Possible Seedling Problem - Purple Stem

[DigiTM]

SOIL: Organic soil mix with hypnum peat, sand, perlite, and some minor compost additions.
What STRAIN are you growing?: Trainwreck
What was the establishing technique? (seed or clone?): Feminized Seed
What is the age of your plants?: 8 or 9 Days
How Tall are the plants?: Less than 2 inches
What PHASE (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in?: Seedling
What Technique are you using? (SOG, SCROG etc): Nothing (Will LST)
What size pots are you using?: 8 inches wide, 7 inches deep (1 plant)
What substrate/medium are you using? What brand of soil mixture are you using?(percentage of perlite, vermiculite...etc?): Unknown (custom mix by a fellow grower).
What Nutrient's are you using? How much of each with how much water? How Often? *Knowing the brand is very helpful*: No nutrients yet.
What is the TDS/EC/PPM of your nutrients used?: NA
What is the pH of the "RUN-OFF"?: Uncertain. Retained a reading of 8 on one, and only 7 on another.
What method of pH test was administered? Using Strips? pH pen?: PH meter and soil PH test kit.
How often are you watering? Watered once, two days ago when transplanted into larger pot because of weak stem.
When was your last feeding and how often are you feeding?: Nothing yet.
What size bulb are you using?: 42 Watt CFL @ 6500k and a 19 Watt CFL @ 5500k
What is the distance to the canopy?: 3 Inches
What is your RH Factor? (Relative Humidity): 24% - 28%
What is the canopy temperature? 77 - 84 degrees F
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include fluctuation range) 67 - 84 Degrees. Only in morning. (Light period run from 5pm - 5am, from 5am to 10am, the temperature can drop to 67, only occasionally. Average would be 74 to 77 degrees F.
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.): Fans rated at 38 cfm but lower because of carbon filter
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? No, Into box area.
Is the grow substrate constantly wet or moist?: Moist
Is your water HARD or SOFT?: Soft (Using bottled with a ph of 6.8)
What water are you using? Reverse Osmosis (RO)? Tap? Bottled? Well water? Distilled? Mineral Water?: Bottled Water
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned or pinched? No
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so what and when?: None
Are plant's infected with pest's?: No

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Basically, I have a seedling who is only about 9 days old since being planted after germination. I am growing it in a micro grow box so there is limited grow space.

I am running it at 12/12 from planting. Time period of light is (5pm - 5am).

I was noticing that the plant was leaning some and had a rather purple looking stem. Concerned about it, but without enough room to test anything, I transplanted it into a larger soil pot. Next day (today) it seems to be doing okay with the "lean" but still is concerning me.

Here is a photo of it from today:



It is still growing, I noticed two new leaves forming at the top of the plant. However, I am wondering if my PH is up too high, or if the temp changes are affecting the grow. I know that some strains are purp strains that have this colored stem, but I have no clue if my strain is that. The growth of the plant is slow, which I expect some from a 12/12 but I also know if PH is too far off, it can stunt the veg in some ways by blocking nutrients pick up.

When I tested PH with a soil test kit, It said that the PH was at 8! I went and picked up a 30 dollar meter and it read around 7. So I am a little confused about what to do. I picked up some Bloodmeal to help lower the PH, but I have yet to actually use it.

I wanted to get on here and give you guys this information to see if any of you can help figure it out.

Thanks for any help. If I left some info out. Let me know. I will try to reply when I can.

 

[Navigator330]

I just had the same exact problem. My light off temps were to low. Try and get them between 72 - 78. Low temps cause Phosphorus lock out. Do not give them Nutes to compensate. just get the temps up. Dont trust soil ph kits etc. Get ph test strips for your water, make sure your water is between 6 and 7 and then test your run off. Once you get that fixed then the stem will catch up. If you have to add a lil more soil around it to give it protection, Looks good to me. How big is the space of the grow? you may need more light.... I found with 2 cfl's my plants strecthed alot and got leggy. So i got 4 more and used a real good pc fan to vent from the top.
Good luck!

 

[DigiTM]

Thanks.

Yeah, it has been difficult for me to keep a steady temp. I'm in an apartment and the weather outside changes drastically every day. It can be up to 80 degrees during the day outside and down to 50 at night sometimes. I have air conditioning set at 70 degrees but it doesn't seem to flow very well to my room. So the window keeps the room temperatures down during the day and into the night, but while I sleep it sometimes drop. Which kind of sucks.

I've been waking up at night to close the window to help maintain a more steady temperature.


I'm growing in an area about 16 inches high by 9 inches wide by 14 inches wide. This is why I am doing the 12/12. It really is a personal grow so I'm looking for a decent yield from as small a plant as possible.

We will see what happens.

If anyone else has any advice, feel free to add to it. Will keep this open for a few days to see what develops.

 

[Navigator330]

That trainwreck will branch out alot... hope you still plan on using LST? you will love her!!!!

 

[DigiTM]

That trainwreck will branch out alot... hope you still plan on using LST? you will love her!!!!

Of course. I've already got the screws in place and needed string to tie it down in various places as it grows.

Today, the plant still has the purple to its stem, but it is growing fine. I will try to adjust the temps a little more to be a little more steady, however I'm not sure how much I will be able to do.

I'm planning on installing a secondary fan to increase the airflow. That may help keep a balance somewhat.

 

[MynameStitch]

Your plant is leaning towards the light, put the ighting closer to the plant, the purple stems are normal for seedlings, they will lighten up a bit and darken as the plant gets older and newer growths turn old.

 

[DigiTM]

Your plant is leaning towards the light, put the ighting closer to the plant, the purple stems are normal for seedlings, they will lighten up a bit and darken as the plant gets older and newer growths turn old.

The only thing with that is that my plant is directly under the strongest light. And is actually leaning in the opposite way I would expect. The other side has a secondary light that I figure it would try to lean toward, to get "the most light" however, it just seems to be a weak stem right now. Although, I guess this strain is reported to be known for weak stems in the flowering stage.

Here is a photo of it today.

 

[MynameStitch]

Does not matter if it's strong or not, if the light is not close enough to the plant it will stretch where the brightest light is at, move it to where it needs to be and it will straighten right back up.

HTake a picture of your grow box with your lighting and the plants in it, want to see how close these fluros are.......

 

[HeadyPete]

When you transplant you can bury the plant up to it's first leaves to eliminate the long stem. The newly buried stem will grow roots and you will have a compact plant again.

Your seedling looks fine IMO.

 

[MynameStitch]

Ya, I agree with petey; those new pics posted they look just fine and happy!

 

[DigiTM]

Hey guys, one more update and another question for reassurance.

My plant seems to be doing well for now, it is still growing. Here are some photos.








My main question is about the interior of the larger leafs and the new grow. They are looking yellower then they were before. At first I attributed this to new growth, but the larger primary leafs haven't had much growth since the top set started coming out, yet the yellowing seems to have spread some. from the inside out. I don't know if you can see it or not, but I tried to photograph the color difference as best as possible.

I just want to make sure this isn't something more then normal. I did water it yesterday with a 1/4 strength mix of miracle grow tomato plant formula (18-18-21, I believe). But even that I hardly added any of. Just a slight watering to keep it going. The soil is moist now about an inch under the surface and the plant seems to be fine other then the yellowing, which is just a little concerning.

Normal? Or could it be something else?

Oh of note, I've stabilized the temperatures a little better as well, so they seem to be doing fine as of now.

Thanks for any help guys.

 

[MynameStitch]

You need to find out what soil mixture the plant is in, to ensure and rule that out, if it's doing from the inside out like I think I see it... hard to tell with the last picture since the flash is on so I am going by the 2nd to the last pic.......

That is a micronutrient issue rather than a nitrogen problem, this may be due to pH most likely being the cause.....

You say you are using bottled water, is this from the store, like from a machine? Or from gallons you buy on the store shelf?

If it is on the store shelf, list all ingredients in them, bottled water sometime contains sodium which you want to stay away from at all cost.
What I would honestly do....... find out get what kind of mixture he used and make sure it's mostly soil mixture or soiless, soiless meaning peat moss and other stuff and soil meaning has more soil than peat mixed in.


Personally I would have fed them nothing until I found out the information above, cause you could of caused more problems...... What is 1/4 strength? What is the dosage you used with how much water?

 

[HeadyPete]

It looks like you might have fried them with that MG. At 1/4 strength it is still 4.5-4.5-5.25 ish, plus possible nutes in the soil mix and that yellowing looks like the start of nute burn...

Why would you feed a plant that small with killer hot MG of all things? It still has green cotyledons...

Until you have the experience to know, feed when your plant starts to show yellowing bottom leaves. That is a good indicator of Nitrogen deficiency.