main stem rot(seems like)

[growdirt]

Hi all
I had to transplant this plant which was 1 week old and a few more since I made a mistake before planting.I squeezed all the water out of rockwool cube before planting(I listened to a friend)and all of the cubes were falling apart and they had some parts which were rock hard.now as you see in the picture the main stem has a rotted & constricted part at ground level and the plants are growing crooked.now it also seems like the plants are recovering from it but very slowly(all of the plants have a thick healthy stem above and bellow the rotted part).i put sticks to keep the plants straight,and i didnt raise the nutrients level to week 2, I stayed on week 1(General Hydroponics flora nuts).what am I doin wrong? please let me know what you think.
i'll post more pics,my camera died right after I took 1 picture.


thanx

[max11max]

Originally Posted by growdirt

Hi all
I had to transplant this plant which was 1 week old and a few more since I made a mistake before planting.I squeezed all the water out of rockwool cube before planting(I listened to a friend)and all of the cubes were falling apart and they had some parts which were rock hard.now as you see in the picture the main stem has a rotted & constricted part at ground level and the plants are growing crooked.now it also seems like the plants are recovering from it but very slowly(all of the plants have a thick healthy stem above and bellow the rotted part).i put sticks to keep the plants straight,and i didnt raise the nutrients level to week 2, I stayed on week 1(General Hydroponics flora nuts).what am I doin wrong? please let me know what you think.
i'll post more pics,my camera died right after I took 1 picture.


thanx

Thats a bad case of damping off, if it's not an auto flowering plant you need to make clones asap.

[growdirt]

what does that mean?damping off?

[Greenbudz]

Yes looks like stem rot, caused buy dampening off. The cause of this most likely is pythium. It's a disiease of the roots. DAMPENING OFF .....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_off

A SOIL BORN FUNGUS DISEASE WHICH ATTACKS YOUNG SEEDLINGS AND PLANTS, COMMONLY CAUSING WILTING AND OR STEM ROT.

I would suggest in the future of using a soil/medium drench that specifically fights dampening off and Pythium. Damping off can be prevented in many different ways, including germination in dryer conditions with better air circulation (but this slows germination), starting seedlings in sterilized soil, and/or spraying the soil with an anti-fungal known to work for this purpose, either a commercial one or a homemade solution, such as one made from chamomile tea or garlic. Similarly, ground cinnamon may be sprinkled on the soil to ward off the fungus.


http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=ACT402

[growdirt]

what should I do with these plants?try to save?clone?kill?they have been like this for a week ,but they seem to be looking better every day,and seems like the rot stopped.the plants are growing healthy stems again,could that be right?