tall and thin seedling

[Guest]

Happy new year to every pothead out there.
I need a help with my seedling.
They are few days old, and are tall and thin, all of them.
This is my first time using rockwool cube.
They are about 10cm tall.
under 400w about 60cm below the light.
use small rockwool cube with 25% lucas formula nute.
temp. 25c humid 39%
Any idea why are they so tall and thin?
Thank to all generous growers.

 

[ganjaLeaving]

hi man,

They are going for the light.
try lowering it to a point where it will not burn your hand at seedling level

h n year

 

[Storm Crow]

It's your lights!

It's your lights!

You either are:

(a) trying to use conventional light bulbs. These have the light in the wrong spectrum. Your babies can use only a fraction of their type of light. It's like they are growing in dim light, they are starving for light they can use! CFLs and tube fluoros will work fine for seedlings, however.

(b) using too few or too small lights. As a general rule, more is better.

(c) having your lights too far from your plants. If you are using tube fluoros, they should be all but touching the plants - 1 to 2 inches away from the top of your plants. CFLs (the curly bulbs) should also be close- about 3-4 inches from your plants. For the "big lights", you can do a search for the proper distances.

Now, as to what to do after you adjust your lighting system- Those babies are going to need support! Get some twist ties and some bamboo skewers (Dollar Store, Walmart, many grocery stores have them for making shishkabobs/BBQing). Any thin stick will work, though.

Attach one end of a twist tie to the skewer- I just fold the very end into a "U" with the stick in the valley of the "U", grabbing both sides of the "U", I turn the stick a few times and the tie is on tightly. Then I stick the skewer about an inch from the plant and carefully loop the twist tie around the plant. You don't want it tight! This holds the seedling upright- and if they keep growing like they are, they will be in danger of falling over!

If there is any space between the rim of your pot and the dirt's surface, fill it in with potting soil. You can bury a seedling right up to the cotyledons (seed leaves). New roots will eventually develop along the buried stem. So this isn't a total disaster!

Good luck with your grow! - Granny

 

[MynameStitch]

Yuppers, they need the light closer to them! when you plant them into something you will have to set them about 2 in below the leaves; it will be alright to set them into there deeper, the stem you will see now that is lanky will grow roots later on.

Otherwise you will have a lanky plant that will never be able to hold itself up; let alone hold itself up with buds on them.

If you put them in a hydro setup; you will have a problem, unless you stop there stretching now.....

Your also going to have to get rid of the 400 watter; in order to keep them lights close enough to stop there stretch you will end up frying your seedlings; it's a complete waste of electricity and not the right spectrum for there growth; ditch the 400 untill they get at least 3 weeks old. Get some compact fluros and use them, they can be kept about 1 in above the plants and this WILL stop your stretching; this will be the ONLY way to stop it; also using fluro bulbs; you can have the tubes touch the seedlings and it would not hurt them.... so in order to stop this, get some compact fluros hooked up and or some fluro tubes.

using that 400 watter, not only is it causing this from it being too high; but the growth will be even slower with the spectrum not being correct for vegging plants; trust me; doing this will stop a whole lot of heart ache down the road!

 

[Kr@kEn]

Actually, you need to raise the light higher. Try 2 1/2 feet.
It can seem like they want the light closer but they actually are getting too much light. The rockwool being too moist can encourage the stretching too. Don't use any nutrients yet either. They don't even have leaves yet. And when you do use a ppm or ec meter and start out at about 300ppm in a week or so. The first week they need just water, nothing else.

 

[Verger OG]

Some say light is wrong, some say light is too high and others to lower the light. That is internet alright.

 

[BigAl]

The lights need to be lowered no ifs or buts about it.

And... If you want to feed them right from the start that is also alright but take it easy.

 

[Guest]

Thank you everyone!

Thank you everyone!

I'm very happy about this forum, many of you are kind and generous.
ganjaLeaving, Storm Crow, MynameStitch, Kr@kEn, Verger OG and BigAl

I stopped using my new bulb, it's called ceramic metal halide
360w 41400lm 4100k 80ra

Now I'm using two cfl I found in my house.
They seem to be happy, stoped streching.

also, I'll going to read below thread and recondider the situation....
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=72215

 

[MynameStitch]

You can put them a little closer, but don't put them too close or when they grow they can grow into the bulb.

As for the nutes, don't use any yet, wait till they got a nice set of roots coming out of the rockwool, also before you get a problem, do not let that rockwool sit in that water like that, your better off watering them when they need water, cause when water sits in that rockwool like that and the roots are not taking it up fast enough you water log your roots; so I would remove the excess water from the pan and just leave the rockwool alone, don't get rid of the excess, cause you may damage the roots; so just let it sit in the pan without the excess water. Now if the pan had a air stone or few, that would be different, then the water would have constant air in there. But still, having rockwool saturated is not good, it starts bacteria growth and alge which clog the rockwool and does not allow it to breath as well.

 

[Guest]

oh my.....

oh my.....

I think I found the answer......
I smoke too much every moment in my life and made me big mistake.

I used wrong 400 watt bulb (to germ) with spectrum of

insted of my new ceramic metal halide bulb.

It's weak and useless for both veg and flower, do you think so?
I better use new 400 watt CMH insted of 2 cfls, right?

MynameStitch: thank you for help about the rockwool etc...
I'll put them in pots tommorow.... your knowledge is wonderful...
make sense a lot.

 

[stinkyattic]

Those bulbs do not look like CFL's, they look like incandescents.
A plain shop light like a T12 'cool white' will work nicely for seedlings, as it gives adequate light at 2" from the canopy, and does not give a lot of heat. That is the tubular flourescent type.
Or if you want a CFL, those are the lights that look like a spiral. They are slightly warmer in temperature than tubes but give a lot of good useable light for your plants.
When you put them into your next container- pot or hydro system- you can bury them up to the level of the first node (set of leaves), no deeper.

 

[Guest]

stinkyattic: sorry for mislead you, so I edited my last post.

wrong 400w bulb with bad spectrum (pic in #10) to germ --> tall and thin seedling

Now, I'm using 2 cfls but changing to 400w ceramic metal halide bulb tommorow.

 

[stinkyattic]

Okay, but the bulbs in the last picture are NOT CFLs. Just FYI.

 

[Guest]

oh.... I got you stinkyattic.... sorry for my stupidity. I better stop smokin too much.

 

[MynameStitch]

Those incandesants like stinky has said, get rid of them; they are not compact fluros. DO not switch them over to a mH bulb yet, wait till they get about 3 to 4 sets of leaves on them, the bulbs you have now will make them stretch even more and they cause too much heat, they will fry your plants.

You need compact fluros or fluro tubes...... get them in there pronto!

When you put them into pots, make sure you plant them in there deep so only 2 in of the plant is sticking out of the soil, the stretched seedling will grow roots in the area that is dug under the soil.

 

[Guest]

MynameStitch: Thank you for the advice. Here is update....
Maybe, I suppose to give them only tap water, but I gave them
25% lucas formula nute......
The rockwool is sitting almost bottom of the pot (12cm height)
with coco coir.
I found 6 compact fluros, so I use them all.
There are no heat problem.
I hope that they'll get better condition.

Thank you for coming by.

 

[MynameStitch]

I hope you don't burn them now, you are not supposed to be giving them any food, those cotyledons the plant has is what supplies it's nutrients it needs..
Did you do any reading before you started to grow? Not getting angry, but it's like driving a car, you don't get in and drive and learn on the way, you at least do some important reading and then you learn as you go along...

If you have any problems with them, your going to have a real treat, cause if they burn, in those pots you will not be able to flush out the soil the pots are to big and the water will saturate the hell out of the seedlings roots and will kill them.

So I hope you did not burn them. Please do some reading about some things, it's ok to ask for help, but don't go making decisions that you know you are not supposed to be doing, it's like your going against your own self, you said you should not have given it to them but then you go ahead and do it.........

Please do some reading, did you switch the lighting over to compact fluros?
If you did not any reading, the first thing most growers do know is, you NEVER EVER use an incandescents bulb for growing...... it produces too much heat and causes stretching and the lumens it does give off is zilch and crap.

 

[Guest]

Thank you everyone, especially MynameStitch.

Thank you everyone, especially MynameStitch.

They seem to be fine, I guess.....

MynameStitch:
No incandescents bulb in my grow, the spectrum of the compact fluro is just
similar to incandescents bulb. About the nute, I was just panic at that time.
I normally don't give them nute like you said. I'm new to the coco coir medium, so it confuse me about the nute. However, I should do like you said.

One more trouble.... this is sadhu from mandala seeds 50 days.
This is first time I have this odd looking flower. I only think of nute problem, because other plants are in perfect condition. I need some help, please.

 

[zoolander]

I did'nt read everything in the thread so maybe stitch said something about gettin a fan on these for a bit of a breeze to strengthen those stems

 

[Guest]

Thanks for quick reply zoolander! I'll add a fan tommorow.