In this case, as a rule of thumb, roughly the size of the leaf mass above ground is approximately the root expansion in the soil. However, our ladies are deep-rooters whose strong taproots grow deep first, while the fine network forms closer to the top.

And at your rather early stage, the root mass is actually larger than the leaf mass, as it is mainly focusing on taking root at the moment.

If you are unsure, stick your index finger into the soil up to the second knuckle; if it’s dry, water. If it’s wet, don’t water.

Except for the marked spots, where I unfortunately can’t help, both of them look good for their age.

The first one has slightly wavy leaves, which to me even looks like slight overwatering, but I could be wrong.

I would even say, don’t water just yet.
But you have to decide that based on the soil moisture.

Good luck

@KilliczGe Hi, thanks for your opinion! I’m really glad you take the time to read through my log so I also write some things with AI and apparently it could be that the AllMix is still too hot for the young roots, which is why these spots are appearing. I’ll see how she develops over the coming weeks. Best regards

That might actually be the case.

Next time, maybe make a hole in the middle and put Light Mix in there.
Or start in Light Mix, max 1L pot depending on the situation, I’d say.
And transplant after two weeks.

However, with automatics, that requires practice, timing, and a delicate touch.

So rather fill it with Light Mix and put the seed in there.

At this point, obviously difficult

It’ll be fine.

Yeah, you said it. I’ve read a lot that autos can be very finicky and sensitive

At first I thought about starting in a cut-off iced tea bottle, but then I thought whatever, just straight into the final pot. The 11L pot did have a roughly 4-5cm layer of LightMix on top, but that was probably too little.

Next time I’ll go deeper with the LightMix instead of just putting a thick layer on top.

Yeah, automatics, I’m also still figuring out what works best for me.

Have light intensity and distance been adjusted by now? The first five-fingered leaves should be coming soon, then you can also turn the light up a bit higher.

From then on, growth will get noticeably faster too.

5cm is pretty little.
I currently have the top third filled with Light mix.

You can press a pot into the soil as a placeholder, or bury it and fill it up with Light mix there.

Let me see if I have a picture.

Like this, just with an appropriately sized small pot

Well, unfortunately I don’t have a PPFD meter yet, so for now I’m still using my phone with the Photon app and a piece of printer paper as a diffuser. It currently shows 220 PPFD. The lamp is 50cm away from the leaves and set to 20%.

Yes, that’s exactly how I want to do it next time

At least a rough guideline.

If you’re unsure about that, I usually use this as a guide.

But over time, I’ve roughly figured out what percentage at what distance gives me about the power I need.

Cheers.

Waiting is the hardest part

Nice, thanks for the table I’ll post updates every few days, if you’re interested feel free to check it out <3

Definitely.
If I can help, gladly.

And sure, the progress of others interests me just as much as my own learning curve.
Always nice to be able to share one’s half-knowledge for a change.
That way, the synapses connect better too

Autoflowers have very little room for error, you have to take good care of them. Do some research and read, that will help you apply things in this grow or for future ones, or watch videos if you’re too lazy to read, but text guides give you much more information. I hope it’s a good grow

Thanks @loveweed ! I also hope it turns out reasonably well with the two of them. I think I will stay away from autos in the future. That way I can decide for myself when the right time is for flowering and fix minor deficiencies.

My synapses haven’t been working properly for a long time But very fascinating to watch them grow. Really nice to see how the little ones get bigger day by day haha

Hello again, so here is a quick picture of the problem plant. As I said, I suspect it was the too quick transition into the AllMix, which is why it looks like this. It’s just a guess, but maybe a calcium lockout. But now I’ve run into a completely different problem, namely:

I have very hard tap water with a pH of around 8.5 and I use BioBizz Down, which consists 100% of citric acid. So the water has a good pH value when watering, but as soon as the micro-life consumes the citric acid, the value shoots right back up, a yo-yo effect so to speak. Should I switch to mineral Down? Or is it better to skip it entirely and water with the hard tap water without adjusting the pH?

Now I’m considering switching to mineral pH down, which won’t be consumed by the organisms. I think I’ll add CalMag during the next watering, about 0.2 to 0.3 ml per liter. Although it’s growing very deformed and showing these signs, it’s actually keeping up the pace.

Looking forward to your opinions! Hope someone can help me out

hi @ROOTSMEN, just so you know, hard water is because of the amount of minerals it contains, not because of the pH. Your water isn’t hard because of the pH, it’s “alkaline” water. To know if it’s hard water, you must use an EC or TDS meter, which measure the parts per million of minerals in water, or electrical conductivity. It’s not the same thing, they are very different things.

I have hard tap water, with an EC of over 1100 EC, and a pH of over 8. In vegetative or growth stage, I never adjusted the pH because I use organic fertilizers.
I have 3 plants right now like this, 2 weeks into flowering, and none of them had the irrigation water pH adjusted. They were always watered with pH +8 and EC +1100 and had no problems at all.
If you are using organic fertilizer, you shouldn’t worry so much about pH, plus the substrates themselves act as a “buffer” and self-regulate the pH.
I have Biobizz pH Down, I imagine it’s the same or similar to what you have, and I always thought it was “trash”, I honestly prefer using lemon, although I also have Canna pH- and Canna pH+.
And I repeat that I don’t adjust the pH with organic fertilizers.

From my point of view, if you don’t know what EC (ppm) the water has, adding more to it is dangerous. Your water being so “alkaline” possibly has a high EC, and in your attempt to adjust the pH, this might be happening:

high tap water EC + additives (like pH-) that raise the EC even more, plus an ALL-MIX substrate = over-fertilization / lockouts.
If you don’t have a way to measure EC, stop trying to adjust the pH in organic substrates. The difference between an organic fertilizer and a mineral one is that the mineral one will enter the plant directly with the water, which is why the pH must be calibrated well. With organics, you don’t feed the plant, but rather you feed the soil’s micro-life. The micro-life breaks down the organic matter, and only after this does it feed the plant.
That’s why with organics it’s not as important to measure pH; as long as it’s in a suitable range for the micro-life, you shouldn’t have any problems.

I also exclusively use All Mix from the moment they go into the soil. Currently I am only watering with rainwater, no additives like fertilizer, CalMag, or other products. Today I am at day 35 since planting. One or two of them have minimal burns on the tips, but actually they look healthy.

Yeah crazy, that’s really a lot of info. I don’t know anything about this haha, I’ve never checked the EC value but I’m going to get a meter soon to check it properly. Yeah, I use BioBizz Down and as far as I know, it’s diluted citric acid, but if you say you water with 8+ and everything’s fine, then I think I’m overthinking the wrong things. I should rethink my priorities a bit, but that’s exactly why I’m asking! Thanks for your detailed answer!

So in my region, the water from the analysis is rated as medium-hard to hard with approx. 0.5 – 0.7 mS/cm / approx. 70 – 100 mg/l Calcium AND approx. 20 – 35 mg/l Magnesium. But no idea what it’s like right now, the measurement was from 2024.

Yo, your girls look sexy So I haven’t given any fertilizer so far since I also have ALLMIX and I guess the soil will last for another 2 weeks. I’m considering adding a bit of Calmag the next time I water. Unfortunately, no barrel in the garden for rainwater.

Well, I water by feel. I think I’m too afraid of overwatering. Right at the beginning when they both popped up, I watered 3L of pH-regulated tap water each to really moisten everything properly, and so far only once yesterday with 750ml each since the pot was already pretty light.

I don’t have a rain barrel either, I just put a tub under the sloped roof