Please help me with my droopy 7 day seedlings!

[Sweet_green]

What do you guys think? This is my first grow

It's been 7 days since I put the germinated seeds in the Root Riots and put them in this tray. I have maybe 4 days more max until my veg equipment arrives.

Temps range from 68f(20c) to 85f(30c).
Relative humidity ranges from 25% to 35%.
Water is RO from the home tap, untested(PH and EC meter on the way).
The light is 9" from the top of the tray sides.
I water the Root Riots when they get dry. A few of them seem to stay permanently wet.

A few of these have a pretty long root and side roots. I've moved them around, and a few were already getting slightly stuck to the hydroton. I didn't want them to get really stuck which is why I've kinda kept moving and checking them. I haven't broken any roots that I know of, and I'm careful when putting them back.

I can't say if it's too much water, or not enough. Some of the droopy ones seem to never dry, and some of the droopy ones have gotten really dry.

Thanks

 

[snoopytime]

All your giving them is water? they might be gettin hungry. And the RO water might be high PH for them. I would hit them with a 1/4 stregnth 3 part or some light seedling feed. UNless im missing that the rooters have builtin food. the 1/4 strenght GH 3part will be like 5.5 to 6.0 PH by itself.

 

[Sweet_green]

Hey thanks for the help...and yes the Root Riots have micronutrients

 

[Sweet_green]

I definitely think I moved some around too much, pulling them and their roots out. I don't think the roots liked to be pulled out and then put back.

Still unsure if its water or not....I made a new tray with fresh hydroton and buried as much of the pot as I can. I turned the lights off for 5hrs last night....they seem to be doing a little better already so hopefully I can figure them out.

No nutes yet, it's only been 7 days. Do some strains need nutes that early?

 

[Sweet_green]

Ok I'm thinking humidity might be an issue? When the temp get to around 85f(30c) the relative humidity sometimes goes down to around 25%, but usually seems to hover just over 30%. I put some soaked towels in the tent and a couple of glasses of water. Didn't seem to do anything to the relative humidity.

Here are some pics I took tonight. There is some white stuff on a couple of the Root Riot cubes. Not sure what that is, only 2 have it, and it just showed up on the 2nd. Is it mold? I can't see how it could be mold at 30%RH??

I do have a 7" humidity dome, should I still be using that? I thought as soon as the cotyledons opened up I was supposed to take the dome off?

 

[David762]

I think your plants have been over-watered. Try watering more often with less water. And they don't really need additional nutes at this point -- your Root Riots media should give them enough food. But removing them from the growing blocks is a big no-no, so don't do it -- you will kill your plants that way. When your plants recover in a week or a bit, you could try feeding them nutes at about 1/4 strength every 2nd or 3rd watering.

Good luck with your enterprise ...

I have made some mistakes with very young seedlings getting droopy -- to the point of having to stake them up with bamboo skewers and twist-ties. I was using potting soil in 16 ounce dixie cups in a closet.
It turns out that the cups were too small for the higher temperatures in the closet -- when I watered them, the RH would peak at about 80% and then dry out. I'm surprised that they survived when I transplanted them to 3 gallon pots filled with the same soil and moved them out of the closet into a much larger space with better lighting, lower temperature range, and much lower RH.

Peace to you and yours.

 

[Sweet_green]

Ok I'm holding off on the watering. What I was doing before was waiting until the top of the Root Riots was dry(light brown looking), then I would use a spoon and just put enough water to make the top look wet. That seemed to saturate the whole plug. Then I would wait until they were dry again.

But being my first grow and watching like a hawk, I'm sure I just watered and fucked with them too much. I'm not going to touch them for another 8hrs when I wake up.

What should I do if some plugs are dry? Most of the plants have roots under the cups in the hydrotron and water. So do I still need to water the plug?

Thanks again for the help

 

[Sweet_green]

Ok big changes. Received my pH tester today and the water I was feeding seemed to be 6.8, so that's too high right? I don't have any pH down, so can I use vinegar?

I also drilled drain holes in the cut tray(stacked 2 for better support) and it fit nice and snug across the top of the little Rubbermaid container. I'm going for manual feed to waste right now, until I can get a pump. I am however worried that the roots may go down the drain holes and might even get between the two cut trays. This seems like a nightmare to move the plants in the future?

I've been told I need to get my humidity above 30% and to use a humidity dome, but then I read that once they have sprouted to not use the dome anymore. What do I do? The RH goes as far down as 25% at times.

My order of Rhizotonic came in today....should I start feeding them this maybe at 1/4?

Thanks again

 

[big twinn]

100% overwatered for sure...seedlings dont need that much water. too much and it starves the roots of oxygen... those pucks hold a lot of water .

 

[Stress_test]

You are over watering bud.

You need to get em out of those inserts or cut the bottoms out so the roots don't tangle in the bottoms of the cups.
Then (if they were mine) I would set em in bowls of moistened vermiculite.
That will let you keep em indefinitely, and you can just rinse the vermiculite off the roots when you are ready.

 

[Tr33]

Basically you have a temp, nute, and pH issue
It's an easy fix.
What you have is the beginning of "damping off"
if it continues your seedlings stems will constrict and then die.

Your temps variation is to much,
and are way to high for your seedlings at 85F
thats just asking for troubles
get the temps stable at 78F - 76F day night
You should keep the temps stable at 78F 24/7 for the first month
no need to up the humidity, 25% - 30% is perfect,
any higher and that wil help to further the "damping off"
you are overfeeding and that's why they look dis colored
the white stuff is salt build up from to much nutrients and a
pH problem that why the nutes precipitate as crystal on the top as you have with yours.
vinegar will help to adjust your pH, but is a very weak acid and the pH won't stabilize
If you are using hydro type setup(you do not say)
and you pic leads me to believe that's what you have atm...
your pH is way to high at pH6.8 and needs to be dropped to pH5.8,
it will drift and need to be adjusted if you use vinegar, check pH 2 times a day.
this is another reason for the damping off setting in, pH induced nute lockout.
the root issue is minimal unless you snapped them, seedlings are quite strong.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Read the post, the op hasn't fed yet. The white stuff is probably powdery mildew. If it ain't pm, it's just plant follicles.

Sweet green, your cubes are too wet for too long. It's not good to saturate the cubes when seedlings are so small. If your water line is too high or your bubbler is splashing, your cubes could be acting like a wick, keeping them soaked indefinitely.

Once your roots reach the water line, allow the cubes to dry out. Otherwise you may get stem rot.

Next time you use those cubes, saturate and then squeeze the excess water out. That's about the moisture content you want for seedlings.