Seedling diagnosis needed

[Guest]

I was wondering if these could be diagnosed as over watered? They were looking pretty good for awhile but now the true leaves are starting to curl under. Some look better than others.

I find it hard not to give them a couple squirts out of a water bottle with holes in the cap every day near the stem. The cups seems to dry out fairly quickly and it just bothers me to think of them drying out... I guess I'll probably have to lay off to every other day or so huh? I've put my finger in the soil down to the second knuckle and it's only SLIGHTLY moist and bone dry until I hit the moisture level where you can barely feel a difference, which is why I have been watering every day. The weight of the cups is also pretty light.

On Saturday it will be 2 weeks since I've planted these in soil after soaking for 24 hours. One of them ended up being a runt, coming up with a couple brownish yellowish specks on it. It perked up and started doing good for awhile and then yesterday I came back to find that it had fallen over. I ended up pulling it as there probably wasn't much that could be done about it but I'd like to save these other plants. Two of the seedlings are starting to form small brownish discolorations but it doesn't look that serious yet. Soil mixture was FFOF with 30% perlite added to it. Before I planted the beans I flushed the soil in the cups so the seedlings wouldn't burn. Temps are around 75 lights on and 70 lights off with a variable but somewhat stable humidity. It'll be anywhere from 15 (exhaust on) to 40. The fan doesn't run that much though so I doubt this is a humidity problem. PH is 7 and I have a fan on low blowing directly on them to strengthen the stems. For lighting I have 40 watt T12's hanging a couple inches above them.

I ended up shutting my oscillating fan off and I'm not watering today to see if they look better tomorrow. Until then it'd be nice to have some input for future reference.

The runt...


Brown discoloration...







Peace.

 

[Core]

first off...FFOF is't soil....the bag maybe say's potting soil..but in reality it is all organic matter..even more with some 30 % perlite added....for this mmedium is a lower ph level required...this ranges from 5.3 - 6.2...and optimum being 5.6 - 6.0...

for the waterings....you should try and master yourself the weight technique..it involves weighing the containers with the plants to try and establish if they need water....so heavy is no water and light/very light is in need of water...best way to go is fill up a same container with that mixture and let it dry out...then water ya plants and weigh the pots.....easy as ....

ohw yea i've heard plenty of story's that seedlings do NOT like FFOF coz of the hotness....

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice. I won't be using FF products after this run. This is my first attempt at growing and the beans weren't cheap so I'm hoping I can make it through this little bump in the road...

I checked them earlier and they kinda look worse. Last time I watered was yesterday when the lights kicked on. The baby leaves (forgot what they're called) on 3 different seedlings are starting to turn to a paler green/slight yellow but the fans still look alright excluding the fact that they are curling under. See above pics for the most extreme case of it, it shouldn't be too hard to pick out. Also, the discoloration on the one became somewhat darker. I'd really appreciate some more input on this so I can try to make it through this if it's something other than over watering. Maybe the 3 are experiencing some nutrient burn but I made sure to flush the medium pretty well. Even if this is from over watering it's not like I'm bringing down the water hose on them. I'm somewhat conservative with the amount of water I give them... But yeah this has only become an issue in like the past 2 days... Peace.

 

[Guest]

I started seeds in FFOF as well without any problems. I didnt add any perlite to my soil until i transplanted to bigger containers after a few weeks. BUT did your perlite have fertilizer in it??? I accidently bought some miracle grow perlite and it contains fertilizer. If it does and you are watering its activating the fertilizer. There is actually alot of brands of perlite that have fertilizer. Try saving your plants by transplanting into just the dirt with no perlite. If it is FoxFarm perlite nevermind this. Let us know how they turn out maybe we can save these yet!

 

[MynameStitch]

Stoner, let me see some pics of your seedlings; we will judge if it's too hot or not, 90% of the time that soil is way to rich for babies dude and it fry's the hell out of them.

Core's advice he has given is spot on and he knows what mixture is too hot and what is not.

 

[Guest]

yep his advice is solid just wanted to say perlite has fertilizer in it sometimes. thats all stitch. yeah my seedlings were a little burnt too i guess that i thought about it but they pulled through and turned out fine.

 

[Core]

i'm using a light mix for my seedlings...first few days they will be alright ..but when the roots come tru some of'm will start to yellow no matter what..coz it is also to hot...and i'm 100% shure my soil has only bout 500-600 ppm's preferted...bout 1 EC...so i would't feed them in any way...hell i would flush'm out a bit ....WITH THE RIGHT PH LEVELS,VERY IMPORTANT ! but thats just my

 

[Guest]

Negative on the fertilized perlite. It's been 48 hours since I've given them water and the brown spot has gotten darker and the cotyledons are also yellowing out some more. Basically it's 3 out of 10 seedlings that are affected this way and the rest are either fine or their fans are curling under. I'm figuring it's either PH issues, nutrient burn, or both. What would cause the brown spots on the cotyledon? Hopefully I can get this taken care of before it moves on to the fan leaves. If this was an over watering issue would they have perked up somewhat by now? I'm going to flush them with 6.5 PH water tonight and see how it goes from there. Thanks for the replies guys. Peace.

 

[MynameStitch]

Your soil is the cause of this, you have to remove them from the mixture or your seedlings will continue to do this untill they get stunted and will not grow.

All strains are different, including seeds; it's like humans, each one of us inherits genes from back in our family, strains do this too and can go back far, so just because it's the same strain does not mean it's going to be the same unless you grow from a clone from the same plant.

You will have to flush a lot, FFOF is a lot of organics which means some of them are slow releasing; so even if you flush it now, left over will be in there. I would remove them from the soil completely and put them in a seed starter mixture.

You would have to use around a gallon or more of water to flush it out good enough for them to stay in there, and even then since they are affected by the rich soil, the soil still may be a little to rich for them to get better in. You would be better off saving the soil and putting them into the mixture, once you flush that mixture the nutrients will be gone most of them. FFOF is not cheap soil either.

 

[Core]

OMFG

OMFG

naaaaaaH Stitch....let him flush with 6.5 ......I'm out...

 

[MynameStitch]

ehh? Sorry core if I made you mad, I was trying to more back you up in your advice since the kid was asking you again if that was what was causing his problem or not......
I did not mean to make ya angry

I just thought if he flushed, with his plants are so small and only have a tiny tap root....... the soggy soil may stay wet too long for there liking with them not having a good root system......

 

[Core]

No hun... i'm not mad...PM send...

 

[Guest]

Uhh... Am I not getting something here? I didn't mean to offend anyone if that's the case. Like I said before I'm new to growing so I can't be expected to be up there with you two... I was only using the small amount of OF that I had in hopes that it would work out alright being flushed before use but obviously not. I will be trying out an organic mix that contains canadian sphagnum peat moss, perlite, dolomite lime, and an organic wetting agent. According to the company it contains a very small amount of fertilizer.

When I flushed them last night, I used a little more than a gallon of 6.8 water. The worst looking one's cotyledons actually fell off when I checked them before lights out but the others' fans looked a little better. All in trial and error I guess. It's too bad that this happened, they started out good with every single one of them sprouting. Thanks for all the input and taking the time to reply. Don't know what I did to piss you off Core but sorry.

 

[Core]

did you even bother to read my first post...?



ohw and for the record i'm not mad /pissed /angry at any1

 

[Guest]

Sure, which part of it? The PH you suggested or the soil being to hot?

 

[zoolander]

Maybe switch to light warrior or search moonshines mix which is a mixture of fox farm products I have never had a problem with ffof but I have seen it mess with some strains and I think it is hot and not for new growers and core and stitch both have great advice.