Hey DGC, love the community and shows!
Growing in 70/30 Coco/perlite mix under an HLG 650r (dimmed) about 40 inches from the plants. Plants are in 5 gallon radicle bags. I have some seedlings that are having some issues. Ever since they first sprouted, growth seems to be extremely slow. I’ve just been watering with 6.2 pH water, spraying around the base of the stem whenever the coco drys out. Recently, I set up a reservoir with a drip system to each of the plant. While setting up the system, I let the seedlings dry out a little more than they should have and decided to give them a big flush with their first watering. I watered with about 2 gallons a plant with 6.2 pH water, no nutrients yet since they’re so young about 4 days ago. Since there is quite a bit of yellowing, I decided to give them about a half gallon each with 200 ppm foxfarm grow big/cal-mag mix in case they are wanting some nutrients. I’ve never had a problem with seedlings before, so I’m surprised I’m struggling with them right now.
Since I soaked them the first time, growth seems to have crawled to a stop and all of the seedlings are yellowish with leaves pointing down. Can this just be over-watering? This is my first time using a high powered light. I have the HLG dimmed to the little notch in the dimmer, assuming this for about halfway dimmed? Are they possibly receiving too much light? Again, love the community and thanks beforehand for your input!
The 3rd pic dosent look too bad. Just let it dry out. All you can do now. I use large syringe. Or a measure cup. For that little sprout, 1/3 cup till it drys out maybe. You don’t have to douche the whole pot down. When I plant a rooted clone in soil in little 4 inch pot I only use 1 cup of water. And that is for a big ol clone with rock wool . Hope that gives some perspective . The roots need to get dry so they are able to take up water again. They kinda gotta get empty so they will have the desire and need to fill again. There is sience words involved. But are you picking up what I’m throwing down?
I meant the middle pic look decent. For seedlings and veg cycle I use fluorescent T 5 bulbs. They don’t need a lot of light. I don’t know your light. But raising them up never seems to hurt me when I’m in doubt.
I’m more concerned about the grey spots on the first pic. Again, never had an issue with seedlings so I’m new to these issues. I thought overwatering mainly comes from frequent watering over time rather than a couple flushes. I didn’t wet my coco before I planted so I just wanted to soak it a bit to pack down the medium
About those grey spots, could you have gotten drops of the Fox Farm on the leaves possibly? They look overwatered and unfortunately hungry too but no sweat you can fix them just be patient.
Moving forward never flush a seedling. I water my seedlings with first a spray bottle, then a juice glass so about 2-4 ozs until they grow more.
All of them look 100% better today. Probably a combination of the nutes and coco drying out. I guess I learned my lesson to not flush seedlings…
No idea how water could have spilled on the leafs though since I’m using a compensated drip system, but today it looks like minor nutrient burn where the grey spots were.
Thanks man, I were right on
My plant 2 week and it looks similar to the second picture what should I do
Awesome that is cool to hear. Remember too environment is first and foremost, watering appropriately is next. So compared to when the pots are fully wet go for at minimum 1/3 of the potted plant weight to reduce and if you wait closer to 1/2 and the quality of your results will increase. If the temperature and humidity is right, once they dry out a little they will start drinking again so look at a VPN chart and shoot for that.
You really don’t need that much light for those baby seedlings. I’d dim that big 650 all the way down and drop the light to 30” or so. Save some electricity
Glad to hear that your plants are doing better. One reason to start plants in small pots or solo cups and transplanting is to prevent overwatering. With seedlings in a big pot it’s hard to tell how wet the soil is and when it needs water and definitely do not need to be on an auto watering or drip until they are out of the seedling phase. Good luck and happy growing.
Glad to hear they are doing better.
Question for everyone? In the 2nd pic, the leaves look “swollen”. Is that a sign of slight over watering?
I only ask becuz I’ve seen something slightly similar in the past?
Thx!
Bottom pic looks over watered!
I just had this issue, I couldn’t decide if it was overwatered or if I didn’t rinse the coco enough. I was thinking the spots on mine might have been from not rinsing the coco. Would that cause a different issue? I ended up culling the seedlings as they just never got going.