1 week old sickly seedlings.. HELP!

[cannacoob]

hello one & all!

well i have some 1 week old seedlings and things aren't looking good it seems. 5 out of 6 seeds germinated using the paper towel method and i planted them in party cups. 3 are random crappy bag seeds & 3 are Skunkberry from PeakSeedsBC. here are some details of my grow:

• grow medium: 75% Lady Bug Brand Vortex Organic Potting Soil; 25% Miracle Grow Perlite
• temps: 75-84F
• humidity: 45-60% (also have plastic sandwich bags covering the cups for extra humidity)
• ventilation: passive intakes & 265cfm blower exhaust (on speed controller) & 1 small fan blowing on CFLs
• lighting: six 23 watt CFLs (6500K) / only using 3-4 bulbs now
• grow area: 22.5” W x 18” D x 44.5” H enclosed cabinet

for this first week i've had the lights on 24 hours a day. i was using 5 of the CFLs but now i've reduced it to 3 to keep temps down. my seedlings looked OK the first few days and now it looks like they're turning brownish. the ziploc bags were on the cups the first 3 days then removed. when they started looking brownish, i put the bags back as i thought that may help. i raised the CFLs to about six inches after first having them about 1 inch above the cups.

after the initial soil soak before planting, i haven't watered until day 7 and then gave them each 4oz of pH 6.5 tap water. i have not fed any nutes but i'm thinking of using some SuperThrive i bought next time i water.

the pics below were taken on day 8 the day after i watered. if anyone has any input about what i might be doing wrong please chime in! i hope they don't all die on me.

 

[mooz]

--------------------

 

[Dr Dog]

look nute burnt to me

 

[cannacoob]

hello,
i would take off the plastic covers and let them get some fresh air.

hey mooz..

the ziploc bags were on the cups the first 3 days then removed. when they started looking brownish, i put the bags back as i thought that may help. so they have had about half of their time without them on. thanks for the suggestion!

 

[mexilandrace]

really really nute burnt.

you need to get them out of that soil ASAP, put them in pure peat or into a seedling soil mix, if you don't they are dead dead dead.

 

[cannacoob]

really really nute burnt.

you need to get them out of that soil ASAP, put them in pure peat or into a seedling soil mix, if you don't they are dead dead dead.

yikes.. that sucks. i thought the soil would be ok but perhaps you're right. since they're so small, how would i safely transplant them into a different soil?

 

[mexilandrace]

just gently dig them up with like a fork or something, the roots won't be very far along because the plants not happy.

Really only the top little bit of soil will have roots, just be gentle.

Be sure to water them really well when you put them in the new soil, wash some of the residual nutes out of whatever bit of soil you still leave on em.

 

[cannacoob]

well i decided to transplant one for starters to new soil. i carefully dumped the 12oz party cup over to remove the soil/root ball & was surprised to see that roots had already grown to the bottom of the cup and even up around the sides just a bit.

since i thought i was going to have a smaller tap root to deal with, i thought i'd be able to get rid of all the original soil. now instead i have room for only about half new soil in the new 24oz pot. the new soil i mixed in consists of:

60% All Purpose Potting Soil from Lowes (ingredients: composted bark, sand & peat moss--no nutes!)
30% Horticultural Vermiculite
10% Lady Bug Brand Vortex Organic Potting Soil

this time no MG perlite!

before placing the root ball in the pot i watered the new soil with pH 6.5 tap water with SuperThrive mixed at ratio of 1ml to 1 gallon. after placing the seedling in the pot, i filled in the rest of the space with new soil mix and watered just a bit more.

i'll keep my eye on it and if it looks better i'll do the same with the other 4 plants.