Is this healthy?

[Reg Dixon]

My Tangerine Dream plant appears to be yellowing at the edges of it's first leaves. Is that a big problem or fairly normal? If pics do not appear on this post they appear with captions in my album (link at bottom of post).
I'm worried that my lovely new plant may die before it even has a chance to grow. What am I doing wrong?

 

[exploziv]

what kind of soil is that? looks kinda crappy. judging from the pics, I'd say the soil is the problem, maybe an overfert? also, it looks like it doesn't retain moisture that well.

 

[TB Gardens]

Agreed. What's in that soil mix? Are you feeding any nutrients? Are you checking your water pH?

That soil looks super compacted!

 

[Reg Dixon]

No nutes unless there are some in the soil I don't know about.
The soil mix is a mix of 2 types the local garden center gave me when I asked for something to plant seeds for flowers and small plants in. They said no fert would be needed until the plant/flower was 6 inches or higher.
To be fair my choices in this location are extremely limited for soil.
I also have 2 types of 'seed starter' soil which does not need to be mixed and is apparently for planting seeds.
I have not checked PH yet nor have I purchased a PH checker. Should I be checking run off already?
I'm at a bit of a loss as what to do about soil as none of the usual options are available and all the writing on the bags is in a language I do not comprehend.

Should I possibly replant in a slightly bigger pot using only the 'seed starter' soil?
ps - the picture was taken right before I watered the plant.

 

[Avinash.miles]

be patient

 

[jessethestoner]

it looks like the ph might be off or it's getting nute burn
'rinse' your soil a couple of times to get the nutrients flushed down to better level

 

[Reg Dixon]

Have replanted into a bigger pot using a different type of soil. This stuff has a picture of a flower on the bag (my only clue) and is more of a brown color as well as being 'looser.'
Leaving the auto outside night and day until it grows a bit more while the TD is going onto a 18/6 schedule with normal daylight during the day then under lights from midnight to 8am.
The other auto still refuses to poke its head above the soil after 4 days. Am remaining patient but how long should I wait? Should I water it if it gets dry looking? Should I change the soil on the non germinating auto too? I'm leaving it outside until it does something as I don't see what harm that could do seeing as the lowest night time temp appears to be about 21 degrees Celsius!

 

[exploziv]

a bit higher temperature would improve germination. also, I'd keep them inside at room temp till they get 3fingered leaves. I like to help them as much as I can during their first week(s).

as other said regarding your unhealthy plant, you should pour some ph-ed water through your pot to correct the ph and maybe rinse out salts or excess nutes that may be present.

 

[Reg Dixon]

Won't doing that amount to massive overwatering and kill my seedling?

 

[exploziv]

if the new soil has a good water and air retention ratio, and you let it dry after, before watering again, it will be ok. much better than if it has bad ph or salts/nutes problems in the soil and you leave it this way. the water just needs to pass through the soil and take what's in excess. besides that, is just a normal watering to the full capacity of the soil's ability to retain moisture.

 

[Reg Dixon]

Will let the plants dry out for 24-48 hours then try it coupled with a PH meter/tester strip or whatever I can get locally.

 

[Reg Dixon]

Excellent advice guys thanks for the replies. I got the PH tester and the PH of the soil I'm using now was over 7.6 ph. That is as far as the scale goes on this one! I watered to dripping 2x with PH lowered water on the TD and 1x on the NL as it looks a bit sickly. Didn't want to swamp it!
They are back under lights for the night. Will post updates win or lose.
Thanks again.

 

[exploziv]

how are the things going?

 

[Reg Dixon]

how are the things going?

Pretty good now. Have a look.