Strange seedling

[Batboy]

Bagseed
Soil - FFOF/Pro-mix/perlite
9 days since sprout
Distilled water only
mixed CFLs
temps 70-75, good airflow
40% humidity
no nutes
under 2" tall

It looks droopy and overwatered, but it's only been watered once an d lightly sprayed with distilled several times to keep the humidity up.
New growth DOES NOT LOOK GOOD. It's coming in very dark and twisted. The whole plant just looks bad compared to its peers, but the new growth is just odd.

 

[orpanic]

can't see pics...

 

[MynameStitch]

distilled water is terrible for growing seedlings, it contains no micronutrients, micros are extremely important with seedlings/clones without that they end up growing slow and using up food from it's stash much quicker than normal.

Like orpanic has stated, we do not see any pictures.
How often are you watering?
Another thing, chances are you are burning the hell out of your plants, seedlings and FFOF soil do not mix good at all, they burn the poor plant before it has a chance to establish a root system.

What size pot are these plants in?

 

[Batboy]

Can you see them now?

 

[StealthDragon]

yeh i see em

 

[Batboy]

distilled water is terrible for growing seedlings, it contains no micronutrients, micros are extremely important with seedlings/clones without that they end up growing slow and using up food from it's stash much quicker than normal.

Like orpanic has stated, we do not see any pictures.
How often are you watering?
Another thing, chances are you are burning the hell out of your plants, seedlings and FFOF soil do not mix good at all, they burn the poor plant before it has a chance to establish a root system.

What size pot are these plants in?

I think we've got the picture thing solved.

I am quite surprised to hear advice against distilled water for seedlings. Given how young and fragile they are, and the fact that they are in 1/2 FFOF, I figured that plain water was best. My tap water is pretty hard and comes with a PH over 8. It takes a good amount of nutes and PH down to get it under 7. I thought distilled was preferable to using a lot of PH down. I put in a few drops of SuperThrive into the water a few times, but not much at all. The other seedlings, all different strains, are thriving.

Rarely watering. Since sprouting 9 days ago into damp soil, it's been misted, sometimes heavily, a bunch of times, but only watered to where I saw some runoff once. The pot is very light and the top layer dries very quickly. I was thinking about a heavy watering tonight.

The soil is 40%FFOF/40%plain pro-mix/20%extra perlite. I was thinking that this wouldn't be too hot for seedlings and would provide about 2 weeks worth of nutrients.

Pots are small plastic nursury cups. Maybe 3"x3".

 

[MynameStitch]

The purple you are seeing is due to cooler temps at night, this will cause droopy stunted growth in your seedlings.
Yes, they are being over watered, when you got plants that size in the size pot you got, you don't need to water all the time when water runs out the bottom, you want to water just enough or below how deep the tap root is, because with there roots not being real big yet, they don't have roots all over the pot to absorb it's water so when roots take in water and other parts of the soil are wet, it keeps the plants root too moist and you get what you are seeing now.

Seedlings are not as fragile as you thing, strength wise yes, but they need those micronutrients.

Does not matter if your water is that pH, it's a bit hard, but I had worse my pH was in the 9's and 10's and if you check my gallery, most of my plants still had there first sets of leaves and they were green after 4 weeks.

With you using 1/2 part ffof you don't want a low pH,You gotta be real careful using superthrive on seedlings; there is nothing wrong with it; it's just very strong.

Some strains require more of certain nutrients than others. Have you used this mixture before, pro mix and ffof?

what are you using to test your ph? When yout using the mixture you are, water pH has some value for the final pH, but not all, you need to be testing the run off after you water your plants........

If you have problems with seedlings are using distilled if they start showing problems, you need to switch to part tap and distilled, or just tap.
as long as your water is not coming from a water softener your ok to use your tap. I can't tell, but is the tips of your leaves a little brownish in color? just point tip of the leaves?
You got a more close up of the plants?

Sometimes the mixture you are using with 40% is ok for seedlings, but some strains don't like it and it may be too rich, so far I don't see a problem with it being too rich just yet, but that is because you have been overwatering and not allowing the roots to sit in high concentration of the nutes in the mixture.

 

[Batboy]

Think I figured it out

Think I figured it out

You gotta be real careful using superthrive on seedlings; there is nothing wrong with it; it's just very strong.

what are you using to test your ph? When yout using the mixture you are, water pH has some value for the final pH, but not all, you need to be testing the run off after you water your plants........

You mentioned a lot of points Stitch, and I think that those 2 were spot on.

I think that the Superthrive really messed with the PH, even though I used so little. I considered the water in my spraybottle to be essentially nothing but distilled water, but it turned out to be reading 4.3!

I really don't think it's overwatering because I've watered so little and the pots were so light. I would sooner consider that the plant is drooping from UNDERwatering.

I watered heavily with distilled and tap and now I've got a closer eye on the PH. Hopefully this will be the end of the story.

 

[MynameStitch]

Ya, 1 drop of superthrive is enough per gallon of water. For the size of the plants your have.

They do help a lot with growing, but because there is so many vitamins and minerals to help boost rooting, cannabis will take in some and when you keep using it they build up.

Not saying this is what is going on now, just for future notes

About the watering thing, it's hard to tell when they are this small, cause normally when your plants are under watered they will droop, but instead of the curve you see with the leaves, the leaves tend to droop more down rather than curved, normally the curve leaves you are seeing now tends to happen when plants are watered a little bit too much.

a bunch of times, but only watered to where I saw some runoff once.

That is all it takes for your plants to exhibit over watering, with the size of the plant and the pot they are in.... that is all it takes, top it off with misting and your plants are taking in too much water, that is all it takes, just once. The roots will take in water around them and what happens to the soil that is still wet? keeps the roots a little too moist for there liking, I know you added perlite to the mixture and promix is good airy mix as well,to me it looks like it got a little too much water. I am not right all the time, I am human, but that is what it looks like to me the plant is doing

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

I think MynameStitch is right about the watering (and basically everything else too). Even though the mix is light, the pots are too big for the plants. Without knowing where and how big the roots are, you're bound to both over and underwater trying to compensate for each other. Also, quit the distilled water. You need the hardness to buffer against inevitable PH swings from too much nutrients.

 

[EvilTwin]

Hi Guys,
I think the twisting is from the soil mix being too hot. Twisty leaves are classic for that.
ET

 

[Batboy]

Looks like it was underwatering (possibly preceeded by overwatering) mixed with PH problems caused by me stupidly using Superthrive and not checking the PH of the water that I was using to water and mist. Maybe using only distilled with the Superthrive contributed as well. . .

The first pics in the thread were taken on 9-17. On 9-18 I watered with tap and distilled and PH'd to 6.8. Here's how the plant looks on 9-20. Growing fast, new growth looks abundant and healthy. Still some twisting that will hopefully clear up as I get the PH figured out -- of course it could be the soil too . . .

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

WHoo! Looks much better!

 

[MynameStitch]

Yup, big improvement.