you mentioned regarding sinking some of the stem when I pot up. In fact, given the height of many of these plants, I'm likely going to sink between 1 and 2 inches when potting up this weekend. In addition to providing more space for root development, it will help plant stability in the wind until the roots grow out into the new soil mixture.
 
FadeToBlack said:
Let me get this correct. Did that plant just spring out of the ground 8 weeks ago?
How in the world is it so big in that tiny pot?

Good work.
Click to expand...

Believe me, I'm surprised as well. The crazy thing is the size of that plant is the norm for many of my plants, and they're all in 3.5x4 square pots.

Rhizotonic rules...
 
jjs7741 said:
Will you use your same container mix in the pots or was that just for potting up?
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I haven't found a source for a quantity of coco yet, that's the only piece missing to sticking with the same medium. I'm going to hit a few stores on the way home from the office today to see if I can locate some. If not, then I'm going to replace that portion of my mix with a 1/2 part peat and a 1/2 part perlite. That would make it 2 1/2 parts peat, 1 1/2 parts perlite, and 1 part composted manure, plus the dolomitic lime.

I only need about 2 cubic feet of coco right now, but will need about a yard if these things continue to grow and get into 5 gallon pots.
 
NoVa Hothead ..... you mentioned using epsom salt because of leaf cupping. I have a few young plants that have that. I transplanted them from 8oz styro cups to 18 oz cups . I started spraying them with a Mag / Cal solution. It hasn't been that long yet so there's not enough new growth to know if that helped. And I take it the older leaves will still be cupped ...... RIGHT ? If I was or should I try epsom salt ?? If I did how much in a little 18oz cup?

Most of my plants look good , green .... yada yada . No spots on leaves or anything but they will drop an old leaf from time to. I'm sure transplanting into 1 gal pots wouldn't hurt but I don't have the room . I plan on setting them out in several weeks and hope things will turn around then.

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
On the plants that I was able to correct the cupping, I noticed that older leaves took at least a week to flatten out. Before that would happen, I would judge success exactly as you mention, do the new leaves have the same issue.

For me, in addition to foliar spraying, I started adding epsom salt every time I watered, instead of adding the salt to the soil. I used a half tablespoon per gallon of water, and noticed a difference within a couple days.
 
NoVa Hothead said:
I haven't found a source for a quantity of coco yet, that's the only piece missing to sticking with the same medium. I'm going to hit a few stores on the way home from the office today to see if I can locate some. If not, then I'm going to replace that portion of my mix with a 1/2 part peat and a 1/2 part perlite. That would make it 2 1/2 parts peat, 1 1/2 parts perlite, and 1 part composted manure, plus the dolomitic lime.

I only need about 2 cubic feet of coco right now, but will need about a yard if these things continue to grow and get into 5 gallon pots.
Click to expand...

Wow, a yard of coco will be quite pricey. The most ecomomical way to get it that I see is bricks if you have to ship it, and that will be a lot of bricks. At some of the hydro sites I have seen, it sells for $30 for 24 bricks. 1 brick uncompresses to about 1/3 cubic foot. With 27 CF to a yard, that is 81 bricks. That is almost $100 before shipping! Not sure if you can find that much locally though.

With more peat in the mix you will likely need more lime to raise the ph. You could also look into composted pine bark fines which is also sold as soil conditioner. It is a common component of potting mixes and is MUCH more economical.

jacob
 
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