Mold on seedlings?

[intlplayr]

Can somebody help me diagnose this and tell me if this is mold growing on my seedlings?

I had a 100% germ rate for these AK-47's from Serious and then planted them in the rapid rooters. Now it seems like 3 or so may be unhealthy and out of those 2 I'm seeing a very condensed white web resembling mold maybe. At first I was trippin out because it looked like it was caked with some serious crystals but the rest of them had nothing and of course its way to early for frostiness and then I thought it may be just some furry hairs from the seedlings but again the rest of them don't have this.

Any ideas on what this is exactly and if there is a chance to remedy the situation? Or should I just throw them out?

As far as environment goes, they have been staying outside of the dome and staying about 5 inches away from T-5 fluorescents and also maintaining a temp of about 24-25*C. relative humidity has been staying around 50-70% (my humidifier hasn't been so consistent for some reason)



Please forgive the quality of photos, I'm just figuring out how to use the Macro setting on this camera and I think I shook my hands a little bit. Hopefully you will be able to see the detail

 

[intlplayr]

Here's a couple pics of the other babies for reference...

 

[EvilTwin]

ip,
They don't look good. Never seen seedlings do that. Seems like excessive moisture is probably the cause. You mentioned a dome...were they ever in a dome? Not such a good idea with seedlings.

I can't think of a treatment that would work at this point. I'm afraid you're going to lose some. Hope someone has a treatment option for you...
ET

 

[intlplayr]

Thanks for the reply, to answer your question, no these were never in a dome. I cracked open the sealed Rapid Rooter tray and the plugs were already wet which I guess is normal so they don't dry out. I then proceeded to follow the instructions from the packaging by rehydrating the RR plugs by pouring about 16 ozs of water over them leaving a 1/4" of water at the bottom of the tray as per the instructions. I used plain tap water. This was exactly 4 days ago.

Just out of curiosity, why isn't a dome good for seedlings anyways? I almost put one on tonight to up the humididty but thought I would wait until I asked about it on this forum. I thought germed seeds and early stages of growth grew ideally in higher humididty environments like 90-95% humididty, or is that only for clones?

 

[intlplayr]

Forgot to mention that these seedlings are getting 24 hours light which I thought added to the confusion on how this mold developed, if it is indeed mold. Anybody seen this before on seedlings? Anyone had this problem with rapid rooters before?

Any help or recommendations are super appreciated

 

[EvilTwin]

IP,
Good morning. You are correct in that high humidity is what you want for seedlings. But for some reason, and I suspect it's an immature immune system, seedlings don't do too well in domes. I use standing water in the immediate vicinity to create a little micro-climate for them. But clones will thrive under a dome...go figure.

I bought some rapid rooters and they were damp when they came out of the bag too. Yours may have gotten contaminated at the factory or stayed on the shelf for too long at the hydro store.

I didn't have very good luck using them with cloning. Stem rot sort of problems but nothing white and fuzzy like that.

Do you have anything that's at all anti-fungal? In a pinch, I've used powdered elemental sulfur. My thinking is that some emergency action is indicated since if you do nothing...they're all goners. Pull the damn rooters apart and wash off the seedling...maybe even a very mild bleach solution. Plant then in something else. You've got nothing to lose on the infected ones. This is just what I'd do...but like I said earlier, never seen that before.
ET

 

[Dr Dog]

Thats crazy

Keep the dome off and try to get those things to grow out a bit

They should be fine as they get older and grow right out of that, but try to get rid of teh factors that cause mold
Humidity
Dampness

I second the vote on the bad rapid rooters

 

[Tonyton]

It's not the rapid rooter, it's your seeds. I had the same problem in soil. Some of them sprouted and died and some didn't sprout at all. I found out that some seeds have a white film like substence on there shell we can't see with the naked eye, that's when it get wet with some humidityand it molds.The seedling is doomed from the start. The best thing I did was wash my seeds before I plant them. I take a paper towel, water and a little peroxide( one cap to a 9 ouce cup). Put some of the salution on the paper towel, take the seed and lightly rub the whole seed. If it had anything on it, it should look shinnier and not dule looking.
When I started doing this I had a better germination rate. An if the seeds are of some age, try the scuf/score method to give it a better germination rate. I use a diamond finger nail file and scuf/score the bottom crease of the seed( this is were the tap root come out from.

 

[EvilTwin]

IP,
Just curious Dude...how are your fuzzy seedlings?
ET

 

[intlplayr]

It's not the rapid rooter, it's your seeds. I had the same problem in soil. Some of them sprouted and died and some didn't sprout at all. I found out that some seeds have a white film like substence on there shell we can't see with the naked eye, that's when it get wet with some humidityand it molds.The seedling is doomed from the start. The best thing I did was wash my seeds before I plant them. I take a paper towel, water and a little peroxide( one cap to a 9 ouce cup). Put some of the salution on the paper towel, take the seed and lightly rub the whole seed. If it had anything on it, it should look shinnier and not dule looking.
When I started doing this I had a better germination rate. An if the seeds are of some age, try the scuf/score method to give it a better germination rate. I use a diamond finger nail file and scuf/score the bottom crease of the seed( this is were the tap root come out from.

Very interesting, I'll try that next time, thanks!

 

[intlplayr]

IP,
Just curious Dude...how are your fuzzy seedlings?
ET

Thanks for asking. Actually, one was getting so bad I regrettably took it out of from the rest of them because I was scared of it infecting the others (even though I didn't take the time to research if that's even possible since I was in a rush unfortunately that day getting the rest of my room all setup for my other clones) Then, later that day I made my way to my friendly neighborhood grow store to pick up some more gear and asked the manager about it. He told me that I probably added to much water to the Rapid rooters and that even though it says to rehydrate them on the package that you should only do so if they are dry (which most of the time they aren't unless they've been sittin for a LONG time) As a potential remedy, he asked me if I had any beneficial bacteria products lying around and I told him I had some AN Piranha. He said that if I mixed it as a foliar spray and then sprayed them that it would help eat away at it and would help out with the roots as well. He seemed fairly confident that they would push through it although he didn't see the pics I thought it couldn't hurt and regretted throwing out the one. When I went home I sprayed the other one and then said ah what the hell I'll spray them all since they were beginning to dry up a little. So far they look like they are getting better but it's only been a day.... Will send pics soon next time I look at them so you can see what I'm talking about ET

 

[EvilTwin]

IP,
What an interesting idea. Never would have thought of that. Hope the rest pull through and thanks for updating...
Peace,
ET